TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Review for August 2023 Holiday We visited in August 2023 with our kids and family friends. It was overall a great holiday (mainly down to each others company and not letting poor customer service and food getting in the way of our trip) however thought I’d share mine and my families thoughts. Firstly the resort is definitely not a 5* resort. I’d personally give them 3.5*. Rooms are very clean, entertainment is great for both kids and adults and the pool and splash park area is superb. However the resort is lacking the attention to detail, food standards and customer service to make it a 5* resort. Pros: - It was a member of our groups birthday during our visit and the hotel did very well organising a cake and celebrations in their Mediterranean restaurant for us and we had a great time! - Very good water park and pools for all ages. - Beach was nice and relaxing to sit on, however we did visit during seaweed season so the beach had a lot of seaweed, this didn’t bother us though. I would definitely note if your someone who’s priority is clear water and white sand to definitely look at staying at another part of the island. - Very nice and clean rooms and we had a lovely view looking into gardens. - Evening entertainment was pretty solid for an all inclusive with lots of variety for all ages. - Really nice grounds and a lovely walk from the rooms to the beach and swimming pools. - Cons: - A huge downside and disappointment for myself and my group was how rude and unpleasant we found the majority of staff to be. Myself and my family have been visiting resorts across the Caribbean and South America for decades now and something we have always noted is how friendly staff have been, however it was a very different experience at Grand Sirenis. I partially blame management as some staff in fairness seemed incredibly overworked and tired, however something that really shocked me was a lot of Spanish speaking guests seemed to get treated in a very different manner to English speaking guests. I have never experienced anything like this before or after my visit to Grand Sirenis. We found ourselves often ignored at the bar (unless we left a very generous tip after every drink) as well as in the main buffet when waiting to be seated and for cutlery etc. Overall we were a group of 9 so as you could imagine we paid a significantly large amount to be able to go on this holiday and we actually found the service by a lot of staff quite shocking. Obviously this isn’t all staff and there were some incredibly friendly waitresses, however unfortunately this seemed to be quite a rare experience for English speaking guests. - The food for this resort was a huge letdown. Over half my group got sick from the food and it was just overall pretty poor. It was certainly edible but just not that tasty at all. Not great options for kids/ fussy eaters as well and a lot of the a-la carte restaurants were just not that impressive at all, aside from the Asian one. Just really poor food quality when comparing to other resorts we’ve been too across the Caribbean. - Not necessarily too much of a problem, however we noted that a significant amount of staff could barely/ hardly speak English that well at all (particularly staff in the water park and some bars). I don’t necessarily blame the hotel or staff for this, but TUI themselves, as in my opinion they shouldn’t be working alongside this hotel and offering this hotel as a package holiday, as the hotel is clearly more catered to Spanish speaking guests rather than English speaking. Overall, although we had a great time with each other, I sincerely doubt we’d ever return back. I truly believe English speaking guests are treated differently and the food just wasn’t up there when comparing to other resorts. Not a terrible resort but certainly not 5* and I’m sure you can get a much better holiday on the island for a similar price at a much better resort.

