Paradisus Punta Cana Resort - All Inclusive

Everything was under construction with yellow tape roping off something new each day; paradise included: smell of diesel oil, mo-ped exhaust, noise of constant drills & hammers, & dealing with consistently being approached/hasseled to buy something. The food was bad; very disappointing; and even though the restaurants were all inclusive and boasted many options, usually 2-3 of the offered restaurants were closed during posted hours of operation. The beach was beautiful and swim up pool bars were nice, and the staff was friendly, but rooms were bad; no hot water, broken toilet, roaches in the room, and AC didn't work properly.

My husband and I just got back from our wedding at Paradisus Punta Cana. We chose to get married on the beach, and chose the fantasy package. When we arrived at the resort they upgraded my husband and I to the royal service, which was great. They have a nice , separate check-in area for you that has much more personalized service and amenities. The service from the staff in royal service was excellent. In regards to the wedding, I did feel as if the coordinators were disorganized. I met with one lady at first , then another, and then the day of , a new girl altogether. Who didn't seem to know what we discussed, so a bit anxiety provoking to say the least. Some of the restaurant reservations that they made for us were also wrong, wrong times and wrong count for how many were in our party. I will say though, that on the actual day, everything came together beautifully. I think they have a more laid-back approach that I am not used to living in the states. At times it can make you feel anxious , like you are not in control, but after having my wedding go very well, I will say that in the end they know what they are doing. For example, it rained right after our ceremony, and our coordinator was quick to grab everything in the rain carefully and move it to a safe location, and took everything to keep in the office til the next day. They also had a shuttle waiting for us right after we were done , which was nice in the rain! And these little details I didn't even think of. My husband and I really enjoyed a private dinner on the beach after our guests had left. Which you can use resort credits toward. I guess it costs $300 originally, which we thought was crazy, but with the coupons we paid $100. It was nice ambiance on the beach and had our own waiter who was very attentive. Also, the food was one of the better meals we had. We got Lobster and a Chicken breast stuffed with ham. We also enjoyed the italian restaurant the best. Caprese salad was very nice to start the meal :) The Japanese had very funky sushi and not great service. The Disco was quite fun and I would highly recommend checking it out. Also, make sure to try your luck at Blackjack in the casino with your resort coupons. Couples massage on the beach was also excellent with resort credit. And by the way , if the resort gives you a hard time about getting them , just insist and it should not be an issue. Overall, the resort is very clean, large, and has beautiful grounds and amenities. We were hesitant about some of the negative reviews initially, but I can say as a bride, I was very happy with our choice. Dominican staff are very personable and the resort had one of the best beaches with the whitest sand in all of the area, no seaweed, very clean! Have a great trip!!!!

Spent 5 days here with a group of 11 traveling together and it was amazing!!! Room service, food, the beach and rooms were perfect. I also won $50 playing black jack! The staff work hard and genuinely want you to have a good time. People have complained about not being able to use the resort credits because typically you have to put up some of ur own money, like w/ the casino vouchers that I used, but that was not a selling point for me to stay at this hotel, so it was not a big deal. Only issue I had was w/ beach/pool towels and having to have a card to get one and then return the card or get charged $30 per person, there is only one place to get the towels on the whole resort so this was annoying as you have to walk back and forth. I guess they have issues w/ ppl stealing towels, I've stayed at other all inclusive resorts and granted they were smaller but they did not have this type of system and multiple places to get towels.

Beyond a beautiful location, the staff was very attentive. Loved every moment...even the rain. Great hotel, food and staff.

The resort is pretty large and can be a little overwhelming at first. The staff is nice, mostly all speak English or at least try, very friendly (but can occasionally feel like they are too friendly borderline flirting). It was very pretty and nice but I do not think I will be going back.

We take 4-5 vacations a year and this is the first hotel review I have ever written because of how disappointing it was. We had 11 people in our group (three children) and had 4 rooms. The only 'pro' is the beach with warm water and white sand and pleasant staff and beach bbq Room service was terrible, with the room often not made up even at 4pm. Two of our rooms had water leaking from the ceiling, many fixtures were broken including the legs of the foldout couch the kids were supposed to be sleeping on. WE had two rusty nails sticking out from the middle of our bathroom floor - a big hazard when you're traveling with kids. The service in the buffet area was slow and disinterested except for one person. They advertise 11 restaurants but at any given time you're lucky if even four are open. They randomly close down restaurants without keeping the guests informed so its very hard to plan your stay there especially since some restaurants require reservations for dinner. We were extremely disappointed and will definitley not be staying at a Melia resort again.

