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| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
Bahia Principe Punta Cana: Bahia Principe Punta Cana Reviews |
| Total User's Score 3.9
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By Occasion... |
By Traveller Type... |
| Based on 19 reviews |
| Excellent |
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9 |
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7 |
| Average |
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0 |
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2 |
| Terrible |
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2 |
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| Family |
6 |
| With friend |
2 |
| With Group |
1 |
| With Spouse/Partner |
9 |
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| Gran Bahia Princiipe Bavaro - Diamond Club lived up to our expectations plus more! |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
User Rating:
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Kelly >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Jul, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| Myself (40 years old), my husband (43 years old) and our niece (15 years old) spent two lovely and relaxing weeks at the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro Diamond Club Section from July 8-22, 2010.
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| Arrival |
| When we arrived we immediately left our bags with the bellboy at the front entrance, walked 100 metres or so to the Diamond Club lounge and very quickly checked in with the incredibly professional Francy Dugarte, the Diamond Club Manager. She explained our a la carte bookings, gave us a map of the resort, and provided us with a cold welcome beverage. After signing for our electronic key we were directed back to the front area where a bell boy placed all the luggage in a tram and drove us to our villa #34 directly beside the Diamond Club pool. Alexandro carried all the bags to the third floor room and welcomed us with a smile. |
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| Rooms |
The room in the Diamond Club room was spacious and included two double beds, though king size beds are available upon request and if you aren't travelling with a third like we were. There was also a sitting area with a table and two chairs, a television, dresser drawers, bedside table with reading lights on either side and enough closest space for everyone. My recommendation to you is to bring along extra hangers or ask your maid for additional ones upon arrival. There were only 5 hangers per closet side. The hangers you will receive upon request are wire hangers so if you have an issue with them, bring your own plastic ones.
The bathroom consists of a jacuzzi tub/shower combination with marble surround as well as the sink and toilet. Don't forget that the water is NOT DRINKABLE out of the tap at this resort and therefore you will have to brush your teeth using the bottled water provided. There are new bottles delivered to your room every day.
In the room there is also a mini bar fridge that contains water, pop (pepsi, 7-Up and Orange) and two cans of Brava beer. The fridge is restocked as needed. Each evening when we returned back to the room, there was new stock free of charge. The fridge does have some extra room in the event you bring your own wine, liquor or refrigerated snacks with you on vacation.
As well, every room does have a walk out balcony with a small table and two chairs. I would suggest that you bring along clothes pegs or a clothsline if you wish to hang your bathing suits or towels to dry in the evening because there is no rack made available on the balcony and otherwise you are hanging items from the chairs or the balcony rail, neither of which are ideal. My only suggestion regarding the room to the resort is a drying rack added to the balcony, I have come across them at RIU resorts in the Dominican and Mexico. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
When you book at the Diamond Club section you are allocated four a la carte reservations per week with your concierge. In addition, at the Diamond Club section you are provided with exclusive use of the Italian Restaurant for breakfast and lunch each day. It is only steps away from the Diamond Club pool and is a much quieter and relaxing breakfast and lunch experience.
On the evenings we ate at the buffet restaurant it was just ok compared to the a la cartes but we never went hungry on those evenings and simply understood that the process of presenting food on such a large scale isn't going to produce gourmet. Now the a la cartes are an entirely different story because they are all FABULOUS in their own unique ways! Our favourite was the Garden Grill located mid resort, with the highest quality food I have ever experienced at an all inclusive! The manager is Joselo, an incredibly friendly gentleman who will greet you with a smile and assist in making your dining experience a great one. I highly recommend you book this location as soon as you arrive.
Our second favourite restaurant was the Italian Restaurant with a wide selection of main entree as well as an enormous variety of appetizers in a buffet style. I can't say enough about the entire staff working in this restaurant from first thing in the morning when they greet you for breakfast till your evening dinner reservation. Very hard working, always with a smile and each one of them made our vacation a great one! Thank you Yulia, Jesus, Juddy, Ramon, and Rafael for your professionalism and daily smiles!
Our third and final favourite that I'll mention was the Japanese Restaurant. You have two options for eating at this restaurant, the tapanaki area where they cook the food in front of you and the table service. Don't forget to request the tapanaki so that you aren't disappointed. As well, just a tip, always double check your reservation slip after booking with the concierge to make sure the request is noted. We did see a family quite upset when they were seated in the table service area after believing they requested the tapanaki but unfortunately that area was completed reserved for the night and the slip was table service.
The bar service was on par with the majority of other resorts in the caribbean that I have experienced over the past 15 years or so. The beer on tap was Presidente, there was champagne for mimosas and cocktails were colourful and well presented. There are blenders at the bars and I would suggest you request they be used for some drinks because the "slushi machines" don't do them justice.
There were three bartenders who stood out as the friendliest, most professoinal and most customer service oriented during our visit. They are located at the Diamond Club pool.Thank you to Maria, Starling and Joselo! |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
I can't comment greatly on the services and fun available on the beach because I am pretty much a pool tourist but on the days I did walk down to watch my husband take out the catamarran, I found plenty of lounge chairs and a sandy ocean floor to walk on. The water is not as clear as it was during our last visit three years ago but it was quite wavy due to a storm system in the area. I did see an entertainment crew running games such as horseshoes and volleyball so it looked like there was plenty to keep you occupied on the beach. As well, there was a beach bar for guests with a slightly less assortment of drinks to choose from.
The grounds are positively immaculate for such a large resort and you will always see groundskeepers out in the baking heat trying to make your day a visually appealing one. Positively no complaints with the grounds!
There are an assortment of pools in this resort. There is a beach front pool divided into sections with the deepest area being to the right of the swim up bar. I was actually a bit surprised at how deep it is, a good 5 and a half feet because it came up to my shoulders so I don't think I'd want too many little people in that area. This pool is positively CRAZY during the day with people and activities. If you are looking for relaxation, don't sit at this one! This is the pool for those booked into the Junior Suites and not upgraded to Diamond Club. Like I've said before, book Diamond Club and avoid disappointment. This booking gets you four a la cartes instead of two per week along with a nicer breakfast and lunch and the exclusive use of the nicest pool on the property.
Which brings me to the Diamond Club Section pool. I have taken both videos and photos of this area that speak for themselves. The links are attached to this review. It is a large free flowing pool with a swim up bar, pretty views to every side and plenty of lounge chairs. The towel service and bathroom is a 20 second walk and it is also directly on the transportation line that runs the length of the resort. A special thanks to Jose, the pool guy who kept the pool area clean and inviting during our entire stay. He greeted us each and every day with an "hola" and a smile, a very sweet man.
As noted on other reviews, this resort is very large but not daunting and very manageable with the "tram" transportation service that runs every 3-5 minutes along three seperate lines of the resort from front to beach. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
Regarding activities on and off the resort, I can't review off the resort because I didn't book any, yet there are a number available from the representatives who walk around the resort everyday.
On the resort you have the pools, the beach activities (non-motorized water sports-one hour free daily), the games around the pools and beach and the shopping in the resort at the front area to the left of the lobby. As well, there is a casino but I don't think I've ever met anyone who has won at one in the Caribbean. |
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| Other Comments |
This resort is a very solid 4.5 star and certainly a 5 star if you factor in the quality of the a la carte restaurants. The service was fantastic, the room location ideal, Diamond Club pool inviting and hotel as a whole completely lived up to our expectations and exceeded them! One last note that we found helpful when packing for our own trip. Men are allowed to wear dress shorts in the buffet restaurant, and all but one a la carte restaurant so if you wish to try the French restaurant you must wear long pants...no exceptions.
I know that on the review sites the reviews for this resort differ greatly, with some loving, some hating and those that thought it just so-so. We are experienced 15 year + all inclusive travellers who have stayed at 2.5 star resorts, 4 star resorts and 6 star resorts and I can honestly tell you that we would return to the Diamond Club section, Premier section, the Ambar (adults only) or the Esmeralda section in a heart beat! I didn't really go into the Esmeralda area review, but there is video about it on my video link. It is a smaller resort attached to the property directly on the beach but strictly for those guests who book there. It looked heavenly when we walked around it and when talking to guests they compared it to the Bahia Principe Ambar but for families. It is very tempting to stay there next time as well.
You won't go wrong booking the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro but Diamond Club or better is a must!
Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions regarding this review. My email is kcponce @ hotmail.com.
Cheers and happy travels!
Kelly |
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| Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Ilovlos/GranBahiaPrincipeBavaroDiamondClubSection02# |
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| Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/lovlos |
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| Tremendous value for the price |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
User Rating:
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Bob >
1 contribution(s) United States of America |
| Apr, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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We just returned from a week at the Bahia Principe Bavaro/Punta Cana as the two resorts are interchangeable. We've been to the Punta Cana area nine times, stayed at the Riu Palaces, Iberostar Bavaro, Grand Palladuim Bavaro and Secrets Excellence. The Bahia was as good as any of those but cheaper. As is written in many of the reviews, this place is gigantic which gave us the only negative aspect, too many people and this was the beginning of a lower season. They handled the crowds very well, we never had to wait for anything, we just prefer less crowds. The resort is huge and that eats up some time to get around. The trains were excellent, 1 or 2 minute waits at most. However, we love to walk so this was a great advantage for us. The food in general was as good as the other resorts I mentioned and better than most.
