We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana 5th March - 19th March 2008.
We travelled in a group of 18 people, and got married on 14th March 2008 at the hotel.
Our first impressions of the hotel was very good.
We all got checked in on our coach, so we did not have to wait in reception due to the size of the party. We were transferred to our rooms, complete with luggage by the very efficient bell boys. Within 15 minutes of arriving at the hotel, every member of our party was at their rooms.
There was a few teething problems with some rooms. The First Choice brochure advertised either 1 king size bed for upto 2 people or 2 double beds for more than 2 people sharing a room.
3 lots of 2 adults & 1 child found only 1 kingsize bed and a sofa, so the child had to sleep on the sofa, and a family of 4 (2 adults & 2 children) only had 1 kingsize bed and 1 sofa.
On arrival one of the bathrooms had a leak above the toilet, but i must say, within 5 minutes of reporting the problem, maintenance was at the room putting it right. You couldn't ask for more.

Food at the buffet was good, with a varied choice, but we found alot of the dishes barely warm or cold. Service in the buffet varied from excellent to poor, according to who was waiting on your table. One night we had to ask about six times for drinks before we got any. The a la carte restaurants were very good, when you was able to book in. We went to guest services the first day we were there, but we couldn't manage to get a booking until the start of the second week.
Keep a wide berth of the Hamburger Bar in the square, the waiter/waitresses were very rude, the service was unacceptable and the food was very cold.

The bars shut very early in the lobby and the theatre (11pm) and it was very difficult to get a drink as there is not enough staff to serve the amount of customers. (When the hotel is full, there is 5000 people staying on site).
In the lobby bar, there was only ever 2 bartenders and 2 waitresses serving drinks.
In the theatre, we only ever saw 1 waitress, who had to serve approx. 1000 people.

The night entertainment was very poor for a 5 star hotel. Myself and my husband have been to many hotels and never seen such poor entertainment and service.

The poolside bar was better, well staffed, friendly and polite. And as we laid in front of the bar during the day, we got to know the staff there pretty well.

Although stated in the First Choice brochure, you have use of 3 swimming pools, you could only use two, unless you upgrade to the Diamond club, which is not available to British tourists anyway.
The only way you could upgrade to the Diamond club is if you was getting married or have previously visited the hotel.
The beach looked like Benidorm, you could hardly see sand for the amount of sun loungers.

We personally had a few issues with the hotel, i.e. the hot water was turned off on the day of our wedding and the staff on Reception and night manager were not interested at all. They even refused to call our Rep or First Choice resort office, stating that they could not make outside calls on the hotel telephones.
We complained about the service in the Hamburger Bar and as before the staff in Guest Services were not interested.
The sun loungers beside the pools were more or less all taken by 7am. People were putting their towels on them, although it was prohibited by the hotel and not returning to the sun loungers to at least 11am and in some cases 3pm in the afternoon. So if you want a particular spot or you want sun loungers together, make sure you set your alarm for 6am.

This is a 5 star hotel, with a 2 star service and management from Fawlty Towers. We would never go back even if we were offered a free holiday there.

If you like the idea of Butlins in the Caribbean then go, if not, stay away, far away.

We choose the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro for a vacation with our son, daughter in law and two grandsons ages 6 and 4. The trip was long and the children were amazing travellers. When we arrived at the resort we were given great service as they really do tend to people travelling with children first. The check in and trolly ride to our room was very smooth. We arrived in the evening, and did not think to check to see when the buffets closed. Unfortunately we did miss out and had to go to the only place open after 11 pm. That was a hamburger place in the back corner of the Pueblo Principe shopping center. It was not the greatest meal, and not a good introduction to the resort. But we were tired, and at least the kids got to eat something before they went to bed.

