On July 19, 2010, my family went on a very much anticipated family vacation, and returned July 26, 2010. Since our return, we have all continued to be sick and this is the first time we have been able to sit down and put our experience on paper.

After much research, we selected American Airlines and Barcelo Puerto Plata resort. Barcelo was labeled a 3 star resort and we felt confident that because it was a resort sponsored by American Airlines All Inclusive, we would be pretty safe selecting this resort. We could not have been more incorrect.

We arrived at Barcelo on Monday July 19 at approximately 6 p.m. As our flight was delayed over 3 hours. Check in took over 2 hours, even though we checked in by family, not as an entire group. The hold up was not clear as there was only 1 family in front of us. Prior to our arrival, my sister and I had both called the hotel directly to ask if they had adjoining rooms for our families, as we were traveling with young children. They assured us they did. Upon check in, however we were informed that they do not have adjoining rooms and they would just give us rooms side by side to our kids. While this was not our first choice, we accepted. The first room assignments were a disaster, as they rooms were not side by side to our children. I exchanged one of my rooms for another that was available from one of our family assignments and was able to get my 2 rooms side by side, rooms 10208 and 10210.

Our room was NOT a 3 star resort room, the television was very old, the remote did not work, there was mold in the bathrooms. The kids room next door flooded after every shower and the toilet leaked after every flush. We had to use the towels to soak up all the water but thankfully the hotel cleaning staff was nice enough to replenish the towels for us when we asked. But after hearing my sister and niece's room issues, we settled for our room and decided not to change rooms.

We went to Guest Services Tuesday and spoke with Magdalena about making reservations for the restaurants highlighted online at Barcelo.com. We were told that the first available reservation was for Wednesday night and until then we would have to eat at the buffet until then. We broke up the groups into parties of 4, but were still told the first reservation was for Wednesday only for 6 people, Thursday for 6 people and Friday at the brazil restaurant. We were a little baffled, but accepted not knowing that this was only to be the beginning of the 'customer service” we would experience at Barcelo.

On Tuesday, my daughter became ill, fever, headache, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. I went to the main buffet hall to get her something to eat and was told that I was not allowed to leave the restaurant with any food even though I explained it was for a sick child in the room unable to leave. I paid for an all inclusive resort, only to be told that I could only eat in the dining area! So I put the food in my beach bag and took it back to my daughter.

On Thursday, most of the family took an excursion to go horseback riding, we returned around 2:30, we went straight to the buffet and were told that some of the party had to change into appropriate attire before entering, so 3 went back to their rooms to change, while 5 others were in the dining room eating. When they returned to the restaurant, the Buffet Gestapo at the front door told them the buffet was closed and they could not enter. I went up to the door and pointed to the family and she did still did not allow them entry. At this point, due to the issues we had encountered with the room assignments and the reservation plus the poor service rec'd by the many different staff members at Barcelo, I was enraged and the manager of the buffet overhead me and tried to accommodate. He very graciously explained that the buffet was being shut down in preparation for dinner but he would allow me to fix a plate for the remaining guests in case they returned and he would make sure they would be allowed entry. However, after the gestapo at the front door turned them away, not once, but twice, they returned to their room not very happy.

We realized at this point, it made no difference if we voiced our complaints to the staff, and the general manager never contacted us and was not available the week of our “vacation”.

On Friday, my husband went to upstairs to the Pizzeria to get some sodas, the lady waiting tables was busy so my husband went to the counter and asked the server behind the counter for a coke and a seven up. The guy fixing drinks has 2 glasses with soda in them, he poured them out, rinsed the glass with water and poured 2 fresh drinks. My husband asked for the drinks in clean unused glasses, then he changed his mind and asked for the drinks in plastic cups since it was apparent that cleanliness was not part of the regimen at Barcelo. We were no longer surprised that our daughter and the rest of our group could not fight this illness, imagine the bacteria being shared by the many many guests at Barcelo, especially since the hotel was at capacity after the locals checked in for the weekend. It seems obvious, people expect to be served with clean sterilized dishes and glasses, but it seems maybe at this resort, this is considered a special request?

Needless to say, our experience was not what we had anticipated after saving for this family vacation and spending over $2800 for our family alone. The total for the family vacation for all of our party traveling together was near $10000.

Besides the apparent lack of customer service from the hotel staff, we were appalled at the entertainment offered to the guests here. Barcelo was stated as a family friendly hotel but the entertainment was definitely equivalent to an adult only establishment, dirty dancing, transvestites and during one evening a man wore a backless dress with his buttocks exposed to the audience. This is not the entertainment suitable for children. The following evenings entertainment involved young girls from the crowd who were encouraged to dirty dance on the stage for the grand prize of Ms. Puerto Plata.

We are requesting a full refund of this trip, we have no fond memories and certainly will NOT recommend Barcelo Puerto Plata to anyone considering a trip to the Dominican Republic, and while we have traveled with American Airlines, I would not recommend an all inclusive trip using American Airlines as this hotel clearly is not a 3 star resort.

We met again a fellow traveler we met initially on the flight over to Puerto Plata and her experience in Puerto Plata was much different. When she heard the problems we experienced she was as shocked to hear about it as we were to experience it.