edited review- Just returned on May 4th, we were there from April27th to May4th. This is about our 10th trip to Punta Cana. YES, we were very concerned about the previous reviews, Big Time. Yeah we got a good deal, so we went for the Paradise Club and hopefully in six months we can get the same deal - we will go back!

Beach chairs - not any problems - they must have received the shipment.

Just a note - we are not in our younger years (we both work full time, every day) and have a different agenda than a younger traveller (we used to be one). But just so you know, on our trip into the hotel we were with a young honeymoon couple that just loved it and had a great time!

Problems with ala carte restaurant? - none- however we do not eat at 5:30 or 6:30, even at home we usually eat at 7:30 or 8:00, in fact I just cleaned up from our diner and it:s 9:35. Ala carte restaurants were perfect for us; first we didn't go until 8:30 or 9:00 and waited, at the most 15 or 20 minutes. No you are not in a smoke infested restaurant. I smoke, my husband doesn't, never has and in the ala carte restaurants there is no smoking. In the buffet they have a section for those "nasty" people.

ALL of the staff spoke more English than any of the other resorts we have been to and worked extremely hard. They were more than happy to acommadate you and were very friendly.

We enjoyed the casino, it's only $5 at the black jack tables and they serve drinks. The poor serve has to go outside to another building to fill her orders, they should have a service bar in the casino. We played every night, in fact closed it some nights. In the end my husband won a couple of hundred and I lost $55 - horrors!

Our room was in building 1 and our room was 1272, second floor, with view of ocean and in front of pool. We were very near the beach, which is near the restaurant on the beach. You can sit and have a drink and eat, enjoy the scenery or be at the beach and come and eat :something". I can truthfully say that the food there was just okay, not great and the same all the time, but, hey, the surroundings were awesome and serene.

The buffet has a different theme every night and just so you know - you will not starve.

We did have one mosquito in our room at check-in and I made that little sucker disappear real quick. After about our 3rd day a can of bug spray appeared in our room, maybe we got someone else's, so I did spray the balcony, as not to waste it.

They have a beach party on Saturday nights and boy-o-boy do they try

We, two retired couples, stayed at the EdenH from April 12 – 26. We too had read all the reviews for months before we travelled and were very concerned, but since we had already been to three new 5-star properties (excellent, by the way) we were not overly concerned.

Many of the positive reviews are accurate, but many of the negative reviews also have merit. We believe the reviews reflect the occupancy rate during the particular week the reviewer was there. If you are getting great service, you let a lot of negatives slip by. The resort management should have enough experience to know the types of start-up problems that occur, should have had sufficient staff hired and trained, and after four months everything should have been running like clock-work.

We loved the layout and size of the resort, our rooms were spacious, lots of storage room, comfy beds and pillows, and a large safe. The maid service left a lot to be desired! The bed was made and the bathroom tidied up. Sometimes we got towels, other times not. Many times our wet towels were rehung on the shower door. The same sheets were on the bed for two weeks! Some days our room was still not made up at 4:30 when we returned from the beach.

The beach is awesome! Workers continuously picked up empty bottles and drink cups since there were no waste cans anywhere. There was no option but to place garbage under your beach chair since even if you took it back to the beach buffet area, there was no place to put it. We tipped these workers every few days; they did their jobs so quietly and patiently. Seaweed was raked every morning and carted away.

Staff in the buffet and a-la-cartes was friendly and outgoing. We didn’t have a lot of trouble getting into any restaurant, but even with long line-ups there were still empty tables inside because there simply was not enough staff to serve them. In our opinion, this resort has some really great staff that worked under very stressful conditions yet managed to keep a smile on their face. There were just not enough of them. Of particular note is Hostess Liby at the Shore Grill who took a lot of criticism about the lack of a reservation system from disgruntled guests who tried to bully their way in. She handled it with grace and poise and never let it get to her. We did have an instance at the Shore Grill when we requested a table for 6; after a lengthy wait we were given two tables, a booth for 4 and an adjoining table for 4 where two of us sat about 3 feet from the others. We were not permitted to move the table closer to the booth so we could talk. When a manager in a suit with the wine list came around, we kindly asked him if we could move the table against the booth since we were in an out of the way corner but he forbade us to move it since it was against company policy! Service in the buffet at breakfast was slow and the staff was overwhelmed at times. It was especially difficult to get coffee and some days you couldn’t even get a cup, let alone coffee to put in it. The pasta bar at lunch and dinner was excellent, as was the bread and cheese section. The rest of the food at the buffet was repetitive, not well identified, and mostly cold to barely warm. Table service in the evenings in the buffet was very good. Lunch menu at the beach buffet was excellent and included fresh salad, tasty fries, yummy grilled chicken and some of the best pizza ever!

