I am a frequent traveler and this was the worst trip ever! Our room was not ready. Waited 45 minutes for the room to be ready and when we eventually got inside the room the A/C was not working!! We had to wait another 30 minutes for them to fix the problem. The personnel were detached and rude. The pools are closed at 7pm!!! You cannot go make a reservation for the specific days that you want--they will tell you what days you can have your reservation. The shuttle system between resorts is a joke! It does not take 5-10 minutes like we were informed. Many times we are waiting 20-25 minutes for a shuttle!! Sometimes we ended up walking to the other resorts. Twice quarrels and fights occurred because it was chaotic on the "lines". The food was mediocre and there was not a variety to mixed drinks available.

The best part of the trip was the excursion that we bought from Jose on the beach and it was the best time that we had! It was our highlight....

In summary, if you go you were forewarned. Spend your money elsewhere!

We spent the first week of June in Puerto Plata in the Lifestyle Holiday Vacation Club Crown Suites. We traveled with two 17 yr old boys, who really enjoyed the trip. This place is maintained on a level only seen at Disneyland and Disneyworld. They are constantly grooming the grounds. The staff was very pleasant.

We had the penthouse with 2bdrm and 2ba. Our terrace was spectacular with views of the pool and ocean. The condo however was not air conditioned throughout, just the bedrooms. Be very careful with the showers in the bathroom as there is not separate shower and therefore the floor in the bathroom gets wet. I unfortunately slipped, grabbed the towel rack which was not bolted in just grouted in and went slamming to the floor. Thankfully not sustaining more than bruises and a twisted ankle. Maintenace did come out and cleaned the bathroom up and replaced the large section of tile that came off with the towel rack.

With this timeshare we were able to have VIP status which allowed us to have access to most of the restaurants and some of the best pools and beaches. You had to wear wristbands 24/7 and if you lost them it was a very high cost to replace them. With the exception of the fine dining restaurant and Jazz (the New Orleans themed restaurant) the dinners were good but nothing memorable. Breakfast at the Presidential Suites is a must as it is far better than any other restaurant and the buffets are mediocre.

The pool below our penthouse was delightful and had it's own bar and a restaurant near by. Plenty of cabana's and chaises for all guests. The VIP pool was my favorite as it had many options for relaxing in the sun or under cover. I wish the wait staff would have made rounds to ask if you wanted anything but they waited until you came over to the bar or called to them.

To get to the other pools/restaurants/shops you could walk (it's a really BIG place, this is not a recommendation) or you could wait for a shuttle. We had pretty good luck at having only 5-10 minute waits for shuttles.

The big dinner show on the beach was spectacular and the food was from every restaurant on the facility. We enjoyed many different choices, from Dominican to Asian, American to Gourmet. The show is very much a Vegas Style show (which the boys loved!) The only downsides to the night was the constant push to do the timeshare tour and that we couldn't get a shuttle from the dinning location and had to walk quite a ways in the dark without street lights of any kind.

We did a couple excursions (city tour, fishing and Zip and Splash) and enjoyed the Zip and Splash the most. The waterfalls are incredible and I jumped from everyone of them. The water was so cool and the mineral formations on the sides of the river walls were really very interesting. We wished we could have stayed at many of the large pools to swim but they kept you on a steady pace. Which brings me to the hike up the falls, I unfortunately have a bit of a health issue and the heat and the climb almost did me in. The guides offered to get the donkeys for me to ride the rest of the way and they had plenty of water to drink. AWESOME adventure. After the Waterfalls we had a typical Dominican lunch that was the BEST lunch we had the whole trip. After a quick cigar rolling tour and demonstration we were off to the zip lines. We got a treat as well, they have added horseback riding to the adventure. The zip lines were a kick in the pants, and coming from someone who had issues with heights, this was so much fun I wanted to keep going.

Just a warning, they are voracious timeshare sales people. You can not escape them, you just need to either be better saying NO (continuously) and at running the numbers.

Our family & friends were very excited about our trip but our experience in the resort was not what we hoped for. We stayed in Crown Residence Suites section. On the positive side the resort looks very nice, the rooms and common areas are very clean, the staff was courteous but everything else was disappointing. The food was horrible. We found little things here and there to hold us over but overall we did not like the food. Dominicans that own restaurants in the states would be embarrassed the resort could not even get "Dominican Night" right. The shuttle service, which takes you from one side of the resort to another, is terrible. It's disorganized and often we ended up waiting for a shuttle 40+ mins .The hotel staff had regulations for every little thing such as, a waiter would not give me a straw for my daughter during breakfast because straws are locked up during those hours. The hotel had restrictions to making reservations for more than 4 people therefore if the group wanted to experience one of the restaurants other than the buffet, we would need to split up and attend on different days. Also, the crown suites section is very boring. This section of the resort did not have a bar open or music during the evening hours. You would need to take a shuttle to the other sections of the resort. Our group of family & friends made the best of it but we all agreed we would never return to this resort.