We stayed at the resort over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a belated Honeymoon for my husband & I. I had done my research and 5star reviews can have their drawbacks. The bar was set pretty high and unfortanetly it was not met.
We stayed on the LaPerla Side with the Royal Service.
It is definitely not inviting when you turn off the main hwy, this was to be expected, however, I didn't expect to have to look at the apartments surrounding the resort.
Upon arrival to the resort, it seemed to be some sort of confusion when the driver gave our name, but after a few mins we were set to go. We were dropped off at the LaPerla, we were eventually greeted w/warm towels and our luggage was immediatly taken away. We gave our name and after a few mins she realized we were with the Royal Service, so our luggage had to be retrieved and we had to sit & wait to be taken to the Royal Service entrance. Finally our butler Tomas arrived. I didn't get the "whisked away" feeling, it seemed like we were taken down the service corridor.
When were arrived at the RS Entrance we were checked in, everything went very smoothly (Eric? I forgot his name, sorry). We were told our room was not ready, since it was not yet 3pm, however we could use a room upstairs to change, although we didn't have our luggage. Not sure why our room wasn't ready since it was empty on the RS side. So we went to lunch and then came back to lobby. We went to Palapala, which was good, we were tired and just wanted to get to our room.
We had a swim up room. The swim up rooms on the RS side are not the same as the other swim up rooms, the "built in bed" is not on the RS side, bummer. My husband liked being able to go in for a swim whenever he wanted, I was indifferent. There was a Pool bed, chairs and jacuzzi on the patio. Note that you need to fill the water all the way to the top, otherwise the water will shoot out everywhere.
The room was amazing, spacious and comfy. The downside was that we were next to the exit, so we heard people coming and going. And we hardly ever had hot water.
We were so tired after dinner...Mole good food from what we remembered., that we went to bed at 8:30. We missed the Michael Jackson show. We were awaked @ 9:30 by the RS staff, they had a honeymoon for us and wanted to give us turndown service, I had to repeat myself a couple of times that we were sleeping. We were awaken @ 12:30am by the loud bass coming from a reserved party @ the outdoor bar. WOW, it must have been very loud, I can only imagine how it kept all the kids on the other side up.
Day 2, hopefully it gets better!
We spent most of the day by the beach & pool, Tomas found us there and I expressed wanting a Thanksgiving dinner, so he made reservations for us @ the Grill. He didn't seem to concerned about our disappointing 1st night sleep. I made a couple of trips back to the room and always made sure the tag was not on the door. Upon returning from a wonderful day pool & beach side, we found our room not serviced. The (2) shower heads are deceiving, there is only hot water out of one and it only lasts long enough for one shower. On our way to dinner we stopped at the RS desk to let them know about our room, the notes in the computer said we had a tag on our door the entire day, not the case.
Dinner was disappointing, I do not understand why we needed to upsold on wine, steaks & lobsters! Thanksgiving dinner was quite boring. When we got back to our room it was serviced, however there were no bath towel. RS had brought our Honeymoon champagne & strawberries and placed rose petals on the bed & bath, nice touch. However someone had left our patio door open and we were on the 1st floor. Tomas had expressed how cautious they were about security. Nothing was taken, but it ruined the evening for us.
We spent our days by the beach or pool and had amazing lunch served to us, from the Market/Grill the Chicken Caesar burritos are amazing. Javier on the beach was wonderful! As were Melquiades, Walder, & Emanuel by the Pool! Thank you!
The Beach is deceiving, while you do not see the rocks, they are there. And there are rafts if you need them at the RS pool. It would have been nice to know where we could rent the jet ski's and get the snorkel & kayaks. I understand we were on the RS side by we should have been showed all of that.
We ate at the buffet everyday for breakfast, service was a little slow, but it was always so busy and it could have had a more variety of foods, change it up a little more, daily. We had Sushi on night and my husband said it was the best Sushi he ever had and he's a sushi snob. I was impressed that I didn't break my rolls, usually the fall apart when I attempt to eat them with chopsticks. The best dinner, overal was @ Passions, it was shame we had to pay more $$ for the best food & service. I apologize, but I can't remember our server's name, we were there the Saturday after Thanksgiving our reservations were around 6. He was great, my husband said he should be in sales! I feel terrible that I can't remember his name, taller, bigger built, UGH! The Martini's there were fabulous, my husband had never had one!
We were leaving on Sunday and that was our butler's day off, so you would have thought he would come say goodbye, however he didn't, he did not even stock our fridge. We had no coffee, no diet coke, & no snacks.
I have stayed at the Secrets Capri previously and chose LaPerla RS over Maroma. Next time we will definitely try Maroma. The only + thing about having the Royal Service was the beach & pool service & seating. There was a very large group when we were there and they took over the LaPerla side. To spend more $$ to get 5star service & food is crazy. We made our honeymoon the best that it could be. It's unfortunate the the Royal Service did not live up to the 5stars that I had read. I will say that the other RS Butlers I spoke with on many other occasions we were very helpful, Oma, Omar, Luisa, & Eva, thank you!

Food-Okay
Royal Service-worth getting for the beach & pool service, not the butler service
Rooms-comfy

My husband and I went to the Paradisus La Perla Hotel to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and emailed Mariangelo Coppola Stheplen and explained this. When I arrived I also told reservation and the woman that made our arrangements for dinner. I was very disapointed not one person went out of there way and did anything special for us. Not even a happy anniversary. (On our 20th anniversary we went to the Excellence Hotel in Punta Cana and they put us at a very romatic table with rose peddles and champagne. ) I would never complain to tripadvisor other than my last day I was sitting with a young couple at the pool and they were celebrating their 10th anniversary. The hotel upgraded them to a one bedroom room. After reaching out through email I think they let the ball drop by not acknowledging our special event.

Our trip was mostly good except that someone stole a silver necklace and a shirt from my luggage while it was in our room. The room was locked so I think it must have been a staff member. When I reported the theft, they had me speak with a security staff member who didn't speak English very well. I thought he told me to meet him in the room at 3pm. I waited for maybe 30 minutes and decided this was a terrible waste of my time. They then sent two security staff members who wanted to look through all my luggage to see if I had "misplaced" my necklace. I don't know why, but I agreed. They didn't find it and I had wasted even more time and had to watch people go through my things. There was no apology for the theft or our wasted time. I understand that maybe they don't want to admit that their staff might be stealing from guests but they could have told us that they were sorry that we were inconvenienced or that we had had problems. That is not admitting fault but would have been more polite. It left me feeling even more angry than before.

Except for this unfortunate event, we enjoyed the stay. The food was top notch. I loved the mexican place the best and my wife liked the latin food even more. The restaurant staff were so attentive and the bartenders were fantastic--especially the guy at the pool bar. The atmosphere is cool and modern. They might consider using less fragrance in the lobby. It smelled too strongly. Other than that it was fine.

So, I guess if you are lucky enough to not have things stolen, you'll have a great time. If management finds the thief and fires them and if they learn to be a bit nicer to guests who report problems it will be an even better place.

I had the opportunity to spend a week at La Perla with my wife, and I'm glad to say it was an amazing experience. We had a great time, service was excellent and we enjoyed the variety of restaurants, amenities, and shows. The hotel staff was really helpful and kind, particularly Marcelino from The Market restaurant, and the whole staff from the Sunset Bar.
We'll definitely recommend this hotel to our friends and family!