В отеле ремонт! The hotel is under renovation!

The hotel was chosen for the promotion, of all the offers there was one 11 + 1 day for the same money as other hotels for 9-10 days. The hotel has a great location, right on the Atlantic Ocean. But there is but that there was no information anywhere that renovations were underway and half of the hotel was closed. In the second half there would be a second beach, water activities, a disco, restaurants, bars. And so they cut down the already not entertaining hotel. Animation about which some wrote a complete zero. 15 animators walk and wander, but there is no sense from them. The schedule says that the whole day of entertainment. As a result, once in 12 days we saw that the animators went to the beach, took out darts and some kind of ball game, did not invite anyone who was next to them and played. I have a comparison with Tunisia, where the animators went to invite everyone to dances, games, disco, volleyball, it was fun, but then silence. It may be normal for someone to lie on a sun lounger all day, but we didn’t want to, and the rest also sat all day in a bar on the beach with a bored look. In the evening, it’s generally a kapets, like a show every day, but they dance and put on stupid chuckles and some animators in Spanish, it would be better if they arranged dances for vacationers. The rooms were cleaned every day, they put water, cola, sprite in the mini bar every day. The staff is friendly. The ocean is gorgeous, without big waves, clean, transparent. The beach is clean. Sun loungers are free, umbrellas are charged $ 3, but you can tighten the sun lounger under the trees, they go there in a strip and do without an umbrella. I don’t know about the entire Dominican Republic, but in Sosua and Puerto Plata the locals are tinny, it’s better not to mess with them, they are also fooling and indignant. There were 2 cases with us and one was seen in another couple. Locals were allowed into the hotel grounds to weave braids. One of them comes up to me, says let's braid 2 braids for $ 35, I tell her that for that kind of money, I'll braid them myself, she catches up and said, for a braid for $ 5. I think it's ok, let's go. When the dude braided her pigtails, I get up, she told me - 10 dollars, I say that we agreed for 5, from where 10, she misunderstood me, 5-1 pigtails, although she clearly explained and showed in the photo that 2 braids. She said take 5 and for now, but it wasn’t there, the local began to wave her hands, to be indignant, no need for 5, I want 10, I put 5 for her and left. The second case is even worse. We decided to go from Sosua to Puerto Plata on the funicular, a taxi costs 70 dollars, you can bargain up to 40, and a motorbike with a driver is 10-15 dollars. We approach the motorbike, we say who will be lucky on the funicular, a man drives up and says let's go, we already decided to clarify everything before the trip, like that 15 dollars for two, he waves his mane yes, they showed that the funicular and from it nod yes, there we have to wait until the funicular rides us, nods yes, we say without deception, the final amount is $ 15 and no more, then you don’t have to say that the amount is different, waves yes. What do you think, he brings it from the funicular and tells you $ 30, because $ 15 is only one way. We say go to hell, it's 15, nooo, he began to gather locals around us, they surrounded us with a ring, like he has a family and everything, they began to threaten the police. Elm left their circle and said, if you want the police, ok, only at our hotel there will be a call and our representative, security will be present. We came to the hotel with him, the security listened to him in Spanish, kicked him out of the hotel, like take 15 dollars and get out, this is a good price, don't be driven. We decided not to contact the locals at all, we didn’t want to spoil the impressions of the country. Although local, but they are also visitors from Haiti and all sorts of skeletons, they know their worth, absolutely on all excursions they told us that 2-3 dollars in a tip is a humiliation for them, give us 10 dollars, extortionists are still the same. In short, the frost has saved us more than once, pretending that we do not understand either Spanish or English. And so everything is fine, the ocean + beautiful views + the staff at the hotel, except for the animator, bartenders, chefs are positive guys, they smile, they joke. Bottom line: the main thing is not to let the negativity overcome you, but I would not come to this hotel again, just like in Puerto Plata.