I?m going to make a great effort to be kind in my analysis, and more importantly it should be noted that I?m not an ?AI? (All inclusive) type.
AI?s are (IMHO) for people that don?t want to think or do any heavy lifting. The resort could be in a bubble with a huge solar lamp in the middle of Alaska and it wouldn?t make any difference. You can find more culture in a TV Guide than in an AI. That being said, they are probably quite useful for those with kids as the logistics of feeding and security are simplified.
This past weekend was my first real trip to an AI. My buddy was getting married there and the friends and family were coming in from all over the U.S. and Venezuela, so Punta Cana with it?s own airport was a good choice.
The wedding went off without a hitch. The hotel is fully capable of such events and I thought they did a very good job. The newlyweds were very happy with how it all turned out and I?m positive everyone had a great time.
The resort has a bunch of restaurants with relatively the same food, one is geared towards being a steak house, another as a fish place and some others that are....well, just like the steak and fish joints. Connected to the main building is where the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets go on. Breakfast ends at 10 am. and I found that to be a problem. It was very difficult to make it in time as I was staying up quite late celebrating with friends and showing everyone how funny I am.
How about a brunch? Doesn?t that make more sense? Coffee and pastries for the early risers and then at 10 they start slinging hash. Sounds like the way to go to me, so when I open my hotel that?s how it will be done.
If your an AI regular, you know of course you have to make reservations for dinner early in the day. I don?t know if that goes for lunch or just dinner, either way I never was able to get a reservation for dinner but the general consensus was that the food was a step below your typical state school. I thought that was a bit harsh, but judging what I did consume at the breakfast buffets I don?t find it hard to believe at all.
The rehearsal dinner at the Chopin restaurant was buffet style and lacked any substance. The fish was very thinly cut and very dry, the veggies were ok but green salads were nowhere to be found. There were some interesting pasta salads but they appeared to have been made hours, possibly days beforehand, and the copious amounts of mayonaise and other non-descript sauces were covering up what looked like a dirty secret, so I kept that at arms length.
They have pasta bars where you can basically build your own, and with 6 or more different pastas and various sauces to choose from you?re bound to get something you?ll like. Unfortunately, when the cook scooped out a hunk of butter the size of a softball to get the operation underway I took a pass and continued on my search.
I love fruit and obviously you?ll have tons of fresh stuff to choose from. In addition (at breakfast) they will take whatever you want and put it into a blender and you can save yourself all that time and energy chewing takes up and spend it more wisely.
The formal wedding dinner was special ordered of course and it was a small piece of tasty meat and two small lobster tails. Presentation was very good and the meal was decent, but way down the line as far as wedding dinners go.
On one of the days I got so frustrated with missing the breakfast and then lunch that I just went outside the AI and down the street to a local comedor and had some genuine rice-beans and chicken dish which was - by far - the best meal of the weekend.
I went golfing (I?ll be writing a seperate report on that debacle) on one of the days and missed breakfast and lunch again so I shot out to the beach restaurant to see if I could get a burger, but to no avail. This is where the whole eating affair really got under my skin.
Here I am, having paid $200 to have an all-inclusive experience and I?m forced to eat hotdogs on a hamburger bun with what apparently is ketchup and mustard. If this ketchup and mustard were brought to me without the container it would have taken me 3 or 4 guesses to determine what they were. The color isn?t really close, the taste is non existant, but the texture and liquid state were right on.
Onaside, I haven?t eaten a hot dog in as long as I can remember. After seeing how they are made I have a hard time even looking at them, but I was starving!!!
In addition, the dogs were sitting around as the grille was not open - apparently. We really couldn?t believe that this guy was there only to make french fries so we asked many times nicely if he?d throw a couple burgers on and we?d slip him some cash or whatever, we were desperate. He said absolutely not and offered the dogs, we took them. So we sit down to eat and not more than 2 minutes later a family comes up and here?s our buddy busting out chicken patties, cheeseburgers, fresh bread and more fries.
