Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar

Quick Summary: Awesome trip. We have done the Aqua which is on same property, and the upgrade to the Ambar is so worth it. Great service, enjoyable food, and the beach is pristine. Arrival - The same thing gets my crawl every time we come to the DR. Stupid Customs line. It consistently takes an hour to get through that line. And that is after deplaning, taking a bus about 100 yards (also ridiculous and you still have to get your bag, a second security check, then find your ride). So, after the customs mess, found bags (another bit of anxiety, just be patient, and always remember, you are now on DR time, and it moves very slooowwwww (which is actually nice once you get acclimated, lol). The other part of arrival, that had me give 4.5 (because not totally out of the control of Bahia), the shuttle.I booked this via Bahia, so they use their preferred partner. I am to the point I wish they would change said partner. I got a private one thinking we walk up, show my voucher and off and running. Not so fast, remember what I said, you are on DR time. More so, they bait you to get your return pick up time by having to visit the rep in the lobby the next day when you should be enjoying the beach and your vacation. I ended up going, not getting a time and having to return the day before we left to get a pick up time. When I went back, I had to wait about 30 mins for the rep to show up (come back from lunch I presume). Thank god the lobby bar was open, I got a couple of drinks and just chilled at the reps little desk. lol Anyway, other than customs and the bit of a wait for the shuttle, arrival is what it is. Lets move on to the much better parts (yeah, I am whiney, but when I arrive to PC, I want to boogie on through and get to the resort ASAP). Hotel/Check in/ Room Check in was quick and painless. If you get there on the early side I think you have to keep yourself a bit busy, but its not the worst thing. Our room was ready, we opted for a "corner room". Not 100% sure the advantage other than you only have one neighbor, I think the room *might* be a bit bigger as is the balcony. It was nice. Room was clean, fridge was stocked. We only ever really drank the water from the room, so it wasn't hard for them to keep us re-stocked. If I was to find a downside to the room, was that the shower could have used a nice cleaning, and there is a bath tub smack dab in the middle of the room. Well, off to the side, but nowhere near the rest of the bathroom facilities. lol I found the bed and linens to be nicer than I recall at most places in the DR, even at the Aqua that we stayed at previously. Restaurants and Bars We really enjoyed the food. We did a la carte Japanese, Italian (the one located on Ambar (there is another one I think near the downtown area), and Steak. All were fantasic. Probably enjoyed Italian the most, then Japanese, then lastly the steak (live in Chicago, steak is our thing). Nonetheless, all of it was great as was the associated service. Breakfast in the buffet out by the beach was great. For lunch we did the pool side grill dealio a couple of times and it was just what you needed. Nothing super fancy, and it was exactly what we wanted, nothing fancy. We did do lunch at the inside buffet and felt the selection was limited, but it was good otherwise. The bars are aplenty, and we enjoyed each one. I have a particular affinity for the Sports Bar located just adjacent to the Lobby (b/w Ambar and Aqua). They have a la carte bar food you can order and its all real good, especially the cheese sticks. I know, sounds funny, went all the way to the DR to have the cheese-sticks (I think they call them cheese fingers), but man, order some, tell me I am wrong. lol In short, food and beverage was on point. Pool bar got a bit busy when it first opened, but I that is until another bartender shows up, then its all good (I guess they weren't expecting that many drinkers so early, lol) Beach/Pools One of my favorite parts of this and neighboring resorts is the beach area. I even focused to the beach right out in front of the Ambar, and noticed it had less seaweed than most other parts. I really just enjoy this stretch of beach. You can walk in either direction for about as far as you can go. Going left facing the ocean in about a mile will get you toward the Hard Rock, then the beach seems to somewhat end. Go right, and you can walk on and on. Note, you will pass some shops about 3/4 mile down, they are neat, but if not in the mood, the folks working them can come across a bit aggressive. Odd and Ends The theater is in the main "downtown" area which is the central area for all of the Bahia resorts. Its a nice little walk, but if not in the mood, take the little shuttles, they run frequently, and more so than I remember from the last time we were on premises. The casino is also located in this downtown area (I did ok, its fun in a pinch, dont expect Vegas stuff here), and there is another "Sports" bar in this area that has karaoke. All in all, what a great stay. I just wish the DR and PC in general would fix that customs line, and then I would go more often, just for that beach and cheese sticks alone. lol

I like the Bahia Principe chain of hotel complexes and have visited their properties in Cayo Levantado, Mexico & Jamaica. The Ambar and its adjacent “Sister” hotels are run in a very familiar fashion. Transport from the airport is around 30 minutes and arriving at the hotel complex the main drop off is at the Aquamarine Hotel which is followed by a very short electric cart trip to the Ambar lobby. Booking in was straight forward, bags put to the side for delivery to our room later whilst we were introduced to our butler, who then took us on a short personal tour and then onto our room. The only issue concerned the Wi-Fi which didn’t get activated. Having waited and waited our log in code still didn’t work, I approached the check in staff who wouldn’t help and told me to ask at customer relations. They couldn’t work out what was wrong either, I managed to track down our Butler who eventually found out that we hadn’t been booked in correctly at check in! We had previously contacted the hotel to request a room at the pool / beach end of the complex and this was provided and, in my opinion, the best area to stay in. The rooms are in 11 