This was my 2nd trip to the Oceans resorts in Punta Cana. We have stayed on both sides of the resorts Ocean Sand and Blue. There is no difference!!
1st the negative
The safe was broken the first 2 days. Maintenence came 5 times before it was fixed. We kept our Docs in our friends safe until ours was fixed. This could be a major inconvenience if we we not traveling with friends.
Now the positives.
The animation crew were excellent!! Fifty cent, Super Carlos, Rockman and Charlie Brown made our whole trip. Don't forget to play bingo bingo bongo bongo at 5pm by the pool with fifty cent and tell him Mrs. Greenday and her friends sent you. You can win great prizes such as rum, tee shirts manicures and more.
The beach area had plenty of shade and the ocean was warm and sooo inviting.
The food was as good as I remembered on our 1st trip. I enjoyed the crab ravioli at the itialian. The chicken tacos at the Mexican were as excellent as I remembered. The Ribeye at route 66 was juicy and tender. It was actually the best steak I had so far in the carribean or mexico.
The other guests were wonderful all though there is a language barrier everyone danced and played well together. France, Germany, Holland, Korean, American ,Chinese, Dominican, Brittish just to name a few.
The night life is awesome. There is always something. Tuesday night beach party, karoke, the disco is over the top. The shows were quite entertaining at 9:30 pm every evening in the large open theater. The casino has imroved from my 1st visit in 2006. Lots of nickle machines now.
In closing let me say I was a little apprehensive about returnig to the same resort. I have to say my visit was as excellent as the first time and I would return again in a New York minute.

