TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Great food great drink great atmosphere

Hereyny and Samuel and Edito were awesome! Service was incredible

My name is Vince and the Hotel must be aware of my name and contact info. I have emailed them numerous times and reached out to management but all have given deaf ear. 1. Aggressive & Disrespectful Sales Tactics Upon check-in, we were immediately pressured with escalating room upgrade discounts (jumping from 50% to 80% off) before being handed to Cesar. We explicitly stated that as returning guests, we were not interested in member contracts or resort credits and just wanted to start our vacation. He ignored our boundaries, pushing us to attend a high-pressure membership pitch as a "personal favor.". Severe Health Risks & Unacceptable Room Conditions Health Hazard: The ongoing construction, drilling, and debris in the 4th-floor hallways and elevators severely impacted our stay. The constant dust triggered daily asthma attacks in my son, forcing us to rely on his emergency steroid inhaler for the duration of the trip. Misrepresented Room: Despite booking an Ocean View room, our primary view was the roof of the Cirque area. Furthermore, we were provided Full-size beds instead of the booked Queens. Noise & Amenities: Being directly above the 3rd-floor pool resulted in constant screaming and splashing, compounded by day-and-night jackhammering. Housekeeping consistently left us short on basic amenities—when we requested extra towels, we were astonishingly told the resort was "completely out." Body soap and conditioner were never replenished. 2. Health Hazard: The ongoing construction, drilling, and debris in the 4th-floor hallways and elevators severely impacted our stay. The constant dust triggered daily asthma attacks in my son, forcing us to rely on his emergency steroid inhaler for the duration of the trip. Misrepresented Room: Despite booking an Ocean View room, our primary view was the roof of the Cirque area. Furthermore, we were provided Full-size beds instead of the booked Queens. Noise & Amenities: Being directly above the 3rd-floor pool resulted in constant screaming and splashing, compounded by day-and-night jackhammering. Housekeeping consistently left us short on basic amenities—when we requested extra towels, we were astonishingly told the resort was "completely out." Body soap and conditioner were never replenished. 3. Deceptive Excursions & Spa Bookings Booking activities felt like a bait-and-switch operation. Initially, Thomas informed me that unless I spent $2,000, our options were severely limited. Two days later, Merssiae booked what was explicitly promised as a full-day private boat trip featuring clear-water snorkeling, local food, and shopping at a vibrant yacht marina. The Reality: The excursion was capped at just 2 hours (mostly transit time). The "clear water" was murky, and the promised dining and shopping took place at a dilapidated, mostly abandoned fishing marina with only two open shops. It was a severe misrepresentation of what we paid for and a massive disappointment for our family. 4. Poor Dining Operations & Inventory Shortages Dining: Habibi Restaurant was closed on days it was expected to be open. The main buffets were frequently over capacity, and Le Jiraf served terrible quality food while being entirely out of stock of key items (steak, escargots, and the paid lobster upgrade). Bars: The outside lobby bar closed at 11:00 PM (too soon after late dinner) and routinely ran out of basic inventory like wine and Palomas. The beach pool bar also consistently ran out of basic drinks, including Mai Tais.

Still under construction but don't expect to get 5* in everything. 5* Spa, Main buffet 3* Same food every day, Italian Restaurant 3*, Brazilian meat restaurant 3*, Coffee and chocolate factory 10*, pools 3.5* poor cocktails for a 5* Resort, services 4*, beach 2* whit poor options and a lot of seaweed. Space rooms 4*, Front desk 2* of knowledge. Golf course 5* great service all the time. The resort is huge but, they need a lot of time to finished and be fully functional, too much dust around. $8000 for 4 people only 4 days, that's too much and even paying a half of that you will never get for what you pay. I dough that all people at time could pay at less $300 per night. Give them 2 more years to be fully functional.

