Did we have a good time? YES. Was everything perfect? NO (but no show-stoppers!). Was the food good? YES. Did we ever leave the table hungry? NO. Is it a nice place? YES. Would we return? IN A HEARTBEAT.

THE SHORT STORY:

Trip date - 2004/12/07 to 2004/12/21.

This was our third trip to the Sirenis Tropical/Cocotal resort complex. On the first trip we stayed on the Tropical side, last year we stayed on the Cocotal side and this year we repeated the Cocotal side. The only real difference is the accomodations. Sirenis Cocotal consists of hotel rooms (large) in two and three story blocks containing about 16 - 24 rooms in each block. Sirenis Tropical is similar except that the units are suites with an additional sitting area, and a correspondingly smaller bedroom area. The two resorts are arranged in a mirror image with a long central pathway dividing the two. Guests are free to use the facilities at either resort.

There was very little evidence of hurricane damage, at least on the hotel property. They have done an exceptional job at repairs. If you know what to look for, minor evidence of damage could still be seen and they were busily carrying on repairs without interfering with guests and services. When you left the property, there was evidence of severe damage to properties adjacent to the hotel, especially along the beach. The hotel trees, landscaping and shrubbery appeared to have survived with little damage, perhaps because they keep the palm trees well trimmed and they didn't present as much of a wind load as untrimmed ones.

OK, there is an advantage to being a repeat guest. First, there are no big surprises and you know where everything is. Amazingly, a lot of the staff also remember you from previous visits, and we were very well taken care of. Yes, you do get what you pay for, but you also have to be careful not to pay for more than what you need or want. In our case, we were more than satisfied. Presidente beer and Brugal (or Barcello) rum do the trick.

Of interest to the handicapped, wheelchair access seemed pretty good and there were substantial grab bars in the tub. There was no elevator in our building, but other buildings did. I heard stories that some were not functional, so that might limit you to a ground floor room. I discreetly asked two people in wheelchairs and neither indicated that they were having any access issues.

This is a nice property and I would have to look pretty hard to find any show-stoppers. It's not perfect, but it suited our needs. If you want the gory details, read the long description. From what we saw, the rooms seemed to be well maintained, the food was quite good (I gained a "few" lbs. in two weeks), the beach is nice and the service is acceptable. It's sometimes a little slow, but I'm on vacation and not in a hurry. As I said, the food is good, maybe different from what you are used to, but good. Some kind of food is available almost 24 hours a day, but there are a few gaps, say between 4am and 7am for example. The grounds are lovely and both the pool and beach areas are well maintained. The ocean has been a little rough, so the sand has been stirred up and snorkeling was poor to say the least!

Over the two week period we had mostly green flag days on the beach, two yellow flag days and one red flag day. We walked up to Secrets at least seven times; each time they were displaying a red flag. The waves at Secrets are pretty huge and it would be easy to get into trouble. One of our friends referred to it as 'death beach' and I have dared her to use that in her review! At Sirenis, the beach is behind the reef and so it's relatively protected. There is a moderate rip current when the tide is changing, but it parallels the beach and doesn't present any problems. For example, I stood in place and my wife floated; within a minute she was 30 ft away.

Sirenis is literally in the middle of nowhere. It's about an hour and 15 minutes from the airport. The road seemed vastly improved over the 'very' pot-holey road from last year. There is nothing much else around. Secrets is about a 20 minute walk in one direction and the new Sunscape Beach resort is about a 35 minute (brisk) walk in the other direction. This isolation may or may not be an issue for you. Personally, we liked walking the pristine beach near the hotel.

THE LONG STORY:

FLIGHT: Skyservice No complaints this time. They were on time (surprise). There was good service in both directions (surprise). We were allowed an extra 20 kgs baggage (school supplies) by prior arrangement. This confused the check in agent who read and reread the authorization letter four times and then had to go get a supervisor! Interestingly enough, in Toronto, they also weighed EACH bag individually, including the carry-on bags. In Punta Cana, they just weighed the bags, several times I might add (hoping that once would indicate overweight!)

