This was my first time to the Dominican Republic and I had a Wonderful experience!

first off, the dreams resort itself is very organized and clean. The beach, the lounges, pools, and restaurants are 24/7 maintained. Me and one of my friends I went with are vegetarian and the staff was very accommodating to our diet and there were more options than we had time to try during our 7 day stay.

There spa was incredibly relaxing and staff was so kind and welcoming.

There are plenty of opportunities for excursions and also beautiful pools to swim in at the resort. We spent most of our time at the resort itself where you can snorkel, kayak, as well as paddleboard, paddle boat, etc close by.

we stayed in the garden view rooms and were extremely comfortable and satisfied with everything there....though we chose to spend most of our time on the beach itself. Every day there is a woman who cuts and dispenses fresh fruit on the beach - she was incredibly kind! And of course the fruit was delicious. My favorite was the pineapple. We were there during mid december and the weather was also perfect. The water was warm during the day and slightly cooler at night. I come from Texas and I found it to be perfect beach weather - not too hot and not cold.

but what I loved most about this resort is the people (staff). The staff at dreams la Romana and Dominicans in general are some of the kindest and most genuinely helpful/friendly people you will ever meet. I've traveled to several countries and have never felt so welcomed. In particular, the staff members we interacted with daily during various resort activities were so enthusiastic and made an unsurpassed effort to make sure everyone at the resort had the best time they could. in particular:
pablo picasso, coca cola, eddie Murphy, and leiton (stage names) were members of the entertainment crew who made time to go around and become friends with everyone on the beach and make sure everyone has a smile on their face. THey lead dance classes, aerobics classes, sporting events, and much more from morning to evening at the resort so there was always something to do if you wanted to. They also participate in performances every evening that are very fun to watch and showcase traditional dancing amongst other themes for the guests at the resort. David makes delicious pizza by the pool, Manuel and fausto were part of entertainment too and very friendly! I mention All these details because at this resort even if you stay a short time, you feel right at home.

I would recommend it to anyone looking to escape the daily stresses of life who are looking to surround themselves by beautiful waters and positive energy.

Before I wrote this review I looked at couple earlier posts. I was surprised to see so many negative reviews of the food. Maybe it was a bad batch of food that was delivered on a particular weekend or something, but we loved the food. Further, there are warnings on all the sinks to not drink the water from the tap, which is obvious. If youre coming from a place like Chicago as we did your body is used to that tap water. If you drink the water here or in mexico or elsewhere, you WILL get sick... its common sense. They stock your room with 5 bottles of water a day and coke in a bottle. awesome, My wife and I came for our honeymoon and had an amazing time. The treatment we received at all of the restaurants was great, and if you can tolerate a couple bugs, eat at the Jungle. If you cant, eat at Bordeaux, they are both amazing.The service staff is phenomenal, they all speak multiple languages and are always smiling and looking to help. The activities are fun if you embrace them. The facilities seem to be pretty well maintained. I will say that the room isn't 5 star but is sufficient. If you are spending more than an hour in your room other than sleep then youre doing something wrong. The entertainment staff is so wonderful and the shows they put on are impressive for a resort in the Dominican.

We will be recommending this resort to others, and again.,,, don't listen to the haters who drank gallons of tap water in a foreign country and got sick.....

This was my first time staying at a DREAMS property, so I didn't know what to expect. I stayed for 6 nights.

FOOD: This was my first experience at an all-inclusive, and I was pretty impressed with the food choices. I saw some of the negative reviews and can't say I experienced any problems with getting sick during my stay, but since I visit a lot of L.American countries (and don't usually have any issues), maybe that is the reason.

World Cafe: I was really impressed with the selection here. They had something for everybody. For breakfast, they had doughnuts, eggs, bacon, a few different types of sausages, lots of fresh fruit, they would make you an omelette if you wanted, and they had cold cuts, cheese, and bread for the European travelers as well as Spanish-sytle omelettes, and to a lesser extent, Dominican food. The buffet was huge. I would circle around it once trying to decide what I wanted knowing that it would not be possible to try one of everything. Lunch is also nice here and they have the same wide variety of things to choose from. Dinner is based on a theme. Usually I went to one of the International places for dinner.

Seaside Grill: This was also a nice option where you could have lunch right by the ocean. Even though the brochure says this is for snacks, you can order a meal and besides that they have a small salad bar inside with nachos, fruit, cookies, and other items. I was pretty full after eating at the "snack" place.

El Patio: I loved this place EXCEPT for the mosquitoes. The food was good and so were the margaritas! I went here twice during my stay.

Portofino: I had the Lasagna and thought it was very good.

Himitsu: I had the Pad Thai and it was delicious!

Oceana: I did not eat there.

Bordeaux: I had the filet of boeuf and it was very good.

Jungle Restaurant/Barefoot Grill: Did not eat there.

Coco Cafe: I loved this place! I stopped in everyday. It's a Starbuck's style place with coffee and various types of beverages (mocha, cappucino, frappucino, etc.), and also plenty of pastries to choose from. The pastries are very small, so you can try several without feeling like you are stuffed.

The beach: Very nice, but smaller than I expected. It was very pretty, but not as pretty as the one in Cancun, but that is just my opinion.

The pools: Also very nice. There is a very large kids' pool.

Tours: There are a couple of very nice gentlemen who will arrange tours. Even though the hotel arranges them, they are reasonably priced. I really appreciated the help getting a Santo Domingo tour as it was the low season and there weren't many tours going to Santo Domingo on the day that I wanted to go. They do really go out of their way to try to help and get you where you want to go. I also went on a tour of La Romana.

