My family and I stayed at the Melia Caribe beach resort - “The Level” from March 16-23rd 2023. This overlapped a few days of our Canadian “march break” or “spring break” days, which was noticeable in how busy the resort was from Thursday-Sunday vs Monday – Thursday of our rough 8 day stay. I will go into detail below, and break things down from our perspective, but if you want a quick review and move on to the next review, the resort was great. I would give it a solid 4 out of 5. The resort was clean, staff was friendly, food was good, the beach was good, and we all had a great time, would recommend to families to consider for their next stay. Check-In We arrived later in the evening, approx. 8:00 PM. The drive is about 20 mins from the airport. We were booked under the “Level” which is Melia’s “upgrade” to your typical resort experience. You can read all about it on their website. It provided us with a separate check-in area, where we and another family were greeted promptly and in a friendly way by their staff. Juan Goncalves was our check-in host, and he was great, answered all our questions and provided us all with drinks and food or coffee while we waited. Yes it took a bit of time, probably 20-25 mins in total. That’s expected and pretty typical of most of the resorts we stayed at. Then part of the level experience is a golf cart shuttle to your room. Special shout out to Juan he was fantastic, bubbly, comical and friendly. Room So, here I will talk about the room, and also the buildings and which ones I would avoid for personal reasons. The room was on the third floor, was clean, and very large. The Level rooms are the ones with the large King bed, and jacuzzi tub overlooking the bedroom. His and hers sinks, plus another washroom shower area with another sink. There’s a kitchenette which I am not sure who would need that as it comes with a stove, full fridge etc, my guess is for longer stays and those with special dietary needs could use this to cook their own food, or that they may rent these out to locals on their down seasons and provide a full kitchen. There’s a dining area and a living room area. Two TV’s. Two A/C units and a nice large balcony with 4 chairs and a table. We had two children with us, 16 and 12 years old, and the staff moved the tables around and provided a comfortable thick mattress single bed or cot, and the couch is a large roughly queen-sized pull-out. The fridge was stalked with 4 beers, 8 water bottles, 6 coke, 2 club soda, chocolate milk and orange juice ever day. You also were topped off with plantain chips, M&M’s, Oreo’s, soda crackers, coffee and tea. Now – our room location, however, was not the best. As it was in building 46. Building 46, 47 and guessing 41 are not in the best locations if you’d like quiet after Midnight. Every night, there’s a DJ and Dance party at the main lobby theatre area. This does not shut down until 12:30-12:45 AM, and it’s loud. Wall penetrating Bass loud on any front-facing rooms towards this area. Now I love to party still, and I don’t mind loud music, but personally, for me the resort should shut this down at midnight. They eventually move the music into the Casino at 12:45 and they should consider doing this earlier. We did find a bit of a workaround for us but keeping the A/C units running full blast, which created some white noise and helped a bit. So if you’re a couple with no kids planning on staying up until 1:00 – 2:00 AM, this won’t be a problem, however with kids and having to get up to get a beach chair at 6:00 AM, ever day, this might be an issue. Avoid these buildings if that’s the case. Please see the pics of the maps to see what I mean. Resort The resort is beautiful, one of the nicest kept grounds I have seen in a while. Staff are constantly grooming the palms and grass, bushes, trees etc. You can tell it’s a mature resort. A lot of water features and ponds with turtles and fish, and birds. Yes the peacocks are around usually in the morning and evening. Approx 10 or more. The lobby is lovely and laid out well. It is a big resort and somewhat spread out. The walk is not as bad as most say on the reviews. We were in room 46 the furthest away from the beach and it took under 10 mins to walk there. Plenty of shuttles and trains going around, the occasional pick up on an empty golf cart by the friendly “circle” staff. But it is large and wide and is combined with the Melia Paradisus next door and the Adults only Melis on the other side. There are benefits to staying close to the beach and benefits to being closer to the main lobby. The main lobby has the majority of restaurants and bars at night and hosts the main buffet, plus a theatre Casino and DJ nightlife. Being closer to the beach puts you closer during the day to the main pool and obviously the beach. There is a breakfast buffet at the beach in building 13 Tartufo, as well as lunch, but this turns into a reservation-required restaurant at night. So either cluster of buildings you will need to walk to get to a certain area each day no matter what, it just depends on where you want to be closer to. Also, the beach cluster of buildings at night would obviously be quieter. Food The food was good, I wouldn’t say top-notch of the best I have ever had, but nothing to really complain about other than sometimes some of the buffet food was “lukewarm” at best. But not always, sometimes it was hot. It would just depend. Ther food was consistent however and we did prefer to use our “level” privileges and eat the level restaurant and buffet Building 21/22 which is the Riviera. It’s quieter, more intimate. You can order off the menu, no reservations are required for this, or the buffet. It’s your choice every night. Except for the romantic beach night, which is extra money, they have a beach area near the pool which is sheltered and candlelight with an extra special menu. We did not partake in this, but it did look nice. We did eat at the main buffet, and it was good, but what we noticed at the Riviera Level restaurant was that the pasta was made to order here. This goes for breakfast eggs/omelets as well. Also, in the morning you could make a Bloody Mary to your liking at the self-serve table bar area, or a mimosa. Cape Nao Building 23 at the beach had great lunches, you can order off the menu here. It’s right on the beach, and in our opinion has the best fries and hamburgers at the resort. They also had