Our package took us from London Gatwick to Punta Cana, We booked our holiday through Thomson's as it was over €1000 cheaper to do it that way. Unfortunately you have to have a UK credit card registered to a UK address to be able to do that. Thankfully, I am able to use my parents address to do this.
We flew from Cork to London Gatwick on Thursday afternoon on the 26th June and landed in Gatwick at around 4PM. Nóirín had plans of us staying in the airport, like Tom Hanks in "The Terminal", but unfortunately for her, there were only about 6 or 7 shops before you go through the security screening, so we went to check into the hotel for the night.
We booked the Premier Inn on the airport (there are 2 in Gatwick, one on airport, one on the A23, but its only a stones throw further). It was a typical Premier Inn, no thrills, but it was very quiet. We didn't hear any noise the whole night, even though there was supposed to be roadworks going on until 4am. We were in a room on the 7th floor, and all in all had a great nights sleep, although we had to be up at 6:30 to get ready for our flight.
We couldn't decide on what to eat, so we eventually settled on ordering a Pepperoni Passion Dominos pizza to the room. There were one or two problems ordering with the website not accepting the address, and the girl on the phone asking for a UK phone number for contact, but eventually the pizza was delivered. The phone in the room rang, and a guy on the other end asked "Did you order a pizza?" in a very questioning tone, as if to say "You do know our restaurant make pizza too don't you?". I went down to reception, and almost had to wrestle the pizza out of the hands of one of the girls on the checkout desk who said "I was hoping you wouldn't claim it, I'm going to have to go and order one for myself now!".
The next morning, we were up and ready as if it was a normal work day, and out of the hotel by about 8AM. We walked across the road and straight into the terminal, and joined the queue in section E to check in our bags. This only took about 15 minutes, and soon we were heading through the security screening area to go and have breakfast. The security guards were all having a laugh at one of the other passengers, who decided to print out their boarding card on A2 paper. As usual, Nóirín was stopped by the metal detectors, and had to be searched.
Breakfast was in xxx and consided of a sausage sandwich for me, and just toast for Nóirín. After this, we proceeded to look around the shops. We needed a adaptor plug, and I needed some more swim shorts. Nóirín also bought a new perfume. It wasn't long though before the screens flashed up our gate number and we walked down to join the other 300 odd passengers waiting to board the plane.
The plane was smaller on the outside than I expected. We were booked on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Despite all the jokes from my work colleagues, I was excited about it. After comparing it with a 747, I found it carries about half the number of people a 747 does. Still we paid a little extra to get the extra leg room, and I was very impressed.
It has to have been the most comfortable flights I have ever been on. There was no window blind on this plane, instead you press a button and the window opacity changes. The plane was very quiet, compared with other large planes I have been on, and overall there was very little turbulence. The captain informed us that the Dreamliner has advanced sensors that detect the weather patterns that cause turbulence and allow them to navigate around it. The food that was served was OK, nothing brilliant though. A chicken pasta dish for dinner, and an egg mayo roll for afternoon tea. The cabin crew were very friendly and helpful.
The movies I watched on the plane were "Wolverine" and "Pacific Rim" although there was a good selection there. The headphones socket on my seat was broken and only one earphone was working, so Nóirín let me plug my headset in hers. I then had to spend a few minutes playing the movie on both screens (so I could see and hear), and getting them both to be in perfect sync.
About 8 hours and 10 minutes later, we landed in Punta Cana. Flying over the Dominican Republic, we noticed it was very green. The airport itself though is a thatched one floor building. We found where we had to collect our suitcases, and then waited for them to come through. The fist bag came through really quickly, so Nóirín took this one and waited out of the way, while I waited for our second bag. I must have been waiting 20 minutes, and still no bag. Eventually the bags stopped coming through and I started to fear the worst. Then more bags came through on a different carousel. I went over to wait there, and as I was waiting, I saw our bag had already been taken off the carousel and placed by a wall by the first carousel. I had been waiting there for nothing.
