Went with 2 other couples - each of us had different rooms, us new section standard king room, the others in new section swim up - Very Nice! and the other couple in a king room in the old section by the pool. The new section is quiet and hotter during the day as it gets less wind off the ocean. The swim up room is a great upgrade - same as ours inside but a lovely deck off the back right into the pool.

So this place is hard to pin down rating wise... The rooms are modern and large, nice furniture, nice modern lobby and the grounds are gorgeous. The beach area is outstanding, especially compared to the other resorts within the palladium complex. Lots of palm trees and tiki umbrellas, loungers and beds - one of the best beaches I've seen at any resort. Usually I lay by the pool, but the beach was the place to be. As for the pool - it was on the cold side. Weather was good, mid 80's sunny everyday, and standing in the pool at the swim up bar was way too cold for me. The Palace pool next door was warmer, but dilapidated in spots.

The staff service was good and bad. Max who checked us in was fantastic and a few other servers were great other than that, rough! Huge language barrier. I called to use the pillow menu 3 times, I was hung up on, then transferred to the wrong person, then I think transferred again to the wrong person because when I tired to order a pillow the man replied " No, pizza, hamburger, fries." I think he thought I wanted room service?? This went on for quite a while. So we never took advantage of the pillows, but my friends said the down pillow was great!
The butlers are non existent. Very tough to make a reservation, as they make them for you. They are only at the desk for a couple hours in the morning to do this, yet ours was rarely seen. We called the extension as the note on the desk advised, only to be hung up on. Another time they spoke some quiet low gibberish and hung up. We called another time and the woman said they were having a "briefing" and to call back in 10 minutes, meanwhile we could hear them watching tv in their little room. We stood around in the boiling heat, called back no answer. We eventually abandoned all hope of using the building 53 service so we'd track down a building that had a butler. Make all your reservations the first morning, as they do fill up. The Mexican Restaurant was good, and the Royal Gourmet was pretty good too. Otherwise I wasn't very impressed with the food. Everything kind of tastes the same, they must put the same seasoning spice in everything?? Veggies were low quality, and surprisingly the fruit wasn't that great either. I lived on bread and meat essentially.
All six of us agreed it wasn't the best food compared to other resorts, with the exception of some good meals of course!
The Japanese show dinner is great too.

The spa is gorgeous - worth going to!

So it was an average experience, the look of the place and beach is 5 star but the service and food is not 5 star. Between the 3 of us there were inconsistencies, margarita pizza from room service was different every night, sometimes delicious, other times gross. Once it never arrived at all. Our breakfast from room service was utterly terrible, our friends had a decent one, so who knows!

I guess for the price of an all inclusive you can't expect the world, but compared to other all inclusive resorts this isn't the ultimate.

My husband and I just returned from six days at this resort. Overall, I would give it a 3.5 of 5. There are some aspects which in our opinion prevent it from being the truly end resort it wants to be.
HIGHS-
The Property- the grounds are lovely, wonderfully landscaped and maintained and very clean. I hardly saw a loose paper floating about. It is a former cocounut plantation so there are tons of palm trees and greenery. The beach is truly beautiful; white sand, turquoise water and tons of huts with shade, as well as hammocks. The suite rooms are very spacious with nice terraces. Tons of pools with abundant chairs, beds, and huts.
The weather- Excellent. Low 80s in the day, but always a balmy breeze and warm at night in 70s.
Things to do: We did the swim with Dolphins at Dolphin Explorer and it was awesome. An unforgettable experience.
Spa- very nice. Had a great couples massage with jacquzzi.
LOWS-
Service- The service was average overall and at times poor. In general there is a lack of attention to detail and an unwillingness to put in any extra effort for guests. We heard a lot of we don't, we can't, or sorry no. For example, I was told at midnight that I couldn't order a bottle of water with my room service pizza and had a call a different number for beverages. When I did call that number it just rang and rang continuously. People would come to take our order at dinner and then look as if they'd forgotten something and leave without saying a word and reappear 5 min later. I saw a guest ask for coffee at a bar to be told there was none until later in the day, but then 5 min ltr noticed one of the staff pouring himself a cup! The bar nearest our room was out of rum cream-our favorite nightcap- for over two days and never oh we'll get it for you or it will be coming tomorrow. Just no don't have it. We were supposed to be able to customize our mini-bar but it took 3 phone calls & a personal visit to the butler to get two bottles of tonic water. Over the course of a few days these combined experiences proved frustrating.
Food- I will put out the disclaimer that I live in the NYC metro area in a very varied and competitive restaurant scene, and have a high standard for good food. Nonetheless, we found the food to be extremely average. Most dishes were either bland or over salted to the point of almost being inedible. It seemed that the same brick of mashed potatoes was on every plate. Best bets were breakfast at the Royal Gourmet or some of the items like the cheese and hams on the evening appetizer buffets.
So basically, if you are looking for a lovely spot, good weather, and have a high tolerance for food and service missteps, you'll be fine. However, for the money, I think there are better high end options on other islands. This is my third time to DR and food and service have been a pervasive disappointment.

