Dreams Dominicus La Romana

Good, but… My granddaughter, daughter and I went to secrets La Roma a few weeks ago. We had a preferred club swim out. I like a swim out so that I always know I have a lounge chair when I want one, and this was the only resort I could find that had a swim out that accompanied three people. The problem from the start is that La Roma is 45 minutes away from Punta Cana airport. I did contact the hotel ahead of time and they arranged private transportation for the three of us, at the cost of $378 round-trip. You can have up to six passengers for that price. We were greeted promptly and escorted to the preferred club. PD Assistance were helping other people to check in so we were told to make ourselves at home with the array of snacks which were very nice both sweets and regular food like empanadas and tacos. The nicest thing about this club from all the other preferred clubs we’ve stayed in. Is that had a real bar with bartenders. Most of the others just had an array of alcohol and mixers, and you were on your own to make yourself a drink. The agent came over in just a few minutes and she gave each of us a beach bag, she said it was usually only one per room, but you know how people like to be feel that they’re being pampered. She told us to finish our drinks and snacks and come back over to check in when we were ready. We checked in quickly and was told our room number and were escorted to our room. The Bellman that had removed our bags from our transportation, was the same development to deliver them, which was nice because you usually end up tipping twice. You have to remember that this resort was very recently a Hilton. I have stayed at Hilton resorts before and they are not appropriate for Caribbean resort. You could tell that this room had been remodeled, but there are certain things you really cannot do with the existing structure. I took a video and hopefully I can attach it to the end of this review. They installed a tiled shower with the rain, shower showerhead, and also a handheld showerhead. The worst part was the toilet. It was smack in the middle of the bathroom, no one could shower if someone needed to use the toilet and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the toilet was only about a foot off the ground. I I am 78 years old and quite spry for my age, but this was the biggest challenge. Of the vacation getting on and off that toilet. Before I go onto the food, I have to tell you that the housekeeping was excellent. We do tip every day. We didn’t even realize it was turned down service because obviously when they come, we were still in the room or had returned, whichever I don’t know, but there was turned down service. The mini bar was filled. filled every day. I thought of taking in the small Pringles and the M&Ms they left each day and putting them away so it looked like we ate them and every day it was replenished, which was quite a treat. The grounds and the pool and the beach were gorgeous. There is one large pool for the preferred club, then two infinity pools and then the beach where the preferred section of the beach is is sort of rocky, but it’s easy enough to wait make your way down to the beach area where they had activities and such. I am not a beach person so my daughter and granddaughter got up earlier in the day to try and snag a lounge chair for me in the shade, but that became increasingly difficult as the week went on. We got there on a Monday and left on a Friday during spring break and by Thursday there were no lounge chairs available after 7:30 AM. My daughter and granddaughter were both adventuresome and went over to the dreams side, which is where the water park is and it is the family side. I only ventured over there for one drink and one dinner. It was a lot more crowded over there on the family side. One to the food, the breakfast buffet was great. They serve you everything. We usually got there about 930 and there was never any weight there were people making omelettes and you were there was no lines. Nothing you know waiting there were other people making eggs up over, however you wanted them there were people making French toast. If you wanted French toast, you would point to it hand them your plate so everything was quite easy. The first morning I couldn’t find any bacon so I was standing around and everybody thought that they wanted something made and finally I just said no I wanted bacon and I went back to my table and all of a sudden three people appeared with keeping plate of vacant. Also, we do tip, even at buffets and at all meals. And drinks. The rest of the food to me was a real acquired taste. The first meal we had was seafood, that was good but it’s still the dishes were very exotic and I was surprised my 23-year-old granddaughter was so adventure some with the food. The second place was at technique tables in the sand and I think they said it was Latin American but it seemed more like African. There were dancers and entertainment, but you really have to look up the menu cause it was quite confusing. You really didn’t get any choice. You were just given platters of food. My granddaughter was thrilled that we got a place at the sushi bar you needed. That’s the only place you needed reservations. We sat right there and Watched th the sushi person make the sushi rolls. I have to say he really didn’t make them pretty much every one of them or premade, but he would put on some toppings and do some below torching that type of thing, but my granddaughter loved it, and there were only five of us sitting there at the sushi bar. I think it was our last night we went over to the Italian restaurant which was on the dream side, this is the only time we had to wait to eat and we’re given a pager. We didn’t wait that long maybe 20–25 minutes. It was not worth the weight. It was not that late so I can’t excuse the food for being the end of the evening, but the main entrées that we had both my daughter and I had the sea baths and my granddaughter had the Oso Buco were in edible. I couldn’t cut the Seabass, even with a knife and you should be able just to flake it off my granddaughter got the Oso Buco to try it and then she gave my daughter and I a small piece and neither one of us could chew it. We spit it out into our napkin. There were other places for casual dining, several cafés, plenty of bars, a sports bar, which was very nice with nice sofas and chairs and several pool tables. We watched the world classic baseball game there one night. All in all, it was a nice vacation we didn’t have problems with the TSA in Philadelphia because we got there. Our flight was so early. Our transportation back was was excellent. Our checkout prior to that was excellent. The DR does have great roads so you don’t have all those potholes and everything that you have in Jamaica. All of the staff were outgoing and friendly and would say hello good morning hola whatever whenever you pass them. There was a sit down dining for preferred club for breakfast and lunch if you preferred that rather than the buffet, there were also grills of hamburgers and hotdog on the beach each day. One detractor I have to say was our return trip through the Dominican Republic airport. This was quite a shock to me as I’ve had been to the Dominican Republic many times and their TSA or whatever they call it and their customs area was always quick and easy. Not this time. To To go to the area where they checked our carry on had to have taken us almost 2 hours to get through every time you thought you were almost there. There was another room with more of those back-and-forth and back-and-forth row things. I have no idea why it would have been so crowded on a Friday in the middle of the day. So just be aware of that. Also, we flew American and it must’ve been 2 miles to get to our gate. They have a whole brand new section and of course we were the last gate in the airport, but the airport itself is clean and nice and new and very inviting as long as you don’t have to stand there in a crush of people for several hours. Would I go back? My daughter and granddaughter said yes. They loved this swim out, they’ve never splurge for that before so my lounge chairs were taken up whenever they were around, ha ha ha. The ride there was not hard. It didn’t even seem that long, great driver and good roads. I think my biggest drawback would be the food. I would have liked to have seen a place that just had steak or chicken or not Latin American, and not such exotic dishes even in the seafood place. But maybe that’s what people want now. It is not the way it is in other secrets that I have gone to. So you decide. It’s a gorgeous facility but watch out for that toilet in the middle of the bathroom, there is no privacy as there are in other secrets where the toilet is in a separate little room and you don’t feel like you’re squatting on the ground. I wasn’t sure to include this, but I think I will, I did get sick while I was there on the third night after we had eaten and we were walking around. I told my daughter that I didn’t feel well and I should go back to the room. They walked me back and I told them to go out and I spent the rest of the night continuing to vomit. I have no idea what the cause of this was. I mentioned how I didn’t think the rain showerhead was a good idea cause the water would get in your mouth, etc.. I had been very careful about brushing my teeth and drinking bottled water. I know this was not some kind of virus because after four or five hours when I was finished throwing up. My daughter and granddaughter returned and asked me how I felt and I said that I hadn’t thrown up for an hour and went to sleep. I was fine the next day. I have no idea what the cause of this illness was. My daughter and granddaughter did not get sick.