Entertainment: I didn't participate in a lot of the activities, though I did watch Puss in Boots in English with French subtitles. If I have one regret it's that I didn't participate in many activities. If I had it to do again, I would have. I did not visit the nightclub or casino.

Rooms: I had two rooms while I was there. One was a partial ocean view and the other was a garden view.

Partial Ocean View Room: The view of the ocean was completely obstructed by a palm tree. Also, every time you would turn on the water in the sink, some bugs would fly out of the upper drain. Not all of the lights worked in the room, and the coffemaker was missing a part. There was a fake eyelash on the floor when I arrived (not mine!), and the maid must have thought it was mine because the next day she had placed it on the vanity...yuck! I ran out of washcloths one day and waited almost 2 hours for them to bring me one. I was ready to walk around and steal one from a cart...lol.

Garden View Room: This seemed like a better room, but not all of the lights worked, and there was no phone in the room. Right off the bat the toilet was clogged, and because there was no phone in the room, I had to walk to the lobby and tell them what was wrong. I waited for hours, but it was stil not fixed. I had talked to them around 2 or 3 pm and it was finally fixed around 9-10 pm. I guess there was a miscommunication.

Fitness Center: Kind of small and not open very late. I went once, but there was someone in there making a bunch of noise trying to draw attention to himself so I did not go back after that.

Property: Overall the property is very nice. Besides the things that I have already mentioned, they have a gift shop, ATM, flamingoes, and spa. I did visit the spa once while I was there to have my hair braided. Everyone there was nice. The gift shop was hit or miss as sometimes they were nice and other times it seems that they did not really want to deal with you.

Vendors: What can be a little annoying if you are not used to this, is a couple nights a week they have vendors onsite. This can be a plus for people looking to buy souvenirs, but they are a little agressive and I found myself going out of my way and walking a longer distance to avoid them. I know it is probably great for the locals, but if you really aren't interested in buying anything it can be annoying. Also, sometimes outside of World Cafe in the morning there will be people trying to get you to sign up for a breakfast where you will get some "regalos" and have to listen to a sales pitch from someone from the hotel chain. I was not sure why this gentleman was handing me coupons for the spa and other things, but then afterwards I got the sales pitch. I was really not interested and I'm not sure how long I was held prisoner there listening but eventually I found I had to be a litte rude and tell him I had to leave. Apparently they work on a cuota and have to sign so many people up to get paid. I saw him later on and he was laying this guilt trip on me for not having signed up but while he was holding me prisoner talking he could have approached some other people.

Noise levels: I guess where I was wasn't too bad. I could hear carts being pushed around, but that was about it.

A note for females traveling solo: I found in a couple of instances some of the male employees are overly flirtatious. This is most likely just a part of the culture, but it was a little annoying. I think this is probably because I was there by myself. I would say that 99% of the time people are just being friendly, but a couple of the employees were a bit overbearing. There was one who had talked to me several times and whenever he saw me would just call out my name, so I had to go out of my way to avoid him. I'm a very friendly person and I don't mind talking to anyone, but I think sometimes that gets misinterpreted. Also, since I speak Spanish, it is more likely that I will have more conversation partners. Some people just ask things like if you like baseball, and where are you from, and how do you like the D.R., but then when it starts getting to things like are you married and do you have a boyfriend, well then you know it's time to end that conversation.

Anyway, overall, I would say that I enjoyed my vacation, I learned a lot about the D.R., I got to use my Spanish (which is getting rusty up here in Maine), I enjoyed my tours very much and also the food choices and friendilness of most of the people I met. Overall, it was nice getaway from work and insight into a different culture.

Would I go back again? Maybe. I really liked the Dreams concept and now that I have had a taste of all-inclusive I don't think I would want to go back to paying for food and drinks, but I would most likely go to one of the other Dreams resorts next time just to get a different experience.

Stayed at the hotel as it was locate near the cave diving area and there was a cave diving shop at the hotel-GRIGRI DIVERS. this was from 15 December to 22 December 2012.
After reading some of the reviews on line we were prepared for problems at the hotel. I am happy to say we did not experience any problems exept to 2 minor ones in our room which were fixed quickly. Upon arriving our safe would not work and after a couple days our air conditioner stopped working. within in 5 minutes of calling in both problems were fixed. there can be breakdowns as to me as long as there is a fast repair and response.

We were very quickly through the airport and on a van to the hotel. We had booked with AIR CANADA VACATIONS and the service at the airport was great. Within 40 minutes we were at the hotel and checking in. Our rooms were ready and were taken to our room with the porter pointing out the meal locations and time.

Rooms were cleaned every day and reservations were not required for the specailty restaurants which left flexability in our planning.

Plenty of chairs at the pool and beach throughout the day.

We were as noted above for Cave Diving. The dive shop on site was very helpful. We did one day of ocean diving including a night dive. the reefs we went to had a large amount of life on the reef during the day and night. One of the better reefs I have seen in many years.

Meals were great in the specialty restaurants with great service. the buffet is a buffet and catters to a large number of guests who are mostly European.
I did experience a bit of an upset stomach the second last day but this could be just the change in diet. I was with two other cave divers and they did not experience any problems nor did I hear of anyone with problems at the hotel.

Overall a good experience considering where you are in the world. If there was one complaint it would be that the cleaners would yell at each other in the hallway while cleaning.