Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa

The dining options were very disappointing. The breakfast buffet was the only food available until 11am, and the food at the buffet wasn't very appetizing at all. Room service is only 11am-11pm, and the food was yet again very disappointing, leaving us starving all day until dinner. There's a grill at the beach during the day with delicious fried chicken. My husband and I very health conscious, so eating fried chicken everyday isn't ideal. The sports bar food was awful, and we got eaten alive from sand fleas sitting outside. To get a dinner reservation at their most popular restaurant you had to be at the hotel lobby by 7am the day prior, and couldn't do it over the phone. It's vacation, so we never did get up in time to make a reservation. We've stayed at other Punta Cana resorts, and didn't encounter these issues at all. We weren't there for any timeshare presentation, but throughout the stay they continued to pressure us to go to the presentation breakfast. On a positive note the fitness center was large with a vast selection of equipment. The dinner restaurants had decent food. The service was great, but we also tipped them a LOT. Room was very clean. The pools and beach were fabulous, and it was easy to find lounge chairs at both.

The resort itself was beautiful and you can access and enjoy the sister resorts on either side, which was nice. The rooms were spacious and quiet and comfortable.the food was mediocre at best. There were lots of restaurants from which to choose, but the food just wasn’t that great. I would have liked to enjoyed some authentic DR food restaurant option on the resort. The service was spotty. It was a feat to get coffee served in the morning buffet. The beach and pools were stunning and clean. I wish there would have been a consistent presence of pool servers. Sometimes there were a lot, sometimes there were absolutely none. One last thing—be prepared to be hounded and hawked by vendors on the resort and on the beach. We figured it out towards the end—the vendors have khaki shirts on that resemble a resort uniform, so we were more apt in the beginning to stop and look or listen—they are relentless and often times multiple pleasant no thank toys were not enough. I had a great time and enjoyed the physical space of the resort, but for the money, I would have expected better food and consistent service.

I was very disappointed in our stay at the Grand Pallladium Punta Cana resort and spa. The language barrier was huge for us. Yes I realize I am in a spanish speaking country but I feel the staff made very little effort to meet us half way with the barrier. I encounter several bar staff rolling their eyes at the last customer they helped, which I feel is very disrespectful. We were hounded several times a day to "go for breakfast as a family" to discuss time share. In fact we found ourselves finding different ways to get places just to avoid them as they were very pushy and would barely take no for an answer. We finally had to just be rude and walk away, after saying No thank you several times. There were people everywhere selling things, in the lobbies, in the streets, at the beach. Selling excursions, wanting to braid you r hair, have your picture taken with a monkey, buying there products. I understand this is their way of making a living, but this is my vacation and i came there to relax and unwind. I think I might have been more stressed when I left then when I came.When we would ask staff for directions most of the time they had no idea where things were. One night we were looking for a certain buffet, one staff member told us to take a train to the other side of the resort, just to find out the buffer was not there, We took the train back to our resort, encounter another staff member that " no speak english". Very frustrating. Our room was nice but I really didnt care for the bathroom, the door to our bathroom was a frosted glass that had a 2-3 inch gap around the door- so there was no privacy. The shower door facing the room was also frosted glass so you could see the outline of everyone that was taking a shower and we had our 16 year old daughter with us.... very awkward. The beds were comfortable, maid service was great daily and they did a great job of keeping our fridge stocked every day. The food was ok at the buffet,pretty much the same thing everyday. The Italian restaurant was very dark and had a hard time seeing the menu, the food again was ok. We also ate at the steakhouse and it was also ok. The beach was MAGNIFICENT the the very best part of our trip. We did the Outback Adventure which we really enjoyed and highly recommend it!!

Service was very inconsistent. It’s a very large resort (beautiful). However you couldn’t get reservations at any of the restaurants via butler or concierge. Yet, some guy managed to get us some. Food was great at steakhouse & Japanese restaurants but you’ll wait 2hrs at the table before receiving food. This happened even when it was just 2 of us dining. Staff couldn’t provide direction to activities nor order shuttle service at night. It’s hit or miss if you’ll be helped. Room was wonderful, pools were nice. I wish they had music at each pool. I’m not sure I’d stay again or book Palladium in the future. Which is sad because it had great potential.