Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana - All Inclusive

El servicio

Los alimentos no decían su nombre en su gran mayoría y la televisión no tenía internet

Upon arriving at Bahia Principe Grand Punta Cana our first impressions of grandness were quickly overshadowed by the many disappointments that would soon follow. The check-in process was slow and painful, it took almost an hour. Not even 5 minutes after gaining access to our room, we needed to use the washroom…as one does after a long day of travel…only to find that the toilet didn’t flush. We called for maintenance to come and repair the toilet, which didn’t take too long for them to arrive and plunge the toilet to unclog the drain. He said that it was working, and then he left. We went to check to make sure it was working and found he had left toilet water all over the toilet seat and floor. I took some travel wipes and cleaned it myself. I then tried using the toilet, and again it would not flush. We had only been in our room 1/2 hour at this point and decided to march right back down to the front desk to ask for a better solution. Our inquiry was met initially with the manager telling us that ALL toilets in Dominican Republic are like this and we would just have to use the waste basket to discard toilet paper for the duration of the trip because the water pressure in the building was not strong enough to handle the disposal of the waste and toilet paper?!! We replied… that having travelled to DR more than half a dozen times, including a stay at another Bahia Principe Property, that we can say that was completely not true of ALL toilets in the DR! We went back and forth with this manager for a short time until he just walked away. No resolution. We were not going to take no for an answer and would certainly not spend the entire holiday using the waste basket for discarding used toilet paper, how unsanitary!! We would not leave the front desk and insisted on speaking to the general manager of the property or we would be cancelling our trip and going home with full refund. A young man (Vladimir) who eventually did get another manager to authorize moving us to another room (only upon our insistence and not leaving the front desk, we just stood there until they relented) helped to facilitate the exchange and eventually we did get moved to another room. He came with us to the new room to check if the toilet was functioning (which it was) before we packed up and moved our suitcases over. The room we were given had modern decor, was spacious, a comfortable bed, great access to the beach, a working AC and was kept very clean by the attendant (for incentive we left a tip each day) The rooms do get infested with mosquitos, I was eaten alive from head to toe while sleeping. Had to stuff a towel below the door where there is plenty of room for them to get in. Tried purchasing bug spray at the shop by the swimming pool at $31USD a bottle and encountered a whole episode with the charges (WAY over-charged with their exchange rate making the cost $91USD…. how is that even possible?) then had to enlist guest relations help with removing the charge from our account. But most importantly, the toilet functioned as a toilet should throughout the duration of our trip. The food, truly disappointing. The buffet is total chaos. It is quite literally “survival of the fittest” situation. Always a line up waiting to get in, up to half hour wait or more. People reaching, bumping, grabbing. Long line up for custom made hot food like the pasta station, which only seems to happen more easily if you tip. The rest of the food throughout buffet & restaurants is always barely lukewarm. Service is painfully slow. There are few labels indicating what the dish is. Much of the food is recycled from previous morning/lunch or the supper buffet. Saw the guy working the grill at the buffet reach into the bucked of raw chicken breast with his bare hands and put the chicken on the grill. With the same bare hand, he took the raw beef ribs and put them on the grill. Then with the same bare hand that had just touched the raw chicken and raw beef, he used the cooking utensil without washing his hand to serve the cooked meat. Saw a girl (not staff) in the self-serve ice cream, scoop some ice cream, lift it to her nose to smell it, it touched the tip of her nose, she then put the scoop back in the ice cream bucket! Yup! Saw a server (this was at The Greek Restaurant) take the cork out of a wine bottle with her teeth, pour a glass of wine for service and then put the cork back in the bottle! Saw another server (this was at the Brazilian Restaurant) slice off a piece of steak from a skewer, take it with his fingers and pop it in his mouth…..meanwhile we had been sitting for 1/2 hour and had not been served anything. While preparing my taco at the taco buffet in the Mexican Restaurant, I reached in to scoop some guacamole only to find the previous serving spoon at the bottom of the bowl submerged in the guacamole. Same thing with the sour cream and salsa…. which means that dozens of people who touched the handle of the serving spoons that were now submerged at the bottom, their germs were now fully integrated with the taco toppings! No wonder why myself, my husband and every other person got sick with a head cold and runny nose! Getting drinks at the beach bar…. plan to wait 20-30 minutes in line if they should decide to serve you at all. Only 2 guys working. Their policy - if they don’t look at you, they don’t see you standing right in front of them so technically you are not there. Then, serving people jumping the line ahead of you. I may have had two drinks the entire week because it was too much effort to even try to get one. Not much of a loss in the end because the quality of the drinks was poor. Generally, most of the staff I found to be unfriendly and dismissive, they look pretty miserable most of the time. There were far too many other incidents to count frankly…. but I think you get the point. Bavaro Beach is always amazing. The water was clean and beautiful, with sunny skies all week long. This week was exceptionally crowded do to the holiday (Easter) Keep in mind, you have 5 resorts on the same property using the same stretch of beach. However, the age-old problem of not enough sunbeds/parasols to go around and the “reserving” of these prime spots and then not showing up for hours and hours was pretty extreme this particular week. All these sunbeds/parasols were reserved by 6am each day! This resort has a “NO Reserving Sunbeds/Parasols” policy posted but it is not enforced by the staff, they could not care less. Many times, these reserved prime seats would sit empty until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, a couple times a family reserved 8 sunbeds/3 parasols then they never showed up the entire day. People (including us) who paid to also enjoy the facilities sat on towels on the sand while the reserved sunbeds/parasols sat unoccupied all day. There are always people who feel entitled in this way and it’s funny how a moment on a beach mirrors real life. Some people give, some people take. Travel teaches you more than geography, it teaches you character, yours and everyone else’s. The resort should empower their staff to remove towels from “reserved” sunbeds/parasols if the people don’t show up within a certain time period such as 45 min to 1 hour, enough time to get your breakfast and get your butt in the chair…. otherwise it goes to the next person. By mid-week we had had enough of the same people monopolizing the sunbeds/parasols and took it upon ourselves to remove towels from “reserved” unoccupied ones and occupy them ourselves. Of course, the people never came to claim them…. how could they? There is a “NO Reserve Policy” There needs to be a counter-movement to ”un- reserve” this overly abused trend. This is the first vacation we've taken (we’ve been to dozens of resorts in the Caribbean) where we were counting down the hours and days to come home. We won’t be back to this resort ever, or DR anytime soon. As this is already very, very long, and I've only touched on a few of the many issues, I’ll end with the only saving grace to this vacation…. the weather was amazing!

