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Review of Now Larimar Punta cana & Secre...

WORST VACATION EVER! Part 1 (too long to post all)...

WORST VACATION EVER! Part 1 (too long to post all)
We usually go to the same place every year & were changing it up this year. We settled on Secrets Royal Beach, Punta Cana. We booked a partial ocean view room because nothing else was available online or through CC. We were told we could use their sister resort next door also but that was not adults only. We like taking walks on the beach so we figured we could walk down to the next resort & check it out.
We arrive at the hotel & the sister resort "Now" seems to be very close! Go left to Now or right to Royal Beach. So we are getting checked in &they show us where our room is & all the amenities on those little maps, only to realize that these are NOT separate resorts!! They are 1 resort & Now is about 75% of it. Then you get approached by the people trying to sell you a timeshare in order to get your spa coupons. We were told you can tell them you are not interested & you just want your coupons & it wouldn't be a problem. But one of the couples we met tried this and was harassed by the guy! She went back 3 times before they finally gave her the coupons.
ROOMS: We go to our room & open the curtains to a full roof top view complete with men working on the ac units! No partial ocean view! We have the guy call the front desk & so the arguing begins! They only have 1 other room available & we would have to pay $900 to upgrade because it is a preferred room. We go back to front desk & the price goes up to $1700 now! After 30 min of arguing, we get them back to $900 but we have to stay in one room for 2 nts & then go to another room. Fine. We go to our room which is very nice, & open the curtains to look directly at the preferred pool & bar. Everyone walks right by our room to go to bar & into hotel. But it's only 2 nts so fine. The 2nd night we get a call saying the room is ready now if we want to move. Ok great! Trip has not been great so far, so happy to get settled. We thought things were turning around & we decided we were going to be positive from now on! Then, we got back from dinner to a flooded hallway outside our room, open the door & the room looked fine until we got into the bedroom & the water was dripping from the ceiling by the sliding door & the deck was totally flooded so it was seeping in from there too. I called for assistance & they said someone will come. My husband proceeded to scoop the water outside the best he could since the drains must have been clogged! Over a half hour passes & still no one has come to help. I call again. Husband keeps scooping, no one shows. Call a third time, my husband also gets on the phone & about 20 min later a guy shows up with 2 towels!!! And speaks NO ENGLISH!!! He leaves & comes back with a bucket & a squeegee. He has no idea what to do! He calls someone to help who shows up in 10 min & doesn't speak English either. Have to call again to get a manager up here that speaks English. It's now close to midnight. Manager shows up & wants to move us somewhere else just to sleep for the night! NO! We just got to this room & it's midnight! So we slept with the water dripping into the bucket until it finally stopped.
The language barrier is so bad! Hardly anyone speaks English so if there is a problem no one knows what you are saying! We experienced this throughout the trip. Even trying to order a drink or food at the restaurants! Sometimes you would get something that was totally not what you asked for. Not the biggest problem, until you really need help! The fuse in our hot tub would blow every time we tried to use it! Not the safest thing! And try conveying that to someone who doesn t speak English! My husband finally found the fuse box outside our room & he would have to pop the fuse every time we wanted to use the hot tub. He also figured out later that the hot tub was leaking, which was causing the fuse to blow. We called once & the guy had no idea what to do and, of course, spoke no English. It just wasn't worth the time or the battle. Which almost seemed to be the theme of the place... DO IT YOURSELF!