The facilities are not bad. The service is terrible specially for those paying with US dollars. Europeans have a different treatment. The food is horrible and boring. They repeat the same menu day after day. If what you have in mind is to have a taste of Dominican food you may forget it. Turkey and mashed potatoes with some mediocre sauces is all what you are going to see. The restaurants are awful and it's a hassle to make a reservation in any of them. Lobster is not included, you have to pay 35 dollars per person to eat one lobster, and shrimps are not even known there. On the other hand, there is a constant harrassment everywhere you go. If you walk through the lobby, some hotel staff people would try to sell you a package for next time, and no matter how strict you are in telling them you are not interested, they will keep bugging you until the moment you are finally and happily getting the heck out of there. If you go to the beach, the entertainment staff won't leave alone not even for a minute, they want you to dance, to play games, there is not peace in that place. If you try to walk somehwere else you will run into someone else trying to sell you something. I had a horrible experience. I saw people as sad and disappointed as I was. I really discourage any of you to visit this hotel. If you have a family keep in mind this is a topless pool- beach hotel.

Me and my boyfriend were here from late June to early July and both enjoyed our stay. We had both read most of the reviews prior to our vacation, and were shocked once we arrived; we didn't understand why there were so many poor reviews. The only complaint are the few whiny guests staying here. We had booked our vacation through Air Canada Vacations, and the representative was extremely helpful.

Check In/ Check out:
I checked in at 9ish p.m. Everything was very efficient, we were given drinks, card, map, and all the info we need. We purchased a safety lock here for 25 dollars (I believe, don't quite remember.) Check out was great as well, everything went by very smoothly.

Staff:
The staff here are extremely friendly and helpful. I had only encountered one rude staff member and it was over the phone, whatever, no biggy.

Buffets:
The buffets were very good, a lot of variety, and the quality was average/above average. They do try to mix it up every night, but it does get kind of repetitious, so I would recommend signing up for some a la cartes. At every meal, there would be crepes made to order and fresh fruits.
In the morning, there would be fresh vegetable/fruit drinks made to order, as well as omlettes made to order and crepes. There would be bacon, pancakes, french toast, pastries, and a lot more.
For lunch, you could choose between the buffet by the lobby or the beach club buffet. They basically serve the same stuff, but the one by the beach is opened for longer. Examples of dishes include: pizza, pasta, made to order meats/fish (varies everyday,) icecream, salad, potatoes, basically your typical lunch stuff.
Dinner consists of a variety of meats (there was also frogs, pretty good,) cakes, pudding, pasta,etc.

A La Cartes:
We were only able to book the Italian and Brazilian.
Italian:
It was self serve appetizers and desserts. Consisted of the usual, there was a variety of cheeses, deli meats, and soup. For dessert there was tiramisu, two chocolate mouse, and apple pie. I had ordered the salmon with rose sauce for the entree, and my boyfriend had pasta. We were both satisfied.
Brazillian:
Once again, it was self serve appetizers and desserts. Basically the same as the Italian. They would bring meat on a giant sword to every table. They had, I believe, six different kinds of meat. It is all really filling and satisfying.

Bars:
We both didn't drink too much. The wine was below average. The bartenders at all the bars were very efficient and mixed very good drinks. I would recommend the tiki tiki.

Rooms:
We had a room in building 12 on the second floor. It had a king sized bed (an actual king, not two twins,) and a mini living room. Everything was cleaned and maintained nicely. The bathroom looks dated because of the rusting on the tub, but that is because of the design of the tub. The producers of the tub had obviously not thought about the design very thoroughly. It was poorly designed where after a shower, water would not drain properly down because it is not at an angle. And obviously, if water is left there for long periods of time, it will rust. This is definitely not the resorts fault. Whenever we had asked for something (written it down on the pad in the best spanish we could muster up,) it was provided. If anyone wants to know, we had tipped the maids 2 dollars a day.

Activities:
There were a lot of activities to choose from, such as: kayaking, parasailing, banana boating(?,) windsurfing, archery, too many to name!

