Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana - All Inclusive

All the fantastic things that people have ever said about this place is 100% true. My own highlights below. When you arrive and the first thing you hear is “welcome to your second home”, you know it’s going to be good. My six-year-old then attempted to carry one of our suitcases up the steps, to which we got an immediate response of “you’re on vacation here and you don’t work.” I heartily clarified that I’m on vacation but the six-year-old can work to burn off all his extra energy. The porters were on point. Check in went seamlessly. I prayed the entire 15 minute ride from the airport that we wouldn’t get the crappiest room given that we booked on Costco travel instead of direct. Keep in mind I had very tempered expectations. My happiness was fully based on no cooking, cleaning or emails for the week. Anything else would be gravy. What a pleasant surprise when we got to our room. We got the junior suite double and I swear it was bigger than our first apartment in Vancouver. Perfectly comfortable for a family of four with kids under 10. We requested extra bedding for the sofa bed, and it was set up with no issues. The huge deck was outfitted with another daybed and a two-person patio set that looked out to the whole resort and the ocean. I would say about 90% of the rooms in this property will have some sort of ocean view. There were a few rooms where some decks looked out at a wall or an Astroturfed roof. It would’ve sucked to have gotten those rooms so I’m convinced my prayers worked. And now it’s also given me a new curse idea next time someone annoys me at work. “May you get a resort room that faces an Astroturfed roof.” Not one bad meal was had. The Dominicans season their food like the Filipinos do, liberally with a lot of heart. These Canadians also found their portions “Murica sized. The buffet at Mercado for example it’s not quite self service. The staff serve you so it was a bit challenging to do portion control at times. I practiced saying “poquito” and “no mas” the whole week, but it was still generous portions. If heart health and sodium levels are a concern, I would say something, especially for made to order food. Another pleasant surprise. You can leave your kids at the kids club, and head over to Zilara to enjoy their facilities and their restaurants. We got to try the Waves steak restaurant and it was quite good. At this time of the year, we thought the vibe at Ziva was more bumping, and we found a lot of the grown-ups from Zilara having their meals with the families on the Ziva side. We used the kids club for about half a day. I tried to force my kids to spend time with us— after all isn’t that what a family vacation is all about? As testament to how good the kids club was, my kids wanted to go back to them instead. Kids club staff recognized us and would reach out by name to tell us about planned activities. Service was mostly outstanding. Housekeeping was phenomenal and super responsive. Gracious and welcoming at the Coffee Republic. Exceptional at Mercado. Let’s be honest here, any kind of customer service job, hospitality included is tough. It takes special people to recognize opportunities to make other people happy and to actually deliver on it. One evening, Jean Carlo approached our table to ask how everything was. I may or may not have lamented about the lack of seafood options on their menus. Next thing I know I was coming back the next evening for a seafood dinner served family style. I believe another chef named Sebastian came to check on us as well. We had octopus, a whole fried fish (boca chica) and shrimp two ways. Jean Carlo checked in with us the whole night, and even though I didn’t bother him beyond the seafood dinner, he made it very clear that if we had any other issues beyond Mercado, he is there to help. Hyatt, this man is upper management material. Jean Carlo single-handedly melted all my minor annoyances during our stay. All the staff we encountered at Mercado went above and beyond. Every meal, when they see parents with multiple plates, someone will grab the plate from you and they just knew where you were seated. Thank you to Jahiro for putting up with our Americano requests every morning. I’m sure the Caribbean folks love the comparison to Asian hospitality (sarcasm alert), but I mean it as a compliment that service here rivalled our stays at the ShangriLa and Four Seasons in Asia. Geremi and Eduardo at the beach/pool, man we are already missing you guys. Thanks for all the care while we were there. A few considerations. We knew it was hurricane season going in so our expectations were managed. The resort was quite sparse and it was never an issue finding a good spot by the pool or a beach. I’d expect that they’re able to keep their service standards up during busy season though. If you’re prepared to shell out $$$$ during high season, I say go for it. The beach with all the seaweed issues, smelled like a sewer, despite their best efforts to clean up daily. No way my kids were getting in with all the slime. I can confirm that we have been to the DR during the month of March and the beachfront was radically different than in September. In fact in March, we spent every single day in the ocean and barely in the pool. On a less smelly day, I did enjoy a day of lounging at the beach. We managed to kayak for an hour. One experience that was less than ideal was my husband and 6 year old being handed two paddles and three life jackets to cart from the beach rental place to shore. While the walk was short (and hot!), it would’ve been nice to have gotten some assistance with getting into the kayak. We were literally their only customers and staff stayed in the shaded rental area, watching us struggle with a kayak with the kids. So big nope, we did not repeat that experience. Another day, it rained all day but staff was quick to organize games, activities, and a movie indoors. It would’ve been nice to have the teen zone open on that rainy Thursday,, but they were only open from about 2 PM onwards. Our kids enjoyed the waterslides for about a day and a half. We have lounging children and they eventually gave up on climbing the stairs just to go down the slides. If your children are more industrious than mine, the waterpark was fantastic and they will love it. I’ll also mention that there’s a lot of foliage at the waterpark/lazy river area. Mosquitoes love my sweet blood so if there’s one place that you should be slathering on the bug spray, it would be there. Otherwise mosquitoes were not a problem on the property. I’m sure a lot of people enjoy the show at the blind butcher, but I personally found it gimmicky. That one rainy Thursday also made me wish that spa prices were more reasonable. First time I’ve ever been in a resort and not stepped foot in the spa. My Asian gene was fully activated when I saw that they were wanting near US$350 for an 80 minute massage. I thought I can get two services for that price back home. For reference you can go to the Fairmont at a major Canadian city and a 90 minute massage costs around C$250. Would’ve been nice to have spa promotions during low season. Finally, what can I say about the timeshare folks? They are so conveniently located right outside Mercado where they can seduce you with free gifts as you come out in a food coma. Thanks to Google translate, a simple sentence of “ves mis hijos, no tengo dinero para timeshare, no aruines mis vacaciones” kept them away from me. Can’t say the same for my husband who looks far more approachable than me. I was vastly amused watching him run away from them. Overall, I’m generally not a fan of repeating resorts because there’s too much to explore in this world but I would 100% consider returning to this one.