We were so excited when we booked our honeymoon through Funjet with a great price on 12 days at the Grand Palladium Palace Grand Palladium Palace
***So that everyone understands, The Grand Palladium is a HUGE resort with 4 hotels on it, The Bavarro, Punta Cana, Palace, and Royal Turquesa. Although you may see a picture on the website of your room, it may turn out to be one of the other properties, you are allowed to go to the other properties*** |
| ©2012 L.Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
The great reviews on this place are so deceiving, but I do know now majority of them are from people that are not Americans. While we were there I noticed that we got treated differently right upfront, even though I am Latina and I speak fluent Spanish and did so with the staff it didn’t seem to matter. There are a lot of Europeans and Canadians that stay there and they seemed to get better service for some reason, even though we would see that some of them didn’t tip. We always tipped since we are used to that here in
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| ©2012 L Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
Customer service everywhere on this property was BAD
Since day one I should have known that it was going to be one bumpy stay here. We arrived late due to an issue at airport and I asked nicely for an upgrade since it was our honeymoon, and said it was important for us to have a beach view. We were willing to pay for it. Nestor the person who checked us in with a very sloppy Spanish that I could barely understand asked if I brought my marriage certificate, I said yes but he never asked to see it. He said I had to wait until the following day to speak to my Funjet agent. I was fine with that. We were starving from a long day of traveling, and he just said that there was a restaurant by the pool. It was dark and we had no clue where anything was. No one gave us a map or told us how to get around. We had to let our noses find the way to a buffet since we were in shorts and they told my husband that he couldn’t eat at the restaurants that way, men had to wear long pants. Even with the blistering heat and women could wear anything they wanted.
Honeymoon Expectations, all out the window
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| ©2012 L.Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
Honeymoon Expectations, all out the window
After talking to our Funjet agent the next day the best he could do was change our room to one with a view of the beach but no upgrade and until our 3rd day. When I booked and paid for our trip, we were promised a Dream Care package by Funjet, and when we got there a Honeymoon basket or a something special for our honeymoon. After 12 days and several promises we got neither. No sign on our door, like we saw on other “Non American” honeymooners even one on the room that was right next to us, no fruit basket that we found out a Canadian couple got, no upgrade to a Honeymoon LOFT SUITE that a very ELDERLY couple that was obviously not on their honeymoon got upgraded to, and the list goes on. One of the worst was coming from the beach and wanting to wash off, and no towels, not even our dirty ones. My husband went personally to get our towels at reception and they wouldn’t give them to him. They said someone would bring them up in a minute. We later find out that in Dominican Republic time a minute means 1 hour. They didn’t bring them up until I called and told them I needed towels NOW. Another incident was with our electronic safe. It was on the morning that we were going off on one of our tours. It was an hour before we were to leave and the safe wouldn’t open with our code, which was such a simple to us. So we called the front desk to come reset it. They said a minute, after several calls and hour later and no one to open the safe, my husband ran downstairs to make sure our tour didn’t leave us and to get someone, and we finally got Faustin who had to come in early just for this. That afternoon we got a call from another person in reception who said that the night before we had left our safe open and the maid that went in for some reason saw it open and reported it and that is why they reprogrammed it. (The maid cleaned the room in the morning) This scared us because WE DID NOT leave the safe open, we have money and passports in there and we always double checked that it was closed. We checked all our paperwork and counted our money nothing was missing. That was too many weird coincidences and bad experiences for us. One of the nights they turned off the water without notice and I barely got a HOT bath since cold water was already gone. I called front desk to find out how long it was going to be off, and very coldly was told that maybe 2 hours, no apology for not letting us know. My poor husband had to wash with a cloth and bottle water if not we would have missed dinner. We are not very demanding travelers and could have overlooked these things if they would have treated us better. Instead they got me to take detailed notes of everyone and everything.