In summary, if you don't mind lots of people and want a great value for the price you pay, go to Bahia. |
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| Beautiful resort but takes a few days to get your bearings. |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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jody >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Apr, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| Arrived at 09:30 am and proceeded to check in. The desk was very busy but a rep from Signature Vacations - the copmany we booked with passed out envelopes with out info and arm bracelets for the week. We were told we could not go to our rooms until 3PM but could use the resort facilities and eat at the beach restaurant. Everything was very clean and the grounds were beautiful. We were told to meet at 09:30 the next moring for more information from our tour rep. This meeting was quite useless as the accent was too thick and we could not hear what he was saying. We found overall that the staff had problems communicating in English but were much better in Spanish and French. The rooms were very clean and well appointed. Beach chairs could be reserved by placing your beach towel on the chairs and this could be done up to 9 am or so. After this time the chairs are all taken. Evening shows were well posted and quite good considering resort staff were uesd. Beware of the water drains at night as several people including us tripped and fell. The swimming pools were very nice and always clean. The beach was very busy and seemed to always too windy for our taste. Overall, our week was very enjoyable and we had a great vacation. If I consider an all inclusive vacation in the future I would perfer a smaller resort as this one was very busy. |
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| understaffed and overcrowded |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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TK >
1 contribution(s) United States of America |
| Apr, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| This resort was lacking simple ammenities: Pool towels were unavailable, air conditioning wasn't working, rooms weren't cleaned until almost dinner, unfriendly staff |
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| Your Arrival |
| Arrival was rushed and confusing. Packets were handed to guests as we arrived on a bus with no verbal information. Rooms were not ready upon arrival. While this is common, no one gave us information as to when. |
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| Rooms |
| Not very clean. Outdated. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| Understaffed. Difficult to find tables at breakfast in particular. Food was mediocre. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| Excellent beach. Limited chairs. Beautiful, well manintained grounds. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| excursion = Marinarium... must see... swim with nurse sharks and sting rays |
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| Terrific experience |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Vic >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Apr, 2010 | Leisure | With friend
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| Your Arrival |
| Our flight from Halifax was smooth and hassle-free at the Punta Cana airport. We felt very welcome. After our bus ride to the Bahia Principe, arriving at 0930, we were allowed to check into our room by noon. |
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| Rooms |
While we had booked a 2nd-floor room, the folks at reception assigned us a ground-level room just 2 minutes from the beach. This was great, and allowed us to easily get our towels onto the beach chairs by 7 a.m.
The one glitch was with the room safe. While we anticipated paying for it, the darn thing wouldn't lock. After nagging reception a couple of times, they sent a technician who simply said there was a problem with our room key card. I don't think he knew more than a cuple of English words. Eventually we had to walk back to reception to get a new card, and it worked. But we were delayed for over 2 hours from getting to the beach. It turned out they had incorrectly programmed the card. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
There's way more food than you can comfortably eat here, folks. We had something different at the buffet each meal and still did not get through all the choices by week-end.
The a-la-carte restaurants were good, but not exceptional. We ate at Tex-Mex, Japanese and Mediterranean. Service was okay, depending on how busy they were. We showed up at one restaurant on the wrong night, but they sat us anyway, without any problems.
Being used to Canadian beer, the watery stuff they served inclusively was simply disappointing. If you like extreme sugar highs, go for the Pina coladas, Coco-Locos, etc. Tons of sugar and hardly any alcohol.
The waitresses were friendly and prompt, except for one instance when we could not get someone to come anywhere near our table. They speak very little English, and a lot gets lost in translation. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
No complaints here. Aside from the fact that the big pool and the beach were way overcrowded, everything was clean and orderly. The most irritating activity was the "DJ" who had access to a powerful amplifier system, and used it on max! I simply turned up the volume of my iPod to drown this loathsome noise out, but I guess the dance/fitness stuff attracted a few people who were continuously berated by the DJ for whatever reason he could think of.
If you want some peace in the afternoon, go WAY up the beach. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
We went on the VIP Safari, Dune Boogies and deep-sea fishing. These activities were terrific, despite being way over-priced.
VIP Safari: We explored the countryside in a small open bus, visiting an organic farm (coffee, cocoa, etc), which was well worth the visit, Also stopped at a sugar cane harvesting operation and a school and cathedral in Higuay. We finished up the day with grilled lobster (quite unlike our North Atlantic, but really good). Our guide was intent on distributing beer and rum throughout the trip, spilling it everywhere when we hit bumps in the road. This, to him anyway, was really hilarious. The requisite "shopping stops" were tolerable, but just.
Dune Boogies: This excursion allows teams of two to ride in each dune buggy, but follow the leader in convoy fashion. Speeds were never high, the countryside was fascinating (except for the piles of garbage everywhere).
We visited Macau(?) beach, which had great rollers of surf coming in. A good spot for a swim (except for literally mounds of garbage everywhere and the usual hawkers). The cave we explored was pretty neat, located next to a mini shopping mall in the middle of nowhere. Which came first? We went for a swim in the cave, and great volumes of dirt came off everyone.
Fishing: By far, the best activity of our stay, and our boat of six people landed a 60-lb and a 300-lb (!) marlin. I got a barracuda. Simply one of the best fishing trips I've ever been on, made possible by Gone Fishing!
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| Other Comments |
Aside from the (preventable) safe incident on the first day, we have very few complaints. In general, staff were willing to please, although very few of them can speak more than a few sentences of English.
I would definitely return to this resort. You can be as active (or inactive) as you like, and still enjoy yourself immensely.
Security was first-rate, and even after I had stumbled onto the beach late at night, a couple of security guys (I assumed they were, anyway!) got me pointed in the right direction even though they could speak no English at all. |
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| This resort was fantastic |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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CJ >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Mar, 2010 | Leisure | Family
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| Several friends and family went to the Bahai Principe Bavaro in Puna Cana for a wedding. The resort was amazing, people were friendly and all of us would return their again. I would highly recommend this resort - it was fantastic. |
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| Your Arrival |
| No problem with the arrival at the airport or at the hotel. |
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| Rooms |
| Very clean, well stocked and beautiful. Staff was so friendly. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| Such variety and the food was amazing. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| Our room was just outside the pool, which was beautiful. However we spent most of our time at the beach, which was lovely. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Lots to do if you had the time. |
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| Other Comments |
| The other problem we had was stamps. Bought some post cards and could notlocate one stamp at the entire resort. However, that was the only blemish on a perfect holiday weekend. |
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| Excellent resort, good food, great beach, friendly staff, |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Bill >
1 contribution(s) United States of America |
| Feb, 2010 | Leisure | With friend
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I visited the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro from Feb 5 - 12, 2010. The weather was beautiful each day and I avoided two major east coast snow storms while I was there. I have been to 20 or 30 all inclusive resorts, including five or so in Punta Cana. I purchased this trip as an Apple Vacations "Square Deal". It was among the best resorts for the money I've been to. The resort is located directly in front of the Astron shipwreck.
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| Your Arrival |
| When we arrived at the resort a person from guest services pulled us out of line at the front desk and took us to a corner of the lobby and gave us a very quick briefing about the hotel, gave us our room keys, room assignment, towel cards and reservations for two nights at two of the specialty restaurants. It was among the fastest and best done check-in procedures I've seen. |
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| Rooms |
| Our room was a junior suite, as all rooms are, it was large with a big bathroom with a jacuzzi tub, good sized sleeping area and a smallish sitting area with a table, two chairs and a sofa bed. The TV was a small tube style TV with 30 or 40 channels, mostly in Spanish. The room also had a balcony. We were on the third floor. All of the rooms are in three story buildings. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
The main buffet restaurant is off the lobby and is very nicely decorated. I I thought the food was very good while also pretty typical of what you find at the nicer all inclusive resorts. The buffet restaurant is air conditioned. The buffet was well set up with several stations which allowed for better than average traffic flow. At each meal we were greeted by a very friendly hostess and shown to a table immediately. There are also restaurants by the beach that serve breakfast and lunch with a more limited, but still good, variety of food. We went to just one specialty restaurant, which was the Japanese one. The food was good, the decor was nice. This is a very large resort and has several bars. There are four or more pools, each with a pool bar. The lobby bar is very nice. There is a bar in the theater and bars by the beach. The service at the bars and restaurants varied from super attentive and fast to "when did I become invisible". I'm not sure there is a real method for which servers take drink orders for which tables. I never felt I was being intentionally ignored, but sometimes it was hard to get a drink, but at other times I'd be asked three times what I'd like within one or two minutes. When I was at a bar and not a table service was always very fast.
There's an excellent selection of liquor in the lobby bar with top shelf brands available to guests who upgrade to the appropriate wrist band color. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| The resort is really large. It is nicely landscaped and exceptionally clean. The distances between the beach, our room and the lobby was pretty big. I think it's about 1/4 mile form the lobby to the beach, so if you walk back and forth to your room, meals, pools and the beach you can log a lot of miles. There are trams that run constantly too. The beach is wide and long. On parts of it the palm trees form a canopy and you can find shade without a thatched umbrella. There are many thatched umbrella's and even though the resort seemed near full I could always find one. As with most resorts the "best" locations were staked out early. It was not as easy to find an umbrella by any of the several pools. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| I did not do any off resort trips. The nightly shows are typical of all inclusives. Over the years I've seen enough hotel staff lip syncing songs and attempting to dance for one lifetime. |
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| Other Comments |
The Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro is a great resort with good food, a friendly staff, a beautiful beach and large rooms. I wouldn't mind if it was more compact but that's not really a fault with the resort.
Internet is $15 a day (unless you have upgraded to the "gold" section) and only works in the lobby, and even then, not very well. This seemed unreasonably expensive to me. They offered a good selection of things to do in the evening evening including karaoke, a casino, shows, music in the lobby, food available all night long, several bars and a disco.
For me this resort easily rates 4 out of 5. |
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| Photos: http://www.billsphotos.com/GranBahiaPrincipeBavaro2010.html |
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| No Better Place for a Wedding! |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Sandie >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Feb, 2010 | Leisure | With Group
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Wow! For a large resort they do most everything very well.
