we stayed there from August 18th to 25th 2012, it was not bad, the beach is nice but i saw better, the food is good but the rooms need some renovation! our air conditioning didnt worked and we had some other little problems like that. But the ANIMATION was great ! especially Carlos from the team! really nice guy that can make anybody smile :) he made my vacation really good.

We flew into Punta Cana (Aug 25-Sept 1), got to the resort, and attempted to check in. The resort had cancelled our reservations. It was active with GOGO (the travel agency) - we booked through myTime [ VIP package] - - we got no such service. On our hardcopy piece of paper stating the things we were to get, it says, "not checked in by 3PM, guarenteed 50$ credit to the hotel"..Yeah, we finally got a room at 4:30pm. We had to fight with the hotel for 2 days to get the credit.
Our washroom was gross. It had brown stuff all over the shower wall (could scrap it off with nail). There was something rotting in the AC vent. The AC didn't work. The cleaning staff refused to clean our room until we left. There was a mirror missing, no coffee maker, headboard was broken, doors didnt lock. and NO warm water. In fact, we had NO WATER at all for 3 days. (took a video of it)

We fought with our travel agency, and they are fully refunding us from this horrible experience. We blew 4/7 days fighting with this resort to get even the slightest service.
On the upside, we complained so much, that for 3 days, we had a new 350ML bottle of rum, and a fruit platter in our room.

We were in Block 6. Room 6318. If you get caught in this room...demand a change.

The block 7,8,9 have a great pool, a hot tub that actually works, and a pool bar. Spent most of our time their. The buffet staff is amazing. The best restaurant in my opinion was a la Carte. The next best was the asian one.
My girlfriend had 60 dollars american stolen from her wallet.
Lock your stuff up in the safe..but wait! you need to pay for the lock for the safe...
Issues :::

- No running water
- Bathroom is distusting (maids refused to clean it after asking)
-They don't clean rooms until departure, but they make the bed / sweep + remove garbage.

- Our room was cancelled upon arrival
- no VIP anything
- Telephone was out for a day
- staff is rude
- had to fight with manager to get a "guarenteed" 50 dollar credit, finally got it, but can only use it on 1 restaraunt, and "BACK massage".
- no room for 4 hours upon arrival
- no staff speaks english..at a resort
- no lights on in hallways, cant see door lock.

Upon changing rooms, we had all of the stuff we were missing from the first room. The ironing board was completely rusted, to the point where stuff was falling off it.
For the money you pay, you could have better service in a travelodge (SERIOUSLY)

The beach was amazing, gorgeous sand, but not enough chairs.

Main point, don't blow your money on this resort. Waste of time and money. Thankfully, I am getting a full refund of everything.

I would like to say that this resort exceeded my expectations. I traveled form aug 21-28. I went with a group of 7 girls, we were aged 22-24. After booking this resort i began reading reviews and was frightened to go here. There are such bad reviews, keep in mind folks that those who had a poor time, are more than likely willing to rant or share their experience online.

Rooms: Block 8. Room 8310- View was a gorgeous pool.
When I first arrived to my room it was extremely clean. However our A/C was not working, toilet did not flush, fridge was leaking, door did not lock and no warm water. The room was very spacious, and the mini fridge was filled with drinks, towels were made beds were clean etc. The next morning i spoke to my representative about the problem and as soon as i got back to my room in the evening everything AND I MEAN EVERYTHING was fixed. A/C was working perfectly fine, toilet flushed, door locked, fridge was fixed, and the water stayed warm all week. I was shocked but so happy. Our room was not near the beach so we had this little train to take from the lobby which ran 24hrs. It was fun, and it was still walkable (5-10min walk to lobby).

Pool:
Our pool was the best in our section because we had a bar in it. It was never packed with annoying people and you were able to swim around. It had great music playing. The other pools were extremely packed and dirty. Our pool was very clean with a Jacuzzi that worked. Even if your not in our section, and would like a good swim go to section 8-9.

Beach:
The beach was so clean and gorgeous. There were chairs always available with a snack bar there. The fried chicken was the best!

Food:
There is always food to eat. There are 3 buffets. For the review below who could not find the buffets, there on the other ends of the resort for people who are not so close to the lobby. The buffet restaurants had an amazing variety of food, from chinese, indian, italian etc. Breakfast lunch dinner was the best, i never ate so much in toronto as i did there. The timings were usually from 8-10, 12:30-2:30, 6:30-9-10 i think. Also there is a snack bar open from 1-5 and then again from 10-2:30am. So i mean there is almost always food. There are 3 A la carte restaurants you can book. The Italian, Japanese, and Steak house. We visited two out of the three but couldn't visit the steak house, and it was the best experience ever. The food was AMAZING there as well.

