Just got back from a weeks stay at the EdenH (May 3-May 10, 2008) and I will repeat what I saw someone else mention, if you do not have an enjoyable time here, take a look in the mirror and you will see the reason.

We went with our son (4.5 years) and daughter (2 years), and we all enjoyed a week in paradise. The weather was absolutely fantastic; the staff very warm and friendly; we met many other nice and personable guests from all over; the hotel, grounds, beach and pools are beautiful; the food plentiful and tasty; and there are lots of activities on and off site to keep you busy should you so desire.

One other important thing to mention, toward the end of the trip, my son got a high fever with vomiting and diarrhea. Thankfully a doctor is on call on the hotel premises 24 hours (this is a five star resort after all, contrary to some what some other reviews have suggested). She treated my son immediatly and referred us to a hospital clinic within 1 hour. A special thanks goes out to her for the wonderful and compassionate medical care! All the best!

Our vacation was May 3-10 and was our first family vacation with a 3 and 4 yr old. I really could not have asked for a better vacation! The hotel was beautiful and the staff mostly friendly (they love kids!). The pools were great - some loud, and some quieter. The beach was incredible. The food was good - especially the Asian. Here are some tips I would have liked to known before I went:

1. Mosquitos are BAD on the first floor. We were in 2164 and we should have been alerted to the problem when we saw all the guts splattered on the wall. The kids were eaten alive the first night. We killed all the mosquitos and they just keep coming. I think they come from the vents.
2. The rooms that face outwards from the hotel face a 30 ft black mesh wall and a walkway that the staff uses. Not pretty.
3. If you want an alcoholic drink you have to ask for the booze.
4. There are no adults allowed in the kids club and it's surrounded by an 8ft wall (... we weren't comfortable with leaving our kids here due to that)
5. There is no chair issue and no reason to worry.
6. There are lots of places for all to sit, eat, drink, be merry, and be entertained. In the courtyard, they play kids movies on the big screen every couple of nights which we really appreciated.
7. Open concept bathrooms - we had a door on our bathroom, and glass doors on the toilet, shower.... and then a 2ft tall by 8ft wide gap over the mirror - so although you couldn't see anything, you could hear it. I don't know what the point of that was.
8. Two restaurants are closed each night.
9. The restaurant pagers don't work in your room... you can't get your pager and go back to your room. If you get to the restaurant before 7pm you can usually get a table right away.
10. Blue wristbands... over the weekend of the 3rd, there were a bunch of "locals" in the hotel (not sure if this is every weekend, or for the slower period, employee discount or even Cinqo de Mayo) but the hotel was overbooked, kids were trying to take your stuff and people were cutting in lines. It was annoying. Magically it disappeared Sunday afternoon.

Ultimately we had a great vacation. We got just what we wanted - a week of fun with our kids, in a safe place. The bugs are the only reason we will not return to the area. We actually brought a mosquito net with us "just in case" and we all slept under it - the kids thought it was great to sleep in a tent. Had we known that other floors had less bugs, we would have moved.

We arrived at Edenh on May 2/08 it was raining but that did not stop us. The rest of the week not a drop of rain.
The hotel is beautiful and staff is amazing. The atmosphere is great. The bartenders were fabulous.
Check in was easy, it took about 5 minutes just signed some papers and off we went. Rammy the bellboy lead the way to the best room with the best view 1276. I do not know what everyones complaints are about. We had know problems with this hotel that ihas been opened for 5 months. Everything working and in order. My only complaint is that the Helicopters are flying by about every 10 mins. the Buffet food was luke warm and so was the A La cartes. But who cares we are there to have a relaxing holiday and that is exactly what my Husband and I did.
I would go back tomorrow if I could. We miss the people and the palm trees already. Go to this hotel and enjoy your self, do not worry about anything.

My friend and I stayed at the eden h this past week, May 4-9th. We had read many different reviews, but decided that we would go with an open mind, and make the best of it if we came across some difficulties. The amazing part is though, the edenh almost speacializes in difficulties.

When i go on a resort vacation, i expect to have a decent view out my window, a beach, a pool, maybe even the grounds of another hotel. I do not expect to see the back construction yard/parking lot . I do not expect to hear loud music and noise coming from that construction area well into the night either. Please look at my attached photos if you still don't believe the people that say they had a really bad view out their window.

The second oddity was the lack of a WALL between the bathroom and the bedroom. Not many people have mentioned this, and i wonder if not all of the rooms are this way, but when you are traveling with a friend, this is not acceptable. You do have the luxury of rolling out of bed and directly into your jacuzzi tub, but any matters of privacy are no longer private. We called the front desk about switching rooms and were told that we could only upgrade, that there were no other rooms available. This was an interesting statement, as i am sure you have read so many reviews saying that you have to fight for beach chairs. But the week we went was so dead, we were often the ONLY people at one pool on many days. Therefore i find it hard to believe that they had no other rooms.

A list of the rest of the vacations frustrations:
1. room not clean, empty beer cans from previous vacationers in drawers, water still in the ice bucket. Ice machines do not work in hallways. (have to get it from room service)

2. Maids did not really clean room, they make the bed, do not give you washclothes. there was a worm in our shower for the whole week, never cleaned. the shower backed up, clearly the maid knew about it and did nothing.

3. the understaffed hotel staff did not appear to want to wait on anyone. at the beach bar i had to ask if they were even open one day. the staff that brought the room service was invasive and hung around.

4. even though the hotel was empty, if we didnt get to dinner before 7/7:30p, we were told that the restaurants were all full for the night and had to eat at the buffet. they shut down 2 restaurants each night, but never made notice to this.

5. once seated in a restaurant, we would get a drink, have our orders taken, and never saw a waiter again. other staff brought us our food, but seemed confused if we asked for our waiter.

6. never knew when the shows were...no postings, we went to go see one one night, and nothing was going on. i think this is just a matter of poor communication, i think other people liked the shows.

In terms of a beatiful beach and nice pool, of couse it was. It's punta cana, you could put a hut on the beach and have a nice view.

Overall, i felt that the staff did not want to be there, and did not want to offer service. We only recieved friendly smiles if the male staff was interested. I know that this whole review is negative, but we tried so hard to have an open mind. I have traveled all over the world, and in third world countries, and have never felt as unwelcomed, and never had had so many dissappointments that were well within their control. I will be sending a letter to my travel agent, and eden h so that they are aware, and can hopefully work on these things. I feel that most of their problems are service related and hopefully it will improve in time. In the meantime, my money is very important to me, and i assume it is important to other people, so i would consider another hotel until the eden h has worked its problems out.

(note: make sure you bring a pen for customs/immigrations forms, customs does not have any pens on table s and noone will give you one, including airline agents...i am sure they will give you a pen though if you want to give them cash!)