Stayed at the Caribe Club Princess from July 3 through July 6, 2008. The beach and pool was beautiful. The staff was friendly and helpful. But the few positives cannot outweigh all the negatives.

We used Apple Vacations and their staff was friendly and helpful. The Punta Cana airport was nice and easy to navigate. The Apple staff took us to the resort via airconditioned bus and it was about a 30 minute ride.

Check in was easy and we had no problems with the front desk. However, I read all the tripadvisor posts before leaving and found many of the same situations occurring during my stay. The room keys assigned by the front desk didn't work upon check in and it took about two hours for a new set of room keys to arrive.

The resort is fairly small, but the front desk/reception area is located a long distance away from the resort/rooms/pool area.

My biggest dissatisfaction with the Caribe Club Princess was the food. It was awful. I have travelled everywhere (throughout the caribbean and mexico) and have been able to find something to eat to survive. Not here. Buffet was terrible. Snack bar was even worse. Only thing edible was a the desert bar (ice cream). I pretty much starved for 3 days. The food was prepared very poorly and the Caribe Club did little for variety. The same food on the buffet showed up at the specialty restaurants at night.

The bread was always three days stale, the soda was watered down and the meat was always questionable. The service in the buffet was terrible, they pretty much ignore you (I was always polite and offered a tip..still didn't help.)

On the second day I got very sick to my stomach and spent the rest of my trip sitting on the toilet. My wife had many of the same ailments, but not as bad as mine. I am still sick (3 days later) as I write this review. I did not drink anything but bottled water and only at the buffet once.

The best part about the Caribe Club is the pool area and beach. The beach is amazing and one of the best I've seen. The pool is great. The activity staff goes out of their way to keep everyone entertained. The pool bar is staffed by "Jose", who has a great personallity and aims to please. His drinks are strong and fast. Jose pushes a native drink called "mamjuana", which is served as a shot. Mamjuana is a rum based drink with honey, cinamon and some local tree roots or bark. Jose was a bright spot for our trip everyday in the pool.

This resort is primarily habitated by non-American guests. People from Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Germany, UK and Italy were all represented during our stay. Some of the guests from Puerto Rico were rather rude at times and became annoying at the pool, but they are from a different culture than Americans. Some of the travelers from Europe were not so courteous as well.

We left the resort one day to tour a local cigar-maker since we were told that many of the cigars sold in the local stores in Punta Cana were forgeries. The prices at the local cigar-maker were much cheaper and well worth the money for the cab ride.

Check out was easy at the Caribe Club. Apple provided a large air-conditioned bus again and transportation to the airport was very good. Leaving the Dominican Republic is much more of a hassle than getting there. They only had one crew working the security check point that was servicing the entire airport (probably 10-15 flights within a 2 hour period). This took forever and was not air conditioned. Therefore, all visitors were boarding their airplanes uncomfortable with sweaty attire.

Overall, I would consider returning to the Dominican Republic in a few years, but would not stay or recommend the Caribe Club Princess. On the flight home another couple told us about their stay at the Paradisius and they had identical complaints.

I will probably go back to the Mexican Riviera Maya for a quick inexpensive getaway next time.

I am not generally a negative person, but I felt compelled to write this review. If you are going to Punta Cana, I would suggest paying some extra $$$ and going to a resort that is 5 star or better....then maybe this won't happen to you.

After reading some of the reviews on here I was apprehensive about this trip, but overall it was a good place especially for the money.

First the good.... The rooms were all close to the pools, beach and restaurants which was a big plus for me. My room was always clean, the firdge was always stocked with plenty of soda and water and most importnatly the air conditioner kept the room VERY cold. Jose at the pool bar made the day at the pool fun and entertaining, the local beer is pretty good. The mexican specialty restaurant was EXCELLENT I could eat there every day (I suggest the chicken fajitas). One nice thing was they did not limit the number of nights you could eat at the specialty restaurants you just had to make reservations.

Now the not so good.... If you can get a soda in the restaurants when they finally came out they were so watered down you might as well drink water. I was beginning to think that maybe Domincans did not drink anything with their meals because there were times we had our main course of food before they would even take a drink order. The food on the buffet was not good, lots of fish and other items most americans arent accustomed to eating. There were lots of locals from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic that came in Friday night and "took over" the pool bar on Saturday, I say took over because they were so loud and obnoxious that no one wanted to be there anymore.

Overall this was a good trip and I would definitely go back to Punta Cana, adn would consider going back to Caribe Club Princess if the price were right again.

We arrived at Punta Cana on 9th June and after collecting our luggage made our way to the Caribe Club Princess. On arrival we were served juice and checked in pretty quickly. We got a safe key and hopped on the transport and were taken to our rooms. The bellboys followed on with our heavy suitcases.

Our room was on the top floor of the building and overlooked the back which was fine. The room was clean and tidy and the air conditioning was great.

All staff were friendly and I'd like to say hi to Clifford down near the beach area selling trips, he was always polite and said hi.

We had a massage near the pool which was great.

We loved the bar down next to the beach after the shows and the lobby entertainment. It was so nice to chill out on the beach.

The entertainment/shows were good especially the lion king and the dancers were fab.

We had such a great time and we thought the food was fine. We also booked into the Brazillian Restaurant and the Chinese which were both very good.

All in all a great holiday and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. I especially enjoyed all the rum and coco loco's.

We returned home Tuesday June 24 after 7 night stay with party of 7, 4 adults, 3 children. Overall the physical plant, buildings,pools and grounds are in very good condition. The beach is beautiful, the rooms clean. Basically we had a delightful time. The only major complaint was the quality of the food. Having stayed in all inclusives in Mexico and in Puerto Plata, DR and elsewhere this was the WORST food we have ever encountered. The best meal was breakfast, as for lunch and dinner forget it. The staff is very poorly trained both at front desk and dining room, however bars and housekeeping staffs were well trained. This hotel could be excellent with an improvement in the dining room.