After reading the reviews for this hotel on several travel sites I was a bit apprehensive about this hotel, in fact I was trying to convince my travel partner to switch resorts. But I think since I went in with such low expectations I was pleasantly surprised.

Pros-

The beach is beautiful there's ample seats and shade.

We paid for a garden room and got a free upgrade. Our room was nice with a balcony facing the beach and it was away from the entertainment area so it was quiet.

The food is decent. You're bound to find something you like. I recommend the bread pudding and cappuccinos served at lunch.

The staff is very friendly and most are proficient in English and French.

Drinks are good, even better if you tip your bar tender

The animation team is amazing. They spend ALL day and night dancing and interacting with the guests and they even helped me safely and subtly diffuse a situation where another guest was behaving very inappropriately towards me. Evelin, Yuelkis and Quenepa are great and always made time to stop and have a chat (or a dance) with us!

Cons

The wifi is horrible, I wouldn't recommend paying for it.

The pool is colder than the ocean

The vendors at the beach are relentless. I've found if you firmly tell them no or don't even look up when they approach you they get the hint. If you are going to buy something from them you can barter a significant amount off so don't go with the first price they give you. Also if you're fluent in Spanish don't let them know or they'll never leave you alone.

There was no chain lock on the door to my room which made me feel a bit insecure at night

I woke up from an afternoon nap to find the maid cleaning around me which I felt was invasive and inappropriate

They spray insecticide at night/early dawn which is great to minimize the mosquitos but I woke up to find quite a few dead Bees on the balcony every morning :(

The servers and cooks are annoyingly slow. It takes about 25 min to get an omelette in the morning

The time share vendors by the pool are just as relentless as the beach vendors and one woman told me I should help her feed her children and buy a time share which I did not appreciate.

The nightly shows are fun and just about the only thing to do at night but are no better than a middle school dance recital.

This is not a 5 star hotel but it is VERY SIMILAR to others I've stayed at in the area. It was definitely worth the price if you're looking to relax for a few days

We a booked through Air Transat and asked for the best accommodations possible which was an ocean view suite. As most of the reviews I must agree with that it's time for this place to spend some money to freshen up and make it feel "newer"... it is a 3.5 star so I didn't expect too much more. The beds were comfortable the beach was beautiful and the food was not overly exciting but OK. All the staff was friendly and tipping get them that way even more so. There is a very nice golf course nearby and my friend and I had an opportunity to play it. This was most memorable. The pools in January are all cold and empty but the ocean and beach are quite lovely so unless you like Coldwater walks and sitting around just lazing the day away was pretty much what you could do. In fact if you like beer or the other harder stuff it was readily available at any time. Bring a lot of one dollar bills US asit comes in handy and the staff deserve it. I feel what we paid for we got. A lot of people that I met have been there multiple times and were satisfied enough to return. When you arrive they give you a colour tag for your wrist so that the staff know the level and category that you have chosen but I don't think it influences how they treat you. I guess it's just to make sure that people don't walk off the beach and help them self to the dining and drinking etc.
If you speak Spanish it is certainly an advantage although the serving staff in the dining room speak in adequate amount of English and French and this doesn't seem to be much of an issue.I went to this place primarily because I was meeting up with friends in my golf group from back home but if you're looking for a firestarter this is not the place though it is reasonably good value for your money so I would not say don't waste your time.most of the guests are from Quebec some from Ontario and the odd few from Europe... everyone in the staff was friendly so that helps in the overall evaluation as positive for this hotel.

Apart from loosing our luggage, bugs in the drinks, and climbing 5 flights of stairs we still had a good time. Mind you I am paying for the bug now all I have to say is thank God I am home now dealing with it. Our room was clean the staff tried their best even with the language barrier.