Our Members Say
My wife and I just returned from what we had hoped would be a perfect place to hold our wedding ceremony on May 7th, 2011. We chose the Paradisus Punta Cana Resort as most of the reviews we read were good and the resort itself looked beautiful. At first, everything we heard from their Miami-based wedding coordinator (Lauren Harder) sounded great so we went ahead and booked one of their Royal Service Ocean View Suites and invited our families and friends to the wedding. Once our rooms were booked and our deposit was paid to book the wedding day, everything started to go downhill. It would take days (or weeks in some cases) for the coordinator to respond to our emails and they were almost always 'at lunch' when we would call. The whole planning process became incredibly stressful and difficult to the point where we almost cancelled the whole wedding, although we were told we had already paid and would not get our money back anyway even if we cancelled. Our guests had already booked their flights and rooms as well so we went ahead with the planning.
When we first began our plans we had chosen the beach to hold the wedding ceremony but a few days later decided to change to the gazebo location and communicated that to the coordinator and began planning all the details. Two MONTHS later, she told us the gazebo was booked already and we could not use it. We asked her to contact the other wedding party and see if they would possibly switch with us and we were told that they would not switch. We understood that and started our decoration plans again from scratch. This would have been fine until we arrived at the resort to get married and found out that the gazebo was available (and ALWAYS had been) and that the other couple specifically wanted the beach location! I doubt the coordinator even bothered to contact them. We also asked her to check if they could make a custom made cake for us and sent her all the details. She told us that she checked all the bakeries in Punta Cana and that no one could do it, so my wife and I looked on the internet and found a local bakery who said they would be able to make the cake. When we arrived at the resort we asked the on-site wedding coordinator to help with arranging the delivery for the cake and gave her the details of the local bakery. It turns out, the local bakery we found on our own was the same one the resort uses. Again, I doubt the Miami coordinator even bothered to check to see if anyone could make the cake as it would be extra work for her.
When we finally arrived in Punta Cana, we were expecting that everything would finally go smoothly but quickly realized that was not going to happen. Before going to the resort we were asked to send our photos and arrival details so they would be there to welcome us, but when we arrived they had no idea we were even there for our wedding. We had to contact the resort's wedding coordinator to let them know we arrived and to find out how to get in touch with them. A few days later, after telling them we were a bit upset, they had someone make a dove out of bath towels and put some rose petals on our bed, but it was a couple days too late.
The problems continued with our rehearsal dinner. We were sent menus from all the restaurants where we could have it and were told to choose which we wanted. We decided on the Gabi Restaurant and asked if we would be able to order a la carte as it would be for just 12 people. They told us this would be no problem. However, when we arrived, we were told that the Gabi Restaurant would not be open that night and that we would have to go somewhere else, although they still agreed to let us order off the Gabi menu. When we arrived at the restaurant, they began serving us the generic meal rather than let us choose a la carte as promised. It was an embarrassment to have to argue with them again in front of our families after having so many other things go wrong up to that point.
To add to the frustration was our experience with the so-called 'Royal Service' package, which is a complete waste of money. They say there is a 'personal butler' that will be around to help with everything, car service around the resort, local cell-phone use, etc. In actuality, the personal butler is just a couple guys who are responsible for all the Royal Service guests in the entire resort. Service was very slow. As for the car to pick you up, of the ten times we called to get a ride, it only came twice that we know of. After waiting over 30 minutes each time we would finally have to walk as we would be late for our reservations. Also, I have no idea what they mean by having a local cell phone to use. They did not know what we were talking about when we asked about it. We also had issues with the room not being cleaned in a timely manner. My wife had the photographer coming to the room to take photos of her getting ready and the room was barely cleaned in time even after making several calls throughout the day to ask them to come. The room itself was also incredibly noisy due to the wind coming off the ocean and the room was not insulated for the sound so paying up for the Ocean View suite turned out to be the wrong choice.
Also be wary of the Reserve. Although it is a very nice area that some of my guests stayed at, it is as far away from the beach as you can get. If you want to be anywhere close to the beach, do not pay up for the Reserve. If you plan to spend the whole vacation by the pool, the Reserve is nice, but why go all the way to the DR to sit by the pool?
The final frustration was when they tried to be nice and arrange for flower petals to be put on our bed for our wedding night. When we returned to the room we found that they had left a note saying that they decided to take all our valuables out of our room 'for our protection.' Our camera, wallets, jewelry, and anything else that we had not put in the safe were all taken and we had to go to the front desk late at night to retrieve all of it. When we got there, we found that one of my wife's diamond earings was missing. She spent the day after our wedding meeting with security and filling out forms but they basically told her it was not the resort's responsibility even though it was them who took everything out of our room! We have still not heard anything back from them about what they are going to do but based on the overall experience at the resort I am pretty sure they will do nothing.
Now, to be fair, there were a few good things about the resort. Individually, the staff members were very friendly and hard-working, although the overall operation has some severe issues. The on-site wedding coordinators, Miguelina and Jennifer (not to be confused with the absolutely terrible Miami-based coordinator) were very good and helped to make up for a lot of the issues we had. They were able to help us make a last-minute switch to have our ceremony at the gazebo and the decorations were beautiful and organized as planned. The reception we had at the Romantico Restaurant was nice as well. Our photographer, Joaquin, from the studio on the resort was great and very professional (although the pictures were much more expensive than we planned for). Punta Cana itself was also beautiful with incredible beaches and blue water so I would recommend visiting it, although if I were to go back I would definitely choose a different resort if you are looking for a stress free holiday.
7 members live in Punta Cana
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