Vacation recap

Afternoon everyone…..

Well I’m back…..

This is going to be a fairly long post. But I’m quite sure I’ll keep your interest…..

What a shit show getting back home turned out to be. But I’ll save that till the end of the post.

I did the best I could under the condition I was in writing posts while away. Being as politically correct as possible, there weren’t very many waking moments where we didn’t have a cocktail in hand or within reach the entire vacation. Now that might seem a bit misleading, as we were not constantly drunk. That isn’t how it was, but after dinner got a little crazy several nights.

With that being said…

We stayed at the Majestic Mirage in Punta Cana. It’s an all inclusive resort that has three separate facilities on its property. There are two adult only portions of the resort the Majestic and Elegance are those two, there is a family one but I don’t remember the name of it.

That’s an overhead picture of the property that they had on one of the excursion office doorways.

It’s an excellent facility. We had an executive suite, which has its own walk out balcony. Which has an enormous king sized bed, it’s the biggest bed I’ve ever slept in. But it also has its own private rooftop lounge with a personal hot tub and cabana. They also have lighting, a cooler and a cabinet with towels in it up there as well. The staircase leading up is a spiral all marble beautifully done set, which has a locking door at the top. There is a mini bar inside the room which is also included in your package, that gets refilled daily with whatever you used. There were also three brand new bottles of champagne, rum and vodka on the shelf above the mini bar with glasses which were also included.

This was the view from our private rooftop.

We were assigned our own personal butler. The butler is assigned to I believe ten sets of guests. You get an app to download on your phone which is his direct phone for anything you need. Dinner reservations, excursions, extra towels, bottles of liquor to the room, any problems with anything. Our butlers name was Wender, he was awesome. He sent out a newsletter every single morning when he arrived, which was typically around 8:30. He would find you on the facility every day at least once and make sure everything was good or if you needed anything. He was well taken care of when we left.

This was a complete shutoff vacation for us, which is a first for both of us in years. No plans at all, just enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather, relaxing and enjoying the water, walks on the beach, cocktails and each other.

The resort itself is beautiful. Everything is open floor plan, the lobby is immense with extremely high ceilings, marble everywhere. Floor to ceiling openings, that have built in blinds that can be brought down to block the sun or elements if needed. They have an amphitheater and a huge center court area with tables to relax outside.

Those pictures are just the main lobby which had two massive floors if you cannot tell.

There are bars everywhere, inside and out. They have a special drink each day, neither of us had any after the first day. I stuck with Long Island Ice Teas all week, and Jennifer was drinking margaritas every day except one where she changed to mudslides. All of the drinks were top shelf alcohol and were made perfectly.

Our private beach area had tons of lounge chairs and many cabanas as well. There are palm trees throughout so you could find shade if you so desired. We chose the outdoor cabana, which was perfect to relax and enjoy the weather. We had our own private bar, which was manned by my now very good friend Charly. After the first day I never waited for a drink when I went up. Although I was convinced by the third day that he was trying to make me an alcoholic.🤣🤣🤣

This was the drink special the first night. They called it the Punta Cana Sunset. It’s rum, tequila, vodka, triple sec with fresh mango and lime juice. It was good but very sweet in my opinion.

They have multiple dinning options on the resort, some require reservation, some don’t. The ones requiring reservation also have a dress code. Long pants, collared shirt and closed toe shoes were required. I had looked this up prior to packing and was prepared for it.

There is a very well done buffet restaurant called The Marketplace has three seating windows. They open from 7-11, 12-4 and 5-10 for all. The main food in this buffet were different than I’ve ever seen before. Most of the stuff is cooked to order in front of you. Yes there are things already available, but it’s not chafing dishes of stuff all over the place. It’s very small earth-ware dishes which were constantly replaced not replenished like a typical buffet. All of the juices were fresh squeezed right in front of you and there were tons of them. Just a few orange, papaya, pineapple, soursop, mango, passion fruit. I tried several each morning with breakfast.

