Viva Dominicus Beach by Wyndham - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

17247 reviews

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  Mixed and much not very positive

  I read many mixed reviews on this property, and my initial thoughts were to sing praises to soften some of the negative reviews. However, after my full experience, I cannot say the good without the bad. The property itself is lovely, sprawling and very tropical in tone. The beach is beautiful albeit the waters crummy for snorkeling due to cloudiness and not many representations of interesting sea life. The rooms and quality of food were bad, and the staff were alternately polite and flat out lying. They did not give us the room we confirmed (and paid for), claiming they were too full to accommodate what we booked. They offered to let us move another day, which we took them up on. The room they moved us to had the look and feel of a rumpus room, or quarters for insignificant quests like old servants quarters, in need of upgrading and attention. Shower doors falling in on you when you’re showering, inconsistent water pressure and temperature, slow or nonexistent provision of towels, a one-inch gap at the bottom of the door allowing infestation of mosquitoes, bees and crawling insects. Yet they were quick to decorate my spouse’s room for his birthday celebration, so again, mixed. We had arranged a party of family members visiting from around the world for his birthday. Shortly after the celebration, one by one, 13 of 16 of us got powerfully sick. Gastro symptoms that were intense to include vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, head and body aches, mostly lasting 24-48 hours. Some lasted longer and developed coughing and sore throat. I was tested after getting home and it was not covid. It was pretty bad and what made it worse was the total lack of interest from the staff. I asked at the front desk if others at the resort were ill, and was dismissed and told to ask guest services. This was a common occurrence with one faction pushing guests off to the other faction. Each time, you get told to go ask the other, or told that it would be taken care of (eg like the room situation with the insects as one example), and it would never happen. If I followed up, there was never any acknowledgment that the request had already been made, no apology for the inconvenience, and an attitude that our requests were annoyances. This tainted the experience a LOT. Ms. Reyes in guest services was helpful to us and pleasant, helping set up our celebration, but even she would say one thing and do another or nothing at all without any self-consciousness that she was not being truthful. It was frustrating. There are a lot of rules, most of which made no sense and had us laughing at how ridiculous it all felt. One is that you can’t eat anywhere but the buffet your first night. Another was being followed around by staff insisting that we could not have a family member who was staying at a nearby resort due to our Viva being full, come into the grounds to go scuba diving unless she paid $75 above and beyond the $100+ for the dive. After following her and us guests around with a clipboard, the “investigator “ walked away and didn’t return which begged the question of the rule! The food was plentiful but very dull and after getting so sick, made us wonder at the safety of food prep. (We also read an article upon our return home that Viva Dominicus Beach is being sued for two fatalities a year ago from alleged food poisoning.) We basically had a lovely time but that was somewhat independent of the resort itself. I would not return.

  Feb 12, 2025
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  Dominicus Beach

  The beach is as good as it gets, the whole village is extremely lively but never too oppressing. If I had to find something not amazing, it would be the main buffet restaurant. The service is really lackluster and the food is pretty average. The Atlantis Restaurant, although it requires a small fee to book, is amazing

  Feb 07, 2025
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  Pay the money for use of safe !

  The hotel rooms and grounds are lovely . Restaurant chaotic and hot dishes warm at best . Beach is wonderful and plenty of sun loungers . Holiday was tarnished by money taken from a drawer in a purse (120 dollars) from my hotel room . I didn’t purchase a safe at 2 dollars per night as suggested at check in . I reported it and security was informed and incident form completed . I received no follow up from hotel staff. My advice is to pay the money for a safe ! However, it is a beautiful resort and there are other restaurant choices. Aircon in the rooms is good and views from balconies lovely. Lesson learned to put valuables in a safe . Not sure you should have to pay for a safe though!

  Feb 06, 2025
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  Viva was mediocre at best

  We were quite disappointed about most aspects of our stay. We paid $450 a night for two of us and stayed for a week. The room we got was on the 4th floor (no elevators), very small, and poor air conditioning—though it was clean. There are several buffets at the resort, but the food was mediocre, at best. Most every “hot” dish was over cooked. The cold food was not chilled and the hot food was usually at room temperature. On the other hand, there was a wide variety. Indeed you could get cocktails whenever you wanted, but everything was overly sweet and always served in plastic cups, even if you were planning on sitting at the bar. Often, there were long lines and slow service at the bar. One could also get espressos at the bar, but they were never hot. Included in the stay were two meals at their restaurants. You need to make reservations, though they are never full. The food looked prettier there but was the same food as the buffet. The wine was terrible at the restaurants. There are several pools including an ocean infinity pool, those were nice. Also nice is the beach area. There were many places to lounge under palm trees as long as you placed your towel early enough. There were lots of very silly “rules”; for example, you can only exchange your towel for a fresh one between noon and 6PM. The concierge service was laughable. It seemed that they were very good at telling you what they cannot do rather than trying to help you—also, once you start with a person, no one else will/can help you. We didn’t understand this, we would be told our information is not on their computer. Trying to reserve transportation back to the airport took four visits. Then, when we checked out, we were told we needed cash because their credit card machine wasn't working. By this time, we were familiar with their “we can’t” responses and told then “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out something,” which they did (they charged our room, go figure.) We expected more from Wyndham. We would not recommend this place. There are other places near by or in Punta Cana, check them out.

  Feb 01, 2025
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  Poor room

  The hotel actually looks great, and there are a lot of things to do. Everything is good until you enter your room (standard). Even after cleaning, I wouldn't say it was clean. That wasn't even the worst part. In the bathroom, water was dripping, and a piece of the ceiling fell off, which could have been dangerous (see pictures). Additionally, after the first night, we wanted to change rooms (like many others besides us), but it was a really slow process. We even offered to pay more for an upgrade to a bungalow. However, we were told that all of them were full. This proved to be untrue because a couple we met here also requested an upgrade on the same day as us and were able to choose a bungalow. I don’t know if this was because they put $50 in their passports or because they already had a superior room, but I still think it was unfair. This is an expensive hotel and an expensive holiday, and the poor room situation significantly diminished the joy of our vacation.

  Jan 31, 2025