This will be long, but I hope informative.
Stayed at this lovely resort from February 4th to 11th. When we arrived at the airport in Punta Cana around noon, we were greeted by two Now Larimar reps. They advised us (and a few other guests) that the Now was overbooked and that we would be taken to the Catalonia Bavaro resort for the night. We were a bit surprised and unsettled by that, but were happy to be out of the cold winter weather, and decided to go with the flow. One of the hotel reps, Alexandra Vargas, was very calm and pleasant, and when I said to her that we expected to be compensated/upgraded for this inconvenience, she indicated that she would take care of it, and asked me for my name (I guess committing it to memory as she didn't write it down). With the many guests that she would have to deal with, I was a bit skeptical, and figured that I would have to continue pressing my case with someone else at the Now when we would finally check in there. When we arrived at the Catalonia, we were treated extremely well, and given their "preferred" status upgrade. The Catalonia was nice, but an older resort and, as it turned out, certainly not as nice as the Now. We were taken to the Now around 1pm the next day, and found out that there were two bus loads of people in the same predicament. One other guest on the bus bragged about tearing a strip off the Now manager (she was a repeat customer) and that her ability to raise hell and get him flustered would get her the upgrades she wanted, and invited me and my friend to follow her directly to the manager's office when we got there. My friend and I decided that we didn't want to take her very unpleasant approach so instead went to the general reception desk. Although we had only booked a tropical view room, I indicated that I wanted an ocean-view preferred status upgrade given we'd lost two beach days (keep in mind that we had missed Saturday afternoon relaxing (we had to wait until 3pm for a room at the Catalonia and really couldn't unpack much or relax knowing we would be in transit again the next day), and most of Sunday (waiting for yet another check-in process), so essentially missed two beach/pool days of our 7 day vacation). Without any arguement, we got just that...a beautiful pool-ocean view preferred room on the 4th (top) floor, plus assigned our own butler. Apparently, and true to her word, Alexandra Vargas had already arranged this upgraded room for us! Our butler was Francina Rodriguez, a lovely and accommodating lady, who gave us a cell phone with a direct line to her in case we wanted anything. On Francina's two days off, Alexandra was our butler. Now, we didn't really use the Butler services too much (we could fetch our own drinks and beach chairs), but Francina did make restaurant reservations for us at the à-la-carte restaurant and sent champagne and chocolate strawberries to our room (nice). So morale of this story is, no need to get nasty with these very fine and gentle people. I find the staff at the Now to be the most pleasant I've encountered anywhere. They always have a smile for you and a greeting as they pass you in the hall. They make you feel welcome. I've been to places (Cancun comes to mind) where the staff was surly and acted like they detested tourists in their country. So very opposite at the Now.
Food: The selection at the Buffet was amazing. Customized omelets were the best (so many ingredients to choose from!). To note, at breakfast, look for the pull-apart buns sprinkled with sugar--they are to-die-for...so fresh. Plenty of fresh fruit. Coffee is very good. Water served from pitchers are supplied from bottles and drinkable...neither my friend nor I got sick. I did have heartburn one day, but due to my own over-indulgences and the jalopeno peppers. We checked out the buffet at the new Garden View addition to the resort; it was not as big as the main buffet, but the food presentation looked just as good or better, and they offered smoked salmon, which we didn't see much of at the main buffet. We would have like to dine there, but didn't get to it. Dined at Capers one breakfast, but not impressed. Enjoyed two meals at Spice; the Japanese hibachi enjoyable but over-cooked. The Thai was good, with tons of shrimp in my dish. The food in Mercure was OK, but the room looks like a red velvet bordello. At the Bluewater Grill, I had the most delicious, amazingly tender and perfectly cooked (med-rare) beef in the surf-n-turf dish that I ordered. That was an unexpected surprise. We had lagostine (small lobsters, free) at the beach-side Castaways one night, so no need to spend $35 for lobster at the Bluewater.
