It's a great place to get a lot of sun. The pool was a bit dirty and there were no taxis during late evening or night. The buffet is ok. I advise you to try the other types of food as well. There is a great place for drinks (peach ice tea, frappaccino e.t.c.). The seats for the beach are filled up very soon so go put your stuff there in the morning or you will be sitting on the sand. The mini-mart there is expensive and not worth it. DO NOT buy sun tan lotion there. Floaties are great for the pool (do not buy that there either though you can). The shows aren't that great. A little boring. But i found it a pretty good place. The rooms were clean. There are misquito's there.

Stayed here 31st July - 14th August 08. Large group of 22 ages ranging from 15 - 52.

We had a fantastic time at Ocean Sands. We set up base camp 1 at the blue pool and loved the cushions on the beds. The blue pool is the quiet pool and is very relaxing. Never had a problem getting beds or umbrellas, although there was a shortage of umbrella pins (which keep umbrella up). There were a few occasions when we put the umbrella up went for a walk for 10-15 mins came back and the pin was gone.

Also on certain days the pool did look a bit grubby. We did see someone cleaning it on different days, but the edge of the pool where you enter there was always a dark tide mark.

Room was fine, we were in block 8. Maid was excellent our room was cleaned every day and fresh drinks left in our fridge. Other people in our party did not tip and complained that only their bed was made. We always leave a few dollars tip each day in case the maid who cleaned our room is off on the last day. Beds lovely. Loved the jacuzzi bath, it took 20 mins to fill it!!! AC was great although my husband swears he chased a polar bear out from our room!!! I like it nice and cold!

We met Julie62 from this forum in the sea. I couldnt believe it. She was there with her lovely family and we had a great chat while relaxing in the waves.

The beach is unbelievable. gorgeous soft white sand, beautiful blue sea. Photos do not do it justice it really is that beautiful. Enjoyed haggling with the beach vendors who were all very friendly.

I loved the food. We didnt get to eat in the Italian. My only gripe would be to change the a la carte to bookings only. Every time we went to one there was always a 1-2 hour wait. Towards the end of the holiday we decided to wait and only waited 20-30 mins so not sure if the wait time is accurate.I guess its hard for them to judge and they probably want to err on the side of caution. Route 66 was our favourite. The mozarella sticks and steak were my fav. Mexican was revolting we went to the buffet afterwards. Caribbean grill and domenican both good.

I loved the buffet plenty of choice. The oriental corner was my favourite. My only complaint is that it is very hard to get a drink in the buffet or get a table set up. We always ate in group of 7 or 9 so we needed a big table. We often set it up ourselves. The waiters would bring 2 glasses of water and we would spend the next 20 mins trying to get more. In the end we got our own drinks from the bar on our way in. This is a minor complaint and this was our 3rd visit to the Caribbean and had never had this problem before. We found either the waiters were very good or very bad.

The teenagers in our group had the best holiday ever. We felt very safe letting them go off and explore. They were so busy they never even did the bowling nor did we!!

The sports bar was our favourite drinking hole. The karoke night was the best. The staff were excellent always happy and drinks non stop.

We did two trips via First Choice. The outback safari which was good we had a great day.

Do not do the speed boat trip it is a waste of money. There was a lot of time spent changing boats, mooring up etc. We actually spent 10 minutes driving each way from a trip that left the hotel at 13.45 and got back at 19.00. Then we had to wait for german tourists to finish their shopping before the coach could leave. Very frustrating. Do not waste your money or even more importantly your holiday time on this trip. The 20 mins driving the boats was awesome, but the waiting around was painful.

Overall we had a great time here. Very relaxing met some great people Any complaints are very minor and I would recommend anyone to go here.

If you have any problems go to your tour rep. The front desk staff are rubbish. We had one day when our key did not work. We spent 3 hours in our swimsuits running back and forward to reception trying to get into our room. Eventually, after my husband finally lost it in reception, they sent maintenance. They could not get in with their master key so they went to the room next door climbed over the balcony, knocked the pin out the patio door and got in that way. The reception staff are all a waste of time, they do nothing to help you. Luckily this was our only contact with them.

Flights with First Choice were excellent as always.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Stayed here from 31 July to 14 August 2008 & couldn't have had a better time anywhere. This was my second visit to DR & I wasn't disappointed.

Flight with First Choice was good even though we where slightly delayed, only problem was they where quite late bringing the first lot of food round - bearing in mind that we had been up since 3.a.m & had nothing to eat. The food areas at North Terminal leave a lot to be desired & as it was relatively early most of the shops hadn't stocked up on food items. If I had known about the food choices at North I would have gone back down to South at least theres a McDonalds there for the kids!

Arrived at Punta Cana same time as about 4 other planes but nevertheless it didn't take long to get through immigration collect bags & be on our coach.

Check in at Ocean Sands was very organised - everyone ushered through to what appeared to be a conference room where we where given our room details & fitted with wrist bands.

Off to our rooms & 5 minutes later luggage arrived.

One problem - safety deposit box had been left closed by previous occupants - phone call down to reception & within 10 minutes maintenance & security men arrived & proceeded to open the safe. Couldn't have asked for speedier service.