blocks with 3 floors in each (no elevators). The ground floor rooms have swim up pools on the edge of their patios. The rooms have recently been decorated and updated. They are very light and well presented – Air conditioning is provided although I wasn’t able to turn it off. Towels are changed daily / when required, slippers and robes are provided. There is a widescreen TV, tea & coffee making facilities and a mini bar. The mini bar is refreshed daily – but not always fully refreshed. Bottled water is also left daily. There is an evening “Turn down” service but this is a bit hit & miss. The pool area is vast, there are plenty of sunbeds, but these are positioned very close to each other. There are many sunshades. Of course, the “Best positioned” sun loungers get reserved, but there was never a problem getting 2 beds together at any time of the day. Drinks are available at the pool bar and there is a waitress service around the pool. Most lunchtimes a chef will cook fresh paella, burgers, chips etc to the side of the pool area. The beach area is large, loungers and sunshades are plentiful, and the sand is golden. The whole area is covered in dappled shade of numerous palm trees. There is a well-run beach bar and also waiter service to your lounger. Depending on the weather, the sea is clear, warm and a beautiful aquamarine colour. Beware - whilst we were there sun loungers were being reserved well before sunrise – but there were plenty to go around. The main buffet restaurant is located off the lobby and this is open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. No booking is required and there is no real dress code. Drink service is to the table by the glass. As a guest of the Ambar you can eat at their a la carte restaurants and those of the neighbouring hotels. Reservations are required at these restaurants and there is a dress code to be followed (although not always enforced). To book a restaurant see your butler or customer relations in the lobby, there is also a self-service computer screen in the lobby to make reservations. Reservations can be made contacting the hotel before arrival to avoid disappointment. We very much enjoyed our evenings at Portofino, Limbo, M.E.A.T, El Olivio, Thali & Mashua Nikkei restaurants. Food and service was very good at each of these restaurants – just what we had hope for and expected. At the Rodizio restaurant the staff were wonderful, but the food was a little disappointing. Things weren’t so great at Maiko where the teppanyaki show was very rushed & disappointing. The Fish Market wasn’t great either, there was no real atmosphere and food was poor, we were both unwell the following day. In my opinion too much emphasis was placed on diners who wished to pay extra for dishes such as lobster! But nothing could ever convince us to go back to the restaurant serving Greek food. The service and the standard of food fell well below what was required. Due to a language barrier, we were forced to point to the menu to indicate our food choice and even then, the wrong dishes were brought out to us. Before we had even finished the 1st course, the next course was placed on our table. I asked for more rose wine and white wine was poured into my glass, I stopped the waiter & pointed this out, they then tried to fill the same glass with rose. The food quality was poor and hadn’t been prepared properly, we left before desserts could be served and definitely cannot recommend this restaurant. The beach restaurant Las Brisas is well situated for those using the beach or the pool and we ate breakfast and lunch there most days. The food is of a good quality and the staff work ever so hard. The “Egg” station at breakfast provided fresh beautifully cooked omelettes and eggs to order. There was always a large choice of foods, drink service is by the glass to the table. At lunch times tables are available on the decking outside the M.E.A.T restaurant, you still collect your own buffet food from Las Brisas but the drinks are served in real glass and the waiter service is very attentive. Most evenings there is some form of event taking place in the lobby area, this ranges from Karaoke to a dance show performed by the animation team. Valentines night saw the lobby transformed into the inside of circus tent with a special entertainment show, all the staff dressed up for the evening making it very spectacular! Sometimes it was a little bit of a struggle to get a drink at the bar – this was usually because most of the bartenders were preparing drinks for waiters to take to tables. The drinks provided are both local and imported. The beer is a local lager - Presidente, there was Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray Gin along with a local brand. Red, White, Rose and Sparkling wine was also available, as was real Bailey’s. There is a beautiful coffee shop next to the lobby, this is open all day for tea, coffee and cake – just like Starbucks et al and is also part of the All-Inclusive experience. Transport is provided between Ambar and the other hotels by electric buggies, but the complex is not so big, and most places can be reached on foot with a little walk. We did have a minor problem one evening when we came back from dinner and found water leaking through our ceiling. We reported this immediately and an engineer came out withing 15 minutes. Apparently the air conditioning had sprung a leak which they fixed, unfortunately by the morning the plaster had come away from the ceiling leaving a nasty looking hole – we chased this up with customer relations who arranged for the hole to be filled and painted over. Overall, we enjoyed the holiday, but there were a couple of niggles, but we didn’t let these minor things spoil our enjoyment – as they were only minor, yes, they could have been better but hey ho! A big thing for me was that the hotel Management team got together and attended the TUI welcome meeting to show their faces and introduce themselves to us. Having met them it was very interesting to see the same managers out and about the complex during the day, checking that the running of the hotel and restaurants was going smoothly and were there to be approached if guests had any issues. Would we stay at Bahia Principe again – Yes. Would we return to Ambar – yes. Can we recommend Ambar – Yes of course, all in all we had a lovely 2 weeks.