We truly tried to make the best of our stay, but unfortunately this was one of the worst resort experiences we’ve had. From the moment we arrived, there were major cleanliness and maintenance issues. Our bathroom tub was covered in hair and filled with yellow water upon arrival, which was extremely concerning. There was also visible mold on the walls in the room. The air conditioning was another major issue — it had a very strong sulfur/rotten egg smell that at times made me feel physically ill. When maintenance came the first time, they simply sprayed something in the unit and left. The second time, I was able to see the filter, which was rusted and completely black. Instead of properly fixing it, the staff placed what appeared to be a coffee filter with coffee inside the vent to try to mask the smell. It was shocking and completely unacceptable. In addition, my mom’s room had repeated power outages, with electricity turning on and off throughout the stay. Service was equally disappointing. I spent approximately five hours at the front desk trying to resolve these issues, but it was very difficult to get consistent help or speak with a manager. Phone calls to the front desk went unanswered. The breaking point was at breakfast — after waiting 40 minutes for an omelette, there were no clean plates available. I was handed a used, dirty plate and my food was placed on it. Overall, the lack of cleanliness, poor maintenance, and failure to properly address serious health concerns made this an incredibly frustrating and unacceptable experience. I would not return or recommend this resort.

nous avons été changé de chambre après une nuit pour dédommagement suite à quelques petits problèmes à notre arrivée. La nouvelle chambre était magnifique!

le seul bémol demeure le nombre de chaises disponibles à la plage. plusieurs personnes se réservent des chaises un peu partout, en même temps... ça peut devenir irritant...

