Ocean Blue & Sand Beach Resort- All Inclusive

Disclaimer: What I say here seems to be the same on all other all inclusive hotels. It was my first all inclusive holiday which I don't plan to repeat. For what you pay you can get much, much better food and drinks outside of the hotel. About food/drinks: - Buffet was always perfect for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing to complain about. - Thematic restaurants on 2 were good (Steak House and Mexican), other ones I could get better outside for 15 bucks. - Beer is good but drinks were disgusting, cheap vodka, whiskey and other stuff, if you want better drinks you needed to pay or be part of the Privilege program they don't stop offering. - Coconut watter, offered only on Saturdays at 4pm, seriously?? Coconut trees all around where you can easily get hit by a coconut falling from a tree. - Wine, I'd call that vinegar, even the waiter said, among the worse this is the best we have. But of course you could get a better one for 22 bucks (cheapest). Staff: - Always smiling, happy, helpful. Not sure if they were waiting for tips or what. But I have to say they made me fell comfortable there. - The hotel is part of the H10 group, they try to sell their holiday package all the time it's all about brainwash what could steel 3 hours from your beach/sun time. I don't by anything without searching carefully, and the BUY IT NOW or you will loose this offer doesn't work with me. Hotel: Cozy, colorful, well designed and maintained. A friend was on the expensive Riu Palace, very fancy but not as nice and cozy as the Ocean Blue. The all inclusive stuff: We spent 3 of the 7 days we stayed there on tours around DR, what means we had to pay for food and drinks outside while the hotel had no cost with us. So as I mentioned earlier, It was my first and last All Inclusive holiday. I will keep booking B&B hotels and eat somewhere where I have to pay for good food and not get the cheap food/drinks after paying. Overall it's a nice hotel and I recommend it if you don't bother with what I have commented above.

It was awesome! Everything was pretty good. The facilities, the food, the staff, the room, also the representative from cheaptickets was very kind. I had a great time during my stay in Punta Cana. I am already considering my next vacations and maybe it could be to the Dominican Republic again!

The Hotel was great. The one problem I had was with H10 Hotels. They pressured us to buy some vacation points that cost anywhere from $9,000 on up. They said the ordeal would last less than an hour and it lasted over 2 hours. Our family was on a pleasure vacation and I did not want or need to be hassled. Due to this I will not go back. It is too bad because this place is the best place that we have ever stayed.

Most Of The resort Staff was good n Helpful but they needed more english speaking staff because it was really hard to communicate and when we arrived @ our room there was a leak behind the dresser which caused a big puddle on the floor but they came quickly n cleaned it up but our staff was nice!!!!

Hotel is nice and clean. Service is hit and miss. Reservations gets a big thumbs down for not being able to accomodate a small family reunion (7 rooms in the same building) even though we made the request 5 months in advance. The food in the buffet has a good variety, but the restaurants were not good except Brasa. The beach is wonderful. The only down side was the people who control the kayaks, windsurfers etc. They were not easy to deal with and my 20yr old son was told no he couldn't go out on more than several occasions. They also close too early at 4pm. They want you to spend money on excursions so they tell you no snorkeling on the reef that is within swimming distance. There is a roaped off swimming area and they want you to stay inside because boats pass just outside of it. This was very frustrating as we love to snorkel. There are lots of covered cabanas on the beach so no need to wake early to get one. That was a real plus. There is a lot of pressure to join their H10 club. Don't talk with a concierge when you get there. They are just trying to sell you membership. Overall a good vacation. The people are very nice and want to help.

While some of the staff doesn't speak a lot of english you can always find someone to help you or point you in the right direction. My room was located right off the beach,and there is a trolley like cart that will drive you from one end of the resort to the next. There are always pool activies and great dancing in the main lobby at night. I would go back and recommend this hotel in a heartbeat. Where were there as they were changing over the furnature in the room and it wasn't a disturbance at all.

