We have arrived to what is supposed to be a 5 star hotel but
found it to be more like 2. Here is why:
1. The first room we got into smelled like PP all the time no matter how much it was cleaned. Later I found out that the sewer system was about 200 feet away from the room.
2. The food is not great and there is no variety.
3. The specialty restaurants are not good and if you'd like dinner at the Japanese, you need to pay extra $15 per adult.
4. The minibar in the room has some cheap drinks that are included and the rest are to be paid for.
5. Once we transfer to a presidential suit, the room was clean and smelled good but there were bed bugs that you couldn't see but left marks on your skin.
6. The Italian restaurant was so bad that both of my kids got sick and vomitted all night long.
DO NOT STEP IN PUNTA CANA!

2 good ponts:
NICE GROUNDS AND BEACH
GOOD ENTERTAINMENT.

We booked this trip thru Applevacations.com. We did some research on this hotel and there was alot of mixed reviews. So we took a chance to find out for ourselves. This trip was more reasonable than any other vacation spot. At check in we were disappointed by the service we received. The staff was not friendly at all. And that carried out thru the whole vacation. There were a handful of friendly staff members. I quote the desk clerk "just go down to the buffet and wait 2-3 hours before checking back". We thought rude but ok what else can we do until we get our room.

It started to look up after that when we finally got our room. We were on the ground level which right out our glass doors was the pool. Not bad. The buffet at Windows (restaurant) was merely ok but the real food was in the reservation restaurants. I recommend for $15 a head the Japanese dining.

Our room was cleaned every other day in which we made our own bed on the days it was not cleaned. The fridge was stocked everyday. The rooms are spacious and well air conditioned. The pools were excellent. Everyday the pools were taken good care of and never did I see debris in any of them.The pool bar was awesome but that is where you found many children so we stayed mainly at the beach and our pool. You never had to worry about getting a chair on the beach. There were plenty for everyone. The ocean was beautiful. You could swim out until you could not stand and still see bottom.. Nothing like the Jersey shores. Not much to do at this resort...my wife and I got bored around the 4th-5th day of our 8 day trip. The disco was alright but we only did that 1 night. We recommend the snorkeling trip set up by the Apple Vacation rep. You swim with sharks and sting rays.

Here's a good tip for the nights the sellers come in and set up their tables. Haggle them until you pay what you want. Never give them what they first ask for. We were given a $250 price on a necklace my wife wanted. She haggled them until she got it for $20. Have fun doing this, it is fun to see how much you can get the items for.

In all the vacation was on average. Nothing to spectacular but not as bad as we thought it may be from the beginning. This was a one and done vacation spot for us. We will try another hotel next time we go to Punta Cana.

I maybe too harsh on this hotel after staying at a Sandals. We were pampered there. Hope this helps anyone on their vacation plans.

Maintanance and upkeep of the hotel is terrible. The property was sold to us as a 5 star hotel by the tour operator, Sunwing Holidays, but the only thing that was 5 star in the hotel was the size of the rooms. All rooms on the main floor were very moldy. The mold most likely lives in the air conditioning. I had to change rooms twice and although the smell in the last room I stayed at was not as bad as in the previous ones, I could not spend any time in my room, only when I had to go to sleep. Returning home I had to wash all my clothes three times, even those ones I did not wear at the hotel. Most of my clothes still smell bad of mold. Mold is very unhealthy and toxic, it can cause bad migraines or serious lung problems mimicking Tuberculosis, etc

We were not allowed to put our wet bathing suites on the balcony to dry them, we had to leave them in our cold air conditioned rooms. Of course they could not get dry inside the room, they just simply soaked in more mold. It was impossible to adjust the cooling of the air conditioner, so it was either very cold or too hot when we turned it off
I asked guest services at the hotel to clean the air conditioning in my room, I do not know if they did it or not, the smell of mold was still prevalent when I checked out.
I spoke to guests staying on higher floors, They did not have mold but they lacked water pressure in their room, they could not take showers.

I found live cockroaches running around in the bathroom
Food was mediocre but the selection was good at the buffet. We were allowed to have dinner 4 times in different restaurants within the resort. 2 of these restaurants were bad. I can recommend only the American Grill or the Di Mario restaurants where the food selection was limited but the servings were tastier than in the main restaurant serving buffet food. Do not eat desert at any of these restaurants though. 90 % of the food is imported, the deserts tasted like card board freshly taken out of the freezer. The worst restaurant is the Aqua which was supposed to serve new, innovative food. Instead, they served stale, dry Italian Focaccia bread, untoasted with a thin slice of cheese and a bite of Prischiuto as one of the 3 entrees on the menu. It was obvious that their chef has never been in Italy

There is lots of food going to waste at the buffet (Window) restaurant. After each meal all the untouched buffet food is thrown into the garbage even though the country is very poor with many people starving on the island.

