please tell the truth !

See http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/travel33.html

Your vacation will be as pleasant as you make it!!!

Come with a positive attitude and you will be fine!!There are some people in the world who only see the worst in everything! I like "Ice Cold Milk" with my breakfast! At the "AI,s" this can be difficult,or impossible to get! You ask a "Server" ,who says "Si",and then never cames back!You can make this ruin your vacation,or you can get an empty glass,go to the "Juice" area,and fill it with ice,then go to the cereal area,and find a pitcher of milk and fill your glass!You can buy a carton of milk at the store,and bring it with you,same goes for ketchup,salad dressing,or anything else that is not available,and you "Can't live without"!Buy a can of "Bug Spray",and keep it in your room,for that mosquito that is in your ear at 3 am!Be responsible for your own happiness! If there is a real problem,like no water,or air conditioning in your room,STAY CALM!!!! Start yelling at the staff and you will get "NADA"! Dominicans don't respond to yelling! State your problem,ask for their help,and tell them you are going to the pool,and will return in 1 hour to see what has been done.If nothing has been done calmly ask to see the manager,and repeat the process!Ask for another room if needed!
If you smile a lot,say "Hola" to everyone,and generally act "Friendly",the Dominicans will make sure that you have a fantastic time! Come with the "Attitude" that comes across in your post,and you will be missersble!!! Cris Colon

I agree with CC, words to live by.

Saying that, I just read some of the reviews on Debbies page.

Hotel/Resorts must hate the Internet

Right on the money..

Excellent advise, CC
Like I have just said in another post, talk to your travel agent, if it is a good agency, then someone on their staff has most likely been on a fam trip to this resort or area and would have brought back a full report , if not, check around other agencies and see if any of their agents have been.
Believe me, after a brief stint of working guest services at Playa Naco, I have heard it all !! I even had a complaint about the light over the dining table being too high - what was I supposed to do about it ???
Just do a little more research, read between the lines of some of these reviews, if there are more bad reviews than good, maybe there is some truth to them or maybe this hotel just attracts all the naysayers!!!!
Good luck, relax and enjoy your trip,
Marlie

The area where your hotel is located -- Juan Dolio/Guayacanes -- has lots of good restaurants, so if your hotel is cheap then you have the option to dine out. Since most of the restaurants still have very attractive price lists, this would be the way to go. The flexibility of having a car is great too so you can move around and explore other beaches in the area, from Boca Chica to La Romana, without feeling you need to stay in the hotel because you have paid for your meals and don't want to miss out.

I agree with Criss

Attitude makes or breaks a holiday. The first trip we made we ended up having to stay an extra day because of airplane problems. Now, think about this, I'm in NS where it's -30 and there I was in DR where it was a balmy +30 and I could do nothing but relax, someone fed me and gave me whatever I wanted to drink.........still there were folks who ended up having this incident ruin their entire vacation. You heard not one complaint out of me. Vacation is what you make of it. Go with no expectations and you'll have a great time. Accept what you can't change and if you can change it, do it, but don't let it ruin anything. (do I sound like I just said a prayer???)

I'm actually a little down right now as we aren't going anywhere this winter and darn it's cold here!!! My girlfriend was just in myoffice and was saying if we ever decided to go last minute somewhere they'd probably join us..........got me thinking.......but man, I don't know if it'll happen this year! Here's hoping!! Looking at last years pix just doesn't do it for me anymore!

Trish

marliejaneca said:

Believe me, after a brief stint of working guest services at Playa Naco, I have heard it all !! I even had a complaint about the light over the dining table being too high - what was I supposed to do about it ???

Click to expand...

A lot of these negative complaints come from people from countries with laws that let them recover part of their travel expenses if everything was not exactly as advertised. When I worked at Hotel Gran Bahia, I saw small groups of guests sitting aroung dreaming up problems that could be used as the basis for claims. their goal was to get a all expense reimbursed vaction.

To Ken

What countries are these so that I can go visit?