We travelled as a group for our daughter's wedding and have to say that it was wonderful. Jasmine, the wedding planner was terrific and definitely went above and beyond to make sure the wedding and dinner were as we wanted. Kuddo's to Jasmine. The ceremony was on the beach with a musical trio playing. An aisle was decorated with flowers and led up to the arch where the ceremony took place. The ocean provided a beautiful backdrop (except for the folks who think it's cool to be in a strangers wedding photos - no prob. we'll just air brush you away!) The chairs were all done up with covers and ribbons and everything looked wonderful. It was a traditional but still casual ceremony. Of course, it goes without saying that the Bride and Groom were radiant! The judge speaks Spanish and Jasmine translates but that didn't detract from it at all. At my daughter's request we had a sand ceremony which was very nice. She used sand from home and from the beach there. The wedding dinner was in the Italian Resaurant - Il Capriccio. Although we had chosen to have the dinner in the public area of the restaurant, they did it up so beautifully that it might as well have been a private reception. They decorated the table with the items we had brought and added flowers and flair. Judy was the maitre d' and was extremely helpful,he even checked with the bride before each course to be sure the timing was okay. The wedding cake was 3 layers and delicious! There was no way we could eat it all after our delicious meal so we asked the staff to enjoy it later. We were able to do toasts and all those good things. It was truly a great wedding! |
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| Your Arrival |
| Arrived via Air Canada Vacations out of Toronto at 1pm. Customs and Immigration was a breeze even though there was another plane load of people arriving at the same time. We were bussed to our hotel with a minmum of fuss and check in was relatively simple. As expected our rooms were not ready and we spent a lot of time sitting in the lobby waiting. After a little lunch our rooms were ready and they loaded up our luggage and took us off to our home away from home. |
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| Rooms |
| Our rooms were just as we requested, on the ground floor and together for the older group with the young adults a little further away. Rooms are clean and spacious. Some nights we received exta "warm" towels and some morning our room was decorated with flowers, towel art and balloons. We definitely felt welcome. Our room was always cleaned in the morning - perhaps it helped to have the "make up room" sign out by 9 am. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| 2 Alacarte's were chosen for us (the whole group) and we weren't sure we liked that. We could have tried to change the reservations but in the end it didn't matter what restaurants we went to. Our favourite was the Japanese. It's nice to have someone cooking in front of you and the food was good. All of the other restaurants would have a buffet for appetisers and dessert but you order the main course from the menu. The selection of appetisers was awesome at every restaurant. The lamb as a main course was excellent but the lobster was way overdone. You never went away hungry. They were very accomodating the 2 of us that had alllergies, offering at every meal to make us something different if need be. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
We were upgraded to diamond bracelets which allowed us access to the Diamond Pool and the restaurant nearby for breakfast and lunch. That was one of the best features. We had no problem getting chairs at the pool in the morning and would get 8 for our group. Some of us went to the beach which was very crowded. They certainly pack you in! We are shade lovers and there is an area with lots of palm trees so it was relatively easy to find chairs in the shade and then move about as the sun changed locations. Sand flies were a problem. Although we never saw them biting we had lumps and bumps, that appeared as hives later. My daughter, the bride, was severely affected. Some people were distressed by this others were okay. In the end, although a beach person by preference, I opted for the pool.
The grounds are beautiful, very well kept. They can do things with a macheti that are unbelievable.
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
There were activities around the pools (not the Diamond pool - yeah) and at the beach but we managed to not be distracted by them. The shows in the evening varied some really cheezee, others were pretty good. They had new shows most of the nine nights we were there.
Most evening we spent on the terrace, drinking cappucinos and "Chocolate Monkeys" and followed it up with a train ride, twice around the resort. |
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| Other Comments |
It would be convinient if the trolleys all met at a hub and you could transfer to different lines. Sometimes getting to the restaurants or the Ambar was a challenge for those with mobility issuse.
It was a great resort, the weather was terrific (only 30 mins rain at breakfast one day!)and a great time was had by all! |
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| Never Again |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Craig >
1 contribution(s) United States of America |
| Feb, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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Let me start off with saying,we are AMERICANS, we are a average couple,50ish in age,have traveled to Mexico 13 times, 3 cruises, and twice to the Dominican Repulic. So we have seen and experienced quite a large field of differences. Our trips have always been to all inclusive resorts.
THIS WAS AT THE " GRAN BAHIA PRINICPE PUNTA CANA BAVARO " |
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| Your Arrival |
When we arrived in the Dominican we were greeted by warm air and smiles, we did not have transfers arranged, so when a baggage guy came up to us and started talking, we asked where to catch a Taxi, with smiles he brought us to where the taxis are, and thanked us, we tipped him a couple of bucks and he was happy. ABSOULTELY NO PROBLEM with finding a Taxi, the cost to our resort was $40 which we found out was the going rate and had no problem paying it, tipped him a $5. Takes about 30 minutes to get there.
Checking into our resort was some what of a hassle, because the really do not speak english very well at all, if any !!! It took us about 20 minutes to finally get a room. Some of the staff are alittle better at thier jobs then others, just like any where. During this transaction I asked which way the beach was and he pointed to his left, then I asked him which way our room was and he pointed to his right, no way was he going to move us closer, but he did let us know there was a pool right outside our building. The POOL was a small shallow piece of cement with 3 COLD whirl pools in it. After we took a trolley to our building ( building 51 ) we started to get a feel for how FOOLISH LARGE this resort is. |
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| Rooms |
| We were on the 3rd floor, overlooking the pool (LOL), Just about as far from the OCEAN AS POSSIBLE! King size bed, which was extremely firm, Bathroom where very nice with a exceptional shower, just like anywhere you had to rent a Key to Activate the safe, well worth the $26. My wife and I had been bit in the night by bugs, 2 nites in a row, so on the 3rd day, we stripped the pillow cases, sheets, and comforter off and threw them out side our door so the chambermaid would totally understand, she did not speak any english what so ever. Rooms were pretty good size, and air conditioner worked well, as well as the ceiling fan. Very comfortable temp. Plenty of closet space, iron, blow dryer, and your frig was stocked every day. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| BOOZE, weak, very weak, and your FROZED DRICKS, where not FROZEN, they came out of a chilled slushy machine. This was the only place we have seen that there was a charge for stronger drinks, good scotch, brandy, ETC. OK OK, NOW ABOUT THE FOOD. WHERE SHOULD I START!! COLD, to LUKE warm, now when I say this, please don't say I'm being to picky, it was EXACTLY THAT. Every meal, morning noon and night, and the selection of food was diffenetly catering to the people from germany,Italy,Spain,France, not the Americans, you have a better Quality of food you enjoy in your local buffets. It got so bad, we started making grinders to take back to our room, because of the selection of american food. Once again they the staff did not speak english. They did not even know what a cup of ice was. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
One of the nicest beaches we have seen. Clean, Sandy, no Rocks, very very comfortable water temp. Some topless, no major issue, alot of chair saving and then never showing up. Same with the little covered Cabanas. LOL, it got so bad with the saving thing, that if I had not seen anyone show about to the covered cabanas far a few hours, I would throw the towels and books,hats off on to a nearby chair so other peole were able to enjoy them.
Pools down at the beach area where kept up nicely, and very clean. The beer at the snack bars in the beach area were the coldest, food still was cold to luke warm, but the beer was cold! |
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| Other Comments |
Absolutely not American friendly, ( American food,speaking english or lack there of)
We had to take a trolley from our room, to get to the lobby, then take a different trolly to the beach that was about 1/2 mile away from the lobby. To time consuming and inconvient. Did not enjoy it.
To large of a resort, (3500 people and it was booked full)
Staff - did not speak english, and the evening shows were terrible, now we were not expecting las vegas by a long shot, but these people never practiced and it showed, could not even keep in step with ANY and I measn ANY dance routine. Sound system was loud and very blurry, could not uderstand what they were saying, even the few very very broken english words they tried. WE WILL NEVER GO BACK, I HOPE SOME OF YOU READ THIS AND CHANGE YOUR PLANS, YOU WILL BE DISSAPOINTED IF YOU GO. YES THE WATER IS NICE, YES THE WEATHER IS NICE, YES ITS IT JUST PLAIN NICE TO GET AWAY WITH YOUR SPOUCE, HOWEVER YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS RESORT.
TheY work off of QUANITY, NOT QUALITY !! |
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| Nightmare Vacation |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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D >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Feb, 2010 | Leisure | Family
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| 6th time in the Dominincan, 4th in Punta Cana. All of our other vacations to the Dominican were amazing...and we looked forward to returning before we even left. However after this stay we will not return to a Bahai resort, and we will probably not go back to Punta Cana. We will never deal with Transat!!!!! We hope all other vacationers have a great experience at this resort, and it was obvious the fun many people were having...but we feel we must share our experience. |
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| Your Arrival |
We flew Air Transat. First time with this company. Lots of leg room, but flight attendants refused to smile. They actually yelled at my daughter for not having her table up, when I told them it was due to the fact they had not collected her food or partially full juice, they snapped it up and walked away. Otherwise...good flight.
