After reading through the reviews, and actually staying here, I'm not sure if I just tolerate things better than others, or the people reviewing this property are idiots.

The first compalint you read about this resort is the food. Being an American, and coming to this resort, the food in no way is as good as we get in the States. Where else in the world is food as good as it in the States anyway? If you are a picky eater, do not go to this resort. The food is average at best. I am not a picky person, and realized my surroundings. I did not complain about the food, but I did not praise it. The food is abundant though and you will not be hungry. Good food items: pizza by the pool, the seafood in either buffet, Japanese restaurant (most like home) breakfast in the buffet area i.e. crepes, donuts, omelettes. And even thought the steak in the Steahouse are poor quality, I appreciated the grilled flavor.

Other major comaplint is the seaweed on the beach. and yes, ther is a lot. There are patches of the water that are clear though and great for hanging out and snorkeling. They do have resort workers everywhere cleaning it up, most of the time. beach is big, plenty of chairs to sit in. BEWARE: topless sunbathing is piopular here. Didn't bother me too much, but most of us are not use to that.

Resort is beautiful, well maintained. Some areas of the resort do need an upgrade, but I never once saw anywhere that made me unhappy. Bar tenders all over the resort are great. Our room was good, A/C worked all the time, almost too well, sun glasses would fog up everytime we came out of the room. Shower is a bit small, but not worth a complaint. PILLOWS WERE NOT LUMPY! But we were in the Privileged section. Never orderd room service. Never had a problem anywhere on the resort with service at all. Onyl time service was a bit slow was the buffet area in the main lobby. They would not awlays bring you a drink or napkin when you sat down with food. So we would get up, walk the 20 ft back to the buffet and get what we needed, or we would ask a worker, and they brought it over quickly.

The resort is big. Unless you are disabled or elderly, you should not have a problem walking around it though. It is not big enough to be a burden.

Would I come back to this resort? Probably not. Would I come back with a group of people who wanted a good expericence for the money they are spending? Yes.

Do not come here if you want peace and quite all week. Stay on the adults only side called the Royal Catalonia Bavaro. This is an upbeat resort with something going on all the time.

Giving this a 3 out of 5 is a bit low, but I can't give it a 4 out of 5.

Most positive aspects:
-Beautiful beach space, with the palm trees reaching the sea
-Well treated and wide gardens
-"Jacuzzi" like romantic circular tube in all bathrooms (not jacuzzi though!)
-Hammock in balcony
-Very nice show-cooking Japanese tematic restaurant
-The breakfast is nice, specially the natural juices
-The pizza by the pool
-The night shows, specially mister catalonia (very fun) and michael jackson tribute

Most negative aspects:
-Very poor professional employes (except most of the ones from the main restaurant and from the japanese bar) for a self proclaimed 5 stars hotel, in particular in the reception.
We booked for 14 nights (couple) and we got an old small room (comparing to the other of our single friend) with an extra bed on it tooking about 1/4 of the room space!!! The reception guy didnt care at all...we were only changed in the next day, and not even a simple excuse was given.
-When you arrive by night a strange "check-in" is made quickly in the middle of the airpoty parking lot, not very pleasant at all.
-In general poor mantained rooms, needing a renovation. Our first room had an old air-conditioning device with was absolutelly noisiy, impossible to sleep with it turned on.
-We were there for 2 weaks and the bed was not changed at all. The bathroom towels were not also always replaced when they were taken for wash. The pillows are TERRIBLE!!! We asked for extra 2, and they were the same - lumpy and old (i could say they were the best pillows in any hotel/hostel I have been to).
-The beach towels are not washed!!! Maybe they are machine dried (beacause they are hot when you get them), but completely salty everyday!!!
-In the main restaurant, although there is a lot of diversity, the food quality, specially the meat, is not very good in general.
-The beach restaurant is not very good

It was my first time going to Dominican Republic with my friend so we were both really excited to get away from the city for a week. We booked through travelocity for a decent price - affordable for students in desperate need for a vacation. The check-in was smooth and the staff were friendly, however, I was disappointed that no one even tried to help us carry our luggage. I had to carry all of my stuff all the way to the far side of the resort (near the beach).

Our room was really nice and cozy. The TV was really old, but it had pretty good channels. My friend and I watched a lot of movies as well. We had a little patio outside with a hammock which was nice, but one time we saw a cockroach and we never went there again. I also liked how our cleaning lady Maria cleaned our room everyday. I liked how she did something new with the towel design everyday.