Beach and pools were great, transport buses are a nice touch. 45% of food was good. Lobby Cappuccino was great

I noticed Chinese telecom Giant Huawei used at the resort for wifi?? Illegal in the US and currently being thrown out of the EU for spying on citizens and stealing data WTF? Rooms poorly maintained, as if repaired by armatures? No less than 25 mosquitoes in our room throughout the day and night,, lots of bites...did not see any preventative measures like spraying, etc. TV never worked the whole time, Got BS responses, never any communication or followup. I think the TV with my signal has been broken for a year and they know and accept this. No discount offered. Front desk a mess, took 45 minutes + to check in. No training. they did not give adequate info on what services the resort offered Food could be very good at times, but many meal hours were disappointing. Poor cold selections, too much sliced meat, poor salads (more variety was needed) no sugar free drinks to be found anywhere at the Resort??, bar included. Many times hot items, meat etc looked old, fatty with Gristle and bone . It seems they were only cooking for Hispanics, bad attitudes by some service staff, Very little or no supervision, Constantly out of plates and cups, auto-coffee machine spits out garbage, one day all coffee machines were not working, understaffed it seems. Never saw the GM or F&B director. Poor entertainment offered. Cooks slicing cold cuts, no gloves just their hands...enough to get many sick. Luggage and transportation staff not providing licensed Cabs who only wanted cash at the airport. I'm sure they paid off the resort staff. The GM must know this is going on. Oh yes selling Mosquito spray for $30 to $40+ that did not work???? They must know this. I felt scammed most of the time. Property seemed dated to me. I understand Hyatt recently bought a 50% stake. Big mistake. I sent an email to the GM, never got a response...they must be laid back and on island time. Acceptance of mediocrity

La Alimentacion muy bien La Piscina y Playa muy Bien El personal muy bien y amable

La Habitacion 73109 un desastre ( Gotera en el Baño el techo del Baño parece que se va a caer y Pasadizo gotera cae agua , el Sofa Cama ( No se ajusta a un Sofa Cama , es cojines en una banca de madera antigua , la vista de la terraza es deprimente ) y eso que yo reserve meses antes 6 meses antes pensando me darian una bonita habitacion ya que iba con mis 2 hijas y no fue asi .

Shocked by the bad reviews. Currently here, yes it's a large resort but surely you would have done your research before coming. Regular golf carts to ferry you around. We did have an older room which wasn't suitable, within an hour we were moved to a new upgraded room. Food hall is busy but there are times when it's a little quite, so go when suits you. Beach is beautiful. Pool entertainment team do an outstanding job, lots of things to keep all ages busy if you want to. Monkeyland is worth every penny. Having a great time, it's what you make it, so ignore the negative reviews.