Ken said:

A lot of these negative complaints come from people from countries with laws that let them recover part of their travel expenses if everything was exactly as advertised.

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Don't you mean "if everything was not exactly as advertised"?

I believe there are people from here in England who go on holiday just to pick fault and complain. It doesn't seem to matter where in the world I have been, if I've heard people complaining, they have always been Brits. What a miserable bunch of tosspots my fellow countrymen (and women) are

Sometimes true

Dominican Babe said:

I believe there are people from here in England who go on holiday just to pick fault and complain.

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My one and only time at Hamaca two Brits chose to sit next to me in the HUGE buffet. There were at least 300 empty seats and they sat next to me.

Then they complained about EVERY little food related thing. Endlessly. Now, they had at least 5 or 6 pounds of food piled on the plates defying the laws of physics.

I asked them - if it's so bad why do you each have enough food for 4 or 5 persons? And in addition what compelled you to sit next to me to gripe and whine about it? If it is awful why would you take SO much? (And subsequently ate it all I noted).

They moved.

Dominican Babe said:

I believe there are people from here in England who go on holiday just to pick fault and complain. It doesn't seem to matter where in the world I have been, if I've heard people complaining, they have always been Brits. What a miserable bunch of tosspots my fellow countrymen (and women) are

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I know them well! As the Antipodeans would say "what a bunch of bloody whingeing Poms!"

Chiri

The Brits are not alone here, DB. The Germans are no slouches when it comes to looking for "problems" that can be used to claim reimbursement.

Not surprising that the upper class Germans go to the South Coast.

Carsey 700

I've lived in country here 7 years and I've stayed at that hotel twice one week each time. The last time was in Sept 2003 and the stay was great both times. The food was good and neither my wife my son or my self got sick. The food was good if you like buffet and there was a lot of different items to choose from. Beach was nice as was their pool ans the service was good. The only complaint I had was the last time I was there the air wasn't working so I reported it we went to eat and when we got back to the room the maintenance man had just finished turning the system on. In September they were in the process of remodeling as I've been told that there are new owners so things were a little disorganized due to the remodeling but that was in Sept. Enjoy your stay.
Rick

CC, of your 3000+ posts, this one is my favorite.

I was reading the trip reports about this resort at Debbies' site and I just had to laugh about one where the person said that she gave a guy 5 USD for a shoe shine and the shoe shiner acted like she insulted him...
I can just see the shoe shine boy saying to the tourist, "5 measly dollars!!! What do you think I work for free?" lol...what a racket...

I must agree with most of what has been posted!

Yes I live in Juan Dolio!
Yes, the resort has had problems (don't they all at times?)
Yes, that was under the previous owners!
Yes, the new owners are renovating and making improvements.
Yes, attitude will determine whether you enjoy your stay or not.
Yes, if you head down the road (the beach road ) towards Santo Domingo there are some great, inexpensive restaurants to eat at (mainly Italian -Yum!).
Yes, if you head towards San Pedro on the same road, there are some great, inexpensive restaurants to eat at (Spanish, German, French etc)

No I haven't had a chance to walk via the beach that far yet so I can't comment on the condition of the sand but so far I haven't seen any seaweed in the waters of the beaches in the area.

To sum up - if you come down with a relaxed attitude, ready to "go with the flow", you'll find the weather great, the water a little on the cool side ('course I've become spoiled by the warm waters we usually encounter so the slightly cooler temp this year is a refreshing surprise, the buffet food at the AI eatable, etc.etc.

In other words - get your buns outta the cold and onto the beach!! You'll have a great time and make all your friends who are stuck at home jealous to boot!!

Criss,

I must tell you that at this moment I'm getting back up off the floor! I can't believe that post (boy am I impressed)!. I din't think you had it in you....oh man...oh man! See, I knew even you could give some NICE and sincere advise. I agree with you Ken....this is one of CC's best posts without a doubt!!

I think I have to save this one just to remind me that under all that hawkish chatter there is a heart after all!!!! hehehehe