hello friends, we are going to try and keep this short and sweet. but giving insight to how was our trip, we stayed at the grand apr 1-8 first punta cana is a small airport so we had a few jets arriving at the same time, we walked off the plane and directed inside, some will be shuttled from their plane, they were quick to direct and get in line of customs, we were thru the line in about 15 mins, every customs booth was ready and open for the few jets, luggage took about 10 mins after that, our taxi booking we new what booth to go to, checked in and in the SUV within another 10/ i didnt even have time to get a drink before driver was there and loading us, AMAZING- stoped at a store and grabbed drinks, total travel from customs to resort was less then 2 hours. arrival, front lobby was empty and bell boy and front desk was ready, exiting SUV to getting our room ( apprrox 20 mins max . arrival time was around 230 pm and included that was intro to IVAN our Host, we didnt experiance another host, and he took care of everything we needed with a quick msg, and or his many quick visit to us when seeing us, IVAN IS AMAZING!!!!! dropped our bags and hit the pool, pool is a little chilly to start but after about 3 mins body adjusted and no longer can tell, pool is a great size for creating interaction with other couples and playmakers, we were greeted by every play maker almost instantly and cant say a bad thing about any they were always trying with the limtied crowd and never gave up, always smiling and interacting, SAMUEL the towel boy everyday greeted with big smile and hug and asked us what we wanted shade or sun, little of both as day goes on,,, HOT tub was not super hot like a regular hot tub but amazing to jump in stay nice a warm without having to let body adjust to the water could walk right in and perfect!, it was steamy after the rain came in and the air temp cooled. huge size beds all around approx heat maybe 85-90F disco is good size for when its will be a little busier. it will create couple interaction playroom is a fair size may be a little small when it becomes hotel is full. we did suki twice, the habatchi once, and salho twice, every meal was great we really enjoyed we enjoyed suki as all you can eat sushi, where we live its 50$ a person for the cheapest sushi resturant, we cant say anything bad, romanaza on miches was great. breaktfast is regular but we arent big on breakfast so we cant comment about it. staff, this is where i could write for days about them, every single person there always was smiling, playmakers every day all came and sat down or gave us a hug each and every day. - we never got this in mexico i get its less busy but they also have alot less people to get crowd and people going to its even harder for them to put a smile on, i give them full credit that they go 100% each and every day with the limited crowd. Disco bartenders for that they are the life of the party, they interacted with everyone on the dance floor, remembered my drink after day 2, engaged with dancing with us, asked for music request, asked for surprise shots and would always make sure it was perfect and everyone got one without counting. lunch and dinner all of the staff was amazing service, please keep in mind some have never had a resort job so they are learning how, but will always make sure you get what you asked for, we understand they are getting a good job and they want to keep it, im ok with that and i love to see people working thier ass off to ensure they provide for the family, and try to give them a better life, and lets keep it real, we all have made mistakes or errors in our jobs. but they always make sure it was quick and easy. a little extra issac the server for lunch always greeted us with a huge smile, even when we were not in his section. and he arranged for a pair of shoes he was wearing that i loved so i could buy a pair. maids did a great job, didnt even need to use the safe, i put a tip on the bed side table while getting ready and forgot to put it on the pillow, she didnt even touch it was 10$us and was still there, we left out jewelry our phones, they would clean all around it so that it wasnt even touched so you knew someone wasnt touching expensive personal things. Ivan our host again was amazing, even asking about our taxi ride to back to the airport and that we got home ok, even when he wasn't on the clock he would respond to anything we needed, even when we asked for dinner at miches. we will be asking for him again pool bartenders did a great job, always had fresh coconuts for anyone to drink in the morning, they had my drink down by day 2, always dancing beside the bar, always interacting with people. and cheering when they got splashed by the pool water from the vollyball game. becuase of all those great people we met, we are def going back, grand side staff is amazing, mexico has great staff too dont get me wrong, but they are trying to build the DR rep and brand so as long as they can keep this staff going, this will be our new go to, beach is huge and beauitful and safe, we walked the beach 3 times and when down to local beach huts and had a drink, all untouched beach, beauitful views crowd was amazing, couples as young as mid 20's to late 60's nobody was judging, nobody cares of your class status. and everyone wanted to join in when body shots and chocolate sauce came out. we had dinner with different couples every night, all beautiful souls. i hope all those we met and didnt meet that we will all meet again! and if anyone reads this and didnt get our insta or exchange number please msg us!
Just got home today and couldn’t agree more about the staff…we have never had service at an all inclusive as good as this.
Hey guys. Good job being the leaders of the body shots at the jacuzzi! Interesting re both of your service experiences. We were there at the same time of course and didn’t have the same experiences. We found the service in Mexico much much better. For example, we had to ask for butter 6 times at one dinner and for drinks 4 times at another and then the drinks weren’t even right. Think it was part language and part only certain staff can do certain things. Too much handing off of tasks was our opinion. Guess it depends who you get. And a good example of that is our Butler Adolfo was absolutely clueless. So clueless he sent our transfer to the wrong spot and we spent 2.5 hours lost on the way to our next resort and stranded in remote DR ugh. If anyone gets Adolfo sounds like you should ask for Ivan instead. 100% agree on Samuel and we loved the jacuzzi bartender (Sophia?) and the lobby bartenders. Shame they didn’t have Mexico level liquor. Anyway I am rambling. Happy to hear you had better service experiences. Will save the rest for our review to come soon.
sorry to hear about the uninviting experiance, hopefully you will give them another shot in the future, there is alot of learning i agree to do still but we thought everyone did a great job, i tried to keep it short, karina would know about the bartenders names they were great mid day and night shift one, night shift at closing 3 am said we can stay but she is closing the bar she ended up making our group like 3 more drinks each before packing up, Ivan was the man, he has lots of previous resort experiance, and now when this open was able to be closer to home. let them get a few more months of experience and i am sure you will not have a experience like this again,
