Punta Cana,
23000
La Altagracia,
Dominican Republic
The purpose of this message is to capture the details of our visit to the Dominic Republic. Specifically, we visited Punta Cana and stayed at the Grand Sirenis Punta Cana hotel. It's my hope that it will help you reconsider a visit to this particular hotel and that it ultimately helps preserve your health and your hard-earned money.
I want to be clear that our expectations for this visit were fair; we’ve visited Punta Cana before, and we understand the typical wear-and-tear that a property experiences. We fully expected outdated and worn decor, bleached-out outdoor furniture and slides, etc. All of that is fair and to be expected; but, what happened to us is not (and many, many others - read the reviews).
Day 1 (March 14, 2023)
At first, we noticed (relatively minor) lack of cleanliness and orderliness in our room. The bathroom wasn’t cleaned very well, our main bed was missing sheets (a single thin sheet covered the mattress), and there were no sheets at all for the pull-out sofa. We asked for sheets multiple times, and it took over an hour to arrive (and three repeat requests). Each time they apologized profusely, and eventually when the sheets arrived we dressed the sofa ourselves (so that our kids could finally get to bed). We knew we were tired and we understood that there were many people to accommodate.
Day 2 (March 15, 2023)
At various meals, we began noticing that there seemed to be a cleanliness issue across the resort. Whether at the beach or at the buffet, it was becoming a frequent occurrence to run into soiled cutlery and soiled dishes, even though they were in the “clean” pile. The first time it was easy to chalk it up to “high volume washing” - dirty dishes can happen to anyone, and they’ve certainly happened to me at home - a typical person just re-washes the item. But after the second and third time, we began to suspect there was a larger problem. We pointed it out to the staff and they apologized blandly and replaced the items. This day was also our first visit to the water park. Earlier we overheard others saying that one of the slides was closed because someone was hurt. Our kids are young (7 and 8) so we were careful to see for ourselves. One of the slides had been closed, but the others seemed to be open. We rode some of the slides with our kids and received some skin abrasions - our kids got light scratches on their backs and extremities, and my wife and I experienced two slightly more serious abrasions (bleeding) - it seemed the slide surfaces were actually quite rough. I looked around and noticed that everyone seemed to be experiencing the same, so we chalked this up to typical bumps and bruises from a waterpark. One of my sons had the courage to ride the Cyclone and he hit his head really hard, enough to scare him away from the ride. Multiple adults reported the same. Everyone seemed to try and laugh it off - I think everyone was trying to make the best of it. We decided we would stick to the slides that we were comfortable with and ride those moving forward.
Day 3 (March 16, 2023)
We spent this day at the beach and pool area. We began noticing that multiple families were talking about stomach issues. Again, we know this can easily happen to any of us. It’s different water, different cuisine, different local bacteria, and it's easy to be surprised by it. But this wasn’t our first trip to the Caribbean (we’ve been many times) - we used bottled water for everything, even to rinse the toothbrushes etc (all the typical tricks). We didn’t want our children getting sick. But the more we looked around, we met additional families that were reporting illness (diarrhea, vomiting, fever) with multiple family members. We began to hear rumours that there was a mysterious Canadian “virus” that some Canadian families had apparently brought with them to the resort. But we had noticed that other families (multiple American families and some European families) were suffering the same symptoms. This evening I began to experience my first symptoms. At first it was diarrhea, and in the middle of the night it became violent vomiting. I was experiencing a severe case of food poisoning and I almost lost consciousness. Thankfully my body ejected what it could, and the pain subsided. Also, I (father of the family) was the only one experiencing symptoms, so we assumed I had eaten some bad food. My wife immediately called the front desk (it’s the middle of the night) to ask for help. The attendant explained that they were aware of what was happening on the resort but the pharmacy was closed at this hour. But good news! For the meagre sum of $285 US dollars, the attendant would be able to obtain the necessary medication. Can you believe this??? First, they give you food poisoning, and then they apply the money squeeze - not a bad business! Thankfully, my wife had enough presence of mind to realize that I was better after vomiting and I felt well enough to sleep and visit the pharmacy in the morning. We were able to avoid this awful and deliberate extortion, but we found out later that many other families were not. Although the dollar amount differed, multiple families explained that they had been extorted for medication that in actuality only cost $15 US.
