All-Inclusive Vacation Help

[smokew11]

the food in Riviera Maya was great. I had never been to an all inclusive before and this will only be our 2nd time.

[Ascf33]

Agreed. We've only been to the Rivera Maya resort once but we've been to the Playa Mujeres at least 4 or 5 times now. Food is spectacular.

[Jake C]

Went to Sandals Whitehouse years ago guess it is called South Coast now. It was great. We actually went back 2-3 times to the same resort. Food was excellent people were very friendly and it met our needs at the time. Very laid back some activities Volleyball in the pool, guess the song, etc... Thing I liked about it most at the time was there were no other resorts on either side so you truly had the beach limited to individuals at that resort.

Was planning on going back this year but headed to Beloved which I believe is owned by the Excellence Group.

- J

[TheLastStop123]

we did an all-inclusive a number of years ago in the DR and the food was terrible, I ended up in bed sick to my stomach one night. while probably dumb, I haven't tried one since because of that experience.

[Ascf33]

Originally Posted by Jake C

Went to Sandals Whitehouse years ago guess it is called South Coast now. It was great. We actually went back 2-3 times to the same resort. Food was excellent people were very friendly and it met our needs at the time. Very laid back some activities Volleyball in the pool, guess the song, etc... Thing I liked about it most at the time was there were no other resorts on either side so you truly had the beach limited to individuals at that resort.

Was planning on going back this year but headed to Beloved which I believe is owned by the Excellence Group.

- J

Beloved is very nice. It's right next to Excellence and owned by the same group. The only reason we haven't been there is that it's not adults only.

[GSUdawg521]

Good top, been researching an all-inclusive for this fall.

We also did Excellence Riviera Cancun for our honeymoon 6 years ago and liked it a lot.

For this trip, we're looking at somewhere besides Mexico, and most of the choices are the DR. Still not settled on anything. We also want adult-only.

[Route_2]

We did a Sandals in St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Was my first AI experience, and while it's not my preferred mode of vacationing, I didn't have anything to complain about. Staff was great, beach wasn't great, food was amazing, but enjoyable.

[Ascf33]

Originally Posted by GSUdawg521

Good top, been researching an all-inclusive for this fall.

We also did Excellence Riviera Cancun for our honeymoon 6 years ago and liked it a lot.

For this trip, we're looking at somewhere besides Mexico, and most of the choices are the DR. Still not settled on anything. We also want adult-only.

The Excellence in DR is gorgeous. We had a swim-out room and it was awesome. The only thing that was "lacking" was the food.

[GSUdawg521]

Will keep Sanctuary Cap Cana in mind. Doesn't look like it has a higher "club" type level. Not a deal-breaker, but we liked that at Excellence; separate pool and bar that were less crowded and less "party"-like. Definitely worth it.

[smokew11]

Originally Posted by GSUdawg521

Will keep Sanctuary Cap Cana in mind. Doesn't look like it has a higher "club" type level. Not a deal-breaker, but we liked that at Excellence; separate pool and bar that were less crowded and less "party"-like. Definitely worth it.

we didnt do a higher club level, and we had a great time. Not a super party atmosphere. Made some friends from the UK, drank, had dinner, and played pool volleyball together all week

[Jake C]

Originally Posted by Ascf33

Beloved is very nice. It's right next to Excellence and owned by the same group. The only reason we haven't been there is that it's not adults only.

I thought Beloved was Couples only? Did I read that one wrong? If not I will go ahead and cancel and book us into Sandals!

- J

[M. Steng]

Originally Posted by GSUdawg521

Good top, been researching an all-inclusive for this fall.

We also did Excellence Riviera Cancun for our honeymoon 6 years ago and liked it a lot.

For this trip, we're looking at somewhere besides Mexico, and most of the choices are the DR. Still not settled on anything. We also want adult-only.

We did our honeymoon at Sanctuary Cap Cana and stayed in a sick suite in the castle, it was fucking doooopeeee

[M. Steng]

Also, there is an awesome pool in the castle overlooking the ocean and the rest of the resort, it’s far from the action, pretty private (castle guests only) and very chill.

We spent most of our time hanging with the other honeymooners in the main party pool and going on excursions. The food was excellent too especially the steakhouse. It may be one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on

[smokew11]

great to hear!!!

I'm wondering if we can get an upgrade to the castle, last we heard the place has only been booking around 30% capacity

[smokew11]

just double checked our package and we're in the castle junior suite

[M. Steng]

Originally Posted by smokew11

just double checked our package and we're in the castle junior suite

The castle is dope. The waterfront cabanas are undoubtedly also cool, you really can’t go wrong but we wound up happy that we were in the castle. We were in one of the honeymoon suites so I’m not sure what the junior suites are like, but if they’re anything like ours was then you’ll be very happy.

The steakhouse and the sushi place were the best, the Italian was just alright. I think we ate at the steakhouse like 3-4 nights

[GSUdawg521]

Booked Sanctuary, thanks to hearing about it from this thread. Castle suite, swim up

Booked with all the credit card points we've saved over the last year and a half, and the flight credits we had from a canceled Europe trip right at the beginning of the pandemic -- went with first class. So feels like a free trip

[Ascf33]

We can't figure out a place to go. We want a swim-out room. Really wish Unico 20 87 had availability because that place looks awesome.

[smokew11]

Originally Posted by GSUdawg521

Booked Sanctuary, thanks to hearing about it from this thread. Castle suite, swim up

Booked with all the credit card points we've saved over the last year and a half, and the flight credits we had from a canceled Europe trip right at the beginning of the pandemic -- went with first class. So feels like a free trip

nice!

