Grand Paradise Bavaro All-Inclusive - an AMHSA Marina Resort
- 4 out of 5
- Avg. Member Rating
- 34
- Reviews
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7
- Photos
Good Value/Beautiful Beach
- June 28, 2009
- Rated 3 of 5 by
a traveler from Travelocity.com
I got this trip for $*** per person all inclusive. I also had a junior suite with round trip prietro tours transfer. The room was absoutely beautiful. Its a 2 room suite with a jacuzzi tub right in the middle of the master bedroom. The second room has a full pull out couch with chairs and a tv. I had 2 tv's, 2 bathrooms, 2 large closets for me and my girlfriend. The maids did a good job with the cleaning, the only problem was they left the back sliding doors open sometimes to where anyone could walk in. The beach was great and so were the pools. Everything was very clean. Now for the negative, the language barrier is tough because not too many people speak english at the front desk, the buffet food was bad, it got both of us sick. The restaurants if your actually able to book them were very good. The booze was all the same called "classic" There was one bar called the Bar Co. which had top shelf liquor but it all costs $5 more per drink. The resort only has one beer called "el presidente" which is free. At the other bar they do offer corona,miller high life,smirnoff ice for a $5 dollar charge. Its a pain to try and get a beach towel so best time to go is in afternoon for that. The train comes often to bring you around the resort which was nice. I probably wouldn't return just due to the fact of the food but other than that it was a great price for a great room and a pretty decent vacation.
Wonderful Vacation
- June 11, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
funinthesun1964 from Washington Court House, Ohio
Husband and I stayed the week of May 16th- 23rd. Had a wonderful vacation. Good food with a good selection other than one night. Nice clean room. Our maid was wonderful. She realized we would come back and nap for about an hour around 1pm and changed the timing on cleaning our room so we always had freshley made beds when we came back to nap.
The animation crew was great. Worked hard at getting people involved in the different activities going on.They really dance their butts off.
We had no problem with tv's or remotes, no problem getting a second room key or anything like that. All the employee's were very nice.
Check in was a breeze. We arrived after everyone else on the buses so no standing in line along with 20-30 other families.
There was no problem getting a lounger on the beach. Some did have broken back supports, but just take a couple minutes to look around and find one not broken.
We had a ball here,plan on going back again. I have to wonder if a little bit of manors goes a long way in how some people are treated, and then place reviews about this resort.
You Couldn't Pay Me to Go Back
- March 20, 2009
- Rated 1 of 5 by
Stasi from Wernersville, Pennsylvania
Our vacation to Grand Paradise Bavaro (club) has been our most disappointing vacation in the 8 last years. We arrived at Grand Paradise Bavaro on Monday March 9th and our check in took 3 hours. The first mistake was that our confirmation didn't say that you need to check in at the Club reservation desk. So our taxi driver took us to the main reception desk, where we waited in line for an hour to be told that they don’t have any reservations for us and that we are probably at the Club, which is a 10 minute walk away. So we set off for the club reservation desk, just to wait in another line. We were overcharged for our all inclusive package and after arguing for 15 minutes the representative agreed that he owed us $110 back. He wanted to return a signed $100 travelers check to me which I refused because it’s invalid after you sign it and he kept saying it will be ok. After another argument his manager finally told him he could give us cash back. At last we were taken to our room. They put us in a studio with a queen bed. Our confirmation was for a 1 bedroom with a king bed and Jacuzzi. So we went back and asked for another room. Next they assigned us to a 1 bedroom lockout. However the other half of the lockout was assigned to someone else so they couldn’t open the door. Our third room was better but neither tvs worked. So we ended up at the 4th room which was acceptable. We were hoping to get lunch and to spend some time at the beach our first day there. Instead we were hot hungry and miserable and spent the whole afternoon arguing and changing rooms.
We were given new wrist bands after the 4th room which were a gold color instead of the original green color. We were told that the gold meant we were VIP and would get special treatment. When I asked what specifically they couldn’t tell me. We were the farthest unit from the beach and I wouldn’t wish our service on my worst enemy, so far the VIP bands have been a curse.
This resort is advertised as beachfront. Our room was approximately 1 mile from the beach. We had to wait for a tram car to drive us there every day. Any other Caribbean resort we have stayed at, we open our patio door and could see the beach and we certainly didn’t have to walk a mile or wait for a tram car. We were also disappointed that most of the beach chairs are broken. The hinges on the back that allow you to sit up are missing from most of the chairs, so you have to lie flat.