We were directed to the wrong bus at the Punta Cana airport with another couple. Drove for 1 hr before they simply just dropped us at the Bahai. They were not expecting us, and after a long debate drove us to the Esmeralda part of the resort. After another 30 min, alot of Spanish and tension we were told we were not staying there. Then we were taken back to the lobby (soaken wet with our Canadian clothes still on) and very thirsty (could not get a drink due to no wrist bands). Another 30 min or so and they found our room with the Golden Club. Keep in mind, I had my Hotel Voucher with me and let everyone read it several times. Finally got the package with wrist bands and we were taken to our room. |
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| Rooms |
| Upon entering our room with the Bell Boy, we quickly noticed we had been put in a room that had yet to be cleaned. The family/group before us sure had a good time...the room was a disaster. We knew if we left, we probably were not getting another room and the Bell Boy told us not to worry and to get settled. Hot, sweaty and very irritable...we slipped into our bathing suits in disgust, locked our stuff in our suitcases in the corner (had not been told about a safe) and ventured to the beach...without towels !!! |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
You are pre-assigned your 4 a-la-cartes. Which is good and bad. Great to have the opportunity to actually get into 4 during your 7 day stay, but the times meant an early day from the beach in order to get cleaned up. We used 2 of them and enjoyed the atmosphere at both. The main buffet on alternate nights was always good, and very clean. We enjoyed breakfast over looking the Ocean every morning and it was beautiful. Snack bars by the pool and beach crowded and hard to find a table...but enjoyed by the kids several times a day.
The bar staff were wonderful and entertaining at the main pool bar (both swim up and walk up). The male bar staff at the Sports bar very accomodating and friendly. They went out of their way to get the Canada Hockey Game on every night and cheered along with us. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
Grounds lovely. Always people working and quick to say Ola !!
Pools clear and warm. Beach clean with lots of chairs. Towel guy at main pool irritable always and refused to change towels at the end of the day. We didn't have bath towels so we tried to get fresh beach towels before getting cleaned up for the night but he refused. We ended up keeping them and getting new ones in the morning..only to be yelled at daily for not handing them in for washing over the night. I explained every day our dillema...he simply did not care. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Hardly saw the entertainment staff, which was dissapointing for our kids. They did do alot of activities but due to the size of the resort it was hard to know what was going on when. Staff didn't cirulate as they did at the other resorts we visited and didn't try to get the tourists involved. We did see the Lion King and Michael Jackson...3+ maybe. Not sure of the off resort activities since we missed the Transat Tour meeting, and when we asked our rep about it, she didn't answer but told us to look around. |
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| Other Comments |
Our girls (18yrs)were coming home from the Karoke one night and took the trolly to our room. Upon exiting the trolly the driver summoned them to him, and they went. He then opened his phone and showed them a video of a Bull having sex with a woman, all the while talking Spanish to them. They were terrified and ran quickly to the room. Their vacation changed from that moment on...as did ours. We finally went on the long walk with determination to find the Transat Tour Lady the next morning and went through all of our concerns (even though we had discussed them to Golden Club earlier twice with no luck). She was vaguely interested in the room and getting lost issues...but jumped when told of the video stating he would be fired immediatley and wanted more info. We declined at that moment, fearing the girls would be targeted by other staff and agreed to give all info as we signed out. She agreed this would be best for the girls and agreed to meet...however never showed up at check out time and we could not find her...not surprised !! He is still lurking around......
Other concerns:
No face clothes. No bath towels for all of us. Room never swept (big insect of some type was dead at the base of our patio doors all week) we left him there as our check. Bar fridge filled 2 times all week..we really only needed the water and had to get our own. Our rep actually told us to brush our teeth with tap water, which in the past was a huge NO.
CHECK OUT:
Again...no Transat Rep around. Quick and efficiant sign out at the Golden Club. We saw a group from our flight entering a bus at our designated time. I asked the Nolitours rep if it was our flight and he said yes to get the family and luggage. I told him we were Transat and he said no problem. Once on the bus they asked us to leave. We said ok but needed to get our luggage. They said no, our luggage would be at the airport for us when we got there. We refused to get off without it. Finally at his insistence we were leaving, and he quickly said "go sit back and stay" then came and explained numbers (no clue what he was saying, but realized other Transat people on the bus were looking quite concerned ). I wanted to speak with Transat Tours...but could not find anyone. We stayed on the bus...and cheered when we arrived at the airport and new we would soon be in Canada to celebrate our Gold medal wins !!!
It was the best feeling ever to be home...and that is a first for all of us. It is especially disappointing when you go through the propper channels with your concerns and no one cares...hence the reason I am writing this review. |
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| Two reasons for a Four Star rating |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
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Kayne >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Feb, 2010 | Leisure | Family
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| Recently back from the Bahia and will keep this short. |
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| Your Arrival |
| Arrival was a pleasant surprise, rather than stand in line at the front desk we were escorted to take a seat and brought a cold drink. The receptionist came to us to check us in. Before our departure we had written the resort telling them that we were repeat guests, we asked for any available upgrades but didn't know what we would get. Well, at first it didn't seem like we would be getting anything but then a second lady from the front desk came over, confirmed who we were and then proceeded to cut off our bracelets and replace them with the VIP ones! Wow, we were spoiled every where we went. Not that manners and some small tips hurt but still amazing. |
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| Rooms |
| The room was huge and gorgeous. The only issue I had was that the shower would keep cutting out almost as if there wasn't enough water pressure to keep it flowing. We were on the third floor though. Oh yeah, one morning while enjoying my coffee while waiting for my sister to get ready to go, a man came around the corner from the next balcony onto ours to clean cobwebs from the ceiling! Good thing I had on the bathrobe, LOL!! He took me quite by surprise! Dangerous too, the rooms must have 10ft ceilings. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
All excellent. Had one piece of fish that was undercooked (out of 30 so that's not bad.) Garden Grill had the best steak I've had in a long time, yummy.
Here comes bad point number one: the liquor was all watered down! I'm not that big a drinker but it still really bothered me, a lot. Tried ordering doubles but even that didn't cut it. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| Spectacular everywhere. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Did one catamaran tour, basically a snorkel booze cruise. Had a blast. Not the best snorkelling I've done, there was another boat out at the same time and it was way too crowded to try and see any fish. When I went away from the group out on my own, I got called back closer. Oh well, their rum wasn't watered down. |
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| Other Comments |
Here comes bad point number two: the resort was too big. Didn't like meeting people and then not seeing them again for the entire week we were there. Beach too crowded.
Amazing staff, polite and courteous.
Wouldn't go back because of the liquor or size. |
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| Very Pleased With Trip...First time ever did a trip like this |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Barbara >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Jan, 2010 | Leisure | Family
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| We read alot of reviews from this website some good and some bad. So we went ahead and did discover our own reviews.Its a beautiful place. Not alot of English spoken and the trolley drivers dont know the resort..like where the restaurants are you have to study the map. Which is your job !!!Kinda like a maze..lol |
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| Your Arrival |
| We arrived at 1am with Airplane delays. At first we got there we wernt direct to the VIP. Thus waiting in the general line for 20mins before we were told different. Then when directed to VIP we went in and got a room package. With our allecartes already assigned. And our purple bracklets disappointed we got no other direction. That was a lil sad as we didnt know what trolley to get or where even to go.but we found our room and was in bed by 230am |
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| Rooms |
| We asked for 2 double beds. But oh well we gotaking and a single it still worked so no biggy. One thing you need toknow is the dominican peopleare very smart as when u get a room you get two cards one for the door and the second one there is a slot inside the room for the other one and u put it in there and it works the air conditioning and lights (trick bring a walmart gift card and it works too and allows the air to continue to run when ur not there)as your card gives the power to the room. The bathrooms are all tile and real nice the tube is a jacuzzi....its nice blow dryer and huge mirror and a mini mirror...they supply lots of shampoo/conditioners/combs/sewing kit/combs |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| The main buffet is great...the snackbars are fabulous....the alle carts well we only did the bbq one as we arent ones to try new things so the paris/japenese/meditrainin were the others and we didnt go..the main buffet kept us for the week. So the food islike chicken turkey ham roast beef lamb pig carved as you ask.....there is tons to eat burgers fries pizza fried tomatoes veggies omelettes/pasta bar and breads and steak and pork chops baked /boiled potatoes....you will not go hungry the snackbar is a mini buffet plus allthe sandwich meats and cheese.If your nota vinigertte dressing person forsalads bring ur own and also if u like HP sause bring it as they have none. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| Beach/ Pool beautiful clean and tested daily...the pool checkers walkaround in white jackets like they are doctors..lolThe grounds are WELL maintained and there are tons of people cleaning everything railings..floors...balcony..its trulycrazy howmuch cleaning goes on here and you can smoke anywhere as well. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Theone activity wedid was the mega truck and its 95.USA and it was wellwoth it. Our tour guide was Alex and hes so funny ..We visited the children school..sugar cane fields..seen the country side..went to a ranch horse backride and had a lunch..seen how cigars are made seen how people live there also seen how they jar and make coffee..coca..vanilla..met afamily toured their house.Also if you take this tour bring school supplies for the school and the soaps from the hotel. But most of allcome with a strong heart as their are children there that beg...and its not allowed to give them anything for their own safety you have to give the items to the school. |
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| Other Comments |
| We have never done a holiday like this ...i am ready to do another trip and see what is all out there....its like heaven with no responsibilities.....iwould return in a heart beat......planning one for next February with my kids. They look after every detail...like a sticker on the toilet paper...the maids if you tip will be very good to you too |
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| Awesome resort and beach. |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Karla Burkholder >
1 contribution(s) United States of America |
| Jan, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| This is our third trip to the Dominican Republic. It is a beautiful country. The people at the resorts work long, hard hours. They are friendly and always willing to help you. The Bavaro beach area is beautiful. We highly recommend this area of the Dominican. |
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| Your Arrival |
| Arrived on time flying in from Detroit, Michigan through Apple Vacations. Apple rep. there to greet us upon arrival and direct us to the bus that would take us to our resort. |
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| Rooms |
| Room was nice with a king size bed, jacuzzi tub/shower. Large closet for clothes. They provided you with robes and an umbrella to use during your stay. Robes are available for purchase if you choose. Maid kept room clean and tidy. Refrigerator was kept well stocked with beverages. Coffee maker in room with coffee and tea available. Plenty of bottled water available. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| Buffet restaurants were excellent. Always a lot to choose from. The buffet restaurant in the Principe Premier area was smaller and not as crowded as the one in the Principe Bavaro area. Ala carte restaurants: we ate at the French restaurant, the Garden Grill and the Japanese. All were excellent. Did not use the bar areas. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| Beach is awesome, beautiful white sand and you can walk for miles. Pools were nice, kept clean, landscaping was beautiful and well taken care of. Beach got crowded by 11:00 a.m. and cleared out some by 5:00 p.m. Best time for walking is early morning or late afternoon. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Did not do any optional activities. |
