Dreams Dominicus La Romana

We were so pleasantly surprised by Secrets LaRomana. Every person was so friendly. Belkis Mejia was our sweet, hard working poolside server. She is so good and very caring. The food was wonderful. We visited Noor twice! Their ribeye is so flavorful. The butter chicken was delicious. The mahi mahi and catch of the day were also fabulous. The pizza, burgers and fries were perfect for an afternoon by the pool or on the beach. The beach is beautiful with soft sand and gentle waves. We did Zumba in the ocean. The entertainment was ok, and held on the family (Dreams) side of the resort. I really enjoyed the Michael Jackson tribute. Although, I would like to see a karaoke night by the pool. The only negative I can think of is that they do not have real butter anywhere on the resort We will come back here.

Secrets We’ve seen a significant number of all inclusive Caribbean resorts over many years but this one happened to be one of the most disappointed ng. We stayed in Secrets Preferred Club. The resort complex is huge and consists of two parts: Secrets for adults and Dreams for families. Overall there is nothing especially good or bad about this place. It’s like many other Dominican all-inclusive in the same price category. I’m commenting on Secrets Preferred Club only. It’s definitely not even close to 5 stars. More likely it’s closer to 3. But the devil is in the details: 1. Beach: overcrowded, not enough palapas, the preferred club area has beach chairs shoulder to shoulder and back to back under one huge palapa and a few small ones. People have no privacy at all, no place to put their beach stuff, no peace and quiet, everyone is in everyone’s face and private spaces breathing on each other. Everyone hears everyone, practically on top of each other literally speaking. Outside the club’s roped area is not much better. Not enough palapas, no shade, no space, no privacy, no convenience. People must start reserving chairs and palapas at 6 am. Beach attendants steal chairs from one side of the beach to the preferred club’s side because there are not enough of chairs for all. Then people from that non-preferred side ask for chairs and they’ll re-steal it again from the other side back to where those chairs originally were. It looks more like a job creation program for beach attendants. It’s ridiculous seeing people hunting for available beach chairs while it should’ve been so easy to solve by just installing more individual palapas and providing enough beach chairs and more towels. 2. The nearest bar from the beach is about 150-200 yards at the club’s pool or at nearby Dreams. No actual drink service at the beach. I saw just one guy bringing the drinks maybe once or twice per day, which is a drop in the bucket, literally speaking, for a large crowd on the beach. 3. A single beach shower is 150 yards away from the beach next to the club’s pool. Why would anyone need to rinse their feet after the pool? But can’t rinse sand off your feet or take a quick shower after the beach without walking 400 ft. 4. No place at the beach for a lunch aside from one restaurant which serves lunches for Preferred Club guests, if you can survive waiting 10 minutes to be seated, then 20 minutes for your order to be taken and then 20 more minutes for your cheeseburger to be delivered. Overall we spent more than 1-1/2 hr having a lunch with just a couple of burgers and fries. That was more than enough for us to bear, so the next day we headed to the central buffet about 400 yards from the beach. The buffet is the whole separate story below. 5. The beach is not walkable aside of maybe 100 yards including the public area outside of the hotel’s purview. So, if you like long walks, or in this case any beach walk, you may forget it. Not here. 6. Seawater is clear. Not turquoise as the website claims but clear enough and calm without seaweeds even for snorkeling, which is a big plus for the location of the resort. 7. Water sports: Need to wait 2-3 days to use a water bike or kayak or canoe. There are only one or two of each for the whole resort. Practically it’s not available unless you really want it and willing to push for it. 8. Food: Buffet is beyond ridiculous. We’re not foodies at all, we eat everything and usually do not expect much from all-inclusive Caribbean buffets. We’ve seen quite few inexpensive, aka cheap, buffets in some Caribbean all-inclusives but nothing cheaper and more bizarre than this one. The assortment, quality and quantity of ingredients are below the floor level. That might be acceptable as the new economic reality of high costs and inflationary pressures, and so on. Though it’s still ridiculous. Today’s breakfast buffet did not even have fruits and vegetables aside from some sliced cucumbers, sliced watermelons and pineapples, all locked behind the glass. No cottage cheese, no cream cheese, no lox, no fruit, no vegetables, no plain yoghurt, no sour cream, not even tomatoes. It’s much easier to list what was there than what wasn’t. But what makes the place totally beyond crazy is that a half of that cheap scarce stuff has been locked behind glass covers. I’m not talking about food prep areas or stations like omelets or pancakes or meat curving where the staff should do it for you. No. You have to ask the staff for every piece of food, even for a slice of cheese or sausage or a watermelon or banana to put on your plate. Then you go to another station and ask again for their stuff behind the glass. So do all other people. You look at the presorted prepared pieces of food through the glass like at a museum’s exposition but you’re not allowed to touch them and help yourself. The staff without gloves constantly touch and passes back and forth everyone’s plates. You need to hand your plate over the tall glass partitions with one hand and point your finger to a piece or a slice of whatever you’d want with your other hand and then take your plates back and hand it over to another guy or girl behind the glass barrier and then repeat it again. The process is so bizarre I can’t describe its stupidity in all its glorious details. It creates lines and small crowds everywhere for everything totally out of nothing. What could have taken just a second now takes minutes and a lot of frustration. They were probably so cheap to figure that this way people will consume less and waste less, therefore they save more if people will not be able to help themselves. Maybe so, but it negates the whole purpose of a buffet where people