We found the staff rude at times,most of the staff did'nt understand basic English.Guest Services were not very helpful.It was a long walk to the beach.The doors to the terrace did not lock properly.

We booked a activity and the director never told the tour guide and so they never came to pick us up. We went through six key cards because none of them would open the door and they door wouldn't lock. We were placed right next to the bar and loud obnoxious music played all through the night, preventing us from geting any sleep. We asked about a fishing actvity and they recomended one very highly and so we went. They activity was very expensive and we didn't do anything. We went out on an old boat (that was ver old and I wasn't sure it would start) and we sat and did nothing for 3 hours. We went out and came back. The guy set up all the lines and he put them all away when we got back. Why in the world did the hotel rate his very highly??? After 3 days of bad service, a small room with small and hard beds, obnoxious music, no internet connection after they said they had it, we finially checked out of the hotel and checked into the Lifestyle Holidays hotel. I had never switched hotels before that and was very glad when we got out of there.

This hotel is definitely geared towards the 'locals'. When they descended mob handed at weekends everything was done for their benefit, the English were not considered at all. They got extra outside bars, handed drinks as they entered the dining room.
They were still swimming in the pool at 7-7.30 in the evenings, when it was just the rest of us it was closed at 6pm strictly. What is their obssession with swimming fully clothed? Surely this is unhygienic, but non of the staff seemed to worry.
The musical and dancing shows were good to watch, but the chap who did the announcements started off with a few words in English and then reverted to Spanish spoken. Also on the subject of language, if you spoke to any of the staff they invariabley did not understand English. One morning I asked for butter and 2 of the girls looked at each other and shrugged, I had to pantomime what I wanted and even then one of them had to go and consult someone else. However, having said that the staff were friendly, but the language problem was prevalent everywhere you went within the hotel.
When we entered our room for the first time it smelt very musty and the bed was damp. When we queried this with the rep he said it was because of a hurricane off the coast somewhere and would go away. Well, after the first night we had to go and buy an air freshener as it was very unpleasant spending any length of time in there.
Although the rooms were clean but dowdy the maids seemed to have difficulty deciding how many people were staying in the room. Sometimes we got 1 bath towel, 1 hand towel and no beach towels. We were told when we complained that all we had to do was ring and they would bring the correct number of towels, but why should we have to do that and in any case the 1 on our telephone didn't seem to work and the number to ring was 8114, what does that tell you.
The good bit is that the food was good not only inthe buffet restautant but in the Chinese and Ibiza beach restaurant. A nice comfy seating area would be good though.
In our opinion we feel that Thomas Cook is letting it's customers down by continuing to send people to this hotel.

Wasnt aware until we arrived at hotel that it is due to be closed for a major refurb in oct, and believe me i can understand why! Had to change rooms 3 times due to problems, Thomas cook rep was brilliant and made hotel move us to a junior suite. Rooms and hotel were clean but very dated and run down, even the suite was of poor standard. We came on this holiday to get away and relax for 2 weeks, but this hotel is definately not for that. If you like the 'butlins' atmosphere then this is the place for you. The animation staff were constantly harrassing you to join in with there activities and even at meal times they would come and just sit with you whilst you were trying to eat which i found very intrusive especially as their english and my spanish were limited so there was a air of silence at the table which was rather akward. I imagine they had been told to mingle with the guests which is great if you like this kind of thing but they clearly didnt seem to get that my partner and i just wanted to be left alone. The food was ok what you would expect of a 3 star rating. The thing that really put a downer on the whole experience was the fact that at the weekend. 'Local' people are allowed to stay in the hotel, this means that all other nationality of guests get pushed to one side and the 'locals' get prefential treatment. The pool became a giant free for all, they swam fully clothed and totally disregarded all safety rules including swiming after dark and drinking in the pool aswell as taking glass bottles in, yet no staff at the hotel seemed to care! The food in the resturant suddenly got better but you were lucky if you got any food as it quickly dissapeared. and there were staff giving out pre dinner drinksto the dominicans, the dominican flag were put up all over hotel and the entertainment was geared to the domincans and not a word of english or other european language was spoken by the animation staff, which alot of guests found very insulting!
We went to ocean world for the day and it was totally amazing, i would recommend swimming with dolphins and the sea lion experience, although it is expensive it pays just to pay for your entrance and wait till you get to park to buy the extras as they usually have good deals on packages. Overall i would return to the Dominican but def not to this hotel!