Went on a company trip with 25 people who were looking for a good time and all we got was excited to eat at the Wendy's at the airport on the way home. You don't want a bunch of sales people go hungry because they will tell everyone they know - and we know a LOT of people. It was horrific. The good time we brought was ourselves.

The hotel was absolutely gorgeous - beautiful new rooms with marble and tasteful furntiure. Chandaliers and Botticelli's on the walls and polite people. The massages were great. Beach was pretty when the wind wasn't blowing you back to the pool and the swim up bar.

Every singe meal, including breakfast was inedible - actually not completely true - i did have toast with questionable cheese and hot sauce. I also had the jalepeno pizza. The pina coladas were good as well. 24-7 food - not true - actually it is if you want stale nachos and cheese food with it. None of the restaurants had tru "authentic" ethnic foods. What Italian is going to tell me that they put passion fruit in the gravy for the chicken? Don't know one person who didn't get montezuma's revenge. If we didn't live on the booze (whatever was in that - don't go for the beer) so much we would have really lost much more weight than we all did.

Go here if you're entertained by men in speedos and women who go topless and prefer to starve. It was a real shame. The only good thing is that all of us will make sure that no one we know will be tortured by any Riu Palace again - ever!

Background: My husband and I are in our late 20's early 30's and travel
as much as possible - no kids - from Hampton Roads, Virginia. We
stayed at the RIU Yucatan in the Mexican Riveria, so are familiar with the
RIU chain.

And now for the review...

Check-in: We arrived and were immediately greeted pleasantly and given
some sort of sweet fruit juice and a RIU Palace souvenier. We recieved
the key to room 1096 and went on our way. When we arrived at our room,
the view from the balacony was the roof of the theatre - not too
pleasant. Our luggage arrived about 2 minutes later and we turned around and
went back to the front desk to request another room. We didn't want an
ocean/pool room, just a view something other than a concrete roof! The
front desk person understood and then proceeded to flip through papers
on a clipboard quickly for about 3 minutes and said he didn't have
anything avialable until 2 nights later. We said there must be something???
And he continued to flip through the clipboard for another 2-3 minutes
and when he could tell we weren't going to give-in, he then gave us
keys to room 3005. This room has a view of palm trees and the
neighbooring RIU resort, which was fine with us. The front desk sent champagne
later that night for the trouble.

Tip: Request a room prior to check-in, if possible, and stay away from rooms over the theatre and resteraunt. They are the worst rooms in the
entire resort.

Room: The room itself was nice - very clean. I smelled a musty odor for
about the first hour - then it went away. The beds are very hard, but
we were prepared for this after staying at another RIU resort. We
tipped the maid $2 a day and got flowers and towel animals. They even put
music on for us (using the alarm clock) in the evenings.The water
pressure was weak if you took a shower between 6:00 and 7:00 pm when everyone
was getting ready for dinner. Our toilet kept "running" so we had to
make sure the handle was in the up position to solve the problem. AC
worked great and I had no trouble figuring it out.

Tip: Bring slippers or socks. No matter how clean the room looked, I
always felt like there was sand, etc. on the bottom of my feet, so I had
to wipe off before getting in bed, etc.

Grounds: Absolutely beautiful! One of the best parts of the resort.
Very clean and well manicured.

Pool: Large enough to accomodate everyone - pool bar was quick with
service and there were even "drink tables" at the sides of the pool. There
were always chairs available and they were comfortably padded. There
were a lot of kids playing at the pool - so less relaxing than the
beach. My husband and I usually ended up at the pool around 5:00 until the
sun went down.

