We just came back from the Majestic colonial and overall had a great time. The public areas and the grounds in general are all
top notch and very clean. The beach was gorgeous, unfortunately
we had a wind storm that closed the beach down for two days.
This made pool space hard to find, but we managed. We were
travelling with a three year old and an eight month old and found
the staff to be helpfull in accommidating us with special requests.
We had the basic standard suite, which although nice came with
an odd layout. The shower and toilet were in the same room. It was big, but you had to be carefull when showering not to get the
toilet all wet...strange design.
I know the food had been an issue for many lately. I found that
there was alot of variety at the main buffet. After the first two days
we were able to figure out what best suited our tastes and we enjoyed it, especially the sweet table. Because of our small children we did not go to the french nor the japanese restos, but we did go to the steak, seafood and tainos. We liked them all and would say the tainos was our favorite. After all would you go to Tokyo to eat caribbean food. This being the D.R. the food there was the most authentic and tasty if not a little on the basic side. The other issue some were having ,was with a language barrier I found that if you have a basic knowledge of Spanish and a willingness to try you will not have any problems with service. We saw first hand many of our fellow North Americans behave rudely and demeaningly to staff for not understanding their English. A little effort and some humility can go a long way.
We had one of those rooms that backed on to the construction. It was not a problem for us. Our kids have us up alot earlier than the construction workers, plus there is a felt dust fence around the
perimeter that kept our area clean.
Overall we had a wonderfull time and would go back to the majestic colonial.

Just got home yesterday (sun 23rd) . After cancelling my prior reservations at Colony Bay we choose Majestic. Arrival was without incident at 11:00 but rooms not available until 3:00 p.m. Finally checked into room 3247, It is in a wonderful location with pool and ocean views though you have a very long walk to the lobby and most restaurants which is where everything mostly is.

The beach and water are beautiful with many huts but most people still reserve. It really [-] me off when people reserve a hut with towels and books and don't show up until 2-3 pm "ignorant" you know who you are. The pool was fantastic but chilly.

There was a tropical storm in the ocean ONLY the weather remained perfect (very strange)This started on Wed and didn't let up until Fri. They had to close the beach completely on Thurs. Caution tape was tied from tree to tree not allowing any access. Unfortunately, this storm wiped out much of the beach closest to the water and many huts leaving about a 10'drop. The upper part is still fine but now a little busier. The U.S. coast guard helicopter came by Sun morning. If you have been to the D.R. before you know about that big barge that sits on a sand bar well you could not see it from the massive waves pounding it. I thought for sure it was going to become lose and smash into shore.

Now the food issues, horrendous my daughter (13) is still in bed sick and it's Monday morning with massive cramping and constantly on the toliet. This started about Wed. and continued off and on the rest of the week sometimes feeling ok other times running for the T she was never right the remainder of our holiday.She is not a huge eater but loves her breakfasts and stuck to waffle's/french toast mostly but this didn't help. If she ate everything under the sun then ok this might happen. My husband 6'2" 235 lbs also got sick about Wed. even though he is a big guy he sticks to the basics and doesn't try what we don't recognize. I cannot pinpoint exactly what it was but I will tell you that every single meal we had was freezing cold from the buffets to ala'cartes. The best meal was Japanese (make your res. as soon as you arrive or you wont get in they have 3 seatings.The Gourmet don't waste your time "Heart of Tenderloin" (filet mignon) is un edible, that could have been the culprit. I hope WHEN she wakes up she will be better. They have been living on melba toast. I on the otherhand am ok but I also have a stomach of steel. I know from experience that these things can happen with all the drinking, eating and the sun, but almost every review mentions the food issues. Take a box of melba toast with you. This was our medicine.
We are well travelled and have never had worse food. This was our 5th. visit to D.R. maybe our last.

Our family (my wife and I and our two teenage boys) just returned from a terrific week at the Majestic. We really had a wonderful, relaxing holiday together. We've had previous AI experiences in Mexico (Mayan Riviera) and in Cuba and our time at the Majestic was much, much better than Cuba and at least as good if not better in some ways than in Mexico.

The Majestic is a lovely resort with a nice park-like feel. It's well-treed, beautifully-landscaped with an enormous pool that runs nearly the entire length of the resort. We marveled at the beauty of the place.

I'll run through some of the pros and the cons of the Majestic from our perspective.

First the positives. The staff are great. Almost without exception, we found the people working at the Majestic to be warm, friendly and welcoming. The attitude of the bellman who brought our bags to the room was typical. When I went to help him bring in the suitcases, he said, "Let me do the work for you...you're on your vacation!"