very good chicken wraps which the kids devoured. The lunch buffet on the beach at building 13 Tartufo was also very good, and though busy, had no issues finding a seat. Also highly recommended. We did eat one night at the main buffet The Merkado, and it was also good, just very busy, and you didn’t get the same food choices. We did eat at two of the restaurants, the Hacienda (Mexican) and Capri (Mediterranean) We preferred the Mexican restaurant, it was excellent, we love Mexican food, and you also get your own Mexican buffet at this restaurant, plus order of the menu. We used our concierge Rey to book the restaurant for us (another perk of the Level is your own Concierge). Capri was also good, but it’s less “Greek” Mediterranean than some may expect, and more of a middle eastern Mediterranean-style restaurant. But it is still good food. Beach The beach was great, very pretty almost white sand beaches. Nice and wide, the water was warm and at the time of us being there, the seaweed or seagrass was not too bad at all. They had tractors out most mornings collecting what they could. The floating play park we did use. And we paid $12 USD per person for 30 mins, and that’s all you really need. It was fun, and it does provide a distraction of the kids become bored, I would splurge and advise to try it out. It’s $20 USD for a full hour, but that’s a long time to be out there. The beach chairs.... yes, it’s true you have to be out there early to get one. My wife would get up at 6:00 AM and be out there around 6:20 or so and had no problems being able to get a chair. This isn’t a new thing at resorts for this to take place. It’s unfortunate and isn’t policed by staff so you do what you have to do. After 7:00 AM I would say you’d be hard-pressed to find a vacant spot. After lunch we noticed some people getting too hot and leaving the area sometimes, and after 3:00 PM you should be able to find chairs vacant again. And yes, they should order more chairs, especially in the regular area of the beach as there is a “Level” section of the beach. They could easily order 100 more chairs, they have the space. The beach area in front of the lunch buffet is wide open. I don’t know why they fill this area with chairs and umbrellas. It may solve the issue of claiming chairs in the morning as well if there were more available. The covered beach beds, from what we could see the only ones you need to pay for are the ones right at the beachfront, closes to the water. The other ones are near the pools and set back further from the beach, you don’t need to pay for. As far as the vendors on the beach, I don’t know what everyone is complaining about. Yes they are there, yes they come almost every day, but the are NOT a nuisance. They only ask once, for the most part and a simple gesture of no and a “no thank you” and they keep moving on. In no way were we pestered or bothered or harassed. Yes I have been to resorts where this isn’t allowed, but in the DR, and on this beach this is allowed, but it’s very minor. You can walk along the beach, it’s safe and there are a lot of resorts to check out and see along the way, the local people DR people we met were very friendly. Pools Main Pool was good, slightly cooler than the ocean temp, but still warm, from what I could see it was maintained and in good condition. There’s a small pool near the lunch buffet, also looks nice, it’s better suited for doing laps in as it’s small and rectangular. The Level pool is not so good. This pool should be closed off and repaired. Especially in the circular jetted areas. There are broken jets, missing tiles, missing jets, and missing tiles on the pool floor. It needs to be repaired. Water park – geared towards small kids, I would say 10 and under will love it. My 12-year-old was bored with it pretty quickly, the slides are short, even though there’s a good variety. Kids need to be accompanied by an adult at all times, 18 yrs. and older. The water park was in good working order for the most part, but some repairs were needed. Plenty of lifeguards monitoring. It’s nice that they have it there, but it would benefit from some larger slides. for the adults, only beer is served here, no other alcoholic drinks. And the food is fine I guess, but it’s just fish sticks and chicken nuggets, I’m not sure why so many people rave about the snack bar at the waterpark. Entertainment There’s a show at the theatre every night. They are ok for the most part, geared towards kids around 8:00 PM and then at 9:00 – 9:45 PM pending on the night, you get the main show. I don’t really have a standout one in my head I would recommend, they were all ok. It’s not the best I have seen, but not the worst either. Again you have the DJ pumping music the second the show is done. This is moved into the Casino at around 12:30 AM where you can continue dancing. We didn’t really visit the casino, but it looked good for the size of the resort. About 5-6 various tables to play at, poker, blackjack, roulette. There was a bar inside with TV screens to watch news and sports. Lots of slot machines, and a lounge area. It was never overly busy inside. Staff The staff was fantastic. From check-in to the hostesses, bar staff, wait staff, gardeners, and entertainment everyone was smiling, happy, easy to talk to, etc. I’m not sure what some reviewers are encountering, but from what I saw, and how I saw other people at the resort treat and talk to staff, my guess is that it’s not the staff, it’s you who is the problem. (that goes for anyone who complained) Our concierge, which comes with the Level experience, Rey Dominguez, was great, very helpful, and always available. I could text him and he would reply. He got us an extra bed for the room, extra hangers, towels and sheets when needed. Was able to secure restaurant reservations and would make an effort to find us on the beach to have a friendly chat and make sure everything was ok. Overall, a solid resort, would recommend going for families. I don’t think upgrading to the Level is necessary. Unless anything I mentioned piques your interest. I am pretty sure it’s more expensive to upgrade to the level when you are at the resort and would best to get the Level experience booked before you come down if that’s what you want. And again if loud music is an issue at night past midnight for you, stay away from buildings 46, 47, and 41, as they get most of the loud music at night. …