Rooms are very big, but unfortunately where rather bare (no pictures on the walls) & also a little tired looking. Bathroom too was huge but some maintenance required here - several of the fittings where coming away form the walls & toilet flush handle had been broken & glued together. But hey we weren't here to spend our 2 weeks in the room. The air con unit was very noisy & turned it off the 1st night only then to have the noise of the fridge in the background. We then spent the rest of the 2 weeks going to sleep with earplugs in - couldn't do without the air con.

The general appearance of the hotel is well presented - all the restaurants & entertainment away from the bedrooms. All of the public areas where extremely clean & well looked after.

We ate in all of the restaurants apart from the ones which you have to pay. Our favourite was the Mexican - food & service brilliant. Route 66 food & service appalling - don't bother with this one!

Buffet had a large choice but if you ate here every night I am sure it would be rather repetetive.
The beach restaurant was great at lunch - able to get pizza, chicken chips etc & take these back to the sunbed on the beach to eat. Deserts served here where also good but you had to be there early when it opened as the best quickly went & where not replaced - lovely chocolate gateuax.

At night this restaurant was also very good & we ate here 3 times. Never seemed to be very busy - probably because it wasn't in the main section & also I think that some people thought it was the restaurant on the beach which you had to pay extra for. Witnessed several weddings during our stay & this was where they had there receptions.

Mikes - excellent - drinks & cakes. Sometimes took a take away Latte back to the room at night.

The beach went on for miles & was beautiful white sand. Would often get up & walk for between 1-2 hours every morning at 7ish. The seaweed would always be raked away by the hotel cleaners along the way.

Spent most of our days at the beach - the pool tended to be too hot & on the beach 4 people where able to get shade unlike at the pool only 2 under an umberella. Believe me you will need shade between 12 & 2 - very hot.

The sea was lovely & warm, clean & clear.

One evening my son got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom only to find a puddle of water on the floor - air con unit was leaking Phone call to reception & someone was there within 15 minutes & had it fixed. Can't understand the previous reviews I read where people said they where waiting ages for things to be repaired.

All in all we had a wonderful time. Hope to go back again to DR - its the only place I have wanted to return to & hopefully will be back again.

We stayed from 31st July - 14th August with my children aged 13 and 10.

Flight
We flew with First Choice in standard seating and upgraded the IFE for £5 each - well worth it. You can watch films at your convenience. Service on both journeys was good.

Transfer
Very good - one drop-off at Barcelo and on departure, we went straight to the airport. On arrival at the hotel, Reception directed us to a conference room where First Choice guests were given them their room allocation and towel cards.

Room
The room was massive and certainly adequate for a family of 4.
It had 2 double beds and even the sofa bed was like a proper single bed, unlike our recent experience in Fuerteventura where the sofa bed had seen better days. Exactly what I had asked for in my email and overlooked the blue pool.

Maid service was good - they worked very hard. We sometimes had loads of towels and at other times barely any, but we just asked for more as they were usually somewhere in the vicinity.

Although I understand standard rooms do not get beer replaced, we did ask via a little note in Spanish, and these were left in our fridge.

We felt the bathroom needed updating. Several fittings were loose or hanging off and the towel rail above the bath was quite dangerously loose. We made 3 requests to get this fixed, and finally asked the First Choice Rep to intervene, which seemed to do the trick.

Food & Drink
This was the best thing about Ocean Sands. We had deliberately picked a hotel that had plenty of bars and restaurants, as we hate to do the same thing every day, and Ocean Sands certainly delivers. Buffet food was great - loads of choices - the kids preferred this, but we also ate in the Italian, Mexican and American Diner. Our favourite was the Italian. Food was top quality. Service in all 3 was excellent. Service in the buffet restaurants was a bit hit and miss, but it didn't really worry us.

Our favourite bars were Overtime (best service), the Lobby Bar (had good atmosphere) and best of all, a relaxing tea-time drink before getting ready at the Beach Bar overlooking the ocean.

Entertainment
The kids didn't participate in the organised activities. They were more than happy with the Climbing Wall and Strike and during our second week the Teen Club opened which was a real hit (its upstairs in Strike, but we didn't see any signs indicating this, so would be easy to miss if you didn't know). It's called a Teen Club but it actually caters for kids from ages 7. The club rules state you need to show a membership card, but this wasn't introduced during our stay. It has several TVs with WII consoles, pool tables, table hockey and a big plasma screen. It gets very busy at night, but is quite during the day if the kids want to get out of the hot sun.

Pools/Beach
We used both pools, but found the blue pool to be quieter, although very hot with little sea breeze. We also used the beach which was gorgeous. We're not usually beach people but this beach was so incredible, we just couldn't resist. Kids swam in the sea for the first time and loved it.

Airport
We found Punta Cana airport chaotic on departure, and the First Choice rep was nowhere to be seen. We were directed to a queue for another flight leaving after ours and it was only when we queried it that someone came over and directed us to the correct queue.

I knew from previous experience that we had to fill out a departure form and found some on a desk. We saw everyone doing this in a mad rush before going through security - a very long queue!

We did notice there is a lot of building work going on, so hopefully there will be an improvement in the near future.

Summary
This was the best holiday we've had - exactly what we've been looking for - we didn't want to leave. The weather was perfect every day with thunderstorms in the early evening. Good quality, family time together. Our only criticism would be general housekeeping - if the management addressed this, I would call this hotel perfect. We will definitely return.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.