Huh?
The one positive that comes to mind was the seafood restaurant that doubled as a lunch buffet right next to the beach did have some good chicken and a tasty lentil bean sauce that made the poorly cooked and maintained rice bearable.
So the food experience to me was extremely disappointing. The quality poor, and the ease of use - for lack of a better phrase - was even lower. You have to be very deliberate in your eating regimen; make reservations in the day for dinner, get there early to - presumably - get freshly made items.
I?m sure nothing food-wise is imported, all products are locally made. The breakfast meats are not pretty to look at, the bacon honestly looks like they meant to throw it out, the scrambled eggs are very hard on the eyes as well. The coffee is of course very good.
I know this sounds like a terrible rant, but I don?t consider myself as someone hard to please when it comes to food, especially with the premise that everything is in buffet form. Nonetheless, I would give it a 2 on a scale of 10.
All of this pales in comparison to what really bothered me about the whole experience. I made my reservations/paid in January sometime and I had to go through S.D. for my own reasons. I didn?t know exactly when I?d be able to get to PC so I booked only 2 days, it turns out I went out a day early with some other friends so I needed to add a day to my AI stay. You?d think that would be easy right? Hardly.
I explained my situation to the front desk people and they said I?d have to go through my travel agent to change the reservation. Hmm. I don?t have any way to get a hold of that person, so as retarded as it sounded anyway, I couldn?t go that route even if I wanted to.
After explaining again what I needed and how the situation came about and that it seemed quite plausible to just add tonight to my standing reservation, the mood changed to an almost hostile confrontation. I was now on the defensive and the intimations were that I was trying to screw with the system and cheat the hotel. Hmm.
Fast forward and I?ve now explained myself to 4 different people and they have determined that the only way we can resolve this is to pay $180 for this one night (more than I paid for 2 nights). That wasn?t going to happen and now we move to trying to negotiate something. Is there anyway we can take care of this for less? I have two friends staying here whose wives aren?t showing up for another day so can I buy a day pass and just crash this one night with them? That was NOT the thing to say as now their suspicions that I?m stealing from them is confirmed and they are ready to have me shot.
So now I?m offering them some money on the side to get this taken care of and they want nothing to do with any of my ideas, bribes whatever. It?s $180 and that?s it.
Ok, so I buy the day pass for $40 and tell them I?m going to stay at Cabeza de Toro .........but end up just crashing in my buddy`s room.
The point of the point is that they had so many other avenues to choose from but they forced me to screw the system. They could have been far more helpful and accomodating and they would have filled yet another room and made some money - on the side or otherwise - but they chose to take the route of cornering me to pay a ransom, being unyielding and unhelpful and obviously none of it with a smile.
The next day I go to get my original reservation and they can?t find it anywhere - the same one we looked at yesterday and confirmed. I know the wedding name, the name of the travel agent, who I?m also reserved with and I hand over my ID so that there is no confusion with language or spelling, it?s right there in plastic, black and white. They can?t find it anywhere. 45 minutes or more go by and they are interrupting their search to get this or that for other customers, printing off pages of who knows what, changing the toner, getting more paper, sharpening pencils, dealing with a pesky hangnail..........it just goes on and on.
Let me also be clear that I was never aggressive, disrespectful or untoward with anyone at anytime.
Finally the name appears on the screen and it?s official, THEY ARE IDIOTS!!! It was there the whole time but for whatever reason it wasn?t showing up. Inexplicable.
Needless to say I never planned on going to an AI, I had very low expectations and I was disappointed in many ways.
Some other notes/thoughts:
The rooms were pretty nice, the second floor seemed a tad bigger. It?s central air and comfortable.
The grounds are nice with a lot of interesting flora and fauna. White egrets, peacocks - which are fascinating to see and hear - and numerous other birds are everywhere.
