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AGUA - AYE CARAMBA !
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by , 12-18-2007 at 06:26 AM (88825 Views)
It's good to be home ! My wife and I just returned from a seven night package we purchased here on LL for the Agua Resort in Punta Cana and for the first time we are glad to be home from a vacation. From the time we got off the plane and took the hour and twenty minute drive on one of the worst pothole ridden roads I've seen,we were nauseous but excited for our arrival to the new Agua Resort.
The grounds, architecture and setting is beautiful and brought a sense of serenity. We were shown to our ocean front room which was spacious and well appointed, with sliding doors that open out to the beach...we were psyched. We decided to get a late lunch so we went to the beach restaurant that we were told is serving lunch and sat down. After 10 minutes of phone calls by the waiters, bartenders, and to whomever they were calling, we were sent back to our room and told to order room service. At this point I started to get the feeling that ("Houston we have a problem..." ). We ordered room service and an hour later our $18 each grilledchicken platters showed up. We were starving ! The waiter opened up the platter and we witnessed the worlds smallest grilled chicken breast sliced into six pieces, with 5 soggy French fries on the side and herbs sprinkled on top. We ateit all andsoon after realized how gross and expensive($36) our lunch was !!!
We took the hit and decided to make the best of it and ventured off the world class spa which we read so much about. It was a very nice set up and had a water circuit which we heard many good things about. As we jumped in and started to press the buttons to turn everything on, nothing. I went to the front desk and was informed that it was broken and would not be fixed anytime soon. We were dumbfounded at this point, after all we paid a lot of money to come to a spa and were now being told that it doesn't work , for the week. It's like when Clark Griswald took his family to Wally Worldonlyto find out ( " sorry folks the park is closed " ) quoting National Lampoons Family Vacation.
After we now accepted this big hit and decided to play tennis. We asked the desk if we can buy tennis balls but none were for sale, so they gave us two cans of dead balls they had in the back. Hey, it's better than nothing ! We went to the court, walked on, and looked down. Let me describe it as a green court with white paint brush strokes, reminiscent of a Van Gogh Impressionist painting, all over the court. When we attempted to play it was virtually impossible to see the yellow ball bounce through all of the white paint splatterings. I've been playing tennis for many years and never in my life seen a court in this condition (especially at a $500.00 per night boutique hotel).
We got some rest and ventured off to dinner. Dinner was decent on the first night but to make a long story short, there are not many choices in general at this resort and we've asked for different dishes as other people mentioned in their reviews, but still very limited. We couldn't get a hamburger for lunch ever, after we were told we could, and we were often served stale bread with our meals. Breakfast was included in our package, which was nice but we noticed little black bugs crawling on the china every morning which is not the most appetizing way to start your day.
We decided to walk down the beach about 100 yards on the left and discovered The Sivory Hotel witch is also a LL partner and we ate the rest of our meals there and were very content.
Finally about two days into our trip a very rare hurricane hit the island, and we had to be moved off the beach to a garden room for our safety which was fine. As the hurricane came and went, we were never offered to move back to our beach front roomor compensated for the difference in price. Management never tried to compensate us in any way shape or form,on any level forall the things we mentioned above.
We are both young hard working people and don't get much time off, but it's a real slap in the face when you pay top dollar for a high end place and when things are not going well, our complaints had fallen on deaf ears. It's unacceptable in the travel industry. I do have to say that all the workers were very nice, hard working, and polite, but unfortunately the management appeared to be non existent, lacked any form of leadership and customer service. I truly never look to write negative reviews about vacations, because I'm so thankful that my wife and I have the opportunity to go on luxury vacations, but this is a business and if you charge the high prices you better be able to deliver ! We'll get over this loss of vacation time and money but no more stale bread and Agua !
Message Edited by enewseven on 12-18-2007 06:53 AM
Message Edited by enewseven on 12-18-2007 06:54 AM
Message Edited by enewseven on 12-18-2007 07:01 AM
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