The Excellence Club was absolutely amazing! Robert Puello is the excellence club manager and did everything possible to make our honeymoon unforgrttable. We had the best time, the resort was clean, food was great, and the service was excellent. We will definetly be revisiting this resort in the future and would recomend it to all my friends and family.

Save all your money and get to this resort! We found the other couples at the resort to be laid-back and easy-going.
The service is the best!
The following people on the staff made our second visit even more wonderful than our first visit: Elvira Gil, Luciano Romero, Rafael Puello, Berthold Dettweitler, Gregoria Castillo.
Thank you, too, to: Hector at the Front Desk, Domingo on the saxophone, The crew at Martini, Cristian, Jenny, Jennifer, Santa, Senter, Inez, AltaGracia (Alta), AltaGracia (Pequeña), Ramona of the lovely voice, and Franklin.
The entire staff is heavenly, so do not miss the experience of The Excellente at Punta Cana!
Carolina and Frank

Since there are so many reviews I will break it down into pros and cons.
Pros..
Beach--> the beach is clean, there is plenty of shaded areas, the service on the beach is great, the waves and undertow are strong, but not much different than a rough day along the northeast coast.

Food--> I find it hard to believe that people complain about the food. We ate at every restaurant except Spice and the Lobster House and found the food exceptional. I am a fussy eater and I did not have any complaints. The fish and shrimp were very fresh and if you were not satisfied with a dish they went out their way to accommodate you.

Service--> We have stayed at several 5 star resorts and the service at Excellence was great. Yes you had to wait for room service but that is expected since they make the food fresh. The rooms were cleaned twice a day. Sometimes it would take awhile to get the room cleaned, but the purpose of our trip was to enjoy the beach, not hang out in the room all day, so it did not bother us.
The service in the restaurants was superb. We frequently had the waiter Jose Lois and he was great. I believe some people complain about the service because the staff is effecient but not overbearing. They allow you your space. Also, you are on vacation....what is the rush with the meals? I liked that we never felt rushed to leave our table or finish our meals. We noted that those who complained were people who were very demanding to begin with.
The staff at the resort are very kind, accommodating and humble.
While it is not mandatory to tip, we took $100 in one dollar bills and tipped the staff often. The staff never "looked or waited for the tip" but they were very appreciative when they received a tip.

We did not pay extra for the Excellence club, but it did not make a difference. The check in was very quick. Our bags were in our room within 15 minutes and the mini bar was replenished daily. Also the "private beach" for the excellence club is literally a section on the beach in between the rest of the chairs. It is the same exact beach and view.
If you prefer a quiet portion of the hotel ask for a room away from the pool.

Cons...the air condition in our room did not work well. The last day we found out that you had to make sure the slider in your room was shut tight, not just locked, because there is a magnetic strip that when not connected, shuts off the air.

Yes, the ride is bumpy....but if you get past the fact that it is rough, you should sit back and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Neutral...Several people complained about the entertainment in the previous reviews. If you are looking for a Broadway performance then you will be disappointed. However if you have the mindset that the performers truly enjoy their job and work hard to entertain you, you can sit back, relax and be entertained. We went every night and kept things in perspective, thus we were able to have a drink and enjoy the show.

Highly recommend this resort for a relaxing getaway.

My husband and I stayed at EPC for two weeks in June/July 08 and had a fantastic holiday. Arrived at the airport after a trouble free flight on First Choice Airline and the VIP Tours bus took us and 3 other people straight to the resort. As others have mentioned the roads are particularly bad and the journey took 1hr so we were pleased not to stop off at other hotels on the way.

Check in was great. We didn't receive a glass of champagne but after emailing in advance a room request (overlooking the cascade pool) we were delighted to see that they had my request on the computer when checking in. We were in block 2 on the middle floor and thought it was great. There were two large double beds and the room had a great view. The rooms were clean and were always cleaned by 2pm latest (just in time for an afternoon sleep :) Mini bar always stocked and we always had everything we wanted. We had room service twice and it was much better the second time. On the first night we had to wait 1 ½ and then our order wasn’t right and the rest of it was cold. The second time the food was hot but it still took just over 1hr. We had factored this in so just took a few drinks up to our room before hand.

The beach is good with lots of palapas for shade (as long as you get there by 10.30am) and the water was rough but fun. The red flag was up everyday but the lifeguard was always present. As others have said, up on the right the water is much calmer but snorkeling was rubbish. We spent most of our time by the main pool (which was beautiful) and were always pretty much first out in the morning. Even at 7.30am some people had reserved the shady areas and never turned up until 11am or later! There were towels laid out on the sun beds and you could also walk to the clubhouse to get fresh ones. Everyday at around 10am someone would come round with a tray of ‘drink of the day’ which was always nice. There were also a lot of pool floats available although there were a few selfish people who kept one by their sun beds. We took a lilo with us but never used it.

The entertainment team were great especially Ronaldo who is a real sweetie. I was really pleased to see that both men and women participated in all the ‘games’ and we had loads of fun (especially water volleyball – SPENCER!!!) They all worked really hard without being pushy and were really friendly. We met some lovely people from the USA and UK and were sorry to see them go as things were much quieter after their departure.

The drinks were limitless and fantastic. All the bar staff I came across were polite and friendly and the waiters around the pool were fantastic (especially Pedro). We didn’t always tip but still received fantastic service. The restaurants were good and I think you would be hard pushed not to find something you liked. Breakfast was lovely – huge choice and fresh. Lunch was nice too. Lots to choose from, stone baked pizza, pasta, salad, desserts, soups, meats, cheeses, bread etc. We didn’t eat at the beach but lunch usually smelt fantastic (especially the BBQ).

For dinner The Grill was our least favourite (but we didn’t go to the Lobster House) as it was very dark and I think my rack of ribs were really fatty (as in mainly fat, not much meat). Toscana was hit and miss too. The mushroom risotto was to die for but I ordered a pizza and it turned up with only one ingredient on it when there should have been 5!! Barcelona was a surprise hit and both my husband and I enjoyed the food there. Chez Isabelle was OK. The Chateaubriand was very nice but we didn’t like the starters very much. Agave – the Mexican was good but we sat in the courtyard which was quite hot. They do, however, serve Corona so we were loving that! My favourite was Spice. All the starters were fantastic and the sweet and sour pork was so good I had it three times! The waiters in this restaurant were also fantastic and very attentive and always smiling. We like to eat about 9pm and although were given a buzzer every night being told we would have to wait an hour we never waited more than 20 mins so don’t be put off.

The evening entertainment was mixed. We have been to the DR before so had seen the Michael Jackson show. It was a good job as there was nowhere to sit. People had begun to start gathering as early as 8pm for the 10pm show! This was similar for the Circus show but we just stood at the back and thought the performers were professional and thoroughly entertaining. There was always somewhere to go whether this be Café Kafe, The nightclub, Santa Domingo Plaza or just in the lobby. Usually there was live music and always someone to chat to.

Overall we had an ‘Excellente’ time but there were a few things that could be improved. The staff were brilliant and we never had any problems with communication even though we do not speak Spanish. The resort was beautiful and the weather was hot and sunny. The atmosphere was relaxed and Excellence was definitely the best hotel we have been to in the DR (out of Sirenis, Majestic, Riu and Iberostar) but falls a little short of Excellence in Mexico.

I would give the resort 4.5 out of 5.