Have a great time! It's pretty hard to find a place that sucks in the Caribbean, other than Haiti.
Not that Haiti isn't on the same island as DR! I guess there is a lot of 'security'. A little disconcerting, but I've seen it elsewhere in the Caribbean and South America.
Dominican Republic is on the same island as Haiti, separated only by mountains. My trip to DR was too long ago (30 years?) to be of any help. It surely qualified as "3rd World" at least then.