Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa

If you are reading reviews for this resort and using them as your deciding factor to finalize your booking I urge you to continue reading! My wife and I arrived at grand palladium punta Cana resort and spa at about 2pm on a Saturday. Understanding check in was not until 3pm, we anticipated a quick stop at the reception desk to drop off our bags and then get some lunch. Our quick stop turned into a 90 minute wait because there was only 1 person helping customers at the counter. This wait resulted in us missing lunch as the restaurant was closed by the time we got there. Strike one, but still hopeful. We decided to take advantage of the sun and head over to the beach, but first we needed towels. There are 2, maybe 3 areas to get towels on this entire resort compound...and good luck getting them in the afternoon because their stock of towels is usually wiped out by then. Strike two. Moving on... I’ve stayed at grand palladium’s in Jamaica, and Mexico and had pleasant experiences at both locations. This location however, was the worst. The skeleton crew staff is often rude and frankly not helpful in any aspect of customer service. We booked spa treatments and were sold on extra services that would be included with our treatments. Only to find out more than half of these extra services were either closed or totally shut down because of “maintenance issues”. Strike three. The food. Oh the food. I’ve never seen anything like this. The feature restaurant is the Japanese hibachi restaurant. You know the one...where the chef does a display of tricks while preparing your meal. How exciting. Our “chefs” came into the room and started banging the utensils on the flat top. I’m talking BANGING. As I looked at my wife cringing and covering my ears, she had a look of shock on her face too wondering what on earth these guys were doing. Anyways...the food was worse than the display and we left the restaurant wondering if this was just a fluke or if it was the start of more to come. Strike four. Steakhouse...La Paisana. This place takes the cake. There are about 4 cuts of meat on the list and then a 5th item called “la especial” which was supposed to be a tasting of each. Based on the waiters recommendation we chose la especial and boy were we in for a treat! Ladies and gentlemen, I kid you not...the plate came out and it looked like they had taken the scraps from other guests unfinished steaks and threw them on the plate to serve to us. 95% of it was inedible. The cuts of meat were unidentifiable except for the chicken. Yes, somehow there were strips of chicken that ended up on our plate..I’m not sure how because there was no chicken entrees anywhere on the menu. Needless to say...we got up and left without eating. Money well spent. How many strikes are we on?! Portofino...Italian. Visited for the first time and the restaurant was closed. We were told they were rotating staff and it would be open the following evening. We went back the following evening and what a surprise, the restaurant was closed and this time we were told it would remain closed indefinitely. This was a reoccurring theme throughout our stay here. Restaurants would be open or closed on a whim. No schedule was posted anywhere to make it convenient for guests to plan their meals etc. Just one poor excuse after the next trying to explain their poor organization and customer service. Bamboo Restaurant...food actually not bad! Have to give credit where it is due. However, they brought out an order of egg rolls. They were delicious! It was the first thing all week that we actually liked. Naturally, my wife asked if we could have a second order of them. She was told no by the waiter. No?! We sat there dumbfounded. This is an all-inclusive resort. In other words...I should be able to eat fried egg rolls until my heart stops if I want to! Again, we left disappointed. Folks...I can go on about every restaurant here but there is no reason to bore you. Please take this review into your consideration, do not stay here. Based on this stay alone I will never stay at a Grand Palladium again...anywhere.

Had a blast !!!! Great resort lots of things to do.i would recommend this place to any of my friends. like the title says good times !!!!!!

My daughter and I had a wonderful time the staff is great.

Better than I thought after reading the reviews. Property very big but after the first day u will be fine don’t be disappointed. Food also was better then I thought but not the greatest.