Officially one week back in the 'Great White North' and I'm already having all of those take me back vibes to the sun, sand and everything that was #SoloNoMo. Last week was spent in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for my girlfriend, Steph's, beachy bachelorette!
I have to give all of the kudos to Steph's bridal party for the Bachelorette they put together. From the theme to the hashtag to the Bachelorette favours, they made sure the bride had the long weekend she deserved.
Theme:
All things beach-y. The best part of our early morning wake up was the packages the girls had ready for us at the airport. We had Bride Tribe tumblers with our name which were perfect for our pool orders. Flawless by Friday under eye masks to keep us looking fresh morning after morning, flower crowns to add some festive fun to our catamaran get-up. And of course, our SoloNoMo bathers were a hit! We got compliments up and down the beach and they were super cost efficient with sites like Zaful available to us.
Where To Stay:
The opportunities in the Caribbean are endless in terms of both location as well as price range. Since we wanted to enjoy a little bit more luxury we opted for the Majestic Elegance in Punta Cana, a recommendation from our travel agent. Once we arrived we found out we were actually going to be at the Majestic Mirage. All three Majestic resorts are side by side and you can enjoy the bars, pools and restaurants at all of them.
The staff at the Majestic are incredibly thoughtful and when we arrived at our rooms we each had a "Stephanie's Bachelorette" sign waiting for us! Our room was a 1 bedroom suite with 2 bathrooms, 2 queen beds + a couch and living area. It had an interesting ‘hot tub’ (which we referred to as a foot tub due to its shallow 12 inch depth) on the patio that overlooked the pool and a nice jacuzzi tub inside. The best part of our room was that it included a butler for the week … our main man Jorge! Jorge was an angel and more than happy to coordinate reservations if we didn’t already have them, spa appointments but the best surprises were when we would come back from our days before dinner and he would leave us a note and had run our hot tub and jacuzzi tub for us complete with flower petals. We are still not 100% sure how he managed to know our timing each evening, but the tubs were always hot and ready for us!
The other great thing about the Majestic is the premium booze available! No matter where you are on the resort you could take your pick of which brand you wanted your drinks made with - from Grey Goose or Titos to Bulldog and Hendricks to Patron or Johnny Walker Black… they had the best of the best.
No matter where you end up with a group of friends, you’re going to make the most of it and have a time. But I would highly recommend checking out the Majestic properties if you truly want everything taken care of, a premium week with good food, better booze and the best company!
What To Do:
As I mentioned in 'how to Bachelorette' blog, keeping a schedule and building activities is an important step in order to diffuse boredom and potential tension. An itinerary might seem strange at an all inclusive where you typically post up by the beach or pool and let the free drinks flow, but it is possible and might I add essential! The girls built the perfect itinerary for this trip which made sure that we had some structure but not too much.
Night 1:
Typically Day 1 is a full day travel day. As much as you believe your flight lands at 1 and you’ll make it to the pool for a late afternoon swim up bar session, it likely won’t happen. Take your time when you get to the resort to familiarize yourself with your surroundings, order a few drinks and get ready for a big night. The excitement when you land ALWAYS leads to a big night 1. We had pre-booked a table at one of the Tempanyaki restaurants which was a great way to kick start the night and continued onto the discoteque for some dancing.
Day 2:
While Night 1 always tends to be a late one, we made sure to get an early(ish) start to the day and hit the beach to get our first bit of sun. This was the day we rocked our matching bathing suits, so naturally a beach-side photoshoot commenced! The beach is always a little bit of a slower start, but necessary to set the day off on the right tone. Right after lunch we headed pool-side where the drinks flow a lot quicker for our ‘floatie’ party. We brought a couple of floaties along with us, but the resort was great and had an entire ‘floatie graveyard’ for us to pick and choose which floaties would enhance our pool experience.
We were surprised on Day 2 with an epic Foam Party in the pool. This was my first time attending a foam party (surprisingly not one throughout my university days) and it was definitely something. Word of caution - make sure to wear sunglasses to the party because when “Jump” came on and the splashing started, there was no controlling where that foam ended up! Our guys Charly and Santos at the swim up bar made sure we were in the right frame of mind to really take the Foam Party for all it’s worth.
After dinner that night we were looking to change things up from the disco and lucky for us (unlucky for the other patrons) it was Karaoke night at the sports bar! While most of the other guests were going up solo or in groups of 2 or 3, we were one team, one dream. Cue 10 girls, mostly off tune belting all of our favourite sing-alongs. Naturally our rendition of Celine’s It’s All Coming Back to Me was a crowd favourite. Or Hey Jude which we did on our own accord, seeing as at this point karaoke was officially over but we really wanted one more turn.
