Just returned from a wonderful week in PC, just started pic's uploading and will write a review soon.
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/12506/index.html
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/12506/index.html
- Thread starter Hlywud
- Start date
Hi guys, I'm back
Hlywud-Thanks for sharing the great pics. I will be making my first trip to the DR Feb. 7 for two weeks. I have appreciated all the info people like you have shared on the internet. It has made me look even more forward to meeting the people there and getting out of the resort where I will be staying in Sosua the first week.
No members from DR1 but a lot of people off Debbies Board, in fact that is why I went to the wedding I posted pictures of.
Wud...great pictures...the wedding was beautiful!!!
I tried to push my daughter to have her wedding in DR, at a nice resort, at the beach, but the groom doesn't like the sand!!!
Jan. 25, 2004...another obstacle on my way to finally picking up and going to live my dream!!!
Oh, well...two down...one to go...
I want to read about your trip...get busy!!!
I tried to push my daughter to have her wedding in DR, at a nice resort, at the beach, but the groom doesn't like the sand!!!
Jan. 25, 2004...another obstacle on my way to finally picking up and going to live my dream!!!
Oh, well...two down...one to go...
I want to read about your trip...get busy!!!
It should be posted on Debbies Domincan travel site in next day or so, already posted a review here on DR1 home page under resort reviews.
More people would see it here, I think
Review "long"
I can't find it it finally says to post hotel but must be archived until Robert checks it. Here is review I sent to Debbies:<br>
Dates: Jan. 25/03 to Feb 1/03
Airline: Air Transat on an L1011-150 series, left Toronto on the afternoon of January 25 at 4:15 pm, Flight departed on schedule and was in Punta Cana in 3 hours and 35 minutes, amazingly ahead of the itinerary scheduled listed 4 hours and 10 minute flight time. Very smooth flight in relatively good comfort with the 3-4-3 seating configuration. Immigration and luggage claim was quick and smooth.
Return flight: On arrival at the airport we saw the lineups, very long and all check in points very busy, they immediately opened an new check in line for Air Transat and we were whisked into the very busy Terminal within 10 minutes. Flight back on board a L1011-500 series was very smooth, departure was scheduled for 10:55 pm delayed for 15 minutes due to 3 passengers arriving late and scheduled landing at Pearson of 1:55 am took place at 2:10 am. Customs and baggage claim was very swift as I was in a taxi and heading to my car by 3 am.
Resort: Fiesta Palace with access to the Fiesta Beach, Fiesta Lookea and Fiesta Bavaro
Check in was very fast, courteous and efficient. We were headed to our room within 10 minutes after being greeted by Luigi from the Debbie's East Coast bulletin board. On entering the second floor room in Block 8400 we found a very large clean well decorated room with 2 three quarter beds, or luggage arrived within 5 minutes and it was off the bar for a long awaited cold Presidente.
Restaurants in the resort were very clean. The food was very good and had a good selection of different hot and cold items. I must say that all the specialty a la carte restaurants, the Arrecife ,the Mare Nostrum, the Tex-Mex and La Uva restaurants had an excellent selection available and reservations were easily made at the Guest Services desk in the main lobby. A strange thing though, you had to pre order your food when you made your reservation at any a la carte restaurants, not a problem though. The only restaurant I was disappointed in was the Tex_Mex as the vegetables and steak I had ordered were only luke warm, the others were very good and well presented. A wine list was presented at each restaurant but you could just ask for the house wine, which was very decent. Actually you really do not need to go to a la carte because they had such a fantastic selection in the buffet restaurants with cooking stations to prepare your meats in front of you just the way you wanted. The buffet items were well present a great selection and very hot. The Las Torres buffet had a very nice breakfast selection and hosted the evening buffet as well. Friday night was lobster night, amazing amount of seafood available with a fine selection of roast port, beef, chicken and turkey for those who did not like seafood.
La Bochio restaurant adjacent to the beach had a well stocked and delicious noon to 3 pm buffets with a cooking station with 4 or 5 selections of hot meats every day.
All the staff of the hotel were very courteous, helpful and greeted you constantly with "Hola" or "Buenas diaz", the services at the bars was very good as they could make you anything you wanted to order, with domestic liquors. International brands were available for a surcharge but not many people were ordering the extra charge drinks. Presidente draft beer taps were available in various bars on a 24 hour basis, just help yourself.
