My husband and I stayed at the Grand Paradise from 11/5 to 11/12 and enjoyed it very much.

As usual, after reading the reviews before we left I started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. Sometimes I wonder what expectations people must have to so critically rate resorts. This was not a 5 star resort, and we had no grand allusions of it being one.
It was a great 3 ½ star resort.

Our room was a pool view. I had wanted an ocean view, but was glad that we had this room when the rain began. We had 3 days of torrential rains and wind. An ocean view would have made it so we couldn’t sit on our balcony, which is what we did on the rainy days.

We ate at the buffet most meals and were pleased with what it had to offer. There was never a time that we had nothing to choose from! The buffet restaurant has such a beautiful view of the ocean that you couldn’t help but enjoy it. We ate at Michelango’s once and enjoyed it as well.

I never encountered one person who worked at this resort who did not have a smile on their face and a “hola, come esta” on their lips.

The weekend was full with locals coming in. The only issue there was that the pool became extremely loud all afternoon, but they were on vacation too. The restaurant did become quite crowded and they opened the 2nd floor. No big deal. We never felt uncomfortable or put out.

My only bone of contention is the vendors. We had been to Playa Dorada 2 times before as well as Punta Cana 3 times and yearly to St. Martin and we never have encountered the level of these vendors. They would go by, and we did buy from a couple of them. The others would just pester you to no end. One day I was sitting by myself and one went by and I said “no thank you”. The vendor gave me such an evil look and kept staring down at me. I was feeling quite uncomfortable at this point. I know the economy is bad and everyone needs to make a living, but their persistence was very frustrating. They would hang around our resort and stay all day. Then they would stand at the wall and hold items up while you were in the dining room. Something should be done about this.

All in all it is a great resort in a wonderful location.

Beach was nice, there's an option to go to the left or to the right. Lots of vendors... very persistent, someone said 100, in reality there are about 30 no joke and they really do come by every 20 minutes to sells you trips massage clothes cigars rings, etc

Food was alright although sub par for a 4 star resort. Beef was very scarce. Bread was very good. A la carte restaurants were good. Red wine at Michelangelo tasted more like vinegar then wine. Service was better at the a la carte but at the buffet it was lacking greatly about 50% of the time. Weekends are like a zoo with people lining up for food like hot cakes.
Drinks were good, favorite server was Pablo he was up on the ball every time we had him.
Pina colada was good and so was the beer.

Hotel was in decent shape but as others mentioned toilets were not too good. Any rooms by the pool are too loud until after 11PM when the DJ guy keeps playing music and yelling in the mic and laughing at the parts of the songs he knows.

At reception they didn't tell us we have to ask for a remote so we had to get one the next day. Apparently people steal them so they don't leave them in the room. I feel a North American tourist should be told about this since we can get a remote at the Dollar Store for 1 or 2 dollars. Also having traveled to the DR twice before and Panama, Costa Rica and Cuba I've never encountered a AC system where you have to stick your key card into it to work (I guess they are trying to save money so you can't have it on when not in your room, and they will not give you a 2nd key card) I think I should have been told about it at check in not after coming to complain my AC doesn't work even though I checked and the breakers were turned on.

We did speak to the general manager and she was sympathetic and gave us a room upgrade. It seemed like she spoke to the restaurant staff as well as service was better the last few days. Overall we had a good time but would have had a great time if only the service was better to begin with before we had to bring it up with management. Location is very nice on the beach and close enough to town to go check it out.

If you do trips or buy anything on the beach bargain... they will give you better deals. We did the City tour with the cable cart and we liked it.
We've stayed at places that were better and also 1 place that wasn't. Having said that we did walk to the adjacent resorts and they seemed to be nicer.

Last April my boyfriend and I and brother and his gf came to Grand Paradise, 2 of us had never been to an all inclusive before and we were NOT disappointed! We filled out a survey and won a free all inclusive trip back for TWO!!! So this year we went the first week of Nov. My parents, brother and gf and my now husband and I went for the week.
WE LOVE THIS RESORT! Clean, great food,safe and two restaurants to choose from for a different scene other than buffet, big pool, restaurants are right off the beach ..amazing views.
THE STAFF, the staff are incredible, happy, friendly and helpful.
BON BON the towel lady is funny and bright! she makes your day :)
EDWARDO the breakfast/lunch server...happy happy! hes amazing, without asking he reserved the table for 6 each morning to serve our family!
CARLOS night bar...discoque....SO WONDERFUL! fun! and remembered each of our drinks!
OSVALDO ...great bartender!
PEPE! LOVE LOVE LOVE PEPE the event staff...fun, funny and friendly!
CHISPA is great and entertaining, water aerobics, water volleyball, polo, games, shuffleboard, ping pong, shows....so good.
Janet- coordinator, took care of everything for us and was very helpful with reservations and questions.

What a great experience and good times. We will most certainly be bringing the whole family back!

This resort is amazing. I really don't understand all of the negative comments. I travel quite often and have visited many of the islands and this was, by far, my favorite resort. It is true that the food is pretty much the same day in and day out but there is plenty to choose from and it is of great quality. I didn't care much for the chicken at Michelangelos but the steak at Edens was delicious. It is also true that the sales people on the beach are very pushy but they are all very friendly and part of the culture. I got to know everyone of them on a personal basis and they are just hard workers trying to earn a living. There is always something going on at this resort and the staff is amazing. There is constantly either an aerobics class, a game or a show going on. The staff really takes the time to get to know everyone and they are so friendly that my husband and I compared them to Disney World employees. I had such a great time with Jose Pilar, Super Joe and Manny. They really did a lot to make our vacation memorable. Even in the three days of rain, we had a great time. This was our second stay at this resort and I am already planning number three.

I will admit that all 7 of us came down with "Travelers Diarrhea" that some seem to think is food poisoning but I have seen food poisoning and have worked in the food industry and have never seen a case of food poisoning that lasted 1.5 days and didn't consist of vomiting.

Anyone that doesn't like this resort probably fails to remember that it is the Dominican Republic and isn't as civilized as the states so you probably shouldn't be expecting The Hamptons or Hawaii.