If you’ve been following my journey, you know this is my third time staying at an ALL inclusive resort! From my experience, every resort has been different and worth the stay! Could it be due to the fact that all of my experiences thus far have been in different countries…POSSIBLY! For this vacation (and a lot of the following), my line sisters & I devised a plan to focus on taking an annual trip together to celebrate each year of being in our sorority. Likely one of the best decisions we ever made, vacations might be our love language. 

The original plan was for us to vacation in Turks and Caicos but because of the Covid, restrictions we weren’t certain that would be the best decision. From what I remember, if we proceeded with that trip and something happened where we couldn’t go we would only get 50% of our money back…the Dominican was the next best option. For this trip we stayed at the Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort for Memorial Day weekend. Included in this resort were 10 different restaurants, a water park, and so many other great amenities onsite. Unfortunately the time we stayed was not enough to enjoy everything but it was our mission to enjoy the majority.

What Happened? Trip Highlights

What went well?

We participated in two off-resort excursions on this trip, both of the excursions were a group consensus! We booked a Catamaran tour which included a slide into the ocean with some cruise crafted drinks. Due to the fact that I can’t swim, I did not attempt to use the slide for myself but some of my line sisters did. The drinks and the music were flowing throughout the cruise and of course we met some new travel friends. Another activity I recommend is the ATV tour which includes a cigar rolling history lesson, and jumping into a Cenote! Yes, I am a terrible swimmer but that fact never stopped me from jumping off of any cliff! On the ATV tour, we sampled various native mangos and brought back a few cigars from the many shops in the area.

The food quality and customer service at the resort was incredible! I’m normally a very tough critic for breakfast in general and I will say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Every restaurant on the grounds had a wide variety of choices but from what I remember there was one open breakfast spot, the rest of the places were lunch and dinner focused. One of the restaurants on the resort was hibachi themed and it was a great experience with the music and the commitment to a change of atmosphere.

The entertainment at the resort was great as well, they had a full itinerary of pool activities as well as live performances from impressionists. There was a really great performance from a Micheal Jackson performer and it was very interactive. A few of my line sisters were called to the stage in a game the resort hosted, entertainment was at an all time high! One of the nights was karaoke themed and of course we performed a few songs…a few people recognized us the next morning at breakfast and were surprised we even made it breakfast! The kind of fun we all deserve to have if I’m being honest

What could’ve gone better?

When you stay at a resort with a waterpark be sure to stay long enough to enjoy it! We absolutely needed more time to explore the grounds as well as the country. There were way too many beautiful beaches in the DR to only stay there 4 days, in my opinion most destinations need at least a week of your time. Coming back from one of our excursions we stopped at one of the beaches for about an hour to explore and I can confirm that was a mistake! We wanted to spend the day there and spend time with the locals but we didn’t have the time nor did we want to pay for a taxi to bring us back…

What we didn’t plan for but turned out great?

I tend to always pack a snack pack for my flights due to a random hunger that drops down on me when I board a flight that is longer than an hour. What I didn’t plan was that I couldn’t board a plane with certain foods from a different country back to the US! 

Note: if you bring back anything please don’t let the gate agent see… I had no idea that it was illegal to bring back certain foods from certain countries so of course in the line in the direct eye view of the gate agent I’m snacking on a large bag of grapes! The gate agent of course asked me to throw them away but I thought that was the worst of it …. Join me on the next adventure as I detail my first trip as a KNOWN FRUIT SMUGGLER!