Reviewers Rating: 
Good
We are a family of eight adults and six kids, ages 5 thru 11. We have gone to a different carribean resort every year for the past seven years. We believe we are qualified to review Paradisus on a comparative basis. On this trip, December 23-30, 2000 we had six adults and four kids.
The physical aspects of Paradisus are the best of any all-inclusive that we have ever been to. The beach is beautiful and kept extremely clean. The grounds are magnificent and landscaping work seems to go on continually. Unfortunately, the mowing starts at 8:00AM and if you enjoy sleeping late you could have a problem. There is only one pool but it is free-form, extremely large and extremely clean. Also beautiful, and never crowded. Rooms are very well appointed and very comfortable.
Paradisus has a mini-club, but if you are expecting anything like Beaches, Boscobel Beach or Club Med you will be disappointed. There is really no formalized program for kids. They put on a simple show but it seems that the real function of the mini club is baby sitting rather than instructing or entertaining. Our kids preferred to hang out with us. At other resorts they never wanted to be with us.
The food at Paradisus is the best we have had at any all-inclusive. By the seventh day any buffet gets tiresome, but the Paradisus folks keep it interesting. Of course, you might see the hamburger come back as filling for lasagna the next day, but you won't see it in several other forms for days after...as you might at a Club Med. We found most of the restaurants very good alternatives to the buffet. The problem for us is that the service was terribly slow everywhere but in the Japanese restaurant, and by the time we got our food the kids were climbing the walls. Other people we spoke to had the same experience.
If Paradisus has a problem it is in infrastructure and training. For two days we were unable to get towels for the beach. They simply did not have enough to go around. One of our rooms had water dripping from the ceiling for a week. We reported it twice but it was never repaired. In the same room, the shower only trickled, and the mini-bar refigerator didn't work. Neither were repaired by the time we departed. Paradisus advertises all kinds of water sports but they have only two hobie cat sail boats for over a thousand people. Their literature offers banana boat rides. This is something our smaller kids love to do. There was no banana boat and no reasons given. I paid $25 per ride to a resort down the beach. The Dominican staff is ultra-friendly and really wants to do a good job. Unfortunately, there is a language problem that sometimes results in your not getting exactly what you asked for the first time. But we have to take into account that we are in a foreign country where English is not a primary language. Patience and good humor is the key to getting what you want. No different than it would be in France or Germany or Greece.
The casino deserves an entire review itself, which I won't take the time to write. Suffice it to say that you will not win.
To wrap it up, I would say that Paradisus is a wonderful place to vacation. In terms of value received for price paid, it comes in second to Beaches Turks and Caicos. If kid's activities are very high on your list of priorities, go to Club Med Punta Cana.
Les
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