Day 3:
You can’t go down south and not party on a boat! So day 3 was the day we opted to go off-site and hit up a booze cruise catamaran trip. Another morning at the beach and then we piled into a bus to take us to the Punta Cana Party Boat. Today’s dress code was the bathing suit of your choice, but we added a flower crown to keep us feeling like one united Bride Tribe.
The staff on board of the Punta Cana Party Boat were amazing. Word of warning, be prepared to drink your weight in Rum and Cokes (or Presidente) as this was the only staple available. We returned to the resort not only buzzing but also clearly highly caffeinated. The other word of warning I might toss out there is to come prepared with some gravol or ginger if there is any chance for motion sickness. I was the unlucky one who has never been motion sick in my life ... but had a rough 30 minutes or so when we first boarded the boat. I'll spare the details but there was no letting a little motion sickness stop the day of fun ahead, so bring on the Cuba Libres!
There are also multiple photo shoots that take place on board as the PCPB comes fully equipped with an on-boat photographer. While you can obviously take your own pictures, they do capture some pretty hilarious memories (read: embarrassing), but obviously this comes at a cost. Be prepared to fork over $20USD each (opportunity to negotiate) for this content. We were lucky enough to meet the loveliest couple from the UK who purchased all of the boat photos as a wedding gift for our beautiful bride. Huge thank you to Robin and Sue for their company that day and of course their generosity in adding to our photobook of memories (some of the PG approved ones below!).
The Punta Cana Party Boat made a couple of spots throughout the day - one allowed those interested to go down the slide or snorkel. And the second was a merger of what felt like every catamaran boat in the Dominican to party on a sand bar. On our way back, cruising into the sunset, naturally dance parties ensued (dangerous ones as we hit a few monster waves), we continued to drink all of the Rum and Coke on board and nearly refused to get off the boat once back at shore. Big shout out to everyone on the PCPB for making SoloNoMo Day 3 one for the books.
We stumbled into the Buffet that night before having a room dance party before the girls ultimately headed to the disco one more time (I might have opted for my bed post room party).
Day 4:
The last day of the trip after two big ones you always think is going to be your day to ‘relax and recover’, after all no one wants to be hung over on a flight … that is what you always think, but it is never the reality. Today started as every other day; morning at the beach and then over to the pool for some final rays. But who has ever truly taken it easy with a swim up bar?
For dinner that night we opted to do a Night in White and the whole party showed up in white dresses and skirts for our beach side dinner. This was definitely the top dinner of the trip with the best coconut shrimp, lobster tails and Surf and Turf! Alexander and Lois put up with us this last night and were amazing! We ended our night in the courtyard playing made up games and reminiscing on the incredible weekend we just had.
On the Monday, it was officially the conclusion of our SoloNoMo bachelorette and 7 of the girls headed back to Toronto. Three of us stayed for the rest of the week and that is when the rest and relaxation finally came!
Where To Eat and Drink:
If you're going with a group I recommend trying to book ahead or making it a priority for when you arrive on site. Our travel agent, Cynthia from Beaches and Beyond, was amazing and was able to book our group of 10 together for every meal we were there. While you could typically walk in to a buffet and get spots together, the food at all inclusives can start to become a lot of the same so I would recommend trying out all of the a la cartes if you can!
We were lucky at the Majestic Mirage and the food was great and with all of the restaurants we had a lot to choose from. The Tempanyaki not only had amazing food but the show our chef put on really kicked off our trip and the Sea Side restaurant by the beach had the best Surf and Turf!
The question ‘where to drink?’ really isn’t a thing at an all inclusive because really there isn’t anywhere off limits. We spent most of our time at the Beach Bars in the morning, the pool bars all afternoon and quick stops at the lobby bars before hitting up the disco or the sports bar at night.
Late night food is also a thing at All Inclusives and while there may not be Uber Eats, the Sports Bar is open 24 hours but our group preferred the “McJestic” ie. the Majestic’s play on McDonald’s, conveniently situated next door to the Disco!
A morning favourite for our group was the Coffee Shop which served endless styles of coffee, both hot and iced, with or without booze. AND they had a full selection of ‘green juices’ which were necessary each morning to attempt to detoxify ourselves before doing it all over again!
Budget:
$1400-1600 for 4 nights (add ~$300 for a week). The great thing about all inclusive vacations are that there are no surprise costs! You pay one price up front and everything is included - food, booze and all of the sun. The only additional costs are if you choose to go off-site, like we chose to do for the catamaran trip (~$100) and tipping (which is both encouraged and appreciated). For 4 days I would say we each would have tipped somewhere between $100-120USD between our man Jorge, the room staff, bartenders, waiters, etc
All in all, what an amazing way to do a Bachelorette. It is straight-forward but so much fun and it definitely does not hurt to get some sun on the brink of winter back home! Countdown to the next and final #weddingseason celeberation is on. Our SoloNoMo bride Steph is tying the knot on New Year’s Eve!
xx
Nicole
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