Grand Palladium Palace Resort, Spa and Casino

First of all, the beach that the Grand Palladium and all other resorts front to is the best I've ever been to. We went in June. The color is postcard perfect. Sure, there are seaweed issues up and down the beach, It was bad on our last day, but not a big deal otherwise. But, for us, there were absolutely no concerns about stingrays, jellyfish, crabs, or anything - they did not exist in this water. Bad for those who want to snorkel, but great for those who are weary of what's in the water or what you might step on. This was a worry-free swim experience. The bottom is all sand, so the currents kick up that sand and make visibility (with a mask) still low. I did see some fish when I got close enough. You'll have to take an excursion for snorkeling. Enough wave action to keep it interesting (would sneak into your drink if not paying attention), but relatively gentle. The beach area is smaller than most other resorts on the stretch, but I'd say they have more/better palm cover at GP. It's a good size resort across Palace, Punta Cana, and Bavaro sections. There's transportation, but it also doesn't take more than 10-15 minutes to walk end to end. Your favorite buffet, pool, or bar may not be in the section you're staying. Our favorite buffet was Behique. All offer something for everyone - lots of new things as familiar things. The Steak House a la carte restaurant was a big hit with our group. It's also the one with the longest wait times. In my opinion, it's not worth making the early morning reservation for the Japanese hibachi restaurant. You've probably read about all the selling that happens on the resort and the beach. That is true. You'll first be hit with Travel Club presentation breakfast and sales pitch. The first couple of days I couldn't walk through the lobby without being hounded to do something. There are also some vendors and excursion sales people set up or roaming around inside the resort. That's not the mention the excursion and other vendors roaming the beach area. Just beside the GP adults section on the south side is a small section of public shops and access and this is where I think they come from. We walked down the beach that way once and were met at the water constantly by people trying to get us to come inside and look around. One guy was trying to massage girls' feet for tips (not a resort vendor), and he was persistent, proceeding without approval. Most will take a polite "no gracias" and move on though, but it can get old. I had some call out to me while I was in the ocean to come talk about excursions. Ridiculous really. Now for the bad parts - our rooms. I booked 3 rooms. The best room had a broken back sliding door lock that was retrofitted with a latch, and it's deck hot tub jets didn't work. My room had an oder (maybe mildew + chemicals) that hit us in the face when we opened the door. The AC wouldn't cool the room. We got the AC fixed, and they said they "fixed" the odor, but no. We lived with it. Our room also had a separate toilet room, which is great, but it stank like an out-house / portable potty. On the plus side, the room was spacious, the shower was large, and water pressure great. Ceiling fan over the bed much appreciated. The third room had a water leak in the ceiling. Probably an overflowed tub in the room above, so understandable. Although bathroom design is likely that cause. We reported that, came back to the desk after some hours and no one had looked at it yet (water was dripping from lights), so our second visit prompted a visit. They moved the 3 people into another room for the night, which was hot and had lots of mosquitos. We checked the next day and they said the original room wasn't fixed, so we could wait, stay, or get upgraded to a swim-out room. We took the swim-out room. That room smelled like mine - mildew and chemicals. We didn't notice at the time but by the time our stay was over, that room had highly visible mildew across the entire ceiling and upper walls. Almost like it had been painted over and through the week it resurfaced. The staff (minus one) was very pleasant and willing to serve and in great spirits. We saw a grounds crew guy who had just climbed a palm to cut down coconuts and had opened it up and he gave us half. They do that every morning. The grounds are beautiful, the location is amazing. It was not busy or crowded. If not for the rooms situation, we'd rate this higher, but room quality does matter.

We (my husband and myself, and our friends) decided to try a vacay in Punta Cana, after hearing so much about it. Best decision of our lives! We loved the Grand Palladium Resort, Spa, and Casino. Well the Casino - not so much. We are not gamblers. But the rooms, the pristine pools, the beach, and the restaurants, particularly the evening buffet and the Steak House

Everyone was very humble. They made us feel comfortable. William from the pool bar, Chocolate, Grace, Ramona Housekeeping and Christopher driver from the train, thank you so much for your hospitality.