The resort itself is beautiful however my family and i experienced many problems: 1) staff was rude. they did not go out of their way to help or even be courteous. I had to ask 5 different waiters for one bottle of water. Ridiculous. When we asked for things like (a fork, extra napkin, etc, we were greeted with such rudeness!, my whole family agreed and this was similar to most other people we talked to around the resort) 2) the first room we got had tiny bugs all over (in all the closets and counter tops). When I asked to move our room, I was given attitude. I had to ask to be moved several more times, before it actually happened. The new room did not have all that many bugs but there were still some around some spots. The move took about 6 hours out of our 5 day vacation. 3) not a lot of activities, no one engages in the planned activities 4) if there is any sort of bad weather all restaurants are closed except for the nasty buffet 5) they try to sell you HARD on everything! I could honestly write a few more points but I have to go back to work... I am usually not one to even write reviews but myself and family included were so disappointed. All in all the resort was nice looking.. but i would NEVER go back and I would not recommend, esp if you are English speaking.

• We arrived on Sunday August 5, 2012. Taking into consideration we were a large group of 15 people I immediately met with the concierge to arrange for dinner reservations for the 5 nights we would be there. The concierge booked 5 different reservations for each night. She gave me cards with the name of the restaurant and confirmation numbers to bring with me to the restaurant each night which I did. When we arrived 2 of the nights at two different restaurants no reservation had been made and it took them at least 30 minutes to get us seated. • Tuesday night August 7 we had dinner at the steak house Tera, again with reservations at 6:30 we did not get our appetizers and by the time we were served dinner it was somewhere between 8:30 or 9:00 pm( with 5 impatient children) Our waitress never came back to the table after we placed our order we were constantly trying to get her attention she ignored us. Finally a bus boy was so nice trying to help and find out where our food was, he told us our food was sent to a different table and they had eaten it and then left. That table came in after us eat and left before us. As a matter of fact there were 4 other tables that came in after us sat down was serviced by our waitress received their dinners and left before we were served. Needless to say I was so upset that by the time my food came I had such a knot in my stomach I could not eat. By the way no apologies from the waitress. • Our rooms did not live up to the Melia standard at all. The drapes were dirty, the lights, doors and phones did not work in a few of the rooms, dirty glasses remained in the garden near our room for two days and two of the rooms had roaches. • Since Sunday we had gone to the same beach area every day, there were no signs indicating that we could not go to that area of the beach and no one said anything to us the entire week. The bartender was serving us and we were all enjoying ourselves. ( there were other areas with roped off sections for reserve quests witch we all respected) On the last day we were there Thursday August 9, the security guard came over to us and told my husband he could not smoke the cigar on the beach (my husband and everyone else on the beach was smoking cigarettes and cigars all week on the beach and nothing was said ). He then walked away and came back about 5 minutes later and told us we all have to leave that section of the beach because we were wearing purple bracelets and that section was for only people with black bracelets. My husband told him we were there all week and no one said anything to us and that it was our last day could we just stay there for that day. The guard went and brought back two other men from the hotel and the three of them told us to get up and leave immediately. I was so embarrassed and modified for me, my husband and my family. So not to cause a scene we got up and took all our belongings and went to the pool. • During check out I began to complain to many different people asking for a manager. A manger never showed up and all the front desk and concierge said was I should put it in writing and they gave me an e-mail address indicating who I should send it too. The people are not happy or friendly at the Paridisus Punta Cana and they really need to work on their customer service skills if they want to stay in business. You know what they say “Do everything right and you hear nothing do one thing wrong and everyone will know” We are big fans of the Melia hotels and we choose to stay at them when possible. I am hoping this trip has not changed my opinion. I look forward to hearing from you.

The hotel is very nice, once you arrive you notice the beautiful lobby. The public restrooms are just as nice. The resort is big, getting to the room is not a short walk they have shuttle service every five- 10 minutes. The rooms were nice, disappointed they didn't have alcohol in our room. You can order room service for a $5 charge, but no menu in your room to know what to order. The food was bad!! We ended up eating at Vita(italian) more than we expected but even that food got us sick at the end of our stay. The service is terrible, slow and rude. If you don't speak spanish don't expect anyone to jump on helping you out.

Fine for what it is but don't expect to be wowed. We went there for a wedding and had never had the all inclusive experience before so basically we had no expectations. The staff was very friendly and accommodating and the whole resort very well manicured and comfortable. Our room was at the the Paradisus Punta Cana part of the resort and needed a bit of updating. But we didn't spend a whole of time there, so that was fine. Apparently the Reserve portion of the resort is the newer part which comes with a price. The biggest miss was the food. Most of it seemed pre-prepared like catering food. And if you're interested in any authentic Dominican cuisine you may be out of luck. We couldn't find anything with the occasional exception. Also, room service food is awful! But there are tons of activities to do. Snorkling, Scuba, Para-sailing, golf, archery, climbing, biking (though the bikes we rode were in desperate need of replacing) and drinking. So, not bad for our first all inclusive experience. Would we go back? Probably not. We're more interested in a cultural experience than an all-inclusive one. But it was great for a destination wedding.