There is a common problem with the staff trying to speak English. I know English isn’t their first language and I appreciate that they make an effort to speak it. However, when they don’t know the answer to our questions they should said that, not just make something up. This has happened numerous times.
We discovered that there were no washcloths in our room on Monday and requested 2 from the front desk. They never came. The next day we went to the beach reservation desk and asked them for washcloths, which we were told would come in an hour. When they didn’t arrive we asked the woman who made reservations for dinner if there was anything she could do. We watched her call housekeeping and she said they would be at our room by the time we got back, that was Tuesday at 10am. We never received washcloths on Tuesday and my husband stopped the maid cart to see if they had any and they said tomorrow.
Neither of our tvs had remotes and we informed the front desk the day we arrived and they said someone would drop them off in 5 minutes. Three hours later we still didn’t have remotes so on our way back from dinner we stopped to pick them up. They gave us 1 which only worked one tv. We went back for the other one and they gave us the wrong brand. We were so exasperated we gave up for the day. The next day we tried again and it took 3 remotes and an hour to finally get a remote that worked. In the 3rd room we were assigned we saw a flat screen tv, however both tvs in our room were old tube tvs.
The jacuzzis and pool water are cold, ever colder than the ocean water. I understand if they don’t heat the pool, but I have never been in a jacuzzi that wasn’t heated. We figured that we’d use the jacuzzi in our room, but then discovered that the spigot was broken off and the water was turned off.
Our room had several holes in the ceiling, including one over the shower which you could look up into. The curtains were ripped and too short for the patio doors so they didn’t keep out the sunlight in the morning. The king size bed had queen size sheets and mattress cover on it, so the sides of the bed were not covered. There are no clocks in the room, so you have no idea what time it is.
There were no "Do not disturb" signs for the doors nor deadbolts. Therefore anyone on staff could come in the room at any time. Three times the maid just walked right in without knocking or announcing herself. On Saturday night we heard knocking around 1:15am and figured it must be a neighbor’s door because no one would be knocking at our door. Then we hear our door open and in walks a man and my husband tells him to get out. We’re still not sure what that was about and I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.
The food was mediocre at best. The buffets rarely had fresh fruit and if they did it was just bananas and pineapple. The salad bars consist of lettuce and tomatoes, no other ingredients. We haven’t seen anything chocolate all week. They make a white cake and put some chocolate ice-cream syrup on the top and call it chocolate cake. The major disappointment was La Cana, the steak house. We made reservations to eat there on Tuesday night. My steak was so gritty that I wasn’t able to eat it. The appetizer was black bean soup, which was just liquid with no beans.
We went to the casino and played black jack. The dealer had trouble adding up the cards. Two times she took my husbands chips when he had 21 then we had to argue to get them back. We left after the second occurrence.
On Thursday when we returned to our room, the one door was left open. We figured the maid was in the room, but she wasn’t she just forgot to shut our door.
We asked numerous workers if they had a schedule of activities for the week and no one had one. They have a nightly show but can’t tell you what it is, you have to find it posted daily.
Saturday night we stopped at the reservation desk to confirm checkout on Sunday. We requested a taxi for 9:45 am the next day. On Sunday we arrived at the desk at 9:35 and told them we were there for the taxi to the airport. We were told the taxi was on its way. At 10:00 the cab still wasn’t there so we asked again and were told he’d be there in 2 minutes. The taxi didn’t arrive until 10:20, which set us back 35 minutes and made getting through airport security stressful since our time was limited.
fantastic value for the money/no complaints
- February 19, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
a traveler from Travelocity.com
i read the reviews and was a little concerned. We stayed i/9/2009 and it was fabulous. the rooms were large, clean lovely toiletries, and the staff got you what ever you needed. They even held my hand and walked me down the hall when it was wet.
the food and restraurants were great and the IItalian outstanding. again the staff great.
yes, shortage of beach chairs caused by impolite greedy tourists grabbing all the chairs-as in amy resort.
no one bothered us trying to sell things.
yes, the gift shop is a rip off.
the shows at night were very nice.
we are going back next year.
fantastic value for the money/no complaints
- February 19, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
a traveler from Travelocity.com
i read the reviews and was a little concerned. We stayed i/9/2009 and it was fabulous. the rooms were large, clean lovely toiletries, and the staff got you what ever you needed. They even held my hand and walked me down the hall when it was wet.
the food and restraurants were great and the IItalian outstanding. again the staff great.
yes, shortage of beach chairs caused by impolite greedy tourists grabbing all the chairs-as in amy resort.
no one bothered us trying to sell things.
yes, the gift shop is a rip off.
the shows at night were very nice.
we are going back next year.