Grounds in the resort were immaculately maintained and any debris (papers, cups, cigarette butts etc.) was cleaned up quickly and not left laying around. The beach was incredibly clean with very little sea weed washed up, what did wash ashore was raked up quickly. The beautiful white sugary sand beach with the large coconut palms (lots), palapas (a few) and chaise lounges lined up facing the beautiful blue colors of the sea were kept very clean during the day by staff who walked around picking up any empty plastic drink cups. In fact the tourist should have been more considerate and used the garbage cans that were available and put the junk in them rather than leave it on the beach. But an old saying goes "that you cannot legislate intelligence."
The seaweed we had heard so much about did not pose any problems as minimal amounts washed up naturally from the sea and was raked every morning and as needed. The waters of the sea were very warm and refreshing and crystal clear after you ventured about 20 feet into the sea away from the sand wash. Excellent for swimming and snorkeling. As the day progressed the winds tended to pick up a bit as did the surf but never did this stop the use of the ocean.
Many tours were offered by the resort, I personally took the Bavaro Runners with our friends so they could see the real Dominican, it was a very good trip back into the mountains and valleys. We visited a sugar plantation, rice fields, tobacco museum and a small Dominican cocoa farm where we were took through their home and entertained to cock fights in the backyard. We visited Rancho Yuna for a Dominican lunch along with a cool cerveza and went on a half hour horse back ride around the ranch. We then headed into a small village to visit a school where we were afforded the chance to give the kids some schools supplies ,candies and take some pictures. In the village we saw how the Dominicans lived, what their shops were like, especially the butcher shop with the fresh meats hanging adjacent to the roadway. The people were very friendly and waved and yelled "Hola" as our truck passed through the village. We then headed to the secluded beach south of Secrets Excellence for a swim and some bogie boarding, it was far to rough to use the boards and our guide recommended that we just take a quick dip to cool off. I ventured down the beach to try and get into Secrets Excellence for a quick invited tour with the Manager Sandeep but the security guard at the front gates would not let me in or even call the Manager, so I walked back and entered via the beach where the security guard there was having a nap under a palm tree. I walked in to the resort lobby looked around, asked for Sandeep, no one knew where he was so I used their washroom facilities and headed back to our group. The surf there was actually so rough that there was no one in the water.
The snorkeling and diving trips to the reef were very reasonably priced and well organized by Dolin Divers. Other facilities included in the package were catamaran, sailboards, snorkeling equipment and kayaks which were on the beach at the Bavaro resort, with lessons given by the staff. It was quite a long walk from the Palace to the Bavaro to use the watersports area and would be much better if they had been distributed into about three locations.
In conclusion, the Fiesta Palace and the sister resorts Fiesta Beach, Lookea and Bavaro were very well maintained and beautiful picturesque paradise that I would highly recommend any of these resorts.
Pictures are available at this link
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/12506/index.html
I can't find it it finally says to post hotel but must be archived until Robert checks it. Here is review I sent to Debbies:<br>
Dates: Jan. 25/03 to Feb 1/03
Airline: Air Transat on an L1011-150 series, left Toronto on the afternoon of January 25 at 4:15 pm, Flight departed on schedule and was in Punta Cana in 3 hours and 35 minutes, amazingly ahead of the itinerary scheduled listed 4 hours and 10 minute flight time. Very smooth flight in relatively good comfort with the 3-4-3 seating configuration. Immigration and luggage claim was quick and smooth.
Return flight: On arrival at the airport we saw the lineups, very long and all check in points very busy, they immediately opened an new check in line for Air Transat and we were whisked into the very busy Terminal within 10 minutes. Flight back on board a L1011-500 series was very smooth, departure was scheduled for 10:55 pm delayed for 15 minutes due to 3 passengers arriving late and scheduled landing at Pearson of 1:55 am took place at 2:10 am. Customs and baggage claim was very swift as I was in a taxi and heading to my car by 3 am.
Resort: Fiesta Palace with access to the Fiesta Beach, Fiesta Lookea and Fiesta Bavaro
Check in was very fast, courteous and efficient. We were headed to our room within 10 minutes after being greeted by Luigi from the Debbie's East Coast bulletin board. On entering the second floor room in Block 8400 we found a very large clean well decorated room with 2 three quarter beds, or luggage arrived within 5 minutes and it was off the bar for a long awaited cold Presidente.
