We stayed at the Grand Oasis from May 3, 2008 through May 10, 2008. We booked the trip with Apple Vacations, flying out of Cincinnati Ohio.
Apple Vacations did a good job. Our rep at the hotel was very helpful and not at all pushy. He gave us some good advice.
The Hotel overall was nice, but not over the top or anything. We have stayed in two other all inclusive resorts, one in Jamaica and one in Cancun. Both of them were in this same price range and the Grand Oasis was better without a doubt than the other two resorts.
The food is pretty good, the specialty restaurants are OK. aQua is the most interesting and their food is good. We didn't try the Japanese restaurant.
Our room was in building 10. It was nice and clean and was right next to one of the pools. Maid service was good. Mini bar was stocked with cold beer, Coke, Sprite and water.
The bar staff and wait staff were very friendly.
The entertainment was pretty good...not like Broadway or anything but very fun to watch.
We don't have children but it looked like they had plenty for the kids to do.
I would recommend taking a side trip to Santo Domingio. It's a neat city and makes a nice day trip. it's a long bus ride but worth it.
Overall I would rate the Grand Oasis as a very good value. It's not super posh or anything but for the price we both thought it was a good deal.
Enjoy!

Visit Dominican Rep. every year and try a different resort.
Buzzed thu airport to transfers and to this hotel within 20 min.
of the airport. We wanted to upgrade to Building 7, front desk
seemed uninterested in helping us. Went to the Apple Rep., Angel. He took up directly to Caren de Vries (Rooms Division Manager) She was great! Upgraded us and gave us the best room we had ever seen. 7221, faced the ocean, 2 whirlpool baths, huge shower. Check the travelers photos, they tell it all.
If you want a better room upgrade at an additionl cost of $50-$80,
per day. To e-mail Caren at [-]
to reserve a better room.
Windows buffet food was good. Be patient, you're on vacation.
Italian rest. food was good. Pool clean, maid service good.
People friendly. Beautiful beach. Remember, you're in the tropics. Hot sun, some bugs, and flies. Vendors a pain.
If you want a 6 gold where everyone waits on you hand and foot,
go elsewhere.
We would recommend resort with upgraded room.

Over all our trip was pretty good. A few pointer's though:
make reservation's for dinner when you arrive because even if the restaruant's empty they wont seat you.Bring your own floats & lot's of sunscreen,They'll try & charge you an arm and a leg.
ALWAYS bargain, there's no price set in stone (even on the hair breading at the beach) Hotel ad state's: free room service for 24 hour's, ya right. It's $6 a trip and they take FOREVER! Hotel also states free pony rides, never happened. No pony's anywhere in sight. I heard they stopped doing it along time ago. Also LOT'S & LOT'S of topless women every where even children not just at the adult pool. Bld 7 was beautiful all marble with walk in shower and jacuzzi, slidding glass door's lead's to patio and lazy river. About the food- it was mediocre, you get what you pay for, I was sick for 1 night my daughter was sick for 2 ( cant exactly say it was the food ) Our family went for 7 days: my husband ,myself, 2 children 1 age 9 and 1 age 15 they enjoyed themselves. There was alway's something to do. WWWEEEE ABSOLUTLY loved NIKKO the bartender at the swim up bar. He was the best. He was alway's in a good mood, funny and entertained the kid's. HE WAS GREAT.

My husband and I stayed at the resort from April 17th to May 1st and overall had a great time. We tried to book Club class for the flights but our travel agent waited too long and it was all booked. We will definately ensure this is done right off the bat in the future since coach was not comfortable at all and on a 10 hour flight from Vancouver BC to Punta Cana it was a bit much.
However the flight attendants worked very hard to keep you happy as best they could.
When we arrived we had a similar feeling to some other folks as we dropped people off at the first resort Calodina and saw how beautiful it was, made us less than impressed with our hotel when we pulled into the narrow courtyard. We were among the first to check in and went to our room, this first room in building 10 and was horrible. The floor was dirty, the patio door did not lock(first floor room) and the bathroom was dirty too!!
We complained and they sent someone to fix things but they could not to our satisfaction so they moved us to another room(we had to insist and although we felt bad being pushy there was just no way I was staying in that room) The next room was not much better but at least it was clean. It had an amazing view of a brick wall-not good but by now it was 9pm and we were hunger and tired.
The next morning we went to the Nolitour orientation and found out we were not alone. The rep Sandra listened to our problems and helped us to arrange for a better room, the funny thing is another couple who were complaining had been given our first room and they had the same complaints plus the air conditioning had stopped working in the middle of the night.
We were finally moved to room 9204 and things were much better here. We had to insist on being moved though and even offered to pay for an upgrade-they said they had nothing however I listened to someone complain later that day and they were moved to building 7(by far the nicest rooms-we went and looked at them)
With the room settled we went about our vacation feeling much better. The elevator in our building was working as of day 3 or so and although the landing of the elevator is a bit bumpy it is not too bad.
We enjoyed the food overall except the coffee in the room-it made us both sick the third day and we stayed away from it after that. Windows restaurant can fill most needs and usual waiter "David" gave us the best service! He even managed to teach us some useful spanish words and phrases.
The aQua restaurant was good most of the time although not exceptional for sure.
The Restaurants were not easy to book and we ended up eating late most nights- we were afraid to book too far in advance since we wanted to make sure we liked the food they had to offer. If we had to do it again we would have booked everything the first day.
Pools were clean however they need to be better at enforcing the age limit at the adult pool. Now do not get me wrong I love children-but mostly I love that I choose to leave my kids at home and wanted a vacation that was kid free. Not a huge deal most of the time though.
Casino was great, we did not spend any of our own money just used the tickets they give you.($10 per day) we would play the ticket on the table assigned and then take our money(we won 12 nights out of 13) and change it into slot tokens.
We came out about $40.00 ahead for the 2 weeks so enjoyed it.
We did not take in the shows except for the first night, so we cannot really comment on them. We did do some of the tours though and enjoyed the Country Adventure tour-full day and it was worth the money. Had a chance to learn about the country, see a school, visit a typical home and go horseback riding as well. The Kontiki tour was good although we were with a large group who all knew each other so we did not enjoy it that much. We went to the shopping centre twice to use the bank machine since the one at the resort did not work for us. There is a free shuttle every 2 hours so it was easy. We ate at Tony Roma's when we were there and it tasted just like home. I think we both enjoyed this since sometimes the food at the resort did not agree with us.
Overall, I would recommend the resort but would suggest booking the Club class seats on the plane and would suggest you not hesitate to be a bit pushy to get the best room you can!