Blue Bay Getaway Villas Doradas  - San Felipe de Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic     

My boyfriend and I stayed at Blue Bay from 13th - 27th June 2008, booked with Thomas Cook and our holiday started off a bit disappointingly with a long delay at the airport....however this did not set the tone for the rest of the holiday! We got through customs quickly and it was only a short journey from the airport. Check in was simple with welcome drinks and bags were taken promptly to our room. Service throughout the hotel and restaurants during our entire stay was great, the only exception being that the cleaning lady was too eager to keep changing our beach towel but kept forgetting new ones. Food in the buffet was fine, some nights were better than others as they had themed nights such as Italian, Dominican, Mexican etc. and the a la cartes were nice too - our favourite was the Oriental (Jade) restaurant. In terms of excursions...we did the Jeep Safari (inc. waterfalls climb), Ocean World with dolphin encounter, and Paradise Island visit and enjoyed all of them (we suggest going to see Felix on the beach as he'll give you a discount for multiple excursions). But above all else, the animation team and bar staff made our holiday...getting everyone involved in the entertainment and daily activities. The All Star show was hilarious...shame our photos didn't come out well enough to save on here! Volleyball was good (unfortunately we weren't) and pool aerobics was a laugh too! Big shout out to Lorenzo, Lucas, Tony, Tino, Mosquito from the animation team and Roque and Juan from the bar :) We love you guys! Shout out to all the guys we met at Blue Bay too! Ayeasha & Darren xxx

We booked our trip through travelocity. That was mistake number 1. Avoid them at all costs! After reading our review you will understand why and we spent hours on the phone with Travelocity on multiple legs of this trip and were disconnected, left on hold and never helped with any of the multiple issues we had. We flew Delta, they lost our bags and we spent the first 24 hours with some over priced 80's clothes from the plaza and 15 dollar bottles of shampoo. My advise on this is to pack a bathing suit, a change of clothes for dinner, some basics to get your self ready (toothbrush:) and other must haves in a carry on...and carry it on:) Now onto the resort. When we booked we upgraded to a standard plus room. This way we would have a larger room with a balcony or terrace. To say that I was not in good humour due to the luggage would be an understatement. We were informed that our room was not ready either, however the lobby was beautiful so we drank our juice and waited....we were told 20 minutes and it would be done. 20 minutes later we wandered over to the building that overlooked a parking lot of the resort next door and were shown into a standard room which was not the upgrade that we paid for and it was not a nice room at all. We went back to the lobby and spoke to the front desk clerk. We were taken to another room that was a bit better and then a third, that was what we expected although it was still in the back of the resort and smelled like smoke (we are both non smokers). The trip was not off to a great start, so after doing some shopping for some basics to hold us over we ate at the buffet and went to bed while trying to decide if we wanted to catch the next flight to miami and vacation there! The next morning the front desk staff said that they had a room to offer in a better part of the resort and so off we went again to check out the room. It was in a better part of the resort and smelled great. On our way back I told the clerk that I had tried to upgrade to a villa but there were not any available when I checked. They rechecked and a superior room in a villa was available. We went and looked at it and moved in. We also decided to upgrade to the VIP package. So for an extra 600 dollars, we got an awesome room, a fully stocked bar in the room (including champagne and aged rum which we loved especially as the bar drinks were a bit on the sweet side so we just made our own drinks and went back to what ever part of the resort that we were at) new towels twice a day, a cool place on the beach to sit where the vendors didn't bother you as the area was roped off for the vip customers, All in all the vacation was much better after that point. I have been on about 10 all inclusive trips in the past 7 years, 5 of them to the dominican. This was the most inexpensive of the bunch and it was the most basic of basic accomodations, but the upgrade was the nicest room we have stayed in, so really you do get what you pay for, and dollar for dollar, if we wanted a budget minded room, it would have been well worth the price as the rooms are fine and the common areas, pool, etc. are well kept and cleaned. The vacation club vendors have had much written about them and it is all true. If we do not return to the resort, they would be the reason why. They were at every exit, so you had no choice but to encounter them and they did not stop harrassing you until you went with them to hear their pitch. We however did not, and refused, which gave us 5 days of harrassment and then cold silence for the next two. The food was pretty good at the buffet, very good at the steak grill and we didn't try the other restaurants as the other guests said that they didn't like them, and we were happy enough with the two we had tried and really didn't want to have any more bad luck on this trip:) One bummer is that on our last night my husband got really sick after dinner, violent vomitting and very much like food poisioning as there was no other gi symptoms making norwalk less likely. When we left we asked ourselves" So would we go back???" I think so if we upgraded. For the price, even with the cost of the upgrade it was a good value for a clean, well presented, hotel with nice staff that made the effort to help when ever possible. Really the gem of this resort is in fact the staff. We left on a Delta flight, our connection was cancelled, we spent the night sleeping in the Atlanta airport, and they once again misplaced our luggage! We collected our children from my parents and cancelled our next delta flight across the country and ate the cost of the tickets and the new tickets and flew air canada. We had a wonderful uneventful flight to vancouver and met up with our luggage on the other side.