Archive for the year 2014
Caribe Buffet
Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I ate at the Caribe Buffet on our first night at the resort. The buffet is nice because you can wear pretty much anything you like. Actually, that’s true for women anywhere you go. However, guys are required to wear pants at the restaurants except for the buffet. They don’t care if you wear shorts at the buffet. As long as you’re not in your swimsuit and have shoes on, they pretty much don’t care.
They always have various fresh fruits.
There are several food stations.
This is the create-your-own-pasta section. It’s was Brian’s favorite station.
This is the crepe station.
They always have all sorts of fish dishes. That first night I was surprised to see these two whole fish, complete with the head and everything.
This is one of the dessert stations.
There are always so many choices.
There’s so much food. If you go hungry, it’s your fault.
This is the view from the restaurant. It’s pretty nice, but there’s actually an even better one. I will show you guys next time.
My strategy at the buffet was to try a little bit of everything first and then once I figured out what I liked that’s all I got for the most part. Brian really liked the pasta and the pizza. I leaned more towards rice, beans, shrimp, and pork.
The buffet has some slightly different options at breakfast and lunch than at dinner. During breakfast there is a mimosa station and a smoothie station. The mimosa station is self-explanatory. They have bottles of wine and orange juice. You make your own mimosa. The smoothie station is really cool. They have a wide selection of fruits and you just tell them which ones you want in your smoothie. It’s really cool.
They also have an omelet station where you can create your own omelet. What I like best about their omelet station is that they don’t assume that you want cheese so they don’t put cheese in your omelet unless specifically requested so I never have to say “no cheese” every time. LOL.
The breakfast buffet is actually much better than getting room service. Even though room service was included for us and, despite the convenience, the wide array of food options makes it worth going to the buffet for breakfast. The room service menu is quite limited. Plus, I don’t think you can get smoothies via room service (but I don’t know for sure since I didn’t try).
The Caribe is a really good option for casual dining. If you don’t really care about trying the restaurants, just plan on eating at Caribe buffet every time and you don’t even have to pack any pants.
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Club Premium Perks at Barcelo
Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Since Brian and I figured we would probably pay for internet anyway, we went ahead and paid extra for the club premium perks. Club premium guests get the best rooms at the resort. I think we got the best room at the resort without upgrading to a suite because it’s ocean front and it’s on the most quiet, peaceful side of the property. And, we have easy access to outdoor showers.
The one thing that I didn’t care too much for is having to wear wristbands. I guess that’s the thing here in DR. We didn’t have to wear wristbands when we stayed at Couples. Here, I’ve yet to see anyone without some sort of wristband. Even the folks we met who were staying at other resorts had wristbands on. I guess that’s how they identify you and what perks you get. You wear it everyday, every where you go.
Anyway, if you’re going to have to wear a wristband, you might as well wear a cool, wooden one that says “CLUB premium” on it instead of a cheesy plastic one. LOL.
You also get robes and house shoes. I kept trying to wear mine outside the room because I’d forget to switch my shoes out.
Room service isn’t included in the regular all-inclusive package. You can get room service, but it costs. For club premium guests, it’s free. Brian and I took advantage of this perk on our first couple of days. They give you so much food that they’re practically bringing the breakfast buffet to you.
This is just regular breakfast and they gave us a ton of food. The food could barely fit on our patio table. Seriously.
The next day we asked for the Desayuno Romantico (Romantic Breakfast) with champagne so we could make some mimosas. It was an enormous breakfast. It required two tables. No wonder you have to schedule it a day in advance.
Some of the perks on the list were stretching it (they’re not really that much of a perk), but room service was a real perk. We really enjoyed being able to have breakfast on our private patio.
Other perks we found valuable were access to the hydrotherapy section of spa, access to the club premium lounge, priority dinner reservations, the free bottle of Rob Barcelo imperial rum, etc. One perk that we didn’t really take advantage of and weren’t really interested in is the access to the VIP section of the disco. Their disco club doesn’t open until 11 pm and we’re usually in bed by then.
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Our Home Away From Home
Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ching under Travel.
This is where are resting our heads this week.
Not much privacy but you can’t beat the location. We are on the far West end of the resort, where it’s quieter and there’s not as much traffic.
We have our very own lounge chairs and we’re just a few steps from the beach.
La Piña is right by our room. This is a bar but it’s not like the other bars. They only serve fresh pineapple and fresh coconut drinks and only on specific days. It closes at 5 pm so the noise factor isn’t an issue. And they actually shut down early when they’re out of stuff. The thing to remember is that the pineapple and coconut drinks aren’t included in the all-inclusive package. The pineapple and coconut drinks are actually $1 for the non-alcoholic version or $2 with booze so, if you venture out this way looking for one of the fancy drinks, don’t forget to bring cash.
There are a couple of outdoor showers right outside our room. It’s actually come in handy several times. We’ve made good use of them.
