Okay so my sister already posted her review a couple of posts before me so you can check hers out for a detailed review of her experience. I would like to start out by saying that my husband and I visited this resort in 2019, prior to Covid. During that stay we didn't ever want to leave! The resort was great. Unfortunately, things have obviously declined in the last 4 years. I also would like to say that I almost always post a review for where we stay, whether it is good or bad so you can count on my review to be honest and thorough, and not a review that I only took the time to write because I was mad. I will start with the good things: The buffet food for all three meals was good. Breakfast and dinner were my favorites. The oriental night was awesome and the sushi was so good! I loved how there was always something new to try. The drinks were fine. They were strong if you asked them to be, but still good even if you didn't. The staff in the restaurants as well as the entertainment staff were awesome. The waiters/waitresses would remember us and "claim" us when they would see us walk through the door. The entertainment staff made us feel like small-time celebrities and we enjoyed the daily games and interactions with them. The bar tender/waitress at the pool bar was so kind and always remembered that our parents did not drink alcohol and helped us choose yummy drinks for them. Overall, this resort has really wonderful people employed there. The grounds are still gorgeous. Some of the nicest I've ever seen. The variety of shops is nice and gave us something to do in our spare time. The trollies are dependable and make getting to the beach a lot quicker than walking. The pool was always clean and looked so nice in the early morning when the water was still and the sun was coming up. There were plenty of chairs that were in good condition and plenty of umbrellas and palapas. The pool does get pretty busy in the late afternoon though, so get to the pool before then if you need multiple chairs next to each other for your group of people. There were always plenty of soft pool towels. The kids enjoyed the water park. The water was pretty warm which kind of made it a miserable time for the parents because there really wasn't any shade so you were just hot the whole time you were there. But again, the kids enjoyed it so it was still okay. Now for the not so great: The previous reviews are correct in saying that this resort needs a lot of updates. Outlets are busted out randomly throughout the resort, and there aren't very many in the rooms. Our original room had a busted door frame which prevented the door from locking securely. We brought this to the front desk's attention and they moved us. This was fine, however the room we went to only had the king bed so we needed an additional bed for our second child. It took multiple calls to concierge (most of them unanswered) and my husband going to the front desk multiple times before a bed was ever brought to us. The bed didn't come until 10pm which is pretty late for our young kiddos, especially after traveling all day. The new room didn't have a working mini-fridge so they needed to swap that out as well. Any type of maintenance needed to the room or other requests took multiple reminders to the front desk to get anything remedied. I know a lot of resorts typically have a master book in the room that gives you all the information you need to know about meal times, a la cartes, the tv guide, wifi password, etc. There was no such book for our room. Now, two days into our stay I realized there was an app for my phone that had this info, but it would have been nice to have been told about it at check in. Instead they tried just telling us the wifi password, meal times, all the info at once as if we are going to remember it all. So if you do choose this resort, definitely download the app! You can make room requests and book your a la carte's through it as well. Although the a la carte food was amazing, all three were in buildings that either the air conditioning was not working, or barely working. It is very difficult to enjoy a meal when you are sweating profusely and have mosquitos swarming your ankles. The buffets were air conditioned and mosquitos were not a problem there. We ate at the steakhouse, the maiko japanese, and the italian for anyone wanting to know. Again, food was great, but it was too hot and the mosquitos were too much. The "snack bar" was a complete joke. As a mother of two young kids who eat smaller meals more frequently through the day, this made it difficult to keep them happy. The snack bar only consisted of bread, fruit, salad, and desserts, all of which were left uncovered for bugs to get into. Most resorts I've been to had warm things like french fries and nachos and hot dogs, etc. They did have a pool bar open for extended hours but you will wait for a very long time to receive your food. Most of the time if someone just wants a quick snack I don't think they want to have to order off a menu and wait. My suggestion would be to dedicate the staff you have working the pool restaurant to keeping a well stocked snack buffet instead. Or extend the buffet hours for those who wake later or get a little hungry in the afternoon. If you do want something like nachos then you can walk all the way over to the water park. But the cheese is gelatinous and not very good. Their only other option is hot dogs and donuts. Overall, it didn't really feel like you had 24/7 access to food and we bought quite a bit of snacks at one of the shops which got to be pretty pricey. The beach is gorgeous, but not very peaceful right now as the they have ongoing maintenance at the beach pool. Which is fine, but just something to consider when booking. Overall, I would say that it is still safe to book one of the sister resorts such as aquamarine, bavaro, etc. Bahia Principe has a pretty good reputation overall. Unfortunately Turquesa just fell short for us this time. It did appear as though some of the buildings in Turquesa were being remodeled at the time so maybe in a few years this resort would be worth another try. And perhaps a lot of these issues can be explained by a shortage in labor as many countries seem to be experiencing that right now. Overall, we still had a good time because we always make the best of any situation. …
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.