Majestic Elegance Punta Cana

... Have I mentioned how awesomely nice they are...here are the things I learned. Fact #1: Always ask Dominicans about their family...they love showing you pictures and talking about them...especially their children. Fact #2: Just because a Dominican man is married and has a 2 month old son, does not mean he won't do his best to hit on you. Fact #3: Punta Cana workers are baller at pool, but are nice enough to let you play a good game against them if ...

... that serves as a dining/living room. Downstairs at the EF are offices, labs and classrooms.

After showering and unpacking, I meet the girls from the study abroad group on their way to the Club and I join them. The Club is a 2 min walk from the EF and consists of a store where they have the 'basics' (batteries, coca cola, rum, Presidente (THE dominican beer), and snacks), two pool tables (very tattered, and only one of ...

... at the Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana which is a huge hotel, as it contains 4 hotels of the same chain! While we didn't know until practically the day before we left if we were even going anywhere we were all pretty excited to be going anywhere and felt very fortunate that we were able to get somewhere! Personally I don't like large hotels, I just find there are too many people and you don't get to know ...

... It is interesting to see what connects with each of us... Luke does seem interested in the Viking explorers, Erik is getting into reading The Mayflower and discussing it with Ross, and Lexi connected with the story Cocoa Ice about two girls, one from Maine and one from Santa Domingo, who never meet but become friends by trading a shell and a balsaam pillow on a trading Schooner.  Little do the kids know, that it is all down hill from the resort ...

... probably not... why? : all these all-inclusive places in the Caribbean are quite similar to each other... Majestic Colonial was not an "adults only" resort, and we much prefer the atmosphere of "adults only" resorts... the beach was gorgeous here, but beaches in Mexico (at least around Cancun/Riviera Maya) are beautiful, too... besides, in my experience and research  - the weather in Mexico is more predictable... the flight to, let's say ...

... large glasses of red wine. Luckily since she lives 20 minutes from Gatwick, my uncle dropped me off just before 8, so I could join the truly enormous ThomsonFly check in queue that stretched for another two check-in zones. Still, got checked in, managed not to accidentally smuggle any liquids on board and was very very impressed with the aeroplane when I saw it. For a budget airline they splashed out on ...

Just a few weeks after we got back from Europe, we took another drip down to the Dominican Republic. We stayed in Punta Cana for a few days and, in a complete departure from our Europe trip, did essentially nothing. We went scuba diving, enjoyed the beautiful beaches, and ...

... the sun went away and the rain clouds came out. It started raining - and for the rest of the trip it only stopped sporadically.

We hadn't really budgeted for the overpriced excursions as we were fresh out of college and making no money at this point - we really just intended to veg by the pool and now that wasn't an option. Luckily, I had some books and I was able ...

... things really started to bother me. The hotel really tries to get you to interact with staff and other guests - which just really isn't my style. I don't like to make small talk and I don't like to be put into these situations...Well, at club med they sit you at large tables with guests and their staff also comes to sit with you as well.

We were the only guests there in our ...

... double up singles to share rooms. (they did not know we knew each other) Now, this wasn't an issue because we were friends - but if I was a solo traveler being put into a room with a stranger it would have been a totally different matter. We didn't fight the issue, because honestly what was the point - but I'm still upset that that particular piece of important information was never communicated prior to our arrival or during booking.