Dominican Republic Trip Re-Cap

I am finally getting around to tell ya’ll about our Dominican family trip … just a little late but better late than never!  Unfortunately this trip had more negatives than positives, but I will try to make the positives really good! Most of you don’t know this because I was still to upset to snap about it while we were there, but we had to leave our 7 year old at home because his passport expired.  Yep.  I know.  Worst parents ever.  Somehow Mark and I both missed the memo that kid’s passports expire after 5 years instead of 10.  So all 5 of us are standing at the airport checking in and the lady behind the desk said “I’m sorry but Ely’s passport is expired”  I was in disbelief for a few seconds and then when we realized this wasn’t a joke, we literally tried everything we could for the next 45 min to do something… anything.  I honestly don’t remember the last time I cried that hard because I was overcome with guilt!  Anyway, we had to sit Ely down and talk through it which was excruciating, but we actually gave him the choice of all of us not going, or him staying back with his grandparents, getting a special trip of his own and this $350 lego robot he wants.  Luckily he started jumping up and down and of course chose the later 3 options and told us to go and have fun.  So proud of him, but I still felt like the worst Mom on the planet and it ruined the trip for me.

Anyway, who would have guessed he would have had 10x’s a better week than we did.  Once we arrived at the Nickelodeon Resort by Karisma, they told us that part of their waterpark and kids club was not completed yet.  We new it was a new hotel (only 1 month old) but nowhere did it say these things were not completed.  One of the #1 things we look at when booking a resort like this is the kids club and what activities they offer so we can have a day or two (out of 6 or 7) where Mark and I can just relax and have some adult time.  So you guessed it, our trip was 24/7 keeping an eye on Zander and entertaining he and Fynn the.whole.time.  

Positives –

I don’t want to sound like a horrible mom, so honesty one of the positives was getting to spend so much time with just Fynn and Zander, and it was great bonding time for the two them.  I was just verrry tired when the trip was over.

The beach was GORGEOUS – the best part of the trip probably.

The food was really good.

The facilities were amazing and we had a swim up pool in our room.

They made great drinks 🙂

We got half of our money back due to the kids club not being finished.

I don’t remember if I’ve ever been on a trip where I’m counting down the days to come home, but we obviously learned to check passports, not stay in a brand new resort, and in my opinion Mexico is just as good and a muuuch shorter flight.  ( The flight to the Dominican is 4 1/2 hours btw)

Definitely back to the mountains for next summer!

xo, Jaime