Trip Date: 2006/12/05 to 2006/12/19 (by BobFromCanada)

OK, deja vu, almost. Yeah, I know, so many places to go and so little time. It's always a tough call trying to decide whether to repeat a place you enjoy or try something new. Being creatures of habit, this year we elected to repeat yet again. The place works for us and we have been quite happy to return. Being our fifth trip to this property, we were not expecting any real surprises. There were some. With a slightly new management team there is bound to be new ideas. Mostly, these were all positive.

For those of you who have been there before, the fish pond / river that runs down the middle of the property is history. They have filled it and most of the ponds in. The flamingos that were in the pond outside the main buffet have been relocated to outside the lobby entrance. The speakers that played music along the main walkway are also gone. There is also new lighting on the main pathway. I was initially kind of distressed over the loss of the ponds, but once the landscaping started to take shape it started to look very attractive.

OK, on to the review. The hotel still lists itself as a 5 star resort. Sunquest Vacations lists it as a 4 star property which is about right. If you are expecting 5 star amenities and service, look elsewhere. There is no way it can be considered 5 star on any rating scale, unless you are scoring out of 7. I would also rate it 4 star. Over the last few years the hotel has been starting to show signs of lots of hard use and some tender loving care was obviously required. A lot of the fittings and fixtures came from Spain when the hotel was built. These did not stand up to the humid tropical salt air laden environment and are breaking down badly. The hotel seems to be addressing these issues aggressively. While we were there, whole wings were shut down for renovations and restoration. Our room was fine, but we did hear stories of rooms with minor issues. Everything can't be fixed at once, so there still remains at lot of work to be done.

When you check in you'll get two room keys, a power control card, two towel cards. You can also rent a key for the in-room safe. If you want a remote for your TV, it's also available at reception. When you check out these must be returned or you will be charged for the missing items.

To make a long story short, the hotel is still very good value for the money. We had a great time and we would return without hesitation. Since no one else's trip dates overlapped ours this year, we didn't have any 'MEET & GREET' list. So, we met a lot of nice new people, this time via the "Hi, where are you from?" route.

There is a lot of repeat staff there and they remembered us. We found some on our own. Some staff even searched us out in the bars and restaurants. It's nice to be fondly remembered.

ROOMS: The room included a king bed, two bedside night tables, a desk, a table and two chairs, satellite TV, and a mini bar restocked daily with pop and water (no beer or liquor). There's not a lot of drawer space, but there is a huge closet with shelving and hangers that works very well. As usual, there's never enough hangers, so we take our own and just leave them. It's a large storage area that consists of a full-length closet that covers an entire wall and an in-room safe that was securely bolted to the wall. Like all the rooms, the closet was interesting. Three doors on two tracks, so you have to be careful to avoid collisions.

Like other years, the rooms are bright and cheery, and seem nicely decorated and clean. We asked for the same room as we had last year. It wasn't available but the room they offered us was more than acceptable. Everything worked aside from a few anomalies such as reversed water connections on some of the taps. You just had to remember which one was backwards and which one wasn't. Tough after a "few" cervezas ......

There was also one flaky light switch and a broken hinge on the toilet seat that had been repaired at some time in the past. It was an ingenious repair, but unfortunately the repair was breaking down. I ended up rebuilding it three times. Oh well, such is life. It's a rare event where I leave the hotel room without making an improvement of some kind. This time, Red Green would be proud; on the third repair I improved the design with duct tape. It held together for the remainder of the trip. Yahoo.

As I said, we had no 'major' issues with our room. But we met people that were not quite so lucky with theirs, Most of the issues were pretty minor (air conditioning leaks, TV's not working and things like that). A large portion of the resort was shut down for renovations so it seems they are aggressively addressing the issue. I would expect that when completed, the renovations should address most of the issues. Then again, some people don't care how they treat things because it's not theirs, so damage and abuse occurs too.

TIPPING: 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 12 days, then get 3 days off. During the 12 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, but I suspect some of the waiters work together as a team by mutual agreement. Other than that, the money goes to whoever picks it up and it is not shared. We also tried to find reasons to give stuff to groundskeepers and behind the scenes people. 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.

FOOD / RESTAURANTS: We had no real issues with the food; it was pretty basic, but quite acceptable. There was lots of variety from day to day. Since the hotel was at low occupancy, not all the restaurants were open.

Breakfast was served in the main buffet restaurant. There was bacon and sausage every day, scrambled eggs, beans, cold meats, tomatoes, lettuce and cheeses, cereals and yogurt, the omelet station (omelets and fried eggs cooked to order), some kind of potatoes, fruits (mostly fresh, some canned), toast, buns, and a juice bar. I think pineapple may have been out of season. I never saw any at breakfast, and it was somewhat conspicuous by its absence at lunch and dinner. And then it was usually either under-ripe or over-ripe.

