Secrets Cap Cana Honeymoon Review
I feel like 90% of all-inclusive reviews consist of “beautiful pools, beautiful beaches!” And while that is true, I felt a responsibility to write a more in-depth review. Jared and I decided to go to Secrets Cap Cana in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our honeymoon after much discussion, diving into reviews, and watching countless YouTube videos. As a first time all-inclusive goer, I wanted to list out some things we learned as we were there… some good, some not-so-good. When I reviewed our stay on TripAdvisor and Google, I still gave Secrets Cap Cana 4 stars because we really did have a great time, and I think a lot of the cons I list below are cons of all inclusives in general. It was our honeymoon and we were just happy to be together in such a beautiful place with the drinks flowing. That said, there are just a few things I wanted to call out in case you are like us and are going in a bit blind (even if you read a lot of reviews) and want more info before making your decision. These are some nice-to-knows that you can sometimes find on Reddit, but I didn’t really see people talking about it on Google Reviews or Trip Advisor.
FYI, we got married in early June and honeymooned right after, so keep that in mind as I talk about certain things like the weather, AC and such below.
Service: The service at Secrets Cap Cana is absolutely incredible. We had a butler with our room, but even without a butler, we would have received great service. The bartenders come by your chairs at the beach and pool and even come up to you when you’re IN the pool! The servers at the restaurants are fast and great. We never had a problem with service.
Beach: The beaches are really beautiful. If you are used to the Gulf like us, you are used to beautiful white sand beaches. These were that and more — there were palm trees all throughout the sand making it feel much more unique than what we are used to in Florida.
Resort: Everything is so close together at this resort. You only walk a couple minutes to the beach, to the pool, to the restaurants, etc. It made the days feel so much longer because you didn’t have to worry about long walks from your room to other places. I’m sure the larger resorts aren’t like this as much, but we really really enjoyed that part! Also, the whole resort was extremely CLEAN!
Alcohol: We were part of the Preferred Club so we received a better alcohol selection. Honestly a great selection of top shelf alcohol - Patron, Makers Mark, Buffalo Trace, Grey Goose, etc. That said, we really felt like a lot of the liquors (especially vodka and rum) were significantly watered down. I’m someone who would rather have one full strength drink instead of four watered down drinks, so that was a bit of a disappointment. We ended up drinking more beer, wine (only four wines to choose from that are included. bottles are marked up at least 5x), and bourbon which wasn’t watered down. FYI - if you like seltzers like High Noon or White Claws, those were not offered! Also, I’ve seen a lot of reviews where they say there is only one bar at the resort. That is not true! There are three pool/beach bars, one main bar, and one bar in the Preferred lounge. The main bar gets pretty crowded at night because the pool/beach bars close (I think one might stay open sometimes), but we really didn’t have a problem with that.
Ocean / Seaweed: When booking our trip to the Caribbean, we got the excessive seaweed notice, so we were definitely aware of the problem. That said, Cap Cana is supposed to have this “barrier” that blocks the seaweed from coming in. I’m not sure how much of it was blocked (could have been 90% and there was just THAT much seaweed), but you have to either walk down the beach ~30 yards to get into the ocean where it’s somewhat clear, or you have to walk through ~30 feet of seaweed in the ocean to get to the clear water. That was kind of a bummer as we thought that one of the benefits of Cap Cana was the barrier and that we wouldn’t have to worry about the seaweed at all. Secrets does do a pretty good job at clearing it from the beaches itself, but not in the water.
Waves: I’m not sure if it was the time of year that we were there (early-mid June), or if it was because of the barrier mentioned above, but there are absolutely NO waves. You do not hear the waves crashing, so it kind of felt like we were in/next to a really blue lake as opposed to the ocean.
Food: We found ourselves reviewing the food as “good for an all-inclusive.” It wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t so good that we would be going out of our ways to eat it if it were a restaurant in our town. That said, we felt like the quality of the food was good. Buffet definitely didn’t feel like a free hotel breakfast by any means, and the sit down restaurants had pretty large selections of decent food. We only had a couple meals where we felt like we could have skipped the restaurant as a whole.
Air Conditioning: I don’t think there is central AC anywhere in the resort! There were two units in our bedroom (we had a bungalow) but we couldn’t get it to cool down past ~74 degrees. We were pretty warm the entire time, whether we were in restaurants, the room, etc. It was 92 and sunny everyday that we were there, so it could have just been the timing. Also, it’s important to note that 3 of the 6 restaurants are covered patios with no indoor seating and the pools get so warm that it feels like bath water! So that said, prepare to be HOT!
Spa: The spa was very nice. I wouldn’t book any services before you go, because there are employees that walk around and offer packages to you at deep discounts.
Bungalow Plunge Pool: We were pretty disappointed in our bungalow plunge pool as it was one of the main reasons chose an upgraded room. When we entered the room and walked onto the balcony, we learned that it’s less of a pool, and more of just a giant bath tub. That means while you can drain it and refill it, it’s just bath water and not filtered like a pool. It was pretty dirty because the overhang on the bungalow was made out of dried palm fronds and the debris would fall in. We used it here and there but definitely not as much as we were hoping and definitely don’t feel like we got our money’s worth there.
Pools: We had Preferred pool access and I think we would have been really disappointed if we didn’t. The main pool is MUCH larger but gets LOUDDD. The preferred pool is much more serene and relaxing. The main pool has music bumping and more of a party crowd (lots of large groups of vacationers as opposed to couples).
Like I said, we still had a really good time. It’s hard to have a bad time when it's 90 degrees and sunny, no rain, and you’re being waited on hand and foot. I just wanted to give a more detailed review that I don’t feel like I’ve seen.
