Dreams La Romana Resort & Spa — Hotel in La Hispaniola

I waited a while to write this, since we first tried resolving matters privately. At this point, I ensure my sentiments remain. We chose Hilton La Romana for our destination wedding, trusting its five-star rep & glowing reviews. Unfortunately, our experience didnt live up to our expectations, especially for such a special occasion. Resort itself is absolutely beautiful. The grounds are lush & well kept, staff is very kind, stunning views, and the potential for a dream wedding is there. But the execution & service, particularly from the wedding team and rooms division, left us disappointed. Despite almst a year of detailed emails, our wedding coordinator still seemed not-so-confident and was firing off last minute questions from check-in day at our in-person meeting, even to actual cocktail hour. I do appreciate her time and efforts but I feel my niceness toward her to not stress her out, overshadowed the fact that I myself never felt able to relax and breathe which in reality is most important on my day. I felt that being a bridezilla wouldnt help. The rehearsal was the day before the wedding, when the majority of our wedding party would be checking in to the hotel. Scheduled and confirmed for 11am in advance, the wedding coordinator last minute says the rehearsal has to be at 10:30 causing scrambling, even for the parents who were still enroute, and did not arrive until 10:50am. At this time, we did 1 run-through & the coordinator left to begin assisting another wedding, while we were still making minor adjustments. This left a very bad impression on the parents, in turn causing them to arrange a meeting with Maria in the enclave department. Long story short, communication was so poor that my parents waited an hour for Maria to walk into the office and not even know she had a meeting. Our wedding morning unraveled quickly. The bridal suite, promised at noon, was not given to us until 2 pm, forcing half the bridesmaids who were getting ready in my enclave suite, to pack up their glam setups midway and relocate to the bridal suite-- only to leave behind MY key bridal accessories since I was already in the spa with the mothers and other bridesmaids getting hair/makeup. Since I had to run from the spa to the bride suite, I had no time to stop & get the rest of my outfit. Adding insult to injury, the "oceanfront Enclave Suite" we paid for turned out to be a first floor parking lot view. We flagged this early in our stay and were assured an upgrade for nothing to actually materialize. We finally received a refund after returning home with help of the third-party booking agent. If we hadn't followed up, I fear nothing would've been done. Shockingly, during the reception, we were told to clear the bridal suite by 9pm—though we later learned we had it until 11am the next day. Jewelry was misplaced in the scramble losing me four hours the next day looking in everyone's room and filing a report, and we missed our pre-paid couple’s massage.. The spa was understaffed on wedding day, and my hair/makeup ended at 4:45 for a 5pm ceremony—leaving no time for key moments, like private vows, first looks, detail photo shots, or even to take a deep breath. Im not sure why, even when requesting a earlier time, spa told us five ladies to come at noon. Had communication actually existed within the wedding and rooms divisions, I would have been able to enjoy this morning after. Despite all the negative, it is a beautiful setting and there are wonderful staff, some of the best I've seen. The wedding staff tried their best under chaotic circumstances-- but for a resort of this caliber, the lack of execution and follow through was inexcusable. For as many weddings they hold, there should be more experienced coordinators, or more staff to assist weddings and planning. In all, I felt like my day was not important because there were "other weddings" to tend to. But the day was important to me and my husband. I wish Hilton La Romana would take this feedback to heart so that future couples can actually relax and revel in their...

It's a lovely hotel, we stayed once before when it was a Dreams hotel, and you can definitely see the Hilton touch in most places. However, there are a few points that stops it from receiving a perfect score.

From a design point of view, I feel the bathrooms should receive the same care that the rooms have had during the refit. They feel a little tired and need updating. Also, more needs to be done to the rooms to prevent insects entering, there are large gaps on all of the doors making all in room deterrents useless.

On check-in, a lot of emphasis is placed on the hotel's rules on things like dress codes and reserving sunbeds, which is very encouraging at the time, but then never enforced. Thus, the minority of guests ignoring these rules are allowed to spoil everyone else's stay. These rules need to be enforced.

