The Palace
was very nice We both loved it (I'm Italian wife is American), spacious rooms (altho no much of decore.. but who cares room is for sleeping), very clean, our maid came in the room at least twice a day with new towels, employees were friendly and helpful, food was good everywhere we went (exception with the Italian restaurant but I'm Italian and very picky about italian food LOL the other exception was the breakfast buffet I ate mostly fruit in the morning ), entraitenement was good nightly shows were for the most part decent, drinks.... well couple times wife complained there wasn't much booze in it I'm not into mixed drink but I did enjoy caipirinas and daiquiris bartender (the pool bar) was good and friendly. You will read alot of reviews that go from really good to really bad and I think the reasons are the following:
1) Time of the year you go... we went off season (October) so the facilities weren't that crowded, never had to wait for a table at any of the restaurants also the weather was hot but not incredibly hot (mid 80s) I can imagine eating at night when it's in the 90s with no AC that would be very uncomfortable.
2) All the Bavaro facilities we visited seemed to cater mainly to the european, south american and spanish crowd, that was great for me since I speak italian, english and some spanish> If you go down there expecting to be served like you would in a Marriot hotel in the US then you are in for some disappointment. You are not in the US you are in a spanish speaking country if you respect that and you are adventurous enough to try to communicate with locals and employees you won't have much of any problem. Also if your diet is made of hamburgers and french fries at McDonald then you might not like what DR has to offer.
Here what I didn't care too much:
1) Phone service (see my other post on *20) the international operator tried to rip us off with a $15 access fee, the local operator wouldn't give us the direct phone number for Sprint/MCI I had to complain til they finally put us through.
2) On the way back to the US the bus dropped us off at the airport 3 1/2 hours before departure I suspect this so that we could drop some $$$ in the shops, I didn't think 3 hours in advance was necessary.
Regrets about the trip... we should have gone on at least the safari tour I think was $75 and everybody who I talked to enjoyed it very much, this very short trip for us was for pure relaxation and wife didn't want to leave the beautiful beach....
We will go back probably next year probably for a week.
If you have any specific questions just e-mail me