Just had a great vacation. Will definitelly do it again. The water was spectacular, weather great, drinks served, activities plenty. I did not go an any trips - the plan was to spent a week doing nothing and it worked perfectly.

I will not go through what I liked, but instead try to address things I was worried about after reading all other reviews here.

1. The room. Here is what I did:
Ordering vacation from CC I selected Deluxe partial ocean view, for a week stay the difference with supersaver was $240 - that is 10% of total trip cost for me. I also added a note that I want a good room in the order.
Sent an email to hotel 3 days before arrival (did not get a response)
Baltobabe (thanks again) sent my email to the hotel again (no response eather)
the result - great room in bld#3. It was simply great, I can not even come up with something to complain about.

2. Locals around the pool. They looking at you, and if you looking at the stuff they sell, they will try to talk to you. If you don't reply to there hello - they walk away. If you say no - they walk away. If you start talking to them - they will not be the once to finish the conversation. Just shut up and walk away. They do remember you, nobody offered me anything twice.

3. Trip sellers. Same as with locals at the pool, if they see that you are not interested, thay will walk away. If you want to talk about how you are not interested and why - they will talk as long as you will not shut up.

4. Drinks. Everywhere except the disco (it works from 11pm to 2 am) anyone regardless of age can get any drink. It has advantages - you can send you 9 years old to get you drinks at the bar, and disadvantages - you have to watch your teens so that they are not too drunk.

5. Food. Here is my take on it - whoever complains about food there is freaking spoiled. The food is fine. I found the World cafe perfect for me and kids (and my kids are kind of picky) - since it was closest to bld#3 and had a great selection.

6. Towel cards and room cards . I read this in one of the reviews - You lose room card you have to pay, you lose a towel - you cant get your towel card back - you have to pay.
I actually lost my room key on a rain day someweher in the ocean. I came to front desk, and they replaced it for free.(I admit, I was drunk, noisy and with kids - so may be they just wanted to get rid of me). As for towels, by last day there I had in my room my 3 towel cards and six beach towels - so I don't see a problem there.


Couple warnings:
1. Sun. You better use something and reapply it a lot.
2. Drinks. Cocktails feel a little watered down, and you may feel you not getting drunk regardless of how you many you drink. but keep in mind - it is sugar and alcohol, it will hit you suddently and knock you out for good.
3. Activities - you may look stupid in some of those, but everyone including you will have a lot of fun.

We went to Sunscape Casa Del Mar for a 5 long nights. We regretfully booked through Cheap Caribbean. My husband and I are usually so good to do tons of research and check Trip Advisor prior to booking. Not this time. And we paid for it in the end.

Upon arrival it was a little chaotic to find the Turinter guy at the airport, but after that we were on our way for a TWO HOUR ride to the resort. It looked like we had several close calls with on coming traffic and motorcyclists.

Room: We checked in with no problems and went to our room on the 3rd floor of building 1. It smelled VERY musty and smokey. The walls were scuffed up and dingy and there were random black hairs all over the room (in the tub, on the shower walls, and under the pillows!!). The walls were very thin too. We heard people next door up past 2am...very annoying.


Food: I cannot tell you how disappointed we were in the food. It was like an elementary school's cafeteria style. They have several restaurants but you are only allowed to go to them on certain nights. Thus meaning the rest of the resort is heading to the same one at the same time too. Long lines and a long wait for gross food. We were pretty much forced to eat at the buffet most of the time. Not to mention that 3 of the restaurants were really connected to actually be just one big buffet.


Drinks: Drinks were fine. They were pretty generous on how much alcohol they put into your glass. The main lobby bar was the only one with recognizable labels. It you tipped, they servered you more quickly. Not really fair or very respectable.


Beach: It was pretty when it didn't rain on us. And by rain I mean monsoon-type rain for a few days. The chairs are pretty close together, but this was one of the two areas that we enjoyed.


Pool: This was the second thing we enjoyed. Both pools were nice. The Infinity pool was relaxing with the view of the beach and a swim up bar. The main pool was nice when it was calm, but had a giant inflatable iceberg in the center....kinda random.


Special Occasion: We went for our anniversary and such was noted on our reservation. By 3 o'clock on our anniversary day we realized that we hadn't heard from the hotel on what our special thing was going to be. When my husband called to inquire about it they barked at him and said that we needed to have brought our marriage certificate...to the Dominican Republic. Right.

We travel internationally quite a bit for work and fun and were extremely disappointed with this place. Do your research before booking a trip and do not go here or book through Cheap Caribbean.

Sunscape Casa del Mar turned out to be an almost perfect vacation for my husband and me June 9-14. We typically travel to Europe on vacation but wanted something different this year for our anniversary so we booked our holiday through Cheap Caribbean. I had read (literally) hundreds of reviews here before we went and was a bit concerned by all the negatives. We got more than our money's worth ($1550 for two for EVERYTHING).

FOOD. I agree that the food (overall) is a bit bland but the fresh fruit at every single meal is amazing. All the fish dishes are wonderful and I loved the fresh omlettes each day. Del Mario's is the best of the restaurants. We ate often at Seaside Grill for the convenience to our little huts by the beach and loved their fresh nachos and salsa. We are "foodies" and will take along some seasonings next time. By the way, I am accustomed to having a cuppa each day at 4 and found no good tea anywhere. Pack your favorite tea bags and this small problem can be avoided.

Rooms: Very dormitory-like buildings oriented in such a way that very few rooms have a view of the ocean. So what? They are definitely more than adequate with lovely gardens to look at, television, minibar stocked daily with our choices: Diet Coke and water. Staff were lovely, friendly. We were close to everything and covered walkways were very nice.

Pools: Superb. If you complain about the pools here, you'll complain about anything. Yes, there were children there. So what? Kids are human beings, too. It's their vacation, too. I neither have nor adore kids, but how can you not enjoy seeing kids have a good time?

The Sea: Best part for us and we were in and out all day, every day. We hutted up at the end near the Seaside Grill where all the "bookworms" were and read and snoozed and drank and ate. I even joined in on a water aerobics class and laughed all the way through it as I was next to an octogenarian who said she was taking the class "to look at the dude's hiney."

Casa del Mar was a fantastic location for us and a tremendous value. If we had gone to Europe, we would have paid three times what we paid for a relaxing holiday in an island paradise. Yes, we would take a holiday with CheapCaribbean again and yes, we would stay at Casa del Mar again.

Weather is lovely, though maybe too hot for some. The swimming pools are nice. The rooms, rather shabby. You will get nickel and dimed for everything you want to do. Understand that if you go, "they" will assume that you are a millionaire.

My biggest complaint is this: The resort allows, in the evenings, many locals to come and set up shop around the pool to sell their wares. You WILL GET HOUNDED by these folks! Now, I like to buy souveniers, but not like this. These people are pretty much like AGGRESSIVE PANHANDLERS! My family and I traveled 1/2 a planet away to stay here, and we found ourselves not even wanting to go near the pool due to these people. I did end up buying two boxes of cigars which I thought were authentic cubans. upon coming home and doing some research, I found out that I ended up buying FAKE ones! These people are NOT monitored, so buyer beware. I'm out $500 bucks on these.

My whole family got sick as well. We still are, and we've been home for 4 days. We still have "the runs" BAD. Seeing the doc tomorrow.

The beach/water is wonderful. That is all. I would not recommend this place to anybody. If you want to stay drunk 24/7 and sick from both ends, then this place is for you. I will never return.