As far as staff are concerned, everyone was lovely. They were all very welcoming and seemed to take pride in the role they had. There's simply not enough of them in certain areas. Cleaning and maintenance were fantastic. Not once did we find a full bin, a dirty toilet or litter on the floor. The grounds and buildings are well maintained, and small issues seem to be rectified straight away. In food and beverage services however, 30-50% more staff are definitely needed. In the buffet for example, most items are served to you rather than helping yourself. This is fabulous for hygiene and I imagine greatly reduces waste. But because there is only one member of staff covering two or three stations, you can be left waiting for a very long time for almost anything. For a second example, pool service is listed by the hotel, but because there is genuinely one or sometimes two people covering the whole pool, it can be an hour before you can place an order, then another hour before it arrives. There's simply not enough staff to provide the service.

The food is by far the best we've had in the eight times we've visited Dominican Republic. It was all very good. There are just a few peculiar things that could easily be fixed by a classically trained expert visiting. For example, a lasagne is not one sheet of pasta on the base, one very thick layer of Ragu and a thick layer of cheese. And a crème brulé is certainly not meant to be served hot and curdled as it was in the French restaurant. A short visit from an expert would easily perfect everything.

On the subject of dining, I did find that the number of paid extras is excessive and, in some cases, greatly over-priced. But it may simply be because it's aimed at an American, rather than global, audience.

Finally, as a Diamond member with Hilton, the benefits I received were greatly appreciated. It gave me access the Enclave service and areas which were a joy to use. One of our biggest surprises was that we were able to use all of the hotel's facilities (providing our children weren't with us). There was no indication during the booking process that this would be the case, but there was no mention that it is either. So that was very happily received and long may it continue.

The spa was also great and reasonably priced and the hotel does a number of things for celebrations which were greatly appreciated as we celebrated our youngest first birthday and our tenth anniversary.

WiFi coverage could do with some improvement, including it's speed. And being able to use the digital key on the app would be very helpful if that could be implemented soon.

A special mention to the following staff for providing such a great service Onelis Alcala, Hipolito Mack, Robin Ozorio, Carlos Fransisco. Unfortunately, I didn't take the name of our house keeper, but she was amazing and I wish I could get her the recognition...

I found this place to be a mixed bag… we are Diamond members and prior to coming paid for an upgrade to a swim out on the family side, water was too cold for our liking and very shaded we were in building 7 so we never used the swim out. Also prior to Arriving I booked a butler and multiple days in the cabanas pool/ beach. I do not think the butler was worth it at all, I was never told what the butler services entailed however on my last night I seen a list and we were not offered or made aware of many of the things listed so 200$ plus tip for him to bring a cooler in the morning that was completely melted by mid morning I would prefer walking to the bar myself which 99% of the time we did. The butler is used to make reservations the only restaurant that requires reservation is Sakura for hibachi and sushi other than that they just want to sell you the special dinners. The check in process here was like nothing I have ever experienced at a Hilton property The cabanas we enjoyed because seating at the pools and beach was problematic people were holding seats seemed like from the prior night( pool floats out after dark and still there in the am gave the appearance the seats were taken) The WiFi connection was hit or miss especially on the beach and when that’s the only way to communicate with the butler it’s pointless the wifi also impacts the apps to know what’s going on what events entertainment menus etc are available. Food was a big miss in our opinion often times we were at 2 restaurants per night to feed our family of four we usually ended up at the grill for something edible. The Italian stands out as the worst 4 meals we all ordered something different all completely inedible flavorless mush. The grill was the best meal aside from the lunch provided on the Catalina snorkeling tour which was hands down fantastic. The bars are inconsistent on who knows how to make which drinks. I will say we met some great staff really engaging not forced or fake just genuinely welcoming and we met some who it felt like our presence was a bother luckily the kind welcoming staff out numbered the less than welcoming. This is the 3rd Hilton all inclusive we have visited recently and probably the only one we would not return to. The water park Was great fun lazy river fun water slides we went early before it got super busy so I can’t speak to volume in the afternoon but around 11 it was nice. It did seems like everything shut down around 6 no pools no swimming no outdoor bars no waterpark. They seem to do a good job separating adult side from kids. Things to do are pretty limited dinner and then 1 scheduled show. It would’ve been great if they had incorporated some local culture even the music Played through speakers was not Dominican. A huge positive is the place is very very clean well kept and maintained. There were always staff members trimming trees cleaning the pools beach etc. but when people say set your standards you should listen if you do not set your standards too high other resorts of this price range...