Brief background needed first. We had a quick last minute 4th of July trip planned. We were able to book a three night stay at this resort. The trouble started with the TransMeridian Airlines Charter flight from Cincinnati to Sanford/Orlando FL. A 10 hour delay in Orlando. We had a connecting flight there which was due to leave at 11:05 a.m. After numerous lies and no communication from Vacation Express, we finally left the runway at 9:45 p.m. Needless to say, we did not get to our hotel room until 1:15 in the morning. We lost that afternoon and evening. So far no return calls to my messages and no compensation. Since we go in so late, nothing was available as far as activities or dinner reservations. or so we thought. We were in the Royal Club section which. we found out on the last day, had some ammenities that we could have used except for the fact that our Coco Tour guide, Roomy or Romy, would not/did not inform us of this, even though we had the red wrist band which would identify us as Royal Club guests. He told us no activities were available and no dinner reservations were available because of the late arrival. Imagine my surprise, when I went into the Royal Club office and made reservations at 5:30 for 7:00. I suppose since he was not making the reservations he did not get a commision. A very rude, unhelpful person. He told us they would pick us up at our room for departure. After two requests and ten minutes past when the bus was to leave for the airport, we finally hauled our own bags across the pool area to the lobby to board the bus. Check out was okay except for this hotels obession with their pool towels. When you arive at this resort you have to take a piece of paper to the dive shop to get two towel cards. ( we found out that the Royal Club occupants received towels with no such BS.) Each time you went to get towels, you would give them the cards, return the towels and get your cards back. Upon leaving, you could just not give the front desk your cards. I had to literally run back to the dive shop, wait in line while other people were inquiring on dives etc. (Remember the bus is waiting all the while.) Get a green slip of paper which they could not find because they had the wrong room number on it, run back to the front desk and give her the green slip, releasing us from the towel contract and finally get to board our bus to get the --- out of there. The towels did not have gold leaf in them or even the hotels name, they were old and faded. I cannot imagine why the towels are such a big deal there. Othe resorts you just get towels and then put them into a laundry basket when your finished. Pretty simple. Entertinment nightly was poor. The last night we were there, they had men from the audience dressed as jungle men, squatting in the corner of the stage simulating going to the bathroom while the emcee made flatulence noises, they then picked up a small man dressed as a woman, ran across the stage and simulated kissing her and was more like simulating ---. Maybe once was funny but five times?? Benny Hill type humor. We left. A lot of small kids in the audience. How about nightly childrens pagents? Lame. Food was average for an all inclusive. I only have Turks and Caicos to compare to an all inclusive. This did not even come close. The people in general at this resort speak only Spanish and don't really understand much else. I would never go back to the Dominican Republic, this resort or any other there. I will never fly Trans Merdian as well. Very stressful for two days.

Dec 30th to Jan 11th 05. We transferred to this hotel from the awful punta Goleta in caberete, and well glad we did. This hotel is superb. The staff are the friendliest I have experienced. The entertainment in the daytime is excellent with games like darts, horse racing (with a twist), shuffle board etc. The evening entertainment is located in a big outdoor staging area with nice seating and a good bar. Mainly dancing and not that good, but they have a disco in the beach bar from 11pm to 3am. Foos is excellent with a good choice and the buffet restaurant is spotless, with high back upholstered seating, waiter service for drinks. There are 3 other restaurants that have to be booked (Italian, Chinese, Brazilian and Mexican). The grounds are beautiful and well kept. The beach is OK with loads of watersports. There are lots of beach vendors though, but a polite No Thanks does the trick. There is also a beach bar. Just opposite the hotel is a shopping plaza, but bear in mind this is very expensive, lots of souvenirs, but a little pricey. Lots of trips to do, we did the Quad Bikes (wouldn't recommend) very poor condition and not road worthy, one bike actually lost a wheel while riding, and the rider hurt his arm. Loads of them kept breaking down. The other trip was the jeep safari, if you do this, do the Outback one. You do through villages and see the real dominican rep. You also go to the waterfalls, but only jump if you are a very good swimmer as a little boy age 11 died 2 days previous, bring swept away by the current. Back to the hotel, the rooms are quite basic, although clean. Our room flooded 3 times wheile we were there, but so did lots of others as we had very bad weather for 1 week (after Tsunami). Torrential rains.