Dreams Macao Beach Punta Cana — Hotel in Higüey

Overall a very nice stay.||Unfortunately, check-in was not straightforward. We had to wait half an hour before we were attended to and instructions were unclear as to how to proceed. We were then seated at a lobby table, and there the check-in process began. The staff were friendly and answered our questions courteously. However, one staff member tried to pressure us to make an appointment the next morning to learn more about Unlimited Vacation Club and their rewards program, possibly to cut out the middle man, Hyatt. I had to politely refuse three times before we could complete the check-in process, which made us uncomfortable. I don't think this will be a universal experience for all travelers. If I had to guess, we were flagged as guests who booked with points, which led to this experience.||We had a king bed room that was satisfactory. The interior was spacious, the bathroom was interesting and well-finished. Make sure to note that there is room service twice per day, so you have to be diligent with when you want or don't want room service. Bass from the music playing at weddings and such will be very audible from inside the room, but that usually stops at 11 PM or prior. Our patio had a bathtub on it, which was strange yet fun. One small complaint was that the shower water would alternate between warm and too hot quite frequently. All-in-all, we were happy with the room.||The food was mostly OK to good at times. The buffet has a variety of offerings, so we were happy with that, so our meals there did not get stale at all during our four-day stay. The same can't be said for the bread sometimes, but that's forgivable. My ranking of favorite to least favorite restaurants is: 1. Seaside Grill (if you have Preferred Club access), 2. Bordeaux, 3. Portofino, and 4. El Patio. The top 3 were all pretty good. The meats were usually cooked to perfection and Bordeaux in particular offers sophisticated flavors in their main dishes. Unfortunately, the flavors at El Patio were either too mild or too intense, but the beef fajita was good. Outside the buffet and restaurants, there's Coco Cafe if you like sweets or a simple ham and/or cheese sandwich, Barefoot Grill, and a Mexican food truck. Unfortunately, Barefoot only serves burgers, hot dogs, nachos, and the like, and the Mexican food truck's flavors were a bit bland, so the food options for a quick bite are rather limited. That said, we were able to enjoy a different meal every night, and the quality was good enough that we were impressed with a few or more dishes each night. Keep in mind that the portions are small, possibly due to the nature of cost savings for all-inclusive resorts. I see this as a benefit as we were able to try more dishes than we otherwise would have. Don't be shy with ordering. Also, unfortunately again, I don't think any of the fruit juices were fresh but rather from syrup or concentrate. No fresh coconut water, either. But that's okay. We're not picky in that regard.||The beach was the best part of the resort, by far. Other reviews may say that the waves are rough, which may be true compared to other beaches that don't face the Atlantic like Macao Beach does, but on an absolute scale, the waves were not threatening at all. The water stays shallow very far out, so there's little to no risk of accidents or injury, in which case in my opinion the waves add to the fun. Don't be fooled by other reviews saying the water isn't clear. It is. The waves kick up some sand near the shore, but right after the small band where the waves tend to break, the water is impressively clear. The sand is also very fine and comfortable to walk on. Although we stayed at Dreams Macao during the off-season, we still had to start with a palapa a few rows back then work our way to the front as the day went on and guests left to eat. Expect to have to get up early to get a front row palapa during peak season.||The pool was also nice, but we rarely went because it's a bit rowdy and crowded. If you have a big family, then the main pool is likely a good place to be, but for relaxing, we thought other places were better.||Entertainment was unremarkable but fun. The beach and pools close at 6 and 8 PM, so you'll have to find some things to do after that. The entertainment helps fill the lull. We caught a magic show that we enjoyed.||There's also a water park that we spent an afternoon at. We mostly perused the lazy river since there were quite a few families at the small pool at the base of the water slides, making it awkward for others to partake. No complaints, though, since the lazy river was plenty fun on its own. I will say that, again, those looking to relax will be met with lots of sound and rowdiness from the kids playing. Although there's a lazy river, look elsewhere to relax.||We also played tennis for an hour on a sand court, so that was interesting. We rented rackets and balls. The rackets were beginner's rackets and the balls were brand new Penn balls.||All-in-all, we very much enjoyed our stay and did not have a dull moment. Our time was split between the beach, the buffet, relaxing at the pools, eating at restaurants, going for walks around the resort (looking for the same friendly kitten each time but not always finding her), and some shows. If they can smooth out the check-in process, I'd give 5 stars, easily, despite some minor shortcomings. The overall experience is greater than the sum...

Starting from the beginning, our experience was okay at best. We arrived at 3pm right at check in time. It was myself, my wife and our two daughters (9, 11). The room we booked was a king with pull-out couch. The person checking us in stated that we had a king only, and we shared with him that this would not work for us. He told us that they would make a room ready for us, go eat lunch and return in 30 minutes and we would be all set.

We go eat and return in 1 hour, we go see the person to check in, and wait an additional 30 minutes and finally get our key. We go to the room and change to go to the pool. Once we get to the pool they have no towels (this will be important later). When we returned to the room around 11pm, we pulled the cushions off the couch and it was just that, a couch (or a loveseat to be more specific).

We called the front desk to speak with Jonathon, and his first response is, "We are full, what do you want me to do about it." We asked what we should do with the four people in the room? He said that he didn't have a solution. He then hung up on us, and we continued to call back. About 30 minutes later he said that they were able to find a bed for us.

