The food is good with lots of selection, at breakfast there are usually 2 stations making omelettes and their potatoes are to die for (mashed/quartered). We never had a problem with the ala carts as we prefer to dine early and they all open for dinner at 6:30pm.
The rooms are good though the bed as firmer then we like, the water pressure is low but adequate for a decent shower.
If you don’t want to have any friends, wear a white shirt with tan slacks and everyone will make a point of avoiding you. These people are attempting to sell you on an expensive guest Privileges package upgrade tying you to the H10 hotel chain. Please be aware they will encounter you upon check-in to arrange a tour of the amenities, we observed a couple 3 hours later still on it. We call them the land sharks and in the morning they tend to loiter in front of your villa and drive around in golf carts spying their next prey. To avoid them walk down the inner courtyard of your villa . This also a valuable route when it’s stinking hot and you’re burned, as well as when it’s raining, it is also much faster then taking the pathways as they wind around. It runs between villas 3 to 6 on the south side and 7 to 10 on the north side.
Wedge shoes for the women are the best as the pathways have the uneven tiles and high heels are not advisable.
Do read the Ocean Post (daily newspaper) located on the table at the entrances of the buffet, this provides information of the activities for the day, which ala carts are closed that day and what is occurring on rain days. Also mentions what the evening show is and spa specials, very informative.
The evening shows start at 9:30 but they have games and contests until 10pm. The best shows are Magic, Circus and Michael Jackson, the rest are not memorable and we left.
The free wi-fi in the lobby is adequate, sitename: ocs_lobby, username: lobby password: ocean (to avoid having to go into guest services). You can get service in your villa with greater wi-fi strength for the cost of $25 USD for 6 days and other lesser packages.
Bring your own snacks and sunscreen ($18 USD) as they are expensive, also consider light weight beach towels as all the chairs are populated with blue towels making it difficult to determine where you are situated.
Cheap entertain for the kids is smuggle out buns, crackers and box cereal from the buffet to feed the fish and ducks. We especially enjoyed assisting the Kingfisher by bringing up the fish with crackers and watch the hunting on the lagoon bridge.
If you bring your own bubba mugs, rinse them with bottled water in your room and not let them rinse with the tap water (not drinkable), also be aware that blender jug is rinsed with tap water between batches.
Consider booking water excursions via the dive centre and not the beach vendors as they bring you back to the hotel area versus dropping you off somewhere else and you have to make you own way back. The tour company water excursions (catamaran) is several hours on the bus picking up at the other hotels, and a trip to Catalina Island for 30 mins of snorkelling and back takes all day and has booze and food (so what) it costs $330 USD/pair if you want the lobster lunch.
We did a snorkelling excursion to Bahahibe, and it was fabulous, many species we hadn’t seen before and we did the sand bar drinking thing with the sea stars. It takes a long time to travel as the roads are narrow and they are NUTS, we saw some amazing driving infractions that appear to be a standard practice there. Our bus ride seemed more sideways bouncing then forward, if you get car sick beware.
The resort really has no destination for walking about, there is the beach and a small town is further away without much available, Higuey requires a bus ride 1.5 hours return and doesn’t have much to offer in terms of shopping. They do offer a shopping centre excursion for $55 USD and there appears to be not much there (word of mouth). We like resorts that have markets and walking paths to get exercise. There is always the excited vendors at the beach huts near the resort, and they do have a roaming group of vendors that set up tables on the property on some nights.
Overall it was an enjoyable vacation and would consider coming back, if you want a slow pace this is great.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
13 February 2012
On behalf of Ocean Blue and sand by H10 we are delighted to know that you found our property very enjoyable and that we have meet your expectations. Is for us a pleasure to thank you so much for choosing us and for sharing your experience with the rest of the world?
We look forward to welcome you again,
Best regards,
Hotel Management
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC