My friend and I visited the hotel from 12/25 to 12/30 of 2007. Please be aware of the fact that the hotel is geared almost completely toward adult couples, as it can be a little jarring if you come all the way down to the Caribbean downplaying that aspect. Regardless of this, the hotel is a nice, albeit standard oceanside 3-4 star property. General caveat: The hotel is an hour away (70 dollar cabfare) from most places of interest, such as the clubs and activities in Babaro.

ROOMS

The rooms are above average. Very good A/C in addition to a strong fan. Nice shower. Design is mediocre. The couples thing becomes a problem when you turn on the television and there's a set pornography channel - not classy, even for a place geared toward honeymooners and lovers.

SERVICE

By all accounts, the staff and people on the island could not be nicer. But life moves at a much slower pace here, and that comes through in the service. For example, the concierge really does not provide 4 star service. All four of them seem almost incapable of arranging the simplest of requests. I speak fluent Spanish and still found it difficult to get anything done. It's hard to disregard this since the hotel flaunts it's rating.

CASINO

About four tables and a few slot machines.

BARS

They don't water down drinks, but they don't make them all that well either. Some pretty lame bartenders with a limited knowledge of what they are supposed to be doing. Their kindness does make up for this in some ways.

DINING

Coming from New York, we obviously did not expect top cuisine at an all-inclusive island resort. However, some of the food here is simply inedible. The Lobster House, the sushi items at Spice, the dinner options at The Grill, and most of the room service items were downright miserable. Your best bets are the early evening poolside barbeque, Barcelona for dinner, and the lunch buffet at Toscana.

BEACH

MOST IMPORTANTLY, know that this beach is known for its rip tides. The waves are extremely strong, and we unfortunately saw the worst of that this trip.

Two guests of the hotel were swept up in a tide and drowned, one was not recovered.

To make a long story short, emergency personnel never made an appearance, the staff, including the hotel doctor, had no idea how to handle the situation. As a qualified medical professional I can outright say that the hotel physician was utterly incompetent, and simple ignorant when it came to emergency medicine. For about 20 minutes he neglected to inform the knowledgeable medical professionals, who were hotel guests attending to the patient, that the hotel had a medical area with emergency equipment. The sight of a hotel employee carrying a manual defibrillator down to the water, electrical cord in hard, gives you the image of how incompetent the staff is.

The hotel guests attending to the patient did everything they could, with the facilities they had, to revive this individual. Had these facilities been disclosed to the attending medical professionals earlier, the patients chances of survival could have increased.

In my opinion, had the hotel had proper lifeguards this tragedy could have easily been avoided.


If you are a couple, come down for a solid oceanside vacation. It won't be mind blowing.

If you are seeking a real 4-5 star vacation, look elsewhere.

My family went from Dec. 31- Jan 4.
We chose the option to be executive excellence club members.
BIG MISTAKE. It is not worth it. I saw no difference in treatment for us compared to the other visitors.
There were pros and cons. I will be VERY blunt in my review.
I'll try to break this down as simply as possible.

SERVICE:
* When you walk into the resort you will be greeted with a phrase "Hola welcome home," which I found cute. Service people smile a lot and are nice. Everyone seems like they want to accommodate your needs. However, most of the time they will say "ok" and then disappear. It will take quite some time to get what you've asked for. I was disappointed with their service. Seems like they need better management.

ROOMS:
* The rooms are exactly as pictured on their site. Every room is the same. Turn down service once a day, twice if you're lucky. They give you shampoo, conditioner toothbrush, q-tip, soap, shower cap, comb, sewing kit, iron board, iron, hair dryer, slippers, bath robes, wooden hangers, a small safe, etc.
The rooms are old fashioned, 'charming' would be the word.
You get TBS, TNT and such... good channels.
If you're bringing kids, beware! There is a XXX channel on the TV.
Our bed was not too sanitary. There were old (unwashable) stains on the sheets, they should throw those away instead of reusing them. We found a lizard, fleas, beetles, and ants in our room. The room does has a funky smell to it. Bring air freshener if you can. Room service is good, actually faster than eating at their restaurants.