The disco was pretty cool, nothing special, and it closed all of a sudden at 1.30 last night (saturday). But we jumped behind the bar and kept the party going until the beer ran out, then down to the beach where another bar was open, and we closed that down as well.
A couple of the restaurants are in the middle of a swamp but the lighting of the trees produces a cool backdrop. Amazingly no misquitoes - not quite sure how they pull that off.
The beach is great, not huge waves but not boca chica-bathtub like. They have quite a few diversions: The snorkeling is tremendous, they have various boats to use and other water activities. Again, very good for families.
Also, they say ?all inclusive? but anything besides the slop they throw out in the buffet line costs more money. Even the internet cafe is $2US for 15 minutes.
If you want something beyond a well drink - Absolut, Beefeater, etc. - you have to pay more for it. The (beer tap) Presidente tasted like my socks that I leave in my golf bag for years at a time. Stick with the bottle version.
I saw my first ever $21US small tube of sunblock SPF 15 if it matters to anyone. I?ll post a picture of it when i get them back.
The people, minus the hamburger hoarder and the front desk dopes were all good, nice, helpful.
There is none of that pesty sunglass salesmen on the beach. Lots and lots of Europeans, plenty of cute girls - can?t imagine they?re European :lick:
The place is rather huge and they have little people carriers to get you to and fro. I?m amazed at how dirty and noisy they are and it?s not fun if you are at the end of the truck or in the back trailer as the fumes from the exhaust are nasty. It?s downright dangerous to walk as there are always employees zipping back and forth along the narrow paths that connect everything.
If I think of more I?ll add it later. I?m still recovering from my group?s record setting day on the beach two days ago. 568 cuba libres, we were really funny.
All in all, I recognize that the AI is not for everybody and this report is geared to inform those that are considering one to be prepared and understand that ?AI? is not always cracked up to be as it?s advertised.
My experience has been that you will get far more out of your time here by investing yourself in the culture, checking out the big city, traveling around and interacting with the locals. The common theme all comers will likely agree on is that the people of the DR are it?s finest part, and you?ll completely lose that aspect if you go into lockdown in an AI.
AI?s are (IMHO) for people that don?t want to think or do any heavy lifting. The resort could be in a bubble with a huge solar lamp in the middle of Alaska and it wouldn?t make any difference. You can find more culture in a TV Guide than in an AI. That being said, they are probably quite useful for those with kids as the logistics of feeding and security are simplified.
This past weekend was my first real trip to an AI. My buddy was getting married there and the friends and family were coming in from all over the U.S. and Venezuela, so Punta Cana with it?s own airport was a good choice.
The wedding went off without a hitch. The hotel is fully capable of such events and I thought they did a very good job. The newlyweds were very happy with how it all turned out and I?m positive everyone had a great time.
The resort has a bunch of restaurants with relatively the same food, one is geared towards being a steak house, another as a fish place and some others that are....well, just like the steak and fish joints. Connected to the main building is where the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets go on. Breakfast ends at 10 am. and I found that to be a problem. It was very difficult to make it in time as I was staying up quite late celebrating with friends and showing everyone how funny I am.
How about a brunch? Doesn?t that make more sense? Coffee and pastries for the early risers and then at 10 they start slinging hash. Sounds like the way to go to me, so when I open my hotel that?s how it will be done.
If your an AI regular, you know of course you have to make reservations for dinner early in the day. I don?t know if that goes for lunch or just dinner, either way I never was able to get a reservation for dinner but the general consensus was that the food was a step below your typical state school. I thought that was a bit harsh, but judging what I did consume at the breakfast buffets I don?t find it hard to believe at all.
The rehearsal dinner at the Chopin restaurant was buffet style and lacked any substance. The fish was very thinly cut and very dry, the veggies were ok but green salads were nowhere to be found. There were some interesting pasta salads but they appeared to have been made hours, possibly days beforehand, and the copious amounts of mayonaise and other non-descript sauces were covering up what looked like a dirty secret, so I kept that at arms length.