Restaurants in the resort were very clean. The food was very good and had a good selection of different hot and cold items. I must say that all the specialty a la carte restaurants, the Arrecife ,the Mare Nostrum, the Tex-Mex and La Uva restaurants had an excellent selection available and reservations were easily made at the Guest Services desk in the main lobby. A strange thing though, you had to pre order your food when you made your reservation at any a la carte restaurants, not a problem though. The only restaurant I was disappointed in was the Tex_Mex as the vegetables and steak I had ordered were only luke warm, the others were very good and well presented. A wine list was presented at each restaurant but you could just ask for the house wine, which was very decent. Actually you really do not need to go to a la carte because they had such a fantastic selection in the buffet restaurants with cooking stations to prepare your meats in front of you just the way you wanted. The buffet items were well present a great selection and very hot. The Las Torres buffet had a very nice breakfast selection and hosted the evening buffet as well. Friday night was lobster night, amazing amount of seafood available with a fine selection of roast port, beef, chicken and turkey for those who did not like seafood.
La Bochio restaurant adjacent to the beach had a well stocked and delicious noon to 3 pm buffets with a cooking station with 4 or 5 selections of hot meats every day.
All the staff of the hotel were very courteous, helpful and greeted you constantly with "Hola" or "Buenas diaz", the services at the bars was very good as they could make you anything you wanted to order, with domestic liquors. International brands were available for a surcharge but not many people were ordering the extra charge drinks. Presidente draft beer taps were available in various bars on a 24 hour basis, just help yourself.
Grounds in the resort were immaculately maintained and any debris (papers, cups, cigarette butts etc.) was cleaned up quickly and not left laying around. The beach was incredibly clean with very little sea weed washed up, what did wash ashore was raked up quickly. The beautiful white sugary sand beach with the large coconut palms (lots), palapas (a few) and chaise lounges lined up facing the beautiful blue colors of the sea were kept very clean during the day by staff who walked around picking up any empty plastic drink cups. In fact the tourist should have been more considerate and used the garbage cans that were available and put the junk in them rather than leave it on the beach. But an old saying goes "that you cannot legislate intelligence."
The seaweed we had heard so much about did not pose any problems as minimal amounts washed up naturally from the sea and was raked every morning and as needed. The waters of the sea were very warm and refreshing and crystal clear after you ventured about 20 feet into the sea away from the sand wash. Excellent for swimming and snorkeling. As the day progressed the winds tended to pick up a bit as did the surf but never did this stop the use of the ocean.
Many tours were offered by the resort, I personally took the Bavaro Runners with our friends so they could see the real Dominican, it was a very good trip back into the mountains and valleys. We visited a sugar plantation, rice fields, tobacco museum and a small Dominican cocoa farm where we were took through their home and entertained to cock fights in the backyard. We visited Rancho Yuna for a Dominican lunch along with a cool cerveza and went on a half hour horse back ride around the ranch. We then headed into a small village to visit a school where we were afforded the chance to give the kids some schools supplies ,candies and take some pictures. In the village we saw how the Dominicans lived, what their shops were like, especially the butcher shop with the fresh meats hanging adjacent to the roadway. The people were very friendly and waved and yelled "Hola" as our truck passed through the village. We then headed to the secluded beach south of Secrets Excellence for a swim and some bogie boarding, it was far to rough to use the boards and our guide recommended that we just take a quick dip to cool off. I ventured down the beach to try and get into Secrets Excellence for a quick invited tour with the Manager Sandeep but the security guard at the front gates would not let me in or even call the Manager, so I walked back and entered via the beach where the security guard there was having a nap under a palm tree. I walked in to the resort lobby looked around, asked for Sandeep, no one knew where he was so I used their washroom facilities and headed back to our group. The surf there was actually so rough that there was no one in the water.
The snorkeling and diving trips to the reef were very reasonably priced and well organized by Dolin Divers. Other facilities included in the package were catamaran, sailboards, snorkeling equipment and kayaks which were on the beach at the Bavaro resort, with lessons given by the staff. It was quite a long walk from the Palace to the Bavaro to use the watersports area and would be much better if they had been distributed into about three locations.
In conclusion, the Fiesta Palace and the sister resorts Fiesta Beach, Lookea and Bavaro were very well maintained and beautiful picturesque paradise that I would highly recommend any of these resorts.
Pictures are available at this link
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/12506/index.html
Debbies
www.debbiesdominicantravel.com down the right hand side is a bulletin board you can click on it and it has a number of boards where questions and answers are given.
www.debbiesdominicantravel.com down the right hand side is a bulletin board you can click on it and it has a number of boards where questions and answers are given.