Service:
Our maid was the best. She always ALWAYS gave us new towels, room was very clean. She always refilled our fridge, We got new chugs of water all the time. she mopped our floor. The front desk was very good as well. Our toilet and shower were clogged as soon as i called they sent a tech to fix the problem. The waiters LOVED us! And we loved them! Extremely friendly and gave us the best service. The bartenders were amazing. I LOVED the service. i Think there service was the best. Any problem we had it was fixed. They were so friendly and nice. I even got sick and they hostess even remembered me and asked about me the next day if i was okay. Also i had NOTHING stolen from my room. I had secured my things out of fear but on the last day i left my iphone out and it was still there. I do recommend to invest in a safe however. Better to be safe than sorry. Our Maid was so friendly i loved her! She was so sweet she would always great us and smile and she was just so cute!.

Shops
WARNING the local shop inside the resort is overpriced. VISIT the plaza just outside the resort it is safe. It is RIGHT beside the resort you just need to step out of the gate. You may feel harassed but they just desperately want you in their stores, just be friendly and kind to them they are nice as well. You can bargain with them. Make sure you do. We made a mistake shopping from inside the resort because outside was amazing. And your still in safe hands as it is on the property just not in the gates.

Things to do:
We did many things such as dune buggy excursion, spa massages, visit other resorts etc. Make the most of it. The spa was amazing. The full body massage helped my sore body from all the traveling. The clubs were amazing. They played a lot of the music i here in toronto. I saw Akon at a club too!. We went to Oro (@ hardrock Resort ), Imagine (In a cave) and the local club at the resort.

This was my first time to Punta Cana and i would def. go back here. I was so happy with the way my trip went. All of us had an amazing time. Hotel service can make or ruin your trip and this hotel defiantly made my trip extra better.

We just came back from the Dominican Republic. We stayed at the Grand Paradise Bavaro.
Big mistake. I had read all the bad reviews but gave it a chance anyway thinking some people just blow things out of proportion.
We went for nine long days. First of all this place is far from being a three or four star resort. I will give it a two star and that is being generous.
I am going to mention the good first. People, employes are very friendly and willing to help you all the time. The entertainment team is excellent. Those kids work extremely hard to compensate for everything else the resort does not have.

Now reality restaurants- it is not true that they have five restaurants or seven like they advertised. They have two buffet restaurants with NO AIRCONDITION only a few fans. They divide the one buffet in half at night and turn that into the "sea food restaurant"
The snack bar on the beach is turned into the "steak restaurant" after five at in the afternoon again no AC.
The Italian restaurant is the only restaurant with AC. The food is average nothing extraordinary.
The Asian Restaurant you have to pay a fee of ten dollars per person ( not included)
we did not go because we figured the food was not worth it.
They have another restaurant on the beach very small called Taino Dominian food. We did not even bother with that one either. After the second day we all got sick until we came back. Everybody we spoke with felt the same way. They only give you three reservations which you have to make every morning before 10 if you want to find openings. To tell you the truth it is not worth it. We ended up giving the reservations away.
You find a little better food at the buffet but again nothing extraordinary. On the weekends since it gets filled with locals the food is mostly rice and beans.
It it supposed to be all inclusive but you have to keep checking the time because they close the restaurants and there re long periods of time were you find no food.
The worst - no room service at all. My son got sick and I had to go to the buffet and ask permission to bring some soup to the room. What a nightmare.

The liquor is all cheap quality. My husband only had straight rum because everything else would make him sick. My daughter and I had tonic water the whole time since they do not have seltzer water.

Higiene is extremely poor in the main pool. There is another pool in the new section which is nice and clean but the entertainment group does not do any activities there.

Our room was not too bad but we were told by some people horror stories so we figured we would be better off in the room we got.

If you try to make a phone call they charge you two dollars per phone call even if you do not connect. I ended up paying 12 dollars when I tried changing my flight because I was desperate to come home.

This is my second visit to the Dominican republic and my first experience was extraordinary. We stayed at the Bahia principe excellent resort for the same money.

In Mexico we've stayed at iberostar great resort also. Never ever I complain about anything but this time I actually took the time to write this review because I hope this helps review is helpful to people before they book their vacation. For the most part most people work hard to go away every year and we all look forward to those days were we can enjoy and relax. This will not happen if you go to this place.

And to close we booked with vacation express. Horrible there was a rude representative called Leo he was disrespectfully and had the odasity to tell that i could expect much for a thousand dollars per person. He also said that this resort is the cheapest of all the resorts they have. After I expressed my concerns he closed by telling me "well don't come back"
That is exactly what I am going to do. Never will use vacation express to book my vacation or go back to that place.