We started out vacation on June 14 we checked in after a giant line of teenagers in front of us apparently alot a other cities, countries send their 18 teen year olds here for graduation trips because they can drink all they want but they are "safe" in the confines of the resort, its not just this resort it is all of Punta Cana. Overlooking the drunkin children, the resort was great since all the kids took the double rooms we were booked in to an oceanview king rooms which where the newly refurbished we did have to ask for a roll away bed since we were a family of 5 we did boys room girls room and the roll aways looked like an old door with blocks as legs but the mattresses were nice twin beds.

No matter what anyone says TAKE BUG SPRAY! The theater is great at night they have the mini disco for the kids our youngest insisted on it as soon as she found out about it, the theater has no fans and is outdoors in a dip filled with mosquitos, it was really cute like 2 times and then just please no more mini disco...after the disco we where suppose to see the house band they sometimes showed up and usually did not show up and then they had a different main show everynight, one night we where waiting for the house band and got to watch a Circus, there is a printed scheduled every day for the daily activities but most of the are a crap shoot they dont show up most of the pool activities are done but we waited for soccer and beach olympics and got nuttin. You also get 3 reservations for the sit down dinners or al la carte where the men must wear pants, they are not kidding they made a russian couple leave at the podium and go change because he was in what I can only call capri's they were not long pants and they were not letting him in, they are easy on the kids though, trying to get another reservation was a pain we tried for 3 days for the Itailian Roma and were told at 9 am they were all full and when we would go to dinner the place was always half empty we did finally just show up at Roma and waited we told them we didnt have reservations but we really wanted to have dinner here and they did seat us.

It would do you good to know spanish here, learn it, take someone with you because they kinda do this hmm I dont understand thing when you have a complaint like not hot water in the bathroom yea we had to talk to our Apple agent to get it fixed. Overall this was our first all-inclusive I heard some people who stayed talking around us and they said the food was better somewhere else, but my kids did not starve. And taking 3 kids 8, 14 and 18 they always had something to do, they all did the trapeze which was great fun, and our 14 yo son did find the topless beach thing quite and attraction I swear we would turn around and he was gone "walking the beach". It was nice to go but we should have done 5 days instead of 7 it got so hot there and there is not alot of shade around the pools you have to be up at like 5 and set you towels out in a shady spot because you cannot leave them there overnight, and people do get up at 5 and get their spot for the day and they are never there, I would be glad to answer and questions, OHH and the Marinarium we did that it was fantastic, we swam with sharks and stingrays it was great and the little stopped hyperventalating, lol we had a great snorkel trip, do take your own water cameras they are 30 bucks on the boat.

For weeks leading up to this vacation, I was planning to have the time of my life. This resort is unforgettable for the worst reasons! We arrived in the Punta Cana airport and were escorted into what looks like a Tiki Hut. You will need $10 per person to get into the country. They don't take traveler's checks so have the cash prepared. Our luggage came out in a timely manner, but on a different luggage claim belt than what the monitor's claimed. After we claimed our bags, we had to find our tour company that was going to take us from the airport to Barcelo. We were told to walk into a parking lot with about 100+ vans, and little other guidance.

After finally getting to the resort, we had to check in. I am not going to explain my fiasco but it is exactly like the others here. Long lines, a long wait, and nobody that speaks English.

We were escorted to our room. It was a new room in the renovated section of building 3. Our room was very nice for the exception of it wouldn't exactly get cold. The A/C could never get the room cold enough. The fridge was stocked, but again....not cold. Crank the fridge up to 9 or 10. It makes a great difference when you come in from the beach. My fiancee asked for 6 days straight to get more towels so she could wrap one around her hair. We are still waiting for it to show up.

The beach and pool are gorgeous. The sand is so soft and the water may look rough from a distance, but it's great! The pools are wonderful. They were always clean and seats were always able to be found.

The alcohol is watered down and bartenders are not consistent. Some bartenders are better, but the alcohol is cheap and variety is lacking. It's pretty much generic rums, and vodkas. The wine is just disappointing. Don't bother.

I will try to be kind about the food. It was terrible so prepare to loose a few pounds on this vacation. There isn't much to eat at this place. Breakfasts were tolerable. The buffet has a guy making omelettes. These are tolerable at best. Stay away from fruits and the milk. The milk is not pasteurized.

Lunches are okay. Try the burgers next to the pool. They aren't too bad. The fries are close to what we find here in the states. Load up on these because dinner will be bad. They have white rice at the buffet near the pool. Stick with that. You will need it to settle your tummy.

The specialty restaurants are all lousy. The best (and it isn't great) are Tokyo and Roma. The seafood, Dominican, buffet, TexMex and French are barely eatable. There isn't a place to get chips or snacks that remind us of home.

Customer service at this resort is terrible. I had several problems and they didn't seem to want to satisfy my problems. If you can speak Spanish, it may help your cause.

Overall, I would not recommend this place at all. Please just spring for the extra couple of dollars and find a different resort. It was a waste of a vacation.