As noted, the physical property is lovely. The pool was great--cool enough to be refreshing but not so cold that you didn't want to spend time in it. Lots of shade around the pool as well. The rooms were spacious and clean. We had a great view of the pool and grounds from our third-floor balcony. I would definitely not have wanted to be in any room facing the construction--loud and ugly view. But ours was fine.

Overall, we found the food to be quite acceptable. The buffet breakfast was lovely--I had a made-to-order omelet several mornings and fresh squeezed orange juice that was out of this world. The cafe au lait was also great. An unbelievable variety of just about anything you could imagine was available for breakfast. A real highlight. We liked the fact that we could dine in a different restaurant every night--which we did, most without reservations. The first night we ate in the buffet and enjoyed it very much. The second night was Taino--the Mexican/Caribbean-themed restaurant. The third night, we tried the Chinese restaurant, the fourth we ate at Le Gourmet, the fifth at the seafood restaurant (ask for lobster tails that are not overdone!) the sixth at the steakhouse, and the seventh at the Japanese restaurant. All were really good. We had some minor intestinal issues a couple of days--but nothing too serious.

Lovely beach--lots of shade if that's what you want but lots of sunny places too. Water sports are fine--we took out a catamaran for an hour. Unfortunately, we couldn't go out very far due to the presence of the reef--but it was fun to go back and forth parallel to the shore.

There were a few negatives. Perhaps it's a North American thing, but I didn't like the toilet set-up. It's a real "water closet" with an opaque glass semi-door that provides little privacy with respect to sights, sounds or smells. The room had a few other quirks--for instance, our shower's drain was not located in the lowest part of the shower floor--and as a result, there was a perpetual pool of water on the shower floor--perhaps contributing to a bit of mustiness in the air.

I worked out at the gym the first day--while the place had great equipment, the whole exercise room had a bad smell--like sewage. I didn't want to go back. I was also disappointed that they wouldn't allow my 14 and 16-year-old boys to work out with me--despite a sign saying the age limit was 13! When I pointed that out to the attendant, he said something along the lines that those signs should come down. He seemed to be making up the rules as he went.

My son and I signed up for tennis one day--but the guy who was supposed to be manning the place where they give out balls never showed up (after telling me he would). That was a bit annoying. The court we played on was in pretty rough shape.

On days that the beach was closed, it was very difficult to get chairs by the pool. We resorted to getting up really early (6:15a.m.) and saving ourselves a good spot by the pool by putting towels out. You hate to have to do that, but if you don't, you end up with no place to sit.

There's not a lot to do around the resort. I golfed a couple of times--the tournament on Thursdays at Punta Blanca is a lot of fun as well as a much better deal than golfing there at other times. There's also a little place to go and shop. But other than that, the only other activities are of the paid variety, some of which required a substantial drive. We didn't mind that, however since we mostly enjoyed reading by the pool and walking on the beach. If you need to be active all the time, you may find the Majestic kind of boring.

Overall, I'd say the positives outweighed the negatives quite substantially. I think if you go in with a relaxed, flexible attitude, and reasonable expectations you'll have a great time.

After reading alot of bad reviews, I decided to write mine.

Stayed there 2/25/02 to 3/3/08.

Our check in was a breeze, Richard meet us upon arrival, made our reservations to the restraunants. Then took us to our rooms, we traveled with another couple, so we asked to be close together and again our wish was granted, our room # was 2218 on 2nd floor and our friends where right below us. The pool was right there, so every morning and night you got to see there beautiful pool. We had no problems with our rooms, everything worked fine and we had no bugs.

The weather was wonderful, we loved the beach, but spent most of our time at the pool, just loved it. Had to get up early to get the better chairs, but if we didn't we still managed to find some together.

The food, not one of us got sick and my husband eats almost anything right down to the goat stew. Least like the beach buffet and the Mexican all other's where fine we had more than enough selections and like I said we tried stuff we have never had some of us liked and some didn't, all people are different, if your picky might not be the place for you.

As far as comminication, we brush up on some basic spanish which helped we never had a problem, a big smile goes along way, we tipped not sure we even had too, but it help we never wait long for drinks with a few dollars out.

We didn't do any actives on the property so can't say much about that. Did see a couple of shows, not bad have seen better. Hit the casino a few nights, had some luck playing Rolette even took home some of there money, did better there than in Vegas.

The reason for the trip was to get away from a cold snowy winter in New Enland and just relax. Would we go again, yes, this was my 3rd visit to DR, 2nd in Punta Cana.