Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort & Aquagames - All Inclusive

“2 Tier Level of guests”

We had a fabulous holiday at the Sirenis. We were a multi- generational party. We did, however feel we were “ lower level” guests as there was a VIP Guest system, where those guests were ferried about in buggies with VIP written all over them. We were asked by our personal concierge if we would l… more

We had a fabulous holiday at the Sirenis. We were a multi- generational party. We did, however feel we were “ lower level” guests as there was a VIP Guest system, where those guests were ferried about in buggies with VIP written all over them. We were asked by our personal concierge if we would like to try out a VIP breakfast in their designated separate centre. We were taken there by the concierge, where we were asked to join a raffle for some holiday experiences. You had to show bank cards, the more you showed, the more raffle tickets you were allocated. We were beginning to think this was all a bit odd. We were then asked to sign a document stating that we’d stay for a 90 min presentation and visit of the facilities after our breakfast. We pointed out that the 5 year old in our party wouldn’t cope with that, they said she could go to the Children’s club, which of course she wouldn’t like. They asked how long would be able to stay for the presentation, none of us really wanted to spend a precious morning of our holiday trying to be convinced to upgrade and spend time as VIPs at their other hotels. We obviously then didn’t get our VIP breakfast. We walked back to the normal breakfast buffet and enjoyed the usual fabulous choice with the delightful staff. Joanna and Kelvin were amazing. They treated us like VIPs every day So just be aware, the upgrade breakfast experience does have strings attached.

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“A mixed experience. Some really good things and other bad things. Overall not a good experience.”

Very mixed experience. The Bad: The room was a disaster—musty smell, broken TVs, an incredibly uncomfortable/dirty sofa bed, flat pillows that were never replaced, non-working safe, an unlocked patio door, and ceiling leaks. The concierge repeatedly messed up our dinner reservations (seemingly in … more