We stayed at Ocean Blue from April 22/08 through April 29/08. It was difficult to make a decision reading the various reviews on many places. It was the price and star rating that attracted us. We were looking for something 4 star and better. We booked ourselves through travelocity, therefore we got to choose our airline and had some flexibility with time of departure and arrival. We chose American Airlines out of Detroit. The one drawback was a stopover in Miami which was not long, just a hassle. Upon arrival in Punta Cana we were processed very quickly and directed to our transfer bus, which was Prieto tours. Prieto tours became our tour representative at the resort. Prieto was waiting for us and delivered us to our resort which was a thirty minute ride in a comfortable air conditioned bus. Prieto was prompt and courteous. These people also were available every day in the lobby for one hour to assist you with tours and of course your return to the airport. They scheduled a briefing for you the day after arrival and please go because they give you your information about your return to the airport, so it is important. Checking in at Ocean Blue did not take long, but the staff was unfriendly and it seemed we were being ignored as they chatted with each other. It was quickly done and we were off to our room in no time. They do bring your suitcases to your room if you want them too. They also do a little sales pitch for time share purchases, but a gentle "no thank you" is sufficient for them to leave you alone. They are not pushy although will ask throughout your stay. The room was large, clean and very up to date. Double patio doors that lead to a large balcony with two chairs and small table. Stocked fridge, safe, double sink bathroom, jacuzzi tub, even a phone in the bathroom. Thick lush three piece towel set for each person. Toilettries restocked everyday (shampoo, lotion, soap, bath gel, sewing kit etc.) Water bottles. Very comfortable bed however, they are not very knowledgeable in bedding sizes. We had a king bed. They used much smaller sheets. The sheet over the mattress did not cover the mattress at all. The blanket was small, two people couldn't cover well underneath it. You would wake up in the morning sleeping on a bare mattress. Every turn moved the sheet. So we asked for extra bedding and just made up our own bed. The maids did exceptionally well, but they can only work with what they are given. Fitted (elastic corner sheets) would have been greatly appreciated. In other words, bedding fit for the size of bed would have been great. Despite this we did sleep very well it was just annoying. Some days the maid did not come until 5 pm and that time was inconvenient. This resort is very clean. Floors are very shiny and slippery when wet so be careful. The rooms are large. Don't know what the reviews about the lightbulbs were about, but we had no dim lights. Pressure in the shower was excellent. The air conditioner was a bit cool. It must have been permanently set because we could not change it. The safe did not work one day and we had to call maintenance, it was fixed within 15 minutes of having placed the called. The grounds are very pretty. Remember this is a young resort and the vegetation is not mature so don't expect lush tropical grounds. They are beautiful grounds. There is a trolly that takes you around if y ou are not the walking type. The food was very good. The main buffet consisted of various cuisines. Japanese stir fry, pizza, cold cuts, salads, cheeses, breads, chicken, beef, pork, fish, turkey, vegetables, fruits, potatoes-fried, baked, mashed, boiled at every meal. Omelette stations for breakfast. Crepe station always. Breakfast always had champagne and caviar, smoked salmon. Just to give you an idea that this is a top of the line resort. Wine is included with meals for no extra charge. The ala carte's are really not that great, however entertaining, by that I mean it is fine dining and the staff does strive to present a theme. We tried the Dominican, Mexican, Carribean and Route 66. They were okay, but not necessary, we found the buffet was better probably because we had more choices. Route 66 has great all American food. There is a snack bar open from 11pm to 6 am and it's good. Mike's cafe is a real hit and far beyond excellent. You can get any style coffee you wish and the sugar donuts are fabulous. Mike's is the greatest thing in this resort. The smoothies scrumptious. The frappucinos divine, as are the lattes, cappucinos, mochas. It is a real neat "Starbucks" style place with nice tables and soft chairs to relax in. Books and newspapers to read. The beach restaurant was great for lunches at the beach. There are bars everywhere. Two pool swim up bars. You had to wait too long at these and I found the bartenders not friendly at the pools. We preferred the lobby bar over all the others. The bar on the beach was our next favourite. The two pools at this resort are big. They have jacuzzis. Permanent lounges in the pool which are really nice. We did not have to get up early to get a spot at the beach or pool. The beach does not have palapas rather these "corals" which have a canvas roof. Palapas look better than these and we would prefer palapas, the shade is the same as from a palapa, it just looks different. It was a cosmetic issue for us. Palapas have a more "tropical and carribean" flare. The beach is large and beautiful. White sand. Clear water. You can walk for miles in both directions. No problem with towels at the beach. They were always available, no standing in line waiting. Non-motorized equipment you can use. There is a $30 deposit on snorkels which deterred us. You can sign up and pay for other water sports. There is rock climbing comes free. There is a Euro bungee jumping for a fee. There is a bowling alley, you get one free pass with your stay. At the bowling alley there are pool tables, ping pong and air hockey tables. Kids would love this bowling alley. There is a casino which we did not use so can't tell you anything about that. Internet cafe was useful. There is a small shop you can buy things in that you forgot at home, but it will be four times more expensive. There are local vendors on the beach, several shops set up. You can buy really nice souvenirs, crafts, coffee, cigars, rum, paintings, etc. Make sure you bargain and DO NOT PAY what they ask, offer them less than half and then work it out. There are about a dozen stray dogs on the beach just a few feet north of the resort. Everybody stops and plays with them and takes pictures. People even bring them food. I would be leary about getting too friendly with these dogs (although people did). The dogs stick to their own territory and do not wander onto the resort. There were a few weddings during our stay. Does not interfere with anyone else. Professional photograhers walk around and take lovely photos if you wish to purchase them you have that option, no pressure though. The shows at night in the theatre are poor. It was lip sync and a bit dry. Found the props and costumes to be a little stale. It was okay, but a resort of this calibre could fine tune their night entertainment. In the lobby at night was a great saxophone player, he played jazz. They also had some singers. The lobby entertainment was much more appreciated. I found it to be more "Upper class" entertainment. There were too many children at this resort and if you do not want to see "kids" and "strollers", this may not be the place for you. Sometimes they were too loud at the pool. There are "adult only" crafts and moms should understand that and not get upset if their child is not permitted to participate in an adult painting class. This was annoying for us. However, this is a really kid friendly place, (even a kids club), oh and TV reception is great and all kinds of channels. So young families, listen up, this place is excellent for you. I would definitely return to this place. I can put up with the poor entertainment, kids, wrong size sheets and no palapas. Excellent beach, good food, clean rooms and clean resort is tops here.

we have just got back from the Ocean Sand/Blue literally our flight landed at Manchester airport at 2-30pm this afternoon, all I can say is what a great place this is. Ok so some little problems like not having towels in our room for a couple of days so we had to call maid service to get them, but in my opinion if thats all i had to complain about thats a good time. The staff were on the main very friendly, especially the guys in the Las palmeras Pool bar ( Juhlio and friends) they were such a good laugh and entertained us everytime we visited, and even sheltered us behind the bar when we decided to sit out a sharp rain poor. They were a great bunch of guys and treated us to some really good cocktails ( dirty monkeys, mud slides etc)
The rooms were large, well equipped and cleaned daily, the domestic staff were pleasant and helpfull. We were in villa 8 overlooking the pool and were very pleased with the allocation as it was exactly what we had asked for.
We ate in the Buffett every morning and evening and had lunch in the beach buffett and wasnt disappointed with the quaility or the choice any time. Although i was disappointed to see greedy people filling thier plates so much that they couldnt possibly eat all, they shoudl think of some of the poor locals who have very little money and find it hard to feed themselves!!! You must have a frapacino in Mikes its just gorgeous!!
We did Bavaro Splash ( speed boats) not for the faint hearted but fun although on the day we did it they took too many of us out and we spent a lot of time swapping and changing boats, Caribbean Festival was awesome although i got in with the sharks i chckened out and got out just as fast!!! it was good fun and well organised and very safe. A must do excursion is a visit to Saona Island, wow what a beautifull place if you do nothing else do this one, my partner and I wanted to be left stranded there! He also did the Jurrasic buggies with our new found friend they loved it but us girls were left behind to suffer lounging by the pool having plenty GASOLINE ha ha, we were i little dissapointed when the lads came back a bit too clean.
We made some great new friends ( hi Lisa and Alan) which was great cos there wasnt too many brits there at the time, thats probably the only fault I can find with the resort, we were surrounded by Americans and Canadians most of which were lovely people out to have a good time with thier families, however some of the Americans let their country down by drinking like it was going out of fashion and being loud and obnoctious, much to the dusgust of some of thier fellow countrymen and the annoyance of us brits! Apart from that and the odd mosquito bite a great time was had by us all.

