Traveling TnT

Blog Post: Anniversary!

We have officially booked our Anniversary!!

We had been discussing for about a month now on what we wanted to do with our anniversary. We knew we wanted the following:

• Week long trip
• Food and alcohol included
• Sunny and warm
• Jacuzzi for Tia

We first started to look at cruises then realized we were battling with the holiday weekend this time and cruise prices were out the roof. I joked about a possible Alaskan cruise to Trey and I think he considered it for a solid .5 seconds. Alright, back to the beach.

We started to look at other options and started to think about all-inclusive resorts. This is where we have been searching for a solid month.

We looked at Costco Travel, CruiseOne (through work), American Airline vacations, and too many Trip Advisor reviews than I can count.

To narrow it down we needed to figure out transportation first. Where could we go? If a flight was cheap enough, we would be willing to pay cash for the flight but we really loved the idea of using points as well. So after checking some reward point redemption maps, Southwest Airlines seemed to be the best choice for us. We were then able to narrow the search down to a few locations

• Punta Cana
• Aruba
• Montego Bay
• Nassau
• Cancun

These were locations that had mostly direct flights from Atlanta and weren’t ridiculously priced with points.

So back to Costco Travel!

 

Riu Palace Peninsula in Cancun

This Riu location was our first love. It had a jacuzzi in every room, it was all-inclusive, and it even came with a $148 Costco Cash Card! It was a sure winner but it was our first main hit, we had to keep looking.

 

Majestic Elegance in Punta Cana

Then Trey found this beauty. It was cheaper than the Riu he found earlier, and I preferred the “low key” feel of it, verses a large hotel. This one had an option for an upgraded service that even included a butler that could set up the jacuzzi for you!

The Level at Melia Caribe Tropical

Gotta love recommendations!

Then this week I’m at work looking at so many resorts it made my head spin. While looking at one, a manager at work mentioned she stayed in Punta Cana last year and loved it. So I had her find out which location she stayed at and it was this Melia resort. Later on I had the computer open with the resort page and another coworker passed by, saw the page, and mentioned he had also visited this resort, loved it so much he had planned a second trip!

I looked into prices of this resort and my jaw dropped. It was almost half price of the original resort we fell in love with!! As I started playing with prices, it looked like we could get the “Adults Only” area for several hundred dollars cheaper than either of the other resorts. SOLD!

So we took a week to think about it. No other resort could compete with personal reviews and the prices. So my next step was “Could I save anymore money?”

Well with Melia Rewards, I could shave off about $50 with my “introductory points” and I had a birthday coupon that expired 3 months after my birthday! I was about to use those to save a little money and we found out that the hotel offers a free shuttle from the airport and we will receive $400 in vouchers to use around the resort. I’m sure they will be $20 off the Spa or something similar but maybe they will come in handy!

Last night we finally booked the resort. It’s official! We will be spending 5 nights at this beautiful resort lounging around as we get to celebrate one year of blissful marriage 🙂