I am delighted that others share the same opinions that I have and am horrified that anyone would have at least an 'OK' time there - it was amazing and I could not fault one single thing!!!!!

We arrived and werent satisfied with our rooms and without having to make a fuss, we were shown around 6 - 8 different rooms which we could choose from. The above reviews mentioned the old furniture and small rooms??? Couldnt be further from the truth - all you have to do is look on their website to see the beautiful rooms. And every room is different so some rooms may have a huge bathroom with lots of hanging space but a smaller sleeping area while others have the biggest beds I have ever seen, an enormous seperate lounge area and a smaller bathroom. We dealt with the reception staff, duty managers and general manager and ALL were very helpful!!

In terms of the guests, there was a mixture. I was there with my boyfriend and his parents however there were young couples, middle-aged couples, old couples, families, groups of 3/4 girls/guys and some bigger groups. Everyone was so friendly and its amazing to see groups forming and exchanging phone numbers/addresses just after one week!! And having no kids was great!!

All the pools were great however the busier the pool bar gets the messier that pool gets - just with floating plastic cups etc. - although its all inclusive and people drink there all day long. The pool is cleaned very thourghly twice a day though. In fact, speaking about cleanliness - this hotel is absolutely spotless!!! There is always a cleaner or a maintenance guy doing something to the premises.

The staff are ALL great and again, will do anything for you. The restaurants are brilliant - I think people often think that buffets will be the same food every night and that it sits out all night - well not at Bluebay!!!! Everynight there is a different theme so there's maybe chinese/thai one night (selection of noodles, rices, meats), mexican the next (fajitas and tacos), italian (pasta and pizzas), american (burgers and hotdogs) but there is always a huge salad/pasta counter, make-your-own pasta counter, deserts counter, healthy option corner and potatoes/fries, etc so you never get hungry!!!! And you see the chefs taking a tray of meat away when its only half empty and replacing it with a fresh batch - even if its been out for 5 mins!!!

And lastly, the animation team are incredible!!! Firstly, they are the nicest people you can meet and they all work soooo hard at their job. There is water aerobics, vollyball, water polo, spanish lesson, basketball, beach activities, cooking lesson, darts, etc. during the day. The team will come around and ask if you want to join in but they're not pushy at all and in fact, I never joined in - but now I wish i had. They're doing their job so all you have to do is say no if you're not interetsed and they'll leave you alone. Every night they put a different show on which always funny!!! They dress up, etc. and I've never seen an entertainment team like them - Robert, Tony, Lorenzo, Tino, Pineapple, James Bond, Pirueta, DJ Rok and Michaelo = you can see their humour from their names!!!

I have just returned and I already want to go back this year - if not I will have to wait for next summer and I will be counting down the weeks because it was amazing, best holiday ever!!

AND PLEASE IGNORE THOSE REVIEWS THAT DISAGREE WITH MINE OR OTHERS THAT RATE THIS HOTEL - I WAS THERE MOST RECENTLY AND I HONESTLY COULDNT FAULT IT - I GUESS SOME PEOPLE JUST FEEL THE NEED TO EXTEND THE TRUTH AND MAKE UP RUBBISH - EVEN WHEN WE DID HAVE A PROBLEM, THE STAFF WERE THERE TO FIX IT ASAP!!

BLUEBAY VILLA, DOMINICAN = INCREDIBLE!!!

I wont lie, what do you expect when you book a hotel whih advertises as being 'Kids Free'? I wasnt too sure either. Innitially thoughts were 'Maybe that means what it says' which developed to 'Oh my god, we (girlfriend and I) will be getting pestered non stop by other 'more open' relationships. Thankfully it was the earlier case!

On entry you are greeted immediately by the Porter (Never asked once for a tip) and a Receptionist (We got Yiemi). A seat and a drink is offered while you go through the hotels details. As with the rest of the holiday, these staff members along with everyone else could not do enough for you. Friendly, happy and enthusiastic to say the least. The standout team though have to be the entertainment team or Animation team. They live and breathe making the holiday makers time one to remember. They talk to you, laugh with you, make you laugh, teach you the dumbest and funniest things, and seems like they work round the cloth. I mean they are there from 9am and end there day only once they have escorted you to the local club, Coco Bongo. Ones to look out for, Pineapple, 50/50, James Bond, Lorenzo, Tino, Fatty Fatty Almeida. I am sure there are others but names escape me.

As for the hotel facilities, what more could you want? 3 Swimming pools, a spa, a gym, a buffet (Adalberto is the best waiter ever*?), 3 A la carte restaurants, private beach, 100+ sun loungers at the pool and the same again at the beach. The rooms were always clean, at night you even got the towels put into little shapes (Swan, Heart, Eiffel Tower. Ok, maybe not the tower but you get the idea)

Like i mentioned in my title, it is the people that make the difference. With No children policy peopple seem to get on immediately with each other as they have no one to see to first. Dave & Simone, Jo & Minah, Mark & Katie, Mark & Cas, George & 'glam' Jan, Del & Diane to name a few. So good were the meetings with some of these people that arrangements have been made to meet again and have even been invited to a wedding (Congrats again D & S).

Basically, if you are humming and hawing on wether to go or not, then wonder no more. Pack your bags!