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| Other Comments |
| The only downfall to the trip was upon returning to the airport to fly back to Detroit, the lines were long and slow moving. We arrived 2 hours before the flight was to leave. It took us two hours to get checked in and go through security. Flight was late leaving. Make sure you get to the airport at least 2-3 hours before your flight takes off. |
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| Some good points, some not so good |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Wilma >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Jan, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| This was our second trip to Punta Cana, but first to this resort. We stayed at Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro - Club Diamond Section. This resort is massive. It has the following sections: Punta Cana, Ambar (Adults Only), Bavaro, Premier, Club Diamond and Royal Golden. It was full. One of the staff told us they had 4500+ guests. The trolley system works great. You never have to wait more than a few minutes for a trolley. |
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| Your Arrival |
| We arrived on 27 December in the evening. It took us a while to find the Club Diamond check-in location. Once we found the right location, check-in was relatively smooth, except for the fact they had booked two rooms for us instead of one. We explained that there were only two of us, thus only one room required. We had requested an oceanview room, close to the beach, but were told none were available. We were given a room in Building 27 and only had a short walk to the beach. We were in our room in approximately 45 minutes. |
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| Rooms |
We had a junior suite on the second floor with a balcony, and king bed as we had requested. The room had a nice sitting area, plus a table and chairs. coffee maker, mini bar and safe (had to pay for safe). We waited 3 days to get a remote for the TV. There were no ironing boards or irons in the rooms. You had to call Guest Services to request one when you needed it. Considering the length of time it took to get a TV remote, I didn't bother asking for an iron. We did not have an umbrella in the room either. When we asked for one, we were told to look in the room. I was quite sure there was none, but looked anyhow. I then called to request one and was told that since it was raining, everyone wanted an umbrella and they didn't have any!! The bed sloped to one side, making it feel like you were going to fall out of bed. The lighting in the room was terrible, very dim, difficult to see what was in the closet or the safe. For anyone going to this resort, take a flashlight. One lamp had a broken socket and one of the lights in the bathroom didn't work. We reported it and they sent a "technician". The fellow managed to fix the broken lamp, seemed quite perplexed why the light in the bathroom didn't work (we thought it needed a new bulb). He left without fixing the bathroom light. Communication with him was extremely difficult. We had very small white bugs or spiders on the night stand and floor. We also found a bug in the bed. I showed it to the resort doctor and she thought it was a baby cockroach. I had a very bad reaction to insect bites and had to seek medical treatment at the resort medical office. The doctor felt that I had been bitten by mosquitos. I saw my family doctor the day I arrived back in Canada as I had even more bites than when I saw the resort doctor. He said that some of the bites could have been caused by sand fleas and/or mosquitos, BUT felt the other bites were caused by bed bugs. Both my husband and I were bitten all over our backs, legs, and arms, plus I had bites on my face. We didn't asked to change rooms as we could have encountered the same problems elsewhere. Plus one of the Club Diamond staff said they were full and had to send some guests to other hotels for a few days until space became available. Our maid, Belkis, was quite good. She would leave extra water for us and extra pop and always left flowers and towel art.
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| Club Diamond had pre-booked 4 a la cartes for us, which we could have changed but decided not to. For the most part, the a la cartes were quite good. The Garden Grill (Steak House) was definitely our favourite. The steak was wonderful. The Tex-Mex was our least favourite, but still okay. Most of the a la cartes had an appetizer, soup, salad and dessert buffet as well as the menu selections. One problem with the buffets was that the food which was supposed to be hot, was for the most part lukewarm or cold. The same applied to breakfast items. If you wanted hot food, it was best to order an omelette or fried eggs. Diamond Club had its own restaurant for breakfast and lunch so we ate there most days. The staff were friendly and the food was good. The first night we went to the Japanese it was a wonderful experience and very enjoyable. The second time was something else indeed. They sat us with 10 other people who were already on their 3rd or 4th course, the food was all cooked and they were serving the rice. They did not offer us a drink nor did they offer to serve us the sushi and appetizer until my husband complained. Then they put 2 plates in front of us, followed closely by the soup. In the meantime, the cook is serving our rice and asking what meat we wanted. It was a very uncomfortable situation both for us and the other people at the table. We didn't want to cause a scene at the table as that would have ruined the meal for the others. We tried to complain on leaving the restaurant; however the hostess either did not understand or pretended not to. We ate at the main buffet only a few times. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
The beach was lovely as usual; however, it waas jam packed with beach loungers and people. What a shock that was the first day. It was like a maze trying to find an open path to the water, bar, or wherever you wanted to go. If you moved your lounger the least bit, someone else would move their lounger under your palapa. Often times, when we were laying under our palapa, one or two other people would be laying right behind our heads. They would move their loungers so close to yours - sometimes only a couple of inches separating you from a total stranger. The Bahia Principe Ambar (Adults Section) appeared to have their own section of beach and was not nearly so crowded. Club Diamond had its own pool, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The grounds were very well looked after. It is a beautiful resort.
We had the pleasure of meeting Saline, who cleaned the main lobby area and the washrooms. She was a joy to talk to, always had a smile and such a positive attitude. You always knew when Saline was working as the washrooms were sparkling. We also had the pleasure of meeting Dorotheo, who cleaned the sidewalks in a couple of areas. What a wonderful gentleman - such a big beautiful smile and so pleasant to chat with. Both Saline and Dorotheo made us feel so welcome. It was obvious they both loved their jobs and enjoyed doing the best job possible. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Since this was our third time to the DR (second to Punta Cana). we didn't participate in any of the tours. |
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| Other Comments |
Communication was a problem at times, even with the Club Diamond staff. At times, you would stand in line only to be told they couldn't help us that we would have to go to the Main Reception desk. We asked at Club Diamond about cashing travellers cheques. The person told us we should see our Sunquest rep as they are the ones who cash the travellers cheques. We thought that rather odd, but approached the rep. He was amazed that we were told to see him. He then told us where to find the currency exchange.
On the up side, the weather was fantastic for the most part.
On a rather humorous note, my husband wanted to purchase some throat lozenges at a small store on the resort. When he asked the sales clerk how much the box of lozenges cost, she asked how many he wanted. She opened the box and sold him 5 lozenges for $5.00 US!!!
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| Air Transat |
| Our booking was through Sunquest Holidays, but we flew Air Transat. We upgraded to Option Plus on our outbound flight and to Club Class on the return. It was worth the extra money to get priority check-in, particularly in Punta Cana. Our luggage with the first pieces off the plane in Punta Cana. The food and service in Club Class was wonderful!!! |
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| A Beautiful Paradise! |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Terri B >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Dec, 2009 | Leisure | Family
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| This was our first holiday as a family and it was wonderful. We had 2 adults, and 3 boys 17, 17 & 18, and we also went with another family of 6 - 2 adults, 3 girls 18, 17, 13 and one boy 11. The weather was hot during our entire stay. We had a shower once during the day for 10 minutes otherwise it was hot during the day and warm at night. The day we left December 24th we were at the beach until 11:00 am then came back to the room to pack up to go home and then the rain came. |
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| Your Arrival |
| We arrived December 17, 2009 at 4:30 pm. The weather was so warm compared to what we left behind in Edmonton, Canada. Going through the Punta Cana airport was fast and organized. The buses waiting to take people to the resorts were all properly labeled. The ride from the airport to the resort was approx. 25 minutes. The driver and tour guide on the bus were very helpful and had everyone's information for their resorts except for us. The reason being is that instead of us staying at the Gran Bahia Punta Cana, they upgraded us to the Esmeralda. We arrived at the main lobby, and then a driver grabbed our luggage and drove us to our resort. The staff at the front desk were very friendly. We were greeted with a cool towel and a drink. They were very accomodating by giving us 2 rooms joined. |
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| Rooms |
| The boys room had 2 double beds, and our room had a king size bed. The rooms were grand and fit for a king and queen. The bathroom had a rain shower, a jacuzzi tub and 2 sinks. Everything in the bathroom was in marble, and had a window to the room, which you could easily pull the curtain over it. The rooms were clean, the air conditioning worked, the maid service was wonderful, they cleaned the rooms daily, left fresh towels, fresh pillows and towel art on the beds daily. They even came back in the evening to turn down our beds. The rooms also had a couch that pulled out to a bed, there was a table with 2 chairs and a balconey. We were on the main floor, so I would go out to the balconey to warm up because my husband was enjoying the air conditioning to much. The balconey had a table with 2 chairs. Our rooms were non smoking, but you could go out on the balconey to have a smoke. Sitting on the balconey in the late evening was very warm and calming. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| The restaurants were very good. We ecspecially liked the Japanese restaurant. The buffets at our resort had a vast variety of food. They had all kinds of meat, fish, soups, pasta, vegetables, fruit, cakes... you name it they had it. The buffets had a different them everyday from canadian, italian, chinese, american to mexican. They still had alot of your basic foods as well. The buffets breakfasts, lunches and suppers were just a good if not better than some of the A La Cartes.We tried other buffets at the resorts and they were the same as ours, very good. The bars whether at the main lobby, or the lobby at our resort, or the swim up bars. The people there work very hard to please us, and we had a wonderful time. Manwell, and Abraham are the best bartenders at the swim up bar, and the bar at Esmeralda. We had a great time and a lot of laughs with them. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| The beach was gorgeous, there was plenty of chairs, as well as the sun huts. The kids played beach volleyball everyday. They had games at the beach, they had a bar at the beach, and they also had security which you didn't see unless something went wrong, then they were there immediately. The sand is so soft and white. The overall smell of the outdoors had a floral hint to it. The grounds at the resort were immaculate. There was always someone working on the grounds either doing the plants, painting the borders, cleaning up dead leaves, sweeping the walkways, or cleaning the tables at the pools. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| There was always something going on day or night. During the day there was plenty happening at the beach, the pools had activities, there was snorkling lessons, they had excursions to go on. There was a market on the resort you could do some shopping, they had a mini golf course, a spa, the kids even went and played basketball at the courts, but only lasted 15 minutes, it was to hot for them to play. Again the weather was great!! The evening had shows at the main theater like 80's show, The lion King and Michael Jackson look a like. The shows were very entertaining. The main lobby had a big meeting place you could sit and visit and have a drink. It was a nice place to meet other people. |
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| Other Comments |
| I don't have one bad thing to say about this resort, they spent alot of time trying to please everyone that stayed there, and they even went out of there way to make your stay there enjoyable. The people there are friendly, and funny. English isn't a language barrier there, because they try so hard to please everyone. I would definitely return to this hotel, and I would 100% recommend the Gran Bahia Principe to anyone and everyone. I can hardly wait to go back there again!!! |
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| Beautiful resort great weather amazing food. |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| User Rating:
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Cindy >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Dec, 2009 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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Left Montreal December 31 2009 9:00 am flight with Can Jet Airlines,4 hours with no leg room,a sandwich only to eat.i will not fly Can Jet again,will fly Air transat or sunwing,and i think i will go for first class.Four hours is too long to not be comfortable.It took only 30 minutes to get to the hotel.