Tip: Crazy pool games were fun! Everything from a beer drinking contest
to 'king of the mountain'. Pool games usually occur around 3:00 or
4:00

Beach: Amazing!!! Tons of palm trees and open space. My husband enjoys
the shade and I like the sun and we were still able to sit right next
to each other. The tricky part is getting a lounger if you come to the
beach after 11:00 am. This was the only part of the trip that made me
upset. I often saw 2 people using 3-4 chairs (for a wind screen, to hold
their bag, so they could have 1 chair in the shade and 1 in the sun).
This is so selfish given the # of people walking around searching for
chairs in the early afternoon. Also people would throw their towels on
them and then never come down to the beach to use them. After seeing this
the first couple of days, I was not shy about asking the people with
3-4 chairs if my husband and I could use the "extras". They looked a
little shocked but didn't deny us. We also nicely moved someone's room
towel (not even a beach towel) and took a chair - ends up they never came
down to the beach the whole day to even notice!

Water was warm and we went swimming 2-3 days. We also walked down the
beach to shop and check out the other RIU resorts - the Palace
definately has the nicest beach because of its size and the number of palm
trees.

Tip: I read on another review that you can tip the drink boys extra and they will save you a chair for the next day. We never tried this out,
however. Also, go to the edge of the resort beach for privacy. A lot of
the chairs are close together, so we moved closer to the Bahia
Principale and there was no one sitting there.

Food: My husband and I enjoyed the food. However, I can see why people
get tired of the buffet if staying for an extended period of time. They
don't really switch up the menu very much. By the time we got down to
the resteraunts to make reservations - they were full. We ate at the
Brazillian steakhouse one night - which was yummy but way too much meat
for me - and the meat was cooked very "well done".

We also ordered room service for breakfast and requested coffee, hot
tea, fresh fruit and muffins/pastries. Delivery was very slow though -
taking sometimes 45 minutes, so I would order as soon as I woke up. If
going on an exersion, etc. I wouldn't recommend it. We ordered 2-3 days
in a row and then decided not to order the next day - they actually
called us and asked if we wanted room service that morning - which was
pretty funny.

Tip: Eat inside during the buffet dinner and ask for Marino. . You get
much better and more personalized service inside the dinning room then
eating outside. Marino was our favorite waiter and if you visited nightly
(and tipped) he will decorate your table with flowers, etc.

Entertainment: Yes, the resort was quiet by 11:30 pm, but that was fine
by me. We were usually in bed and asleep by 12:30 or so. My husband
and I loved the shows - we had fun with them in a joking manner. They are
not broadway shows, but the entertainers/dancers work really hard. My
favorite was the Michael Jackson show and the Ideal Couple show. Just
have fun with it and keep an open mind.

Tip: If you are conservative or have small children, som eo fthe show costumes are pretty revealing and dancing provactive. Not so much for
me, but you never know, some people might get offended. Also, the ideal
couple show had an adult theme. Get to know the entertainment team - they are tons of fun. And they run games and activities all day long. We
played horseshoes, volleyball, etc. every day - check out the activity
board outside of the theatre for times.

Spa: We never went inside the spa, but did get massages on the beach in
the hut. They spoke very little english, but give descent massages - I
would rate a 6 or 7 out of 10.

Excursion: The only time we left the resort was to visit the Don Lucas
Cigar factory - short trip, 1 hour total - but worth going to if you
like cigars. 6 or 7 employees rolling cigars by hand... 5 minute briefing
and then gift shop visit. The factory is about a 25 minute drive from
the resort in a small, crowded bus.

Overall impression: We really enjoyed our stay and didn't want to
leave. However, we are happy vacationers and would be happy at most resorts
because we are not picky. I would say that if you are a "needy
vacationer" or have "special requests", that the RIU Palace might not be the
right place for you. They do not *rush* to get things and move at a
slower pace than in Mexico - we called it "dominican time".

Also, the RIU workers are very eager to please and great people - so
please tip and treat them well. I saw so many guests being rude to the
employees that I actually felt sad for having to put up with people who
think they are better than them. There were even kids snapping at the
waitors, sending back drinks and bossing them around...

I would recommend this resort for those who are familiar with the RIU
chain (european in nature) or for easy vactioners who aren't overly
picky. Feel free to email me with additional questions!

