Excellence Punta Cana

I enjoyed the welcoming environment at the hotel. The entertainment team, in particular Yari and Dariel were amazing.

I’ll first go into this review and say that overall I think this resort property is beautiful. The ocean is stunning and the feeling when you arrive is that it is going to be an amazing vacation. Upon check in we decided to upgrade our room to Club. It cost just under $400USD for 4 nights. We were given higher quality alcohol in our room and we were able to trade out what we didn’t care for (example: my husband prefers Jonny Walker over Jack Daniel’s and they make that exchange) I also asked for a bottle of sparkling wine to be sent to the room as I thought it was included in the upgrade. When I asked the front desk about it, she told me that the sparkling wine (as well as fresh flowers and some other benefits) are normally only included when you pre-book the upgrade. (I think if you pre-book Club, the actual room and benefits are much better than when you book upon arrival). That being said, she ended up sending the sparkling wine to the room, it was nice and much appreciated. The Club also includes access to a couple of different pools and beach areas. They are nice but not necessary. The best part of Club for us was access to the Excellence Club bar, it was very good! The drinks are top shelf and the service was excellent the first night we went (the 2nd night the service was not near as good but they were definitely more busy). The night we arrived there was a Dominican Party which included a buffet and live music. The food at the buffet was bland and disappointing. I am a very picky eater but my husband is NOT AT ALL and he had nothing positive to say about anything he ate. A lot of the meats (chicken, fish, beef) had bones or gristle left in the food and my husband was constantly having to spit those out (this did not entirely bother him because he feels like food in the Caribbean is usually like this) but it really wasn’t worth trying to eat any of the food because overall it didn’t taste good (overcooked and bland). On the morning of day 2, we ventured into Aroma (the coffee shop on property). We grabbed a coffee and a quick sandwich. After we sat down to enjoy our meal, the guy who served us started CLIPPING HIS FINGERNAILS behind the bar (even as I type this I am BEYOND disgusted). We immediately left. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting that image (and nail clipping sound) out of my head. I can say this 100% affected my whole trip as I thought about it at every bar and restaurant we went to (and wondered about their health standards). That afternoon we had lunch at Las Olas. It was mediocre (at best). Our server took long to greet us, even longer to take our order and (after we had ordered) came back and asked us if we were “ready to order?” The positive of this restaurant is that the view is gorgeous (as it is on the beach). That night we had reservations for Spice Interactive, it was fine. Our reservation was for 9:45 PM (super late for us for dinner) but it was the only time we could get in. If you’ve had hibachi before, you will most likely not be too impressed by the show but the food was served hot and fresh. On day 3, my husband decided he wanted to go to the cigar shop on property. He wanted to get a cigar to smoke later that evening on our balcony with a glass of scotch. When we walked into the store the gentleman working asked my husband what kind of cigars he liked and, before we knew it, this man was cutting and lighting a cigar. It was 10:30 AM. He then told us the cigar was “free” for us and we could come back later and pay him something if we wanted. The whole situation made us uncomfortable and it was not the experience we wanted. We ended up giving the guy $20 and headed out of there. We did not want to go back. To be fair, the cigar could have been free and we may have been able to walk away but we did not feel right doing that. The guy also claimed the cigar was a legit Cuban cigar (and I highly doubt those would ever just be given away). This all being said, my husband did enjoy the cigar and ended up just having it with a glass of scotch at 10:30 AM (instead of PM) because it’s vacation and why not? For lunch we went to The Kitchen Table. When we arrived we were shown where our table would be, it was not ready yet but they said it would be ready by the time we were done getting our food at the buffet. We got our food and when we went back to the table, it wasn’t set. We asked the hostess if we should go ahead and be seated anyway, she said yes (even though we had no utensils). A few minutes later the server came and tossed down a couple of forks and knives. We ordered something to drink but we did not get the drink until after we were done with our lunch. On the afternoon of day 3, we had an aqua-therapy appointment at the spa (this was another perk of our upgrade to Club). We arrived in regular clothes because we were not told we needed to be in swimsuits. Thankfully the spa was not busy that day so my husband was able to go get our swimsuits and we could continue with the appointment. The appointment ended up being nice and relaxing, we just wish we were told to wear swimsuits when we made the appointment. That evening we ate at Chez Isabelle. I thought it was lovely with great service. My food (Cordon Bleu Chicken Breast) was good. My husband ordered the Lamb Rack. He asked for it served rare. The lamb came out well-done (way overcooked and tough). This was disappointing for him because it is not a meal he gets very often and he was hoping it would be better. On day 4, we had lunch at Oregano. I ordered spicy rigatoni and I ended up with some cheese something (I think it was capellini) I ate it anyway and it was good. My husband had scampi risotto and that was fine as well. The service was fine. After lunch we went to the front desk to ask about our transfer to the airport the next day. She asked us about our stay and I told her about some of our disappointments and concerns. She then asked us when and where we were having dinner that evening and I said most likely The Lobster House, we didn’t know exactly what time but probably around 8PM. She told us a manger may come talk to us at dinner about our stay. That night, we went to dinner at 8:30PM and were told that our reservation was for 8. Apparently the lady at the front desk had made us a reservation that we didn’t know about. We were able to be seated after a few minutes but we felt bad that we had “missed” our reservation. (As a side note, I had asked the front desk about restaurant reservations at the start of our trip and we were told that the restaurants did not take reservations, aside from the hibachi at Spice). The dinner we ended up having at The Lobster House was fantastic. We did have a manger meet our table and talk to us about our stay. She was incredibly nice. We were comped a bottle of wine and our service and food was amazing. Unfortunately, we felt that we were only being treated that way because of our complaints. We did appreciate the effort though and the fact that we felt we were being heard. When we got to our room that evening, they had set it up with a nice turn down service. The next morning someone came to the room to collect our bags and we were off to the airport. All of that went perfectly. And…just a few other things to note: The outside of the property is beautiful and well maintained! We did have a bit of construction outside of our room the time we were there but it wasn’t too loud. The inside of our room (in building 10) was not as well kept. It is definitely older and needs some maintenance. Surface level, everything looked clean (but don’t look too close). One night my husband got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. The floor was soaking wet. We think it was because it had been raining and water came through the balcony door but we don’t know for sure. There are shows and activities scheduled throughout the day. On night one we went to the show, we did not find it entertaining and it was SO loud. We did not participate in any other activities (aside from a game of bingo while we were waiting for dinner one night) therefore I cannot speak on how those activities go. A warning about the beach, there are outside vendors who come through that area. Some of these vendors are selling items but others are coming through with parrots and monkeys to take pictures with. The vendors say the pictures are “free” but, be warned, they expect money. There was a couple near us on the beach who were made to PayPal the vendors after they said they did not have cash. Some positives, we felt incredibly safe at the resort. The resort is situated by some land that is not owned by the resort itself. While some of the vendors did come from that area, if you ignored them, they wouldn’t bother you. We also noticed (what I am assuming) is a security guard at the beach. While he didn’t stop the vendors from coming into the resort area, you could tell he was very aware they were there. I’m not sure if or when he would intervene but made me feel a little better knowing he had eyes on the situation. He was also very good about patrolling the beach. Unfortunately we had red flags out most of our stay so we were unable to get in the ocean. However, if someone did try and they got too far, he would whistle and call them back in. Our favorite part of the trip was seeing the macaws each morning. They are located across the shopping area. They are friendly (definitely used to being hand feed) and beautiful! Finally, my husband and I travel a lot (for both work and pleasure) and this resort just didn’t meet our expectations. We ended up making the most of our time here and I would not say the trip was “bad” but we will most likely not return to this property.