Entertainment:
We didn't really watch any shows either then the michael jackson show, which was absolutely awesome!

Excursions:
There are many excursions to choose from, they average to about 80 dollars a person, just ask your representative. We had went on the Reef Explorer, which was 89 dollars a person and very much worth it. It was basically a variety package of kayaking, swimming with sharks and stingrays (actual encounters where you get to touch them and everything!) massage and just relaxing on the water. The staff on this excursion were very friendly! One of the masseuse had braided my boyfriends hair during his massage, they definitively have a sense of humour =)

Lastly, of course the beach and grounds are all beautiful, I figure this would be a given.

I think I have covered everything, and I hope this has helped you all!

This was our first experience going to Punta Cana after going 5 years in a row to Cuba. Each country has its own characteristics and we enjoyed both.
The Occidental Grand where we stayed was amazing. The overall resort was really something to be seen. Although we had read a number of negative reviews about this resort, we thought that we would not let that discourage our vacation.
The hotel was well kept and very clean. Everyday you saw a number of staff keeping the grounds in tip-top shape. Although we had requested 2 connecting rooms because we are a family of 5, we didn't get connecting rooms, but we got rooms side by side. The rooms each had a king size bed, a sitting area with balcony and a large full bathroom with a tub. We requested to be on the third floor which we got and the view was great (maybe just a few too many stairs).
The pools (3) were always cleaned and kept free of any garbage. Of course, my children enjoyed the pool bar immensely which by the way us adults got to enjoy as well.
We got to try some new drinks such as a Tiki Tiki, Banana Mamma and a Melissa.
We had no problem finding something to eat at the Hotel Buffet Restaurant. Every night seemed to have a theme. We even got to enjoy the all Canadian/American meal - hams, hots, nuggetts, and home made turkey. Overall you never went hungry when at the Buffet Restaurant.
The a-la-carte Restaurants left something to be desired. The steak (brazilian ) restaurant left you with an empty stomach as you were served every piece of meat off of a sword and dare you ask for seconds!! Vegetables served at the table were barely enough for one person. To sum it up, we enjoyed a great stone baked pizza at the Pizzaria after the steak restaurant.
The beach was "amazing". The sand was as white as snow and the ocean was as blue as the sky. No rocks were around and no sea shells to be found. There were chairs available at all hours of the day, so it didn't matter what time you went down to the ocean. The ocean was a bit wavey but nothing that couldn't be tolerated.
Overall we really enjoyed our vacation at The Occidental Grand Flamenco and would recommend to anyone to stay there . Its a great family oriented hotel and many things to do for all ages. We would recommend you take the Bavaro Runner excursion. We had a great time and know that you would too!

We stayed at this resort from July 4th to July 11, 2008. Overall we had an excellent vacation with a few shocking issues and barely tolerable annoyances.

This was our honest experience and observations in a pros and cons list.


Pros...


- beach is amazing. soft sand, no rocks or seaweed and water was aqua clear. we woke up each morning at 5-6am so getting an ubrella (not sure what those things are called) spot for shade was easy. if you get there after 9am they will all be taken and there is no other sources of shade.

- pool is amazing. 3 pools with one main pool that has a swim up bar. the pools are very clean and are cleaned daily in the morning. temperature felt a degree cooler than luke warm bath water.

- security is ample. you feel totally safe on the resort and on the beach.

- resort is very clean. there is always staff cleaning everything from floors to ashtrays. the resort is free from garbage and debris.

- food is plentiful and the buffets offer a wide variety of choices of various types of food. the omlettes are excellent. bread is soft and made or acquired semi fresh each morning. blender smoothies from real fruits are good too.

- checkin took about 20 minutes... not bad in my opinion. checkout took about 5 minutes.

- room air conditioner blew nice cold air the entire time. our room stayed at a non-eco-friendly 70 degrees for the duration of our stay.

- tv has some english channels... cnn, fox news and 2-3 other channels that played movies and talk shows. i didn't go on vacation to watch tv and only checked the news periodically.

- we did not encounter many bugs at all and never cracked open our bug spray bottles.

