The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

Prancer · by **Prancer** » August 22nd, 2006, 5:08 pm

Welcome back turkey man. Nice birds.

Sojourner · by **Sojourner** » August 22nd, 2006, 5:28 pm

Welcome Back!!

Serendipity · by **Serendipity** » August 22nd, 2006, 6:26 pm

Welcome back, Turkey boy. The place just wasn't the same without ya! :mrgreen:

supermom · by **supermom** » August 23rd, 2006, 6:20 am

Hey!! Glad to have you back. I want to hear all about the trip. We are considering a trip in the Spring, but I am not sure about taking our kids off to a resort. Are they REALLY kid friendly?? Do they have activities for them? Did you use any of the childcare services so that you and wifey could have some alone time? I want the full picture!!

wildtrk · by **wildtrk** » August 23rd, 2006, 11:11 am

supermom wrote:Hey!! Glad to have you back. I want to hear all about the trip. We are considering a trip in the Spring, but I am not sure about taking our kids off to a resort. Are they REALLY kid friendly?? Do they have activities for them? Did you use any of the childcare services so that you and wifey could have some alone time? I want the full picture!!

Okay...details on the vacation.

The resort we stayed at was the Iberostar Punta Cana which is actually 1/3 of the entire resort property. Their are actually 3 Iberostar Resorts that sit side by side by side. The Iberostar Bavaro, Dominican and Punta Cana. The neat thing is that the Dominican and Punta Cana have 2 different pools side by side and you can go back and forth to each other. As well as sample the buffets and sit-down restaurants on each side. The Bavaro is a little more upscale and the rooms are more townhouse style. The Domincan and Punta Cana are almost identical....thought the main entertainment and casino are on the Dominican side of the property.

As far as children are concerned they have a kids club program for 4-12 year olds that are run daily. My kids are 4 and 12 but the 12 year old didn't want to do any of the kids club activities so consequently the 4 year old wouldn't go either. But I can tell you that the parents we talked to whose kids did participate in the kids club said they loved it. Also, I can tell you that we did take our youngest over to check it out and do the advance registration the second day we were there. The girl that led the activities never forgot his name the whole week and whenever she saw him she called him by name and invited him along to do whatever activity they were off to. They also had a kid's show every night as a precursor to the nightly entertainment. Also, overall...EVERYWHERE we went, this included two different 1/2 day excursions, ALL the people we interacted with were GREAT to our kids and were friendly whether they spoke English or not!

As far as the what it was like in the resort. Any research I did on the web said that it was a 30/70 mix Americans/Rest of the World. I am going to tell you that seemed a little generous. Seemed more like 10/90. Americans were a definite minority....It seemed that around the pool most of the conversations I eaves dropped on were spoken in Spanish and French with a little German and Dutch every now and again. The beaches are european in that many women go topless. They are not supposed to be topless at the pool, but on occasion there would be someone in the pool or sunbathing in a lounge chair topless. My 4 year old never said a word about it which surprised me...and I prepped my 12 year old before going down. I just told him don't stare or point and make sure Dad doesn't miss anything good!

The resort pool area and beach were immaculate. There was always someone trimming or picking up something. We did take two 1/2 day excursions as a family, one we went out on a snorkeling and swam with nurse sharks and sting rays. The other one we went to an animal park where you could swim with sea lions. We opted not to do that, but did opt for the "touch" pool where our family was given individual attention with a variety of species or animals from starfish to monkeys to a sea lion. There was also time to do some snorkeling there as well. I also did a 3 hour trip with my 12 year old where we went snorkeling and got to ride around for 25 minutes on Scuba-doo's. Which essentially are underwater mopeds. We were down about 12 feet under water on the scuba-doo's maneuvering around a reef. This was the coolest thing that we did do....We took some underwater pictures of this that I will have to post.

The food was okay...I won't say that it was to die for, but there was always something decent to eat on the buffets. Though the lobster paella they served for lunch the one day down at the beach grill was excellent!

There is much more that I could add, but I think you get the gist. If you have any other questions let me know. If you are interested in the Domincan Republic as a destination I highly recommend it or family will not hesitate to go back to the DR and to the resort we stayed at

supermom · by **supermom** » August 23rd, 2006, 12:22 pm

Thanks!! Can't wait to see the rest of the pics. It sounds really nice.

Sojourner · by **Sojourner** » August 23rd, 2006, 12:57 pm

...don't stare or point and make sure Dad doesn't miss anything good!

Did I say "Welcome Back" already? Yes, I did--but this time I'm saying it with much more feeling!
Jo was right, there was just something lacking while you were gone!!
I'm really glad you had a great time, but I'm so glad you're back!!!

wildtrk · by **wildtrk** » August 23rd, 2006, 8:56 pm

Sojourner wrote:
...don't stare or point and make sure Dad doesn't miss anything good!

Did I say "Welcome Back" already? Yes, I did--but this time I'm saying it with much more feeling!
Jo was right, there was just something lacking while you were gone!!
I'm really glad you had a great time, but I'm so glad you're back!!!

Thanks Sojourner....nice to be back....yeah and if you believe that. Boy I didn't want to come back from paradise.

I have updated my WWW link in my profile to point to our vacation pictures. I have uploaded a few hundred pictures. So grab a bar or make a shake sit back relax and click to your heart's content.

dibbida · by **dibbida** » August 23rd, 2006, 9:30 pm

YOU LOOK FAB!
And your vacation sounded great!
loved reading your post!

MISSANNE · by **MISSANNE** » August 23rd, 2006, 10:55 pm

I kept checking your journal to see if you were back yet!

Can't wait for more random thoughts..........

Serendipity · by **Serendipity** » August 24th, 2006, 5:16 am

Wow, turkey.....looks like you had a great time. Your kids are so cute. I'm very impressed with your 4 yr. olds swimming abilities.....he's a fish!

I love looking at pictures....thanks for sharing them.

I don't want you to have an identity crisis or anything, but that one picture of you looks more like a chicken than a turkey......hmmmmm.

wildtrk · by **wildtrk** » August 24th, 2006, 10:35 am

Serendipity wrote:I'm very impressed with your 4 yr. olds swimming abilities.....he's a fish!

Better than being a Turkey like his old man!

Serendipity wrote:I don't want you to have an identity crisis or anything, but that one picture of you looks more like a chicken than a turkey......hmmmmm.

Cock-a-doodle- <snip>language - please don't say "doo" here - Mr. Snippy</snip>!

Uhhh....Can I say that here?

Prancer · by **Prancer** » August 24th, 2006, 11:35 am

Loved the pictures. Your boys are cute. Nice to see the whole turkey clan.

Sojourner · by **Sojourner** » August 24th, 2006, 12:31 pm

Wow, great pics! You guys are really adventurous.
I'd be gazing from a safe distance away (especially
with the snakes!), saying, "Yeah, honey, that's nice..."

I guess I'm more of a CHICKEN than you are!!

wildtrk · by **wildtrk** » August 24th, 2006, 2:50 pm

Sojourner wrote:Wow, great pics! You guys are really adventurous.
I'd be gazing from a safe distance away (especially
with the snakes!), saying, "Yeah, honey, that's nice..."

I guess I'm more of a CHICKEN than you are!!

Snorkling with the sharks was pretty cool.

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