Arrival: Jan 23 – 29 We left the Regina airport knowing that a long trip awaited, as we had to sto pto pick up Saskatoon passengers before heading out on the 6 1/2 hour flight to Puerto Plata. All we went well on the Skyservice flight, which was booked with Transat Holidays. We saw on the television screens we were flying over the Dominican Republic — odd, since Puerto Plata is right on the north coast. We were told it was raining too hard in Puerto Plata for the flight to land, and so we were diverted to La Romana, another tourist destination located in the southeast corner of the island. We had to stay overnight and wait in the airport the entire next day until being flown to Santo Domingo and bussed 6 hours to Puerto Plata. Arrival at the Barcelo wasn’t as smooth as I assume it usually is. We were all arriving at an unscheduled time, and guests who couldn’t leave Puerto Plata on account of rain were staying an extra night. We didn’t get the room requested, but it was clean.
Rooms:
We stayed in 10-122 and it didn’t have the greatest view (of a fence) but was quite close to everything, which we enjoyed. The room was a little tired overall. Some days we would get snacks (chocolate bar and chips) and other days we wouldn’t. Your room wouldn’t get cleaned unless you left a sign on the door and sometimes we forgot and had to call for the room to be cleaned later on, and they came promptly. The TV and mini-bar worked fine,but the hot water wasn’t great until about the fourth day.
Restaurants
The buffet was pretty good. The best was the individually-made omlettes in the morning or pasta at lunch or supper. Some nights there were different themes to mix things up. The snack bar by the pool was great during the day, with really good burgers and fries. At night food was out at the disco, which was the same sort of food and great to have. The a la carte restaurants were awesome. There are five on the resort, but we only tried three. All had a few courses and brought lots of appetizers until your main course. The Mexican and Italian were great — the food expected, and the Oriental was amazing. Be sure to book as early as possible to get into the restaurants you want. The Seafood grill was on the beach and supposed to be good, and the Brazilian restaurant we heard was good if you liked meat. Important — men must wear long pants and closed shoes to the a la cartes. Whichever restaurant we were ate, the service was absolutely excellent and often servers would go the extra mile to make the dinner great for you.
Bars
There was a lobby bar all day, a beach bar, a swim up bar, and a bar near the theatre at night.
Photos: http://www.tpiworldwide.com/JulieFolkTPI/gallery.asp
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