we had reserved the royal golden deluxe,The difference with the royal golden deluxe.they call it the Esmerelda, there is 4 villas,closest to the beach.the safe is included with the royal deluxe. |
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| Your Arrival |
Rooms are just ammazing, we had a king size bed,jaccuzi in the bathroom
could not ask for moore. |
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| Rooms |
we went to book our a la cartes at 8:30 am the next morning,computer was down.
we went to the pool came back 1 hour later,she gave us 5 ala cartes, instead of 4. the only one we couldn't get was the steak house.we went to the japonese
restaurent, meat was overcooked,has they cook the meat first instead of last
Sushi was great, ambiance fantastic.we went to the Bella Italia.we didn't enjoy it.the main buffet at the principe lobby is huge great food can't complain.over all we did like the food. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| The beach is beautiful white sand.the pools are great cleaned daily.this is a 5 star hotel, it was my fisrt time in the dominican republic,and we will be returning for 2 weeks next time. we have travelled to cuba 4 times puerta vaillarta , jamaica, and puerto rico, this being the best resort so far,so please do not take in consideration all these negative reviews,some people complain about everything. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| We went to the casino we did not do any excursions, we just wanted to relax on the beautiful beach. |
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| Poor Management Attitude - Disastrous Xmas Eve dinner experience |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
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Mike from Ottawa >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Dec, 2009 | Leisure | Family
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| I booked three families and arranged for another two families to join us for a week of vacation at this resort. Unfortunately, I found the service to be poor, staff had difficulty of communicating properly in English and at times giving wrong information. Despite our initial request, at the time of reservation to be placed close to each other, we were spread around the compound, not able to have breakfast or most dinners together. Worst of all, it was the Xmas Eve dinner. Having booked our dinner table to be together and promised to have this arranged, we were spread all around the restaurant at individual tables. The dinner menu was preselected and handed to us at the restaurant, consisting of: Lobster & prawn cocktail, Langoustine soup, spiral of sea bass Mornay (half cooked), lemon sorbet, stuffed turkey roll, creamy gem squash cheesecake, coffee/tea/liqueurs. No considerations were made for kids, people with sea food allergy or dislike, vegetarians, etc. When aske!
d for an alternative to some menu courses, servers promised to bring something else, which never arrived. All the kids in our group went to bed hungry that night. Our reservation was for 9 pm, the turkey was served at 11:15!! Many left the restaurant before the turkey dish arrived. We were still waiting for the French Fries for our kids, so that they would not go to bed with empty stomach, which never arrived. TOTAL disaster. We managed to talk to the night manager, Daniel, after a lot of difficulty. He initially did not want to hear us, at the end apologized and promised to talk to the General Manager and get back to us; we are still waiting, but not holding our breath.
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| Excellent time at the Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
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Tracey >
1 contribution(s) United Kingdom |
| Nov, 2009 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| Your Arrival |
| Arrival was a little confused as 2 flights arrived at the same time and check in details for the hotel was done on the coach at the airport. The staff did not have all guests information so it delayed us and we were sat in the airport car park on the bus for approx 1 hour ( a thirsty wait). All was sorted once we got to the resort and although we were booked at the bavaro side - we were allocated a room on the punta cana side. No worries though as they are both the same. |
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| Rooms |
| Stayed in room 17306 - block half way between the reception and pool, approx 10 mins walk from the beach. Nice and quiet with no noise at night. The room was always spotless and the maid left us swans etc made with towels. I took a phrase book and left little notes in spanish with a tip if I needed anything else and it was always sorted immediately. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
| Buffet lounge was excellent - Iris and Daniel were the best waiting staff and looked after us very well. As I am gluten intollerant I have experienced problems before through lack of choice (I cannot eat sauces/flour/pasta/bread) however the amount of choice was fantastic - lots of different salad and freshly grilled meat options. There was never a single day when I could not select a very enjoyable meal. As I cannot eat cakes etc - I was very pleased that there was also a selection of jellies and fruit for desert! Also ate at the fish/steak and japanese - all very very good. The pool bar was fantatic and Francisco worked his socks off keeping our glasses topped up! The guys would also come round in the afternoon with a trolley serving freshly made sangria and mamajuana - Yum !
Went to the theatre shows a couple of times which were very cheesy and entertaining but remember that this is not the West End and loosen up a little ! Most evenings we stayed in the lobby bar listening to the pianist, watching the dancers and chilling with a G & T and a pack of cards. Good gin good friends and good conversation! What more do you need ? |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
| The grounds were spotless - as were the pools and beach. Only ventured to the beach once as enjoyed lounging around the pool. Found everyone to be very friendly and met some very nice canadian people whilst we were there. Hi to you all - Trish, Nikki Jody and your significant others - we really enjoyed the afternoon bar sessions. Also Bill and Mary who shared our last week where Bill and Phil sorted out the worlds problems over a cerveza or two ! |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| Never strayed off the resort as we have stayed in the DR so many times and just wanted to chill out. Lots of activity going on in the resort - the afternoon aerobics in the pool were a hoot to watch, particularly the young lady getting all the old guys to do aerobics and Mr Universe contest - what a laugh! |
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| Other Comments |
| Have read some of the other reviews with I guess what can only be described as amusement !. This is a great resort - BIG - yes ! , but take a risk, have a walk and get some of that flab off ! You need it after the great dinners and deserts. Yes - there may be some mossies - but its hot !! Yes - you may have your towels moved - but there are big signs saying you cant reserve a sunbed !!!! So don't - if you want a bed - lie on it and stay there - or let someone else use it when you aren't.
Seriously though - this is a fantastic place - so go,relax and leave the stress behind you, peoplewatch, snooze, read a book and most of all, learn from the people there to serve you, who love life, are proud of their country and work so hard for not a lot of money to make your holiday the best. |
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| * The resort is absolutely beautiful and spotlessly clean. |
| Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
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Debbie >
23 contribution(s) |
| Nov, 2004
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November 6 – 13, 2004
We flew Air Transat out of Toronto. We purchased the Club Transat upgrade, and it is well worth it. The upgrade gives you big seats, with a separate checkin at both airports. Your luggage is given priority, first off the plane. You are allowed twice the baggage allowance as well! Whereas with the cutbacks regular passengers are just given a sandwich, and you have to pay for snacks and anything you want to drink except water, tea and coffee, with Club Transat you have unlimited drinks, a menu with 4 dinner choices, free snacks, free headphones, etc. The flight staff were excellent. I only wish they had better flight times to Punta Cana. We didn’t leave until 4 in the afternoon, making for a late arrival in Punta Cana, and the return flight didn’t leave until 10:30 at night, getting us into Toronto around 2 a.m. (although our return flight did leave half an hour early). A long day, particularly if you can’t get late checkout at your hotel.
We arrived in Punta Cana in a thunderstorm, and had to circle for about 15 minutes before being able to land, then wait for them to bring a shuttle out to the plane to take us to the terminal. When we got to the terminal building there were, as usual, two girls and a photographer waiting to take your picture. We “by-passed” this, as did many others, and went quickly through customs. Our luggage was first off and we were out of the airport in 15 minutes. There are porters waiting to take your baggage as you exit the airport, it is easiest to just let them take it and give them a few dollars. A $24.00 U.S. cab ride and we arrived at Bahia Principe Punta Cana. It is about half an hour from Punta Cana Airport. |
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| Location |
Bahia Principe Punta Cana is located in the northern part of Punta Cana, just north of the Riu Hotels. Along the beach it is about a 10 minute walk to the Riu Hotels. If you walk north on the beach, it is about a 20 minute walk to Grand Paradise and Superclubs Breezes. The “Astron” wreck is offshore, right in front of the hotel.