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| ©2012 L Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
Food and Restaurants
The buffet food was OK; we tried all of them and would only go back to the Palace buffet by the pool, for the great service we got from 2 waiters there. Manuel and Yulissa, they were on the side furthest from the beach view but they were kind and polite and took their job seriously. If you go ask for them and you will see the difference. There is a buffet that had better food called the Arecife by the Bavarro hotel, with an amazing view of the beach but the service there was also bad. The restaurants were better food but service was not, when you asked for drinks by name if they didn’t know what they were they just didn’t bring it to you. They would talk to you like they were doing you a favor, and would seem disappointed when they didn’t see a tip on their table, but come on at least fake a smile and learn manners! We tried the Mexican Cantina restaurant they have and food was good, but they had what was obviously not fresh guacamole, and though I only took one scoop from it, I ended up sick the entire next day, stuck in my room. Careful because they also serve the guacamole buffet next to the kids area! The Japanese restaurant (their version of Benihanas) across from the Palace was one of the best and lively entertaining. The Brazilian restaurant (their version of Fogo de Chao) had a nice environment but not the best food. Don Quijote the Spaniard restaurant was the best in the whole hotel, that I even remember the name. I was so surprised that it was so delicious and that they got it right but then remembered the hotel owners are Spaniards; they CAN NOT get it wrong. The staff at this restaurant was the nicest, but we didn’t eat there until our last night, so I recommend you eat there more often if you want good service and food!
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| ©2012 L Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
Reception Staff: Incredibly RUDE
Reception had to be one of the worst, and even if you try to get away from them and go to the other receptions at Bavarro or Palace you can’t because they flip them around to those. The only kind person we got was Faustin and we were sad when he went on his days off because no one else there seemed to like us or want to help us. My husband's Spanish is very bad and he sounds so American so I did all the talking but it seemed like it bothered them to speak to the woman. They would constantly use my maiden last name and I would tell them my married last name and they never corrected it, yet they would call my husband by my maiden last name. Which we didn’t let that get us down but being that they are your point of contact they should be kinder.
Tricked by Staff on Tours
We were fooled into 2 tours by a person who works for the Hotel Concierge Group named Gaston. This group walks around each hotel and they are supposed to be customer service wearing a lime green polo shirts and also refer you to the members group to talk to you about becoming a member (kind of like a time share). So be ware and DO NOT BUY anything other than from the Hotel Extra Group that is there specifically for tours or your travel agency! He clearly had the Grand Palladium logo on his shirt and works in the hotel so we had no clue that we were not supposed to buy from him. He talked us into what sounded like 2 wonderful tours; he gave us a great price but didn’t give us a receipt. I asked for one and he said it was all set up and no need for a receipt. Again I didn’t think I had to be suspicious of hotel staff. The first was a Safari tour to Plantations left the next day so we got up early and went, met another couple from our hotel on it, and then went to pick up other people from other hotels. After about an hour the questionable tour guide came around to collect the “FULL payment” and receipts. We told him we had already paid and that the agent Gaston did not give us a receipt, the other couple with us from our hotel said the same thing. The tour guide was obviously mad and kind of scolded us in front of everyone. Finally after a few phone calls to what seemed the owner of the tour company they allowed us to continue. It was so far off the tour we were promised, and the tour guided was a bitter weird man, that took us to poor sections of Dominican republic told us how poor everyone was. I understand this but that is not what I wanted to see, he took us to a little store and told us to buy things for a school that he was taking us to, a small box of pencils were $2! He encouraged us to buy candy for the poor children and school supplies, the owner of the store and him were friends, so you know he got a cut from the stupid tourists that paid triple the price for these things. Us included but all I bought where those expensive pencils because I didn’t want to be empty handed. Then he took us to what was another place that he knew the owner where we were suppose to be able to buy one of a kind Dominican and Haitian Art. Ha ha please!! It was a small warehouse of mass production of some really lame art, not one person in our group tour bought anything, and it seemed to bother the guide. If there would have been at least one piece that was not stenciled I may have bought something. We rode horses for less than 5 minutes though they promised some people and hour. The tour of the plantation consisted of walking through someone house, (that the tour guide was friends with) and showed us how they lived, and named some plants on their land. We