Category: my vacation

Dominican Republic – La Romana

It was a perfect time to get away from this freezing cold weather for a week.  Another amazing vacation in the Caribbean area, Dominican Republic – La Romana, where there is only sunshine and beautiful beaches.  My flight was in the afternoon, after 4 hrs flight and 1.5 hrs bus ride, as expected, it was almost midnight when I arrived at the resort Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville (5 stars).  The whole week was a semi cloudy but warm, the resort is as beautiful as what I saw on the internet, the water at the beach was kind of cold the first couple of days since there wasn’t much sun but I loved the pool so much that I spent most of the time there anyways 😛

A few thoughts about this resort tho

Things I found good
– great looks and view everywhere, especially the pools, umm that’s about it

Things I found bad
– flies every where (restaurants, the pools the beach etc.)
– crawling bugs indoor (especially on a table cloth in our room)
– beach is bad, water not even clear, tons of rocks in the deeper area
– poor service bartenders at the main lobby (took your order and went off serving others, then let me stand there for over 15mins…)
– leaks in the shower (by the time you are done, its wet everywhere outside the shower…)
– shows were cheesy, could get better ones in other way cheaper resorts
– most excursions are far, as in over 2 hrs of transportation…
– worse of all, we had to fight for a late check out because we had a very late flight back to Toronto, asked many times, the answer we got was “come back on the morning of check out, we would let you know…” They should have known the answer on the day we arrived because no one would walk in to the resort and make reservation last min. All we got was 3 hrs delay from the normal time 12pm

also a few people that we talked to, told us they got very sick (throwing up, diarrhea and etc.) luckily we didn’t 🙂 Don’t understand why people would rate this so high, anyways, that’s what we experienced 🙂

lesson learned, 1, never take a late flight to this resort because they will make you check out early, then you will have to use their courtesy room to take a shower which has a lonnnnngg wait time (we saw it with our own eyes when we passed by it, plus we talked to some other customers on the way back) 2, never book a resort just by looking at the pretty pictures, yes, the place looks super nice and what else?!?

Anyways, the whole trip was still very relaxing, I love taking beautify pictures as always, so here are some of the highlights!!

Tons more pictures on my facebook, enjoy 🙂

from my main camera – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152999178215211.1073741844.689775210&type=1&l=61f180499b

from my phone – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152999233900211.1073741845.689775210&type=1&l=843f84e391

panorama pictures – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152999303585211.1073741846.689775210&type=1&l=86700849f2

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Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Southern Caribbean – St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados

My first time on a cruise Caribbean Cruise Experience (Oasis of the Seas), my second time cruising Royal Princess (East Caribbean Cruise) and onto my third cruise this time with my favorite “Royal Caribbean International” to the southern Caribbean on the Jewel of the Seas.  Man, it was hot hot hot, I got sick on the third day probably because of the hot and humid weather, good thing all I had was cough, nothing serious 😛  This time was a little different from the other ones I had, we board at San Juan Purto Rico other than Ft. Lauderdale and it has 5 itinerary ports, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados and only 1 day cruising on ship.  Luckily, we had 6 sunny days, only one rainy day, lots of walking and sun tanning 🙂

Really glad that I went with Royal Caribbean International again this time because compare to Princess (the one I went last year), the activities and age groups are way way better.  Tons of things and shows that fit my age, not as many older generations with walkers and scooters around, more than half of the people are actually my age or even younger, the whole ship was ALIVE!!!

Since I have cruised 3 times already, there are a few things I have learned, 1, as far as I know, for my age, Royal is definitely the company to go for, 2, don’t bring too many socks, 3, never believe the elevators signs that said MAX 20 persons because most people on the ship are 3 times of a normal person 😛

of course there are more pictures on my facebook 🙂

Southern Caribbean day 1-3 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152778357290211.1073741841.689775210&type=1&l=9838c1e8dd

Southern Caribbean day 4-7 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152778447250211.1073741842.689775210&type=1&l=fcc81e0a22

Panoramic view https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152778514420211.1073741843.689775210&type=1&l=8d7f1a88a8

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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

CAYO COCO – CUBA

CAYO COCO CUBA, what a great place to relax and to enjoy the sun while Ontario was still in the cold weather 😛  Compare to VARADERO where I had my very first vacation, this place is way more prettier and calm, probably because no one lives on the island, so people have to travel hours from the other side just to get to work.  Same rating 4.5 stars as the resort Melia that I stayed in the last time, Memories Flamenco Beach Resort is apparently remarkable.