MEALS:
* Similar to other reviewers, for New Years dinner we waited 3.5 hours for dinner. Our dinner was "quicker" than the others because we were too exhausted to stay for dessert. They ruined our new year's eve mood, and from what I saw at the other tables... a lot of people's new years eve mood was dampened that night.
* Every night was a challenge for dinner. Their "no reservations needed" policy makes it harder for you to eat dinner. Because there is no reservation, people wait in a line to eat. So you don't know how long it will take for you to be seated. Once you are seated, your orders will taken about 20-30 minutes after you've been seated. Service at restaurants are tremendously slow. Even the buffet lunch, there were so many empty tables but it took us 15 minutes to get seated. WHY??!
* Excellence claims they have 7 restaurants but what they failed to mention was that not all 7 open everyday. The French restaurant Chez Isabelle never opened while we were there. And some of other restaurants take turns using one room on different nights. If you're going to eat at the restaurants that are outside: "The Lobster House" or "The Grill" Make sure you've sprayed yourself with mosquito repellent. My family was eaten alive from eating at the Lobster House. Definitely bring itch cream, mosquito bites at night are inevitable there.
* Best meal and service was the dinner at the beach. It is extra $ but was worth the experience. It was the highlight of our stay there. Again, spray mosquito repellent.
* Overall, food was not great but edible. You can see that the chefs are trying but everything was way too salty.
* Free drinks 24/7 is the best part of the resort. Try everything. It's free! You'll never drink so much fruity drinks in your life. I don't drink alcohol, but still had bountiful virgin-versions to enjoy.

POOL
* The best pool I've seen in a long time. It's clean, not too crowded because it's so long. They have huts, tents, pool bar, chairs, and an on-site waiter to bring your drinks. The view from the pool is beautiful. You can see the ocean not too far from the pool. Pool is a plus here.

BEACH
* Did you know that the beach is not included? The sign on the beach says you have to be an Excellence Club Member to go to the beach. But don't fret. Nobody really checked to see if the beach go-ers were members or not. Beach is beautiful. Like a postcard. Do take at least 2 days to stay at the beach. It's very stunning and relaxing.

ACTIVITIES AT HOTEL
* They have program schedules everyday. But most of them are not successful. We waited for beach volleyball but since there were not enough people, it never happened.
Tennis courts are loose gravel, you have to sign in and save a time frame if you want to play.
* The site says you are given free half-hour horseback riding and such. But trust me, they won't call you up and make sure you do it. It seemed like they'd rather you forget about it. Why? Because not enough horses!
* Most program events were unsuccessful because it was not managed efficiently. They don't really initiate events.
* Casino is very small but it's an ok place to kill some time at night.
* Michael Jackson show was entertaining.

ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE HOTEL
* No local sites to see.
* Excellence told us that deep sea fishing would cost $150 per person. Then they changed the time and so gave us "discount" for $115 per person. When we got there we found out everyone else from other hotels paid $85 per person. Top it off, not too confident on how safe these excursions are. Boat engine was smoking, 3 of my family members got sea sick because the captain kept on driving aggressively and he wouldn't slow down when I asked, oh... and we never caught anything. These were not proper travel agency-based excursions. It's like the hotel just made arrangements with some local fishermen to take us. I did not like how they disregarded the safety and welfare of my family.

I don't know if its a economic thing but everyone is trying to rip you off there. If you try to buy jewelry or anything from the townspeople, haggle your way aggressively. I mean it! They wanted me to buy a marble chess set for $105, I talked them into giving it to me plus two small marble turtle statues for $65. They are very aggressive in approaching you. So beware and remain strong!

This resort has potential but unless management shapes up, they are going to barely survive by relying on their beach, pool, and free drinks. There were not too many visitors there, I can only imagine the chaos if the hotel was ever fully booked. They seemed to have difficulty running it half-capacity. With all the extra charges and high priced rates...if you think about it...the "free drinks"and "free food" are not really free.

Would I go back? Not unless someone else pays for it.
To me, it's not worth my hard-earned money.

It's not the worst, but definitely not Excellence.

This was our second stay at this hotel as we loved it so much the first time on our honeymoon in 2005. Since then it has changed hands (used to be Secrets Excellence).

The room was beautiful, cleaned everyday with lovely big, soft bathrobes and slipper supplied. Turndown service came two/three times a day. We asked for a first floor room as being on the ground floor meant people walking by your room at all times of the day and also the risk of little bugs and lizards getting in your room!

Room service was better than expected - came within 20 minutes of ordering! and the food was lovely.

The service was great overall and staff were helpful at all times. Entertainment was brilliant however it the same every week (we went for 2 weeks - 19/12/07-02/01/08 - and so ended up watching the same shows twice).

Bar staff were all amazingly attentive, with special thanks to Benjamin, Jose and Pablo.

Entertainment staff were always around trying to encourage you to play games and make your stay extra fun (only if you want to though). Ines, Julio, Luciano, Franklin were all lovely people and great fun.

The restaurants were all great, the Grill, Lobster House, Toscana and Spice were all our favourites; all had excellent menus and quality dishes. Barcelona and Agave were okay...the food was brilliant however service was a lot slower there.

We went on two excursions: Catalina Island ($90 per person) - with Franklin and Happy Harry from the diving shack on the beach. The trip was so much fun we would have gone again if we could have stayed another week. They took us snorkelling in the sea, then to Catalina Island which is situated on the Caribbean Sea, this was absolute paradise, great food, company and a nice little trip on a double decker boat listening to meringue and bachata music and watching the staff dance their socks off!

