Arrival: August 14-21, 2009: Flight to Punta Cana from Toronto was on time and easy. We flew Air Transat from Toronto. There were several screaming young children that made the flight seem longer. We landed around 4:30 and were at the resort by 6. We were greeted by our Imperial Club concierge, Waldin. He was amazing. We were given a package of material and black bracelets. Our room was ready and the bell man took our luggage and drove us in a golf cart to our room, 1284.
Rooms:
We had requested a Jr. Suite with 2 double beds, close to the beach. I was travelling with my 19 year old son. We were upgraded, free of charge, to a Romance Suite in building 28, overlooking the beach and ocean. The suite had a king size bed and sofa bed and I initially said we wanted 2 doubles, but my son liked the proximity to the beach and was prepared to take the sofa bed. It was not comfortable but he didn’t complain. The suite was very big. It included an outside terraza with a thatched roof, that included a shower and hammock. The jets in the hot tub didn’t work. Several other issues in the bathroom were taken care of.
Restaurants and Bars:
We ate most of our meals at the buffet restaurants. We tried 2 al a carte restaurants, steak/seafood and tex/mex and they were both good. The buffet was more than sufficient and the food was good and lots of variety. The service was very good and the staff were friendly. The Saturday night beach BBQ was fun. Language was not an issue as most staff spoke English. We really didn’t frequent the bars enough to comment.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
The beach is spacious and beautifully clean. It was a bit slow, perhaps at 60% capacity, so there were plenty of beach chairs and palapas. There was always activity on the beach with kayaks, Hobie cats, diving tours, and parasailing. Of course, there were topless female bathers on the beach, mostly higher up near the palapas. We didn’t spend much time by the pool but it did look nice. The grounds are beautiful with many flowers and a nice assortment of trees.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
We didn’t go on any tours, but many were offered. We were warned not to buy tours from beach vendors. We went to entertainment on 2 nights. The show starts at 10pm. The Friday night show was a big Las Vegas type production show which really didn’t do anything for me. It was mostly in Spanish and just not exciting. We were advised to go to the Tuesday night Michael Jackson show by Waldin and it was quite entertaining. Of course, all the music was recorded but the dancing was very good.
Other Comments:
This is a huge complex and includes 3 other Grand Palladium resorts. There is a complimentary train that takes you around. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from one edge of the property to the other along the beach. There is a flea market on the beach outside the east end of the complex. Our Air Transat rep, Caroline, was a very nice and helpful French Canadian girl. Between Waldin and Caroline, we were well taken care of. We thought we were going to experience Tropical Storm Ana but she lost steam the day before her scheduled arrival. Disappointing. Hurricane Bill passed by in the Atlantic but kicked up the surf on Thursday. Summer weather in the Dominican is hot and humid. We spent a lot of time in the suite staying cool. The choice of TV channels wasn’t great, no major US or Canadian networks, and mostly in Spanish with subtitles. We had 30 minutes of free internet each day, but the 4 terminals were in demand and 3 of the keyboards were Spanish and not well lit. All in ! all, we would return to Grand Palladium Bavaro.
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