This hotel has a reputation for bumping travelers, especially during the high season, so it will be difficult to plan a vacation there with friends. We decided to go to viva palace for two weeks but got bumped the first week to Gran Bahia Principe which is a 5 star. We were very impressed with this hotel, food was great the service excellent and rooms were clean and large. The beach grounds are nice but the sea is not for sea lovers.
When we arrived , on our 2nd week, to the Viva Palace we were very disappointed with our room. They are old, small for a family of four, and certainly not what i would expect from a four star . This is a 3 Star hotel trying to cover up as a 4 star. I don't know who rates these hotels but i think they haven't been to this one in a very long time.
The food is adequate but the service in the restaurant needs major improvements.
Expect a lot of Europeans at the Viva Palace, mainly Italians and French. North Americans are a minority and so treated as such.
This is a Hotel with lots a rules and regulations. The staff will not accommodate the guests so expect to be in grade school again.
Example; I couldn't exchange my beach towels except at predetermined times or i could not reserve at their specialty restaurants until 8:00 AM the next morning, and let me tell you their's at least a 30 minute wait in a long line up. Like i thought i was on vacation!
The Animation is nothing to write home about either. The presenter is extremely loud, unless you like distortion, don't bother with the shows.
About the only thing this hotel has going for itself is the beach, it is outstanding, but be early if you want to find a chair because it will be very crowded.
Good Luck.

This was the worst place I have ever visited. STAY AWAY. The staff is mean, rude, lazy, and obnoxious. They would'n't give us the right room when we got there and I had to have the tour agent intervien. When I asked to be put in the proper room that we had reserved they walked away from us and refused to speak to us. They wouldn't give us towels at the pool(towel Nazis) when we arrrived so we couldn't swim, never cleaned the room, lied about the availabilty of reservations for eating, refused to serve us dinner for over an hour one night. We left and went to the buffet. I will never go back to the dominican. They obviously hate Americans. Also, you have to tip to get anything, maybe. Made reservations with the tennis pro. No show. They wouldn't let us take out the only good windsurfer, claimed it was theirs. The other boards were slick and dangerous. This place was Hell and we couldn't wait to leave. Don't go!!! The people working here are mean!!!!!!!

I had no idea what to expect about this resort as I had read a lot of the reviews and was going with an open mind. I can not believe that people had anything bad to say about this resort.

Our whole experience at the Palace was fantastic. Our check in was fast and friendly. The bell boys were quick. The maid was fantastic and the rooms were very clean. The bartenters were very fast and friendly. Fantastic people!!! All of the employees were friendly and fantastic with us all. The rooms were a bit outdated but who spends that much time in their room anyhow? We only slept and showered and then we were out either on the beach, snorkeling, parasailing or lounging by the pool. There is plenty of activities to do during the day and I love the fact that staff would ask if you would like to participate and if you said no, they left you alone. Then in the evening we would go to the nightly show at the Beach resort. The entertainers in the shows are incredible. What a show they put on!!! Then afterwards there was always a themed dance out by the pool of the Beach resort and then off to the Disco. There was always something to see and do. It was great.

We tried to eat at all the different restaurants but were unable to eat at the Viva Cafe by the water. The Italian restaurant was the best. We ate there twice. The little pizziera which was open 24 hours was the best pizza. The Bambu was NOT a favourite of any of us. I do not recommend you waste your night on going to the Bambu. One night, there was only the Bambu restaurant available to eat at and I turned it down. We went to the buffet and it was great.

I do not speak Spanish but we had NO problems talking with anyone even though majority was Spanish and Italian. It just made us to try to understand and relate differently with them. We all enjoyed that. I would not have had it any other way.
Our overall rating for this resort and our experience would be a 4.5 out of 5. No resort is perfect but this one comes close in our eyes. We had a fantastic time and would go back in a heart beat. All of the people we met there are FANTASTIC!!!

Overall: The Dominicus Palace was OK, not great and not horrible. About a 3.5...
Best: Very nice beach, clear waters, reefs just offshore so you can snorkel from the beach and the Palace side had plenty of fish to feed, fewer on the Dominicus Beach side. The weather was great except for 1 day.
Worst: Customer Service Desk (they can make reservations and handle normal requests but if there is a problem--overcharged us for a child--they get really hostile and combative). Beach does get crowded (very crowded by my standards) but there were always chairs available; they may be well back from the water, but there are some.
Room: Clean, icy cold air conditioning, nice balacony overlooking the beach. Furniture is a bit old, but serviceable. TV offered HBO, Fox News, BBC and CNN International as well as numerous channels in Spanish and at least 1 in German. Housekeeping was excellent.
Restaurants: We are vegetarians so we like the variety at most all-inclusives. After 7 days the selection was getting a little boring, but generally the food was good. Of the specialty restaurants, the Italian got the highest marks and the Japanese the lowest. (Our grandkids love Japanese cooking, but found this to be not worth eating.) The buffets are very much do-it-yourself; if you want more wine or more water, just get it yourself. It's far less frustrating that trying to flag a waiter. In this regard, it is starkly different from Jamaica, where there is always an overabundance of waitstaff; we were at Grand Lido Braco in September and your glass never got empty... not the case here.
Tips: Get to the beach early and flag a couple of chairs. Towels aren't available early, so take a T-shirt or something. If you don't return your towel by 6pm you may not get a clean towel the next day. Brush up on your Spanish; the languages you will hear are Spanish, Italian, French, German and English (in that order). Most of the staff speaks little to no English--even at the front desk and the waiters in the specialty restaurants. Join Wyndham By Request since it's free; you won't get the fruit and drinks and other things they promise you, but you seem to get a little better access to restaurants and reservations.
Would I go Back? No... we'll probably try an AI in Punta Cana next, but we really like resorts that are a 4.0 or above. (We were meeting friends there this trip, so we had little choice.)