Day 4 (March 17, 2023)
In the morning my wife called the desk again to inquire about the pharmacy hours. She reported the blatant exploitation that we experienced, and the day attendant was horrified and apologized; apparently the medicine should only have been $220 US dollars. I guess it’s the morning discount? Is this some sort of joke? Oh and by the way, one of my room keys stopped working - can you fix it? No. Simply put, no. It’s broken, and I can’t fix it (re-program it). So we spent the rest of the time with one room key.
My wife bought me some pedialyte at the pharmacy (which was now open) and she and my kids went to the waterpark and allowed me to stay back for a deep shower. I avoided food entirely aside from some crackers; although no longer vomiting I was experiencing repeated and extended occurrences of diarrhea. My kids returned early because my son had stepped on a bee and was stung. I thought this was an odd way to be stung, and I noticed later that there were big groups of bees in the grass - when the employees collect cups, they dump the drinks in the grass right next to your chairs, attracting bees. Why would you do that? Why can’t you dump the sugary drinks in the drain? Can’t you see what you’re doing? As the trip went on I saved at least three people from stepping on similar groups of bees in the grass - this resort doesn’t seem to care.
Later my son was beginning to complain of some mild stomach pain. By this point we were all afraid of the food - we started eating very selectively, only things that hadn’t troubled us, and we were extra careful with dishes and cutlery - it often took 5 or 6 attempts to find a plate that wasn’t soiled. The more we reported this to the front desk the more it stayed the same. Whenever we met people, both families would sheepishly ask if the other was sick - and sure enough they were. And during each conversation, passer-by’s would overhear and ask if we were sick too - it was FRIGHTENING. We were supposed to go to our first a la carte meal this night, but I couldn’t stomach it, so we skipped it. This day we met a lady from the US that told us about her husband. He had been rushed to hospital with severely inflamed intestines and was unable to travel. This woman had already spent thousands of dollars and was desperately trying to just get everyone home. She cried when my wife offered her money - we didn’t know what else to do. If she happens to be reading this please know that our prayers are with you and we hope you made it home safely.
Day 5 (March 18, 2023)
I was finally starting to hold down some select food (packaged carbs). I was feeling better (despite the ongoing diarrhea) and we didn’t want to spoil the entire trip for the kids, so we decided to book a dolphin excursion. We stuck with Sunwing because we booked our package through them and we wanted the security of a trusted vendor. The local Sunwing representative (Luis) seemed nice - he told us of a promotion they had, and he extended us a further 10% discount on the total price (4 admission tickets). We explained that we were worried we might get sick and we inquired about the refund policy. Luis said they were aware of the sickness that was all over the resort and that they would issue a refund without any sort of requirement for a doctor’s note. He warned us “Don’t eat anything on the beach”. When it came time to pay, Luis insisted that we pay in Dominican currency on the VISA card. Later on I checked the conversion rate and I realized that Luis has charged us the full rate (no discount). I was upset that he misled us, but my wife urged me to accept it and focus on having a good time with the kids, so we left it alone. We decided to try our first a la carte restaurant this night (the French restaurant) because we hoped the food might be better prepared (not buffet style). My wife ate two shrimps (the only exclusive thing she ate that no one else had). This night she experienced her own diarrhea and violent vomiting. She also felt better after the vomiting, and slept almost immediately. We spent hours asking for additional water bottles from the front desk, to no avail. “Yes, yes, we’ll bring it right away” but they never materialized. It didn’t matter that my wife was now also sick, the bottles just wouldn’t show up. We waited for them until morning when the cleaning staff arrived and thankfully there were additional water bottles on her cart.