The Good:First, the amenities are gorgeous- there are two giant pools with swim up bars, a great beach, and the rooms are lovely. Unfortunately, the rooms are not very sound proof. We were awakened multiple times at night to loud people in the entry, and then every morning to the water aerobics in the pool. This is not the place to go if you want to sleep. Sound from the pool and the entry just carry ridiculously well into the rooms. Also regarding sleep, the pillows were hard as rocks and they were unable to give us softer ones because were weren't "privileged". The shows were spectacular. I wasn't expecting much from the nightly shows, but they were amazing. The costumes were great and the dancers were fantastic. The shows on the cruise ships I have been on weren't this good. Every show we went to was great- even the ones that were audience participation shows (no dancers) were funny and entertaining to kids and adults. The Entertainment staff was wonderful. [...]was hilarious.The food was decent. There wasn't any food that I was amazed at, but there also wasn't any food that was terrible either. As far as the alcohol, there were some amazing bartenders and there were some really terrible bartenders. Luckily it is all inclusive, so if you get a bad drink, it is no loss to get a new one. The Bad:The service: This is were the place really lost it for me. I understand that this is a Spanish speaking country and I really made an effort to speak Spanish as much as possible. However, if you weren't fluent- many of the staff wouldn't give you the time of day. One staff member told us that their main guests during the summer are from Puerto Rico, and probably 80% of the guest population fit that demographic. This wouldn't be a problem, except for we got ignored because we are very obviously not native Spanish speakers. We had to directly ask servers for water and silverware while they sat and chatted with other guests in Spanish. At the Sports bar we waited for 25 minutes and spoke to 3 different people in order to get food while we watched people get served in front of us. We also found out at the end of the trip that other rooms were getting turn down service, flowers, and other things while we were just getting our room cleaned- even though we were tipping. I understand that Spanish is the first language in the country, but for a resort that wants to cater to Americans, I don't appreciate being ignored because I have an American accent on my Spanish.It may be due to the high number of Spanish-speaking guests, but all they played at the disco was Latin dance music. I like to dance salsa, but I don't know many other Latin dances so the dancing was not fun for me in the disco. Also they had the volume turned up so high it hurt my ears and then they would turn it up louder as people came on the dance floor. It wasn't fun to go dancing after the live music in the lobby because it was so loud and only Latin. (Again, fine if you don't want to be catering to Americans)The last thing I did not appreciate about this particular resort was the timing. The pool closes as 7pm and doesn't open until 8am. I was told they don't have night-time swimming because they are kid friendly, but I was still sad I couldn't swim. Also, the buffet closes from 1030am-12 and 3pm-630pm with only a coffee/dessert place open. This was uncomfortable on the days we tried to sleep in or if we wanted to eat a late lunch. (The first day we arrived at 3 pm and hadn't eaten in 5 hours and had to wait until 630 to eat anything other than pastries) I won't be going back to this particular resort though I did really enjoy Punta Cana.

We flew down for a friend's wedding. When we checked in, we were told that the hotel was overbooked and we would have to go to another hotel. We explained that we were here for a wedding along with about 40 other people in this hotel. They had said everyone that was checking in would be bumped to a different hotel. As we were walking out of the registration area, 4 people came in and checked in. We stopped them to ask if thy had just come in from the airport, ton which they replied yes. When we told the manager this, all the sudden they had a room for 2 nights ofnour trip and the rest we would have to go to another hotel. At this point, we were not going to go to another hotel and insisted that we get a room that we had purchased. After another hour, a room magically appeared for us. The hotel blamed [...], saying that they kept booking rooms when they knew there were none available. The room we got did not lock. The wedding was beautiful. The food was good and they had top shelf alcohol. Spending 3 hours in registration and fighting to get a room that doesn't lock put a damper on what was supposed to be a great vacation!

As a group of almost 40 people travelling to Ocean Blue and Sand we had a wonderful overall vacation which included my husband and I getting married on the beach. After a bit of a rough check-in as the hotel was overbooked and they did not have one of our rooms available until the day following our arrival everything was fantastic. Pools are huge and provide lots of room for the kids to play and splash while the adults can still enjoy drinks without getting wet. Beach was great with plenty of lounge chairs even if you weren't one to get up early and mark your spot. Food was fantastic although we only ate at the buffets as not being able to make reservations at the a la carte restaurants proved to result in a long wait to get in. Overall I think I speak for our entire group that the resort was beautiful, the service terrific and the overall experience unforgettable. For anyone wishing to do a beach wedding I highly recommend Ocean Blue. I was quite nervous because there isn't a lot of communication prior to arrival about what to expect and the language is a bit of a barrier but the day after our arrival within 30 minutes we had the planning done and the event was beautiful, food and service better than I have ever experienced and the setting breathtaking. The photographer was wonderful and definitely worth the price.

This is a great place for teenage drinking and partying. Not my idea of a family vacation with young children asking "why is that girl throwing up at the pool? Why can't they walk?" This is by early-mid afternoon. The system for a-la-carte reservations, staying in line for hours the day of, hoping to eat by 8pm was very disappionting, also difficult for young kids. Overall not my idea of a vacation.