CHECK-IN: Check in was a quick and efficient. A waitress delivered welcome drinks while we were in line; my wife beat her to it by getting our 'first' Presidente before we were even checked in and banded. It was pretty early in the day, and surprisingly, our room was ready. So, once we had our bracelets on, our luggage tagged with our room number and delivered to the room, we took off to the beach bar for some more cerveza(s) and lunch. Since this was a repeat visit and we had joined their VIP club, a lovely fruit basket was delivered to the room.

GENERAL: Sirenis is a beautiful resort. We were quite happy with what we received. Since it was our third trip, we were not expecting any surprises. They are still busily changing things, but for the most part, they are improvements. You would have to dig pretty deep to find much wrong here, but if you look for it hard enough, you'll find it. There were a few warts, but nothing serious. The food, facilities and public areas were all good. There is a lot of use of marble and ceramic tile. For example, our bathroom was marble and tile from floor to ceiling.

The restaurants and bars are all concentrated at each end of the central walkway with the accomodations in between. The walkway used to be wood, but has been recently replaced with ceramic tile. With the exception of the white and blue trim tiles, the tiles used are NOT slippery when wet. The trim tile is another story. There are some rooms in the main building, but most are in the residence buildings between the lobby and the beach. At the lobby end of the walkway, there are two bars, two buffet restaurants and three of the specialty restaurants (the Mediterranean, Chinese and Vegetarian on the Tropical side, and the gourmet restaurant on the Cocotal side). The gourmet restaurant is the only one not included in the AI package. It's an additional $25US per person, but is without question the best place to eat. They were having a "lobster fest" at the time we were there. The service and ambience was excellent. At the beach/pool end of the walkway, there are two more bars and snack/beach club restaurants (one each on the Cocotal and Tropical sides). The beach clubs become specialty restaurants in the evening (Mexican, Steak House, Italian, Creperie). The ambience in these in the evening is quite nice.

So, you end up with lots of choices. Personally, we preferred the buffet because it was good and you could try a little of things you weren't sure of and lots of the others. We ate mostly at the buffet or the gourmet restaurant (three times). Our friends ate at the specialty restaurants and reported that they were good. The beach BBQ (lunch time) has been eliminated. They are quite pround of their Cristal food preparation award and rating, and that feature was going to cost them points because the refrigeration and food storage temperature could not be controlled to Cristal's standards. So, the beach BBQ is history!

The hotel was about 70% full this year and not all of the public areas were open. In rain, there is no "totally" covered walkway to the restaurants. By taking the back way, you can reach the main lobby via a dry path, with the exception of the last 100 ft or so. This is possible from all the buildings except those closest to the beach. Add another 100 ft. for these buildings.

Even though it is a large resort, it is very easy to find your way around. Each building (two or three stories) is clearly marked with an identifying letter (note that some of these were blown off by the hurricane winds and have not been replaced yet), but you do have to know which side since the letters are duplicated. As mentioned, all the public areas were concentrated at either end of the main walkway. Public washrooms are also located here. Warning: In the public washrooms, on the beach, on the Cocotal side, the lights are on timers, which start from the last time they were turned on, so things might get dark in the middle of.... You might know where your parts are, but the restroom parts.... In the lady's side, there is a reset switch in each stall (assuming you can find it in the dark). In the men's, you are out of luck.

The central portion is nicely landscaped between the residential buildings. There are fishponds, fountains, a few bridges and meticulously groomed specimens of exotic plants. Note that I said fishponds. They are not fountains or decorated ponds. There's algae on the bottom of these and I noticed some complaints in previous reviews. I didn't notice any smells. Anything they would add to kill the algae would probably kill the fish too. There are pink flamingos, geese and ducks. At night, the lighting is well done. The pool lighting was very subdued. It was so dark, I couldn't take any decent night photos.

