This was my daughters graduation present from University, granted it was booked at the last minute so we took what we could get within our budget.

We landed in Punta Cana and it was a 1 1/2 hr bus trip from the airport to the hotel. We stopped about 1/2 to the hotel at a little market - gave us all a chance to stretch our legs and grab something to drink. When we arrived at the hotel our rooms weren't ready, but we were prepared with our bathing suits in our carry on so it didn't matter. The hotel gave us our towel chits and told us to come back to the front desk around 3. Went to get towels and there were none left - told us to come back tomorrow morning at 8:30 - kind of strange for a hotel this size to run out of towels but we thought OK.

I had emailed the manager two weeks before our arrival explaining that I needed ground floor due to a knee injury - and if possible would prefer something closer towards the beach as that's where I spend the majority of my day. Received a prompt email back stating that it would not be a problem and would be noted in their computer. When we were given our room keys we were told it was on the second floor. After some discussion they gave us another room - ground floor - but the furthest building from the beach! It was extremely frustrating trying to have any sort of conversation as the majority of the staff spoke only Spanish or Italian. When I told them that wasn't acceptable I was told by the only English speaking front desk staff that "people from Italy have asked for the rooms closer to the beach", and that they "overbooked" so there wasn't any choice. After asking to speak to the Manager there suddenly appeared a bungalow close to the beach. The bungalow was fine - clean, didn't smell well stocked with water and towels - no complaints at all - in fact I'd recommend them as it's like having your own vacation home - no noise etc.

Beach towels the next morning were gone by 8:30 (apparently they open at 8am) but a quick trip back to the front desk and a discussion with the Manager resulted in beach towels being delivered to our hut before 9:30.

Reservations for al a carte restaurants were only taken between 8 and 10am - but you'd better be in line by at least 7:30 because by 8:10 everything is booked. We ate at the Mexican restaurant - food was OK - but we stuck with the buffets for the remainder of the week. Food was OK - not great by any means - but you always found something to eat - lukewarm at best.

Stuck to the far end away from the Palace and beach chairs were aplenty - same with palapas - pool was almost always empty. We tended to eat lunch at the La Rocca - hotter food not as crowded.

Did one day trip the snorkel trip - the staff were great considering we were the only two english speaking people on the whole boat - they at least attempted to speak english - more than I can say for just about any other hotel staff member we encountered.

The beach is fantastic - sand is soft - clean, water is crystal clear and you can go out quite far before it becomes deep.

My daughter commented that she felt like she was in Italy as we were totally surrounded by Italians, and the food was mainly fish and pasta in the buffets.

Would I go back......no because the staff were exceptionally rude and that's a major part of your vacation. The resort itself is beautiful and always clean, the beach is fantastic but they need to work on customer service........alot.

My bf and I (23 y/o) stayed from Feb 10-17th 2008.

Here are my reviews on some specific things on the hotel:

Food: breakfast was the same everyday, so it got boring after awhile. I liked eating at La roca grill for lunch, bcs of the freshly grilled steak and pasta. I wasnt a fan of La terraza at dinner time, because it was always very busy and really dirty. I tried Bambu ($10 extra charge for a la carte)and the food was terrible, definately not worth the extra charge. The Roca grill a la carte was good.
Overall, there was a lot of variety and I never went hungry. BUT my major annoyance was that the food was always lukewarm.

Rooms: we first got put into the standard rooms(1000-2000 series) They are the little grass huts and look cute from the outside. HOWEVER, inside was really small, and had a musty smell allll the time. It was gross, sometimes it would smell like urine. Later we got upgraded to the (3000 level) rooms and those were ALOT nicer.

Staff: were very friendly to me and my bf. Even though they spoke little english I could tell they tried to help us out as much as they could and i appreciated that.

Beach: soo beautiful. The only reasn why I would go back. sometimes it was hard to find a lounger.

grounds: got progressively nicer towards the Viva Wyndham Palace area. my bf and I joked that we were in the slums (1000 level rooms)

pools: were nothing special. we didnt even go in them once.

We went on one paid excursion, Catalina Island and Saona island ($89 us). the snorkelling was OK, the current is very strong. The tour guides were great and friendly.
During our stay the hotel got overbooked and we were given a chance to go to an overnight excursion to Santo Dominigo for free!
the hotel wasnt 5 stars as they claimed though. and we went without food for at least 6-7 hours because of the tour and travel time back to the hotel.

crowd: this hotel definately caters toward the italian and french crowd. my bf and i are english speaking so we felt isolated at times.