Beach: Beatiful. Warm, soft, white sand. Clean. No debris (except for seaweeds that they do a good job at removing. You need to get down to the beach by 8:30 if you want to get beach chairs and umbrellas. I went down every morning for 7:00 to select two (always got my favorite selection), and watch the sunrise. I always stayed with my chair until 8am as the staff are supposed to take away towels left on unattended chairs before 8am (they did not do this as I saw many people leaving towels on chairs before 8 and leaving...not fair to people who follow the rules and come down at 8am). Also, if you're going to reserve chairs, then use them....don't leave them unoccupied for long periods, denying others who want to be there. If you have room in your luggage, bring a small beach towel in case you have to wait for a clean supply of hotel towels. We walked for a couple of miles down the beach...very safe, as it is full of resorts. We felt that the Now strip was one of the nicest.
Pool: Lots of activity around the main pool. We didn't sit there (rather noisy, and we liked to read and kept to the beach except for one day). But we could watch some of the afternoon activities from our balcony, and looked like a lot of fun. The staff are excellent entertainers and dancers. We stayed at the preferred pool one day. Clean and lovely. The Sandbar's bartender, Junior, has a great personality and fantastic smile. Also, Solami was very personable and attentive, working the bar and catering to the beach guests. We missed her when she left for her three days off. Her replacement was slower making the rounds but, hey, it didn't kill us to get out of our chair and fetch our own drink now and then. We checked out the pool in the new section of the resort. It looked beautiful and very different from the other pools. I don't think I would have like to stay at this new section (too removed from the beach), but it does have some nice amenities and looks very clean.
Room: Preferred room, top floor, large. Double sinks in the large, bathroom; large shower with floor-to ceiling tile; enclosed toilet. Large balcony with jacuzzi. Excellent view of the main pool and beach to the right (we were in the Punta Cana buildings). Comfortable bed and no evidence of bed bugs or any bugs (in fact, their plants all look remarkably healthy, so the birds must be doing a good job of eating the bugs). There was no musty smell as I've read from other reviews, but it is quite humid. Clean room. I called down to have our room cleaned when we left for the beach and it was always done pronto. If you do not call down, it might not get cleaned until much later in the day (they have lots of rooms to do). Someone mentioned that when a preferred customers calls to get their room cleaned, they take care of it right away, and that you might not get this level of service if you are not preferred. Plenty of hot water. I brought a couple of old, coloured face cloths, knowing how these can sometimes be in short supply, but we had plenty in our room. Brought candles/flashlight in case of any power-outage, but didn't need to use them. Had absolutely no problems with clocks or air conditioners not working (as I've read from other reviews). We left a $5 tip and a gift bag filled with kiddie colouring supplies (as per another trip reviewers suggestion) early in our stay, then a much more generous tip for the housekeeping staff when we left as we were very pleased with their service.
Beverages: I generally stuck with the pina coladas and mojitos, which were delicious. The bartenders gladly filled my large plastic insulated cup. Beer was refreshing. The wine was not the best. The drinks in the Preferred lounge are top notch. Don't forget to tip the bar and beach waiters. They will serve you gladly even if you don't, but I'm sure they appreciate your acknowledgement of their efforts.
Entertainment: Main pool staff excel at this. Looked like they had as much fun as the guests, dancing and playing pool games. Music was loud but lively. We missed the Michael Jackson show (that first Saturday night that we were bumped to the Catalonia), and attended only one other, which was a dance show put on by the Now staff. The dancers and costumes were quite good but a couple of the dance routines were corny and costumes goofy (the routine with a couple of male dancers wearing a sea horse headdress was aweful, and some guests left at that point...the choreographer should re-visit this routine or cut it altogether). We did not go to the casino, or the disco, or the sports bar, or evening beach parties, so cannot comment on these. We were just too tuckered out and full from eating and drinking all day, plus I had to get up early every morning to catch the sunrise!
Overall rating is very good but not excellent given we were bumped to another hotel upon arrival and lost beach/relaxation time.
Room Tip: Rooms overlooking the main pool will be noisier in the afternoon, and when there are evening events...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
