Excellence Punta Cana

Review of Excellence Punta Cana Resort Dec '06-Jan '07 by Mari; President of PRP Travel, Inc.

PRP Travel, Inc.
Escape to Paradise For Less
http://prptravel.com/
mari@prptravel.com

To begin, I would like to say that my visit here was between Christmas and New Years the year Excellence Punta Cana changed management. Their former name was Secrets Excellence Punta Cana and as of January 1st, 2007, they just became just Excellence Punta Cana. With that in mind, I'm sure service was probably a little degraded as most were confused on their status after new management took over.

OK... So call me an all-inclusive snob. I've been to a few of them and this has got to be the worst resort ever. I went through the hotel to book a helicopter transfer from the airport to the hotel. Spoke with concierge on several occassions about this and... We waited for the helicopter and it never showed because the hotel never actually booked it! Didn't find that out til hours later, though.

There was always a wait for dinner.... not just 5 minutes but more like 1 hour. Yes, we went at a high volume time BUT they close one restaurant every night. There's no pattern to which restaurant is closed, either. Also there was always something *missing* from the menu. Every single day, we would ask for something on the menu, and they would just say- "No, we don't have it". That's it! Order something else. Huh??

Exploding ketchup bottles. Yes, One popped like opening a champagne bottle and exploded on me and about a 3 feet radius around me. Instead of being sympathetic, the staff looked at me like I did something wrong... They were more concerned about the mess it made around me. Then when it happened to someone else sitting next to me- they just took all the ketchup bottles away. Smart move but maybe some suggestions on getting my nice clothes dry-cleaned would have been more helpful. I went to concierge and told them about it. They took my clothes and cleaned it but they charged me the full price PLUS an additional 50% for express service!

RATS! I understand tropical bushy areas get creatures... I've seen the rats in NY and be aware- they are the same size in Dominican Republic, too. I saw the biggest rat ever in the Mexican Restaurant flying through the dining area. It was going so fast, it slid and went under the cabinet in the far corner. When I told the server about it- he was NOT surprised and just asked if I wanted to finish my dinner. Again- a little more sympathy would have been nice but his nonchalant behaviour led me to believe this wasn't a rare occassion. When I told the bartender about it outside, he just chuckled and said he saw 3 earlier that day and asked me what I thought the pork chops were made out of. Yeah, very nice! I'm not so sure he was joking with me!

One more thing about the Dominica Republic. While they have gates to confine the resort from the rest of the world, you have to be very careful. It is dangerous. The police have machine guns at the gas stations because there are increase instances of gas & go. You will be safe within your resort but be cautious if leaving the resort grounds.