Rooms: No complaints about the rooms. We had a firm king bed that was comfortable enough. Big closets, a dresser with three drawers, fridge that was always stocked with pop and water (and the occasional bottle of champagne that would appear compliments of the Forum friends). Plenty of towels and always hot water. Our balcony was right on the corner of the building, overlooking the infinity pool, the swimup bar, and the ocean with incredible sunsets every night.
Food and Drink: I don’t think we’ve ever vacationed at a resort with so many choices of eating and so many locations to pick up a drink. Breakfasts were always at the World Café (main buffet). There was a continental breakfast at the Seaside Grill but that seemed to cease after the first week. I don’t know if that is permanent or not. Lots of choice for breakfast, just about anything that you can imagine is available. Bacon was plentiful and cooked just right but unfortunately it lacked flavor. Very crowded between 8:00 and 9:00 with the overflow seated in the Crepes restaurant which is right next door to the buffet.
Lunches were available at four locations; the Beach Snack for burgers, hot dogs, etc, Pizzeria near the main pool (pretty good pizza), the Seaside grill which had a salad bar, a grill with basic beef, pork, chicken, and fish as well as a reasonable menu to order from. Everyone liked the calamari. Of course the World Café has a full buffet for lunch but I think we were only there for lunch once or twice.
Dinners: a lot of choice here – Da Marios, Crepes and Co., Seaside Grill, Jungle Bar, Oceana, Asia Restaurant, and the World Café. We ate at De Marios (Italian) twice, both times with all nine of us. On the first visit the food and service were excellent. The second visit was a complete reversal with extremely long wait times between courses. The same thing happened to us at the Seaside grill (texmex). First visit was slow, slow. The second time just the opposite, with a very young and very attentative waiter. Beef filets were great, tender and tasty. We ate at the Oceana (seafood) once and the Jungle Bar once. The two restaurants use exactly the same menu. Oceana is part of the swim up bar building. The Jungle bar is set in the trees close by, but a little further in from the beach. Both dinners here were OK but I think the Jungle Bar must be close to the water treatment facilities because there was quite an unpleasant odor in the air. Crepes we tried once. The is a soup and salad bar but the main course consists of a crepe (shrimp, ham and cheese, mushroom, etc). No condiments or sides, although I’m not sure what you would eat with a main course crepe. Not many patrons although I heard that people were coming in later for some of the desert crepes that were on the menu. I suspect that the resort may re-think the theme of this restaurant sometime in the future. The Asia restaurant was easily our favorite. Surprisingly empty some nights despite the excellent food and service that we always got there.
Beach: Always a chair for everyone and although there aren’t many palapas, the ones that are there are quite large. There are lots of palm and sea grape trees too, so when you want shade you can find it. The sand is nice and the ocean was calm for the entire two weeks that we were there. Quite a pleasant change from other Caribbean destinations that we’ve been to, where the wind has always been an issue. There are two areas to snorkel, one right along the shore just west of the pier and the second is straight out from the center of the beach, maybe 100 metres from shore. The coral is badly beat up and relatively colorless in both areas but there is a good variety of fish to see. The usual grunts, Ocean surgeon, and sergeant majors that people feed bananas or bread to, but also quite a few less common fish such as a bridled burrfish, yellow trumpetfish, grey trumpetfish, scorpionfish, cowfish, porcupine fish, peacock flounder, small rays, moray eels, and trunkfish. Some of these such as the scorpionfish are very well camouflaged so you have to be very observant to find them.
Diving; There is a dive shop associated with the resort called grigri divers, but Betty and Dylaina had arranged to take their open water certification through ScubaFun in Bayahibe, so the three of us did our diving through them. We did six dives: El Faro and Penon both near Saona Island, Guaraguao and Ojosde Marie which were both close by Bayahibe, and the Wall and the Aquarium which are both at Catalina Island. All of the dives were good, although the wall was the least spectacular but none of us had ever done a wall dive so that part was interesting. The remaining sites all had terrific coral and sponges. Fish life was OK. One dive group that went out with ScubaFun had a pair of bottlenose dolphins join them for a minute or two but we were never that fortunate. The snorkeling north of Saona Island and above the wall at Catalina was pretty good. Here’s a link to a few of my dive/snorkel pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/557587287rFKtUS
Golf; there are three golf courses near Casa del Mar. Teeth of the Dog ($232), The Links ($145, and Dye Fore ($203). Twilight rates start around 2:30 or so and cost a little more than half price. We couldn’t get on Teeth of the Dog on the day we wanted, so just to be sure we got in a game we went to Dye Fore. Our Air Canada rep sent us to the VIP tour desk because she said they could get us a better deal than she could. These guys got us 10% off the green fees and covered the cost of the taxi. Club rentals were $45 or $50. The two righties in the group had brand new sets of Calloways. The club had to go find some leftie rentals, and I’m not sure what shed they dug them out of. They were still Calloways but they were from a different generation, and my set was missing both the driver and the putter. That might have been a blessing in disguise because I hit the three wood off the tee better than I usually hit a driver. Ended up costing $US900 plus whatever I gave the caddie. The course was pretty nice but I was maybe expecting more spectacular. The front nine flowed along some very expensive residences while the back nine followed the banks of the Chevron River.
If you go to the Dye Fore golf course; arrange for the taxi to come by an hour after your expected finish time. The golf course shares the same parking lot as Altos de Chavron. If you have any interest in seeing this place you might as well do it on the same cab fare as the golf. We came back later in the second week and toured around La Romana and then Altos de Chavron, but it cost another $70 for the cab. We used the same driver, as he spoke very good English.
Spa: While we golfed the ladies did the spa. The girls and I (Mom) booked into the spa at 10:00. I was promptly taken away where I was shown where to change and then put into a sauna for ? time. I am not a big sauna person so was ok for a bit but began to get a little uncomfortable and not sure if I was to come out when I was ready or if they would come and get me. They did come and I was then taken for my treatments. It was wonderful 2 hours of pampering. We had all booked package deals although mine was a little bit more as I was getting a body wrap done as well as a massage, a facial and a spa pedicure. The girls had the same minus the body wrap. It was all wonderfully relaxing although I did feel like the massage was a little rushed and the girls had the same comment. We all met up at the same room for our spa pedicures and were all being done by the same person which might have been part of the reason it was very hurried and a little rough. A spa pedicure in Canada will usually get you about 2 – 1/2 hours of total pampering. We all were done in an hour so I was a little disappointed in that. All in all it was very relaxing but next time I think I would probably skip the pedicure. I would liked to have gone back for another massage and instead of a relaxing massage maybe have chosen the deep muscle one and enjoyed it more.. I would like to have tried one in one of the private outdoor beds in the ecological spa but never did make it back there. Still a very enjoyable 3 ½ hours.
Summary:
Pros – the weather. I don’t know if we just hit two good weeks or if the weather and winds are always this nice on the south side of the Dominican. If this is the norm; then it’s reason enough to consider this as a destination of choice. The extras. Some of the little touches that this resort does for the guests; things like the weekly beach party, broadcasting NFL playoff games in the evening on a 30 foot screen on the beach complete with a bar and snacks.
Cons – crowding. The resort has really outgrown itself. Too many people in too little space especially on the beach, in the main buffet, and the lobby.