We spent a nice week at this resort, the room was clean and well equpped. The beach area can be loud from the crowd in the daytime and people trying to find their way back from the disco at night. Our window faced the archery court, a tennis court and an outside shopping street but it was quiet at night. The weather was cloudy so we didn't get any serious sunburn, seen rain too a few times. Based on warnings and recommendations (and common sense) made in reviews on tripadvisor.com and other tourism websites, we always locked everything valuable in the safe so didn't have any problems. Reading the warnings about stolen and later invoiced hotel beachtowels (10 dollars each) we planed to take them only for the time we use them and give them back when we get off of it, but once you have taken a towel they only take it back after 3pm, so it's a good idea to pack your own. Internet costs 3 dollars per 15 min or 5 dollars per 30 min at public PCs. There are no unprotected routers but if you need constant Internet access, you can subscribe to a wifi service in a booth in the shopping street in front of the hotel though it's not cheap and the signal is weak. If you plan to take your laptop anyway, the plug is the USA type and don't forget the Kensington lock.
We mostly used the main buffet style restaurant, nicknamed it the "mess tent", but unlike in the one of M*A*S*H the food was plenty, edible and came in a wide range of choice (except in sauces, it was especially hard to find mustard). We always found something we liked despite that the food was prepared to meet reather speed than quality expectations. It was a little annoying that always when we stood up to get a second course the table was remade and someone else was sitting at it by the time we got back, should have left something there we don't mind getting stolen. Something very positive, they never spared the syrup from softdrinks. 30 kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails was served at the bar, a good opportunity to taste something you never drank before though they served them in plastic cups and poured out of labelless bottles, a gourmand sure wouldn't be pleased but at least you don't have to worry about stepping into broken glass and they ware all free of charge. The small kitchen by the pool served hamburger and hot dog with real meat, unlike most well known fastfood restaurants. There was also a pizzeria but it couldn't keep up with the big demand so people waited in lines for their pizza which lacked in topping and there wasn't anything else to eat either so we ended up having seconds in the "mess tent". The grill terrace had the same issue, we never found out what you can eat there because people eate up everything. The Mexican restaurant was excellent though you have to stand in line at the guest service at 8am to get a reservation for the next evening but the food and the service was first class. The Spanish and Asian restaurants charged 10 dollars per person for a reservation, we passed on those.
Staff members ware always polite and professional except in the shops (with surprisingly reasonable prices), they didn't seem to be too motivated to make a sale, appeared to be bored waiting for closing time. Very few local people spoke English, but almost everyone spoke French and Italian besides their native Spanish.
The Crazy Wheels excursion was great, it's a part buggy, part quad half-day tour of the area with a stop to chew on some sugarcane. The scenery is nothing special except when you drive through a village trying not to hit a chicken, dog, kid, whatnot. The experience of driving those machines on the other hand is thrilling and some parts of the terrain are even challanging for a beginner but it's safe as long as you follow the guide's insturctions and use common sense. Better have your tetanus shots because if you get too excited you'll have a lot of mud splashing in your face. The hotel offers three snorkling excursions, two half-day and a three hour one. If you did snorkling at Phuket it's nothing special, if it's your first time than the three hour trip is for you because you actually get more time in the water and spend less time bouncing in a speedboat not to mention that it is far more better value for your money. Wrap your camera into something waterproof when getting in and out of the boat and shockproof for when the ride gets bumpy. They also offer internationally certified scubadiving courses and there is a diving trip going inside an empty sunken ship. We skipped that for budget reasons but got a free dive in the pool with airtank. You can take out a kayak or a sailboat for free and there is a climbingwall and a fully equipped gym too that is included.
There are people in the resort hunting for guests to go on a one hour presentation about a vacation club membership, we accepted because we had nothing else to do at the time. They didn't make any new clients with us but got a giftpack that included most of the souvenirs one should take home from the Dominican Republic: rum, mamajuana (not a drug, tree bark and herbs to mix with rum and red wine), rum, coffee and brown sugar. If you want to buy cigars, either buy a well known brand at a reputable place or buy one and get a case after you smoked it. Make sure they are not soft if you squeeze them. Oh yes, and bargain, bargain, bargain!

We just returned from viva wyndham Dominicus Beach travelled there from Jan. 6th to Jan. 13th. Unless your Itialian or French don't go. The first room the gave us was on the ground floor walked in then walked right back out because of the mold smell, went to reception complained about it, lucky there was another room on the top floor they moved us to. That room was better #3246, except the curtain fell of the wall when we tried to open it, took them 2 days to fix it , after that the head board for the bed fell off the wall. When you take a shower the water changes fome boiling hot to freezing cold every 30 seconds so you have to keep playing with the tap kind of annoying. The Beach is amazing soft white sand calm water that you can snorkel right there but you have to bring your own. The food is always the same chicken and fish almost every night, and luke warm. If you go shopping stay away from the shops on the beach if you do go to these make sure to cut the price they give you in half and don't budge from there, across the street there is a market store that has the prices on everything in pesos but that will give you a price for the ones on the beach. Would go back but to a different resort.