Very mixed experience. The Bad: The room was a disaster—musty smell, broken TVs, an incredibly uncomfortable/dirty sofa bed, flat pillows that were never replaced, non-working safe, an unlocked patio door, and ceiling leaks. The concierge repeatedly messed up our dinner reservations (seemingly in botched attempt to push an "Ultimate Club" membership), and the water park was neglected with broken slides and missing step slats. The beach was completely blocked by a massive, 2-foot-tall wall of seaweed for most of the trip. The Good: Booking in the late May off-season meant the massive pool area wasn't crowded and chairs were easy to find. The breakfast buffet server was amazing, the coffee shop, pizza stand, smoothie bar, and on-site ice cream were great, and the Brazilian and Italian restaurants were excellent (avoid the Texas one, though). Overall, it had some great bright spots, but the terrible room conditions and customer service headaches made for a rough stay. My experience with this resort was very mixed. Some things were very good and others were bad. I'll start with my room. We got a family suite, and the first thing I noticed was that the room kind of stunk. It had an unpleasant, musty smell, though I assumed it was just because of the high humidity and inevitable in this type of climate. Both TVs did not work. One was physically damaged and only flickered when we turned it on, while the other would not turn on at all. I had a long day of travel and was a little frustrated that I couldn't watch TV to wind down. Then I had to deal with the sofa bed. It was dirty—not just a little dirty, but it had clearly been a while since anyone had done anything other than a superficial cleaning. It was also partially damaged and hard to convert into a bed. To top it off, it was the most uncomfortable sofa bed I have ever slept on. One of the beds had two of the least fluffy pillows I have ever seen. At first, I thought someone had just cut up a sheet and shoved it into a pillowcase, but no, there was in fact something in there that could technically be considered a pillow. The pillows never got replaced despite multiple requests to both the front desk and the maid who cleaned the room. Furthermore, the safe did not work, and the door to the outdoor patio did not lock. There were also two places where water dripped from the ceiling, which were never fixed. The first night was the worst night I have ever spent in a hotel room. It was bad. The next morning, my stay improved. There was a cozy little coffee shop with a small variety of coffee drinks available, which is where I started all my mornings. The breakfast buffet was good, and our server, who helped us for every single meal we ate at the buffet, was excellent. When I made my way to the pool, I was pleasantly surprised to find out we had booked during what was considered the off-season (late May), so the pool area was not crowded. The pool was large, and although it was technically one massive pool divided into several sections, I have no complaints about it—though that would probably change if it were crowded at full capacity. The beach, however, was a huge letdown. There was a massive mound of seaweed that covered the entire beach; it was about two feet tall at its highest point and several feet wide. The ocean wasn't even accessible unless you wanted to climb over it. It wasn't until the fifth day of our stay that they finally cleared out a small, five-foot section so the ocean could be reached. On the plus side, since the resort wasn't crowded, there were always plenty of open chairs to lounge in. For lunch, there were several options. The beach bar food was not good. There was a "snack buffet" (their words) near the beach that was just okay, and right beside it was a pizza stand, which was actually good. The buffet in the main building was also good, but it didn't open until 1:00 PM. When we checked in, the front desk told us to go to the concierge for help booking dinner at one of the themed restaurants. With the concierge's help, we booked a reservation for our first full day and were told we would need to come back later to book the remaining nights. When we showed up for that first reservation at the Brazilian restaurant, we were told we didn't have one. Luckily, the manager mentioned that some people hadn't shown up, so they were able to fit us in. The food there was excellent. The next morning, we spoke with our concierge. She apologized for the mistake and assured us it wouldn’t happen again. Well, it did. The restaurant the next night also claimed we had no reservation and told us they could not fit us in. We went back to the concierge desk and asked what they could do. "Nothing" was their answer. We even showed them a text from the concierge explicitly confirming the reservation, but they still insisted there was nothing they could do, and they did not offer any compensation of any kind. To make matters worse, they told us we should have booked it through the app—which our concierge had explicitly told us not to do. At this point, I was ready to say this was the worst "resort" I had ever stayed at. However, while we were waiting in line for the buffet instead, our concierge came running up to us. She apologized and exclaimed that she had accidentally made the reservation under the wrong room number and the wrong name. Because of that, we did actually get to eat at the restaurant we had just left. We speculate that the concierge was intentionally making herself our only point of contact in the hopes that we would eventually agree to join their "Ultimate Club." Spoiler alert: we did not join. The next day, we went to the water park on the resort, and it was underwhelming. Several slides were under repair, and there were actually missing slats on the stairs leading up to the top of the slides. We ended up leaving after eating the worst hamburger I have ever had in my life from the water park's food stand. Luckily, we were still able to get seats by the main pool when we returned. The rest of our time there was fairly uneventful, which at that point was a good thing. There are a few other things worth mentioning. There was a small ice cream shop that served some really good ice cream, which appeared to be made on-site daily. There was also a health bar that served very good fruit smoothies. Throughout the stay, several live bands played, and they were all quite good. The nightly shows put on by the staff were... interesting. I don't want to knock the effort of the performers, but the shows overall were underwhelming, even though there were a few great individual performances mixed in. As for dinner, I ate at four of the themed restaurants. The Brazilian and Italian restaurants were excellent, and the Japanese restaurant was good. However, the Texas-themed restaurant was not good. Maybe other nationalities would feel the same way about how their local cuisine was represented, but there is absolutely no way someone from Texas approved that menu. I do not drink, so I cannot comment on the quality of the bars, but my traveling companions had no complaints. Some final thoughts. I have no complaints about the staff. They were all excellent except for what ever happened with our concierge and the dinner reservations. The food was mixed but mostly good and sometimes excellent. The pools were nice but since I was there in the off season my opinion would probably be different at other times of the year. I cannot recommend this resort.

