Punta Cana Princess All Suites Resort and Spa Rating: 3.0 Pearls

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

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The beach

It’s books, not babes, at this 18-and-up, 270-room resort frequented mostly by couples. Save for brief flurries of activity to swat at mosquitoes, it’s mostly about books by Jonathan Kellerman and Nora Roberts, and a lot of quiet days on the beach.

Punta Cana Princess’s airy, vaulted lobby emerged from a renovation in fall 2008 and it shows. The dark wood and wicker furniture is regal, the floor gleaming, and the lighting soft, giving it a more sophisticated feel than most lobbies, especially when the keyboardist shows up to play some Elton John cover songs in evenings. At the breakfast buffet, opera plays over the speakers, a bit much at 9 a.m.

Piña colada- and beer-sipping guests lounge on the beach by day, and show up in droves by night for the lobby’s evening entertainment (there’s no theater, unlike most resorts in the D.R.). The show bordered on R-rated during the Ping-Pong ball game -- one person’s hands guide a little orange ball up another person's pant leg, and out the other.

Guests here were predominantly Canadian couples, with a few American, French, and German mixed in. With 270 rooms, the resort is smaller than most all-inclusives I’ve seen, but everyone has access to all of the amenities at the adjacent sister properties, Caribe Princess and Bavaro Princess, if they feel like grinding with their partners (or strangers) at the disco, dining on Brazilian at Rodizzio or just borrowing a bike to check out the sights and sounds. The Punta Cana also gives free passes for the disco, which is open until midnight.

Rooms at the neighboring Bavaro Princess are on the dirtier side, but the resort is packed with kids, and features a castle-shaped casino, one of Punta Cana's largest spas, and beautiful, lush gardens with tons of wildlife. The Caribe Club Princess isn't nearly as nice -- the pools are loud and messy, but most of the rooms are on the beach.

Staff at Casabe

Once my cab stopped at the entrance, I was greeted by a bellman who grabbed my bags and ferried me over to Vanessa at the front desk who checked me in and explained the map and amenities in-depth.

There's no drinks service by the pool, but there is on the beach, and the waiters are friendly and prompt -- even just a $1 tip goes a long way.

No reservations are required at the restaurants on Punta Cana Princess's property (they are required if you want to eat at the sister properties, Bavaro Princess or Caribe Princess), but the restaurants fill up fast so get there early or be willing to wait even more than an hour. However, once you're finally in, expect warm, personable, and prompt service.

Overall, most guests have few to no complaints about the service. However, when I requested additional towels, they never arrived. Likewise, when I called to complain about a significant number of mosquitoes in my room, no one showed up for 40 minutes. After my second call, someone from housekeeping armed with a tall aerosol can showed up 15 minutes later to fumigate.

Several guests complained about the irregularity of the inter-resort shuttles. One couple I spoke with waited an hour before it arrived. It’s less than 10 minutes walking distance to the Caribe Princess, so it's easier just to walk from resort to resort.

View on a Larger Map

Punta Cana Princess is in Bavaro, a neighboring village to Punta Cana. Over time -- with the proliferation of resorts in the area -- Bavaro has come to be considered a part of Punta Cana, at least for tourism’s sake. The resort is one of several resorts located on the nearly 10-mile stretch of Bavaro Beach, which was one of the most beautiful in Punta Cana, and the most beautiful in the D.R.

Stagnant water

Unfortunately, mosquitoes are a big problem here, even more so than at the nearby NH Real and most other Punta Cana resorts. Stagnant water the color of pea soup edges the open-air lobby on two sides, thus creating a ripe environment for mosquitoes to multiply. My trip in March 2009 followed two weeks of heavy rains, which means mosquito problems.

As I spoke with guests in the lobby swarms buzzed around our heads. Conversations were frequently interrupted with a loud slap on the leg, a wave of my notebook to get these things out of my nose, or, as happened around 7:30 p.m., the sound of the fogging truck -- without warning -- coming to fumigate. I overheard someone saying, “Wow, what the [insert expletive here] is this? No one needs to be sprayed with Agent Orange!” The truck spewed toxic fumes, filling the lobby with plumes of a residue that burned our noses and lungs. Some complained of scratchy throats, while asthmatics headed to the beach to catch a breeze and fresher air. One guest said the person controlling the spray was wearing a full chemical suit -- the guests were not so lucky. Diana Casoliba, the guest service manager, said the hotel uses the chemical permethrin to fumigate.

Malaria cases in Punta Cana have been reported every year for the past four years, including February 2008, and I met one couple from Canada who had taken the malaria prophylaxis as a precautionary measure for their trip.

The beach

Located along a quiet stretch of white sand with gleaming turquoise water, this pristine stretch of beach rivals the best in Punta Cana. And unlike other resorts, there's no morning chaos here over obtaining a lounge chair, even though I was there during high season. Only four people showed up to the water aerobics class held on the beach -- it seemed most everyone preferred to read, sunbathe, and log mileage on the beach, which you could walk up and down for miles.

There's no drinks service by the pool, but there is on the beach, and the waiters are friendly and prompt -- even just a $1 tip goes a long way.