I just got back from a company trip to Punta Cana and man was it a disapointement. I will start with a few positives but even these couldn't compensate for this monstrosity.

The pro's are simple, beautiful beach, water, weather and an awesome pool area with a swim up bar. I honestly can vouch for the fact that the beach is just about as nice as it gets and as long as your bring your own food, bed, booze, music, card tables, Iodine tablets for the water, and valium for the staff. So on to the cons we go.

For starters if you plan on taking a shower, bring a life jacket to swim back to your bed. Water escapes with reckless abondon. I was later told by a staff memeber that the marble floors are slightly downward sloping allowing the water to flow down the entire room-genius engineering! Should you be lucky enough to navigate the high seas back to your bed be sure you have a massage scheduled for the morning because you are essentially sleeping on a stone slab with a sheet over it. I actually slept outside on the porch with a makeshift bed a constructed out of couch cushions-true story!

After re-adjusting my back I enjoyed, no wait I'm sorry the food was not even edible. I mean I basically ate french fries for every meal, and some cheese pizza which was worse then ellios. I know it's a third world country but our company spent 1500 dollars a person for 4 nights and this was the best they could do? Stale bread, soggy fruits and vegetables, sketchy meat, pasta with sauce that was worse then ragu-AWFUL. The resturants were no better, the "rib-eye" was more like steam-umms, and the italian resturant had my grandmother turning over in her grave. Order room service though, you will get some tastey uncooked fries, soggy chips, a caesar salad with a single-uncut piece of lettuce with mystery meat on top of it.

It's okay you can drown your sorrows with watered down beer from dirty, unwashed cups which smell like old saliva. Perhaps you would like a mudslide, made with delicious parmalat and the most bottom of the barrel vodka you can find. Oh the despensers in the rooms were really cool, I've never seen 2 dollar gordons gin flow the way it did. But then again that was watered down too. If you like boxed wine though, you can get that anytime. Have your drink with "purified ice", it's fine you wont be on the toilet all week HA!

The club is off the hook. They play all the top hits from 1970, with most of the songs being in spanish. You can shake you groove thang in a roller rink like club which slooks and smells like a bowling alley gone bad. My co-workers and I got so excited when they played two hits songs we new, but the vibe was quickly destroyed when the computerized DJ reverted to old records stolen from militant haitians.

Casino looks like somethign I set up in my garage. Not to mention, they try to cheat you left and right. I had a 19 at blackjack and the deal drew to a 19 as well, and instead of a "push" (draw) he tried to take my money. Until I grabbed him by the rist and made him count the cards in front of the pit boss who looked real professional with her hooded sweatshirt on.

GREAT TRIP. I WILL NEVER GO BACK OR TO ANY RIU FOR THAT MATTER

We enjoyed the RIU Palace which is very beautiful. Bring slippers as the marble floors are very cold. Our true King bed was firm, like at home. We tipped the waiters and maids because we wanted to and brought along Mets baseball caps and balls to give out along with coloring books and crayons for the maid's kids. True, they don't know much English but the maitre d's and the animacion team can speak 4 or 5 languages and everyone is extremely friendly and eager to please. All the RIU's are easy to reach via the pavers along the beach. Catholic Mass at the RIU Naiboa Sun. at 6 pm. Street vendors with dancers on Thurs. nite at the Caribbean St. past the RIU Macao (10 min. walk). Every evening after dinner there's a different live band in the courtyard for dancing then a show at 9:45. Don't miss the Michael Jackson show or the Ideal Couple show. Do use a high SPF as the sun is very hot. The beach is amazing with a sunken ship in the background. Easy layout with all specialty restaurants together but sad to say they overcook their meats (chicken and fish are good) and our beef is much better in the USA, but the food is plentiful and huge variety. Only time we had a musty smell was unpacking at home and I think it's from the plane's cargo-hold because our room was clean smelling with no odor.