We've just returned home today from our second time here. We were wondering if it would live up to expectations...it exceeded them. It was better than the first time.

Both the new building blocks are up...all thats happening with them now is they are moving in abit of furniture...which didnt bother anyone. Whilst we were there the new A la Carte Seafood restuarant opened and it was yummy...it does have two meat choices for those who dont like fish...and we also had a vegatarien with us, they didnt have meals on the menu for them...but were more than happy to get something.

The chocolate friends....have now been renamed the animation team and dissappointingly no longer sing the chocolate song....although they are still brilliant and have a new dance! On our lastnight they did a brand new show...which was fantastic....it was a fantasy show...black background with illuminis props, check the photos ive left.

Our rooms where fumigated every 4 - 5 days which was great as we never saw a bug or creepy crawly anywhere. The pool and grounds remained clean throughout our stay. No matter how early you seem to get up there will be someone out before you cleaning the grounds. The grouds are also constantly fumigated, this is the first place i have not had to worry about been biten...normally im a magnet for mosquitos, but i was fine here.

The rooms where lovely and cleaned daily, maids where lovely, tip the bell boys as they don't get a wage...the tips are their wages.

Learn the waitresses and waiters names...they will remeber yours...please dont be rude to these people. I find it amazing when people say how rude the staff were...if you spend time to say, Hola, how are you, and gracias...they will be chuffed. In my two weeks there i did not meet one member of staff who was rude to me...i may have met a few guests who were rude tho.

Please dont be put off by this hotel....ive been twice now... throughout the building work...and it was only about 40% full when we left......but it was brilliant.

I want to go back!! xx

The best thing to do when looking at these reviews is to keep them in the back of your minds and go and make your own mind up. If i had listened to all the moaning & whining i would have missed out on a great family holiday.
We stayed here from the 25th May til the 9th June 2008,it seemed we were there months .
Clean hotel and friendly staff, could not walk to the pool without at least 5-6 "ola's" from ALL staff.
Restaurants were great the a la cartes more to me and my wifes liking the children loved the buffet.
Yes there is work going on noisy? the only time i really noticed it was at breakfast as they are extending the buffet,during the day whilst by the pool you hardly noticed any construction noise at all.
Some people have said the beach was dirty-i didnt notice any dirtiness, i did see hotel staff raking the sand to clean up any mess though.
Do you relax by the pool or do you join in the games? because of our children we ended up playing most of the daytime games with the brilliant team (CHEEKY MONKEY,SHAGGY,COFFEE AND BLONDIE) "Shamone" to you all, when we said no to joining in it was respected, but have a go trust me you will love it,and you will make friends with lots of different people from different races,germans french canadians 'yanks' and of course us Brits as someone quoted.remember it is not just a short island hop for us for a few dollars.
evening shows were ok sometimes, fantastic others,and even humour thrown in for free. the only critiscism for the evenings is that when the show finishes they think all the children go to bed, so my teenage son was left with nothing to do as they were not allowed on the 'sports bar' after 11pm,an extra hour would not hurt.
But dont stay in the hotel for two weeks go on a trip or two, this is the second visit to the dominican for me and the wife,but not the children so we took them on the Domincan Discovery Mega Trucks Tour,brilliant(if any one from the uk is going plase let me know as i need a couple of carvings that were damaged by our lovely airport staff).overall this holiday was the dogs (great to those of you that dont understand.
And as for the people that moaned about how busy it was with the 'locals' at the weekend.1- its their country. 2-there was a 200 person wedding party.Yes it was busy that weekend.
Would love to return here after all the work is finished to see the end result.
All in all thank you to all the staff for a great vacation and hope to see you all again!!!