They also had the following restaurants:
A sports bar restaurant named Draft Sports Bar - typical tavern menu with televisions everywhere. The street tacos were excellent the only time we grabbed a quick bite there.

Cafe Espanol - which makes sandwiches, has a vast array of coffees, and desserts. They also made alcohol milkshakes which were a staple for us after dinner most nights. Jennifer was getting one named Dancing All Night. It was coffee and vanilla ice cream with kahula, Bailey’s and vodka drizzled with chocolate sauce. I got the Chocolate Chip Mint Express which was vanilla ice cream with peppermint schnapps, vodka and kahula. It was very refreshing after dinner.

The Italian restaurant is La Rinascita - after you are seated a cart comes to you with a wheel of parmesan cheese which is then torched to melt a layer. They ask you what you’d like with you pasta. We chose roasted garlic and pancetta. They add it to the pasta and swirl it around in the torched cheese. It was excellent. Unfortunately this is the only good thing that I can personally say about this restaurant. My calamari appetizer was horrible and I sent back my dish because I couldn’t even cut through it. It was a braised short rib dish which should’ve fell off the bone, but was like a rubber band. Not impressed and walked out.

Seaside Beach Restaurant - this is out by the ocean with a great view. They are a seafood only restaurant which we didn’t have dinner at. It does require a reservation and has the dress code. Jennifer is allergic to shellfish, so I was able to try lunch there one day instead. I had the daily special which was octopus, shrimp, mussels, lobster, and clams in a spicy light red sauce. Not tomato sauce like an Italian dish, it was more liquidy. It was fantastic

The hibachi restaurant Kabuki - this is a Japanese style restaurant which required reservation and dress code as well. We didn’t get to try it, by the time we decided all the reservations were booked.

Don Juame Steakhouse - a very sophisticated Argentinian style steakhouse. Reservations and dress code applied. We enjoyed this place so much that we went there twice. The atmosphere was incredible, the food was ridiculously good and the service here was the best of all the restaurants which were all very good with service. The first seating we both started with French onion soup which was excellent. Jennifer decided to get the rib-eye with mashed potato. I chose the picanha which is a Brazilian specialty. It’s the top cap of a sirloin steak that is super tender and extremely flavorful. I also got the smashed potato. They bring you a tray with seasonings if you so desire. There were three small bowls, one had smoked sea salt flakes, another had roasted garlic and sea salt flakes, the other was like a dried chimachurri seasoning. I tried all three just to try them. They were all very good, but I’m a steak lover so I just tried them, the steak was already very flavorful. The second time Jennifer got the filet mignon with hand cut seasoned steak fries. I got the same as the first time. The first night we both got NY style cheesecake good but I’ve had much better being from the New York area. The second night we had a single serve deconstructed apple pie thing that was intense. Great crust, very cinnamony and a very flavorful apple. If this restaurant was here I’d would definitely be going back.

L’Essence French restaurant - another reservation and dress code applied place. I booked this for our anniversary dinner on Friday night. It did not disappoint. My starter was a lobster risotto with two large pieces of butter poached lobster on top. It was incredible. We both chose the Chateaubriand for our main course. It was fork tender and had a wonderful array of pan seared vegetables with it. Delicious !!! We shared our desserts which was a caramel mousse with a dolce de letche sauce, the other was a French take on a cannoli. The creme inside was much creamier than a typical Italian style, no chocolate pieces. The shell was a sugared puff pasty which was extremely light but added a great texture to the creaminess of the filling. I highly recommend.

Seaside Beach Restaurant

Don Juame Steakhouse

I guess this is where I’m going to end the picture portion of this post. I can’t get anymore pictures to upload.

I can’t say enough good things about this resort. If you want a great relaxing vacation that everything is included this is a perfect place. We had nothing but beautiful weather every day, excellent service, fantastic food and great accommodations.

I’ve typed enough. I’ll spare you the horrors of our flight home being redirected and taking nearly 12 hours of the night/morning.