Next, we had to queue up and pay for our tourist cards ($10 each) and then queue up again to pass through immigration. This didn't take long, but from all the rope corridors, I'd say it could do if you were unlucky. While we were waiting, a local band were playing songs to keep everyone entertained. The ceiling fans in the terminal (if you can really call a straw hut a terminal) were huge. They were provided by a company called "Big Ass Fans"
Our next mini-adventure was finding the bus to take us to the resort. We were standing in line at the Thomson desk, when an assistant from one of the other desks asked us where we were going, and then told us to go to bus stop 3.Outside, nothing was labeled "3", so we found a Thomson rep, who pointed us towards a bus with the number 5 on it. The rep on that bus asked us where we were going and he pointed us to another bus (number 4). We went to that bus, and the rep there asked the same "where are you going?" and we told him. He pointed us back to bus number 5. The rep at bus 5 asked our names, and found us on his list, but said that although he was going to our resort, we should be on Andres bus. He made a phone call, and Andres came to get us, and took us to a completely different bus, quite a long way from the first 2 buses.
Eventually we got under way, it seems the bus was just waiting for us. Andres was friendly and was pointing out places as we were travelling. The bus was stopping at 3 hotels, first Secrets, then our Hotel, Royal Suites Turquesa, then to another which I can't remember. It took about 30 minutes to get to our hotel.
Checking in was another experience. It seemed the person checking us in wasn't really listening to us, but more to all her colleagues around her. We were asked for a print out of our hotel booking, which we didn't have. Nóirín had it on her phone, so the receptionist asked her to email it. After a short while, and all paperwork completed, a BellBoy was called to take us to our room, which was very close to the reception. He also went through all the features of the room. For example, if you order room service, it is delivered through a hatch in the wall and they turn a light on inside the room, for you to open a cupboard and collect it. When you are done, you turn another light on, and they collect the tray from the same place. Also there are 4 bottles of spirits in the room. You can drink it all as part of the all inclusive, but you cannot take the bottle away or they will charge you for it. There is a wine chiller, but the wine is not included in the price.
The room is on the first floor, number 5903. It has 2 balconys, one overlooking a pool, and one looking over the landscaped area, and palm trees. It is air conditioned which is a real blessing, and has a jacuzzi style bath, and a shower which has a jets pointing in every which way you want. We found a couple of snags though, the shower doors don't close properly, and the jacuzzi jets don't work very well. Other than that, its a nice room with 2 TV's (not much on though and bad signal) and its pretty damn close to the sea.
The sea, wow, the water is so warm. I was in the sea within an hour and a half of getting to the resort. We then walked the length of the (long) beach which was part of the hotel (it went on a lot further) as the sun went down. There was one part of the beach which was cordoned off, as there were turtle eggs there. We decided to walk back to the room through the resort. It was then really that it dawned on us how big the resort was. We got lost. Well, not lost, we found a bar, stopped and had a drink, then started walking in circles. Eventually, we found a reception (there are 4 parts to the hotel, Royal Suites, Palace, Punta Cana, and Bavaro), and we asked for a lift back to our apartment. It took a while, but then we figured out we were waiting in the wrong place. We were only 5 minutes walk from where we needed to be, which was annoying.
We decided we'd just do the buffet for dinner, as we only just arrived, and hadn't seen what else there was at that stage, so we walked back towards the reception, and went into the buffet. There was loads of food, and it was really busy, which we thought was strange because the resort seemed very quiet when we first walked around. One lesson I learned was, don't take too long choosing what food you want, as the food you have already chosen will get cold. The food I chose was OK, nothing special though. I decided on a pancake with chocolate for desert, Nóirín chose the small cakes and some fruit.
After dinner we went back to the room. It was about 9PM local time (around 2AM back home) which meant we had been up around 20 hours. Nóirín pretty much passed out on the bed, I was asleep not long after, but chose the wrong pillows, so woke up at about 4AM local time with neck ache. My body was probably also telling me it was time to get up, having been asleep for around 7 hours. The bed is quite firm, and huge, but the ceiling fans and the air con kept the room nice and cool. The temperature outside didn't go below 24 degrees over night.
Thats the end of day one. Day two to follow shortly.
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