TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Can't believe this is considered a 5 star resort. Food: I tried both restaurant buffets, plus the Oriental restaurant. 90% of the food was terrible. Overcooked bland pasta, hard bread, even pancakes were mediocre; how does anyone mess up pancakes? Some of the desserts were okay. The only thing I can say was actually good is the fruit. At the Oriental restaurant, they list things on the menu and bring you something different on a plate (like the tuna sashimi listed with soy sauce and then bringing you a tiny baby portion of paper thin sliced tuna with some horrible tasting oil on top, no soy sauce. Also, don't get the shrimp anywhere in this hotel, they don't clean it properly and you literally end up eating shrimp poop. Even the drinks are mediocre. No idea how someone can mess up a piña colada, but then again, they mess up even the most simple things. Entertainment: I didn't go to the Mangu disco, so can't speak for it, but the nightly shows are... pretty worthless. Uneventful. Not fun. Leaves you wondering why are you even there. Staff is average. Just people doing their job at an acceptable pace without any sense of urgency to help. Room was okay-ish. Mostly just ordinary, nothing worth praising. The shower temperature was actually broken and water was too hot regardless of where I placed the handle. I just dealt with it, not too much of a big deal. Another annoying thing is that the toilet didn't just flush with a push, you have to hold the button for however long it takes to fully flush and then you can walk away. Not a huge deal, just very annoying. The pools were pretty huge and there's a few of them, one decent thing. Checkout's at 12:00pm; they immediately take away your wristband (most resorts let you keep it so you can at least still eat lunch that day or get a few drinks and then you can leave a couple hrs afterwards). Not something I expected from a 5 star resort. Okay, so the real deal breaker here and why I'd never recommend this resort is that when I was exiting the lobby (after I was given a piece of paper that was like a ticket and it said to show it to the bus before boarding), I was a bit lost in terms of how to get to the entrance (from the lobby exit to the entrance there's about half a km - I don't have a car and had to take an uber out of there, but they don't let ubers through the entrance into the lobby exit, there's karts and busses that give you a lift to the main entrance instead). I asked an employee if there were karts coming that could give me a lift, he said that karts are only to take luggage to their rooms, he was extremely dismissive of me - I also knew 100% this was a lie because when I first came in, a kart drove some people to the entrance and the same kart drove me from the entrance to the lobby). Given how dismissive he was, I did not continue that conversation. I asked another employee and actually showed him the ticket thing that mentioned the bus; he said there's no bus and I had to walk. Again, it was noon, the DR sunlight is no joke and heat isn't either. So they wanted me to walk half a km in extreme heat and carrying my luggage. I have kind of extreme social anxiety, so asking for help does not come easy to me. I should have reported both employees or something, but again, social anxiety didn't allow me to have any more human interaction at that point. Thankfully, the uber I requested managed to save my day and passed the entrance to the lobby after I told him I'd have to cancel cause I'd have to walk and didn't want him to wait that long. While waiting for my uber, though, one couple and their kid asked the same employee for a ride to the entrance and he helped with no hesitation. The bus was right there, he helped with their luggage and then he helped a second couple board the bus. So, he denied the service only to me. I was alone and I'm a small girl with really short hair and wear masculine clothed. I don't know if this was an act of homophobia (I'm not even gay, but look like it) or why the heck I was denied a service when he was glad to help others.

Well, I have different feelings about this resort. Let me specify what I remember now. - ROOM: We had a Superior Double room with Tropical View, building 23, was good because we were at the middle of everything, A/C and beds were great, very comfy. BUT when we got there our room had NO TOWELS, not even one, we were 4 (Me, my Boyfriend and my 2 Kids), I called front desk, they sent me TWO towels a big and a little one, had to call again and then they sent me even face towels. Our fridge only had ONE 7UP, after the towels issue they sent me water and pepsi. - POOL: No complaints on the main pool, to me it's like the best thing of this place. Also their very best employee is SANTOS CASTILLO at the pool bar, the ONLY one who smiled at you AT ALL TIMES. SO many good drinks. Hope you take him into consideration because he said he's been working for a long time in this business. There are more pools but I stayed at the main one for the drinks. - FOOD: Almost the same thing everyday, also, I saw many review videos on Youtube of their buffets and it's incredible how many variety they had, BUT on the weekend since US (THE LOCALS) go to the resort, they downgrade the offer and it's just TRASH. It's incredible not even a little shrimp or any oyster, always same chicken, same pork, Saturday night was "Dominican Night", they were offering baked pork and on Sunday Lunch they served the same pork but with some sauce, SHAME! We, as Dominicans who support your business, who also spent money on your resort, we deserve to be better treated with the food. More options for us too as I saw on the weekdays. - SNACKS: Well, the weekend was packed and the only thing they had until late was pizza where you needed to be in line for 30 minutes or 1 hour just to get 1 mini pizza, because they didn't serve more than one per person, this means that I couldn't get one for me and one for my grandma who couldn't be on the line for that amount of time. I think 2 per person would be fair. The snack by the pool, yesterday they didn't serve hamburguers, because they ran out of meat. I couldn't believe it. - SERVICE: The service was horrible, I was smiling to everybody asking for things or just saying thank you when they served us, and they were always with angry faces like it's a favor their doing to us, I recommend the management of this company to provide some Customer Service courses or seminaries to their employees. And before you guys answered me with the automatic reply on HOW THIS IS NOT NORMAL BECAUSE YOU RECEIVED GOOD REVIEWS FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES SERVICES, let me tell you, GO ONE DAY as an undercover to the buffet and you will CONFIRM what all these comments say. - NIGHT LIFE: The Mangu Disco opened on Friday, it was nice, but the DJ, OMG, he played dembow for almost the whole night and some songs that nobody was dancing. Please give him a list of the famous stuff right now and that everybody knows. Regarding the Lobby, as an advice I can tell you it will be fine if you continue with the music or something else after 11PM because not everybody prefer to go the Club and it will be better for them to stay sitted at the Lobby. If there's an upgrade in the FOOD and SERVICE part, I'll repeat, because it's beautiful.

Went to this hotel on my vaccination and can’t express how pleasant my experience was here. The first day I came with my friends I was welcomed by Juan malena and he made my Time there excellent. He would always ask how our day was and helped us on any questions we had. He would take care of us and would be funny to make us laugh all the time . I can’t wait to go back for the experience again.

Come and visit them at Barcelo Bavaro. Great service and great with people across all cultures and way of life. They will make a janitor feel like a CEO because they treat everyone special. They also speak English.

Special recognition for the excellent service, atention, and completely dedication to our children to Esperanza in the children Club. We celebrate our children birthday. Esperanza gave us the best supportnin our party