Punta Cana
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Customer reviews of Punta Cana
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Customer reviews of Punta Cana
May 2011 - staying at MAJESTIC ELEGANCE CLUB
This hotel is so near to being a good 5 star hotel but it does let itself down because the buffet is poor with a poor selection of food and the food was not warm enough and there is nothing worse than half warm french fries. Having said that the speciality establishments were first class particularly the gourmet and Italian and Japanese.The maid service left a lot to be desired, the maids never saw to our room until after 5pm and by that time we had returned and would have wanted our room cleaned. There was a shortage of face flannels and on occasions we had to phone for towels because none had been left in our room and this is not 5 star service. It was lack of attention to detail.
The hotel itself was beautiful, the rooms were large and well appointed and had every facility. The four poster bed was most comfortable, the shower room was the best and the view over the pool was great.
There was an advertised butler service but this is misleading and the proper way to describe the service is that there is a guide to take you from the entrance of the hotel to the club reception and then you may never see the butler/guide again for the rest of the holiday.
There was an entertainments team at the hotel and this no doubt appealed to many but we found the entertainment too noisy and it was difficult if not impossible to find peace and quiet. I was disgusted when one of the team who I had never seen before or since came up to us asked for a cigarette and then walked off. It is not right for staff to behave in such away. Apart from that one time, all of the staff were friendly, helpful , spoke good English but were delighted when we attempted to speak Spanish. We enjoyed our holiday, it was good value but we would not return to this hotel
April 2011 - staying at MAJESTIC ELEGANCE
Fantastic week in Majestic Elegance.Perfect place to stay with children, very good food wich is very nice a such big resort;
I highly recommend this place;
March 2011 - staying at DREAMS LA ROMANA 5*
me and my partner and our 2 children aged 7& 8 arrived back today we all had a amazing time ,the hotel was excellent in all aspects.the only but is the distance from the airport to the hotel which is about one and a half to two hours. All in all this holiday exceeded our expectations.December 2010 - staying at OCCIDENTAL GRAND PUNTA CA
Rooms: The room we were given was nothing like that in the Fleetway information so please don’t get your hopes up if you book this place. Fleetway advertised this as a 5* and the hotel when I complained about the room said it was only a 4* and should not be advertised as anything higher. To be honest I would not rate it any higher that 3* the first rooms we had compared to that of an old motorway motel. The first room (block 10) the air con did not work, the second room the TV did not work. The third room (block 22 room 117) we stayed in was still poor and if you look on trip advisor you will see the photos. The bath was rusty and the showerhead was coming away from the wall. The water pressure was very poor and the dispensers on the wall were both broken. The wall in the bedroom had a big water stain on it and the furniture was in a poor state of repair. The lights on one side of the room did not work, no bulb and it took them 3 days to replace it. We stayed in this room for 7 days and the final straw was when the key would not work and we could not get into the room. I asked to see a manager and we were moved again into a much better room in block 26 room 105. I wish we had made more of a fuss in the first place because the difference in the rooms was unbelievable.Grounds and pools; All of the grounds were very nice and very clean. The pools were well maintained and cleaned daily. The water too cold for me so we didn’t actually go for a swim.
Beach: This is the best thing about this resort. You can safely walk up and down the beach with little hassle, do not make eye contact with sellers and they leave you alone.
Restaurants: These were hit and miss and the standard was not that good. The buffet was OK and you would never go hungry. The main problem was that the food was never hot. Even when trays were replaced on the buffet the food was not hot enough.
Bars; There are plenty of bars and the service was fine. The drinks are not branded but you will find something to drink. The drinks machine above the swim up bar was terrible. The coke tasted disgusting and in the end I would drink shandy but use the sprite from the room. The beach bar provided excellent service and we ended up going here at 3.30 most days for a quiet drink.
Wine: I had to mention this as this is the first time I have been to an all-inclusive and not been able to drink the wine provided at lunchtime and in the evenings. You could not even drink it by adding lemonade or soda. It was terrible and you could see straight away by the colour (yellow) and the smell that it was not going to be good. I only drink white wine and I spoke to a number of guests and they were all of the same opinion.
Gym: The gym was OK and it opened at 8.00. The machines were old but still working. It had two treadmills, 2 Spinning bikes, 1 cross trainer without display and various weight training equipment.