Diorka at the beach was fabulous and Raul at the preferred swim up bar was on point!

My daughter and myself stayed in March for two weeks, it was my 6th visit and my daughter’s 3rd visit. As usual it didn’t disappoint. All the staff are so friendly and can’t do enough for you, the hotel is spotlessly clean. We spent most of our time on the adult beach, usually there at 09:00 - most days had towels reserving beds! One morning 16 beds had been reserved by one group, 8 in the sun and 8 in shade with one lady keeping watch, the 8 at the front were not occupied until 11:45, we did mention to security, by then 1 person sat at the front and another at the back. The next day towels were being removed. There is no need to reserve as someone will always find you beds. The food was excellent, we particularly liked the Italian and the Sakura. The buffet was also very good - shout out to Benny in the Spice Market. Scores Sports Bar is a great addition, brilliant atmosphere, the best bar staff especially Ramon who makes the best Gin and Tonics and Mohitas ever. I must mention Juliana (Minnie) she is fantastic. We will definitely be booking again for next year.

We had an absolutely amazing stay at this resort. From the moment we arrived, everything exceeded our expectations. We enjoyed it so much that we even tried to extend our stay—but unfortunately, it was fully booked, which honestly speaks volumes about how great this place is. The staff was outstanding. Everyone was incredibly friendly, attentive, and truly professional. You can tell they take pride in what they do, and it reflects in every interaction across the resort. The food was another major highlight—simply excellent. Every restaurant we visited served amazing, high-quality dishes, and the variety was impressive. The buffet was just as incredible, with plenty of options and consistently great flavor. It didn’t feel like typical resort food at all—it was genuinely top-tier. What really sets this resort apart is the attention to detail. Everything is well organized, clean, and thoughtfully managed. The entire experience felt smooth, relaxing, and stress-free from start to finish. We would absolutely come back and highly recommend this resort to anyone looking for a high-quality, memorable stay. Truly one of the best experiences we’ve had.

Perfect stay and great experience with staff & animation team (especially Armando O). Great fun and rest in this hotel!