It beats quarry diving any day of the week.
The water is actually very clear around punta cana, the reefs are pretty beat up though. My wife and I completed our advanced open water cert down there years ago because it was about the same price as purchasing the same number of dives.
If you have the time, I would make the trek La Romana and dive out of there. I never made it there, but all the guides were saying that the reefs are much better. Catalina island, which is right off the coast of La Romana, is a protected national park.
If you stay around punta cana, you're diving in a group off little boats. They typically hit the beaches of a couple resorts to pick up divers before hitting the reefs for your dive. Beaching is interesting, the captain floors the engine and runs it right up on the beach with everyone in the boat to pick up the new divers.
All in all, it's not bad diving. Lots of fish, gorgonians, some lps, I don't remember seeing much sps though. If you go on some of the deeper dives, the sea floor is littered with giant elephant ear sponges. That was actually the first time I had been diving in the ocean, so it was a good experience. I wish i had some pictures to share but I didn't get my camera until a year later.