- bottled water (alaska water) is always available. drink and brush your teeth using bottled water. the resort claims their ice is made from purified water. we had plenty of ice in our drinks over the 7 days and did not get hepatitis or anything else like that. neither of us have our shots either. if you are planning to get hep a and b shots remember that it takes 4 weeks of the drug being in your system before it's effective. the shots (2) are $100 each and available from your family doctor. i was bitten by 1 misquito but didn't contract any malaria or sickness.

- nightly entertainment was good. as the pool shuts down at 7pm there is really nothing else to do in the evening other than drink, eat and watch the nightly entertainment.

- the roads are not maintained at all. i have this as a pro beacuse it's fun to be chaufered though lawless streets, bouncing around in the back of a jeep taking in the true experience of cities in a third world country.


Cons...


- maid service is lacking. even after tipping $5/day we recieved substandard service. for the actual amount of time we spent in our room (typically only to sleep) this was only a minor annoyance and didn't warrent calling the front desk over it. our beds were made but on occassion our bathroom items and fridge were not restocked.

- snoopers are amongst you. the maids seem to look though your bags but don't steal anything. they are not careful enough to place things back "exactly" where they were left. small tests of tiny strings that get moved will prove this to you.

- the glossy brick grounds are extremely slippery when wet. i almost wiped out 3-5 times after a light rain. just be careful and walk slower where it's wet.

- excursion vendors are out of control and have free roam of the resort. this was the worst part of the trip. they are so pushy, never take no for an answer and are always in your face. the best advice i was given was to not make eye contact and just keep walking. street vendors are the same. some days they setup right on the resort with their paintings and junk necklaces. they are allowed to postion them selves in such a way that you have to walk their guantlet to get between main areas (such as your room and the restaurants).

- beach vendors are pushy too. they walk up and down the beach with thier $60 paintings (of which they are all artists and have painted themselves) and suitcases stuffed with necklaces. they intrude your space and make you feel uncomfortable as they too do not understand NO until the fifth or sixth time. if they hang around you too long though, security comes and tells them to move on. *some* of the resort staff (not security) assist them (with english language) in negotiating pricing with you. it appears as though they are all part of the "same team". after intense negotiation i got 2 paintings and two necklaces for $15 and a towel i got from the dollar store.

- some of the staff are drug dealers. i was asked by 3 different staff members if i wanted weed or "white cocain". they all claimed to have the best stuff. one guy wanted $60 for a quarter while another wanted $75 for 1.5 grams...(of weed) hahahaha. if thats your fancy there are rolling papers available in the resort variety store for $4. trust me... don't waste your $$ on a bag of sticks and seeds.

- my girl friend suffered an allergic reaction to something she ate and broke out in hives all over her body. possibly a bug bite but we never were able to conclude. one benadryl and six hours later she was fine. i wouldn't blame the hotel for this.

- all the cigars sold on the beach are wrapped in banana leaves. vendors require a rather expensive license to purchase and import cigar wraps from the usa. i got ropped into buying (for $20) a small box of cohiba's which apparently are wrapped in banana leaf. not the same cigar they will give you to smoke free as a "tester of their goods".


General...


- take tylenol, benadryl, ammodium and graval. the cooking oils are different and your tummy might not agree with some things.

- be sure to get your small american money ($1 bills) 10 days before your trip. you can order the exact donimations by calling your bank. cibc takes 10 days for this. i didn't do this and had to visit 5 banks just to get enough american bills in the denominations i wanted.

- the "bavaro runners" day trip ($175 CDN) was the best part of the trip. from 9 am to 5 pm you are exposed to true dominican culture. an amazing time and highly reccomended for everyone to do. search google for their website.

- drink A LOT of water. it is sooo humid there in the day and at night.

- goto the dollar store and stock up on items to trade for souveneirs. all the beach vendors are willing to trade. just keep saying the prices are too expesive.

- as a general rule for negotiating a price take 1/3 of their price and start there. don't be one of those folks that get ripped off.

- we have never been to an all-inclusive resort before and never been to anywhere south of florida.

- i am posting a few photos in the "travellers photos" section as well.