Viva Dominicus Palace  |
Address:
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Tel: 809-686-5658
Fax: 809-687-8583
Email: viva.dominicuspalace@vivaresorts.com
URL: Viva Dominicus Palace
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Type of Property: All Inclusive
Beach Location: Beach Front (Directly on Beach/Water Front)
Island: Dominican Republic
No. of Rooms/Units: 330
Scuba Diving: Dive Resort / Dive Operator Onsite
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 CheapCaribbean.com Reservations - Dominican Republic Resort Deals
Expedia.com Reservations - Dominican Republic Resorts
| **Viva Dominicus Palace
Summary of All Property Reviews for: Viva Dominicus Palace
Ratings based on answers from a total of 1 reviews
10 is best 1 is worst |
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| Feature |
Ranking |
Feature |
Ranking |
| Cleanliness of Property |
8.00 |
Quality of Property |
10.00 |
| Privacy & Quietness |
0.00 |
Quality of Service |
10.00 |
| Courtesy & Hospitality of Staff |
8.00 |
Accuracy of Website (marketing hype) VS. Actual Experience |
8.00 |
| Food and Dining Experience |
8.00 |
Price/Value of Property |
8.00 |
| Safety Factor (Did you feel safe at property) |
10.00 |
Quality of Beach (ranked closest beach if property is located off the beach) |
10.00 |
| Total Property Score: 8.00 out of 10 | Average Star Rating: 4.00 out of 5 |
- 100% (1 visitors of 1) said they would go back to Viva Dominicus Palace again.
- 100% (1 visitors of 1) said they would recommend Viva Dominicus Palace to friends.
Start of Individual Reviews: Receive Review Updates Via Email
Viva Wyndham Palace Resort
By: Bruce from Edmonton Alberta Canada
Date of Visit: December 2010
Our family of 4 and another family of 5 just returned from a two week stay in the Viva Palace. We were initially booked into the adjacent Viva Beach but the resort had our families (3 rooms of 3) spread out into 3 different buildings. Learning Point - call the resort directly days before your arrival to confirm the details for the booking that the tour operator made on your behalf. Three hours later, we were upgraded to the Palace (at no charge) and our rooms were at least on the same floor of the same building.
Once we were past that three hour inconvenience - the rest of our holiday was absolutely fabulous. Note: the most commonly spoken languages in this resort are Spanish and Itilian, second common is French and German and then English. The front desk staff and sports activity staff speak all languages so if you don't hear English being spoken, just simiply identify yourself as English speaking. The rooms are your basic hotel style room with balcony. The rooms were serviced daily and the resort's common areas, grounds and beach as a whole are very well maintained and groomed on a daily basis. We were on the resort over the Christmas high season and as expected, the resort was full but there was always space and a lounger available on the beach.
The Palace beach is perfect for the sun seekers and those who prefer a bit more shade as there are countless palms and shade shelters. When not soaking up the Caribean sun, we were on the kayaks, hobicats and wind surfers that are available to sign out. The waters in front of the Palace beach also offers some smaller coral areas that we explored snorkling. I didn't see a place on the resort to rent out equipment so if you have your own snorkling gear, bring it.
While exploring both sides of this combined Viva resort, it was evident that the Palace beach and pool side area was quiter that the Beach side. Although the Palace's activities and sports staff always had dance lessons, volleyball matches, water arobics, bocci tournaments etc on the go the Palace's beach sound systen wasn't constantly blaring out music.
Over the two weeks, we also had two excursions. Understandably, the Resort and the tour operators want you to book your activities through them, but another family passed on information to us about a local excursion/tour provider. Right next to the Palace beach is a public beach were vendors have set up shops and this is were we met Roberto Grena Diaz (ask for him at stall #3). We were reluctant to go outside the hotel based operators, but with a good report from this other family who had used Roberto's services, we went for it.
Our first excursion was a day trip into the surrounding rural and community area. The first thing that I liked was that the cost was at least half to what we would have paid through the hotel and second, there was only 15 people in our group and two guides (Roberto and Sasha). We went into the vast sugar cane fields that employ mostly Haitians as the locals have refused to work for so little $. We were able to see the sugar cane being loaded onto rail cars and experienced the taste of raw sugar cane. A taste of these worker's lived reality was seen as we passed through the little shanty towns scatter throughout this area that house the workers and families.
We also went into the town of Higuey (Sp?) were we stopped and walked through (or at least tried to as we darted carts and motorcycles) their local sprawling market that was packed with vendors selling every kind fresh meat, all types of produce, sneakers, brooms.....you name it!
From there we had a short stop at the huge local Basilica before heading to a local farmer for a snack of fresh fruit and a chance to buy some of his produce. Next we went to a small family run business that produced cigars. We were able to see how cigars are made and samle and purchase their cigars. The best 'find' on this stop was huge bottles of locally produced vanilla.
Our next stop was a river boat tour on the Altos Chavon river. We boarded a pontoon boat were were danced and took in the beauty of the river. The highlight was making a stop for some water fun on the rope swing. Our last stop was for a meal of local dishes - WOW! It was an awesomely full day.
The second excursion with Roberto (again for a least half the hotel operators cost) was on water. This was a private excursion with just the nine of us and the Captain. We swam and snorkled in two locations off Catalinita Island and then onto the island for a short stop, over to Saona Island for a another fantastic meal, more snorkling and swimming, and over to the natural pools just off shore from the DR national park to swim and see star fish. Another fantastic day. For both of these excursions bottled water and cola was made available with the option of mixing it with some local rum if desired.
Resort meals. Mostly we ate at the buffets where there was ample food quantities and choices for all. We did try three a la cartes but I would say that they are nothing special. I found that the food avail in the a la cartes would also appear at some point in the buffet. If anything, the a la cartes offer a quiter meal atmosphere. Be aware that the centrally located ocean side a la carte charges a $20 pp fee but if you want a ocean side meal, check out the la Roco option on the Beach side of the resort.
Viva Vacation Club - you will be approached to participate in a one on one Viva Vacation Club presentation. Check it out - it may be worth your time - http://viva-vacation-club.com/ or
http://www.viva-vacation-club.com/eng/frontpage.aspx
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