TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Let me start by saying this is my 6th trip to the Dominican Republic. The first 5 times we stayed at Excellence EL Carmen and each trip was amazing.. On our last trip we decided to tour the hard rock hotel punta cana and I purchased the Paradise Pass. This week we arrived on the 13th for our 8 day 7 night trip. When we arrived the free transfer took almost 45mins to pick us up from the airport, then the ride to the hotel our driver almost had two accidents with other driver's do to him speeding. Once we made it to the resort we stood in line for another 45 minutes waiting to check in. After finally getting checked in and making it to our room we found out the room was nothing like the room we were shown when I bought the package. Next we noticed that the room had quite a few repair issues that they said were normal. We decided to just try to enjoy the trip and it was one thing after another. Multiple calls early each morning from the man with legendary trying to give us a tour to earn a tip after we already declined. The food is very subpar and very inconsistent at every restaurant including room service. The shows were the same as the Excellence resort however the performance was not very good at all for any of the shows except for the Beatles. Absolutely everything at the resort besides food, drink and the beach you have to pay extra for. All of the shops and carts are severely overpriced. The area outside of the theater smells like raw sewage everyday. Most of the staff is very rude and only acts nice until they get a tip. On our last day check out was supposed to be noon. They sent a guy to our room before 10am while we were still waiting for our breakfast that never came. I was in the shower and he took our luggage and demanded that we come with him now to check out. The wait to check out was just as long to check in. At check out they tried to charge me an additional $75 for a transportation for a tour we didnt get to go on because my daughter got sick from their food. We said had to pay for the tour we didnt take because they wanted me to pay the on-site clinic to say that she was sick or we couldn't cancel it! No matter how many times you try to get help with these kind of issues it was made clear that this was all considered normal at this place. We will definitely be back to the DR again but I will never stay at another 1800 room hard rock resort or buy a legendary paradise pass again. The $1200 in resort credits was almost useless. They don't tell you when you buy it that it is pretty much restricted to the spa or the dolphin tour. We couldn't use it for anything we actually wanted to do and you still have to pay 25% of the total cost of whatever you use it for plus any transportation fees they choose to apply. Also the beach had a red flag every single day so we could not swim there. Im sure the resort and legendary don't care and wont change anything or do anything to make this right because this is all just about a huge profit for them but maybe this might help one person that is thinking about this place. The reviews that say this place was good must be from people that have never been to a good resort like the Excellence El Carmen. Out of the the places and resorts we stayed at this was the worst. Overcrowded, overpriced, and the worst service and food.

The food great and the service is amazing, but there’s not enough entertainment for the adults I’ve been coming here for 10 years and the music stops at 11 and it gets extremely boring.

It feels very nice here, the waves of the sea here are the most amazing and exciting and the room is luxurious, now what should I tell you, the price is also great.

nice experience, good people and very good people staff as well as service add atmospare, we defitnetly come back here ,

If it wasn’t for our nephews wedding (which was amazing for reasons not having to do with the hotel) this resort would get a 1 star review. This hotel has the right recipe to be outstanding but unfortunately did not meet even average standards. Everything from the service to the food to the cleanliness of our room fell short of even average service. The staff always seemed to have an attitude with any request and couldn’t be bothered to fill a water cup, and our room was ‘cleaned’ which meant the bed cover was pulled over some bunched up sheets and our towels were refolded- we had crumbs on our floor every single day just piled into a corner. As for the food- 20 of our family members fell ill with food poisoning and all from different restaurants. Not the way you want to spend your time or money when visiting a supposedly 4star hotel. There were some pros: the beach is nice, the 2 water parks offer something for all ages and the rooms are spacious. Like I said, it could be outstanding if some changes are made.