TUI SENSATORI Punta Cana

What a lovely hotel and resort Very pleasant and attentive staff The TUI reps were Fanni and Gabriel Brilliant sports staff Noel and Erica Brilliant entertainment staff Emily Sean very talented vocalist and pianist. Will definitely be paying a visit soon.

If you have booked this resort you will have a wonderful vacation, don't worry. We had a good vacation, we are couple in our mid 50's-early 60. This review will give you specifics compared to other 5 star resorts Royalton, Paradisus and Palace resorts. Our comments are nit picky but it will give you an idea of what to expect. Pros The restaurant village has great architecture( probably the prettiest out of all the resorts we have been to) and we loved the live music in the evening. We sat outside at WokWok two nights and enjoyed the entertainment while having dinner. The beach is beautiful no seaweed at all. Gorgeous sand. Water is rough, yellow flag most days but we still went in. Beach is great for long walks all sand no shells. We really enjoyed the live music in Vino Vino with Lily and Sior. And the sessions they had at 11 PM with the cast members. Don't miss Circus of Dreams- the acrobatic show it was better than any show of this kind we have seen on a cruise ship or resort. The public washrooms all over the resorts are beautifully decorated and are always meticulously clean. (my pet peeve is that some of the door latches did not close properly and were not fixed all week) We booked an adult swimout and I had requested one that gets sun for most of the day which it did. Our room was much larger than normal. Very nice modern décor. Nice bathroom with shower, no tub. Swimout had a really nice patio area with a sofa, two loungers and a Bali bed and two tables which you could not balance anything on because of their design. Looked really nice and was the largest and nicest swimout we have had. (aside from the fact that the Adult pool bar was a few steps away and we had no privacy). We were in room 8115 which is the second block of rooms from the beach-good location. Food. Quality of the food is good has good flavour, which you don't always get in the Dominican. Limited selection of restaurants. We went to Verdello 3 times and Wokwok twice. K23 is an upcharge of $ 25 US we did this, it was interesting culinary experience. Verdello was our favourite. We did not go to Spacewalker because the reviews were really bad for it and the menu was not appealing. I would expect to see this kind of themed restaurant at Disney. We didn’t go to the burger joint because our idea of dinner is not a hamburger. This would have been good for lunch but is only open in the evening. Did not eat at the buffet for dinner again not our idea of a nice dinner. When we have been to other resorts there have been many more a la carte restaurants to choose from. Grounds are beautiful and well maintained The spa is beautiful very zen, both the indoor and outdoor areas. We enjoyed the hydrotherapy which is included at no extra cost. Quite different from other resorts someone walks you through the different areas. Make sure to book ahead you can’t just show up when you want to go. They only have 10 lockers in the ladies change room and one shower. Cons This is a Nickelodeon resort with a section for Sensatori. It is filled with kids from babies to 7 years old. You know who they are catering to when you walk into the washrooms and they have a step for kids to stand on to wash their hands. They really need to make this more clear it is very misleading the way they represent the resort. We have travelled to many resorts and most of them with our kids which are now in their early 20's from when they were little and we have never seen so many kids at any resort. Also, at the restaurants you would hear kids screaming. Service was a big miss. We had to go and get our own tea after we had asked a few times. Plates regularly not getting picked up, no refills on water or coffee. This happened with breakfast and lunch at all three buffets. Tipping didn’t seem to make a difference (we tipped , but no difference in attention received) . The app is not updated with the events going during the day or night. You also can't book your restaurants on the app (huge miss for us and in comparison other noted chains). The feature to talk to communicate on the app does not work. Not enough beach chairs, in the morning people put stuff on the chairs and don't show up for hours, I know people do this everywhere but it makes for a bad experience. Small theatre. Flooded pathways when it rains heavily and is quite dangerous. No turn down service, but they do give you plenty of towels. No water for brushing teeth many days in a row. Sink was not draining, took them two days to fix. Door handle fell off the door when my husband was trying to leave the room. They sent champagne and chocolates but no note with it. Not sure if they were apologizing or if they just send it to everyone. We saw trollies on different days filled with champagne and plates of chocolates. Did not follow up to see if things were resolved. No signature service, which we booked through Sunwing. Sunwing rep did not show up at the time we were told in our welcome brochure. He did not show up at all. We spoke to another customer who told us the rep was going to show up on day three of our vacation. Omar our butler was useless, but Sylvia who worked in the same concierge area was awesome and actually followed up on the issues and booked all of our dinners. We were always able to get dinner times between 7:15 and 7:45. Shows: Seasons was really bad, we also walked out on another show not sure what the name of that one was. We have been to many resorts over the years with our kids. But have never seen soooo many kids. Half the resort is Nickolodean. Lots of screaming kids. If you are looking for a quiet adult getaway this resort is not for you. We decided not to make the little things bother us. We had a really nice vacation and focused on enjoying the beach. Would we come back? No. We felt that Sensatori did not measure up to Royalton, Paradisus or Palace-Hard Rock resorts as a 5 star. These are three of our favourite chains, but have also been to Iberostar, Melia, Riu, Ocean and Bahia. It is the little things that make the difference and we feel that Sensatori was a big miss on that.