TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Came back from 1 week at this fabulous resort. Amazing staff, amazing food, clean, kids friendly even thought we went as a couple. Lots of wildlife, especially peacocks. The poor reviews are from fussy people. People who say that " It's repetitive food at the buffet" well McDonald's is a repetitive menu!!! People who say they didn't get served well, well that's cause they are fussy travelers. We've been travel for 32 years to the Dominican Republic and have never had issues, we adapted to the environment which we go to. And yes we tip at an all inclusive. These people work very hard to make us happy the least we can do is leave a tip. On this trip I caught a bug, well let me tell you if it wasn't for the staff at the restaurant's who made me a drink ( sparking water a pinch of salt and lime) I would have spent all my time in my room. I can not say a bad thing about this resort and it's staff. Just be ready to do lots of walking or take the mini train to get from front to hotel to beach as it is a huge property. Kudo's to all the staff. Gracia de todo desde la habitacion 0613 ( 15/05 a 22/05/26)

Just returned from another wonderful family vacation at the Grand Bavaro Princess, where we booked two Platinum rooms for our family of four. Having returned to this resort nearly every year for the past decades, I like to leave an updated review for first-timers. Once again, the resort maintained its high standards and did not disappoint. The Food The food quality remains consistently good across the restaurants we visited. Here were our standout favorites: • Italian: Octopus carpaccio and tiramisu. • Steakhouse: French onion soup, Filet mignon. • Indian: Samosas and the lamb dishes. • Seafood: Deep-fried fish, and the shrimp & pineapple cocktail. • Wasabi: Neptune salad, octopus poke bowl, duck wok, and rice dishes. For Platinum guests: SoHo: slow cook octopus, deep fried lobster ball, shrimp toast, slow cook black angus PBG: good option for lunch For Dinner: slow cook octopus golden rock (deep fried shrimps), hamburger and fried, bbq ribs and steak Pro-Tips for First-Timers: • Bug Protection: Bring bug spray and an anti-itch relief stick. You or your family will definitely need it for mosquito bites. • Beat the Heat: Bring small, handheld electronic fans. Some restaurants (like the Italian one) get quite warm despite having AC. • Don't Miss the Platinum Beach Party: If you book Platinum, make sure your stay includes a Wednesday night. They host a massive beach celebration (moved to Chopin if it rains) featuring live music, grilled lobster, prime rib, and excellent steaks. • AC Hack: The AC in the Platinum buildings is strong, but the vent design blows air directly onto your head while in bed. Lowering the fan speed didn't help, so we used a hard paper bag and aluminum foil to redirect the airflow. Customer Service Recovery On our second night, we experienced an unwelcome attitude from a manager at PBG. However, after speaking with Mr. Miguel Ramírez that same evening, he completely turned our experience around. He truly listened to our concerns and made us feel valued again. From that point on, we felt incredibly welcomed by the managers and staff across PBG, SoHo, and the Platinum Lounge. Special thanks to the following standout team members who made our trip extra special: • Management: Miguel Ramírez, Sir Cafe, Roberto (SoHo), Agapito (PBG), and Domingo (SoHo). • Staff: Jamillet (Spa), Juan and Pedro (Beach Buffet), Meilady (SoHo), Adriana (hosted) Juan and Wildania (PBG and SoHo), the wonderful PBG bartenders, and the entire Platinum team (IDanny, Hector, etc.) Areas for Improvement: • Slow Wi-Fi: The internet was incredibly slow this year (even at PBG, Sport Pub or Platinum lounge, which usually have better signal). We recommend having a T-Mobile plan with free international data or purchasing the resort's premium Wi-Fi plan. I hope the resort addresses this infrastructure issue. • Wildlife: For the past several years, leftover bread was provided for guests to feed the resident ducks and peacocks. This wasn't available this year, which we missed!

