Old Reviews – Dreams Punta Cana Resort & SPA

Arrival – The ride from the airport to the hotel is over a half-hour ride. So it’s a long ride to the resort and a long ride if you leave the resort to go back to Punta Cana, go on any excursions, etc. We were also very disappointed with the front desk as we upgraded our room and they overcharged us. Every day of our vacation, we would stop by the front desk looking for the credit receipt to our credit card. Whether I was speaking Spanish or English, Orlando the manager, would keep coming up with excuses as to why we did not have our credit yet. Finally on the last day, he said that he couldn’t do the credit and one of his accounting people had to do this. Of course when we asked why he waited all week to notify us, he had no answer. Also, since it was the weekend at this point, conveniently no one from the accounting department was available. We finally had to contact the credit card company when we returned to get our credit card credited. I would recommend anyone who goes to this resort to watch their room statements closely, as we met other guests who also had problems with "accidentally" being overcharged.

Rooms – We upgraded to the honeymoon suite when we arrived since the standard rooms were so small.

Restaurants – The only thing positive that I can say about the restaurants was that the service was good. We tried every restaurant and were very disappointed with the food. I have traveled around the world, and stayed in a variety of hotels, but this is the first time I have been disappointed with the food. It was definitely not what I expected from a 6-Golden Apple Hotel. The food was either dry, old food from the day before, or we would be served something different than what the menu stated. I would also like to mention that I have been to the Dominican Republic in the past and had wonderful food during my past visit. We were very disappointed with the quality, and found the poor quality to be common in all of the restaurants. We finally left this "all-inclusive" hotel to get a decent meal. However, since the resort is so far away, we had to pay $80 round trip for a cab to take us back to Punta Cana just to have a decent meal.

Bars – The Bar Service was good, but you need to ask for premium beverages.

Beach and Pools – The pools are very nice. With regard to the beach, it wasn’t the cleanest beach that I have been too, but the swimming was great.

Grounds – Dreams used to be Sunscape Resort, and you could tell they were trying to update a lot of things. Overall it was nice, but for the rating, I was definitely expecting a nicer hotel. It looks much better on-line than it did in person.

Activities – Although this is not an activity…we did try the spa and had massages. Again, like everything else at this resort, it appeared nice, but over half of the showers and waterfalls in the spa relaxation room did not work, the person who gave me my massage obviously had never been professionally trained. The worst experience was when my friend had a two-inch cockroach crawl onto his massage table during his massage. Again, we all expected more from the high rating, and definitely do not expect cockroaches to be crawling on you while you are trying to relax.

Tours – We did the Zipline Adventure and loved it. I highly recommend this excursion; it was a lot of fun.

Conclusion – Overall, we were very disappointed with this resort. We have contacted Apple Vacations as this resort definitely did not deserve a 6-Golden Apple Rating. As I mentioned, I have traveled around the world, been to the Dominican Republic before, used Apple Vacations, and speak fluent Spanish, so in comparison to other Apple resorts, I have been to much nicer ones, that were rated lower than this one. I would definitely not recommend this resort to anyone, and wish I had read the reviews before I went on my trip.