The beach and pool are terrific. The pool meanders free form for a long distance. There are two swim up bars in the pool. There are lots of palm trees and powder sand (darker, not pure white, but nice) at the beach. With the exception of the banana boat (sometimes called a torpedo) there are no motorized watersports due to the reef a short distance off-shore, but windsurfers, hobie cats and ocean kayaks were readily available. There was a lot of beach lounge / umbrella "reserving" early in the morning. We don't want to play that game, so we had some minor problems finding some ourselves later in the day. One couple (we won't mention any nationalities) had the gall to stake out two lounges, a palapa with integrated table, two more chairs and another table. Just for the two of them!

By the end of the trip, we were sorely tempted to join in this "game". It's annoying to be looking at a chair you would like, you see it but it has been reserved with a towel on it, and nobody has been near it for hours.

However, there was both sun and shade available all day. The palm trees provided some sun protection, but they are well trimmed, so there isn't much. There are a lot of thatched umbrellas providing the sun protection required. They seem to be busily adding more. You just had to move your chaise around a little to determine the degree of doneness (white to red).

There are also miles of undeveloped beach to each side of the property. To the north, the next resort was Secrets Excellence, about a 15 minute walk. Great for early morning or afternoon walks. To the south, the next resort is Sunscape Beach which just opened about 2 weeks before our trip. It's about a 35 minute brisk walk.

Last year, the nearest casino was at Secrets. Sirenis has now opened their own. We declined to make any donations. I hear that the slot machines are hungry!

The activities at the pool and beach are terrific. They have a great activity staff -- lots of fun every day for those who want to partake. For the time we were there, the clientele mix was mostly Canadian, British, French and a scattering of Americans, Germans and Italians. There were a lot of "rug rats", but the kid's club was in full action and kept them busy and out of the way. When they were around, most seemed very well behaved.

We had no language problems with the front desk, waiters or bartenders. Their English is basic and they seemed keen to practice. The grounds keepers and maids didn't speak much English, but we had no real problems communicating with them either. Between their English, my pidgeon Spanish and hand signals we got by.

The hotel is listed as wheel chair accessible. I would have to agree. Everywhere there were steps, there also seemed to be a ramp, so with the exception of the beach, there shouldn't be any problem. There was a conveniently located grab bar in the tub as well. I specifically asked two people that required wheelchairs and they were not having any problems at all. You might be limited to a ground floor room, but other than that....

ROOM: This year, we were in the Cocotal section. The room was large, clean and well maintained. The maid service was excellent. The only problems were that the air-conditioning intermittently made a thumping noise, the balcony light didn't function and the toilet seemed to run a little. No show-stoppers here; we didn't even report these until the day before we left. We must have been close to the hot water tank since we had hot water almost immediately after turning on the tap. The room included two queen beds, two night tables, a desk, a table and two chairs, satellite TV, and a mini bar restocked daily with pop and water (no liquor). There was a large storage area that consisted of a full-length closet that covered an entire wall and an in-room safe. The closet was interesting. Three doors on two tracks, so you had to be careful to avoid collisions.

Sheets and towels were changed daily. The sheets were the best quality we have seen at any of the hotels we have stayed in the DR up to now.

The door lock is now electronic and controlled by a card that looks like a credit card with a magnetic strip. The other advantage here is that two cards were issued, so we both had room keys. The hotel is very conscious of energy use. To get the power and air conditioning to work, you have to insert your room key card into a slot in the wall. It is keyed to the mag strip as well, so any old card won't do. When you leave the room and remove the card, there is a timed delay before the power goes off. With the power off, the only things that functioned were the hall light and the ceiling fan.

FOOD: Some form of food was available 'almost' 24 hours a day, but there were a few gaps (for example between 4am and 7am). After a full breakfast, heavy lunch and a heavy dinner, this wasn't an issue for us.

In terms of the food, we found the variety and quality pretty good. This hotel was rated four stars by our tour operator (5 stars by the hotel, but that's stretching it). The buffet restaurant was easily the equivalent of a good buffet restaurant at home. As usual, the beef was 'chewey', but the pork and chicken were excellent. The beef usually was edible though, and a few nights we got some that was amazingly tender.