Entertainment; What we saw was good
This is the third time we have used Fleetway and the transfers have always been very good, much better than waiitng and sitting on a big coach to get to the hotel
August 2010 - staying at IBEROSTAR PUNTA CANA
over the phone and on paper we were booked in the IBEROSTAR DOMINICANA, but on arrival we were dropped off at the IBEROSTAR PUNTA CANA. This didn't cause any real problem as they are sister hotels. However, the tour rep. from Hola tours also had us booked into the PUNTA CANA and did not ever try to contact us. So not impressed by the local rep. Hotel was good though and would go back.May 2010 - staying at 4* SIRENIS COCOTAL
Everything Fleetway travel side was fabulous, great service & great communication will definately use again for a future holiday! Wouldn't really recommend the hotel too much. Very much 3* in our opinion been to much better 4*'s in the caribbean. Although it was very clean and well presented, great pools and great beach, but the staff were NOT friendly or helpful, for an all inclusive this was the worst we've been too. The staff were only interested in money! No tip = Very bad service. The food was reasonable, but the all inclusive here is a bit of a con, you had to pay for most activities (they called it insurance) but we did snorkelling, kayaks & played pool and had to pay 'insurance' for all 3! Never had to pay at other all inclusives!February 2010 - staying at NATURA PARK BEACH
natura park was absolutely fantastic, lovely beach and the hotel and grounds were fantastic,nice choice of food at the buffet restaurants and plenty of activities,rooms were ok, a little on the tired side but who goes to the dom rep to sit in a room?!!!everything is pretty cheap, but make sure you haggle for everything,do not pay the price first offered if you but any goods on your travels, i start off by knocking 85% of the price stated then work up..
all in all a great holiday, the only bad point was our rep did not turn up for our meet and greet, and in the end i had to phone him to find out the time of our return transfer, which he told me the wrong time and was really unhelpful, luckily we were waiting an hour early as we had all ready checked out. otherwise we would have missed our transfer.
that aside really good holiday
February 2010 - staying at BARCELO CAPELLA BEACH
The hotel was very good indeed. the service and staff were excellent as was the location. the room and all the public areas were well appointed & spotless when we arrived and remained so. The all-inclusive coffee, water & alcohol were generous and served quickly. beach vendors were not a significant problem as they move on if you say "no".The flight out was excellent with more legroom than expected which was very welcome. The flight back was not so good. The inflight entertainment broke down and the cabin crew was off-hand.
Please ignore the current "Rough Guide" comments about the hotel and the location. It describes the food as "abysmal" which is not our experience and the beach as 50 metres of sand covered concrete. This is nonsense, there are several kilometres of excellent beach & areas for safe swimming infront of the hotel.
Three quibbles;
1) The arrangements at Puntna Cana were a bit confusing as there was no "Fleetway" sign. we found Hola after a while but a "Fleetway" flag would have been helpful.
2)we were lead to believe that the hotel was 1 hr from Punta Cana airport, in fact its three hours away. This caused some confusion when we arrived.
3) the contact details about the local Hola rep are set down on the transfer document. This isn't the most logical place for them and more to the point the rep at the airport kept our transfer document. Fortunately we didn't need any assistance until we needed to check the time of the return journey from the hotel to the airport. However it could have been different. We did need to obtain a 2nd copy of the transfer document for the return journey. We did this through the very helpful hotel service desk clerk who gave me access to my Yahoo Mail. Again things could have been different.
Therefore I'd suggest that you advise customers to print out 2 copies of the transfer document and make sure that customers know where the local Hola details, especially the emergency telephone number, are written down.
As I said these are quibbles. All in all an excellent stress-busting holiday & very good value for money
January 2010 - staying at DREAMS PUNTA CANA
Lovely resort; the garden and the pool area was amasing and well maintained, gorgeous beach too. The staff was fantastic; very serviceminded and friendly. The rooms and premises were very run down though; needs urgent maintanance. We were given a "de lux"-room on arrival but the room was so mouldy and damp that we couldn't stay there, our fantastic Thomas Cook rep Helene sorted it out and we were given a smaller room but clean and not as smelly as the first room. Dreams really need to close one block down at a time and redo the rooms to keep the guests coming.January 2010 - staying at DREAM PUNTA CANA SPA
The landscaping and setting of the hotel were beautiful and the staff were friendly, courteous and happy to help however this is not a 5*star hotel.The food was awful. It was definitely quantity over quality. In the World Café buffet the fruit did not look was not fresh (the pineapple was fizzy), the cheese looked like it had been out all day and the meat was overcooked (pork loin). The safest bet was the omelette station for breakfast as you could choose to have a fresh dish prepared. The a la carte restaurants didn't fare much better - everything came smothered in sauces and the chicken in the seafood grill was so tough and chewy it was inedible. Veggies were diced or sliced within an inch of their lives.
What the place needed was some simple fresh food; grilled fish, steamed veggies (broccoli etc) and fresh fruit. The deserts were manufactured - gelatine puddings with fake squirty cream (the cheese cake was like rubber). Very disappointed with the food. In fact the salad bar in the Seafood Grill and the omelette station in the World Café were the only decent things to eat. Bizarrely, even the salad bars in other restaurants were good.
The bar tenders didn't use measure which meant the drinks were ridiculously strong - so strong they were unpleasant to drink. Despite many requests to go easy on the vodka/gin/rum etc, I failed to get anything resembling a decent drink other than the pre-mixed cocktails.
The rooms themselves were dated; clean but a bit tired looking. The maid never filled the minibar or restocked the coffee station properly.
All in all I felt this was definitely a 3*star experience and not at all value for money. Please feed back to the hotel that they need to adopt the "less is more" policy. We weren't the only ones wincing at the alcohol in the drinks or scrapping sauce to the side.
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