The morning was another day and the beginning of our great holiday. The kids took a couple days to adjust, but it really did not take long to get use to days in any of the beautiful pools and the beautiful white powdery sand and ocean. We were in the Priemier section, and the second last villa. We thought this was disasterous, but the trolly system on the resort is an amazing way to get around. Also the premier section has its own beautiful pool. It is not very child friendly but we had water wings for the kids and they still absolutely enjoyed themselves. It can be hard to get a lounge around the pool and guests are out early marking their territory for the day claiming their space. This is very annoying, but everyone eventually finds their space. We preferred the beach and pools near the beach, and the trolly was so convenient. We would jump on at a stop right by our villa and stay on as it ran down the outside edge of the resort to drop us off a couple hundred yards from the beach. When we were ready for our afternoon naps we would just jump back on the trolly and get off right outside our villa. Suddenly the Premier Club became very convenient. The Premier Club also has its own lobby, lobby bar, 20 minutes of free internet access a day per room, snack bar, Mediterranean Restaurant, towel shack, poolside bar and buffet restaurant. The best part was the buffet restaurant and in the two weeks we were there we made some great friends with the staff. They loved the kids and often played with them. They would bring the kids special treats like fresh cut up apples, fruit juices etc.. I had bought my grandson a beachball that was a world globe. He had a great time taking it to the buffet to show the staff where he lived. They were all very interested and amazed at how far we had travelled. Amellio became their special friend. We were all very sad to leave when our two week vacation came to an end.

My grandsons had the opportunity to be involved in the Kids Mini Club. This was lots of fun, and my 6 year old grandson had the incredible opportunity to join the group as a part of the Tropicana Theatre production of the Lion King. The production was amazing and it was so exciting to see that they include children visiting the resort. He was a baby lion, and was absolutely star struck. The staff are so concious of the children and take very good care of them.

The resort is very large and we did manage to find our place. We stayed mostly in our own area and did venture to the shops, miniature golf and many of the A la Carte restaurants. The Japanese restaurant is amazing, and I have to say the service was beyond what I expected. I have a seafood allergy and they did everything to accommodate my needs. My meal was prepared and served before they added any seafood or seafood sauces to the grill. I was also given a special appetizer that did not contain any seafood. We also enjoyed the Italian and Mediterranean Restaurants. The food at the French Restaurant was good but the service was poor. The Garden Grill was also pretty good. The main buffet was also very good. It was very large and always very busy.

Our stay was very positive, and my grandsons cried when we left to return home. Our only negative experiences were the bugs that liked to bite me. This was usually in the evenings as we sat on the outside patio at the lobby bar, and that the bellboy forgot to pick us up with our luggage to catch our bus to the airport. It was the young guy who carries the supplies up for the maids that saved the day. He probably spoke more english than most others on the resort, and when he saw my grandson upset he flagged down a regular trolly, had it turn in between the villa's, loaded our luggage and us, and told the driver to take us to the main lobby as we were going to miss our bus. I don't think he gets many tips, as he was very happy when we gave him the five dollars we intended for the bellhop. We did tip the maid, and the staff in the buffet restaurant who were so good to us. Also we tipped the bartender in the lobby bar who always went out of his way to make up cappacino's and chocolate monkeys. We also tipped the servers in the lobby bar, and they, in return would often take the time to entertain and watch the children. We tipped in the A la Cartes if we were happy with the service, but actually walked out of the French Restaurant and left nothing. The security guard would actually ask for a tip, and this was OK as he was always there. We often wondered if he went home. Most of the staff were amazing, and made our holiday such a pleasure with many memories. It is a very large resort and could be very impersonal, but the wonderful people working there made the difference.