It is hard to know which reviews to trust, as it is difficult at times to recognize the biased opinions people are coming from. I want to try to stick to the facts so that this review will be as helpful as possible.

My husband and I stayed at Blue Bay from August 4-9. We went to the Iberostar Costa Dorada for 5 days after Blue Bay (I would recommend that hotel probably over this one if the price is right). I had contacted the hotel to tell them that we would be celebrating our anniversary and my husband's birthday. Our first impressions of the hotel were that everything was well-manicured, and very clean.

ROOMS:
We were taken to an upgraded room which we were given free of charge because of our celebrations. This means that we got a bigger room with two chairs in it and a patio, which was really sweet of them to do. When we walked up to the room, there were three maintenance workers in the room, with every outlet literally pulled out of its socket and painting happening. The guys just smiled and told us to come in and wait. We immediately went back to the reception and asked for a different room (something I had hoped not to have to do as many people have talked about having to switch rooms several times). Well, we were told to wait for the same room for almost two hours. When we returned to the same room, it smelled strongly of paint and cleaner and some kind of air freshener. The toilet wouldn't flush (and had pubic hairs on it which someone else also mentioned on tripadvisor), and the shower wouldn't drain. This was too much. I marched back to reception with tears in my eyes (we had waited hours at this point) and was shown to a regular standard room where my husband and I slept on two separate "queen" beds instead of a king. The bathroom was bigger though, and I would say the switch was totally worth it (meaning that the upgrade - especially if you pay for it - is not).

I will include pictures of the lack of quality of the room. The pillows literally felt like they were filled with cotton balls, in the sense that the padding was balled up. The roof didn't quite meet the wall, so there were a few nice holes to let in whatever creatures may want to visit. The remodel of the bathrooms was not done with excellence, as the ill-fitting door handles and paint/caulk jobs attest. I wouldn't recommend a room on the top floor, because there was something living on or in the roof that kept me up every night we were there.

POOL AREA:
The pool are was nice. The chairs were always clean and easy to find even if we slept in. The pool definitely had a filmy gloss to it each day by about 9am. I am not sure if it needed to be cleaned more or if people were just not waiting long enough after putting on oil to jump in. I would recommend the spa pool. Much quieter.

BEACH:
AMAZING. Great swim areas, great beach beds, always enough palapas. We never once had serious problems with the vendors. We told the Blue Bay Vacation Club people that we had "already gone" to the presentation (we had not) and they didn't harass us at all. The vendors were fun. We just tried to turn things around and thank them for wanting to buy us something. We scared them off because they thought we really didn't understand and might take something.

FOOD:
This really is purely a matter of opinion. I know it is one of the main reasons many book hotels, but it is so hard to say if it is "good" or "bad." It is true you can only eat at the a la cartes three times. The buffet, however, has a different theme each night, so the food is rarely the same. I really liked the Jade Garden restaurant. The seafood was ok and the grill was ok. Many have posted about "hating" this a la carte or that, but I would bet that they just didn't like what they ordered. If you go and don't like what you order, order something else! At Jade Garden I couldn't decide what to get and the waiter just told me he would bring both dishes. That was good, because I absolutely loved one and hated the other. It is all a matter of trying until you find something you like. The lemon chicken and passage to Asia were GREAT. The service in the a la cartes was also fantastic. It is true as some say that there are a lot of flies in the buffet. I am surprised that more of the food is not covered. If you eat in the buffet I would just say to go early so that the flies haven't been sitting there for long.

**ALCOHOL**:
I am shocked that not many people have discussed the details of this. I have heard people say "below bottom shelf" and things like that, but without explanation. Not being a big drinker my husband and I weren't too worried. We realized we should have asked more questions. The ONLY brand of alcohol they serve is "Normandy" which I have NEVER heard of. They make everything from tequila to amaretto to rum to ... you name it. And it isn't good. It is like going to the grocery store and buying the store brand. Sure we all do it sometimes, but not on the bigger items where taste is involved. I overheard one hilarious man say, "I am [-] bricks because of this crap they are serving" to his friends. It sounded so elegant in a British accent. And oh so true.

ENTERTAINMENT:
The animation team was very engaging. They pulled everyone up to dance each night, were mingling with everyone, could speak several languages, they were really great. The shows were ok, but aren't they always just so-so? They worked really hard on the shows, which was impressive.

All in all this was a nice budget vacations. I am not giving this three stars because it was bad, but because it was nothing special, just average. Good, but average.

Gonna keep this short and sweet...Ignore bad reviews, hotel very clean, rooms basic but clean, I've travelled for over 25 yrs now to all inclusive resorts, to mention a few, Jack Tars, Super Clubs, RIU, and many 3 star resorts right in the Playa Dorado complex, Recieved best service at Blue Bay, food was good, not as good as Super Club Resorts, but very good, and I paid 1/2 the price as I did for a Super Club...so that in all makes it a GREAT AFFORADLE holiday, lots to do and see in Puerto Plata area.
Most important since I love to travel and check out new places I will add, I have never gone to same resort twice in my whole life, but I have booked Blue Bay AGAIN, for this January. All in all that should sum it up for you!! Any questions e-mail me at
Evelyn_Wahl@yahoo.ca I will do my best to help you..

Happy holidays to all and safe travelling!!!