Ocean El Faro, Punta Cana

Pros: Deiby Santana, our butler, was outstanding & truly made our experience there enjoyable. Via WhatsApp, he was so quick to respond to any questions/concerns & ensured we had golf cart/shuttle rides whenever needed. 4/5 food quality overall + resort experience. Michaela Augustin, outstanding lower priced beach massage; Jendry, excellent Despacio Spa massage . Grateful to our taxi driver, Rafael Romero, who accommodated our special request to eat at local DR food & La Esquina del cocido DID NOT DISAPPOINT. MUY delicioso - our best meal in DR! Our favorite was the Costillita de cerdo & their freshly made china-ade (pronounced chee-nuh = naranja dulce), but tasted like a delicious lemonade. Was well worth our taxi fee for this surprise excursion to this ma & pa restaurante y local plaza/shopping mall away from our resort. Cons: We closed our first Punta Cana experience with 2 nights at another AIl-inclusive resort. Although our 1-week Ocean El Faro experience overall was still a 4/5, there are adjustments that should be made there to improve to compete with the 29 other AIs. #1 CHECK IN. Here at a competing AI where I am typing this review, similar greet with luggage handling, welcome drink, early check-in accepted at 2 pm into king bed preferred (=privilege for H10 hotels) room for a Mr & Mrs. Took MAYBE 15 min including golf cart drive & tour with butler. Upon room arrival, instead of truffles & red wine in room at Ocean El Faro, greeted with bucket of ice with champagne bottle & snacks. In major contrast, for this Premium Travel Club member, 2 pm early check in not honored AND once we were able to return @ 3:30 pm for check in after eating, we were assigned a 2 QUEEN bed unit with a mold-mildew smell. Despite my immediate request for another unit, ideally with no smell & 1 King bed, another unit was not available until the next day & told we would be placed on list for request. Your Premium Club members should have highest priority for these requests, esp for someone with a major mildew/mold allergy. As escalated to a supervisor, I required 4 allergy injections monthly due to this anaphylactic/unable to breathe reaction, so waiting overnight was unacceptable. While we sat on our patio due to my inability to breathe inside our room & I was looking up reservations ELSEWHERE for our remaining week in Punta Cana, my husband noticed a room across our building being cleaned which he walked into & did not smell mildew. He returned to the front desk & advocated to supervisor on my behalf. No, a garden view junior suite was not a clear match of pool view junior suite, nor a king bed, BUT MY HUSBAND PROTECTED my overnight experience to ensure I could breathe the next day. We finally got settled into our room by 8 pm, after arriving at 2 pm!!! Clearly, this should be improved for future check in experience, especially for Premium Travel Club members. DINING: This may seem like a small detail, but it adds to the class of a resort experience. Moving away from using our phones to scan QR codes for menus. That was Covid & should remain there. It only encourages more phone usage/needing your phone on a resort. Fine dining restaurants do NOT ask guests to scan them & are handed a menu. This was our experience at this competing All-inclusive in area & a noticeable contrast in dining experience. SUCAR: took us arriving at other resort one-week later to finally enjoy a not syrupy sweet bar drink. Both resorts pina colada mix is much too sweet. Have to order Leche con hielo blended y pequeno jugo de pina y Malibu to get a decent drinkable pina colada RESORT SHUTTLE COST VERSUS DIY BOOKING: if the Ocean El Faro website promotes free airport transfer, Premium Travel Club members should receive that same benefit, esp after paying for membership. The discounted shuttle round trip offered by resort company = $70PER PERSON versus $90 for TWO via Amstar DMC or Rafael. We will never upgrade unless these small, but significant details are improved, esp after having such a different experience at a nearby all-inclusive resort without above issues.

We had a great trip to Ocean El Faro. We were there in May, but when we went back in November, they had made improvements. The staff was friendly and helpful. We love the beach area. Daiby Santana was our butler. He was fantastic! He made our dinner reservations and checked on us daily, even his days off. We appreciate that he didn't bother us but he was available and accommodating. We loved eating at Pez Dama for breakfast and lunch. Carlos, in the piano bar, was our favorite bartender. Our only "complaint" was the food. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't wow either. Dinners weren't hot or super flavorful, except Sakura. Overall, we loved our time there!

The resort was beautiful and very well taken care of. If you are privileged enough to have Deiby Santana assisting you, you will have an amazing stay. He was great and always quick to respond with answers to any questions we had. He always had a smile on his face and would cross the whole resort to come and check in on you if he saw you by the pool or walking up to the front. 5 stars and will be requesting him again when we go back.

Very Good Experience! Blue team was Amazing. Marielys, Gerson, Alexis, Stephany are all great people. The pool games were all fun and made everyone involved and have a great time. The shows the food the disco all fun. Dominican Republic is so Beautiful!!!!