The outdoor eating area is open again for breakfast. It's pretty popular and sometimes hard to get a table without waiting. We waited most days and only had to eat breakfast inside once.

You could have lunch either in the main buffet or the beach club. Only one of the beach clubs was open while we were there. Selections seemed about the same wherever you chose to eat. There were lots of choices but it was about the same each day. There were various salads and fixings, pizza, burgers, ham&cheeses sandwiches, grilled meats and fish, pasta dishes (lasagna, spaghetti), french fries, rice, veggies, crepes, fresh fruit, ice cream, ....

I have heard that they are thinking of starting up the charcoal chicken and burger BBQ on the beach this year, but I saw no evidence that it was going to happen. One can only hope.

Dinner was served either in the main buffet or in the specialty restaurants (reservation required). For dinners, in addition to the salads, soups and the hot tray selections, there was a carvery station each night. Every night there was something different served (roast chicken, roast beef, roast pork, grouper, cinnamon ham, beef leg, salmon wellington, dorado). Obviously, over the two week period there were some repeats. Even the beef surprised me. Usually the beef is the typical Dominican variety; great flavour but tough. This year, out of the three times it was served, twice it was tender and once it was 'chewy'. OK, a pack of pit bulls may have had a little trouble. The pork roasts and the chicken were excellent. I'm not much of a fish eater, but my wife enjoyed the fish served at the carvery station.

And just in case you couldn't find anything you wanted, there was a grill station (pork chops, beef steakettes, burger, fish) and a pasta station. The food here was pretty much prepared to order.

Desserts were wonderful. Some of the cakes and cookies were very good.

The wine served with dinner was a little sweet for my tastes, but at least it was potable. Unlike other years there was no problem getting refills.

There is no excuse for going hungry here.

As for the specialty restaurants, we tended to avoid them based on experiences in previous years. Personally, I prefer the buffet anyway since I can pick and choose what I want and the quantities. Others prefer being waited on. Speaking of that, I can't believe how many people treat the buffet like a cafeteria. We constantly saw people getting food and THEN looking for a table while that food was getting cold. Come on, get a table, get settled in and then get your food.

Based on conversations with people we met, the specialties were a hit and miss proposition. Some liked them and some didn't. We also heard various opinions from people seated at the same table on the same night. It also depended on what night you went. We did one specialty restaurant. Since we joined the VIP club several years ago, we were entitled to a meal in the gourmet extra cost restaurant. My wife had the lobster and I had the beef tenderloin brochettes. The food, service and presentation were excellent.

BARS: The bar and bar staff were excellent. I found the service friendly in all the bars. Some friendlier than others, but .... A simple "por favor", "gracias" and a smile assured us of pretty good service most of the time.

ENTERTAINMENT: Since occupancy was low, unlike last year, there wasn't something going on in the lobby every night. Maybe every second night. But there was something in the theatre nightly. Most of the entertainment is a repeat of other years. They ran on a two week cycle ..... As a result, we didn't go. Exception: One that was really interesting was called 'Water & Fire' and was staged in the pool at night instead of the theater. Very nice. All the shows started at 10PM and were over by 11PM or shortly after. The disco opens after the shows are over. Drinks are not included in the AI package, but admission to the disco is. And the casino was always willing to accept donations.

MISCELLANEOUS: 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. There is the possibility of a short wait if a whole bunch showed up at the same time. This never happened to us, but I can see the possibility.

We found it very rare to find a table that was not set correctly. If it wasn't, it was usually the result of another patron 'liberating' a knife or fork to replace one that they had dropped.

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. Nor did we hear of any. Overindulgence doesn't count! There was lots of choice! I gained 5 lbs so I guess there's just more of me to love ........

With the exception of the no 'skimpy' clothing rule, the buffet restaurants were pretty casual. Shorts appeared to be tolerated. Nicer clothes were expected in the specialty restaurants. And why not?

The public areas were in generally good condition, and the grounds were well maintained. We did see some evidence of work in progress and in need of repair parts. I guess you can't fix it if you don't have the parts.

The staff we met were friendly and more than obliging.

This year, only one of the main buffet restaurants was open to serve lunch or dinner. Only one beach club was open to serve lunch. All of the specialty restaurants operated as scheduled. At lunch, the offerings seemed about the same in the main buffet and the beach restaurant. We ate all our lunches except one at the beach club.