should be able to pick and choose what they want without waiting for the staff to show up and then put on their plates what the staff wants because the staff do not understand a letter of English, and you need to carry plates in each hand because you get a new plate at each food station and point finger to food items you want them to put on your plate. It seems to be a job creation program to hire a person to guard each piece of banana or a cake. We unfortunately had to use the buffet for breakfasts and lunches because we did not want to wait an hour and half for an omelette or a burger at the club’s à la carte restaurant. Buffets were a very frustrating experience we never ever had before anywhere in dozens of Caribbean all-inclusives. People standing in lines for a piece of prepared presorted food looked quite puzzled and frustrated but it seemed that the management does not care much because any qualified manager observing this irrational situation for a minute would immediately raise a hell. They would rather had doubled the staff to man each piece of food selection than to allow self service, which is incredibly irrational. BTW, you also have to wait for water and coffee in the buffet which takes forever as well. The coffee and water servers just can’t keep up. Sometimes we finished our breakfast or lunch without getting our water glass or coffee cups filled. And you can forget about refills too. All À la cart specialty restaurants were really good for our unsophisticated tastes for dinners, but French, Italian and Steakhouse are located quite far on the Dreams, family side. 9. Room was well decorated, it looks recently refurbished, a good size but it’s not a junior suit like practically in all other adult all-inclusives we’ve been to. The website pics show a small sofa in the preferred club but in reality there are just two chairs instead. Housekeeping is ok. Sometimes misses things here and there but it’s expected. Also they do not collect a million of plastic bottles and plastic caps used on the beach and rooms daily. Everything goes into trash cans. 10. Preferred club: a total BS not worth extra of hundreds of dollars. It is supposed to include a better room, which is actually not, and à la cart restaurant for breakfasts and lunches, which are practically not usable unless you want to spend at least an hour and half for an omelette or a burger. Also, it includes a separate bar with better quality drinks and a small lounge area with finger food stuff, which is nice for snacks after their poor buffet breakfasts and lunches. Its preferred separate beach area is so limited and overcrowded that it’s not much usable either. See # 1 above. Nothing else. So, overall the preferred club is the snake oil for the money they charged. 11. They are very proud of not making the guests to wear wrist bands. In reality it’s a joke because now you need to carry your access card all the time. Also, since there is no other way for them to see who is who and who’s going to where, they ask for your room number every step you make and every breath you take. Upon entering à la carte restaurant or a buffet you need to declare you room, your last name, they check it against the guest list they keep at each place, and then they put down the time you’re getting in, and then you wait for a girl to escort you to the table if her choice, not yours, which again is a very annoying process and time consuming process, which slows down and creates serious lines out of nothing and, as it seems, it has no other purpose but to support a job creation program. They also sometimes ask for your room number on the beach to make sure you belong there as the guests don’t wear wrist bands. It’s like back in the 19th century instead of color coded bands with embedded chips, which open your room and do other things, like in many other resorts nowadays. No more access cards and no more “what’s your room number?” twenty times per day. 12. WiFi is sporadic, especially at the beach. Goes On and Off often. Mostly Off outside of the main lobby and your room. Extremely unreliable. 13. Gym and Theater and most of à la cart restaurants are 800 yards away from Secrets are located at Dreams. 14. Two coffee machines for the entire resort: one in the coffee bar at the lobby and another one in the preferred bar. No other places to get coffee. If you are on the beach and want a cup of coffee, god forbid, you would need to walk 300 yards to the lobby’s coffee bar where you might need to wait 15 min waiting in line and watching how the girls at the bar would struggle with their one and only high-tech coffee machine trying to produce all kinds of fancy coffee drinks and also at the same time serve pastries, which are also locked out behind the glass. They also bring coffee in jars during breakfast buffets and they pour half milk in your cups so it’s practically milk with coffee and not coffee with milk. They pour milk so fast without asking so you can’t even try to ask for less of it. Same story is at the coffee bar where they make milk with coffee. Looks like it’s Dominican coffee specs: 50/50 milk and coffee. Overall, due to their beach overcrowding situation, cheap buffets using the idiotic method of locking most of the food out by glass covers, many other smaller and less critical issues, and overpriced but practically useless preferred club, we’ll not likely return and would not recommend it to others. It maybe a solid 3 star all-inclusive typical Dominican resort but nothing special for the money. I’d say that between both resorts Dreams would most likely win.

What can I say, this is the 2nd year at this resort and it didn't disappoint. Such a calm and relaxing resort, energetic if you want to join in all the activities. My daughter and I stayed for just over 2 weeks, and had an amazing time. All the staff were courteous, always smiling and helpful. Thanks to the ladies in the Cafe bar, staff in all the restaurants (including Dreams La Romana), the guys behind the Preferred Pool Bar and On The Rocks, and a special thanks to Marianna (for keeping our room clean) and to the Entertainment Team: Yuliana, Freddie (aka Eddie Murphy), Maria, Pablo Picaso and Ernesto

We had a great time, and Edwin and Belkis were always very friendly. Times at the pool were nothing short of interaction and laughter

The service at the infinity pool was wonderful. Belkis Mejia is a wonderful person. She greeted us with a smile every day, ensuring our comfort and providing drinks. I recommend it!