Boiling it down to the basics.....DON'T GO TO BARCELO PREMIUM PUNTA CANA

Just got back last week. My husband and I go somewhere different each year, and know what to expect from an all inclusive resort. So here is my honest review.

The resort itself is beautiful. The grounds are well kept. The pools are both great. The beach (white powdery sand) is wonderful and probably the best beach spot in Punta Cana (Very Long stretch and very wide). The water is beautiful ,very big waves that will knock you down if you aren't careful.(Probably not so good for smaller children) The animation team wasn't as involved as most at other resorts. There was definetly a lack of interaction here with them. The nightly shows weren't that good, although they do try very hard. The food at this resort was absolutely the WORST that we've ever had at an all inclusive. Keep in mind we don't expect much from all inclusives, but do expect edible. Watch out for the bacon (I got bacon for them to put in my omelet and when I went to crumble it up for them to put in my eggs it still had about 5 black pig hairs still attached) ewwwwww! Needless to say I didnt have an omelet after that! Toykio was the best by far. The El Mirador (by the new pool was pretty good for lunch). Paris was pretty good. Italian and Dominican Resturants were HORRIBLE!!! We didnt try the Marlin. I basically lived off of bread, fruit, and french fries all week. (And I am in NO WAY a picky eater) LOL It was ok though at least I didnt pig out on vacation!! Service was VERY slow it took us 2 1/2 hours at the Italian Resturant for 2 of us. But it's ok you're on vacation. You just have to go with the flow. Workers weren't very friendly at all. They rarely smiled or anything. Last year we went to LaRomana, DR and OMG the people there were AMAZING and SOOOOOOO friendly. That's why we chose the DR again for this year. We fell in love with the people and the beauty of the Island. Fridge didnt get stocked the first 2 days, so I finally got the guy out in the hall and he told me sorry and to leave him a note on top of fridge of what I needed each day. So I did along with 2 dollars each day for him and my fridge was stocked every day. Renovated rooms are WONDERFUL. It is definetly worth the upgrade!!!!! It did rain on us one day, for 12 hours, so I was REALLY glad that day that we had upgraded to a new room with oceanview!!! We just ate lunch, opened our balcony doors to hear and see the rain and took a nap. LOL Didn't let it put a damper on our vacation!! We didn't have to be at the airport until 3:00 on the day of our departure, so we asked for a comp room so that we could shower before we went to airport(since you have to be out of your room by 11:30) So we turned in our luggage and went to the pool to enjoy our last few hours. Well, when we went to comp room to shower EWWWWWWWWWWWWW. The room was filthy!!!!! Smelled HORRIBLE. There were dirty towels everywhere, dirty diaper on the bathroom floor. We didnt have time to say anything we just got in shower with our flip flops on, and hurried up so we could make our flight!! Don't get me wrong, it is very nice of them to give you a room to take a shower before you leave, and I didnt expect it to be spic and span clean, but that was just plain grosssss!

Conclusion:
I fell in love with Dominican Republic last year, and will definetly go back again. However, I think that more people need to visit LaRomana instead of Punta Cana. It is much nicer in my opinion for many reasons. First, LaRomana(Carribean Ocean) Punta Cana (Atlantic Ocean) Not a whole lot of difference in color of water, but much more calm in LaRomana (Better for snorkeling)

Second, People are SOOOOOOO Much friendlier in LaRomana. They treat you like family!! Third, Food is better quailty in LaRomana( probably due to the fact that there are quiet as many tourists there yet, so they can use better quaility)

Lastly, Because it is soooooooo much closer to do many of the excursions (if you like to do them) Not stuck on a bus for 2 hours each way to get to where you go to Saona Island or Altos De Chavon. If you go Altos de Chavon is definetly a site worth seeing. Anyway I wish you all a wonderful vacation, and remember it is what you make of it, so ENJOY, it goes by fast!! I have lots of pics from LaRomana and Punta Cana if anyone wants to see them. Also if you have any questions feel free to ask!!!

What was supposed to be a dream holiday turned out to be a nightmare i wanted to forget!
Where to start???
The service was unbelieveable, unless you carry a 10 dollar bill with you everytime you go to the bar don't expect to get served and even then be expected to wait up to 20 minutes a time-would not believe but is very true!
There is no table service throughout the whole holiday everything is pretty much self-serviced, staff maners the worst i have ever seen.
Rooms never cleaned and shower did not work properly but was not fixed again due to improper service no clean towels and when rang for towels had to wait an hour and a half. Fridge in your room was also not stocked with anything unless you gave them 10dollars a day!
Rooom also flooded but was not fixed and had workers on the roof above us at early hours of the morning.
Do not leave money aroung in your room even as little as 1 dollar it will not be there when you return.
No sence of security or safety, one evening we had a strange man peeing on our door we rang for reception and after half an hour we had to ourselfs go down to reception and ask why no one had come to see us i dread to think if someone was attacked what would happen. Another couple we also met had their room broken into and their valubles stolen and again nothing was done!
People are free to walk in and off the complex if they are not staying at the hotel which was also very worrying!
the list s endless, but i would not wish my worst enemy to stay at this hotel and have had better service in Blackpool!