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“Nice holiday but would not return”

We stayed at the grand Serenis for 14 nights and returned home today. We’re a family of 3 adults and 2 children and had two family suites in block 31. The rooms were quiet and spacious. There was plenty of storage for us all. There was a tv in both rooms, along with a safe, fridge and coffee maker… more

We stayed at the grand Serenis for 14 nights and returned home today. We’re a family of 3 adults and 2 children and had two family suites in block 31. The rooms were quiet and spacious. There was plenty of storage for us all. There was a tv in both rooms, along with a safe, fridge and coffee maker. There is not a kettle, so we didn’t mess around with it, to see how it worked. The fridge is restocked daily and the safe is easy to use. One of the safes did not work and despite having three call outs to it, was not fixed for the duration of the stay. The rooms are slightly dated but we had no issues with mould or damp, remembering that the country is very humid anyway. The room was cleaned every day and we had fresh towels, drinks and loo roll when needed. The cleaners work very hard, throughout the day. The beds were comfortable and large and even the sofa bed was great. The bathroom was fine- we had a bath with a shower over it, vanity sink and loo. There is a magnifying mirror and hair dryer.They provided slippers and two towel bath robes. They provide some smellies- shampoo, body wash and soap. There is good air con and a fan in both areas, which can be separately controlled, which came In handy. We had to turn the fan off a few nights as it was too cold! There was a balcony with two seats and a table. The grounds themselves are beautiful and very well kept. The staff work very hard. The gardeners bring coconuts around the pool and prepare them for you to try. For the first week of the holiday, the beach was beautiful and the staff managed to keep the seaweed away but the second week was a different story. The beach became impossible to get onto properly and you couldn’t get into the water safely, due to the seaweed, which after days of not being cleared up, started to smell. This was a massive disappointment to us, as the kids love to swim in the sea and we had purchased body boards for them. Although I do appreciate that the seaweed cannot be helped, I do feel that the maintenance of it was lacking and could have stopped it becoming such a big issue. There are two main (connected) swimming pools, a couple of baby pools and a members only pool. There are two pool bars and a shallower area. The beach towels are provided by the hotel and obtained from the hut by the pool. You need to get cards when you return them, or they will charge you 20 dollars. The main pool is very deep. At the deepest point it is nearly 7 foot, so it’s advisable to watch small children around it, although there was a lifeguard at that point. However, The lifeguards and pool maintenance men were often observed on their phones and a few spent a lot of their time staring at young, female holiday makers and making comments to them, which would be found to be inappropriate in this country. They have activities in the pool, such as water aerobics, water bikes, kayaking and inflatable slides. The foam party was good. The entertainment is mainly in Spanish. We heard more English music in the second week. The main pool has music playing all day and can, at some times be quite loud and busy, especially around the pool bar later on in the day. There seemed to be a few groups of holiday makers that stayed around the bar all day and didn’t leave the water. The drinks can be quite large measures, so people often became rowdy and at some points, it wasn’t suitable for children to be around that. Due to this, the bartenders struggled to see who needed serving and children were overlooked. We also observed the bartenders doing drinking games with the holiday makers, so this just made issues worse. However, Leonardo at this bar was great and remembered our orders! At this hotel, they have a membership (timeshare) scheme, where if you buy into this membership, you get extra luxuries and privileges, such as nicer rooms, pool for members, parties and theme nights and separate facilities. The concierge are based in white huts and it’s their job to sell these memberships, regardless of how they do it. They’re pushy, arrogant and rude and we heard so many issues relating to them, including one where a guest was squared up to by one and another one who had two fingers stuck up at him and his family, because he didn’t attend the breakfast, where they show you around the members section and try to sell it to you. They are reluctant to help you, if you’re not a member, they openly speak about you in Spanish, when you don’t give them the answers that they want and we had issues getting reservations at restaurants because of this. We eventually gave up. They make you feel like second hand citizens, because you’re not a member, regardless of the fact that you have paid an equal, if not higher, amount, to be there. This behaviour is seriously