Of interest to the handicapped, wheelchair access seemed pretty good and there are ramps everywhere. There were substantial grab bars in the tub, but there are NO handrails for the toilets. There was an elevator in our building, but some other buildings did not. I discreetly asked one lady in a wheelchair (who did herself in on the first day of her holiday) about this. She indicated that they were not having any access issues other than what I stated.

The weather this year was almost perfect. Most rain was during the night or early morning. We had a few brief showers on a few days, but they only lasted 10 minutes or so. Can't blame the hotel for that.

The food/bar 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 basic, but good, maybe different from what you are used to, but good. I'm a picky eater and I never left the table hungry. Some kind of food is available almost 24 hours a day (not the advertised 24 hours), and there are a few gaps, say between 4am and 7am for example. I'm a meat and potatoes boy so I was pretty happy.

The water was pretty clear the first week, and snorkeling would have been fair. But then the ocean got a little rough for a few days, so the sand got stirred up and snorkeling was poor to say the least! It was starting to settle out after a few calm days.

Over the two week period we had mostly green or yellow flag days on the beach.

Sirenis is literally in the middle of nowhere. It's about an hour and 15 minutes from the airport. The road is vastly improved over previous years, but it's not there yet! There is nothing much else around. Secrets is about a 20 minute walk in one direction and Sunscape The 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 hotel is very easy to find your way around. The restaurants and bars are all concentrated at each end of the central walkway with the accommodations in between. The main walkway is ceramic tile. With the exception of the white and blue trim tiles, the tiles used are NOT very slippery when wet. The trim tile is another story. Watch where you walk.

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 remaining specialty ones are at the beach in the evenings. There are 7 a-la-cartes included in the AI package (Mediterranean, Chinese, Vegetarian, Italian, Mexican, Steakhouse, Creperie). There is also the gourmet restaurant on the Cocotal side. This one restaurant is the only one not included in the AI package. It's an additional charge per person. The service and ambience was excellent.

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 (once this year). Our friends ate at the specialty restaurants and reported that they were mostly good, but sometimes they disagreed even though they ate at the same table and the same restaurant. Other groups either liked or disliked the Chinese, Mexican etc. Guess it depends on what you ordered and what you were expecting. My information is all second hand, so I can't comment.

If it rains, there is no "totally" covered walkway to the restaurants. You can make it most of the way. By taking the back route, 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. Not a big deal, but just something to consider.

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, but you do have to know which side since the letters are duplicated. All the public areas are concentrated at either end of the main walkway. Public washrooms are also located here. Warning: In the public washrooms, on the beach, 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 have been warned. In the lady's side, there is a reset switch in each stall (my wife says one was not functioning this year and that also assumes you can find it in the dark). In the men's, you are out of luck. Or you just wait for someone to come in and turn on the lights.

The beach and pool are terrific. The pool meanders free form for a long distance. There are two swim up bars in the pool. At the beach, there are lots of palm trees and powder sand (darker, not pure white, but nice). With the exception of the banana boat rides (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 when the ocean conditions were suitable. Only the non-motorized watersports are included in the AI package.

Like previous years, there was a lot of beach lounge and 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. By the end of the trip, we were sorely tempted to join in this "game". It's annoying to traverse the beach looking for a chair you would like, but it has been reserved with a towel on it, and nobody has been near it for hours.

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 first week we were there, the clientele mix was mostly French, Canadian, British, and a scattering of Americans, Germans, Swiss and Italians. The second week there seemed to be a lot more Canadians and French Canadians. No issues; aside from a little aloofness, everyone got along pretty well

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.

Room towels were changed daily. As usual with most hotels in the DR, face cloths were NOT provided. 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 electronic and controlled by a card that looks like a credit card with a magnetic strip. Two cards are normally issued. There is also a power card. The hotel is very conscious of energy use. To get the power and air conditioning to work, you have to insert your power card into a slot in the wall. When you leave the room and remove the card, there is a timed delay before the power goes off. With the power off, nothing functioned, not even the hall light and ceiling fan. When we returned to the room it took the ac mere minutes to return the room to a comfortable temperature.

We found it very interesting that most people ask for an oceanview room and a balcony. Surprisingly few actually use that balcony.

Would we return? You bet.

