Live, Laugh, Love - Loach Style: March 2010

Well... our second family trip is sadly over already :( This time we went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. We have been to Punta Cana a couple of times and weren't really interested in returning again but my sister and brother in law swear by one resort they continue to visit over and over so we decided to take their advice and try it out... great suggestion guys!!

We stayed at the Melia in the Royal Service area. The whole Melia property is around 2000 rooms - it's huge! But the Royal Service is like a private resort within the resort. I think there were about 100 rooms in the Royal Service area. The Royal Service add on included a separate pool area, restaurant, upgraded rooms and upgraded bar menu. The add on was definitely a requirement as I think the extras helped make the trip.

On this trip, we decided to bring along a 'nanny' so that Dan and I could have some private time on the vacation. So we brought along Dan's sister Lisa. SO worth it!!! It was great to have an extra set of hands to always help out and we really appreciated having someone hanging out in the room while Nicholas was sleeping so we could eat, relax and/or hit the bar :) We booked two separate rooms for the 4 of us. We booked Lisa a master suite which had a bedroom, large tv area, wet bar and huge jacuzzi. Dan, Nicholas and I booked a 1 bedroom suite which had a bedroom, same huge jacuzzi, a kitchen/dining area and family room. It was a huge room! I think it's something like 850 sq ft?? I loved having the separate kitchen area so I could keep all of Nicholas' bottles/food/formula out of the way. And having the extra family room area was great for all the baby gear.

I had emailed the resort ahead and requested adjoining rooms with a pool view on the first floor (no elevators in the buildings which would make it tough with the stroller). I had also asked for the room to be stocked with water and a crib. They had replied back that the requests would depend on availability. But low and behold, when we arrived, we got everything we requested! It was great to have Lisa's room open right into ours. Made it so much easier to have Nicholas fall asleep in our room and not have to transfer him at all once we got back from being out at night. I really believe that this set up was perfect.

One downfall we discovered the first night was the hotel's crib. It was a mini crib and was unfortunately made of metal. Within the first 5 minutes of putting Nicholas to bed, he rolled over and hit his head on the metal bars. Complete FAIL! So Nicholas got spoiled and slept with Mommy and Daddy every night of vacation.... thank goodness for the huge king size bed! It was a little tough convincing him to sleep in his regular crib the once we got home but he's OK with it again. The other downfall that we knew going in was that you can't drink the water in Punta Cana. This meant using bottled water not only for formula but also for washing bottles. I brought a bottle rack and a shallow bucket to do bottles in every night. I would run the bottled water thru the coffee maker in the room to heat it up and then use bottled water to rinse the bottles also. I also brought my bottle sanitizer to run all the bottles thru after hand washing them. Needless to say I went thru a case of water a night just washing bottles!! I just wanted to be extra careful. I even made Dan wash Nicholas' face, hair and hands with bottled water and I didn't let him play in the tub for fear of him splashing water into his mouth. I fugre if an adult can get sick just from brishing their teeth with the faucet water, it wouldn't take much at all to make a baby sick. The resort was great though and for a few dollars, the maid brought me 2 cases of water a day no problem!! Once she knew we had a baby, she also made a point of cleaning the room early so we could come back for his afternoon nap if needed and not be disturbed.

We actually found this entire resort to be very kid friendly. All the workers loved to talk to the kids and they went out of their way to get you whatever you needed. We definitely appreciated that. We were a little afraid that the Royal Service area would be snotty and not appreciate having a baby around. But there were so many kids in the area and we felt completely comfortable. I was actually surprised how many kids were in the Royal Service - especially because you have to pay full price for them once they are like 5 or something. Maybe there was an abundance because of school vacation ???