Moon Palace The Grand Punta Cana Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly We just finished our family stay at Moon Palace The Grand Punta Cana, traveling as a family of six with two walkout swim-up rooms. Thomas Francis, Travel with Thomas Today advisor, August 6th, 2026. We’re very familiar with the Palace Resorts brand and have stayed at other Moon Palace properties, so we came into this trip with a pretty good idea of what “The Grand” experience is supposed to look and feel like. There is A LOT to love here. There is also a lot that simply isn't ready. Here’s our Good, Bad & Ugly review. ?? THE GOOD The property is absolutely gorgeous. There is no denying the potential of this resort. From the moment you walk into the beautifully appointed check-in area, you can see what Palace is trying to build here. The lobby, bars, restaurants, landscaping, outdoor spaces and completed pool areas are beautiful. The resort has a modern, upscale feel and, once everything is actually finished, we genuinely believe this could become one of the best all-inclusive resorts in Punta Cana. Our walkout swim rooms were also a great concept for a family trip and added another dimension to the experience. The staff is fantastic. This deserves to be emphasized because the employees are working under some pretty difficult circumstances. The resort is brand new, many employees are clearly still learning, and procedures are being figured out in real time. Despite that, we found the overwhelming majority of the staff to be incredibly accommodating, welcoming, friendly and vibrant. You can tell they WANT guests to have a great experience. There are absolutely service inconsistencies, which we'll get into below, but we don't put that on the individual employees. Most are doing everything they can while learning an entirely new resort. The food is outstanding for an all-inclusive. This is one area where Palace continues to shine. The food quality is excellent for an all-inclusive and follows the standard we've come to expect from the other Moon Palace resorts. There is plenty of variety, presentation is generally excellent, and we had some genuinely great meals. When the restaurants have everything available and everything is running correctly, the dining experience can be fantastic. --- ?? THE BAD Restaurants are constantly running out of things. This happened enough that it became noticeable and frustrating. We would sit down, pick something from the menu and find out they were out of it. The same thing happened with cocktails and other drinks. Sometimes it was one missing item. Sometimes several. The café was particularly inconsistent. On different visits, several desserts or other items simply weren't available. At a resort positioning itself at this level, inventory and supply management needs to improve significantly. Construction makes everything dusty and dirty. To the staff's credit, they're constantly cleaning. The problem is that they're fighting a battle they can't win. When construction is happening throughout the property all day, every day, dust and debris inevitably make their way into guest areas. You'll see employees cleaning, only for construction activity to create another mess shortly afterward. For a luxury resort, it simply isn't a great look. --- ?? THE UGLY And unfortunately, this is where our biggest concerns are. The construction is CONSTANT. This isn't a situation where they're putting the finishing touches on a few areas. This property feels like it opened significantly before it was finished. Construction crews are everywhere. Construction materials are everywhere. Entire areas are unfinished. Want to wake up on vacation to jackhammers above your room at 8:30 in the morning? Yep. Want construction noise while you're trying to relax? Yep. Want to walk through a beautiful Caribbean resort and regularly be reminded of a construction site? Also yep. At times, it felt more like being back in New York City than relaxing in Punta Cana. Blackouts and room problems are unacceptable. We experienced electrical blackouts at night that left rooms without air conditioning, meaning you're lying there sweating while waiting for power to return. We also experienced air-conditioning units leaking water into rooms. These aren't tiny cosmetic issues. When you're paying premium prices for a vacation, basic things like electricity, air conditioning and a dry hotel room shouldn't be part of the adventure. The emergency exits and stairwells were genuinely concerning. This was probably the most troubling thing we encountered. We came across emergency exits and emergency stairwell areas that appeared unfinished or non-functional. That goes beyond inconvenience. That's a safety concern. Seeing unfinished emergency infrastructure in an operating resort filled with families was genuinely unsettling. Whatever the explanation, guests should never have to wonder whether emergency exits or evacuation routes are actually ready to be used. Roughly half of the resort still feels unfinished. This is the biggest issue with The Grand Punta Cana right now. You can see the finished product Palace is aiming for, but you are vacationing inside the process of getting there. Large portions of the resort remain under construction or unavailable. Everywhere you look there seem to be crews, equipment, unfinished spaces or construction debris. This does NOT feel like a completed resort that happens to have a few projects going on. It feels like an unfinished resort that has begun accepting guests. That's an important distinction. Many restaurants still aren't open. There are still plenty of places to eat, so you're certainly not going hungry. But several restaurants and dining concepts simply aren't ready yet. That's especially disappointing when part of the reason you're choosing a massive resort like The Grand is the huge variety of dining and entertainment that's advertised as part of the experience. Only 3 of the 7 pools were open during our stay. Again, the pools that ARE open provide plenty of places to swim and enjoy yourself. But when you're walking around a brand-new luxury resort and seeing unopened, dirty or unfinished pools, it completely changes the atmosphere. You're constantly reminded that you're staying at a resort that isn't finished. The spa isn't remotely comparable to The Grand Cancun. This was another major disappointment. If you've experienced the spa at The Grand at Moon Palace Cancun, don't arrive expecting the same experience here right now. The Punta Cana spa felt extremely small by comparison, portions weren't open, and the overall experience was severely lacking compared with what we've experienced at other Palace properties, including Jamaica. For a resort carrying The Grand name, the spa simply isn't at that level yet. The staff is learning everything in real time, and sometimes it becomes exhausting. We completely understand that this is a new resort with a new team. But there were moments where simple requests became unnecessarily complicated. One example involved trying to book our daughter for a simple haircut. She literally just wanted her bangs trimmed. Somehow, "bangs cut" was interpreted as braids. Okay. Miscommunication happens. But then they couldn't simply refund the incorrect charge. We rescheduled the haircut, only to discover that the new appointment had been booked for the wrong day, when we were getting ready to leave the resort. Eventually, we just canceled the entire thing. It's a small example, but it perfectly illustrates the larger issue. The combination of a language barrier, new employees, new systems and procedures that are seemingly being figured out on the fly can turn something incredibly simple into a grinding, frustrating experience. --- ??? OUR FINAL VERDICT Here's the frustrating part: We think Moon Palace The Grand Punta Cana is eventually going to be incredible. The bones are there. The completed areas are beautiful. The food is excellent. The staff has the warmth and personality you want on vacation. The scale and ambition of this property are enormous. We absolutely see the vision. But the resort we experienced simply isn't ready to deliver the experience that the Moon Palace The Grand name promises. There is a huge difference between a newly opened resort working through minor growing pains and a resort that still feels like an active construction site. Right now, this feels like the latter. And when you add blackouts, leaking A/C units, significant portions of the resort being unfinished, closed restaurants, unopened pools, construction noise and our concerns surrounding unfinished emergency areas, it's simply too much to overlook. Would we come back? Absolutely. Would we come back anytime soon? Absolutely not. Our recommendation is to give this property time. Not a few weeks. Not a few months. A lot of time. Let Palace finish construction. Let the landscaping mature. Let every restaurant and pool open. Let the spa become what it's supposed to be. Let the staff gain experience. Let management work through the operational problems. Then come experience what we believe this resort was always intended to be. For now: avoid. Our family will give Moon Palace The Grand Punta Cana another shot in 2028. Because if Palace gets this right, this place could eventually be spectacular. It just isn't there yet.