SKYSERVICE AIRLINES: Oh yeah, Skyservice, the airline everyone seems to love to hate. This time, both flights were quite enjoyable, except for the legroom. That's a given! Leaving Toronto, we left the gate a mere five minutes BEHIND schedule and then they had to de-ice the plane, but we still managed to arrive in Punta Cana five minutes AHEAD of schedule. This year, for the food services, they have gone to a wrap type of food offering. There was an egg & ham wrap for breakfast and the meal was actually edible. Even the coffee was not bad. And they have done away with the dinky little cups with the handles in favour of a plastic glass. On the return trip, lunch was also a wrap (chicken quesadilla). It was quite a letdown from the hotel food, but not bad all the same. The flights were very smooth for the most part. We did hit a little clear air turbulence and the pilot adjusted the altitude to get a smoother flight. We arrived just about on time, although the scheduled return flight time was longer than I expected. Maybe it was the different aircraft types. We went down on a B757 and returned on an A320. Candies were offered just before landing (both ways).

SUNQUEST VACATIONS: No real issues here either. What can I say? They arranged the package correctly and got my tickets to me. Their onsite representative was quite good too, not that we needed his services. We didn't even go to the orientation meeting. He was new and I had more knowledge of the hotel than he did. He was also at the desk and available at the times he said he would be. That's what they're supposed to do.

TRANSPORT TO THE AIRPORT: Hotel, Skyservice or Sunquest? I don't know, but I suspect Sunquest. It was the earliest pickup we have ever had for departure from the hotel. 7:15 AM is a little early. But I guess there's a reason ..... 3 people were late and we had to wait for them. As a result, we were 20 minutes late leaving. If I'd known, I could have got my omelette after all. We also stopped at one hotel (Majestic Colonial) to pick up another 18 persons. Only 11 boarded the bus. We waited another 20 or 30 minutes for the orher 7 - they didn't show. Finally, when we arrived at the airport, the system was down. So we waited another 20 or 30 minutes before they finally checked everyone in manually.

WRAP UP: Was everything perfect in paradise? NO! But, it never will be. This is a nice property and you would have to look pretty hard to find any major issues. Sure, you can find them if you look. This was echoed by most of the people I talked to. We did find a few whiners and complainers, but that's expected too. Some people are never happy. The hotel is not perfect, but it suited our needs. Unless you are very picky, you should be able to have a good vacation here.

WHAT WE LIKED: - Virtually everything (food, room, pool, beach, facilities). - There are no time share / vacation club salesmen. - There are no vendors on the beach (at least until you leave the property) - The beach bars are using the hard acrylic glasses again and seem to have discontinued the use of the disposable glasses. - They have a station set up at the exit from the lobby where you can transfer your drink from a glass container to plastic and avoid broken glass around the pool area.

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: - There is only water and pop in the mini-bars. There is no beer. A few bottles of Presidente would be VERY nice. - The prices in the on-site shops are very high. - The bars closed a little too early. Midnight! We heard a lot of complaints about this (on every trip to the hotel actually). After midnight, the only bar open is in the disco and the drinks are not included. For the few people that go to the disco, I wonder why the hotel bothers to charge. It's an irritant for those that stay up late, and they tend to remember things like this when they book their next trip. - At lunch, only one beach bar and the main buffet was open this year. The food would have been the same, just the location would have been different. - At dinner, candles on the table would have been nice. Our solution was to take our own. - I still miss the beach chicken / burger charcoal BBQ. - They sprayed extensively for mosquitoes this year, but the little blighters are pretty hardy, and were very much in evidence this year. - They still don't provide face cloths. This is not unusual for the DR. My suggestion is to bring your own. Get some cheapies at the dollar store and just leave them there when you come home. - There are no soap trays in the shower. This seems to be a generic problem at the resort.

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 (west end of the beach, to the left side of the property when facing the ocean). It's not all that sharp, but you might stub your toe. - The salt and pepper clump up pretty well due to the humidity. - The front desk is phoning rooms to ask if everything is OK. This is a great idea as long as you are expecting it. It raised 'security alarms' on my part since there was also the possibility that someone was up to no good and was checking the room to see if someone was there. - despite the posted checkout time of 12 noon, I ran into 3 couples that discovered that their room key no longer functioned around 11:45, much to their dismay when they went to get their luggage to check out. 12:45 I can see, but not 11:45. So, if you have a late flight, beware.

SUMMARY: Great place. Nice property. Good food, service and accommodations. Not gourmet. I think they are trying hard to improve their facilities and service. A few warts, but nothing is perfect. We would go back without hesitation. Not a great place for singles looking to partner up, at least not during the weeks we were there. But, it is a great place to meet people and chat. Overall, we liked it. We recommend it.

PHOTO LINKS and SLIDE SHOW (with sound) are on my website see http://www.bobfromcanada.com/

The slide show requires the Photodex presenter application which is a free download from Photodex.com corporation. There is a link provided.

Note: the slide show may lag the review by a few weeks .....

EMAIL: I'll be glad to answer any questions I can. There is a link on my website (antispam - you will be challenged to read and enter numbers that are not machine readable).