Day 6 (March 19, 2023)
In the morning my wife spoke with our travel agent and secured a flight change to get us home a day early. I have no idea whether or not we’ll be compensated, but we were so horrified with this entire experience that we just wanted to get out of here.
My sons and I tried to give my wife some rest so we went to the water park on our own. By this point, half the slides were closed. We heard rumours that more people had been hurt. One father explained that his younger son was almost ejected from the side of the tube (came right to the edge). I asked my sons to only ride the two slides that were open and where people weren’t getting hurt (the ones we had already been on). My sons explained that they saw the workers allowing some people to ride the closed slides. When new arrivals to the resort would ask if they could go, the employee would place their finger over their lips (signalling silence) and then wave the person onto the slide (under the rope that was across the slide entrance). Thankfully my sons had enough presence of mind not to follow suit. My wife had enough strength to get out of bed and visit the Sunwing rep for our refund. She explained she was also sick and wanted to refund the excursion. the Sunwing rep began to explain that a refund would require extended paper work and would take 21 days to be approved. My wife got really upset and asked why this wasn’t explained to us yesterday - we wouldn’t have booked if we knew there was a "21-day refund approval period". Further, the Sunwing rep forced her to sign a declaration that she would release the tour company, etc. etc. My wife attempted to strike it out, and the Sunwing rep got extremely upset with her, yelling at her. He forced her to sign a fresh copy by withholding the refund paper work until she had signed. What does any of this have to do with my refund? How can you take my funds, promise me a refund due to sickness, and then append whatever terms you want when I get sick? These tour operators are scam artists, and I regret that we got involved with them. I have no idea if our refund will ever materialize, and I sincerely hope that Sunwing back at home is capable of resolving this. I hope Sunwing sees how their representatives (in orange Sunwing shirts, not a local company) are treating customers.
After this debacle with the Sunwing representative, my wife tried to join us at the water park. On the walk over she passed in front of the kids club. As she walked by, two small children (approximately 4 and 5 years old) frantically pounded on the door. They were crying and extremely upset. My wife tried to open the door but it was locked. The kids were locked in the room. Alone. The supervising employee had locked them in there and LEFT (at least 40 minutes). My wife did her best (through the door) to calm the children down, and other people helped as well. Eventually the employee returned and unlocked the door. She apologized profusely to my wife. My wife stayed with them and confirmed the children recognized the employee (the children confirmed they had stayed with her before). My wife and I tried for a couple of hours to locate the parents but they weren’t in their room. I asked whoever I could in the water park but to no avail. Eventually the children calmed down and returned to playing. Can you believe this? What if a child had hit their head, or swallowed something and choked? This place is absolutely terrifying, and it’s a travesty that they are still operating. We tried to contact the parents room but couldn’t reach them. If you are their parent we sincerely hope you reached them and that you’re all safe.
Later my son experienced some diarrhea and we were worried it was going to turn to vomiting, but thankfully it didn’t go that far.
Day 7 (March 20, 2023)
This was our last day. We stayed away from all of the food, dishes, cutlery, door handles, and tried to avoid any trouble. We disinfected what we could. My wife was feeling a little better and my sons diarrhea hadn’t worsened. We managed to pack and went home in the morning (following day).
I want to be clear that many of the employees were very kind and helpful. I am reviewing what happened to my own family. There are many other stories that you can see in other reviews - please do your research and make an informed choice. I also notice that as the negative reviews are popping up, there are other glowing reviews being written. Every person we talked to - LITERALLY EVERY FAMILY, at least 40 - had a similar food poisoning experience. I also note that those positive reviews have many glaring spelling and grammar mistakes, not unlike the local Dominican ads. I can’t say for sure, but draw your own conclusions. It’s my sincere hope that this effort to record our experience has helped you avoid a similar situation. | Symptoms: Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Fever, Stomach Pain