The beach is nice but for some reason they cut most of the branches of the palm trees, so there is hardly any shade. I had to get up at 6 a.m. on my vacation every morning to secure lawn chairs with umbrellas on the beach. Do not go to this property in July and August. Since the hotel is owned by a Spanish hotel chain, most guest were from Spain as Europeans take family vacations in July and August. While there were very limited number of people from English speaking countries, they had huge Spanish families. The hotel is catering to kids. There is not much adult entertainment and with the exception of the front office, the staff does not speak English. It was surprising that the host of the evening entertainment program did not speak English either. I have been at other resorts, even 3 star ones in the Dominican Republic where they had much better entertainment and many more bilingual staff.

Drink selection was good, they even served imported wine and other alcohol. Landscaping was nice, although during the period I stayed at the hotel there was construction going on at the middle of the resort as well as at the next door hotel. It was impossible to enjoy quiet time on the beach due to the construction noise from both directions

We've just returned from a two week holiday to this resort on Monday and I felt compelled to write a review to say what a brilliant place this is, after reading so many negative reviews before we went. When we first booked I was seriously concerned after reading review after review slagging off this resort and was starting to get nervous about it. My concerns were soon laid to rest and franky we spent the rest of the holiday questioning the sanity of the people who posted the negative comments !!!

The rooms were a little dated, but were clean and comfortable with fresh towels and maid service daily and our mini bar stocked regularly. If we wanted more water or beer we just asked and got it no problem.

Food and drink was of a high standard and was plentiful ! You can eat and drink 24 hours if you feel like it! The main buffet resturant 'windows' was varied and themed each night. Mexican being a favorite of ours and there was always a station doing fresh pasta to your specification.

Lunch was either Windows or the Beach Bar, the beach doing pasta, fish, chicken, salad, fruits and ice cream etc. And a stall on the beach front did burgers, southern fried chicken, hotdogs, fries and some lovely slices of pizza. Breakfast was also good with loads of choice, we especially enjoyed the omlettes made to order.

The A la Carte resturants were a really high standard although service in the Tex Mex was slow it was still enjoyable. But Di Marios (italian) and Aqua were both amazing all our meals were so nice we all wish we had ordered what the other had ! We also visited Le Mare which specialised in fish. We didn't visit the Japanese resturant but heard some good reports and wish we had.

The bar by the main pool was open until 12.00 and if you sit on the terrace above you get a lovely breeze which was nice on the evenings, the beach bar was open 24 hours and did snacks like ham and cheese toasties and chips until the early hours and was a really peaceful relaxed place to spend the evening.

There is a piano bar in the main lobby (which is a karoke bar) was a good laugh, although we only discovered it in our last night after befriending two American couples. The barman held the bar open long after closing and drank shots with us.

There is also a 'disco' called sneakers which we never went in after peering through a window and hearing what sounded like german techno and seeing people with their shirts off !!!!

The main theatre shows movies for the kids early evening and after is a kids disco, this is were they held the main entertainment however we didn't really bother with it.

The beer was good (presidente) and there was plenty of rum and other spirts as well as some good cocktails, the bananamama (made with 151 rum) being a favourite in our group. The wine wasn't the best I have had, but was drinkable.

We spent most days by the adult pool which was lovely and quiet and you didn't have to worry about children dive bombing you ! The main pool looked good, and was a good size with a swim up bar but was quite packed and noisy. The adult pool was a little oasis if you wanted to chill in the sun with a book and a beer ! It has its own little bar ran by Nicolas who will tell you he is numero uno bar man in the dominican republic, and he isn't lying. Although he mostly runs it single handed he still finds time to serve at the bar and run around the pool taking orders and bringing your drink to you. Often bringing drinks without orders, just when he see's your empty ! He also make the best bananamamas.

We did four trips Saona, Monster Truck, Tropical Sunset and Reef Explorer all of which were brilliant and highly recommended. If you do Monster Truck take some present for the kids, if we go back we plan to fill our hand luggage with childrens shoes and clothes as they have so little.

If you do fancy a change from the hotel your only a $20 taxi ride form a very nice shopping centre that has a few bars and resturants. My partner and myself went to the Hard Rock Cafe had a great meal, desert and drinks (including 2 cocktails where we got to keep logo-ed hurricane glasses) and it only cost $110 (about £55) and we had a brilliant night.

All in all this was a brilliant trip and we couldn't have asked for a better holiday, and we really can not understand how anyone could find this anything other than brilliant. We went as a group of 2 couples aged ranging 21-31 and couldn't fault it, I would go back in a shot. The only change I would make would be to learn some spanish as many of the staff struggle with basic english, and I felt really ignorant that I couldn't converse with them.