Hello - We're still here for a few more days but as I experience more and more senior moments, I've decided to begin my report now and add as the days go by.

Day 1 - Left cold, snow and wind behind on a 6am flight to Punta Cana. All was uneventful, passport control, luggage retrieval, etc was easy. Our ride to the hotel lasted a little over 20 minutes. Arrival was met with the dreaded words...your room is not ready. After waiting almost 3.5 hours, we finally got our room. Obviously, they are not yet well versed in balancing arrivals with departures and understanding the flight arrival timetable. Our room is/was in building 6 - the furthest from the pool, disco and main buffet restaurant which is wonderful since that means a quiet area. The room itself is large, bed looked rumpled when we arrived and the musty smell was overwhelming. Per another poster, I brought some air freshner which is helping a little bit. We had lunch at the main buffet and dinner at the seafood restaurant. Both were adequate - not spectacular but about what I expect from an AI resort. English, or lack thereof is a major problem. We speak a little spanish but not enough to explain a major trauma, etc. Internet is a whopping $25/day which is about triple what I've seen elsewhere. Service is spotty as well. This is the first place we've travelled to in the past 20 years that openly tells its guests not to drink the water or use tap water for brushing teeth. I've been using bottled water for my contact lenses as well. The beach is quite nice, pool is crowded. Chairs are claimed by 9am each day near the pool. We've booked some excursions over the next few days that should be interesting. Overall, I'd give this resort a C+ so far.

well, thanks for taking the time away from your vacation (and for paying the hefty fee for internet use!) to post your trip report. I'm really sorry that you're not having a fantastic. Hope it gets better!

When I was there a few weeks ago...I used their internet in the lobby...it was $3 for 15 minutes..$5 for 30 minutes...allowed me to check my emails everyday for alot less.

Day Two - beautiful weather and I've gotten a nasty cold. We spent the day at the beach, took a long walk both directions and generally veg'd out. Dinner was at the Italian restaurant down the beach and again, was OK. After dealing with the 2 restaurant Club Med set up, this is nice. I have my own laptop and a propriarty email that needs VPN access so I have to pay the $25/day. We've met some nice folks - seems to be a heavy european flavor as opposed to North American. A gentleman from Russia struck up a conversation with us and after discussing cigars with my husband, he pulled out two quite nice ones and gave them to him! Funny thing is...my husband doesn't smoke!

Day Three - my cold is getting the best of me and the sinutabs are $3 each!! However, we press on. Today we took a snorkeling trip (there is a lot of license with the term 'snorkeling' here). Loud party boat, a lot of alcohol which concerned me since most of the people on the boat had never snorkeled. We stopped first to stand on a sand bar and get tennis balls thrown to us...finally, we got underway to a wildlife preserve(?). They had two pens with rays and nurse sharks in them. We snorkeled around the pens...it was wall to wall people so we took off on our own to find some coral and really beautiful fish. Back at the ranch....dinner at the Steak House. Hoping my cold eases up by the weekend!

After getting embroiled in my comments about the AI experience and chided for not finishing this up, I will outline our last few days in Punta Cana with some comments at the end. Please...these were our experiences and if they are not sugar coated or somehow offend your sensibilities, my apologies in advance.

Day Four - a day spent at the pool, on the beach and generally resting. The drinks are cold and the alcohol content light so I don't feel any ill effects of drinking at all. We went to the hotel buffet restaurant. I realize that many people love huge buffets but I have a hard time seeing the same vegetables every day on the buffet and possibly then in the soup a day later. The platters holding the raw chicken, beef, hamburgers, etc are not chilled or covered. I worry about the wisdom of eating hamburger in particular. When the music cranked up again - Follow the Leader, Bob Marley, etc, we headed back to the room.

