Miches Review - January 2024 (right Before Closing)

Discussion in 'Temptation Miches Grand' started by Cheers2US, Jan 22, 2024.

  1. Cheers2US

    Cheers2US Guru Registered Member

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    I know the resorts are closed, but here's my summary of our stay at both Temptation Miches and Desire Miches. We were there Jan 2 - 9, 2024

    Before check-in: Arrival at Punta Cana (PUJ) airport was OK. Customs and immigration went quickly. We had booked the transportation offered by the resort, which was Punta Cana Limo. The car wasn't ready right away, but we did not have to wait more than 10 minutes. Driver did not have our beers ready, but he stopped at a store along the way to get them. (He brought out the bottles, opened, witha slice of lime in each. We were very uneasy about the bottles being opened) The driver did not speak much English, so it was a quiet 90 minute ride.

    We checked in to Temptation Miches. There were 2 guests ahead of us, but whatever their issues were, it took forever to get to the front desk. Once we checked in, it was fairly easy from there. It was around 8pm so we went to Romanza for dinner. Food was good, but service was very slow. The party at Bash was fun & lively. Our room was beautiful. Spacious, clean and the bathroom set up was great. Too bad we were only there for the night.

    The next morning, we checked out, took a golf cart to Desire Miches and checked in there. Our room was great, but the lights would not turn off. We tried all the switches, in different sequences, but could only get the light by the door to turn on/off. All other lights stayed on 24/7 I didn't bother calling about it because 1) the resort was closing, why fix it now?; 2) we didn't want to have to wait for maintenance to come

    The layout of the resort was great: lots of grass and plants. Not many flowers, though. The beach was beautiful. Clean and zero seaweed. No vendors, either. A handful of locals walked by or drove by here and there. The pool was very nice as well. Lots of chairs available for non-Premier guests like ourselves.

    Food was OK at the restaurants. Actually, by our 3rd or 4th day, we were getting kind of tired of the same choices. The Desire side only had 2 restaurants for dinner: Sahlo and Suki. There was the buffet for breakfast and those offerings seemed to dwindle down as the week went on. The nice thing is we got to eat hibachi 3x, despite not having reservations. We just asked if they had room and each time, there were exactly 2 seats open and the chef had barely started.

    Service was good for the most part. Some servers were excellent, such as Niky, Johan and Alfonso. Some of the staff were visibly affected by the upcoming closure.

    We did not have much interaction with the Playmakers. Only one, Oliver, made an attempt to talk to us and make us feel welcome. The other guy never said a word to us. The two ladies, Luz and La China only spoke to us on our last day as we were checking out. They reminded us to give a good review for them on the ipads. That was the only time they spoke to us.

    A few things we really didn't like:

    1) bug bites. Yes, we were warned and yes, I used bug repellent. Yet I still got bit multiple times, especially on my first 2 days. It was awful. I had at least 15 bites on my right arm/hand alone! My husband was really upset about this and went to the front desk to complain. They offered to spray our room, which we accepted (what other choice did we have?) I did not get bit as much after that, so maybe it was bed bugs (yuck!) that were getting me.

    2) so much confusion with the theme nights and daily activities. Prior to our trip, I had read different opinions on what the themes would be. Would they stick with the original 2024 themes? Or revert to 2023 themes since the resort was closing? On our first night, another guest told us it would be BDSM night. We went to our rooms to change. Since our only source of information was that one guest, I decided to double check. I went on their website (they had a QR code to scan with the resort info) and it said the theme was jungle/safari. Well now I was really unsure so I called down to Guest Services. The agent told me it was jungle/safari. I changed my outfit and we headed down to Melange.... to find everyone, including the dancers wearing BDSM. Ha, joke's on us! There were a handful of other guests wearing jungle/safari, so I didn't feel too left out.
    Also, there was no listing of the daily events, or what times anything would happen. As a result, we almost missed the foam party. We also missed a few events because we were sitting down at Melange while the party was up in the disco.

    3) no one was willing to make change. This is something I've observed at many resorts, not just this one. We ran out of $1 and $5 bills for tipping. We had $20s so we tried to get smaller bills. This was like Mission Impossible. It was so difficult to get change. I walked around to the buffet, front desk, coffee shop, various bars.... Almost no one had or was willing to make change. I said to the front desk lady, "I can't give tips if I don't have change" (On a side note, I am always battling my husband with this. He never wants to bring enough small bills. On this last trip, he wanted to bring $35 TOTAL for tips! I was like, "are you nuts??? We'll blow through that on Day One!" He doesn't like bringing a large wad of cash, saying it's too bulky. So we compromised and brought less than I wanted, but more than he wanted. Of course we ran out by Day 5, so that was fun)

    4) this is not the necessarily the resort's fault, but we caught some nasty virus while we were there. Around Day 5, I felt very tired. I thought this was due to them spraying the room with bug spray the day before. And also maybe too much tequila, not enough water kind of thing. But my husband developed a scratchy throat (uh oh) which became a sore throat the next day (uh oh!) We holed up in our rooms to rest on our last 2 days, so we didn't do much with fun or sexiness. We wore masks on our flights and when we got home, my husband developed a fever and a cough. There's a Telegram group chat and quite a few other guests complained about the same thing. So that put a damper on our Dominican Republic getaway for sure.

    All in all, we did have a good time. It would have been excellent if 1) the resort weren't closing and 2) we didn't get sick. If Desire Miches or Temptation Miches would stay open, we'd definitely go back. The prices are good, the resort is beautiful and the beach is lovely.

    Not sure what we will do for future trips. We are still upset with Temptation Cancun and don't see ourselves going back anytime soon (but hey, never say never) and Desire Mexico's prices have gone way way up, to a point we cannot afford to go.
     
  2. Cheers2US

    Cheers2US Guru Registered Member

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    Ah I forgot to mention a pretty harrowing experience at the airport for our departure. Several passengers were *randomly" selected to have the passports scrutinized. My husband was one of the "lucky" ones. This situation wasn't too unusual, as I'm sure this has happened to us before. However, the agent TOOK the passports of the selected passengers and WALKED OFF WITH THEM to a place we could not see. This was happening at the same time we all had to go through security (bags, shoes on the conveyer belt, walk through the metal detector thing) so it wasn't like we could go follow him. So for a good ten minutes, maybe more, several passengers, including my husband, had literally no idea where the passports were. When you are in an unfamiliar foreign country, this is a very scary situation to be in.

    After clearing security, we found a small desk in a corner with a bunch of people lined up. We asked around and the other passengers told us this was where to line up for the passport inspection. Very poor communication from the airport staff. No signage either. We didn't even know the name of the agent who had taken the passports. After we got clearance the and passport returned, we went on our merry way.

    However, it was so painfully uncomfortable to not have the passport in our possession, and not know where it was, that we decided we will not visit Punta Cana airport again.
     
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