I was harassed by the concierge at the beach and I've been back for 3 weeks. I got a letter of "apology" from Excellence saying that because it happened "outside" of the resort, there's nothing they can do. The concierge Jesus harassed me, told my friend that I should cheat on my boyfriend and that I need to have a dominican boyfriend. My friend exchanged instagram with him and the lifeguard Antonio which according to Excellence it's ok for them to do, it's not unprofessional because it's "outside of the resort". Even though I have screenshots of their instagram conversations, Excellence Resorts doesn't see anything wrong with someone telling to "convince your friend". If you want to waste your money with this place, go with your boyfriend or husband. As a woman, I felt unsafe, I felt uncomfortable, I paid for the club section and ended up not going to the club part of the beach because I felt uncomfortable and did not want to be bothered by staff. If I wanted to go for a party place, I would've stayed at Temptations or other resorts known for their singles event, not a resort that people go for their honeymoons and anniversary. Excellence Punta Cana and Excellence Resorts will never see me again!!! Wasted over 30,000 in their resorts over the years and this experience was by far the worst!!! There's nothing worse than feeling unsafe and unheard. You can't even go on a girls trip without feeling that maybe they can spike their drink if you don't do what they want. What a joke!!!

VERY Disappointed! Older hotel and rooms were very musty smelling. Had to double hot water wash all our cloths upon return home. Food was 2/10. Poor quality, ran out of food. Extremely small portions, line ups and no reservations. Spending my vacation downtime in a restaurant lineup is NOT a vacation. For a 5 star it was not good!!! Drinks ok, beach amazing but you can’t swim past your shin deep. No swim - NO vacation!!! Staff was friendly and good at remembering names. Entertainment was the worst!!! Very amateur and poor sound system.

We had just the best stay with Excellence Punta Cana. The resort is huge, so it never feels busy and is completely spotless. Rooms are very spacious, housekeeping is excellent! You are never wanting for anything here, the staff are so hardworking and attentive, they are ready to assist you in any way. From the landscapers all the way through to the bellhops and front desk staff, everybody is friendly, welcoming and kind. In particular, we would like to thank Yoser at the front, Ronny at the Oregano restaurant for lunch and Dionoso from The Lobster House for breakfast and dinner - you all made our trip so fun and memorable! Ronny in particular went the extra mile every day for us, creating a special table for us with flowers and napkin sculptures, we truly looked forward to seeing Ronny every single day, he is a super great guy who works very hard and is AMAZING at what he does. The variety and choice of restaurants is great, there is a wide variety of cuisines so you never feel like you're getting bored. In particular, we loved The Lobster House for breakfast (everyday!) and for dinner twice (thank you to Dionoso for making sure there was a table ready for us!), aswell as the Oregano restaurant which we went to everyday for lunch while looking out over the swimming pools and the Ocean. Just magic! We also really enjoyed our meal at Agave, which had huge portion sizes and the Steak at The Grill was Excelente! The restaurants are also super careful and mindful of any dietary restrictions you may have and will be flexible with the menu to ensure you still have a great meal. I always felt like I was being looked after! The gym/fitness center was awesome with lots of equipment, and the Spa was just AMAZING. We had a wonderful time getting our massages and a complimentary Hydrotherapy session. Top class staff at the Spa! Thank you Excellence Punta Cana for one of the most relaxing and fun trips we have ever had. Until next time!