Bahia Principe Punta Cana opened in June 2004 and is comprised of 708 junior suites. Its sister hotel, Bahia Principe Bavaro, opened on November 6 and has 540 junior suites. It has its own lobby, and is pretty much a mirror image of the Bahia Principe Punta Cana. As you walk down the main pathway from lobby to beach, Bahia Principe Punta Cana is on the right and Bahia Principe Bavaro is on the left. They each have their own buffet restaurant, Japanese restaurant and Gourmet Restaurant, with the same food. The Italian, Grill, Mexican and Seafood Restaurants are shared by both hotels. So if you’re laying awake at night trying to decide which one to stay at, it really doesn’t matter, both offer the same facilities. By the end of our stay there both hotels were fully booked. Due to the layout of the hotel and the many pools and restaurants, it never seemed to be crowded.
A third deluxe hotel, Bahia Principe Premier, with 288 suites, is scheduled to open on December 23, and is located in front of the Bavaro section, and is furthest from the beach.
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| Check-In |
Checkin is at 3 p.m., checkout is 12 noon If you have an early flight into Punta Cana, you may have to wait a while for your room to be ready. Late checkouts may be available (at an extra charge) if you have a late flight going home. They put your luggage in a locked room off the lobby and you can have access to it during the day. If you have made charges to your room, you can pay in U.S. dollars or pesos. Ask what the exchange rate is…we had charges for some local phonecalls we made, which came to 121 pesos, and when I said I wanted to pay in U.S., he told me it was $7….not. I questioned this and he revised that to $5, which was still a bit high, I think they round up to the nearest dollar.
We were the only ones checking in at 10:30 p.m., so it went fairly quickly once they located our reservation. We were given wristbands, towel cards, a map of the resort and our room key card (only 1). I enquired about the in-room safe and was told to come back in the morning to arrange it. Remote for the TV is in the room. The bellboy took us in a golf cart to our room, with our luggage, which was in Building 5, the Club Golden section. We then realized we had the wrong bracelets on, they hadn’t given us the Club Golden bracelets, which are gold. Pat also discovered he didn’t have his jacket containing his glasses, etc. We called the front desk and were assured that if it was found it would be taken to Guest Services and we could check with them the next morning. We decided to go back and check for it ourselves and a bellboy told us they had found the jacket and it was in guest services, which unfortunately was closed by that time, but we picked it up the next morning. While there we also made a quick trip to the lobby store, just as it was closing, where we bought milk to keep in our room for coffee in the morning, and a big bottle of water, as they had not filled our mini bar prior to our arrival and it only contained two bottles of pop.
The resort is very large, and trams run from one end to the other on a regular basis. We took the tram sometimes, but it was a pleasant walk. It only takes about 15 minutes to walk from the lobby right down to the beach. There are umbrellas in the rooms to use when it’s raining, as the walkways are not covered.
Monday morning we awoke to blue skies and a hot sunny day. Had I known this was going to be the best weather of the week, I would have spent more time in the sun, I was trying not to overdo it on the first day! Unfortunately the weather was not good during our vacation. It rained a lot, both during the day and in the evening, and even when not raining it was very overcast and windy. If we saw the sun peeking through, we’d head for the beach. We still managed to spend quite a bit of time at the beach, though. This weather is very unusual for the Dominican Republic. I see from the forecasts that the weather is better there now.
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The first morning we went to the Club Golden Guest Services (which is actually where you should check in and check out if you have the Club Golden upgrade) and got the proper wristbands, and made our dinner reservations for the week at the a la carte restaurants. If you’re in Club Golden, you get 4 a la carte dinners per week. Make your reservations the first day, as the best times fill up quickly. If you are not in Club Golden, you make your dinner reservations at the regular Guest Services area located beside the front desk. You are entitled to 3 a la carte reservations during the week. I asked about the in-room safe and was told it was $30 U.S. for the week. This seemed kind of expensive, but I would still recommend it. The code for the safe is programmed into your room key card, and that is what you use to lock and unlock the safe. We also asked for a second key to the room, which we were given. You need to put one of the cards in the slot inside the door to run the electricity and air conditioning in the room. Remember to take this card with you when you leave your room , because it will also open your safe.
The air-conditioning works very well and cools the room quickly, so you don’t have to worry about the room being warm if you don’t leave the card in the slot. Actually we shut it off a few nights as it was too cold, even on the low setting and I found it loud.
You can pay for items in the stores in pesos or U.S. dollars. If you pay with U.S. dollars your change will be a mixture of U.S. and pesos. Credit cards are also accepted.
Grounds and Beach
The lobby is very beautiful with its marble floors, beautiful chandeliers and the massive palm trees sculpture in the centre. There is comfortable seating in the lobby and a large bar area right off the lobby with tables and chairs, and waitress service. In the early evening they have live music here, which was nice. They also set up a coffee/tea bar with snacks in this area around 4 p.m.
The vegetation and gardens are lovely, and even though the hotel is new, it doesn’t look bare at all. There is also a natural mangrove swamp area that runs across the centre of this resort.
There are two pools, one about halfway down the property, that has a swim-up bar, and a large swimming pool that is located right in front of the beach and has a cold-water Jacuzzi. There are actually two pools here, joined in the middle, one for each resort. There is a swim-up bar on each side. There are palapas around the pool, but these fill up quickly. They will also come around and take your drink orders at the pools, but not on the beach. The towel hut is located near the pool, where you can exchange your towel cards for beach towels or get clean ones. Some days people had to wait for towels, they didn’t always have them yet first thing in the morning.
The beach is beautiful, with white sand and palm trees. There are dozens of thatched palapas at the beach and we had no problem finding one any time of the day. They are still building new ones, so there shouldn’t be any shortage of shade at the beach. Because of the weather most people seemed to stay by the pool. The wind and rain made the ocean a little rough and few people were in the water and watersports were not available most days.
Scubacaribe http://scubacaribe.com/ runs the watersports here. Included watersports are kayaks, catamaran, windsurfing, boogie boards, sunfish sailing,snorkeling equipment, and scuba lessons in the pool. Time limitations may apply. You can also book fishing trips, a sunset cruise, etc. with Scubacaribe.
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| Rooms |
This resort is all junior suites, in 2 and 3-storey buildings (no elevators). Due to the layout of the resort, few rooms appeared to have an actual full ocean view. We were in building 5, a 2-storey building, in Room 5208, and if we looked to the right from our balcony we could see the ocean in the distance. It was actually a pretty good location.
All the rooms are the same. The Club Golden upgrade puts you in a section closer to the beach, but the room is the same as the others. Rooms are large and nicely decorated, and have two double or 1 king-size bed, and a seating area with couch, table and chairs. Rooms have a telephone, coffee-maker, clock-radio with alarm, satellite TV (19”) with a lot of English stations (network channel NBC, cartoon channels, CNN, movie channels, sports channels, etc.) and balcony or patio. There is a full bathroom with Jacuzzi tub and shower, hairdryer, and makeup mirror. You also get a few extra goodies like razors and toothbrushes in the basket of amenities, as well as shampoo, bath gel, body lotion, shower cap, etc. There is a mini fridge stocked daily with 2 bottles of water, 2 Pepsi, 2 Seven-up, 1 Diet Pepsi, some apple juice, and 2 Presidente beer. If you want more of something, leave a note and a tip in the fridge, and you’ll get whatever you want. We always asked for extra water, as it is impossible to get bottled water elsewhere in the resort unless you buy it. If you ask for it at a bar, they give it to you in a glass.
In the Club Golden rooms you also have two beach towels, you can use your towel cards to get 2 more if you want them. There are also bathrobes, and an umbrella. There was no iron in the room, but you can request one from housekeeping. I take my own travel iron with me, that way I don’t have to worry about tracking one down if I need it. With the humidity down there, things don’t get that wrinkled anyway – just hang them up for a while. Electricity in the DR is the same as North America, and our plugs fit the outlets just fine. I believe turn-down service at night is another feature of Club Golden, but we only received this on the last night. Perhaps we had the Do Not Disturb sign out when they had come other nights?
Maximum occupancy in the rooms is 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 children. Rooms with connecting doors to the next room are available. They also have some handicap rooms available, as well as highchairs and cribs for children. If you’re traveling with small children I would suggest you bring a stroller.
Maid service was very good, our room was always cleaned by noon. Suggest you pack a washcloth or two, we had them most days, but sometimes the maid didn’t leave any. We left a $2 tip each day for the maid. The whole resort is spotless!
The air-conditioning went out on Thursday, and was out for two days. To fix it they had to dig up the area in front of the hotel entrance, and seemed to be working pretty much around the clock to fix the problem, lots of heavy equipment and noise. Because the weather was overcast and not really hot, it wasn’t any particular hardship not having air conditioning, at least in my opinion. I didn’t even really notice it wasn’t working until Thursday night.
Staff here is very friendly, always ready with an “Hola” as they pass you. Key employees all speak excellent English, some of the staff do not speak much English. Remember you are in a Spanish-speaking country and take the time to learn a few phrases in Spanish, they appreciate it. |
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| Bars and Drinks |
Pat is not a drinker, and I drink mostly white wine. I didn’t find their house wine too bad. I tried a few daiquiris which were pretty good, except they were never the same twice. They seem to have some international liquors available in the all-inclusive, others such as Beefeater gin, Canadian Club, Chivas, Black Label, Absolut vodka, Bailey’s, Grand Marnier, etc. are available at an extra cost of between 140 and 300 pesos ($5 to $10) – pretty pricey. Presidente beer is the only beer they have. The a la carte restaurants also have a wine list if you want to purchase a bottle of wine with your meal.
Restaurants
All restaurants (except for the beach snack bar) are air-conditioned and non-smoking. Men must wear long pants in the a la carte restaurants at dinner, they can wear shorts to the buffet.