When we first arrived the hotel looked amazing - unfortunately the same can’t be said for the roooms - you can see where the money has been spent - check-in was very strange with a man giving us a sticker with another planted on our luggage - we checked in which was a faff because you have to complete an online form and then have all your passports scanned - we decided to take our own luggage as the guys didn’t seem to understand us. We found our room which is basic at best - horrible bedding, standard of decor very poor, bathroom wasn’t the best. The cleaners sometimes left us a towel each but this was very hit and miss - every day something was missed, no teabags, no toilet roll, not enough towels etc. We found a lot of the staff were rude and didn’t care if you had a problem - I have never been to a restaurant where there was no cutlery, no clean plates, not offered a drink. The entertainment was really good but this is definitely NOT 5 star - this is 3 at best

We are a family of 5 travelling from the UK. We all oved this hotel the grounds are immaculate, the entertainment staff ate hard at work all day entertaining kids and adults but not in your face pushy. The hotel app is fab all schedules for the days ate on there. We booked all our restaurants through the app you don't have to go to the concierge at all We didn't. I love the layout of the hotel there's lots going on so not all people are crammed Into one place e.g in the eveni g there is usually a band on in the lobby but also music on in the outdoor section opposite the food truck, and something in the theatre so different areas or entertainment available. The room was fine I was worried about this reading other reviews but the room in block 17 was lovely no issues with it all all. The maid cleaned it daily restocked fridge changed towels etc. There is a guest relation in reception so any issues you can go to them instead of reception desk. We used them as my husband is diabetic and the room fridge was only stocked with full sugar coke,Fanta sprite, we asked the guest relations if the maid can leave diet coke instead. The maid restocked the diet from then on. The pool is lovely everyday something going on inflatable slide, foam party etc it is very deep in most parts but floats are allowed. Towels are provided no need to bring beach towels. Lots of sunbeds no need to reserve early morning. The food did impress me the buffets had lots of choice but if you didn't like the buffet food then in The day there is a bbq on the beach cooking burgers/hotdogs etc or by pool there is a pizza bar and in the evenings you have the buffer option the restaurants although you have to reserve a place in these or the American food truck servi g chicken wings/chips burgers cooked in front of you you will defo not starve. The Japanese was my favourite restaurant a bit of fun I tractive cooking from the chef kids loved that. The Italian, Brazilian and steak restaurants we also lovely. The only real downside was the drinks service in the buffets. There isn't enough staff in there to clear the table from the person before and relay it. Unless your in there for the first sitting you have to track someone down to clear tables relay knives and forkes etc. It would be much better to put self serve coffee machines, juice and water dispensers so the staff can then just relay tables but they insist on Serving you but it annoys people as there's not enough staff for the amount of people. My advice is to get a drink from the bar and take it in with you. The hotel bent over backwards for the England Spain euros final, instead of putting it on In The sports bar they put it on in the big theatre (where the night entertainment is usually done) to accommodate the numbers and the opened the bar and put on half time burgers/hotdogs and popcorn. A nice touch I thought. We really enjoyed our stay at this hotel and would come back.

My family and I had the most awful experience at this hotel. We were a group of forty two (42) people. At the checkin area, they should install cooling fans to keep the guest cool, sweat rushing down our faces. The bellman then escort us to our room with our luggage. Upon arrival of the room we were greeted with a wet floor, footprints, smelly room and the garbage bin on the toilet. I return to the front desk to ask for a different room, it was distasteful how a housekeeper left our room. I received another room, to my surprise when I opened the door the room was occupied by another guest. We were told at the front desk, it was a mistake. On the third try of getting a room, I was told no rooms are available and I’ll have to wait for a room to be clean. How a room not being clean is a guest issue? I finally received a room after a long wait with an awful odor. The bellman sat on my bed to call front desk to ask for a room air freshener. I am not sure what level of customer service training their workers received. Another family member of mines had roaches in her room. We were over the complaining and wanted to be out of that hotel so bad. No one apologized, no one care, no one value our visit and it was all about the money spent. There were also no towels available for us to take to the pool or beach, we had to wait. We went to the buffet the following morning for breakfast, to our surprise everyone handles the food with their hands no cloves, food is very cold no sterner or steam table to keep the warm at the correct temperature. Health and cleanliness should be a top priority. A bartender was seen serving drinks from dirty cups to us guest. Only thing I enjoyed seeing at this hotel was there landscaping, it was beautiful. This hotel and their incompetent staff was not trained for the tourism industry. My family and I regret staying at this hotel and I am imploring other families to stay away, you will definitely regret it.

