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Dennis from Chicago, Illinois
"This was my 3rd trip to Dominican Republic for vacation. In terms of accommodations and hotel quality, this was by far the worst of the three. Previously I have stayed at LaRamana and in Punta Cana. Here is the synopsis of Grand Paradise Samana:
BEACH - Dirty and Small:
Very small and is not tended to. The beach area is actually mainly grass, with a small strip of sand. It is constantly covered in sea-weed that is brought in by the ocean - which is normal for a wild coast line, however every other resort I have been to, had staff constantly cleaning the beach. Additionally, there is always some piece of trash/garbage flying around the beach - cups, bottles, Styrofoam boxes from boxed lunches. Forget about seeing any sort of fish or wildlife or doing any snorkeling from the beach - it is nothing by sand and patches of sea weed grass
ACTIVITIES - Limited and Hidden Costs:
This resort nickels-and-dimes you. For instance, to take a catamaran (little Hobie cat catamaran) out for an hour, you have to leave a $100 US CASH deposit. You will lose this deposit immediately if you go outside of the designated sailing area for even a split second. The designated sailing area is smaller than a US Football field. To go snorkelling - aka the put you in a boat and take you 200 yards away from the beach to a moored platform - will run you $15 US a piece, for an hour.
STAFF - Rude and Ineffective:
(a) Language barrier - I love being in international resorts and among people from around the world. At this resort, however, if you don't speak French or Spanish, you don't fit in. They even have a private party only in French every night. You will be lucky if you find staff that speaks English, and when they do, its a lot of gesturing and speaking in hands. Not a big deal, but this was an issue especially when you are asking them to fix something in your room.
(b) Timeliness - (and I very much get the concept of 'island time') is awful - we asked for a wake up call at 8 am... the phone rang at 8:45. When picked up all we heard was 'wake!' and then the staff hung up the phone on the other end right away. The next day, we asked for a 7:30 am wake up... the phone rang at 8... On the third day, we thought its ok to assume a 30 minute delay... so we made a wake up call request for 7 am... the phone rang at.... 7 am.
(c) Sales pitch - this was a BIG PROBLEM - half the staff are tasked with PULLING YOU INTO A TIME-SHARE-TYPE OF A PRESENTATION. They are relentless... You tell one that you are not interested, another shows up with the same 'used care salesman' demeanor.
(d) Rude - as is normal at these types of resorts, beach towels are given to the guests in exchange for 'towel cards'. On the first day, I went to get two towels at about 10 am. I was told that no towels were available because of laundry. I asked when laundry would be done, and was told - 'i dunno'. Ok, I came back in 2 hours. No towels. I asked when to come back - 'i dunno'. I came back an hour later. No towels, I politely asked when laundry would be done, to which I was told to use the sun and the air to dry... funny.. but not so much.
ROOM - Over all it is fine:
Since on beach vacations you don't spend much time in the room anyway. A few quirks though: the bed broke simply by sitting on it. They fixed it during the day. The TV did not have a remote, to which they simply said 'oh yeah, we dont have a remote'. Otherwise the room was clean, in good shape, no complaints.
ATMOSPHERE - Not secluded at all
The hotel gets literally OVERRUN by the locals on weekends. You feel that you basically traveled to Dominican Republic to simply go to a rowdy public beach.
VERDICT - stick to the bigger resorts in LaRamana. Believe me, it is worth paying a few hundred $$ extra for the better resort, because by the time you are through with this one (with all the hidden charges) you will have spent the same amount."
Posted: Wed, Jul 25, 2012
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