Dreams Onyx Resort & Spa

I will not recommend this resort to others. Staff provide poor customer service. Most of them look or act like they don't want to work. We had to eat mainly at the buffet, because the wait time at the other restaurants were 1.5 to 2 hrs. The Asia restaurant was the only restaurant that needed reservations. We did a reservation for that restaurant for 10 pm and they made us wait 50 minutes without an explanation before getting us the table. The buffet had variety of food, but it was the same food every day. Food was average in every restaurant. Staff also provide wrong information. I was told that the kid club open at 9am. When I arrived, then they said that it was open at 9:30 am. I had a 9 am appointment at the spa, which I missed because of it. The spa stills made me paid for the service because I did not show up. The spa was not willing to work with me although I missed the appointment due to the wrong information provided at the kid club. I paid more to upgrade my room and service to preferred, but there was not difference in service so don't fall for it. When I went to do the check out in the preferred room I was told to go to the main lobby because they were too busy. Our concierge did a okay job, but we had others at other resorts much better. Room was nice and my son liked the water park.

My family of four stayed at Dreams Onyx from August 20-25 in a Preferred Club Junior Suite with a pool view. There were definitely things we enjoyed about the resort, but unfortunately, the overall experience was disappointing and we would not return. ARRIVAL AND PREFERRED CLUB When we arrived, we were immediately greeted and brought into a Preferred Club area connected to the lobby. The employee there explained the resort and let us know that our room was not yet ready, so we went to the buffet for lunch while we waited. There are several Preferred Club areas throughout the resort, although we never really found a reason to use them. One Preferred Club benefit we did appreciate was access to an air-conditioned area for breakfast and lunch. The regular buffet is open-air and can get very hot, so this was a nice option. However, no one told us about this benefit when we checked in. We did not find out until our second day, which was frustrating considering we specifically paid for Preferred Club. THE ROOM Once our room was ready, we were disappointed by a few things. The room had a very noticeable mildew/musty smell throughout our stay. The couch was badly stained to the point that we did not feel comfortable sitting on it. The balcony door was extremely difficult to open, and there was no handle on the outside. If you completely closed the door while on the balcony, there was no obvious way to open it again from outside. The rest of the room was fine and housekeeping was actually great throughout our stay. The minibar was another story. It was rarely stocked unless we specifically asked, and even when we did ask, we often did not receive what we requested. For a Preferred Club room, I expected better. OUR “PERSONAL CONCIERGE” Shortly after arriving, we were introduced to our personal concierge/butler. He explained that we could communicate with him through WhatsApp and that he could help with restaurant reservations and anything else we needed. We honestly did not book Preferred Club because we needed a butler. We are a pretty low-maintenance family and were not expecting someone to wait on us. However, if this is advertised as part of the Preferred Club experience, I do expect simple requests to be handled. During our five-night stay, he made one dinner reservation and may have arranged rose petals on our bed in the shape of “14” for our anniversary. Beyond that, the service was extremely disappointing. We made very basic requests, including regular coffee pods for the coffee maker in our room and seltzer. We asked repeatedly for regular coffee for approximately three days and never received it. They continued bringing us decaf instead. What made this even more frustrating was the response when we continued asking about it. At one point, our concierge suggested that someone had attempted to deliver the coffee but that we had a Do Not Disturb sign on our door. He then told us that if we were saying the sign had not been there, someone could lose their job for lying about it. The conversation was honestly mind-boggling. Even if we briefly had the Do Not Disturb sign up while getting dressed or getting ready, that does not explain why a simple request for coffee went unfulfilled for days. We were not trying to get anyone in trouble. We just wanted regular coffee pods for the coffee maker that was already in our room. Throughout the trip, when we saw our concierge, we also frequently heard explanations about why he would not be available, including helping a friend or leaving early because of medical issues. Again, we did not need or expect much from a concierge. But by the end of the trip, we were left wondering what exactly we had paid extra for with Preferred Club. SERVICE AT THE BAR Unfortunately, the concierge experience was part of a larger issue with service. We spent a lot of time at the Preferred Club pool because it was closest to our room and became our children’s favorite pool. The same bartender was there every day and was consistently unfriendly. He rarely made eye contact or acknowledged us. There were multiple occasions when we were standing at an otherwise empty bar waiting to order while he continued conversations with other employees or found other things to do rather than acknowledge us. There were friendlier bartenders at other areas of the resort, so this certainly does not apply to every employee. However, we encountered this type of attitude often enough that it affected our overall impression of the resort. The best way I can describe it is that we frequently felt like we were inconveniencing employees simply by asking for something. The Preferred Club bar by the family pool was also frequently out of basic items. Our kids wanted to try non-alcoholic “dirty bananas” at the Preferred pool and we were repeatedly told there were no bananas. We came back the next day and there still weren’t any. They seemed to be out of multiple items even shortly after opening. We would ask for something as basic as an El Presidente, the local Dominican beer, and simply be told they did not have it. There never seemed to be any effort to restock or find the requested item. The drinks themselves were fine, but nothing memorable. FOOD The buffet was probably our favorite food option, and we ate there throughout our stay. There was plenty of variety and everyone in our family could find something they liked. We also ate at the steakhouse, Italian restaurant and hibachi restaurant. All three were okay, but honestly, we preferred the buffet. The hibachi experience was entertaining and worth doing, especially with kids. We did not have problems getting seated or making dinner reservations. POOLS, WATERPARK AND KIDS ACTIVITIES The pools were one of the best parts of the resort. There are plenty of them and our kids loved spending time in the water. Parents of younger or weaker swimmers should know that many of the pools are quite deep and there are very few lifeguards. Our six-year-old could just barely touch the bottom in the majority of the pools, so we had to be extremely diligent whenever she was swimming. Our children did not want to attend the kids club, so I cannot personally review the program, but the facility itself looked very nice and appeared to have plenty for kids to do. There is also a cute smaller children’s waterpark behind the kids club that both of our children enjoyed. The larger waterpark was okay. Our son only tried one of the slides, and our family enjoyed the lazy river much more. THE BEACH The beach was by far the biggest disappointment of the entire vacation. I completely understand that sargassum is a natural phenomenon and that the resort cannot control when or where it arrives. I also knew when booking a Caribbean vacation during this time of year that sargassum was a possibility. However, during our entire stay, the beach and ocean were essentially unusable. There was a thick mat of sargassum covering the shoreline and water every day. We kept hoping conditions would improve enough to have at least one nice beach day, but they never did. This was a huge disappointment for us. Had I known beforehand that we would not get even one enjoyable beach day during our five-night Caribbean vacation, I would never have booked this resort. THE GOOD I do want to give credit where it is deserved. The resort grounds are beautiful and well maintained. It is a large property and we spent the first couple of days getting lost, but once we learned our way around, it became much easier to navigate. Housekeeping was great. The buffet was consistently good. The pools were great and gave the kids plenty to do. The evening entertainment was also very good. We enjoyed the shows and thought the resort did a great job with nighttime entertainment. Checkout and departure were seamless. It was actually during checkout that someone finally asked about our experience. I was honest about our disappointment. OVERALL There are good things about Dreams Onyx, and I can understand why some families enjoy it. Unfortunately, our experience did not live up to what we expected, particularly after paying extra for Preferred Club. What bothered us most was not any one individual issue. It was the combination of a musty Preferred Club room, stained furniture, a minibar that was rarely stocked properly, repeated simple requests that went unfulfilled, disappointing concierge service, frequently unfriendly bar service, Preferred Club bars that were routinely out of basic items, and a beach that was unusable for our entire vacation. The pools, waterpark and lazy river were fun, but we did not travel internationally for a family vacation just to use pools and a waterpark. Those are things we can enjoy much closer to home. The beach and Caribbean experience were a major reason for choosing this vacation. Perhaps most disappointing was the general feeling we had throughout the trip that we were sometimes an inconvenience to the staff rather than welcomed guests. We are a very low-maintenance family and asked for very little, which made that feeling particularly noticeable. There were good employees and good aspects of the resort, and I want to be fair about that. But for the price we paid and the experience that Dreams Onyx advertises, particularly for Preferred Club guests, I expected significantly better. We left disappointed, would not return to Dreams Onyx, and based on this experience, I would not book another vacation with this resort franchise.

