Iberostar Waves Dominicana - All Inclusive

Not my cup of tea I’ve stayed at Iberostar in Mexico and enjoyed myself in the past; so much so that I stayed at the same resort 3x. My family planned a trip to the Dominican Republic and chose the Iberostar Dominicana as an affordable family friendly option. I’m on day 2 and so far this is possibly the worst experience I’ve ever had at a resort. Let’s start with the food. I would give it a 1/10. Buffet is normal at any all inclusive but the conditions here.. raw/cured fish out in the open and not chilled, yogurt out and not on ice or being chilled. My daughter has a shellfish allergy which is pretty common and I noticed tongs from the shrimp near the chicken so I had her avoid the area. Nothing tasty thus far. Next the rooms. Pretty dated although clean and well kept. Not what I expected for a 3/4 star hotel. Grounds are very well kept which is why I rated it a 2. Overall spend the extra few dollars and stay somewhere else. I was told that they’re undergoing a renovation later this year but that still wouldn’t make up for the unfriendly staff and not so tasty food.

This is my first trip to the Dominican Republic. We came here to celebrate my daughters graduation. We enjoyed ourselve This is our first time here.We'll be really enjoying it.Everything looks really nice.The drinks are really good.The pools are nice.The beach is very good.The entertainment with tania It's fun to see at night very entertaining. And the scenery is Beautiful.

Iberostar has lost it’s star quality We are just back from 10 days at the IB Dominicana. Having being a loyal customer for some years now (this was our 7th IB resort) I am sad to say it will be our last. Iberostar used to be the kings of the All Inclusive concept, but it is clear the competition (Riu, Bahia, Royalton, etc) have not just caught up but overtaken. Genuinely, I think Iberostar has a real problem with this resort and it is seriously tarnishing their reputation. Don’t believe me, take a scroll down the first few pages of trip advisor you will see similar mentioned issues that I now lay out here: 1. reception staff attempting to bribe you to upgrade your room in cash not telling you that the room upgrade has already been provided to you! Shocking. 2. A la carte restaurants are of very poor quality, almost laughingly bad. 3. A la carte (no reservation) system simply doesnt work in some of the a la cartes. The mexican for example which is I think the smallest restaurant cover wise, gave you zero chance of getting a table before 9pm even if you got there at 6:30pm! We arrived at 6:30pm to be told no the restaurant opens at 6 and there were no places, over two hours later we received a text saying a table is now available….really??!! 4. Buffet is very repetitive and is small in size giving limited range of foods. No aircon in either buffet doesn’t help. 5. Cocktails are made with poor quality pre mix ingredients. 6. Entertainment is really poor. Even the bought in entertainment was lame. This used to be Iberostar’s big attraction for families, but it is clear there have been some substantial budget cuts in this area. 7. IB Dominicana I understand is undertaking a complete renovation late this year and boy does it need it. Bathrooms feature a tiny shower and cracked tiles with light fittings falling off walls 8. Star cafe seems to have a huge service issue. it was a 90 min wait for our starters ok not great, but tables coming in well after us being served well before us makes it double bad. We complained on the evening to guest services who said they would look into and would we like to go to another a la carte the night after - we heard nothing from guest services! Room 4095 if Iberostar who will read this can be bothered to look into why even your guest services can’t resolve an issue. 9. Dominicana pool is going to make you poorly, it is green in hue and very murky, clearly not to standard. The only real positive about this place are the staff, who work extremely hard. It is such a shame the product they are offering is way below par. Overall I would strongly recommend you look somewhere else. There are many other resort hotels in Punta Cana!

DO NOT GO AS AN AMERICAN Let me preface my review with the fact that I have nothing good to say about this resort as an US Citizen/American. Go literally anywhere else, because these other reviews can't be real. THE ROOMS The room smelled of mold and mildew and when we arrived at the room there was a dehumidifier that would fill up every 3 or so hours. When we got our room cleaned the following day, the staff removed the dehumidifier and when we asked for it back, they never followed through with the request. There is also no A/C control for the room. The sink was clogged. Our safe did not work/was broken. The mattress was moldy, and hard (we did not see any bed bugs which we checked for). One mattress had visibly dirty sheets on them. The room is tired, dark, and is in desperate need of a face lift/renovation. When issues were raised, staff said they would help, but clearly shrugged it off and made it evident they weren't in the business of helping Americans. DRINK There's no bottled water on the resort, you must use the Vero machines they have located throughout the resort. The alcoholic drinks are the lowest shelf of anything. The lobby bar did in fact have some top shelf liquor, but when it was requested they said it was an upcharge, why it was even on the shelf was confusing. One of the pool bars had a slew of bees nearby which was disgusting. I had maybe 3 drinks the 4 days I was there, and the ones I had gave me a lingering headache. FOOD The food was disgusting, the only edible meal was the buffet in the morning (no A/C) where I could eat and omelet and the Mexican restaurant. As mentioned, the staff did not care for Americans and when we got to the French Restaurant at 6:30 (as denoted on the app), they turned us away even though the restaurant wasn't even full, since it opened at 6p (not 6:30). We got a text message at 8:40p that they could seat us, and when we arrived the staff seemed visibly annoyed with us and the food was inedible. The Smokehouse had no A/C and the food was awful, we were served drinks after our food arrived and it was the most bland food possible. We also visited the Asian restaurant on the property, they broke two plates of food, and served two people dishes that weren't even ordered. Each meal took over an hour and a half and service was hard to find/reach. THE BEACH The beach was simply fine, it was refreshing this time of the year. There was seaweed in the water, and there was a roped off area where you were able to swim. Not ideal. There were so many smokers on the beach which was very unpleasant and not to mention every 15 minutes Iberostar staff would consistently harass us to come to an event or buy something, none of which we wanted to do. There were also a number of chairs on the beach that were broken that should have been discarded. POOL The pool was dirty and needed to be cleaned. It was slightly refreshing given how hot it was in July. BUGS We stayed outside for the "entertainment" which was lackluster to say the least, but in the process of doing so, my party got eaten alive by some type of bug/mosquito. This also happened at the Smokehouse restaurant.

Find somewhere else! Know that, if you stay here, bus loads of cruise goers will overtake the resort during the day as they come for an excursion. We went in July. It was extremely hot outside and there is no A/C anywhere except in hotel room…so you sweat at breakfast and you sweat while eating lunch. No relief from the heat. Miserable! Also, the swim up bar is extremely popular and only staffed by one poor bartender that cannot keep up with demand. After waiting over 15 minutes to order a drink at the swim up bar, I eventually got out of the pool and went to a separate bar where I was served immediately. It was like this all day. They need at least two bartenders at the swim up bar and at least one restaurant with A/C. Also, there was a DJ blasting music so loud on the beach, you couldn’t think! And literally every 10 seconds he would interrupt the song and say something over the mic. My 15-year-old daughter even got aggravated to the point that we left the beach for this reason. No peace and quiet if that’s what you are looking for!