Weather was nice and temperature was around 30°C the whole time in all my 7 days, with only minutes away from a beautiful beach and pools, I stayed in the sun most of the time and came back with a really nice tan.  Sadly my allergy got me rashes on my neck and legs but it was manageable, not sure if it was something I ate or was the sun…  One big thing I notice while I was there, not a single mosquito in the whole area, could it be because it’s an island?  What I enjoyed the most was the amazing beaches, white sands and everything you wanted, made you feel like you were in heaven, especially the beach PLAYA PILLAR, located at the east end of the island which takes about an hour of a bus ride. Also another best thing I saw was, for some reasons, there were billions of baby jelly fish in the sea water which even the people that worked there had never seen and they didn’t sting, amazing 🙂

With the amount of money that I paid, just a little under $900 with air fare and all inclusive resort (non stop alcohol drinking, hehe), this is by far the best valued vacation I ever had, if you are looking for inexpensive, this is really a place to think about, but just keep it in mind that this is CUBA, food won’t be as good 😛

there are tons more picture on my facebook, here is a link https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152306065145211.1073741837.689775210&type=1&l=f69368f3ea

and all panoramic view here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152305971405211.1073741836.689775210&type=1&l=21725d7c5a

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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Royal Princess (East Caribbean Cruise)

Second time going on a cruise and this time, I went with Princess Cruises. Royal princess is the name of the ship a~d it was only 1 year old. First land stop was called Princess Cays, which I believe is a Princess owned island, looks pretty I say, perfect to just relax and do nothing LOL, second land stop was St. Thomas, lots of pretty landmarks and third land stop was St. Marten, very pretty beaches and huge shopping area. The rest of the days were just staying on board and getting sun burnt LOL. Over all experience was alright, food was fantastic, but not so happy about the service plus got stuck in the elevator twice and no one helped… shows were not the greatest considered they should be the main features of the ship… but after this trip, I know I won’t be going with process again unless I get to at least age 60s because there isn’t a lot of activities going on for younger generations compare to Royal and basically all we did was drinking and shopping…

Anyways, in case you are wondering how my packing was for this trip, it was very easy because I just followed my packing list from last year’s Caribbean Cruise Experience, so it was a piece of cake 😛

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Rating: 7.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Caribbean Cruise Experience (Oasis of the Seas)

at the back of the ship (Oasis of the Seas)

at the back of the ship (Oasis of the Seas)

Being on the world’s biggest cruise ship “Oasis of the Seas” was quite enchanting and fun, on the other hand, the hot and humid weather drained us pretty good (in a good way) and most of the time we only got 7 or fewer hours to sleep :p.  The whole west Caribbean trip was a 7-day trip which includes the destinations Haiti, Jamaica and Mexico, so packing was quite challenging especially being a first timer on a cruise.  After the whole experience, we have learned and seen a lot so I will try to put everything into words below so people know the details.

– Sun protection is a must, I brought 2 bottles of regular sunblock, used them all in 7 days but bring sun to protect lip balm as well (which I didn’t bring…)

– Cash, brought $400 USD, ended up using only about $200 for alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee beans.  A credit card was already bound to your sea pass so nothing else needed cash; -D

– Was told a lot of different stories about the drinking water on board like bring our own bottles and stuffs like that, but what we ended up doing was buying the Pop package because it would make everything much much easier. We figured carrying a bottle to everywhere you go is heavy since we had shit loads of things in the bags already (camera, sun block/lotions, wallet, sandals/shoes, towel, etc.)

– Not including the stuff I was wearing the first day, I brought 6 t-shirts, 2 tanks, 4 shorts, 8 underwear, 8 pairs of socks, 2 sandals, 1 extra pair of casual shoes, 1 pair of dressed shoes, 1 suit, 2 dressed shirts and 1 tie.  What I ended up not using the most was the socks, only half was used since most of the time we were wearing sandals.  I also regretted not bringing enough tank tops because t-shirts are just not cool enough for the weather :p

– Brought 2 cameras, but ended up using only one…

The food everywhere on the ship was very good, mostly free unless you want to try some of the speciality restaurants, which we did 😀

Here is what we did the whole trip below…

Day 1 – flight, boarding, tons of exploring of the ship, watched the show “Oasis Dreams”

Day 2 – on the ship the whole day, enjoying the sun and pools a lot, watched the show “Hair Spray” late afternoon and dressed dinner at night

Day 3 – Snorkeling and jet skiing at Haiti, super bright sun, smart causal dining, casino and some drinking at night

Day 4 – Best of Jamaica, more walking, boating and sun 😀  Umm… maybe a little shopping :-p

Day 5 – on board the whole day again, more sun most of the day, dressed dining at night again plus a few more exploring of the ship

Day 6 – Mexico, a shit load of walking at the runes and a very relaxing beautiful beach

Day 7 – on the way back to Ft. Lauderdale so more sun and fun on board (zip line, flow rider etc.)

Day 8 – flight back…

Overall, I didn’t expect the whole trip was actually quite tiring, especially on our day 6 at Mexico, even drank lots of water and still felt like it wasn’t enough.  Anyways, I took a total of 1319 pictures so here are some highlights 😀

P.S.  I just picked a few here randomly because there are just too many :-p  For full albums, please check out my facebook links here Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7&8Panoramic view and Cruise Pictures taken by cruise staffs

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Rating: 9.5/10 (2 votes cast)