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Stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Turquesa, DR and boy were we disappointed.

March 27th - May 3rd 2015

Paid $1,105 pp x 2 = $2210

Another $30 for room safe (all inclusive my ass)

Another $50 for wifi because it was only free wifi for 1 hr (another mislead)

$1000 additional as we left the resort and stayed somewhere else because we were so unhappy.

Everyone between Transat, Bahia and itravel2000 is passing the buck on this one onto the other.

First off the resort is MONSTROUS and that s no understatement! I ve been to Punta Cana 8 times and stayed at smaller resorts to larger properties like Riu. We re both well travelled to over 30 destinations worldwide and my partner and I are both smart people and it took us a week to get our bearing and find all the different restaurants and activities at the many different resorts. The resort was too spread out and amenities to shows were not communicated. Thus, it was a trial and error approach to see what was available, included or offered.

The map that was presented of our resort (Bahia Principe Turquesa) was extremely misleading. It appeared as one resort (there is no scale). Turns out there are 5+ resorts on the map and ours was the furthest away from the beach! We had to take a shuttle bus which was over 10 minutes to and from the beach. Felt like a late night snack or walk on the beach? The shuttle stops running at 3am so you would have to walk it. There was no sideway so you were walking on the same tiny roads as the shuttles drove people around between resorts. There was also traffic making the walk unsafe. If you have kids, walking around with cars driving by on the same road could present an issue. This would not be acceptable anywhere else in the world for safety.

So you re looking at the map and you see the legend on all the amazing restaurants you can use and activities that you can do. NO! You re only allowed to use the tiny horrible buffet at Bahia Principe (3 stars if you re lucky, with the roaches running around). Most of their a la cart dinners was buffet style. Unimpressive food. No lobster or high-end meats. Those were upsells at $30USD per person. There wasn t much all inclusive at this resort.

We spoke to front desk to move closer to the beach. Response was we re full and it will cost another $200 per night.

We haven t even gotten to the good stuff yet!

There was some type of promotion going on at the resort. We were constantly HARASSED as we walked through the lobby and around the resort, even by the beach to attend a presentation for a free massage or free spa usage. (1 hour at the spa - another mislead). We got harassed so much we finally gave in and did as they promised, 60 minutes and we thought we d stop getting bothered.

We walked in and it was a well oiled sales machine! I ve never seen anything like it in my life! Especially in the DR. This was a high intensity sales team with many people working to sell you TIMESHARE at Bahia properties wordwide. We sat down, listened to the pitch and said we weren t interested. The price started at $25,000 and 3 hours later, as they wouldn t let us out of the building, we kept being passed up the chain from manager to manager until the price dropped to $2,000. Yes that s correct TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!

We finally got out of there quite angry, lost half of our day now looking for a shuttle bus for our long ride to the beach. Of course, at this time, all the beach chairs were gone. Tried to talk to a manager again about moving closer to the beach. we weren t looking for special treatment, just wanted what we paid for and always got from our many trips to Punta Cana.

(Something we found out at the presentation. There are over 10 different levels of bracelets at bahia property. The orange one which is for turquesa was the lowest level)

The manager was a little more understanding and upgraded our bracelet 4 levels to a silver one and we got to use a few more restaurants.

They continued to HARASS us to purchase timeshare and they even went as far as making calls to our room at all hours of the day and putting invite packages under our room door, which I still have.

This trip was an UTTER FAIL from Transat, Bahia and itravel2000.

At the end of the day we did not get what we paid for and the harassment got so much that we left the resort and stayed somewhere else which cost us an additional $1,000.

There was nothing relaxing about this trip. It stressed us out more than before we arrived, when we had planned, saved and really wanted to enjoy a relaxing, all inclusive vacation. We would like every penny that we spent back, a free trip for the time that we wasted and an apology.

I run an online marketing and reputation management company for a living and I m willing to take this to the highest level and really make a stink! Ah the gift of social media, review sites and the internet!

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