If you are in Club Golden, you can make 4 reservations at a la carte restaurants during the week. Otherwise you can only make 3 reservations for the week. We chose to make reservations at the Japanese Restaurant, Italian Restaurant, Grill Restaurant, and Gourmet Restaurant. There is also a Mexican restaurant and Seafood restaurant we did not try.
There is a main buffet restaurant in the lobby area, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It is open from 7 to 10:30 a.m. for breakfast, 1 – 3:30 p.m. for lunch, and 7 – 10 p.m. for dinner. (would have been nice if it opened a little earlier for lunch and dinner. 7 p.m. is late for some, especially those with small children). A smaller buffet for breakfast and lunch is also served in the Seafood Restaurant near the pool and beach. Food here is the same as what is served in the main buffet restaurant, just on a smaller scale (ie. At breakfast it is all buffet, they do not have a cook there to make eggs, etc. for you). We ate breakfast here a few days, but usually went to the main buffet for the freshly-cooked eggs. The pre-made scrambled and fried eggs tended to be cool in both restaurants, as were the hash-browns. The Seafood restaurant was our favourite place for lunch.
Overall, I thought the buffet food was excellent. There was a large choice and always something I liked, and things I hadn’t previously seen at buffets, like Caesar salad and fajitas. They also had my favourite, fried eggplant. And my favourite desert here, oddly enough, was Jello! And of course, pineapple. Cheesecake was good too.
There is also a snack bar with tables and wait service for drinks located by the pool, where they serve hamburgers, hotdogs, French fries, nachos and cheese, chicken, pizza, etc. This is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
There is a limited room service menu. We didn’t try this. It is available from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. |
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Italian Restaurant - Il Capriccio
We ate here the first night. We had an 8 p.m. reservation (a la carte restaurants all open at 7:00 p.m.) There was a self-serve antipasto bar, and they serve a cheese and pasta appetizer, which I thought was good. Menu selections include pizza, pasta, or chicken dishes. There is a desert bar, but there wasn’t too much selection. Staff were very nice, service started out good, but kind of deteriorated toward the end… Again, I think this is because the hotel is new and they aren’t totally organized yet. (This restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch as well, but is only for Club Hacienda members, which is the upgrade for their sister hotel, Bahia Principe Bavaro.)
Japanese Restaurant - Mikado
This was our favourite a la carte restaurant. You are seated at a table for 12 and the food is cooked right in front of you. You get lots of food, more than you can eat. Then you move to individual tables for dessert and coffee/liqueurs. Service was very good here.
Grill Restaurant – Garden Grill
Food was okay, I asked for a steak done medium well, it was pretty rare. They had a salad/appetizer bar, which could have been a meal in itself. The potato skins were good! Service wasn’t the best but the waiters were friendly.
Gourmet Restaurant – Le Gourmet Restaurante
On our last night we ate at the Gourmet Restaurant, it was okay, but our least favourite. Again, the beef was rare, and service could have been better.
For late night snacks you can go to “Burger Principe” in Pueblo Principe at the front of the resort, where you can get hamburgers, hotdogs and sandwiches. It’s open from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Mini-Club
There is a Mini-Club for children ages 4 – 12. It is in a nice building near the centre of the resort, and they have lots of toys, games, TV, video games, etc. The day I stopped in it was only some young children there with their mothers, as they only take children ages 4 and up. There seemed to be lots of toddlers at the resort the week we were there, not so many older children. Babysitting is available for $10.00 U.S. per hour. They have a Mini-Club Program listed, as follows:
9 – 10 a.m. - Welcome
10 a.m. - Tennis Lesson
11 a.m. - Pool Games
12 a.m. - Table Games
1 p.m. - Lunch time
2 p.m. - Walk
3 p.m. - Beach Games
4 p.m. - Mini Golf
5 p.m. - Nintendo
8:30 p.m. - Mini Show
Entertainment During the Day
The animation team works hard to provide daily activities. You can join in if you wish or if you’re like me and just like to sit and relax, they’ll leave you alone. Here is the schedule for activities during the day:
10 a.m. - Tennis Lesson
10:30 a.m. - Spanish lesson
11 a.m. - Beach Volleyball/Beach aerobics
11:30 - Beach games
12 noon - Pool games
12:15 p.m. - Pool aerobics
3:30 p.m. - Water polo/beach volleyball
4 p.m. - Pool games/soccer
4:30 p.m. - Stretching
5:00 p.m. - Tropical Dance lesson
8:30 p.m. - Mini Disco for kids
9:00 p.m. - Dance lessons on stage/show
10:00 p.m. - Show
11:00 p.m. - Live Music in Pueblo Principe |
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Nightly Entertainment
You can see the daily list of activities and entertainment down by the main pool, by the Activities/Towel Desk. There seemed to be two shows usually, sometimes the same show at 9 and again at 10, sometimes different shows. They are the usual audience participation or singing/dancing. We watched a couple of them, they try hard. The theatre is lovely, large and covered-in with comfortable seating. Waitresses come around and take your drink orders.
Pueblo Principe
After the shows end at 11 p.m., you can head to Pueblo Principe (Principe Town). They have an outdoor stage where they sometimes have a band or a show, there is a Piano Bar, a Karaoke Bar, and the Casino and Disco. Food and drinks are included here, except for the casino where you have to pay for drinks. Unfortunately because of the weather we didn’t see too much going on there. This resort has more entertainment options than most resorts, so it’s a good place for people who want to party. There were all ages at the resort. Lots of English-speaking people, as well as German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
Internet Access
If you have the Club Golden upgrade, you have free internet access in the Club Golden Guest Services. There are two computers available, they ask that you limit your time to 15 minutes if someone else is waiting to use it. There are newspapers and a small bar if you want a drink while you’re waiting.
Otherwise, there is an Internet Café in Pueblo Principe, where you can purchase time for $8.00 U.S. per hour, $6 for 40 minutes, or $3 for 10 minutes.
Casino
The casino is open from 8 p.m .to 4 a.m. We went in a couple times. They have slot machines and some tables – blackjack, poker, roulette - it’s not too large. The slot machines are the latest technology, kind of hard to figure out at first, but people were plugging money into them anyway. We lost about $6.00 and decided to call it quits. We did get a half hour or so of play time out of it though. We went in one other time near the end of the week and lost another $15.
Hotel Stores/Shopping
Lots of stores to shop at here. There is a lobby shop which has a bit of everything. However, there is no price on anything and checkout can be slow while they try to find the item in the computer. I bought a couple of candles one day and paid $2.67 U.S. each, and a few days later a lady in line in front of me bought the same candles, and they determined a different code for them and she paid almost $4.00 U.S. each for them.
In Pueblo Principe at the entrance to the resort you will also find a couple of jewellery stores (one being Harrison’s), clothing stores, stores selling cigars, liquor, souvenirs, and handicrafts (saw lots of different things here), lots of silver items from Mexico, and vendors also have carts set up here with various souvenirs.
There are also vendors on the beach - don’t forget to bargain with the beach vendors.
Money exchange
Money can be exchanged at the front desk. I just used U.S. for everything. There are also two ATM machines on the property.
Spa
The spa is at the front of the resort as you enter, and they also have massage beds at the beach. They have a full range of services – prices comparable to what you would pay at home. Massages are $84 US per hour or $54 U.S. for half an hour. I had a massage at the beach one day, she gave me a special price of $63 for the hour massage because she wasn’t busy. It was very relaxing. There is also a fitness room here free for all guests, open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
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Mini-Golf
Located next to the Spa. Again, because of the weather we didn’t try this.
Tennis Courts
Are located at the front of the resort.
Medical Services
Medical services are available 24 hours a day The doctor’s office is located in Pueblo Principe.
Weddings
There is a wedding gazebo where the weddings are held, and there were lots of them, seemed to be 2 or 3 a day. The bride is picked up in a golf cart decorated with balloons and brought to the gazebo, which is decorated with palms and flowers. Wedding dinners are held in an a la carte restaurant. For more information on their wedding packages, see our Weddings Page
Tours
If you want to get out of the resort and see something of the Dominican Republic, there are many tours available – everything from a jeep safari tour to a day trip to Santo Domingo. Your tour operator will have office hours in the Tour area near the Club Golden guest services, and you can book trips through them. I would also suggest that you attend the welcome briefing that your tour operator provides when you first arrive, they provide lots of useful information and also outline the tours that are available.
Golf
Bahia Principe has plans to build its own golf course in the future. Golfing is currently available at Cocotal Golf & Country Club, Punta Cana Beach Resort, and Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog and The Links). You can make arrangements through Guest Services or your tour operator, or see our Golf Page at: http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/golf.html#pb
Summary
Considering this hotel has only been open since June of this year, I think they have done an amazing job. The resort is absolutely beautiful and spotlessly clean. I thought the food was very good, employees are very friendly. Service in some areas can use improvement, but this will come with time. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone. I’ve tried to cover all aspects of the resort in my review – if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me, and I’ll try to answer them for you.
Special thanks to Jacques, Daniel, and Minerva.
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| Photos: http://community.webshots.com/album/223981719qlUyzp |
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| Old Reviews - Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
| Hotel Bahia Principe Punta Cana |
The Sherry's
Ontario Canada
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| October 2005 |
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| The kids club was good. If you have kids over 10, it may not be for them. Our girls are 5 & 7. They met some friends and had a good time. They had mini-disco every night. It is the same routine every night, but the kids loved it. Stephanie and Isobel were the supervisors. They did a good job. The club had movies, Nintendo,an outside play area and play area inside. They would go to the beach sometimes, or the pool or play games (tennis, board games). Kids club was open from 9am to 6pm. The good thing is that if the adults wanted to do a day trip, they could go and do that. |
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