My wife and I stayed at this hotel for the week of Jan 26th/08. We travelled with 3 other couples. First of all we arrived at the hotel at 11 PM that night. The workers unloaded the luggage off the bus, and asked us to pick our bags out. It was so dark behind the bus, that I couldn't tell one piece of luggage from another, with my old eyes. There was no air canada rep there to greet us, so we had no idea where to go. We went to the front desk, and they directed us to another room where this huge party of people were congregating, we were there a while and found out we didn't belong there. Went back to the front desk, and this time they helped us? Our travel agent didn't book us as wanting to stay close together, each couples room not being far from the other. It was nice of the resort to upgrade us to the Ambar section, to keep us together, but it still took us a while for the trolly operator to get us all to our rooms. We were totally lost that first night, and the maps they gave us didn't even have the Ambar section on it. Finally we got to our rooms, and the rooms were beautiful. King size canopy beds, whirlpool tub, etc. Our rooms were also fairly close to the beach which was nice. The only problem is that our rooms were at least a 10 minute walk from the main buffet ( off the lobby ) which was the only main buffet we could eat at, because even though our rooms were upgraded our bracelets weren't, meaning we could not eat at the ambar buffet. So you had to either walk, or wait for a trolly. We didn't find the trolly operators that eager to please when it came to rides. Many of them spent most of their time talking to other employees, of talking on their cell phones, rather than ensuring the guests were taken care of. Also, good luck finding a ride late at night coming back from the disco. The beach was nice, and the water got deep pretty fast. It was crowded the week we were there, which made it hard to find chairs at the beach. Impossible to get chairs at the pool, unless you got them early. The grounds were beautiful, and the maids were fair. Sometimes we didn't get towels replaced. Also it rained one night, and we had quite a puddle in our room. Yes the roof leaked, and dripped just inside our door. The room service was free, and it was nice to get personal pizza's at 3 in the morning, after bar closing. Also, having a continental breakfast delivered in the morning, eliminated the need to waste time travelling to, and eating at the main buffet in the mornings, giving more time at the beach. We enjoyed the french a la carte, and the japanese one, but the Brazilian BBQ was just the beach buffets, with the waiters delivering squewers of meat to the table. The beach buffets were OK. Not a huge selection, but most of it was good. I went parasailing on the last day with my best bud, and that was fun.
The piano bars were a great place to hang out at night, and the drinks were good, but again had to wait for service, because of the number of people. All in all, we had a pretty good time, but would prefer a smaller resort next time. Make sure you book you a la carts, as soon as possible, to get your favourite choices. We were kind of disappointed that we didn't even know how to find the air canada rep, the whole time we were at the resort. There should have been signs with arrows in the lobby.

We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe in the Premiere section from February 4-11, 2008. I was very impressed with this resort!

Our trip didn't start out the best. When we arrived at the resort at midnight we were ushered off the bus by our Signature Vacations rep and told to go check in. It wasn't until I went back to grab my bags that I noticed my suitcase was missing. So I spend almost 24 hours without anything but the clothes on my back. Luckily my husband's suitcase made it off the bus and so did our toiletries suit case so it was just clothes I was missing. By 5pm the next day the signature rep had located my bad and personally delivered it to me.

Now, on to the hotel. Our room was gorgeous. Very spacious and clean. We had a fully stocked fridge that was filled daily with pop, water and beer. The bathroom was clean and had a very nice soaker tub. The maids were very pleasent but didn't speak much english (which we already expected). We left $1 USD every day and also brough along gifts for the maid and children. I had planned to give these out on one of the day trips to meet a dominican family but we never ended up going on it. The maids were VERY greatful for the gifts and money. I had toys from the dollar store as well as lipstick, face cream, tooth brushes and tooth paste that I had but hadn't used.

We tipped at most meals and our maids. But it seemed like this was not the norm here. I noticed that a lot of people didn't tip. But the staff were very greatful when we did.

The main buffet that was in near the check in counter was fantastic. There was a ton of selection. And although I saw a lot of the same stuff I was never unsatisfied with the food selection. We also went to the italian restaurant and the japanese restaurant. Both were fantastic. Excellent food and service.

The beach.....ahh the beach. What a beautiful spectacle. The water was so clear and blue and the sand was so white and soft. I loved the beach. There were lots of lounges and trees to find shade under and the area was kept nice and clean. The ocean was so much fun to play in. I spent at least an hour a day out there.

The pools were very nice as well. We were fortunate to have a pool just outside our building since we were in a separate section. The water was gorgeous and the pool bar staff were a lot of fun!

We really didn't do much but relax so I can't comment on the entertainment or any of the excursions. But all in all our trip was definitely a 5/5. The staff were all friendly and very helpful and the grounds are stunning and very well kept. I was blown away by the beauty of it all.

I do have one cautionary comment though...if you go into the shop square during the day (out by the enterance) you will see lots of carts with vendors selling their stuff. We referred to this as "ambush alley". They approach you very kindly saying hi and asking were you're from....watch out! This is just a trick to get you over to their cart. They will also give you something for free but then pressure you to buy other over priced stuff. I payed more then I'd like to admit for a stone turtle which I saw in one of the shops in that same area for half the price. So check in the shops before venturing near the carts.

Overall we were more than pleased with our vacation, especially for the price we paid. It is quite a large resort though so if that's not your style then this may not be the place for you. But they do have trams running constantly to take you down to the beach or up to the reception area etc. I highly recommend this resort to anyone looking for a fun and relaxing vacation!