There are about 20 daybeds sectioned off on the beach, but these are all reserved for VIP members or those who pay $15 per person, per day for the upgrade. I’d say it’s worth it, if you’re willing to get to the beach early to commandeer one of them.

Free water sports include windsurfing, kayaking, boogie boarding, and catamaran rentals. Parasailing and scuba diving are extra.

The Deluxe Suite

Other than the whiffs of stale smoke (even though the room was non-smoking, as are most of Punta Cana Princess' rooms), the rooms are fairly clean and bright. The furniture is well-maintained, and the stool underneath my desk looked newly upholstered with perfectly white fabric.

All but seven of the resort's rooms are called "luxury suites" and feature two full beds or one king, as well as a sunken living room with a pull-out couch. The other seven rooms are called "honeymoon suites" and come with a king-size bed, Jacuzzi, and typically a higher, vaulted ceiling.

My luxury suite was clean and bright with two full beds, but a musty smell pervaded the room almost the entire time I was there, a common complaint among TripAdvisor reviewers.

The minibar comes stocked with two Cokes, two Sprites, two Soberana beers (behold the irony of the name!), and four bottles of water. (Initially, my room was only stocked with one bottle of water).

The 27-inch flat-screen TV includes some English-language channels like CNN, USA Today, and Animal Planet.

Bathrooms are basic, like most in the D.R., but do have his-and-hers sinks, but the fluorescent lighting is a bit dreary. Save for a little mildew in the grout around the bathtub, and an oxidized soapdish, the bathroom was clean -- until housekeeping came to fumigate, at which point dead mosquitoes covered my counter and sink.

Most of the rooms (and balconies) face the courtyard or the pool. The only oceanview rooms are in building five on the second and third floors, and cost $55 per day for the view upgrade.

Insects were a big problem in my room. One of the first things I did when I arrived was call guest services to ask for someone to fumigate. Mosquitoes were everywhere -- in the bathroom, in the bedroom, in the closet -- but it wasn’t until I got to the lobby in the evening that the swarms really arrived (see my mosquitoes section). Other guests complained about ants on the ground floor rooms.

The swim-up bar

There’s only one pool on the property, but it’s large, clean, and has one rather subdued swim-up bar. Around the pool are several Balinese beds, which some people had managed to turn into forts from the sun by draping their towels and beach bags over the taut lines connecting the columns.

There’s a small spa adjacent to the pool that’s affiliated with the larger Metamorphosis Spa, a chain of Dominican spas well-known for decent services at good prices, located on the grounds of the adjacent Caribe Princess. Services at Punta Cana are basic -- manicures, pedicures. There are some massage beds and a Jacuzzi.

The games area adjacent to the lobby has a tennis court (there was a mean doubles game going down when I dropped by), an archery range, a Ping-Pong table, boccie court, and shuffle board.

There’s no Wi-Fi in the rooms, but $15 gets you a 24-hour pass that can be used in the lobby. Otherwise, it’s $6 for 30 minutes on one of the four computers in the lobby.

There's not much to do after 11 p.m., but to most guests this is one of the resort's best assets. Every evening the Princess puts on a show that occasionally consists of resort staff dancing to "Cotton Eyed Joe" remixes and a Ping-Pong ball game involving a little orange ball being guided up one leg of a guy’s pants and out the other. As one TripAdvisor reviewer put it, “the 'shows' were pretty lame. The performers on stage were often the people who just 30 minutes ago served you your dinner.”

It’s adults-only at this resort. No one under the age of 18 is allowed on-site.

Minus the fumigation techniques, this resort is pretty clean inside and out -- clean beach, clean rooms, clean premises. While one of the guests I spoke to complained of ants in her room (not uncommon in the D.R.), she was moved without a question into an equally clean, but ants-free, room.

The buffet at Casabe

The selection and variety is far more limited at Casabe, the main buffet, than at other all-inclusives. But the quality is largely OK, save for the freezing cold crepes and waffles hidden away near the omelet station at breakfast. Both the salad and fruit bars are small but fresh. The dinner buffet comes with some grand (hilarious) displays -- like a mermaid sculpture covered in smoked salmon one night or a pig sculpture covered in bacon the next.

There are four à la cartes on the property, including Mare Nostrum (Mediterranean), Il Bacio (Italian), La Petite Fondue (Swiss), and Rio Grande (the Tex Mex-meets-steak house spot where I dined one of the nights). My chicken “tenderloin” turned out to be fried chicken nuggets and a plate of French fries, but I overheard the couple next to me raving about their chicken and beef fajitas.

Reservations aren't required for the restaurants on the Punta Cana Princess's property, but show up early if you don't want to wait upwards of an hour or more to sit down. Reservations are required if you want to eat at the restaurants at the Bavaro Princess or the Caribe Club Princess, and can be made between 9 a.m. and noon one day prior.

Low-grade booze is free with any package, but for a few extra bucks guests can upgrade to name-brand liquor like Absolut ($4), Jack Daniels ($7) or Ballantines 12-year ($10). Unlike at most all-inclusives, the cocktails like piña coladas and banana mamas aren't too sugary.