TLDR: Hotel is unsafe for anyone with reduced mobility, obesity, or allergies. Staff service is disappointing, most of them seem miserable. The resort is poorly managed and barely maintained. Long version: The hotel is a dump and we had horrible service from the minute we stepped off the bus. Only two people were available to receive all the new arrivals off the bus. They took 2 of our 8 suitcases to a staging area and then left us to take the rest over ourselves. The staging area wasn't even a secure room, just a pile of bags on the stairs where anyone could help themselves to any bag whether they own it or not. AND it was exposed to the rain so my bag got wet. The hotel was absolutely not accessible. There were small steps everywhere that you had to navigate to get through the lobby and the buffet. No hand railings on most of the stairs which is dangerous for anyone with unstable balance. Even the few railings they had were wobbly and unsafe. There were ramps, but many were very steep and slippery. For some reason they had glossy floors in an open air building in a tropical climate where it rained nearly every day. The flooring made walking treacherous. Both my niece and my dad slipped on wet floors. **WARNING** to anyone with scent sensitivity, DO NOT GO HERE. They had a machine in the lobby continuously spraying this weird fruity perfume into the air. It's REALLY strong and gave me a headache while we were waiting to be checked in. Only 3 people were at the check-in counter when we arrived and two of them were standing behind the ugly fake palm tree display in the middle of the lobby so we couldn't see them. Even once we were finally speaking with someone, it took a solid hour to check in our group of 5 people. The man helping us kept wandering away. The woman at the desk helping get access to my room later in the afternoon was snarky when my mom got straight to the point asking for help instead of saying "good afternoon." Look, we'd been awake for 28 hours straight at that point. We were sweaty, smelly, and exhausted, and just wanted to get to our rooms. We didn't care about good afternoon. It hadn't BEEN a good afternoon and her snotty attitude made it worse. They didn't explain anything about the hotel during check in. No maps, no rules, no info about the trolley system or anything. They didn't even explain which areas we could go explore and which were member exclusive. The only info they gave us was of the buffet times. We later discovered that their app had a lot of useful information, but they didn't tell us about it. We found it on our own. And half the time it wouldn't load on our phones. Then after getting our room keys set up (which took around 30 minutes), we had to wait another 20 minutes for a trolley to come around to take us to our building. I ended up sitting on the ground because there aren't any chairs near the spot where the trolleys come to pick up the bags. Finally got access to our rooms. We're on the 2nd floor, and there are NO HAND RAILINGS going up the stairs. We had to lean awkwardly on the wall going up and down the stairs while praying we don't fall. No elevator available. And the open air design means the floor was wet and slippery from the rain. The bell hop let my parents into a room, which later they discovered was the WRONG ROOM after another bell hop was trying to help somebody else in! My room was the correct one (small victories!). Everything is dated and painted sad beige, but not awful. The TV won't turn on, though. And the safe was already locked so I couldn't open it. Had to put my valuables in my parents safe instead. My sister's room was in a completely different building. Her wrist band didn't work and none of the electrical outlets in her room were functional. She called for maintenance and a guy did show up, but he left soon after without fixing anything. She ended up having to rely on my portable power bank to charge her devices because she had no power. In the suite bathroom, there was a lovely large tub, but the only safety rail was on the back wall far out of my reach and the step into the tub was HUGE. Incredibly dangerous and all they had was a "slippery" sign on the wall. I had to cling to the glass divider and hope it didn't break while getting in and out. And the towels were stored on a shelf near the ceiling so I had to stand on my tip toes in the slippery tub to reach them. The buffet was absolute chaos during most meals. Way too many people going all over the place. No organization whatsoever. There's no clear flow of traffic and the dishes are placed haphazardly so people are going every different direction. There was no point waiting politely in a line for anything, people just went around you. Competing against other guests to get to the food seemed the norm. Also, most of the dishes at the buffet had no labels, so you're just guessing what it is. I accidentally put bbq sauce on my mashed potatoes thinking it was gravy. Good luck to anyone with any sort of allergy. Guest services was a joke. I went to the front desk to complain because the housekeeping hadn't been taking away my dirty towels and did not make my bed for three nights in a row. Housekeeping showed up with a huge arm full of clean towels at like 9PM. I never asked for more clean towels, I just wanted the dirty ones removed. Clearly they didn't understand what I was saying. And when she left, she only took 3 of the probably 7 dirty towels I had accumulated in my room. She left the rest sitting on the floor... My mom also called twice for an umbrella (none in the room...?) but nobody came. I enjoyed the magic show and the circus show was very funny. Oneiro was excellent, well worth the extra investment. The first quiet pool was nice and the staff at the swim up bar were excellent. Funny and friendly. The staff at the first pool were the best part of the trip honestly. The party pool over by the beach has awful flimsy chairs absolutely not suitable for fat people like me. And the staff at that bar were not friendly and VERY slow even when there was only 2 other guests at the swim up bar. They acted like it was inconvenient to ask them for a drink. We ended up returning to the quiet pool because the bar staff at the beach pool made us feel unwelcome. The train/trolley system was a god send because the resort is spread out over a large area. Being able to hop on the trolley made the space more accessible. But it apparently closes in the evening so I had to walk back to my room in the rain after the Oneiro show. I did see one trolley running but the driver said it was members only and he refused to give me a ride up the road even though he was already headed in the same direction and he had no other passengers. Also the trolley seats are pretty high up and they don't have running boards, so they can be a challenge for anyone with mobility limitations. It also would have been nice to have benches for people to rest between the buildings. I didn't see any benches between the villas other than the train stops. I'm an obese and being able to sit and rest a moment would have made it easier to navigate the resort, especially at night when the trolleys stop running.