Our stay was nothing short of amazing we came down for our honeymoon our butler Jesus was 10:/10 and bent over backwards for us the steaks at the restaurants were 10/10 I would recommend this place everytime

Dreams Onyx has a great time. He were celebrating a 30th birthday, with 50 family and friends, some whole live locally and others who flew from all over the US. The staff , the resort grounds, food, and entertainment were great. Most of my family stayed from thursday - monday and it was just the right amount of time. Food was better than i expected considering it was a resort. Drinks were okay, but didn't have much expectations on that again considering it is a resort. Overall we enjoyed our stay and would recommend to anyone traveling with family.

Had a fantastic 11 night stay from the UK with my husband and 13 year old daughter. We were preferred in building 6, firstly our butler Starling was amazing, he went above and beyond to ensure our stay was great, we cannot thank him enough. The buffet food was the best we've had, not sure how anyone can say otherwise, I have seen reviews that say breakfast wasn't varied enough, I'm shocked as there is not one thing they did not think of providing!! We ate in all of the restaurants, the steak one was a little disappointing both times but it did not interfere with our overall experience, we loved the daytime entertainment and favoured the shallow pool in between the beach and main pool, there was always something going on. We like to go to different places and hotels but feel we will definitely return to Dreams Onyx and will be requesting Starling.