They have pasta bars where you can basically build your own, and with 6 or more different pastas and various sauces to choose from you?re bound to get something you?ll like. Unfortunately, when the cook scooped out a hunk of butter the size of a softball to get the operation underway I took a pass and continued on my search.
I love fruit and obviously you?ll have tons of fresh stuff to choose from. In addition (at breakfast) they will take whatever you want and put it into a blender and you can save yourself all that time and energy chewing takes up and spend it more wisely.
The formal wedding dinner was special ordered of course and it was a small piece of tasty meat and two small lobster tails. Presentation was very good and the meal was decent, but way down the line as far as wedding dinners go.
On one of the days I got so frustrated with missing the breakfast and then lunch that I just went outside the AI and down the street to a local comedor and had some genuine rice-beans and chicken dish which was - by far - the best meal of the weekend.
I went golfing (I?ll be writing a seperate report on that debacle) on one of the days and missed breakfast and lunch again so I shot out to the beach restaurant to see if I could get a burger, but to no avail. This is where the whole eating affair really got under my skin.
Here I am, having paid $200 to have an all-inclusive experience and I?m forced to eat hotdogs on a hamburger bun with what apparently is ketchup and mustard. If this ketchup and mustard were brought to me without the container it would have taken me 3 or 4 guesses to determine what they were. The color isn?t really close, the taste is non existant, but the texture and liquid state were right on.
Onaside, I haven?t eaten a hot dog in as long as I can remember. After seeing how they are made I have a hard time even looking at them, but I was starving!!!
In addition, the dogs were sitting around as the grille was not open - apparently. We really couldn?t believe that this guy was there only to make french fries so we asked many times nicely if he?d throw a couple burgers on and we?d slip him some cash or whatever, we were desperate. He said absolutely not and offered the dogs, we took them. So we sit down to eat and not more than 2 minutes later a family comes up and here?s our buddy busting out chicken patties, cheeseburgers, fresh bread and more fries.
Huh?
The one positive that comes to mind was the seafood restaurant that doubled as a lunch buffet right next to the beach did have some good chicken and a tasty lentil bean sauce that made the poorly cooked and maintained rice bearable.
So the food experience to me was extremely disappointing. The quality poor, and the ease of use - for lack of a better phrase - was even lower. You have to be very deliberate in your eating regimen; make reservations in the day for dinner, get there early to - presumably - get freshly made items.
I?m sure nothing food-wise is imported, all products are locally made. The breakfast meats are not pretty to look at, the bacon honestly looks like they meant to throw it out, the scrambled eggs are very hard on the eyes as well. The coffee is of course very good.
I know this sounds like a terrible rant, but I don?t consider myself as someone hard to please when it comes to food, especially with the premise that everything is in buffet form. Nonetheless, I would give it a 2 on a scale of 10.
All of this pales in comparison to what really bothered me about the whole experience. I made my reservations/paid in January sometime and I had to go through S.D. for my own reasons. I didn?t know exactly when I?d be able to get to PC so I booked only 2 days, it turns out I went out a day early with some other friends so I needed to add a day to my AI stay. You?d think that would be easy right? Hardly.
I explained my situation to the front desk people and they said I?d have to go through my travel agent to change the reservation. Hmm. I don?t have any way to get a hold of that person, so as retarded as it sounded anyway, I couldn?t go that route even if I wanted to.
After explaining again what I needed and how the situation came about and that it seemed quite plausible to just add tonight to my standing reservation, the mood changed to an almost hostile confrontation. I was now on the defensive and the intimations were that I was trying to screw with the system and cheat the hotel. Hmm.
Fast forward and I?ve now explained myself to 4 different people and they have determined that the only way we can resolve this is to pay $180 for this one night (more than I paid for 2 nights). That wasn?t going to happen and now we move to trying to negotiate something. Is there anyway we can take care of this for less? I have two friends staying here whose wives aren?t showing up for another day so can I buy a day pass and just crash this one night with them? That was NOT the thing to say as now their suspicions that I?m stealing from them is confirmed and they are ready to have me shot.
