Our Dominican Adventure

Hi everyone. I usually post these type of posts on my personal blog: Carolyn in Carolina but I wanted to share my adventure with my readers on this blog as well. So enjoy!

Okay, I know this is totally late but I just have no time to blog anymore with the job so I am even lucky I got this posted. It's not my usually detailed post but it should suffice.I have to start out by saying that we lucked out that my job is at a school that happened to have Spring Break the same time Tom had his at the University. If not, poor Tom would have had to spend his Spring Break at home while I worked.

We had planned to actually head out to Memphis and Tunica, MS. We were going to visit Tunica to gamble. It is so close to Memphis that we would have also gone and visited Graceland and eaten some of that good Memphis BBQ. But a few days before the start of Spring Break, Tom announced he wanted to go to a beach and relax.

This was nuts of course because of the time frame an the fact that many hotels were already booked because of Spring Break. A few years ago, we traveled to Puerto Rico from a deal on cheapcaribbean.com and so we checked out the site again and found a deal to the Barcelo Cappella Beach Resort in the Dominican Republic. We had never been, it was cheap and it was available so we booked it.

We checked out Trip Advisor and the hotel had some good and bad reviews so we were a little nervous about booking it willy-nilly but that's how we roll. So we began our ritual when we travel. We booked a hotel in Atlanta to spend the night before and then we leave the car there for free. The bummer part was that Tom had been in Boston so he had to fly in, drive home and then we had to drive to Atlanta all in the same day. I also had to pack for us since he was gone the week before. Suffice it to say, it was a wild Saturday night but we arrived in Atlanta and at least got to relax and not rush to the airport he next day.

I hate the Atlanta airport. It's huge and busy but what can you do. We have to fly out of there or Charlotte when we travel internationally. Flying from Asheville is super pricey and there is never a direct flight. Luckily, we had a direct flight to D.R. The plane was jammed. And I had to fly Delta, which I am not a huge fan of since I have always had problems with them in some capacity or another.

But the flight went well, we got to see The Blindside and we were able to just chill. Can I just say that I LOVE Sandra Bullock but I don't think she deserved the Oscar for that role but oh well? Anyway, once we got to the Dominican, we got our rental car and headed out to the resort. No offense to any Dominican reading this but damn people there drive like crap! Now I have driven in Costa Rica and they drive like hell too but nothing like in the Dominican. Good Lord. I thought we would die before we got to the resort.

It was hot and muggy and we made it in one piece. The resort itself was nice but not fancy. You can tell it's older. I think a few decades ago, it must have been a big deal. But we had no issue parking the car and checking in. We were booked into a garden view room through Cheap Caribbean but they upgraded us to an Ocean View room which so rocked the house. There is nothing like getting an unexpected treat. And it was great because the other rooms were pretty far from the ocean. I vlogged about here, here and here if you haven't seen it yet.

We got in late so we had to go grab a snack at the oceanside grill since the other restaurants were closed. Now I have to say that we were not impressed with the food that first day but as time went on, the food wasn't so bad after all. We had some great steak dinners although we had to pay extra for them because they were not part of the all-inclusive plan. But the main restaurant which was buffet style had some decent food. Breakfast was always great with fresh fruit and freshly made donuts! The one thing I loved was they had a pasta bar so if there was nothing else that looked good, there was always pasta. Yummy!

There is not much to tell since the next few days consisted of us getting up and getting dressed for breakfast. Eating breakfast and then changing into swimsuits to go down to the beach. The beach was one of the best I have been to. It was tranquil and clear and there were not too many people there. I usually hate beaches and prefer pools but the water was so lovely, we ended up staying there most of the day in the water. We paid for it though because we both ended up getting sunburned. Then after beach time, we would go get dressed, eat lunch and then relax in the room. Until dinner time. What a life.

We thought about taking a tour into Santo Domingo but the tours were only at 1pm and by that time we wanted to relax and it was too damn hot to be out and about on a city tour. I wish they would have had morning tours because we definitely would have taken one. We thought about driving into town but nixed the idea because why leave such a beautiful beach.

Again, this wasn't the fanciest resort but it was quite nice for what we needed. There were a few weirdo things though. Towels seemed to be a huge issue. It was impossible to get beach towels early in the morning and poor Tom had to walk all the way across the resort to get some. Even towels in the room were at a premium, it was weird. I had to ask the housekeeper a few times before we got more than 2. In the end, we hoarded a few towels just to have extras in case we needed them.

Luckily, we could get internets access so we could keep up with our email and I was able to upload some video vlogs. The had "entertainment" but it was very willy-nilly and laughable sometimes. At night after dinner, we would go sit at the bar/entertainment area and have a drink. The seemed to have a house band that, frankly, sucked big hairy balls. I felt bad because they were trying but most of the time I couldn't recognize what they were playing. It was actually entertaining not because they were good but because those poor devils were so bad.

They also had a children's show that we were oh so lucky to catch twice (being sarcastic here). The kids looked like they were having fun but watching demented clowns dancing the hokey pokey hit close to home and reminded me of Halloween and the Demented Jester that came to my door when I was all alone. Scary!

We did go to the pool one day and another weird incident happened and I wasn't sure what to make of it. There was this really rude and horrible man we had seen around the resort for a few days. He was married to a very young girl and had 2 little kids. When we went to the pool they were there. I thought nothing of it but when Tom went to get us more drinks, the wife swam over to where I was. I saw her and thought boy she is getting awfully close. She had to have seen me from underwater so it was weird. Then she reaches over and tickles my foot. I was like WTH! She must have seen the shocked look on my face because she swam away. Now that was creepy.

After I told Tom, we deduced that maybe her and hubby were swingers or something and she might have been giving some sort of sign. That or she was just a nutcase. You just don't go around tickling people's feet. I mean, please. Since we don't "swing" we might have been out of the loop.

Anyway, we really didn't do much but swim, sun, read and relax. Oh yeah and eat. When you go to these type of resorts, that's about all you do. But I love doing nothing.

We left the resort on Friday. We had an issue with the front desk regarding a collect call Tom placed because of an issue with a credit card. He had made two calls to the US collect because BofA allows that. One call was 90 pesos and the other was 450 pesos. We asked why so much more since Tom only spoke a few minutes extra and we got attitude from hell. But in the end, we were right and it got fixed.

The flight again was uneventful and luckily we got emergency exit seats that have that little bit extra space but I was jammed in the middle seat. Boo! We watched Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges, who did deserve the Oscar for his performance. And Colin Farrell was in and you all know ho I feel about Colin Farrell. The movie was pretty darn good.

Unfortunately, we had to fly into Atlanta airport. I dislike the Atlanta Airport. I hate that they let you off and then you have to get checked all over again because they do not have a separate International arrival area. Boo! But we got out and had to drive the 3.5 hours back home. Luckily, Tom did all the driving.

It is always nice to come home. It was great seeing my babies. It was nice sleeping in my own bed and it was just nice being home. Overall, it probably sounds like I am complaining about the resort but I am not. We actually had a wonderful time there especially since the beach area was so freaking fantastic. I am not sure I would go back there but it was good being there.

So forgive me for not posting as often as I should but I will try. More pictures at the bottom for you to look at!