We stayed here for 2 weeks from the 16th April and having read through the previous reviews I have to agree with many of the complaints. The biggest pain being the beach situation, the shaded sun beds were very hard to get no matter what time you got to the beach and we are early risers. We even saw people returning to their towels/sun bed after a half day trip so they had been unused all morning. Also the shades were meant for 4 beds but very often there were only two people under so as to have their own space (understandable).

The beach was massive either side but only a small area for swimming the whole of this coast has what looks like a fantastic reef well within swimming distance for snorkelling however you can only swim out some 20-50yards and there is only sand and very few fish. Water taxis speed boats, and banana floats etc, go up and down all day. So for someone who loves snorkelling it was very frustrating to be so near yet so far. You could get a boat out to it but you had to pay and they went the other side of the reef which you could see from shore looked very choppy.

The dogs on the beach were cute and we witnessed many people going gaga over them letting their kids pick up the puppies and lick their faces (do these people not read up on risks and tips of the places they go to, especially with children) and also feeding them. There were no notices that we saw when we were there about not feeding the dogs and being aware that they bite etc (see previous posting about kids being bitten). We did see a security guy try to shoo a dog away from the sun beds but he was chastised by a silly woman who told him to leave it alone.

Before we arrived we emailed and asked for a quiet location however when we arrived we had been allocated probably the noisiest block on the resort right next to the pool directly over the loudspeaker for the poolside entertainment, and we arrived after a nine hour flight at the time of the afternoon session. When we asked for another room the desk clerk asked us to sit and wait then he disappeared not to be seen again and it was only when we went back to the counter to ask what was happening did they suddenly remembered we were there and eventually got a room overlooking the fantastic central gardens.

The food was fantastic in the main buffet there was plenty of choice breakfast, Lunch, and dinner breakfast for instance had all the normal cereal, juices, smoothies, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, smoked salmon, caviar, cheese, cold meats, local stuff like fried yucca, sweet potatoes toast and much more. The other restaurants were all extremely good.

The main bar had some very good entertainment the evening show was very good for a one off but after the third night it was quite boring, they were all very good dancers and obviously hard working but all the music was mimed using recorded songs from other singers. Same dances different songs and costumes. It would have been much better if they had got in different kinds of entertainment each evening a local dance troop would have been nice.

The shop is not badly priced a lot cheaper than the airport duty free.

The casino is also good fun you can just play the slot machines 25c a go or the tables min $5 we only played the slot machine and black jack for a few $ s and we always came out winning.
We were just a couple in out early 50’s and this resort was very full of children who all stayed up very late at night and as the beach shades are so close together and both pools have no adult only areas you have to like kids or don’t go.

The noise around the pool bar became louder as the afternoon went on, and I wonder sometimes with such great beaches and sea, why anybody wants to spend the day drinking at the pool bar.

One day we tried to go on a small shopping trip to the local town, it was horrendous, we were hassled all the time. All the shops sold exactly the same stuff (some fantastic paintings) but we were under lots of pressure to buy and as soon as you walked out of one shop the one next door grabbed hold of you and almost demanded that you have a look around their shop and if you said no thanks they got really shirty.

The roads and sidewalks around Bavaro are a complete mess and we wouldn’t recommend walking around. We did go on an organised trip to the mountains with the Outback Jungle safari and had a very interesting and informative tour with Luis (a very clever chap) I felt motion sick nearly all the time, as we said the roads are terrible, but I wouldn’t have missed it even though it took two days to get over (I was the only one who felt ill so don’t let it put you off) we thoroughly recommend.

Would we go back? Not really, lots of small reasons more than one big thing, having been to Jamaica, Granada and Cuba, this was good but not as good as we had hoped