Sunsets are magical. Water is warm and on wavy days, fun to play in, no major undertow. You can walk out quite a distance.
Your Arrival:
Sunwing last minute vacation. Amazing flight down, on time and smooth. First impression of the hotel was "wow". It was huge, clean and service at the beginning was amazing. My husband left his carry-on on the bus, Front staff called the next hotel and the driver brought it to the hotel. Check in was quick and simple.No fees for towels or safe.
Rooms:
HOWEVER, we paid for an upgrade to a "superior" room & had the travel agent include "mould allergy" on the reservation. Our room, not superior, had mould growing around the air conditioner and air intake.Upon complaining, we were offered a hut which was smaller, darker and towards the party pool area.We decided to stay because of one shining light, our housekeeper Santa. This woman bleached out everything, did it daily and kept our fridge and room stock with water and pop. NOTE: If you book the superior room, IMMEDIATELY ask for your upgrade (which is not a hut, unless it is oceanview).This was the experience of other Canadians.
Restaurants and Bars: We reserved with "Beach", which means you can go to any bar, but buffet on the beach is the only one you are allowed to go to. The food is good, neither of us got sick, but was getting to be a little of the same by the end. You can book the La Roca Grill, which is good food (for a Dominican all-inclusive) and the Mexican. We enjoyed the Mexican just a bit more. There are hot dogs/hamburgers/salad/sandwiches offered at 2 of the 4 pool bars, one of those had pizza as well.There are two other a la carte restaurants, one overlooking the ocean & an Oriential for which the Beach guests must pay $10.00 ea.We could not get a reservation, and even though there were rarely more than 10 people, you could not walk and pay the $10.00 without a reservation. This entirely baffled us. Do not drink the red house wine. Everytime I drank it, I got diarrea. Stopped drinking it-diarrea stopped!
Getting coffee in the morning at the buffet was a nightmare 5 out of 7 days.1 morning we waited 1 hour, asking 3 different people.We ended up leaving & getting a coffee at the bar.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Beach – utterly amazing. Snorkelling right off the beach.Best part of the vacation :). Not pool people, but three of the four had ocean view. Beautiful. Your choice of three distinct beach areas.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Off Resort: Went to El Mundo Restaurant and Gift Shop – to the left outside the resort. AMAZING polite service and the best grilled shrimp I have ever had. The Gift shop had everything at lower prices than anywhere else and you could still deal. The staff were polite and helpful. There is a small grocery-hardware store on the second street from the hotel that appeared to have many locals in it. Got a large bottle of Lubriderm there and there were many grocery items at a lower price than other stores. Activity: We only did the speedboat half day snorkel-tour to Catalina island for $43.US. This was worth it. Take snacks for your hour at the beach.
Other Comments:
Checkout is at 1:00. Our bus was picking up at 6:40. Because we did not get the superior room AND there was mould, I approached the Sunwing rep to keep our room for the full day without the $25.00 per day PER PERSON charge. We had met another couple who had similar experiences so we offered all four to stay in one of the rooms. The rep was useless, argumentative and bordered on rude, but by standing our ground the hotel manager (very polite & calm gentleman) agreed to let us remain until 5:00pm. Other reviews about the large amount of rude Europeans are exactly correct. The larger percentage butt into lines, smoke and put their butts in the sand. A groundsman walks thru the sand all day with a fishnet device picking up what he can see. PS.My spouse is spanish-speaking, which seemed to be a determent to our service!