Day Five - Up early (7ish) and off for a Day trip to Saona Island. It took about 90 minutes to arrive at the departure beach, then we loaded onto an open whaler for a 40 minute ride to the island. The skies opened up half way there so we slowed down, endured the storm and then took off again. They stopped at a shallow area where we were encouraged to jump in and look for starfish...having snorkel gear available would have been nice...otherwise, it was a tough. The island was lovely - plenty of shade - which would have been necessary if the sun had been out. A number of people played volleyball and then the music cranked up again...Follow the Leader, Macarena, again and again. We loaded onto a catamaran for a sail back, the music started, very drunk french girls started dancing, weaving, falling and mercifully, we were back within 90 minutes. Due to the traffic, our bus ride back to the hotel took just under 3 hours so after a quick shower, we walked down to the Italian restaurant and faced the pasta.

Day six - Best excursion of all - Zip Lines. the ride out to the area was difficult and I hope that nobody had a bad back before because we were all in pain by the return. the zips are fun, extremely safe and a different experience all together. the two water trips we took were forgettable..this was unique. We returned, grabbed lunch (boiled potatoes, watermelon) and then took a lot of pictures. early in the morning, DH had gotten up to take pictures and at one point, a snarling dog ran at him, he went into the water and the dog left. A few minutes later, the same dog came lunging at him. He grabbed a stick and chased the dog. He followed the dog and found it being held by a grinning security guard. He took one look at the guard and the dog and just said...do it again and I'll kill your dog. The guy got the message. He probably thought it was funny to intimidate a tourist I guess. That night, we went over to the Spanish restaurant, La Fuente for dinner. The place was empty but we were told that we needed reservations..so we went to the front desk, made reservations for 10 minutes later and got served. The paella was good - salty but good. Service was very good..but with 2 tables full, I guess we should have gotten the attention.

Day seven - up and to the airport. I was happy to be on the plane.

Observations: We never saw the source of the wine but it must have been from the finest box or screw top bottles avaiable...translation: very poor

Take any and all types of medicine with you - aspirin is $1/tab, sinutab is $3/tab. Hate to think what they would charge for immodium

Tip the staff - they make on average $200/month and work long hours. Many properties will provide lodging, others don't.

Ask where the leftover food from the buffet goes...if it feeds the staff or goes to their version of a soup kitchen, great. IF its thrown away..shame on you for staying there!

Assume any trip will take twice as long as advertised. The roads are in very bad shape, the shocks on the vehicles are shot

If you've snorkeled in other caribbean spots, this is not great. If you've fed rays or fish with frozen vegetables and seen huge schools of gorgeous fish, you won't see them here...or maybe its just where the trips took us

Don't be surprised to see roaches and lizards in the bar area. Thankfully, we only saw lizards in our room

Don't assume toilet paper will be available in the restrooms..check before you choose!

I would compare DR to Cancun in the early 80s or Huatulco in the early 90's. However, the Mexican govt may have more resources to bring up the infrastructure. DR is poor and the political situation could be up for grabs after elections in May

As we heard from other tourists from Wisconsin, Boston and the DC area...if this doesn't meet your expectations...lower them.

Thank you for completing the trip report. Again, sorry you had a not so great experience. Just another reason why we keep avoiding the DR.

Sorry to hear you had a bad time...The people really make up for anything else for us....Dominicans are a beautiful people...We have made some really good friends over the years...This resort has really gone down hill since we last stayed there 3 years ago..But we still did not have a problem with bugs or lizards...Still a very clean resort...just worn out.

the Dominican people were lovely. They have a real sweetness about them and I feel badly that (per one of our tour guides) they don't have much of a future after working at a resort for a few years. I think its important to leave the hotel you're in and experience the real life of the citizens. We made that a priority in all of our travels so our children would see that the glitz of the hotel is not always indicative of how everyone else lives. Barcelo is in the process of gutting each of their hotels in the Bavaro complex and rebuilding them. This will take about 2 years as they work mostly at night. With new competitors on the horizon, they will need a lot of work to stay even. maybe we were expecting a better quality for $600/day and that was unrealistic.