The buffet was simply great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was bacon and sausage every day and the made to order omelets were excellent. We went there for lunch only once or twice because down at the beach bar they also served great food. There was chicken, burgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza, fish (usually a different kind each day), salads, pasta and fresh fruit. Oh, and the fresh cooked crepes with the chocolate sauce were to die for!

We didn't eat at the a la carte restaurants with the exception of the gourmet restaurant. We ate there three times and the food and service were excellent. Our friends ate at the a la carte restaurants a lot and reported that they were good. We can't comment.

The bar and bar staff were excellent. A simple "gracias", a smile and the appropriate lubricant assured us of pretty good service most of the time.

Reservations are required for all of the specialty restaurants. You were allowed one guaranteed reservation per week, made in advance, and you were free to try for as many 'same day' reservations as you wanted, so long as it was available. For the buffet restaurants, you normally just walked in. This year, occasionally there was a short a line-up at the door. As they explained it, the reason for this is that they wanted to ensure that your table was cleaned and made up before you got to it.

We ate it all (meat, eggs, salads, mayonnaise, potato salad, pasta, ice cream, etc , etc, etc) and never had any serious tummy problems at all. My wife had the runs (minor) one day. There was lots of choice! As normal for the DR, the beef was a little chewey, but with good flavour. This year they did away with the bottled water at the table and brought a pitcher of purified water for each meal.

I also noticed that they had a food safety award (Cristal) displayed in the lobby. They are quite proud of this award and their rating with Cristal.

ENTERTAINMENT: We can't really comment on the nightly entertainment this year. We heard mixed reviews but never made it to the shows ourselves. The sports bar now has only one pool table (there used to be three), ping pong, foosball etc.

TIPPING: In previous years we have held back tipping until near the end of the trip and then tipped the people who gave us good service. We always tipped early enough to ensure that we didn't miss their day off. This year, we tipped daily to ensure that the person providing the service got taken care of. Since this hotel is out of the way, the staff work 11 days, then get 3 days off. During the 11 days, most live on site, then they go home. If you are going to hold off your tipping until the end of your trip, you have to account for this schedule. Note that there is NO tipping pool. The money goes to whoever picks it up and it is not shared. Also you should note that if you are going to donate anything to your maid or a waiter (shoes, hats, whatever), it should be accompanied by a signed note stating that you are giving the item(s) to them. Otherwise, they can't take it off the property.

NEW THIS YEAR: There is a new spa facility (very nice). There is a new heliport landing pad. There is one new additional a la carte restaurant

WHAT WE LIKED: We liked virtually everything (food, room, facilities). There are no time share / vacation club salesmen. There are no vendors on the beach (at least until you leave the hotel property).

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: We didn't like coming home (obviously). The prices in the on-site shops are very high. The price for a bottle of local rum is about twice what it should be. The price at the airport was even worse! The bars closed a little too early. Midnight! We heard a lot of complaints about this. After midnight, the only bar open is in the disco and the drinks are not included. At dinner, the only seating was inside. We would have preferred an outside option but this area was not open in the evening. There was a lot of demand for the outside seating at breakfast as well. It was sometimes difficult to get an outside table. Note that the size of this area has been increased. The beach vendors are now more aggressive and now leave their stalls and approach you on the beach (only AFTER you leave the hotel property). There are too many tour helicopters buzzing the beach. It's a novelty for the first few days, then it starts to get annoying. It would be nice to have candles on the tables at night in the buffet.

CAVEATS (minor):

The patio doors are self locking. There is no outside handle. If you aren't careful you could lock yourself out of the room. This didn't happen to us, but I can see the possibilities.

Watch out for the timers on the lights in the public area washrooms.

There is some coral in the swimming area (north end of the beach). You might stub your toe.

The lids on the salt and pepper shakers don't stay on well. The salt and pepper clump up pretty well due to the humidity. If you are not careful, you may end up with way more salt or pepper than you desire.

SUMMARY: Great place. Nice property. Good food, service and accommodations. A few warts, but nothing is perfect. We would go back without hesitation. Not a great place for singles, at least not during the weeks we were there. Overall, we liked it. We recommend it.