The sidewalk spans the length of both Barcelo properties: Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe (the main complex and family area) and Barcelo Bavaro Beach (the adults only side).
Here are a few more pictures of the resort.
This is the beach that is directly in front of the Barcelo Bavaro Beach pool area.
Orange towels represent the adults only side. The Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe guests get yellow beach towels. We’re allowed to play on their side but they’re not allowed on our side. Thank heavens for that!
There are a lot of people staying here but the beach never feels crowded.
The beach on our side never feels crowded anyway. It’s a different story on Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe side. There are people everywhere. You can’t escape them.
You don’t have a choice but to go over there though, because that’s where you get equipment like kayaks, pedal boats, etc. for water sports.
The pool was really crowded on Sunday, but nothing compared to the family side. They have a much bigger pool and it’s always crowded. At least on our side we’ve only seen it super packed one day. On the Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe side it’s packed everyday.
There are several lobby areas so be specific when meeting someone.
No worries if you are not so fond of taking long walks or if you get lost because there are trains that make several stops throughout the Barcelo complex. There’s one every 15 minutes (sometimes sooner, and sometimes more than one). The trains run until 4 am, we’re told. We’ve not tested it though.
Anyway, it’s getting late and almost time for bed. I will write more about our vacation next time. Check back soon.
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Journey to Punta Cana
Posted on June 8, 2014 by Ching under Travel.
The trip to Punta Cana was smooth and uneventful. Other than that it was our first time flying in first/business class seats, there were no major hiccups or surprises. Since it’s a first, I naturally have to document it. LOL.
This is Brian making sure that our passports are put away.
When you are flying out of the country they check your passport at the gate. We didn’t think we would need it for the domestic leg (ICT to ATL) but they actually asked to see our passports when we were boarding. It makes sense. If you have forgotten your passport it’s better to know before you’re hundreds of miles away from home. If you don’t realize it until you’re at your connecting airport with only minutes to spare, what are you going to do? I’m sure there’s many other reasons why they check your passport from the start even when you’re still in the US, but I’m thinking that avoiding angry passengers who are unable to make their connection because they forgot their passports at home is probably a big one.
Brian picked our seats so we were in the very first row. Bulkhead seats are great if you want lots of leg room. There is no under-seat storage, however; so factor this in if you want easy access to your bags.
Oh, and notice the pillows and blanket. Throughout my years of flying I have experienced where you got food and blankets on economy/coach (it was standard back in the day) and then over the years service dwindled to where you rarely even get peanuts. On one of our recent trips (we flew coach because we are too cheap to pay for upgraded seats) I was cold and I asked the flight attendant for a blanket. The flight attendant told me they didn’t have any. I guess they were just too nice to say, “We don’t have any FOR YOU” because everyone in first class got a pillow and a blanket on our recent flights.
Actually it probably depends on the airline. I remember asking for a blanket on coach once and the flight attendant gave me one. I’m sure they probably just took one from first class or maybe they had extras. But then they wouldn’t have enough for everyone so maybe that’s why they quit doing it. Who knows?
Here are some aerial views of Wichita.
The extra leg room came in handy. I’m actually short enough that I can stretch out completely. They just need little pegs on the wall to hold my feet up.
The perks of first class also include free drinks. They didn’t have any champagne on our ICT to ATL flight and it was a little early for a screwdriver so I just got plain OJ. You can get OJ in coach too, but it’s served in a plastic cup instead of a regular glass like this one.
Here’s a picture of us on our ATL to PUJ flight.
This flight had champagne and they offered us mimosas before we could even get our luggage put up in the overhead bins. I’m not turning down mimosas. I got two. Just kidding. The other one is Brian’s.
Lunch enroute to Punta Cana was actually not bad.
The inflight entertainment included Veronica Mars. Neither of us had seen that movie. We hadn’t seen any of the TV show either but we’d heard of it. The movie made the three hour flight go pretty quickly.
Here are a series of pictures that I took from the air. Hurrah for window seats!
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Tanya’s Soup Kitchen
Posted on June 7, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It had been a while since we’ve been to Tanya’s Soup Kitchen and I’d almost forgotten how much I love their food. I was reminded when we ate there for lunch on Thursday. It was Brian’s pick.
Brian got the Junie, which is what he always gets there. It’s like a Cuban sandwich, his favorite sandwich to get anywhere. He also always gets the tomato bisque. I don’t normally like tomato bisque because it’s too tomato-ey for me most of the time; however, Tanya’s is really good. I love the flavor and consistency of it.
I got the City Chicken with the cheesy potato soup. I like the City Chicken because it’s a lot like the Garbo at Caffe Moderne except without artichokes. I actually can’t decide which I like better between the City Chicken and the Garbo. They are both very good.
Here’s a picture of my lunch. It was so delicious. This picture does not do it justice. If you are ever in the Wichita area or if you live in Wichita, you must go to Tanya’s!
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