We get a single bed and we ask for another to accommodate the 2 people that needed a place to sleep and Jonathon puts on hold for 40 minutes, but the housekeeper gets us a broken pull-out couch which we just took. So two hours later, we were finally able to go to bed.

The next day, we got to the pool but again towels were not available for the pool and we had to share towels. We go back to our room before dinner and they had cleaned but only left us two towels. We call the front desk 3 times to get towels to shower, they told us they would be right there but they never come. I went out and found a housekeeping cart and took some off of the cart for us to use with extra for the next day just in case. The next day, they take all our towels and leave us with two again. I then go straight to the housekeeping cart that was left out and took an arm full of towels and stashed them in our closet so they wouldn't take them.

Everyday at the pool, you had to watch for the towels to arrive at the towel shed, and then get there immediately otherwise you would go without. The towel situation got so serious, everyone we would ask would say "uno momento" and then never come back, and I could see towels on their cart that they just wouldn't give us. Second to last day there, we ask for towels, just two towels, the housekeeper gave us the "uno momento" and left. 20 minutes later we get a knock on the door and it is another housekeeper, and I thought we finally got service (and towels), but this housekeeper literally pushed her way passed me and started taking photos of our room with her cell phone. I was thinking to myself, "Did we trash this place or something? Why is she taking photos?" The room was fine, but this was just soooo weird. She started walking out and I asked her for two towels and she said, you guessed it, Uno momento!

Another 20 minutes later, what looks like a manager comes to us and told me we showed up in the system as checked out, and asked if we were supposed to be there. I told him this was the room we were given and check out was in two days. He apologized for the inconvenience, and I asked him for two towels, Uno momento Senor. Another 45 minutes goes by with no towels, so I walk to the front desk and ask to speak with a manager, and they give me Omar, who was not a manager. He told me that they would be sending towels immediately, and refused to leave until I had towels. He sent someone to get the towels for me, and then asked me how our stay was. So I told him everything, he apologized profusely. Had maintenance come "Fix" the bed which was just remove the broken slats. Told us we would get a nice surprise the next day at 1pm, which must have been with our towels because they never came.

Bad systems & processes which means bad management, very disappointed in Hyatt. Food not good.

Thanks for reply but still...

We visited July 26th - August 2nd 2023 with a family of 3, myself, my husband, and my 17 year old son. Our trip was amazing! We are preferred members and stayed in 2 king bed ocean view rooms in building 2. (2102 & 2103 on the second floor) we were right in front of the main pool and had a beautiful view of the sea from the patio! Room review: The rooms were cool, AC worked great, and have a ceiling fan. The beds are very comfortable and the little couch is a fold out bed as well. I loved the bathroom, separate from main bedroom, with a double sink in the middle, double shower and soaking tub on one side and separate toilet on the other side. Lighting is just ok in the bathroom (may need to bring extra light if you a big makeup person) plenty of wardrobe space, standard safe and mini fridge with soda and beer. Our rooms also had ac mini wine cooler. They have the room service box for food delivery and tray pick up. I brought damp rid, but didn’t feel I really needed it. Room service was good, and took the standard amount of time when ordering. Rooms were cleaned daily and had no problems getting towels, toiletries or water/drinks restocked. They also did turn down service which was great! Restaurants/bars: All of the wait staff was great! Some bartenders better than others but everyone was kind. The women at Coco Cafe really go above and beyond! I’m kicking myself for not remembering my favorite girls name as she really deserves a mention, but she always remembered our drinks, knew we liked to sit outside and relax and catered very much to us! She is definitely an asset to this resort! Their snacks and coffees Coco are wonderful! We had excellent meals at the Italian, Mexican, hibachi, barefoot grill, taco truck and buffet! The French and Oceana didn’t have a menu that interested all of us, so we skipped those 2. We ate breakfast at the buffet which was very good. One time we did the preferred seating for buffet (inside the Mexican for seating, but you still go get your food from the buffet?) that was our only time we had a hiccup in service. We were seated then while waiting to order drinks they tried to move us to sit outside, which we declined as we went there to have AC, then they tried to move our seats to the back at a much less comfortable table, which I also declined after seeing the table. They tried to move us to give another family our table and that was upsetting. We really loved Oceana for breakfast. Pools/water park: The main pool was our favorite! The water was great and there were spots for shade. We loved the swim up bar. The preferred adult pool and the preferred family pool were also great, but lacked areas of shade in the water. The water park was super fun and my son loved the sides! I loved the lazy River and had a great time floating around! Beach: This is by far the best beach we have been to in a very long time! I loved the preferred area where we didn’t need to worry about our belongings on the chair being taken. They had drink service and plenty of beach umbrellas over the chairs. The sand is very soft and the water is soo blue! It was yellow flag the week of our stay, so there were plenty of waves to jump in! Service: Being preferred members we had a butler, ours was Alejandro & he was amazing! We had a few problems, room phone not working & needing slippers/robes for one of the rooms, and he resolved them for us. He checked in with us daily and kept us apprised of the events going on at the resort. He got us seating for the hibachi restaurant and was always present to see if we needed anything. Arcade & Core Zone: My son loved both the Core Zone and Arcade. The core zone is included and has lots for him to do, the arcade is extra but we found it worth it to play together as a family. Yoel with amstar helped us book a few excursions and was very helpful! Our UVC representative Cary was great, she made sure we had great rooms that were next to each other since we had my son in a room by himself. We had a truly wonderful time and appreciate everyone for all the...