Wish I got a swim up


any recommendation for a good CC to get vacation rewards?

[GSUdawg521]

Originally Posted by smokew11

nice!

Wish I got a swim up


any recommendation for a good CC to get vacation rewards?

Have you gone on yours yet?

I'm no points expert but we have the Chase Freedom for the rotating quarterly 5% categories, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred which is 2% on dining and travel. You can combine points from both these cards and use on travel among many other things. There are more valuable things you can do with them beyond just booking a trip like we usually do, but I don't get into that. Like you can transfer the points to certain travel partners (Hyatt or United Airlines just to name two) and they end up being worth more.

Looks like the Preferred right now is offering 100,000 points as a sign up bonus which is pretty crazy. This 4 night suite at an all inclusive cost us less than 200k. There are also lots of other perks to the card, like we've gotten 2 years free DoorDash Dashpass which has been really nice this past year. I also just read there are changes coming to the card and rumors like upping certain point values and adding some categories.

There's a wealth of information to be found on thepointsguy.com if you really wanna go down the rabbit hole. And if you wanna get a Chase card, you could really hook a brotha up by letting me know and using a referral link

[smokew11]

awesome thanks a lot man!

PM me the link

We didn't go yet, leaving in 2 weeks

[smokew11]

man we're down to a few days, can't way. Started watching youtube videos of Sanctuary despite wanting to be surprised, ugh

just looked at parking options. Was gonna do SmartPark for $100 @ the airport w/shuttle to the gate, but our agent told us with all the covid shit we need to get there 3 hours pre-flight, so that would be 7:30 AM in Philly rush hour....decided to do a Park n Stay at a local hotel, cost $160 w/shuttle...gonna stay over the night before and leave the car there for the week. Start the vacation a night early, not have any of the stress of waking up at 4AM, the kids probably waking up, making sure we have everything, etc

[GSUdawg521]

Originally Posted by smokew11

man we're down to a few days, can't way. Started watching youtube videos of Sanctuary despite wanting to be surprised, ugh

just looked at parking options. Was gonna do SmartPark for $100 @ the airport w/shuttle to the gate, but our agent told us with all the covid shit we need to get there 3 hours pre-flight, so that would be 7:30 AM in Philly rush hour....decided to do a Park n Stay at a local hotel, cost $160 w/shuttle...gonna stay over the night before and leave the car there for the week. Start the vacation a night early, not have any of the stress of waking up at 4AM, the kids probably waking up, making sure we have everything, etc

How are you getting to the resort once you land?

[Ascf33]

We decided on going to Excellence Oyster Bay - Jamaica for a week in Aug/Sep. Looking forward to it.

[Ascf33]

Originally Posted by Jake C

I thought Beloved was Couples only? Did I read that one wrong? If not I will go ahead and cancel and book us into Sandals!

- J

This is my mistake. Was confusing 'Beloved' with 'Finest'.

[M. Steng]

Originally Posted by smokew11

man we're down to a few days, can't way. Started watching youtube videos of Sanctuary despite wanting to be surprised, ugh

just looked at parking options. Was gonna do SmartPark for $100 @ the airport w/shuttle to the gate, but our agent told us with all the covid shit we need to get there 3 hours pre-flight, so that would be 7:30 AM in Philly rush hour....decided to do a Park n Stay at a local hotel, cost $160 w/shuttle...gonna stay over the night before and leave the car there for the week. Start the vacation a night early, not have any of the stress of waking up at 4AM, the kids probably waking up, making sure we have everything, etc

Have so much fun, dude! It really is an amazing resort and it's adults-only which is great for some relaxing Mom and Dad time. We wound up just hanging out in the pool a lot with a bunch of other young newlyweds when we went, and we all still keep in touch to this day. There is a lot of cool stuff to do in the area though, we had arranged for a booze cruise which unfortunately got rained out, but one of the guys in our group went on a deep-sea fishing trip which he said was absolutely sick.

We are gonna plan to go back within the next 5 years or so, once our second (who we are trying for now ) is like 3 or 4 and our oldest is around 6.

Originally Posted by GSUdawg521

How are you getting to the resort once you land?

There's a shuttle directly from the airport that hits all the resorts that are in that area. If I remember correctly it's about a 20-30 minute drive. I think we arranged it with the resort and it was pretty seamless as far as I can remember.

[Ascf33]

Yeah, the shuttle lines are pretty crazy when you land in DR, especially if a number of planes all land at the same time. So budget that in as well. We had booked ours through the resort and it still took us a bit to get through after customs and all that.

[smokew11]

yup I think they are called transfers? The shuttle from the airport to resort

[Ascf33]

Yeah. There are booths right when you get through customs for transfers booked through travel agent/travel sites and then there's the dudes holding signs with your name on it. Maybe just confirm with your resort or whoever you booked your transfer with on how you find your driver. In Mexico, it's always a dude with a sign but in DR, we had to wait in line for one of those booths and it sucked ass.

[Jake C]

Originally Posted by Ascf33

This is my mistake. Was confusing 'Beloved' with 'Finest'.

All good. We went to Beloved. Booked a room with a private pool in the event we did not want to spend too much time in the other pools. Resort was only at 50% capacity I think. Was very nice overall only 2 hiccups and they were not with the resort but with the transportation our pick up from the airport was delayed and our pick up from the resort back to the Airport was delayed.

Transportation issues aside the resort was good. All staff work masks and the vast majority of the staff went out of their way to help you or to make sure you wanted for nothing. C-19 test onsite day before departure back to the US. Resort could use a little refresh to address some small places where the age is showing but other than that it was very good.

- J