Service was sorely lacking at the beach bar and the upper end of the swim up bar facing the beach buffet. If you weren’t a man or a young girl in a bikini, forget about getting served; they would just skip over you, even if you tipped or were holding money in your hand. If someone asked for a cerveza, they would serve them first and then forget your order. Many times we had to hold our arm out to interrupt the bartender from passing us by again. It was clear that they were overwhelmed by the constant line-ups and were always running out of something -- rum, ice, water, straws, etc. The lobby bar’s only blender broke down and they were unable to make slushy drinks. They also kept running out of wine glasses and served wine in thin plastic cups.

The chair war … oh, what can I say? There was no war among guests … the whole battle was with the guards! Some days by 6:15 am there wasn’t anything at the beach; you could still get a chair at the pool until shortly after 7, but there always seemed to be chairs at the VIP pools. Two of our group addressed this with the resort and we were told the resort had enough chairs for 2 people per room but that they were at full capacity with an average of 3 people per room. The resort was actually overbooked and large groups of people had been bumped to other resorts in the area and compensated with a free week or two depending on this year’s booking. Yet they still would not admit there was a problem with insufficient chairs and laid the blame solely on the shoulders of their guests. They “seem” to have a policy in place that you have to sit on your chair until 7 a.m. in order to reserve it, or if you are gone more than an hour the guards can remove your things. This “policy” changed daily according to the guards. Guards were being bribed to take things off chairs where people just arriving wanted to sit and that was that, even if the first group had just gone to breakfast. One guard wrote in the sand “45” minutes, another one wrote “30” to people complaining that someone had taken their things. We watched another guard take 4 towels at 5:15 in the morning and place them on a location saving them until 7:15 when one person showed up, slipped him money and left not returning until 10:45. This continued for 4 consecutive days even while they were stripping resort towels and all personal property off every other chair not occupied until 7 am. It got so bad that everyone was teaming up with their neighbours to keep an eye on their stuff so they could take a stroll, go to the bar and eat in shifts. After challenging a guard who tried to take his things, one gentleman became a target every morning by the guards and he felt he was being harassed by them. One day, after a particularly vicious sweep, one staff member was assigned to guard all confiscated property until a cart came, loaded it all up and took it to the lobby for safe-keeping. That’s where everyone had to go to retrieve their things. They also stopped some people from moving pool chairs to the beach while turning a blind eye while others did the same thing. That day there was almost a mutiny among the guests and the hotel received a lot of complaints about the chairs and the lack of service. There was a definite improvement in service the next day, and the guards were not quite as aggressive on the beach, but the same guard saved the same spot every morning for the same people.

Based on our experiences, we would rate the EdenH at 3.5 Stars at best but it has the potential of becoming a very nice 5-star some day. Some areas of the resort have an unfinished look and the resort already needs a lot of maintenance to address what looks like substandard workmanship. After a particularly heavy rainfall, there were numerous leaks all over the resort including one in the main lobby where a pot light was hanging out of the ceiling. In building 2, of the three sets of elevators that we accessed the first two were out of order the entire two weeks; the second set had one out of commission most of the two weeks, and one elevator in the third set had its 1st floor button hanging out of its socket by its wire for most of our stay. Power outages became a daily occurrence, sometimes three or four an evening, including the evening we were departing. We were in the baggage storage area with our hands on our luggage when the power went out, again, this time for about 20 minutes or more. Many people were in the dark with a lighter flame trying to find their luggage to load on their bus.

Although these aspects do not make or break your vacation, they do not contribute to the relaxing 5-star “spa” like experience advertised. Despite the frustrations we had a good vacation due to the many new friends we made and some of the really nice staff that we came to know.