For the first few days, we stayed at the beach and the pool mostly. The Animacion entertainment team invited us to play games with them and dance at the beach. My team won so we got a little certificate and got to stand on stage on the awards night. We met a couple of people that were mostly from Europe. However, I found that after 3 days, there really isn't that much to do. We got really bored and sick of the beach/pool after a few days. It was a good thing that we both decided to do excursions. My friend and I went to the Safari and the one with Sharks & Stingrays. The excursions were really worth it. They made my trip from good to super awesome! Don't book right away though, try to shop and around for good deals.

I found that most people from the resort are very hospitable. They were all nice and friendly. However, I don't like how some people were all up in your face trying to sell you something. I know they desperately need to make sales but as a person who doesn't like to say no, we were actually trying to avoid a certain area because we know that the person selling is waiting for us.

The food was okay. The breakfast bar near the beach isn't really good - the food was really bland. The bigger buffet place was better and there were more selections. I didn't like how there were so many birds inside just wanting to eat your food. But the staff was really friendly and helpful. I love how hospitable DR people are. The a la cartes were much better though - we actually dressed up for it although they weren't that fancy. I really liked Japanese restaurant in terms of experience. It was fun to watch the guy cook your dinner in front of you. If I were to pick, I liked the Mariachi restaurant the best in terms of food.

The drinks! To be honest, I am not much of a drinker. I like drinking shots but not mixed drinks. But I found the drinks that the bar offered was pretty good! I especially LOVE mama juana. It was my first time trying it and it automatically became my favorite. That was the only time that I was thankful that we had unlimited drinks.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this resort but I don't think I would want to come back again soon just because I would like to try other resorts or other Caribbean countries. It was definitely an awesome experience.

It looks beautiful with all the nice gardens.The pool is big and clean.The DR are know for their kindness and other years in other hotels on the DR we we're greeted the whole day by the staff with ''hola''.He're it's not the case.The entertainmentteam does the same thing every day and not the whole day so we saw them having a lot of free time.They using the same music from 20 years ago over and over again,it's was very anoying!They have music from now,but they don't play it.I understand that they played music at the pool,but so loud at the beach was not necessary.At the beach i don't want to hear music period.The service at the pool restaurant at the Privileged was very good and there was an youngman who knew exactly how it works.At the mainbuffet they can learn from him.It was never busy in the Privileged area,but too many times they didn't notice us, so we had to get the drinks ourselves!We've waved our hands, but no one notice us.At one of our last day an waiter found it more important to pay attention at an table and talked too long to those guests.He probably got many tips from them and was trying to get more.That day there were only 3 tables occupied.Many times there were no glasses and guests had to wait until they have washed.Ik confronted the restaurantmanager (this was an white man, wich are rare there),but he careless and found it more important to have his lunchbreak because he had an plate with food in his hands.I told him that the only solution was just to buy new glasses.At the swim up bar they was the same problem.The stupid thing was that they closed at 5.00 pm and the pool closed at 6.30,that's so stupid and doesn't make any sense at all!Many times we we're after 5.00 in the pool and for drinks we had to get out and go to the bar behind the swim up bar.The glassproblem is totally unacceptable for an 5* resort!The fact that very little staff speaks english too!I think they have to ask from staff before they hire them that they required them to speak english and if not they must not hire them.The ala carte goes way to fast as in most all in resorts.My fried food was cold, i had a few bites, i sended it back and they fried it again even with the bites out of it!A few times there we're no number of towels as they had to be and 1 time we didn't have one at all!We called 3 times in 2 days for an extra sheet and didn't got it.We we're tired of calling and after 3 days we finally we got it!With the calling they hang up on us many times, so rude.The airco wasn't working 1 day, we called and they came very quick.A few days later it happened again and they didn't came at all.The staff only respond on positive reviews and not on bad ones,because they know the customer is right,but they don't know how they can solve the problems.He're are some suggestions.....ORDER/BUY GLASSES, LEARN THE STAFF TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND CLOSE THE SWIM UP BAR ONLY WHEN THE POOL IS CLOSING,DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE BIRDS IN THE EATING AREA OF THE BUFFETRESTAURANT AND MAYBE ONE OF THE WORSE THING IS THAT GUESTS HAVE TO CARRY THEIR LUGGAGE TO AND BACK FROM THEIR ROOM!That is totally unacceptabled for an hotel that give themselve 5 stars, it we're 3 maybe 3,5!We'e got an room at the Privileged area for free,but it is not worth it!The shower in the room is way too small and should not got together with the toilet.We will not be back!