We also went on a private fishing trip (booked through a couple of chaps (twins) on the next beach, a short walk from Excellence (its actually just before Sirenis' beach). It was a minimum of three people at $85 per person however we just paid for three and went on our own (my husband and I). Three chaps skippered it for us. It was equipped with 4 rods, 2 x 225 HP outboard motors and loads of soft drinks and water to keep you going for the days fishing. It was a fantastic day, much better than anything we have ever done before - highly recommended!

The spa was absolutely worth going to. I had 3 massages, a facial and a spa manicure/pedicure treatment. All were fantastic, especially the 'Excellence massage by Matilda which incorporated around 5 different techniques into one massage. We used the actual spa (Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, ice pools etc) quite a few times as it’s great to be able to cleanse your skin after slapping on copious amounts of sun cream and oil throughout the day.

The pool was lovely - not really our thing as we prefer the beach.

The beach was excellent. We went specifically for this as we have been to resorts before where we could not even swim in the water as there was too much seaweed. This beach however was extremely clean; the water was crystal clear and as warm as bath water. The waves were great fun, big fluffy waves to jump and dive under. BUT DONT BE FOOLED BY THIS!!!!!

Whilst we were there (on Friday 28th), two guests got into trouble one afternoon whilst swimming. The two men were spotted quite distressed and so another man went into the sea to try to save them however dissappeared and could not be found whilst we were there. Another guest went in to try and help however also got into trouble and almost drowned. One of the staff (actually Franklin from the Dive shack) went in with a body board and managed to get the rest of them out of the water however one man drowned and could not be resuscitated. Helicopters from all around the country were brought in to look for the missing man over the next few days however he still was not found whilst we were there.

The situation is that there are clear signs on the beach stating that you swim at your own risk, there are no lifeguards and also there are red flags (danger) up at all times. This however does not justify that there is not lifesaving drill if there is an emergency on the beach or in the water. There was no boat or even Jet Ski available. There was no first aid or life saving equipment to hand, only a security guard with a walkie talkie.

Although these warnings were in place, there really should be more done to prevent this happening again (this is not the first time it has happened either! People get into serious trouble every year on this beach).

A Seadoo Jet Ski costs $10,000.....not much for the price of a life! In the UK every beach that has people swimming/surfing on it has one of these. Every couple that stays at Excellence spends on average at least $5,000 a week – it DOES NOT take long to get together the $10,000 needed to buy this Jet Ski!!! Another thing is the drill training...........nobody knew what to do! Once 1 person is fully trained, this person can train others.....leading to at least a few people knowing what to do in the event that something goes wrong......this is not rocket science!

At this hotel the Executive chef ‘Berthold’ is German (i.e. not Dominican). They have employed him on the basis that he trains and coaches all his restaurant staff from 7 restaurants in order to deliver a superb service. I have had enough of people saying that the poor emergency procedure was due to the fact that this is a 3rd world country and they just don’t have the knowledge”! If this hotel can fly in and employ a foreigner to train their restaurant staff then they can also ‘fly in and employ someone to train their life saving staff’!!!

Sadly our deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends of the man who drowned and also the man that is missing; we hope he is found soon.

We just got back from a trip to Excellence over the new year's week.

While the place is nice, it was not quite up to billing in my opinion.

Rooms (we stayed in building 10 which is part of the "club"): The rooms are nice, rather large with a jacuzzi tub in each one. However, the fridge did not get cold at all. The exhaust fan in the bathroom screeched a high pitched wail when we turned it on.

Maid Service was very spotty I had to call the concierge at the club to get them to come one day as it was after 5:30 and no service had occurred. We also had to request new washcloths as they had taken them from the room without replacing them.

Food: the food ranged from good (not great) to awful (the lobster room) unfortunately the French restaurant that everyone raves about was not open any night we were there (6 nights). The service in the restaurants was slow at best. The food in the club was hit or miss. We did enjoy the grill on the beach, in fact they may have been my favorite meals.

Property overall was very clean and well kept (other than the bathrooms in general areas) the pools are nice and they keep the beach very clean as well. As reported many times here the towels are scarce get out early to have a chance to get any. People generally have their space reserved by 8:00.

The staff is all very friendly and outgoing. I believe that they only teach them a few phrases in English "Excellente" "My pleasure" "Salute" are the ones you hear the most. The problem there is they don't always understand what you want and tell you "my pleasure" and then do nothing. Overall I believe that they would like to provide excellent service, they just don't know what it is.

We had no issues with mosquitoes so that was a plus.

The shows overall were not good. They did have an unintentional comedy factor which was the only saving grace.

The casino is very small and the tables are just plain old and junky.

If you would like to do excursions or book time at the spa do so early as the time slots fill up quickly.

Overall, we had a good time at a nice resort. It just could be so much better without some of the quirky things.