worrying and should be addressed. Most of the hotel staff are hardworking and friendly. They will do their best to help you but there are some of them (?25%), that let the place down. They can be rude, dismissive and disrespectful. This is not just In one particular area, just in general. Some struggle with English, so this may by the reason. Tipping- we did tip, but only when we had good service. There is a slight prescient to tip but we didn’t do this and tipped for good service only. We too USD for tips and had some money on a pre paid card for trips etc. During our stay, only one of the buffet restaurants were open. Breakfast was fine but we found it better to come early and make sure the food was fresh. Ana at breakfast was amazing. She was so friendly and helped us most days and is an absolute asset to the hotel. The food can be an issue. Some areas are ok when they first open but often. the food is left out for hours and food hygiene doesn’t seem to be adhered to in the same way as at home. We spoke to many people who had been unwell (some very unwell) and all of our party was unwell at some point in the break. This was hard, especially with children, and not something that we had dealt with before. We reported to TUI but got a limited response and no support. The Buffet is ok, but can get repetitive and the staff struggle when it’s busy. There doesn’t seem to be enough tables and staff to wait on the tables. so we found that it was best to utilise the restaurants, which can be booked via the app or concierge. We tried most of the restaurants and our favourite was the Japanese (show cooking) and the Italian. We ate at route 66 twice, the first time was brilliant but the second time completely different and disappointing. The coffee shop and sports bar are great. The air con is very welcomed and the coffee shop has ice cream, cake and sandwiches, with the sports bar offering snacks in the night. However, we found the sandwiches to be hard and left out for hours, so avoided them. The sports bar has pool tables, air hockey and some other arcade games, which you have to pay to play. Our kids enjoyed them but they often were out of order. The staff in the sports bar were brilliant and made excellent cocktails!! The coffee shop staff did not seem too happy… My 11 year old son went to the kids club most days and enjoyed it but it’s not a structured club, as such. More of a supervised free for all, with the staff again, being hit and miss. There are computers and games consoles, which are popular. My son liked going there to cool down and have some quiet time, so it worked well for us. They offer long hours and even evening clubs but we did not use it at that time. The hotel has four shops on site and all were closed after a day or so of us being there. They were very expensive though and didn’t seem to have any customers. They’re apparently being taken over soon. We went left on the beach and walked for 5 mins to a couple of shops there. The first shop was better for us, as they were friendly and had better quality gifts. The second shop owner was not as friendly and was more pushing us to buy things. They all have a tax on debit or credit card payments. The gifts are expensive in most shops, but I think that this is because it’s their only income and it’s a monopoly. We didn’t watch many shows or entertainment but did watch the Michael Jackson show in the outside theatre, which was great! We went to the coconut and foam parties, which were good. The Water park is nice and a good change to break up the day, but one big slide was not open the whole of our holiday. There are some big slides and a smaller area for younger children, as well as a pool area. There is a bar, changing room, snack bar and shop. One slide unsafe as everyone seemed to get injured. I went to the Spa for a promotional offer and it was lovely but overly structured and you’re not able to go to what you want, as they tell you where to go at what time. I found it to be nice and had a deep tissue massage, which was great. We found that the salesmen were hard work around the pool, especially at first. They constantly bother you and push you to book. It’s hard work and relentless, but I understand why they do that as they work on commission. I used the gym quite a lot and it’s adequate and clean. No air con, so can get quite hot. Machines are ok and useable. There is towels and water to use. They open long hours and only let adults in. We went on the dolphins trip, booked with one of the men that came around the pool. We went for the highest package and it was amazing. We haggled and got a good price. The day was brilliant and we have some great memories and photos. The check in was great but the check out not as good, as the female staff member was quite rude about where we should put our bags, but again I think that this was a language barrier. Overall, we have had a great holiday, as it’s been a special time with our family, in a beautiful setting l, but I would not return. The hotel has a lot of potential but is not up to scratch at the moment.

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