Lets just say, dont listen to the people who rate this place with a bad review, they obviously cannot be properly pleased anywhere they go.

Everything about this place is spectacular, the swim up rooms are beautiful, everything in the rooms are marble and clean. The food was very good, lots of restaurants to pick from. We really liked the French restaurant which is only available to The Royal suites guests. We also ate alot at Las Torres, Breakfast was really good. The pool and bar area are very nice, hard to get a lounge chair as people get up at 5am to throw their towels and sandals on them. This is the same anywhere you go though. the beach is private to the royal suites so its very nice. The gardens are clean and tidy. Gardeners are out there every day cleaning them up.

The butler service is great, Our butler was there every day and night, some people say that they never see theirs. Our room was restocked daily with food and drinks.
The price was well worth it, do not listen to the bad reviews trust me.

We will be back in the folllowing years.

Just returned from a disappointing vacation that we spent way too much money on! Please don't make the same mistake we did. If its your first time at an all inclusive resort you will probably find it acceptable because you have nothing to compare it to, but trust me, there are far better resorts out there for less money.
First and foremost, the service at this resort is the worst. The majority of the staff can barely speak English and even if you learn basic Spanish you spend your whole week trying to communicate simple requests and this is frustrating to say the least. Our drink orders were often wrong and staff just didn't bother to get to know us as guests.

We have traveled extensively and this resort fell short of all our expectations. We had a swim up suite which looked just like the pictures but that was the only good part of our trip. Our mini bar fridge didn't work properly and was never stocked with our requests. The bed was advertised as having memory foam, but trust me it didn't! The shower never worked properly and had a million buttons to press and you needed a manual just to operate it! The doors also didn't close properly so there was water everywhere. Our butler was hardly, if ever at their desk and even when you did find them they were not much help.

Food was OK, nothing to write home about. The lobster at the Royal Gourmet was mushy and even though the chateaubriand at the French restaurant was good, they don't know what medium well means. We had to send it back but they brought it back only a minute later and it was still very rare. Just gave up and ate it anyway. Buffets were rather small compared to other resorts we have stayed at so there wasn't a large variety. Waiters seemed to only give good service if they got a tip.

The word FUN was missing in our vacation. There was nothing exciting to do and the atmosphere was really lacking. Our room was in the new section and there was no swim up bar which was disappointing. We hardly ever saw a waiter and when we did we had to go out of our way to get their attention. The shows at night were OK, the only good one was the circus one.

The reception at the front desk was disappointing too. It took forever and was very unorganized. No one explained the layout of the resort and it took us several days to figure out the huge map and to find where everything was. Staff was not very friendly and definitely not helpful. When we asked for directions or help, most of them couldn't answer us. One day we asked 3 different people for a beach towel and 2 of them didn't speak a word of English! The one who could speak English kept telling us to come back for a towel because they didn't have any washed yet!

It didn't feel like an adult only vacation as the resort is so large and there is no real division between the Royal Suites and the rest of the resort, particularly on the beach where there were lots of kids. So if you are truly seeking an adult only resort don't be misled by this one!