My husband and I are just returning from Melia Caribe Tropical and had a great experience! We were looking to relax and feel pampered and that is exactly what we got! We had Royal Service and think it really made a difference! Our butler, Vincente De Jesus was very accommodating and gave us wonderful service. He even drew a bath for us with bubbles, rose petals, and champagne one night! All of the ladies in the Royal Service lounge were very helpful too, especially Leeandra. The resort is large, but we were able to get a ride around the resort whenever we needed it. The Royal Service pool was amazing! We enjoyed most of the food that we had. We really liked the Italian, American, and Mediterranean restaurants as well as the Gabi, which is the Royal Service only restaurant. The grounds were absolutely breathtaking. The Royal Service beach area was perfect, too!

I spent Thanksgiving week with friends and family. This is my 8th year going to Punta Cana and the second time visiting this hotel. The facilities are beautiful, and well kept however I found the food to be extremely poor this time. There was a lack of diversity, and the food tasted the same in every restaurant. Had dinner at the American Grill, the French and Italian restaurants and it's all the same food as the regular buffet. It's almost insulting and ridiculous that they make you make reservations as if these were 5 star restaurants. All the pomp and circumstance does not make up for the tastelessness of the food, the cheap cuts of meat and the lack of knowledg about that particular food style.I understand they have to serve an enormous amount of people but don't slap barbecue sauce on my plate and tell me it's French food. As bad as the food, is also the poor quality of the liquor served. Other than beer if you want to have a decent drink you have to pay for it and they are not cheap.
The service overall was lackluster, except for a waiter at the Beach Buffet named, Algenis Lamauth. This young man was GENUINELY accomodating and a breath of fresh air in comparison with the jaded, inattentive service elsewhere. Thank you Algenis, it was a pleasure being served by you everyday.

We are presently at the Melia Caribe for the 8th time unfortunately probably our last !!!!!! On arrival we paid for upgrade to Royal Service, unfortunately they must have done an unbelievable sales job cause seems everyone upgraded as well. The Royal service was full to capacity with adults and kids to the point I felt I was in a daycare.The restaurant reserved for RS guests was full every night and noisy with lots of kids screaming.We love kids but when you pay extra $$ you expect a bit of consideration in return. Plus nice fancy restaurant and you eat on a wooden table with place mats !!!!! Sticky wooden tables full of suntan lotions residue from people's arms.For the price we pay give me a white tablecloth for supper please, not the cafeteria atmosphere. The Royal Service allows timeshare as well as RS guests so lots of families.One evening the restaurant was so full we had to sit near the bar and in the smoking section, ended up beside 4 smokers !!!! This is not acceptable for this type of VIP section. Quality of the wines in this section….nothing out of the ordinary. I think they crammed as many people as possible in the RS section so as to get an extra $40-60 per person per night, since the rest of the club was half empty. If you don't mind putting up with the above I highly recommend the resort.
Will now return to Barcelo adults only premium section!!!!! Do not go to the Melia Caribe Royal Service if you are looking for a quiet relaxing week.

Spent 5 days at the Melia over Thanksgiving week. Overall, this is a very nice hotel. We upgraded to royal service and I still can't decide if it was worth it or not. Our butler, Vicente, was awesome. Anything we wanted or asked for, he made sure to do. Royal service really didn't help with reservations at specialty restaurants and the private beach was quite crowded. The Gabby was nice & food was good. The pool was very nice, but crowded in the sense that you have to get there early to get good chairs. No wait for food or drinks but the buffet is a small area and could get crowded at times. We probably would have been just as happy without RS.The resort is huge which is not my preference and you will walk a lot. Vicente would pick us up promptly to take us anywhere we wanted, which really helped. They're are trams that run throughout the property, but I really never figured out their routes or frequency.Found the people at the specialty restaurants to be rude, especially at the Dominican restaurant. We actually left, without being seated as we were never acknowledged or welcomed and the girl seemed to not want to be bothered. The 1 specialty restaurant we did go to, The Capri, was enjoyed by the entire family as the food was pretty good. Would have really liked to sample more specialty restaurants, but it was really a hassle. Seems like royal service would have given us good reservation times and prompt seating, but it did not. Again the Gabby's food was good, especially the lobster, so that made up a little for the fact that we didn't go to more specialty restaurants. The shows are nice, especially MJ show. The music and dancing in the different common areas was very nice. My kids really enjoyed the kids club and wanted to stay all day which was great for us. The attendants at the kids club are super nice and you can tell they are very nice to the kids as the kids adore them. you can trust your kids with them!!Also really liked the gentleman at the Gabby pool snack bar. Didn't care for the timeshare people. Overall, a very nice hotel, a solid 4 star, but probably would not return unless they offered a super good deal not because its a bad resort but because there are other 4+ star hotels in DR that would be worth a try.