The Grand Paladium is more a collection of 4 hotels. So no matter which one you book you can still visit the other joint hotels which are within 5-10 minutes walk of each other with full access to the Spa (Additiinal Charge and not the cheapest), Casino, Bars and Lounges. Initial Impressions; First impressions were not great. The staff that man check in can’t seem to crack a smile and come across rude and blunt. The luggage guy was extremely helpful though and carried our cases all the way to our room while showing us around and pointing out restaurants ect along the way. The Room; Our room was amazing with a great view of one of the pools and close to the lobby with the beach a few minutes walk away. We upgraded to the bigger bathroom which was huge with a nice jacuzzi bath with water jets. Money well spent. One of the 2 sinks was broken as the plug was stuck in the closed position and our telephone wasn’t working but apart from that everything was fine. I’m sure these would have been fixed if we reported them but to be honest we didn’t need them so didn’t bother. The mini bar is stocked with 2x Budweisers and 2x El Presidente (their local Dominican beer) along with water, a bottle of Fanta and a bottle of coke. These get restocked daily but not by the cleaner so if you want to leave a tip then put it inside the fridge. Pools; The hotel has around 4-6 Pools scattered across the complex with swim up bars. The pools are great with plenty of sun beds and no need to reserve them at 5AM. We often headed down to the pool around 11 and always got a couple of beds. In a couple of the pools the water was 8ft in places so If you can’t swim I guess that’s not great but our favourite pool (near the Punta Cana lobby and Bhique (SP?) buffet restaurant was 4-5 ft at its deepest points so even if you can’t swim you can enjoy the water. The sun beds here were also of much higher quality. The swim-up bars were good. However (and this is no fault of the hotel well maybe a little....) the majority of the Spanish speaking guests and the Americans (which count for around 90% of the people staying at the hotel) don’t seem to understand the concept of waiting your turn. Every day I would be stood at the pool bar patiently waiting just to have one of the aforementioned people stroll up to the bar, stand next to me and shout out their orders to the bar staff while they were making drinks for other guests. And they would get served before me! Most days you had that feeling of being invisible with the bar staff making clear eye contact with you but not seeming to clock that you’ve been stood there for 20 minutes and serving multiple Spanish/Americans first. This was pretty infuriating. Restaurants; I simply can’t fault the choice of food at this restaurant and the service received in them was brilliant. We only used the buffet restaurants for breakfast and lunch as there was an abundance of A La Carte Restaurants which were all excellent. Indian/Mexican/Tapas/Italian/Argentinian/Steak House/Oriental and a Japanese restaurant....(if you can get in read on) all these restaurants operate a first come first serve policy apart from the Japanese which needs to be booked before hand. You’re best going either at 6 or 9 if you go between 7-8 then expect up to an hour wait for a table as this is their busiest times but most do have a bar nearby where you can wait with a buzzer to alert you when you can go in. The waiters in these restaurants are great. They bring you a new beer as soon as you finish your first, top up your water and wine throughout the meal and you’re never waiting long for food to be bought out. Reception/Guest Services; As I said at the start of this review the initial impressions of guest services wasn’t great and sadly it didn’t really improve. We tried to book the Japanese restaurant twice before breakfast to be told it was full for the day and following day but no option to book for the next available date or any advice on the best time to book basically just a “no sorry”. I then wanted to change some of my big dollar notes to smaller change for tips. They told me I can do this at the cashier on the desk next to them. I qued to be told I had to see the First Lady (which was stood behind the same desk next to her) so I qued again then got told she had no change yet. So I came back the following day to be told again the Japanese restaurant was full then qued again to be told she still had no change and had to ask when she will have change. Didn’t bother again... Bars; They’re are loads of bars around the resort. The service in them is consistently good. As soon as you sit down a waitor will pop over and ask you what you want to drink. Then when you’re done they’ll come and collect your glass and ask if you want another. A wide range of drinks are available from manhattans, cosmopolitans, mojitos, daiquiris, el presidente beer (which is 5% and probably closest compared to Carling back at home) as well as plenty of local cocktails made from coconut cream (be careful with having too many coconut drinks as it can lead to pretty adverse affects). We found that you typically get 2-3 drinks from table service whether you’re tipping or not it doesn’t seem to make a difference and then your’ll need to go to the bar yourself. To summarise....the hotel is good, the cleaners and waiters are amazing. The bar staff could do better and the guest services could be more polite and cheerful. The majority of guests are irritating at the bar but can’t be helped. The beach and pool areas are great BUT be prepared to be bombarded by sales people trying to sell you excursions, sunglasses, necklaces and everything else under the sun every 5 minutes which don’t take a simple no as an answer. The hotel actually accept money from these to allow them to sell inside the hotel which is pretty annoying. Oh and remember to bring your medicine, inmodium, paracetamol, bite cream ect as the prices in the shop for these is ludicrous. £30 yes 30 pounds for a box of inmodiun. £20 for a bottle of sun lotion and £20 for a box of paracetamol (I mean come on these are 15p for a box in Aldi at home) you expect the prices to be slightly higher but this is a joke. Mosquitos are in the millions here so bring lots of good repellant and bite cream as you will be bit to shreds. I never usually get bit but got around 25 bites here... But overall we enjoyed ourselves and the hotel in general was very good so I’m sure your’ll have a nice time.

Delores, our personal concierge was so personable and accommodating from the time we arrived. I was celebrating my birthday and couldn't have selected a better resort. Delores scheduled all of our dinner arrangements, arranged a resort tour and she upgraded our room ensuring we had the best ocean view the resort offers.(Building 81) Delores was more than an employee, she treated us like family. She engaged with us daily ensuring our stay was pleasurable and we took advantage of all the resort amenities.