I just came back from vacation at the Grand Oasis with my two daughters 25 & 26; this input is from all three of us. It was the cleanest vacation place that we ever stayed at, we have been all over the world, and also the cleanest beach we have ever seen. From morning until night the staff clean seaweed from the ocean and from the beach and hauled it away. The only shade was the palm trees which people were under early in the morning already so there is not much shade for those of you that burn easy. The pool was the size of four pools put together it also was very clean and beautiful; they would clean the area you were sitting at if you got up and went into the pool. They had clubing music Mexican/America on the loud speakers around the pool it was very loud and EVERY hour there was a pool game over the loud speaker so if you are going there to relax and sleep you better like clubing music and non stop talking you have to go to the beach.

They have three restaurants Italian, French and Mexican also a buffet and a buffet bar. The Italian restaurant was the best but it was upscale dress, the Mexican was next and then the French, they just opened a Seafood Restaurant when we left. They had different things every night at the buffet the buffet by the beach was more of light side of eating. Everything was always hot and fresh food at the buffet never saw anything sit or be empty. The drinks were plentiful and were just as good, I drank more then usual because they were so good.

A short walk up the beach to the right is a local mall for shopping and bargaining. The Casino is only a cab ride for 7.00 but it opens at night only. The hotel has a show every night it was so entertaining if we had that show here in the US we would go every weekend just to see it. The people that are on vacation turn out to be in the show becoming the whole show. The show personnel work outside all day and then have to do the show at night, they are very hard workers and were always so nice to everyone all day and night. The rest of the staff all employees were kind of rude to us because we were one of the few Americans and did not speak Spanish.
I would only go to this resort and it should be rated more then a 5 very pleasurable.

Just returned from 2 weeks at the GOM and can honestly say it has been our best holiday ever. I was a little nervous after reading the trip advisor reviews but want to assure any future travellers to ignore the bad reviews.
The pool and grounds were lovely and yes, there is building work but you dont hardly notice it. I would think the work must be completed soon as they are working day & evening to get it all finished....DO NOT LET THIS PUT YOU OFF BOOKING THIS HOTEL.....The staff (apart from the odd 1 or 2) where all helpfull, cheerful and smiley and nothing is too much trouble.
Food - excellent in every restaurant. There wasnt one time we had a poor meal or enough choice. Out of the 3 speciality restaurants I think the Creperie was the worst (but still nice) and we especially liked the Pasta Club...their beef tenderloin is to die for. One great advantages of this hotel is you dont have to prebook the speciality restaurants and can just arrive on spec so your not stuck to timescales or queuing to make a booking.
The hotel was only 50%full (I guess because of the building work) but this was really nice...no stress getting a sunbed with umbrella or queuing for anything.
Entertainment- the animation team work so hard, Blondie, cheeky monkey etc, and the dancers were amazing. They tended to have a professional dance show every other night & an audience participation game/show the other night. But they always had a smile on their face and wanted to make sure everyone enjoyed their holiday. Ok so the shows weren't west end musicals but come on what do you expect......it was great.
Rooms - We where very lucky we were in Block 1 and had a seaview which was beautiful, had we been in a room overlooking the hotel next door I would have been gutted but Im sure if that happens and you advise reception they would do their best to accomodate. The rooms arent fantastic.....our bath was old & the furniture was old....but it was clean and freshly painted & the view was amazing. For the time we spent in the room it was more than enough.....This is the only thing I may have preferred (a slightly better room...but honestly dont let this put you off they are ok).
We love the dominican & stayed last year at the Iberostar (next door) which was lovely...5star.....and gorgeous... but also more expensive...last year we paid over £1000 more. I was very worried before going on this holiday that the Marien wouldnt live up to the standards the iberostar had set but taking everything into consideration I have been pleasantly surprised and actually think the Marien has been a better holiday than last year to the iberostar. the pool is bigger & if you ahve kids it shelves and isnt too deep in any area ...the grounds are nicer.....the restaurants nicer....the animation team as good. The only thing the iberostar has is better rooms but the other good points about the marien make this no big deal.
All in all a great holiday at a great hotel....anyone putting a bad report on about this hotel must be very fussy and would complain/moan about anything.
If you do go you must go horse riding at llorillar ranch (10 mins from hotel).......we went 4 times and the people are so special, the rides great and the countryside spectacular.
feel free to email me if you have any other questions