A Week of Luxury (for less)

Apr 7

Apr 7 A Week of Luxury (for less)

After our semester abroad, my Marist friends and I decided we should take a yearly trip together. We first started with Barcelona, Spain, which (as you can imagine) was an amazing experience. Senior year, we headed south to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for some water activities, which were somewhat of a nightmare...but that's a different story. Last year, as Marist Alumni, we pulled off a trip to my time share in St. Maarten. We even brought along a surprise guest! For this March, we decided we needed some good "R & R". A Cyber Monday deal on CheapCaribbean.com sealed the deal for us with a trip we couldn't say no to. $50 a night for an all inclusive resort? Sign me up!

Upon our arrival to Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, we joked that this "fab deal" would probably be too good to be true. We expected a less than stellar room, with fair amenities. So when I checked into Lifestyles Tropical Resort and found out that we had been upgraded to a junior suite, I was pretty excited. Lights under the bed and a jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room gave our suite a romantic feel...too bad it was me and Carly sharing the room.

Our first night was spent at the VIP welcome party where we enjoyed roasted pig, cigars and after dinner cocktails. Being the old alumni that we are, we ended the night on a relaxing note in our giant jacuzzi. Cozy, no?

Delicious beverages all day long...true luxury.

With our room upgrade, came a beach upgrade. The VIP beach was more than we had imagined. Actual beds with canopies on top are this Irish girl's dream. You mean I can nap comfortably AND avoid the blazing sun? We bravely woke up at 7am everyday to snag one of these bad boys and boy was it worth it!

With beds like these, I assumed they would be in high demand. I expected people to get up early, but 7am? I'm on vacation! Regardless, I continually woke up telling myself, "You can sleep on the beach". Our first morning waiting on line I never expected 50+ twenty-something-year-olds up and ready to run to a bed. I mean run! Think of The Hunger Games...when they first arrive in the arena and you see the back packs and supplies strewn across the ground. They opened the gates to the VIP beach and all human decency was left behind. Shoes flew off, bags were thrown, people screamed and shoved to get to a bed. Thankfully our group is full of Katniss' and we faired pretty well among the enemy.