Grand Bavaro Princess should honestly rename guest service into “Guess Service”, because every interaction feels like a guessing game: guessing who speaks English, guessing if anyone cares and guessing whether your problem will be ignored today or tomorrow. This place cannot even organize basic communication between departments. We came for almost 1 month and thanks to their reservation team ended up with 3 separate bookings because apparently in this hotel the reservation department and the actual hotel are two different planets. Every day was another adventure with bracelets, restaurant bookings and explaining the same story to 15 different employees. At check-in we got one tiny juice for two people while Instagram shows waitress carrying cocktails inside pineapples like it’s the Maldives. Nice marketing fantasy. Even better — right after arriving we discovered our luggage was damaged during handling and an item disappeared. Their highly professional solution? Sit at a coffee table and handwrite your complaint on A4 paper like you’re filing taxes in 1993. Guest service employees were unbelievably rude. Instead of “Hello, how can I help you?” the greeting was usually “What you want?”. We were promised meetings with management multiple times and every time got rejected or redirected like unwanted spam emails. Mrs. Germania literally smiled while dismissing our complaints without even reading them, probably because she was not able to speak english. Best part? We submitted claims TWICE and Mr. De La Vieja ignored both of them completely. No reply. No explanation. Nothing. We are literally still waiting. Apparently ghosting guests is part of the premium experience here. Special thanks to Melina from reception — the only person in the entire resort who acted like she actually works in hospitality. Everyone else behaved like guests are interrupting their day by existing. We upgraded to Platinum thinking we would get a better experience. What we actually got was a dirtier room, more bugs and the privilege of walking further for everything. Amazing concept. The Platinum bungalow was worse than the regular room — dirty, full of mosquitoes, bugs and cockroaches. We requested room disinfection multiple times because one of us even developed an allergic reaction to mosquito bites. Reception kept promising help and then either nobody came or they arrived hours late. At some point we literally started killing bugs ourselves after dinner because waiting for staff became pointless entertainment. The tipping culture here is insane and disgusting. If you don’t walk around waving dollar bills like a casino winner, suddenly bartenders forget you exist. People arriving after you get drinks first because they already prepared the sacred one-dollar offering. Sometimes even the drinks magically change quality depending on whether you tipped or not. Apparently “all inclusive” means “all inclusive if cash attached”. The beach situation is another comedy show. Signs everywhere saying you cannot reserve sunbeds for more than 30 minutes while people reserve entire neighborhoods of sunbeds from 5 AM with one towel per 2-4 sunbeds and disappear until sunset. Staff sees it, ignores it and continues the performance daily. And yes, even the “exclusive” Platinum beach area is full of sellers constantly shouting “Hola! Hola! Hola!” every 10 seconds. One even got angry because we didn’t greet him fast enough. Maybe next time they can include beach harassment directly into the Platinum package description. The medical experience connected to this hotel deserves its own Netflix episode. We visited the medical office because of acute back pain and Dr. Guzman first acted friendly… until payment discussions started. It was “fastest transformation from doctor to debt collector”. Even though insurance confirmation was in process and clearly explained multiple times, he repeatedly threatened us about immediate payment and kept saying we would “have problems” if money wasn’t paid quickly. All this over a couple injections and painkillers costing over 500 USD. The funniest part? He made documents to sign but never gave copies, which is legally brilliant if your goal is chaos. In the end Dr. Guzman aka. Debt Collector received his payment guarantee from the insurance but we received no apology from the doctor/hotel despite management being informed. Room maintenance was equally impressive. One morning we woke up because the toilet started leaking water all over the room. Reception promised someone would come in 20 minutes while we were already collecting water ourselves. Repair staff later blamed toilet paper even though we never threw any inside. Days later toilet problems happened again and once again reaching reception became harder than contacting NASA. Restaurant organization was also chaos. Multiple times people arriving after us were seated before us despite reservations. Whenever we asked why, staff suddenly forgot all English vocabulary. In the Italian restaurant one waitress practically threw plates on the table like she was angry we interrupted her day by existing. And then came the final masterpiece on checkout day. We clearly informed the bellboy we already had a prepaid taxi booked. Somehow we still got loaded into another taxi arranged by the hotel. Only after arriving at the airport did the driver ask for payment. We realized Grand Bavaro Princess gave us one final surprise scam before departure. At that point we just laughed because honestly it perfectly summarized the entire stay. PS. At the beginning of our 3rd reservation, Melina — the only competent person at reception — informed us we’d receive Platinum services without moving back into the “premium insect museum” bungalow. We also asked about our TWO ignored claims. Her answer? “This is the reply.” Meaning Mr. De La Vieja simply decided to ghost us completely. Truly inspiring 5-star management. This place looks great on Instagram. So does Jurassic Park before people enter the island.

The food are very delicious and service was perfect. Kids team very kind and friendly which my kids love them. But in the room, the blankets are low quality and there is no toothpaste and toothbrush. In the bathroom there is no ventilation.

Excellent restaurants. Incredible beach. Overall excellent. Service couldn’t be better. I would like to mention specially ALEXSANDRA & YANIRIZ from Hispaniola buffet. Both were incredible gracious and calid. I relate to them as family. I’m 79 yrs old and they make me feel like home. ALEXSANDRA found out was my birthday and prepared for me a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY reception. I’ll never forget it. However my only complains are SPA & SHOPS. Ridiculous expensives. The merchandise in the shops prices didn’t match quality. SPA prices extremely expensive. Need to improve in those 2 areas.