Overall a great vacation, mostly due to the amazing weather in the Dominican Republic. Not sure that I would rush back to another Hard Rock Hotel though.
First, the good: Staff was very friendly, lots for kids to do (though the "good" stuff like bowling, escape room, laser tag) costs extra, and the room we had was spacious and clean. 13 pools makes it easy to enjoy all of the relaxing aspects of vacation.
Food was ok in the resort. Ipanema was the best restaurant HANDS down. Note that the 2 restaurants that required reservations were not expedited well (we were seated 40 min after our res) and the food was mediocre. Buffet was standard and other restaurants were fine enough. The food options at the beach/pool on the other hand were ATROCIOUS! Literally, if I could give it zero stars I would. The same food truck serving hot dogs, hamburgers, and nachos does not make for pool lunch that is up to standard.
The fact that the resort is HUGE also didnt help because if you wanted to walk back to main resort to get a sandwich, it was at least a 25 minute walk each way. Who wants to spend an hour of their day out of the sun walking to get lunch?
2 of the 4 days housekeeping had not made up our room by 4 pm and I had to call to have them come over. Not what you would expect from Hard Rock. The Dolphin excursion through the hotel and beach pictures through the rock photo were excellent and well worth it! I would not return to a Hard Rock resort, Finest/Karisma resorts are much better