So each day Nicholas would have us up around 6:30 and Dan would go out and reserve us a cabana. These cabanas were awesome! They were the size of a king size bed under a palapa and were super comfy. Nicholas spent a lot of time in the cabana playing with his toys and taking naps. He of course still demanded to sleep in the AC some days... but that was when the nanny really came in handy :) So after grabbing a cabana, we would all head to breakfast, after which we would go for a long walk around the resort or to the adjacent mall. We would then settle in by the pool and hang either in the shade or sun. There was a grill right next to the pool and also the royal service restaurant was right there too so very easy to eat whenever. Nicholas would usually take his morning nap and maybe one more in the cabana and then his afternoon nap would be back in the room. Lisa would then head back to the room with Nicholas and hang out on the balcony and read while Dan and I would chill by the pool, eat lunch or head to the bar :) We did a specialty restaurant pretty much every night for dinner and would eat somewhat early. We would then go for a nice long walk again around the property and Nicholas would fall asleep in the stroller. Then we would head to the bar for a couple of cocktails before heading back for the night. Unfortunately since Nicholas still gets up at night, we didn't have any wild and crazy nights. But we definitely had plenty of time to eat and drink and relax at night.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time on the beach here since it was a bit of a walk from the room. They also didn't have those great cabanas so we pretty much would just walk down for a bit each day. Since the resort is so big, they have a shuttle service the runs all over the resort. The shuttles look like trains. Nicholas absolutely loved watching them go by. There were also plenty of scooters and golf carts going by also which he loved too. Since we walked everywhere, we actually found all the 'traffic' annoying. I supposed if we rode everywhere we would have appreciated the frequency instead.

When booking the Melia, we were supposed to get a few free rounds of golf at the little golf course across the street. I think it has 3 nine hole courses on it. When we flew out to Punta Cana, I noticed a group of 5 guys in front of us. I figured they must be heading out for a golf trip. After a couple of mai tai's on the plane, I struck up a conversation with one of the guys and it ended up they were golfing and staying right next to our resort. I casually told them that if they needed a 6th player during the week that my husband would be around to play. How lucky.... they needed one on the next day! So Dan lucked out and got to play at a real course at Cap Cana rather than the little one across the street. The guy on the plane ended up being a member so Dan got to play it for half price - which was still $160!! But he said he really enjoyed it and was definitely worth it. He said that was his favorite part of the trip :)

My favorite part of the trip was being able to really hang out with Nicholas. When I'm home, I constantly have to worry about work, cleaning the house, doing dishes, cooking, laundry, etc, etc.... On vacation I could just sit back and just watch him play and really interact with him. It was so great to be able to give him my undivided attention. Dan and I tended to be with him whenever he was awake. But as soon as he fell asleep, we would have Lisa watch him so we could take off alone. It was the perfect plan - and was the one thing that Dan didn't like about Jamaica.... having to just sit in the room for a couple of hours when Nicholas would nap.

Traveling with a 3 month old (Jamaica) vs a 6 month old (Punta Cana) was much different! On the down side, Nicholas didn't want to sleep the entire plane ride and wanted to be entertained. I blame this on the fact that we were supposed to have envoy seats and ended up in plain old first class. Not what Nicholas was accustomed to :) Atleast they were both direct flights which is now a requirement when traveling with Nicholas. We didn't have to worry about any connections or really about the weather as much either. And of course it makes for a shorter travel day. Lisa was a life saver on the plane! We really appreciated the extra hands and on the way home, Dan and I just couldn't settle Nicholas and really appreciated Lisa being about to do it instead. He must have just been sick of our faces after waking up every morning in the same bed as us :)

On the positive side, Nicholas was able to enjoy the sun and the pool much more. He really loved people watching too. It was so funny to watch how he would stare at each person until they would ackowledge him, then he would give them a big smile and start looking at the next person. He loved everyone from the waiters, grounds crew, and others guests. He also loved sitting on the balcony and watching all the golf carts, motorcycles and the trains go by. He would follow each one with his eyes the entire time they were in viewing distance. So cute!!

So all in all we had a great time on vacation. Luckily we didn't have any medical problems this time which was a blessing. We loved the resort and would definitely return. We will also continue to take direct flights and take another person along with us to allow Dan and I to get a bit of a vacation away also.

OK - enough talking... here are some pics of the vacation. I am still waiting to get the ones Lisa took so I'll probably post even more once I get those!

Here's our awesome cabana we got everyday by the pool. Nicholas enjoyed many naps in this thing....atleast when he wasn't demanding to sleep in the cool AC of the room :)

Here's Nicholas and Daddy sleeping after a busy afternoon of swimming in the pool.....

Poor Nicholas - this is what happens when Mommy stays behind at the pool....

He wasn't a big fan of the sand.....

Nicholas and Mommy hangin' in the cabana......

Here we all are celebrating Lisa's birthday at the Japanese restaurant...

This resort was so huge that they had mock trains and train stations set up all over the resort for people who didn't want to walk. We pretty much walked everywhere so we could justify all our desserts, nachos and drinks each day. Nicholas loved watching these trains go by all the time. He enjoyed the golf carts and motorcycles passing by too - pure boy I say :) Here he is enjoying a ride on the train.....