Tropical Princess Hotel

17-31 July, 2008. We are a family of four with a son of 12 and a daughter of 10 from London, UK. We have previously read lots of reviews of the Tropical Princess, some good and some bad. All those people who were not happy with the resort need to seek help – where have you been before? The room was superb, the maid service even better, food and waiters were well beyond our expectations, pools and beach clean and fantastic. The weather was superb for 14 days, and we had an absolute blast. We ate at the buffet and could always find something interesting and delicious – full marks there! We would cheerfully have stayed another month without running out of things to do and all were very sad to return home (yesterday!).
We loved speaking (dreadful) Spanish to the staff and were very grateful for their enthusiasm and assistance. We admired the animation (entertainment) staff who worked all day then moved to the Serenata Theatre to entertain us in the evenings.
With regard to Thomson, I am not sure that we would book with them again. The flight to Punta Cana was good and the transfers on time but advice from the resort rep proved inaccurate and expensive. A big deal was made of the Anton Zilli food, which turned out to be stewed sausage and mash or inedible pasta. The flight home was bitterly cold, devoid of any explanation but with lots of blankets distributed.

The hotel, beach and staff were fantastic.
The food was terrible. I went for a week and didn't eat a thing, I tried but it was disgusting. I bought pringles from the shop and ate them for a week. Everyone we spoke to had someone in their party who'd had food poisoning! One lad got took to hospital for 3 days because he was found collapsed in his room due to food poisoning. Food was always cold and had lots of flies on it.
This holiday was booked as a surprise for me by my partner for my birthday back in September, I then found out Tropical Princess had been on GMTV twice due to food poisoning. I went into my local Thomson in Hull, England to discuss my concerns and ask if we could change hotels. The girl in Thomson said she had never heard of the food poisoning outbreaks and that all the Thomson reviews were fine (I now know they were fine because Thomson don't let bad reviews appear on their website, has I have tried to leave one) she told me I couldn't change hotels without losing my deposit my partner had already paid.
The Thomson rep was hard to get hold of, people were desperate to speak to her and when we asked the reception staff to contact her we were told they couldn't because there was no contact number for her and that we had to ring Thomson in England!!!!!!
The food on both the outbound and return flight was also cold. The TV entertainment was exactly the same on the return flight as it was on the outbound flight. 9 hours is a long time to watch exactly the same stuff.
I learnt from this holiday nightmare NEVER to book a holiday with Thomson again and I urge you to think twice before you do!

The food was terrible - the breakfast never changed, the lunches were boring. The only restaurant that was good was the Pilon. Unless you tipped the staff at the buffet, service was terrible also. We found the bar server at the pool bar crude and inappropriate - performing sex acts on stuffed animals, bananas, etc. We were a group of 27 people. All but a few were affected by something at the resort and were ill for a week or more after coming home. I have been travelling since 1988 and it is the first time I have had ill effects from a Resort. I would say their lack of cleanliness in food, drink or ice accounts for it. We also had problems with things being stolen from our rooms. One person had $75 stolen. I had minor things stolen, but totally unacceptable. I will never stay at a Princess Hotel again.

Firstly, the Tropical Princess and the Caribe Club Princess are the same, the only difference is that one offers you 3 extra visits to the Al-la-carte restaurants, the main food hall, swimming areas, clubs for kids etc are all the same.
Off to a very bad start from the moment we arrived at the hotel, the room upgrade we'd paid for wasn't available. Hotel receptionist refused to believe us, the rep wasn't much help either saying that Thompson in the UK don't inform them of anything. According to the receptionist, the room we had upgraded to didn't exist. It was only when my wife managed to dig out the confirmation paperwork did the rep believe us and hey presto...the room we had upgraded to did not only exist but there was one available.
On arrival in the room, we were extremely disappointed. The sheets were a dirty grey colour and very creased (as if recently slept in??), blankets were old, worn and threadbare. There was a very large water stain on the ceiling above the bed in the main bedroom, both wardrobes in both rooms, the doors were either stuck fast and couldn't be moved or hanging off. The main door had a large gap between the frame and the space in the wall. After further investigation, while walking through the hotel, it was noticeable that this condition was present in most of the rooms. Towels were also very grey and not white, and usually not enough for the number of us staying in the room.
Used a total of 7 magnetic keys during the 1 week stay as there were continual problems gaining entrance to the room.
Had to complain en-masse with others who arrived on the day we did, to get a safe key, had to carry all valuables with us for the first 24 hours and then the only way we could get a safe key was to pay for the whole week. $24 for a service which is free in most other hotels.
The food was very boring and offered little change each evening, felt very sorry for those who were there for 2 weeks. Couldn't confirm it but on the day before we left, I thought I had seen a rat in the eating area.
The rep was rarely on site, not her fault entirely as Thomson had given her 7 other locations to look after / supervise.
Thomson on site had no record of the flight upgrade we had paid for and we were told it was not possible to have only requested an upgrade for the return overnight flight. Had to make a call at our expense to have Thomson UK fax the confirmation to the hotel so a copy could be given to the rep.
The rather large Thomson rep at the airport also didn't believe we had upgraded and had another rep check on this.
The pool areas were very nice though, it has to be said, three very large pools with plenty of sun bed availability. Easy access to the beach where there were also plenty of sunbeds.
In 2007 we had stayed further north at the Riu Mambo, also a Thomson resort, spend the few extra £'s and stay there instead, it'll be worth it and something we wish we had done.

The Tropical Princess resort was definitely an amazing experience. There was plenty to do everyday. There are organized sport games throughout the day such as beach volleyball, darts, ping-pong, shuffle board, soccer, water polo and more! There is a mini golf coarse which is always open for use, and at anytime during the day you can rent out boogey boards or snorkels, balls and board games.
The scenery was breathtaking. The white sand beaches are arguable the best in North America and the resort is surrounded by many beautiful palm trees.
The food was fantastic! there is a buffet that is open during breakfast, lunch and dinner. when the buffet is closed, there is another snack shop right on the beach full of more tasty food. after that closes, a crepe factory opens for a nice dessert.
There was however a few things that should be noticed. Some of the people who worked there (servers, maids, etc.) did not speak English at all and only Spanish. For the most part many of the workers spoke English, but not very clearly.
Otherwise, the trip overall was one that I will remember for a long time as a fantastic trip.