Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort & Aquagames - All Inclusive

“A bit underwhelming”

To start… Not a 5* hotel. 3* would be right. Upon arrival we were greeted by a bell boy service and taken to reception to check in. The check in process was swift and prompt. Our bags were taken straight to our room, no fuss. The room itself was modern in decor and comfortable. Unfortunately ... more

To start… Not a 5* hotel. 3* would be right. Upon arrival we were greeted by a bell boy service and taken to reception to check in. The check in process was swift and prompt. Our bags were taken straight to our room, no fuss. The room itself was modern in decor and comfortable. Unfortunately the downside was it was very tired and run down. Bathroom tiles and shower screen had black mould and lime scale. Bedroom furniture was a little battered. On the plus side, the room was serviced every day with beds made, fridge re stocked and towels replaced with fresh ones. The floor however was constantly gritty and sandy so I don’t think they paid much attention to cleaning the floors. There is a room safe with coded lock for valuables. The hotel has two buffet restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Unfortunately these aren’t anything to rave about. The food is pretty much the same every day. If you’re a fussy eater then this is an ideal time to broaden your taste pallet. The main downside to the buffet restaurants is that they are poorly under staffed. Tables are never cleared or cleaned. And when you finally do get a table it is near impossible to get a drinks order. The staff seem fed up and quite rude. On the resort there are seven A la Carte restaurants. Definitely worth booking and using. We booked into the steak house, American diner and Italian. The food in all was freshly cooked and very pleasant. Served by waiters with a smile and very attentive with drinks orders etc etc. The only frustrating part was in the American dinner…. What I am assuming was the manager, hung on my shoulder asking me to give a five start Google review. As I got my phone out and agreed to do this, she was reluctant to leave me alone to do this and promoted to lean over my shoulder and tap away on my phone and take a photo of the review for her records. Other options to eat are the poolside buffet restaurant. Food here is a bit better than the main buffet restaurants. But again very samey every day. But… No air con. It’s like a sweat box ! And lastly there is a BBQ buffet at the beach bar. Very tasty food but again no variation as it’s the same food every day. The pool area is very big and spacious. Never an issue getting a sun bed. Only frustrating part is we had an influx of obnoxious Americans after a couple of days of being here. They took up the pool bar and set up camp to get drunk all day whilst their kids were let loose. Unwilling to move or let you in to get served for any drinks. We gave up and walk to the beach bar most days for our drinks. The main grounds of the hotel complex are very well maintained by the maintenance team. It’s clean and looks amazing. Just the food, waiting on service tiredness of the rooms that let the resort down.

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“Nice place but poorly run”

We are a couple that stayed in May 2024. Overall the place was clean and the grounds spacious. However there was a general feeling that the hotel morale amongst the staff was poor and there was a lack of leadership to put it right. More specific issues that we encountered were: The room allocated... more

We are a couple that stayed in May 2024. Overall the place was clean and the grounds spacious. However there was a general feeling that the hotel morale amongst the staff was poor and there was a lack of leadership to put it right. More specific issues that we encountered were: The room allocated to us was poorly maintained. Clean, but the decor needed to be addressed, our mirrors were badly de-silvered, broken drawer, defective TV and poorly equipped bathroom. We requested a change of room which was done late the following day. During our stay there were 2 days where our room was not serviced. There are two main buffet restaurants that cater for breakfast and evening meals. It appeared that both were poorly managed allowing many tables not to be cleared and cleaned. This resulted in many guests searching for a long time to find somewhere suitable. Eg. At 8am when we arrived there was only 1 table available to sit down to. Every days there was a distinct lack of cutlery which we noticed waiters washing cutlery in dirty tubs of water. This gave us the impression that the kitchen was inadequate to provide the waiters the clean equipment to service the tables with. All the waiters were miserable and demoralised. Upon arrival to the buffet restaurants, guests were expected to queue to register their room number. This, we believed was unnecessary for a fully inclusive hotel and just added further stress to the dining experience. The (El Bohio) restaurant which is adjacent to the swimming pools had no air- con during the day, making the place stifling and unbearable to eat in. In the Italian a la carte restaurant I was served a lasagne straight from the microwave, not fresh! In the a la carte Mediterranean restaurant we waited 70 minutes for our main meal only to find that one of the mussels was served unopen (a big no no for food hygiene). The hotel has a few shops, but in the organic market shop we observed a lot of stock on the shelves beyond their sell by date. The blue sun beds on the beach and aqua park were dirty and very uncomfortable due to them being too old. The main pool gave many guests ear infections whilst we were there. This is a result of a poorly maintained swimming pool with inadequate chlorine treatment. We took plenty of dollars to tip the staff, but quite frankly we brought most of it back because we felt they didn't deserve it. We have previously stayed in the Grand Sirenis hotel in Mexico which was excellent. However the one in Punta Cana was a big disappointment which clearly the management has been resistant to address.

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