24 weeks

Some of you reading this post may already know about the unfortunate string of bad luck we had on the traveling portion of this trip, but the vacation itself was amazing and actually started out quite well! For starters, the whole vacation (minus flights) was free!  Here’s the quick story…

We chose Dreams Palm Beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our honeymoon back in October and booked the honeymoon suite. When you book the honeymoon suite for your actual honeymoon they also throw in a whole “Honeymoon Package” which includes a welcome gift of fresh fruit and champagne, two facials and two massages at the spa with full access to their hydrotherapy pools (amazing!), a romantic dinner on the beach, and breakfast in bed.

The resort was absolutely amazing and our “Preferred Club” status gave us access to the most beautiful parts of the resort including a private pool and beach area, full bar, personal butler service, and beachside restaurant. We were treated with pool-side drinks, 5 different restaurants to choose from, and beach-side service which sometimes included fruit skewers brought around on a tray by the staff… we felt so spoiled!  Unfortunately, we also had a few hiccups along the way which included a “lost” massage that my parents had purchased for us off of the hotel’s wedding registry website, a not-so-romantic dinner accompanied by screaming babies, follow-up required on a number of package items that were were supposed to receive automatically, and an infamous bubble bath overflow incident.

On our last night there, we casually asked the General Manager for his card when we saw him walking around the resort, letting him know we just wanted to send him a quick email when we got home about a couple of comments we had and he insisted that we talk to him about our concerns then and there. Twenty minutes later, we had made a new friend and also scored a free week in the honeymoon suite!  The general manager insisted that we give them a chance to make it right and “give them another chance” and we were thrilled!!!

So… we figured we would make plans for a “Babymoon” and have one last big vacation before Baby Boy Roberson arrives. When we arrived at the airport in Norfolk we were told that our plane to Philly was delayed.  This maybe foreshadowed the future travel issues we would have but at the time it meant we were rerouted through Charlotte and also bumped to first class! Blake enjoyed a few drinks on the plane and then the flight attendant came around with warm towels for us to wipe our hands and faces with before being served a delicious meal! What a nice surprise!

So after being pampered on the plane for our 3-hour flight, we arrived at the airport in Punta Cana and my baby bump got us moved up to the front of every line through the long process of immigration and customs! Unfortunately, our suitcase didn’t have as much luck and never showed up at the baggage carousel. (It wouldn’t be until the next day, after a 2-hour phone call with Charlotte baggage services, that we would discover that at first they had no idea where our bag was and then they discovered it had been sent from Charlotte to Miami and then finally to St. Lucia… and there was no way we would get it within the week.)

Check in at the resort went smoothly, especially since we knew exactly where to go and what to do. While we were walking to the Preferred Club check in area, our butler from our honeymoon saw us and immediately recognized us saying “Mr. Blake! 4113!” He not only remembered our names from 5 months ago but also our room number. We were so impressed. He wouldn’t be the only one to remember our names this week and we quickly realized that either the resort staff had really upped their game as each of them greeted us by name all week or they got a memo before we arrived that everything had to go smoothly this time around. Either way, we felt super spoiled and so well taken care of. They also put us in the same room, which was fantastic! We were greeted with a “Repeaters” sign on the door, a door mat that said “You again?” and a bottle of champagne as our welcome gift. (None for Momma.) And so began our beach-lounging, pina colada-drinking Babymoon.

I’ll make sure to give more updates in our 25 week post!