When we arrived there was an error because the lad...

When we arrived there was an error because the lady thought we purchased a preferred club package and brought us to the preferred lounge to check in. They realized they had our names mixed up with another couple but then tried to up sell us to the preferred package twice and the second individual even tried to get us to upgrade to a suite for $250 more a night. Then they finally gave us our room keys and we went to our room. The room was a little less than expected as the furniture looked dirty and worn but I whipped them down and it looked like it was paint specks that wouldn t come off. The fridge wasn t cold and the security box wasn t working so we had to call to have them serviced. It took a few hours for the technician to get to our room while we waited. Some days we had everything from the cleaning staff replenished and some days facecloths were missing. They weren t always as clean as they should have been either as we found a hair on one of the clean facecloths.

We left the room and went to check out the rest of the resort. Before we could even get our feet in the ocean we were stopped by a SeaPro salesman. This continued throughout the pool area as we were trying to relax. We went to the buffet for lunch after we walked around a little. We were a little disappointed by the food there but it was our first time and we went towards the end of the lunch shift. We went back to the lobby after lunch to see AmStar but before we could get to them another hotel staff tried to get us to go to an appointment the following morning to learn about other Now Resorts. The amount of Salesman trying to get us to spend more money all around the hotel was way too much. AmStar was great to work with and helped us with all of our excursions. We went to Capers for dinner which was one of the better restaurants.

Sunday we spent the morning at the pool, it was very hard to find even one chair to put our stuff on as many people reserved chairs. The pool waitress seemed a little over whelmed with the amount of people she had to serve and made her rounds around the pool but sometimes it took a little longer than expected to get a drink. The paper cups were a little outrageous, if you are trying to be able to recycle just use the reusable plastic cups I saw. Sometimes we would get paper and by the end of our stay we got the reusable plastic cups. We headed down to the beach for the other half of the day again bothered by salesman but the beach was very clean and beautiful.

We were shocked how Americanized all the food was and were disappointed there wasn t one Dominican Restaurant at the hotel. We did go to the Carnival buffet for Dominican night and it was very good. We also went to the buffet for breakfast most mornings and Heldin Modesto was great and joked with us, the cook Monolo who made our omelets was great as well. We were not able to get a reservation to Spice even when we talked to concierge the day after we arrived and they were booked through the week except for a 9pm or 10pm which was too late for us. Mercure s lobster was great and the staff were exceptional . Tamarindo was good but also very Americanized with Nacho cheese, Juan Carlos was an exceptional waiter there. The Blue Water Grill had terrible burgers as they were very dry and tasteless. The Barefoot grill was convenient for lunch.

Since it was going to rain on Friday, we planned a spa day after breakfast. The staff were great but the steam room could have been cleaner.

Overall we did have a great time in Punta Cana but some things could have been better. We stayed at the Secrets in Cancun and it was a completely different experience. I don t believe they had a Preferred Club there and it was much better. We probably should have just stayed at the Secrets in Punta Cana but it was a little pricier. We also didn t realize how many kids would be at the pool/resort. I almost got hit in the face with a football at the pool by a couple of kids playing catch. We will most likely stay at a Secrets Resort or adult only resort in the future.