Got back from the Bahia Principe, Punta Cana on March 28th.

First of all, I must say that DO NOT TRAVEL WITH AIR TRANSAT. Seats were cramped. Imagine sitting for 7hrs in a cramped position. The flight attendants were good. They knew that the plane was packed and crammed as well.
As far as the hotel is concerned, it was absolutely wonderful. Granted, it was big, however, the service was so good that you didn't feel like it was that big.
The beach was actually the best I have seen, and I have been all over the caribbean.
The hotel next to us had a terrible beach with weeds ( Majestic Colonial). The other hotel on the other side to us, Riu, shared our wonderful beach.
The food was a little bland in the buffet, however, a lot of people liked it. Our favorite theme resturant was the French, Mediterranean,
seafood, and fried chicken from room service(24 hrs room sercice)

Anyone that complains about their time here is way to picky.
I was at the Bahia Principe from April 28 - May 5 2007 and I had an AMAZING TIME.
Went with my mother, father, brother (aged 21), his fiance (aged 21), my best friend(aged 19), aunt, uncle and 2 cousins (ages 13 and 17).
The airport was a little confusing to find our shuttle bus, but wasen't bad. It was extremely interesting driving through the cities, seeing how they live and the cultural differences.
When we got to the resort, check in wasen't bad. While waiting in line we were given fresh watermelon juice, as we were all really hot from the heat and still being in long pants. Check in took approx. an hour for all of us, getting 4 rooms, all in the same buidling like we asked, 2 together on a floor, and 2 together on the other floor. Only thing we couldn't get was 2 rooms with 2 double beds, instead 3 of our rooms had a king, but that wasen't the biggest deal. Before we even got our rooms we had our wrist bands and went over to the lobby bar in shifts to grab and drink and run back to the line.
once we had our keys we were quickly wisked to our rooms, where they helped us to carry our bags up to the 3rd floor. Quickly through on our bathing suits and went down to the pool.

Food: The food was really good, buffet changed things up every night. The fruit was like nothing i've ever tasted here in canada, it was so fresh and so juicy. We went to the Garden Grill one night, really good, buffet style though, so seemed alot like the buffet. Japaneese was by far the best, very entertaining and the food was really good as well. Mediterranean was really good, i had an amazing soup there. As for illness, 3 of us the food didnt always sit great, but i know for myself no matter where I have ever travelled too it never has, no big deal though, careful what I ate.

Bars: My favourite bar by FAR was the swim up in the main pool, shout outs to John and Juan. They were hooking us up all week, they saw our drink was empty and it was refilled within a few minutes. They even let me and my friend hook our Ipods up as long as the music wasn't distastful. The bar at the entertainment was always fairly busy, but everyone went to the nightly entertainment that you can't blame them, still not as busy as a bar here in toronto.

Entertainment: AMAZING, they really take pride in this and making sure people get involved. Laying on the beach, I would always get approached saying come dance,come dance, learning the merange, and aerobics on the beach. At the pool, always games, volleyball and such most of the day, near around 2-4 always contests like bingo, drinking contests and tons of other fun. Best was having to watch my brother "shake his stuff" to be able to get his bottle of rum he won in bingo. Went to the disco a couple times, it was packed, but didnt have alot of people dancing, still fun though.

Rooms: Nice enough, tv was good, bed was comfy, BIG bathrooms/showers, always enough towels, if not asked for more. Really didn't go there to spend time for the room so didn't care what it was really like.

Beach: Gorgeous beach, amazing clear water. Went parasailing one day, absolutly amazing experience. Any vendors understood no and left us alone. Chairs weren't bad, we usually got one for all of us.

Overall, amazing time, go and you will not regret. The people that complain really are just not letting themselves relax.

We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana 5th March - 19th March 2008.
We travelled in a group of 18 people, and got married on 14th March 2008 at the hotel.
Our first impressions of the hotel was very good.
We all got checked in on our coach, so we did not have to wait in reception due to the size of the party. We were transferred to our rooms, complete with luggage by the very efficient bell boys. Within 15 minutes of arriving at the hotel, every member of our party was at their rooms.
There was a few teething problems with some rooms. The First Choice brochure advertised either 1 king size bed for upto 2 people or 2 double beds for more than 2 people sharing a room.
3 lots of 2 adults & 1 child found only 1 kingsize bed and a sofa, so the child had to sleep on the sofa, and a family of 4 (2 adults & 2 children) only had 1 kingsize bed and 1 sofa.
On arrival one of the bathrooms had a leak above the toilet, but i must say, within 5 minutes of reporting the problem, maintenance was at the room putting it right. You couldn't ask for more.

Food at the buffet was good, with a varied choice, but we found alot of the dishes barely warm or cold. Service in the buffet varied from excellent to poor, according to who was waiting on your table. One night we had to ask about six times for drinks before we got any. The a la carte restaurants were very good, when you was able to book in. We went to guest services the first day we were there, but we couldn't manage to get a booking until the start of the second week.
Keep a wide berth of the Hamburger Bar in the square, the waiter/waitresses were very rude, the service was unacceptable and the food was very cold.

The bars shut very early in the lobby and the theatre (11pm) and it was very difficult to get a drink as there is not enough staff to serve the amount of customers. (When the hotel is full, there is 5000 people staying on site).
In the lobby bar, there was only ever 2 bartenders and 2 waitresses serving drinks.
In the theatre, we only ever saw 1 waitress, who had to serve approx. 1000 people.

The night entertainment was very poor for a 5 star hotel. Myself and my husband have been to many hotels and never seen such poor entertainment and service.

