Let me preface this review by saying, when we travel South, we stay at resorts like Riu, Breathless, Sandos and El Dorado. So, our expectations may be a bit different from others, and there are people who will likely scoff at this review.
We chose Emotions this year because we'd heard it was a good brand, the price was really good, and the flights were awesome - morning flight out, afternoon flight home.

First, the pros - the beach is amazing. White sand, huge, beautiful warm water, and you can walk in either direction as far as your legs will take you. A little bit of seaweed comes in later in the day but they rake it into piles and a tractor comes and takes it all away in the morning.
Quite a few beach vendors, but a simple, no gracias, and they move along.
There were always lots of beach chairs in the shade or the sun, even on busy days when the locals or cruise ships were visiting. The beach bar keeps good hours, most of the staff are great, and always lots of snacks available, though I found even things like the burgers were quite salty (not to mention extremely under cooked one day).
Lots of seating to be found at the pools too. Sometimes hard to find a shaded seat at the pools, but if you wait for the sun to shift, eventually your seat will be shaded.
The grounds are beautiful and very well maintained. You always see groundskeepers around and you can tell they take pride in their work.
Lots of hot water in the shower (I've read reviews where some guests never had hot water, not sure what resort they were at, but if we wanted a cooler shower to cool down, we'd have to turn the tap all the way to cold).
Fairly strong drinks! If you're going there to catch a buzz, you don't have to worry. Lots of heavy pouring bartenders!
You can find food for almost everyone at the buffet. We're not talking gourmet or huge variety (again, not Riu or El Dorado quality), but you won't starve.
Book a dinner at Oak. You purchase a bottle of wine and can enjoy a supper from one of the a la cartes. We got a White Zinfandel for $18 USD and it was amazing. Willy is the host/ server and he is phenomenal. His manners, professionalism, everything is top notch. He should be running the resort.
They also have good wifi throughout the resort. This was a huge plus for us. If you put yourself on wifi calling, anyone back home who needs to reach you, can. Or if you're like us and need to call the kitty hotel half way through vacation to check on your furbabies, you can. Yes vacation is meant to disconnect, but I have massive anxiety about not being able to reach home or be reached for an emergency.

And now the cons- our room. We booked Adults only and saw Transat and Emotions seem to only advertise a junior suite and a superior room, both of which looked to be a nice size and include a jacuzzi. Our room was standard, which we didn't believe was part of the adults only section. Very small and no jacuzzi. Good thing we were traveling light as I couldn't imagine two people trying to move about the room with two suitcases and carryons in the way (the room had four drawers and a handful of hangers for clothing, so we lived out of our suitcase). You had to move the suitcases from the closet and squeeze past the night table to get into the closet to access the safe. In the bathroom there was no facial tissue. I know people will laugh at that comment, but again, it's the little things you become accustomed to when traveling. I use tissue when applying makeup, so without it, had to use their one ply toilet paper. Speaking of toilet paper, the spindle is on the wall behind the toilet, a bit awkward to try to reach when you're indisposed. Needless to say, we took it off and sat it beside the toilet. Not very classy for a resort rated four- star.
Had our room made up but housekeeping doesn't wipe down the shower glass, lots of soap scum totally visible...again, not something to ruin a vacation, but little things that make you go, huh.
Drinks at the bars were very inconsistent. What you get at one bar is not what you'll necessarily get at another. And not much of a selection of drinks. We're used to mimosas at breakfast- none here. We're used to bartenders offering to make you their "specialty shots" or drinks - not here. No fancy drinks like mudslides, rum cream, no champagne. *Edited to add, my husband found a mimosa for me on the last day when he saw a bartender making one for an Elite- class member. Since the champagne was out, he asked for one too. We also found Bailey's at one bar on the last night. Normally when you ask for either, you get told they don't have it.
The pools are hot! Because they get lots of sun all day, they're not very refreshing to try to cool off.
While most staff were pleasant, there were others who very apparently were not happy to be there.
Difficult to get change made for tips. We were shocked by this. We are big on tipping (we tip at every meal, every round of drinks, housekeeping and the guys that restock the mini fridge), so to be turned away from the front desk because they had no small bills was a shocker.
While there is lots to do during the day - mini putt, archery, wall climbing - it's way too hot for any of that. We are big on nighttime entertainment, but it's basically non existent here.
Cruise ship day- pass visitors are treated like royalty! We saw the lobby setting up one morning getting ready to welcome cruise visitors - they had refreshments, music, staff dressed in beautiful Dominican attire performing a dance, etc. When we arrived, we received nothing except a card with an invalid QR code that we were told to use to find out when our room would be ready. Since it obviously didn't work, we sauntered back to the desk an hour later to find out at some point our room had become ready.
So that's my review. Honest, from my point of view. And again, comparing this resort to other branded resorts we travel to, and comparing the amenities (or lack thereof) to little things we've gotten used to.
We also made it known this was our anniversary trip (to our travel agent, the hotel front desk and guest services) with the hope something special would be set up for us - nothing. The resorts we've been to, when it's a guest birthday or anniversary, they usually decorate your room door, bring balloons, have champagne or a fruit plate in your room - nothing like that here. That was actually really disappointing. Our special anniversary event was the dinner we booked ourselves by purchasing a bottle of wine (at Oak).
If you're looking for an inexpensive trip, to sit on a beautiful beach and get a good buzz on, or this is your first trip south, you will likely be quite happy. All in all, I would probably still give the resort at least 3 stars. We had great weather and got to get away and relax for a week. Life could definitely be worse... But it will be better when we go back to Mexico or Jamaica next time.