Pat and Joe May 14/2008 Stayed at hotel Edenh Real Arenas Punta Cuna from May 3/08 to May 10/08 along with another couple (green bracelets) Beautiful Resort had a wonderful time food was very good had no problems with reservations got right in every night at 6:00 no waiting and we tried every one enjoyed the buffet good selection of food we even ate Dinner there one night and totally enjoyed it the staff were very freindly some days seemed to be busier than others at the bars but there wasn't any time that we had to wait very long for drinks as there always seemed to be lots of bartenders working and they would wait on people in turn there were a few people who were very agressive towards the staff as they thought they should be looked after right away instead of waiting there turn to be served these type of people should have stayed home and got there personal maid or butler to look after them if they had one it is a vacation so lighten up people enjoy don't take it out on other people We went to the beach every day and had no problems finding chairs and a papappi some days it wasn't right up front but we still enjoyed it We found the Gift shop a little pricey (exspecially on beer and cigars) One afternoon they had a Rum and Cigar tasting presentation and demostration down by the beach which we partisipated in we found this very informative and the rum tasting was very good we bought some cigars there which were wonderful and mild they were recommended by the vendor and the price was reasonable they also did a cigar rolling presentation as i don't actually smoke anymore but i do enjoy a good cigar once in awhile any way we would reccomend this resort to anyone and we would return again and it will only get better as they work out all the little things we had a ground floor room and yes there were Mosquitos but we had come prepared after reading some of the reveiws and a couple of shots of raid before leaving the room in the evening fixed the problem and yes we have stayed at other 5 star resorts in Punta cana and have something to compare it to

My husband and I stayed at the Edenh from May 9-12, 2008. I booked this as a last minute trip to celebrate our anniversary/new baby/
graduate school graduation, and it was recommended by our travel agent.

The one great thing about this resort is its proximity to the airport. We have been to Mexico and Jamaica, and our bus rides to the resort have been up near 2 hours long. We didn't want this on this trip since we were only there for 3 nights, so being close to the airport was a real plus. We were the first stop off of the Apple bus, and were on the beach within 6 hours of leaving Ohio. Upon check in, the staff was in a rush to check us in, even though there was only one other person ahead of us. They threw a check in sheet at us to fill out with no comments/explainations. Not the greatest greeting I've ever had at an all inclusive resort, but we were still excited to be there, and didn't think much of it. We were also not offered the pink bracelet VIP upgrade, so not sure if we looked a certain way, maybe they thought they weren't going to make money off of us or something. The bellhop was extermely helpful though. Our room was not ready when we got there at noon, so he showed us a changing room in the front of the hotel where we could change and get ready to hit the beach while they held our bags. Very nice set up. The beach and pool were both very nice and clean. We had no problems getting chairs and umbrellas. Only complaint about the pool umbrellas are that they are very cheap and kept breaking and falling over. Could probably use new ones already, and they aren't very old. The outdoor buffet was just mediocre. The food variety did not change much daily, and the hamburgers and hot dogs had a strange consistency. I know its hard to cook for so many people with such diverse backgrounds, but still wasn't great. The sit down restaurant was very good (we went to the steakhouse and the Italian), however, the wait staff was terrible. We were seated right away, but our server did not come to greet us for at least 15 minutes and was very unfriendly. Once they took our order, the food came out fast, but we had a hard time getting silverware and refills on our water. I kept feeling like we were the red-headed step childen on the resort. Maybe it was the fact we did not speak Spanish, and we very obviously look like Midwesterners. Had the same problems at the bar, we would stand there and wait for a drink, and other guests would get served first even though we were waiting first. And they would never make eye contact or make conversation with us even thought we tried. Not really sure what that was about....Our room was very nice and large. We had a first floor facing out to the other resort, which was fine by me since all we did was sleep there. Only a few mosquitos to complain about, but nothing we couldn't keep under control. Minibar was stocked daily, and room was very clean. The front desk was also not very helpful in providing guest information on the activities on the resort. We would have liked to know when we checked in that there was a pig roast on the beach the first night. We walked to the buffet, only to be told the buffet was on the beach that night. And there were fireworks the one night we missed b/c we never knew they were happening. We also didn't know they were showing a movie in the courtyard, maybe more for the kids, but I would have a least been given the option. We didn't know there was a show at 9PM most nights (maybe all nights, I never found out the answer). We tried to go to guest services for an activities calendar, but they referred us to the Apple girl, who refered us to the front desk, who told us they didn't have them, and then we just gave up. One other annoying thing is the people on the beach trying to sell you stuff. I was in the water not even facing the beach and a girl was yelling "hey" over and over again at me to get me to buy pictures. Other boys walk up and down the beach trying to see if we like to "party" and wouldn't leave you alone. I was actually sleeping on a chair the one time, and a guy woke me up to take a picture with a snake. Not fun to be propositioned over and over again when you are trying to enjoy the beach.

Overall, the beach was the nicest I've been too, weather was beautiful all day long, resort grounds are nice, everything is very clean, but the staff is lacking, and so is the buffet food. Maybe it is because they are so new, and maybe they are understaffed and overworked, but the service really needs to be improved upon. I probably would not recommend this hotel to my family or friends. Not the service or food I would expect from a 5 star hotel.