So now I?m offering them some money on the side to get this taken care of and they want nothing to do with any of my ideas, bribes whatever. It?s $180 and that?s it.
Ok, so I buy the day pass for $40 and tell them I?m going to stay at Cabeza de Toro .........but end up just crashing in my buddy`s room.
The point of the point is that they had so many other avenues to choose from but they forced me to screw the system. They could have been far more helpful and accomodating and they would have filled yet another room and made some money - on the side or otherwise - but they chose to take the route of cornering me to pay a ransom, being unyielding and unhelpful and obviously none of it with a smile.
The next day I go to get my original reservation and they can?t find it anywhere - the same one we looked at yesterday and confirmed. I know the wedding name, the name of the travel agent, who I?m also reserved with and I hand over my ID so that there is no confusion with language or spelling, it?s right there in plastic, black and white. They can?t find it anywhere. 45 minutes or more go by and they are interrupting their search to get this or that for other customers, printing off pages of who knows what, changing the toner, getting more paper, sharpening pencils, dealing with a pesky hangnail..........it just goes on and on.
Let me also be clear that I was never aggressive, disrespectful or untoward with anyone at anytime.
Finally the name appears on the screen and it?s official, THEY ARE IDIOTS!!! It was there the whole time but for whatever reason it wasn?t showing up. Inexplicable.
Needless to say I never planned on going to an AI, I had very low expectations and I was disappointed in many ways.
Some other notes/thoughts:
The rooms were pretty nice, the second floor seemed a tad bigger. It?s central air and comfortable.
The grounds are nice with a lot of interesting flora and fauna. White egrets, peacocks - which are fascinating to see and hear - and numerous other birds are everywhere.
The disco was pretty cool, nothing special, and it closed all of a sudden at 1.30 last night (saturday). But we jumped behind the bar and kept the party going until the beer ran out, then down to the beach where another bar was open, and we closed that down as well.
A couple of the restaurants are in the middle of a swamp but the lighting of the trees produces a cool backdrop. Amazingly no misquitoes - not quite sure how they pull that off.
The beach is great, not huge waves but not boca chica-bathtub like. They have quite a few diversions: The snorkeling is tremendous, they have various boats to use and other water activities. Again, very good for families.
Also, they say ?all inclusive? but anything besides the slop they throw out in the buffet line costs more money. Even the internet cafe is $2US for 15 minutes.
If you want something beyond a well drink - Absolut, Beefeater, etc. - you have to pay more for it. The (beer tap) Presidente tasted like my socks that I leave in my golf bag for years at a time. Stick with the bottle version.
I saw my first ever $21US small tube of sunblock SPF 15 if it matters to anyone. I?ll post a picture of it when i get them back.
The people, minus the hamburger hoarder and the front desk dopes were all good, nice, helpful.
There is none of that pesty sunglass salesmen on the beach. Lots and lots of Europeans, plenty of cute girls - can?t imagine they?re European :lick:
The place is rather huge and they have little people carriers to get you to and fro. I?m amazed at how dirty and noisy they are and it?s not fun if you are at the end of the truck or in the back trailer as the fumes from the exhaust are nasty. It?s downright dangerous to walk as there are always employees zipping back and forth along the narrow paths that connect everything.
If I think of more I?ll add it later. I?m still recovering from my group?s record setting day on the beach two days ago. 568 cuba libres, we were really funny.
All in all, I recognize that the AI is not for everybody and this report is geared to inform those that are considering one to be prepared and understand that ?AI? is not always cracked up to be as it?s advertised.
My experience has been that you will get far more out of your time here by investing yourself in the culture, checking out the big city, traveling around and interacting with the locals. The common theme all comers will likely agree on is that the people of the DR are it?s finest part, and you?ll completely lose that aspect if you go into lockdown in an AI.
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