Me and my family visited here for two weeks on the 24th June and we all found the resort to be lovely. Check in: Check in was fairly straight forward. They gave us a nice welcome drink which was great as we were all very hot. You do have to fill in some details on touch screen pad which took a little longer but it was fine. The bell boy took our luggage and we followed him to our rooms. There was a bit of a mix up with who was getting which room was we were a family of 6 with 3 rooms. But the bell boy was patient with us and very polite. We requested to be in the same building which they sorted for us. Food: I'll start with the two main buffets. My personal opinion is that the Saona buffet was better than the other one. It is a little smaller and better managed I think as sometimes you had to wait a while for a clean table in the other one. The food was nice. It is hard to cater for all those people. What I might like, you might not like. I did not like absolutely everything. But food is a personal preference. There are a lot of options. Breakfast was the best in the buffets. There is everything you could desire Big shout out to Joanna in the Saona buffet. She always looked after us. I did not see any problems with hygiene either. Pool buffet was nice for lunch. You can nip in and take things out if you wish or you can sit down and eat properly. We ate lunch at the BBQ on the beach most days as it was always something different and I have to say this is nicer than the buffets. We all enjoyed the food there. There is also a little pizza stand near the pool buffet which is lovely. The pizza is so good!! The cafe and the food truck were lovely as well. Honestly, there is food absolutely everywhere! You will never go hungry. Restaurants - We were there for two weeks so we tried nearly all the restaurants apart from the Raw Bar. Our favourite was the French restaurant. The service was amazing and the food was even better. Our least favourite was the Italian. It wasn't terrible by any means. It just lacked in comparison to the other restaurants. The Brazilian and the Japanese were also lovely. The entertainment from the chef in the Japanese is brilliant! Grounds/pools/beach: Wow! The grounds are absolutely beautiful. They are so well looked after by the staff. They are lovely and clean. The pool is basically one huge pool that loops around. Yes, there are some deep parts. But when I read other reviews they made out like the whole pool was deep. This is not the case. There are loads of shallow areas. I am 5ft 4inch and I managed to stand up in loads of areas. There are two pool bars. One of them is in a shallow end and is always really busy by around 11ish. I will say, the people who hung around there were there nearly all day. They don't get there drink and let someone else get in. Sometimes you have to push your way in. The people doing this when we were there was a group of around 25 people from Puerto Rico. This bar was ok at best. The drinks were, meh. They were always so busy that they weren't that bothered about making you a nice cocktail. They just slapped it together. The second pool bar which I'm not sure if everyone knew about is around the quieter side of the pool. Towards the exclusive pool. It is much nicer and the drinks are actually nice. Me and my family sat around both sides of the pool whilst we were there and overall we preferred the quieter side with the nicer pool bar. Another thing I will say about the "party" side of the pool is that they never play any English music. Apart from a little bit in the morning. Then as soon as the Spanish people come down to the fool bar they will blast out the Spanish songs all day. I do not mind them playing Spanish songs. But it would be nice if they did a little of both languages. There are always sunbeds available around the pool. But if you want one with some shade then you would need to get there around 10ish. The beach is absolutely beautiful! They do a good job at clearing up the seaweed. The water is so warm and clear. There are always sunbeds available. Entertainment: I personally didn't get involved much in the day to day entertainment. But, having said that I could see that there was always something going on for kids and even adults. A few examples are dancing lessons on the beach, food eating contests, volleyball, water polo and just so much more going on. They do a really fun foam party on a Sunday afternoon which is just brilliant!! All the entertainment continues throughout the day and into the night. There are shows on every night. There are two different theatres to watch things and there's always entertainment in the lobby as well. We enjoyed some good old Karaoke. The entertainment team are hilarious and always make effort with everyone around the pool. Waterpark was good fun. It's really not far to walk. But if you don't want to walk there are golf buggies that go back and forth from the water park go the lobby you can get on. My 16 year old brother did leave the bowl slide with a few scratches but nothing that bothered him. Rooms: We had three rooms between us and all of us were happy with them. Mine and my sister's did have a bit of a leak in the ceiling in the bathroom our first night. But we called someone early the next day and they came out and fixed it within a few hours. Never had a problem after that. The maids were absolutely lovely. They always restocked the mini-fridge well and were really pleasant and friendly. We had two rooms with two double beds in and one room with a large king sized bed in. They were clean and nicely decorated. I saw a lot of people complaining about the staff before we arrived. But our experience was so different to the other reviews. Yes, there were one or two staff members that were obviously not happy to be there. But 98% of the staff were so friendly. They always made an effort to speak to you. Even just a hello and a smile walking past just makes the difference. We only did the Saona island excursion but it was absolutely beautiful! An absolute must if you have never been! We booked with the guys in blue T-shirts around the pool. Their prices were so much better than TUI. Overall, we all had a lovely time and would definitely recommend this hotel based on our stay. I say just go with an open mind and just soak in everything.