Dreams Punta Cana Resort & Spa

We traveled from July 2 -11 with my 3 boys. We arrived at resort about 6pm and found out that we had been upgraded to preferred. Check-in was pretty straight forward, but you will get moved to a seating area where they will mention the welcome breakfast the next day. This is the timeshare pitch so if you don't want to do it, don't sign up for the breakfast! We had connecting first floor rooms in Bldg. 8. First floor rooms were nice as no stairs to deal with. We also had no issues with the A/C. Both rooms were very comfortable. Rooms are dated, but we did not have any maintenance issues that others reported. It is important to understand that "preferred status" does not change the room itself, rather it gives you access to the preferred lounge, cabanas on the beach and dining at Oceana for breakfast/lunch. The cabanas at the beach were great and Willie was the best attendant ever. The preferred lounge serves the top-shelf liquor and the drinks were very good. Not watered-down like the other bars. Having Oceana available for lunch and dinner was a great perk. Pool was amazing and you could always find an area that was not crowded. Beach area is just ok. They can't control mother nature and the seaweed, but do the best to clean it up. The resort is on the Atlantic side of the island so it's not crystal blue water, but it is still nice. Food was just ok in my opinion. Seaside Grill was the best option. Did not do Bordeaux since we were with the kids. Our meal at Portifino was not very good. Glad we had Oceana has an option. The pizza place actually served a great dinner! For us, the worst part of the trip was the constant pressure from the vendors. I know this does not bother some people, but it was quite annoying to us. Seapro is the onsite vendor at the beach that does electric watersports. Even after telling them "no" countless times, they kept asking for business as they work on commission. The resort also lets vendors on the property 2 days a week to sell a variety of things including paintings and jewelry. Even when you say "no thank you", they would continue to hound you. Overall we had a very nice vacation, but we won't be returning. Would like to explore other Caribbean spots. Read less

This was my first time ever at a resort we went for my sisters wedding and I have no complaints. The experience was so amazing from the food, to the drinks, to the pool the beach, the shows, events, parties, and especially the staff. The rooms were very nice and clean although it was outdated it was still very nice. The staff was one of the highlights of the trip we enjoyed their service and how friendly they were. They made it so fun for us always doing fun activities dancing with us and making us feel included and made sure that we were happy and enjoying ourselves. A few staff that stood out to us were; Chocolate, Corazón, Dj Moises, papa smurf, Yesenia, Carlos,Juan Marte, Jose Manuel, and that’s just to name a few. Everyone was nice to us and all the service was excellent. We especilly enjoyed the nightclub, the Italian restaurant, and the parties like the silent party and the beach party. 5/5 starts I definitely recommend Dreams punta cana to anyone considering going there!! Read less

If you already booked and want a gushing review to validate your choice- skip this one- I'm planning to teak you the good, the bad and the ugly. Arrival: Bell service was fantastic (like nearly EVERY staff member we interacted with). We arrived late in the day- so we didn't received much fanfare for our "preferred" check-in. In fact, the Preferred check-in person was the crankiest, least-helpful person we dealt with on the whole trip... She needs to find a new job. We got off to a rough start because they claimed they had NO record of ANY of our room requests and curty said "that is first come first serve and we didn't have anything in the system for you." Well, we were part of a large wedding group that was planned and confirmed MANY months in advance so- I found that hard to believe- but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. For sure- either the travel agent was lying or they were. The Rooms (we booked 2 preferred rooms). Just OK. Furnishings were dated, a bit worn, but clean and comfortable. So- that was pretty much what I was expecting. No issues there. The bathroom was a big and we loved the huge shower with 3 heads- nice touch! btw, when selecting rooms "tropical view" means every OTHER than the nice views of the pool :-). One of our tropical views was of the back of the spa wall. The "preferred mini-bar" was a joke. It was like an old dorm cube fridge and only held like 2 beers, 3-4 bottles of water and 4-5 cans of soda- that's it. Shocking they sell this as an "upgraded" mini-bar. Its the worth fridge I've seen in a hotel almost ever. The TV- didn't work. Sigh. Took 2 vists from maintenance and then they finally said- "sorry- the parts we need are locked in a room we don't have a key for until the morning." Ok, no big deal- we didn't come here for the tv.... but its an expected amenity nonetheless- but it could wait till morning. 2 more calls, 1 more visit and finally the guy brought a new tv in the next day:-). The internet in our room never worked the entire stay. I called several times and finally they said, "just pick someone else's room # nearby and you can probably use their wifi." (Not very PREFERRED) :-). So, as bad as hotel internet usually is- this makes it worse when you're stuck connecting to a router 2-3 doors down. Staff: Service staff was Amazing! Everyone from housekeeping to room service to bartenders, to wait staff- could NOT have wished for better service and attitude (mgmt could take some tips from them!). Also- if you are coming for a special occasion- highly recommended the butler service. It was off-the-charts fantastic. Would have been worth double the price they shared us for it! Food: Weak... The seaside grill was the best by far. The buffet was tolerable (its buffet food- actually good for what it was). The other sit-down restaurants were the real disappointment. The food was just bad.... Several of us agreed that the room service food was better than what we had at either the Asian or Italian restaurant. Thats a sad commentary. The one exception was the food they prepared for the wedding events. THAT food was ALL VERY good- drastically better than what we were served in the restaurants. Other amenities: Pools - these were great. The big common pool was wonderful- and the 2 preferred pools were very nice as well- worth the upgrade IMO. Beach: Great beach access! Plenty of spots for guests and the preferred beach area was nearly empty- so NEVER left crowded! Entertainment: very good. The kids loved the karaoke they did several evenings. Casino: This is a bit of a joke. Do NOT come here for the casino- it has like 3 tables and a dozen slots- and that's it. Head to Hard Rock for a casino. Tours/Activities: This is outsourced to AM Star and I have to say they were GREAT at shuttling us to the airport- but the "shopping excursion" they took us on was horrendous. I won't go into detail here- but it was the worse bait-and-switch-money-grab scam Ive seen in 20 years of travel. AVOID! Event Planning: Exceptional. THIS is what saved the trip. As poor as their hotel desk service was- their wedding planning service was phenomenal. The trip was based around a wedding - so this was the most important item. Every thing they did was above and beyond. Summary: Would we go back? No- absolutely not. Did they pull off a great destination wedding though, absolutely yes. Read less

This resort is great.. we had an amazing time.. food and drinks were perfect.. the pool area is very fun with a lot of activities.. the resort is very clean and their staff is very polite and nice..jouberkys Mercedes my wedding coordinator was excellent, amazing.. chocolate, corazón were so nice with us, they treated us like family and made sure we were having a great time.. Yessenia was very attentive she made sure we had drinks and that we were comfortable around the pool area.. Moises the dj, we had a blast with him.. Edwin, Salvador, Ricardo from world cafe were amazing as well and very attentive.. papa smurf, baby face made us laugh so much and they were very attentive as well.. Carlos, Henry, Scrappy Doo, Jose Manuel, Juan Marte, mini, Franklin, Carmen from the spa, very nice people we hope to see them all again when we return.. don’t listen to the media, Dominican Republic is a beautiful country with very nice people and I recommend everyone to go visit.. my family and I had such a great time., none of us got sick and everyone is alive.. we are planning to go back next year.. the resort has security walking around the place at all times.. and they don’t harass anyone.. we met a lot of people from different places, Canada, England, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, New York, Miami, Milan.. such great vacation we had and my wedding was beautiful.. Read less