We came as a family of 6 for Thanksgiving. Booked directly through the resort with included transportation. Transportation with seasons to and from was seamless for all as we all arrived and departed separately. The resort grounds are gorgeous. The resort is older and does show some wear, but they were repainting and rebuilding palapas while we were there. They did just have a hurricane and you could even tell. We booked garden view Excellence club rooms. The hotel accommodated our request of being near each other. Our room was clean and did not smell musty or of mildew. Maid service came twice a day. Mini fridge restocked daily. No issues with getting extra snacks or drinks.

Concierge Caesar dealt with us most of the time and he was extremely helpful and also organized a slice of birthday cake at hibachi dinner for my husband and for staff to decorate our room while we were gone to dinner. My brother had a late flight out and they stored his luggage and allowed him to use a room to shower and clean up before his transportation arrived.

Bell hop Guerrero was our favorite from the start escorting us to our room and making friends with us. We’re his new family and he was going to keep our mom :) we saw him every day and he was always so friendly and outgoing. He was not working the day we left so we made a point to find him the night before to say goodbye. Employees like Guerrero make this place great! When staff can remember you in a huge resort full of people it makes an impact on your trip.

We enjoyed the food and did not go hungry. The food was good but nothing out of this world. We did not eat at the French restaurant as we ran out of nights. Dominican night was fun and the pineapple drinks were amazing! The buffet has so many choices even the pickiest eater can find something. We enjoyed the steaks from the grill. The lobster house was probably our favorite. Pizzas and burgers on the beach were good too. Room service took about 45 minutes.

There are plenty of activities if you want to stay busy. We did Spanish lessons with Gucci Baby which was fun and I learned some new basic Spanish words and phrases. Also Water aerobics with Nicki Manaj. She is so sweet and bubbly!

There are chair savers however we did not have trouble finding good beach or pool chair. We had frequent 5 minute rain showers and it would clear out beach chairs.
It is frustrating that people save chairs and are gone for hours and hours leaving them completely empty. Drink and food service on the beach was adequate and we didn’t notice that it took an extreme amount of time.

The nightly shows are fun and it’s nice to have evening entertainment. We also enjoyed the silent disco! It’s even more fun to watch.

The beach is on the Atlantic side. The water is rough. There is an undertow. We were aware of this before going. It’s fun to jump in the waves and cool off for a bit, but it’s not a swimmable beach if that is important to you. The beach is long and we walked both ways to explore. A little seaweed while we were there and what was washed a shore was cleaned up almost entirely. We had storms almost every night so seaweed was inevitable.

All in all we had a great trip and I would not hesitate to go back to this resort. I know there are some reviews that complain about certain things but we did not have any issues the week we were there.

Just back from 7 days at Excellence. Overall, it was a relaxing vacation. Check in was smooth. The bellhop was very friendly and our room was lovely. The fridge was well stocked and the cleaning and grounds keepers kept the resort in great shape.

The good...
The room... Spacious, clean, super comfortable bed.

Jose Antonio and Agapito at the grill every morning greeted us with a friendly smile and eggs/omelets any way you wanted. In the kitchen, Jubelkais and Iris were always on top of what was going on, getting you anything you needed, again with a friendly smile.

The grounds pool's were lovely, hot tub (when warm) was good. Beach was well maintained. Really clean.

Lunch: Antonio would bring us lunch by the pool... We were amazed at how many orders he could keep straight! He was always smiling and at times dancing to make you smile! Sometimes we went into the kitchen again and on top of Jubelkais and Iris, Manuel who prepared the pizzas was just so friendly and kind. He would bring our pizza to us if he had to have us wait. He was terrific!

Deloris in Agave was just fantastic to deal with (Antonio was there too and as wonderful as always). Agave and the grill were our favourites. The night we went to Chez Isabelle we were met with "sorry, we're out of...." so I feel like I can't really speak to it.

Juan at the swim up bar was so great no matter how busy it got.

The silent disco was fun but the music could have been better (more variety!)

We stayed for most of the shows. They were generally well done. The live bands I didn't love but the sax player was fantastic.

Around the pool there are tons of chairs and beds. They are available at the beach as well. We almost always could find one in the area that we wanted it.

The food was good... But they always seemed to be out of something no matter where you went! I found this really frustrating.

Okay so the not so good....
I mentioned the "sorry, we're out of...." It got old fast! It was crepes in the French restaurant, vanilla ice cream, sides, spoons, towels at the pool....

They held a special dinner for American Thanksgiving. They closed two restaurants that night. We got down for dinner at 6:30 and had to wait about 30 minutes to be seated. When we got into the Thanksgiving buffet, the meat was dried out, all of the labels on dishes were wrong and 3/4 of the serving dishes were empty. So they held Thanksgiving dinner with dried out meat and ran out of sides and dessert. I heard from those who went early that it was good, but at a 5 star hotel running out of food given you know how many guests you have, is just not okay. Either limit capacity or have enough food. Further, I shouldn't have to go to eat at 5:00 to ensure that there is food available!!! It was unreal!

The hot tub was a bubble pool for the first 5 days - it wasn't even a warm tub.... Just the same temperature as the pools with bubbles.

The spa prices were so high we laughed! I can go to a spa at home overnight with meals for what they were asking for a couples massage!

They don't tell you anything about the disco and you have to search the app under bars to figure out its hours.

The music - is great on day 1 and okay on day 2 but it's like they DJs just play the same 12 songs over and over.

There were a number of staff who just weren't great.... We would order something and wait for 45 minutes (once we waited 2 hours by the pool for an order. After 30 minutes they came back and said they were "bringing it now" and then just never came back! - obviously not Antonio! ) . We would realize that they weren't coming back and ask someone else. We'd then still have to wait but usually things showed up in a reasonable amount of time. We started just going to the staff that seemed to have it together.

The floating mats by the pool were very old and waterlogged. Bring your own floaty if you can.

Overall, honestly this was a pretty good resort. I can't honestly say that it was the best I've been to but it certainly wasn't anywhere near the worst either. I can safely say it's in my top 3 (and I've stayed in MANY all inclusives). The staff who had it together (once we figured out who they were) were fantastic.

The resort is absolutely beautiful. Our room was great. However, we have a small issue for not having hot water. Every morning and we have to contact operator to send a maintenance worker to come over and check the hot water.