were introduced to Mama Juana, which was actually interesting. We had a horrible time, that the very next day we asked for our money back from Gaston for the second tour and he said he couldn’t give us full refund because he had already booked it, we didn’t want to loose the money so we went on the 2ND tour with a receipt this time. We got up so early waited for 1 hour with no one to pick us up. Finally another company came and scolded us and told us that they did come by to pick us up but we were not waiting at the lobby. Lies!! This company took us and finally we are off in a crowded van, and long trip to Saona Beach Dominican Republic . We made friends on this tour so that was a great thing. We finally made the long trip back in the cramped van and got to our hotel. We complained about our experience with Gaston to our Funjet Agent Benito but he didn’t do anything about it. He seemed more upset about loosing the commission on those tours. He said we were supposed to buy our tours with him, but he only offered us swimming with the dolphins. I’m not a little girl I don’t want to do that!! He said it was because that is what most tourists want to do. I asked for a tour with him to the capital Santo Domingo , he wanted to charge us more than the snake Gaston and on the day before we left. This was an all day trip so that didn’t work for us, when we said we were going to seek alternatives he lied to us telling us that all the monuments were going to be closed on the day we wanted to go. We asked for advice from what seemed our only friend there our waiter. We told him we decided to go on our own he told us to be very careful and what bus to take and where the bus stop was. Benito who is supposed to be OUR agent didn’t give us this information. We then went on our computer got maps and bus schedules prices everything, when we tried to get them printed out by the reception people it was almost like they didn’t know how to work a computer. After several tries and specific instructions we got our printout. So sad that this is a very busy hotel and the staff lack manners and basic knowledge of the equipment they use.
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| ©2012 L Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
White Sand Beach a Big Plus
The Beach is so beautiful and it made up for the awful time we were having. The only bad thing is the sun is really strong and you need some shade from time to time, but there are not enough cabanas. Yet the people get up at the crack of dawn to set them aside with towels. We finally got one on our last day there, but my husband had to go down there at before 7am and most of them were already set aside.
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| ©2012 L Guzmán Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa |
Conclusion
Overall I have to give the hotel credit that it’s a very nice hotel, they have a variety of restaurants and entertainment. The beach is beautiful, and numerous pools and a kids section so adults don’t have to be with a bunch of kids. Yet of course there are those parents that take their kids to a pool full of drunks adults, come on there is a bar in the pool!!(this was a plus) The problem at this place is the staff. If they continue to give this horrible service, and treat people based on nationality I will never go back, nor will I tell anyone to go there and I will tell everyone about my bad experience. I would hope that people would give their real opinion of the place on a review. People who do not travel often and that don’t have anything to compare it to really should NOT be reviewing, this only causes places like this to have good reviews when they don’t deserve them. I feel like we wasted our money and would have been better off going somewhere else on our honeymoon. Not to mention how can they can sell the memberships if the service that you get is so horrible, why would anyone want to buy?
Overall I have to give the hotel credit that it’s a very nice hotel, they have a variety of restaurants and entertainment. The beach is beautiful, and numerous pools and a kids section so adults don’t have to be with a bunch of kids. Yet of course there are those parents that take their kids to a pool full of drunks adults, come on there is a bar in the pool!!(this was a plus) The problem at this place is the staff. If they continue to give this horrible service, and treat people based on nationality I will never go back, nor will I tell anyone to go there and I will tell everyone about my bad experience. I would hope that people would give their real opinion of the place on a review. People who do not travel often and that don’t have anything to compare it to really should NOT be reviewing, this only causes places like this to have good reviews when they don’t deserve them. I feel like we wasted our money and would have been better off going somewhere else on our honeymoon. Not to mention how can they can sell the memberships if the service that you get is so horrible, why would anyone want to buy?
Tip:There are machines that look like atms in the lobbies, which are for the guests to give comments and complaints. Use them, and keep track of names of the people that are actually good so that maybe this hotel will do something about it.
*Disclosure**
I was not compensated in any way for this review. I purchased stay at this hotel and the review is my opinion.
*Disclosure**
I was not compensated in any way for this review. I purchased stay at this hotel and the review is my opinion.
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