The poolside bar was better, well staffed, friendly and polite. And as we laid in front of the bar during the day, we got to know the staff there pretty well.

Although stated in the First Choice brochure, you have use of 3 swimming pools, you could only use two, unless you upgrade to the Diamond club, which is not available to British tourists anyway.
The only way you could upgrade to the Diamond club is if you was getting married or have previously visited the hotel.
The beach looked like Benidorm, you could hardly see sand for the amount of sun loungers.

We personally had a few issues with the hotel, i.e. the hot water was turned off on the day of our wedding and the staff on Reception and night manager were not interested at all. They even refused to call our Rep or First Choice resort office, stating that they could not make outside calls on the hotel telephones.
We complained about the service in the Hamburger Bar and as before the staff in Guest Services were not interested.
The sun loungers beside the pools were more or less all taken by 7am. People were putting their towels on them, although it was prohibited by the hotel and not returning to the sun loungers to at least 11am and in some cases 3pm in the afternoon. So if you want a particular spot or you want sun loungers together, make sure you set your alarm for 6am.

This is a 5 star hotel, with a 2 star service and management from Fawlty Towers. We would never go back even if we were offered a free holiday there.

If you like the idea of Butlins in the Caribbean then go, if not, stay away, far away.

We choose the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro for a vacation with our son, daughter in law and two grandsons ages 6 and 4. The trip was long and the children were amazing travellers. When we arrived at the resort we were given great service as they really do tend to people travelling with children first. The check in and trolly ride to our room was very smooth. We arrived in the evening, and did not think to check to see when the buffets closed. Unfortunately we did miss out and had to go to the only place open after 11 pm. That was a hamburger place in the back corner of the Pueblo Principe shopping center. It was not the greatest meal, and not a good introduction to the resort. But we were tired, and at least the kids got to eat something before they went to bed.

The morning was another day and the beginning of our great holiday. The kids took a couple days to adjust, but it really did not take long to get use to days in any of the beautiful pools and the beautiful white powdery sand and ocean. We were in the Priemier section, and the second last villa. We thought this was disasterous, but the trolly system on the resort is an amazing way to get around. Also the premier section has its own beautiful pool. It is not very child friendly but we had water wings for the kids and they still absolutely enjoyed themselves. It can be hard to get a lounge around the pool and guests are out early marking their territory for the day claiming their space. This is very annoying, but everyone eventually finds their space. We preferred the beach and pools near the beach, and the trolly was so convenient. We would jump on at a stop right by our villa and stay on as it ran down the outside edge of the resort to drop us off a couple hundred yards from the beach. When we were ready for our afternoon naps we would just jump back on the trolly and get off right outside our villa. Suddenly the Premier Club became very convenient. The Premier Club also has its own lobby, lobby bar, 20 minutes of free internet access a day per room, snack bar, Mediterranean Restaurant, towel shack, poolside bar and buffet restaurant. The best part was the buffet restaurant and in the two weeks we were there we made some great friends with the staff. They loved the kids and often played with them. They would bring the kids special treats like fresh cut up apples, fruit juices etc.. I had bought my grandson a beachball that was a world globe. He had a great time taking it to the buffet to show the staff where he lived. They were all very interested and amazed at how far we had travelled. Amellio became their special friend. We were all very sad to leave when our two week vacation came to an end.

My grandsons had the opportunity to be involved in the Kids Mini Club. This was lots of fun, and my 6 year old grandson had the incredible opportunity to join the group as a part of the Tropicana Theatre production of the Lion King. The production was amazing and it was so exciting to see that they include children visiting the resort. He was a baby lion, and was absolutely star struck. The staff are so concious of the children and take very good care of them.

The resort is very large and we did manage to find our place. We stayed mostly in our own area and did venture to the shops, miniature golf and many of the A la Carte restaurants. The Japanese restaurant is amazing, and I have to say the service was beyond what I expected. I have a seafood allergy and they did everything to accommodate my needs. My meal was prepared and served before they added any seafood or seafood sauces to the grill. I was also given a special appetizer that did not contain any seafood. We also enjoyed the Italian and Mediterranean Restaurants. The food at the French Restaurant was good but the service was poor. The Garden Grill was also pretty good. The main buffet was also very good. It was very large and always very busy.

Our stay was very positive, and my grandsons cried when we left to return home. Our only negative experiences were the bugs that liked to bite me. This was usually in the evenings as we sat on the outside patio at the lobby bar, and that the bellboy forgot to pick us up with our luggage to catch our bus to the airport. It was the young guy who carries the supplies up for the maids that saved the day. He probably spoke more english than most others on the resort, and when he saw my grandson upset he flagged down a regular trolly, had it turn in between the villa's, loaded our luggage and us, and told the driver to take us to the main lobby as we were going to miss our bus. I don't think he gets many tips, as he was very happy when we gave him the five dollars we intended for the bellhop. We did tip the maid, and the staff in the buffet restaurant who were so good to us. Also we tipped the bartender in the lobby bar who always went out of his way to make up cappacino's and chocolate monkeys. We also tipped the servers in the lobby bar, and they, in return would often take the time to entertain and watch the children. We tipped in the A la Cartes if we were happy with the service, but actually walked out of the French Restaurant and left nothing. The security guard would actually ask for a tip, and this was OK as he was always there. We often wondered if he went home. Most of the staff were amazing, and made our holiday such a pleasure with many memories. It is a very large resort and could be very impersonal, but the wonderful people working there made the difference.