Punta Cana,
23000
La Altagracia,
Dominican Republic
EVERY GUEST HAD FOOD POISONING/ DIRTY RESORT/ STAFF WITH A TON OF ATTITUDE-
Beware of the recent positive reviews as they are fake. Hotel management are manipulating them. Pay attention to the 1/5 reviews. They are very very accurate.
We are not picky people and we have realistic expectations. Were just looking forward to simple fun in the sun. Evern if the food wasn’t amazing we would have made the best of it and loved it. Unfortunately, this trip was a complete nightmare. From the moment we got there, our room was dirty and run down. But in reality this was the least of our worries. The night we got there we needed linens for the sofa bed so the kids could sleep, and it took almost 2 hours to get them. But again, this was minor in comparison to the huge issue with guests getting sick. Almost as soon as we got there we heard chit chat about how travellers were getting sick with somekind of stomach issue. Seeing as how we had a heads up, we tried to be extra safe. At the buffet we noticed that the “clean” plates and cutlery were dirty, like obviously dirty and all piled up wet in the buffet. We tried to pick and choose our plates to ensure we had a clean plate. We got there Tuesday evening and by Thursday evening my husband was feeling off- at 1am he started with diarrhea and began to vomit. It was obviously after he had had the chicken for dinner. I got really scared and at 4am I called the front desk to ask for medicine (immodium) and was told the pharmacy is closed and the doctor was $285USD- they were well aware of what was going on in the resort but offered very little help. We waited until 8am when the pharmacy opened. On my way I tried to tell the front desk my husband was sick and inform them of the absolute lack of proper cleaning and sanitization in the buffet area. She laughed when I told her they must not be using property soap to clean. What a joke. No help at all…..they literally shrugged their heads and blamed it on a virus from Canada, which is ridiculous. On Friday my husband continued with Diarrhea and also had a fever and he could not get out of bed. When chatting with other guest, we learned EVERYONE WAS SICK- LIKE EVERYONE. IT WAS SCARY. Even covid didn’t spread that quickly when it hit. You would be talking to one person and another overhears and says they and their family are sick as well. On Saturday night I asked the concierge to help bring us some bottled water as we had none left and they said they would bring it, smiled, and wrote down our room number and no water came that night. Unfortunately, I began to get sick myself on Saturday night. I was seemingly fine but we ate at the a la carte restaurant that night (we cancelled the first due to my husband being sick) I don’t’ know by but I ate a few small shrimps- after smelling them I thought it may be ok, the cup was cold smelled ok- BIG Mistake- 4 hours later I had diarrhea. I thought I got it all out and tried to sleep but then continued the next morning along with vomiting. Still no water from the night before. I called the front desk to ask for water at like 7am and no one brought water. (after vomiting- no water for hours). At this point we were even more scared for our well being and more importantly the health and well being of our kids. It’s a special kind of scary when things “look nice at the surface” and then you question every single thing you touch or eat. That morning I tried to shower and clean myself up and meet my family and just sit with them by the pool near the waterpark. There is supposed to be a shuttle service from the front of the hotel to the waterpark and it’s a joke, it never runs and when we did see the cart the driver was usually talking to his friends. So I decided to walk (still feeling generally unwell but ok enough to try and make the best of things), On my walk that day around 12:20pm to the waterpark area I had to walk by the kids club. As I was walking by, two small children were knocking on the door trying to get my attention. I stopped and paused for a min confused; I went to try to see the kids, they were crying and scared and knocking on the door from the inside. I quickly realized the door was locked and no one was there with them. THEY WERE LOCKED INSIDE THE KIDS CLUB ON THEIR OWN!! These kids were small, 4 and 5 years old! I started screaming at an employee to open the door for them. I got on my knees to try to calm them down and ensure I would be there to help them. The employee eventually came back… she went to get lunch. These kids were locked inside, for at least 40 mins or so. A group of others tried to help and locate the parents. This just shouldn’t have happened in the first place…they could have been ill, or chocked. Thank God they were ok. There is no excuse for this.
At some point during the week one of our two room keys weren’t working, and so I went to the front desk to ask if they could fix it or set up another key and they just couldn’t do it….so we now only had 1 key with us for the remainder of the week. No use in asking them to fix it, just easier for us to “deal with it” and work together as it was the least of our problems. It was obviously a lack of cleanliness in the buffet area and lack of properly sanitizing/washing dishes/cutlery and cups that made so many other people sick. A LOT of the food was left out all day without proper storage temperatures. The staff had huge attitudes the entire time( which I could have honestly dealt with if it wasn’t so horribly dirty and we didn’t get sick). I saw many times, tongs or forks fall on the floor and the staff just pick it up, and puts it back. Tables were not cleaned with a sanitizer inbetween guests sitting down to eat. I saw a staff member clean one time in the buffet- she did a semi circle with a dirty wet cloth inbetween two platters on the buffet. That was it. We feel absolutely ripped off & traumatized. We will not be returning to the DR at all because of this resort. The hotel management were useless…..they just played the blame game. It’s food poisoning at it’s finest. Many families sick- went to the hospital to get IV’s. DO NOT GO HERE. | Symptoms: Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Something else, Fever
