Travel Guide | Carnival Sunrise to the Bahamas

Ryan and I both grew up cruising. I've been on half a dozen cruises, mostly through Royal Caribbean with one Disney cruise. Ryan has been on about a dozen cruises, mostly through Carnival with one Royal Caribbean cruise. In June 2020, we were talking about how neither one of us had been on cruise in at least 5 years. So, I looked up prices on both Royal Caribbean (where I have a loyalty status) and Carnival (where Ry has loyalty status) and found a Carnival cruise at a great price for the week before our honeymoon. We were able to find a 5-night, e-stop cruise to the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos for April 2021, with a center-ship, high-level balcony room with the ability to pay $300 that day, and $150 a month up until our cruise. Being able to spread out our payments made this an easy impulse buy! I signed up for the Carnival loyalty program and pulled the trigger. 

What's great about Carnival's loyalty program is that for all cruises after your 1st cruise, you get a free liter of water bottle! This is per person! They don't exactly remind you of this, but you can just go to any bar and tell them your status (at least Red) and ask for your one free liter. After 25 days accumulated at sea (at least Gold status), you also get a free drink up to $10 at any bar after 5pm on the last day (yes, it's very specific but we just set a calendar reminder for my husband to go get his free drink).

I actually was 21 weeks pregnant for this cruise, so I had a unique experience. Technically, you're not supposed to sail past 24 weeks but I have no idea how the cruise confirms this because they just took my word and I also saw 2 other pregnant women who looked further along than me (I know everyone shows differently, but I don't know if they actually were under 24 weeks or if Carnival just didn't bother verifying this). Actually the only reason I think the cruise knew I was pregnant was because their website says you have to have a doctor fill out a form before you can cruise, but I couldn't find the actual form. I called their customer service and was told as long as I'm under 24 weeks there was no form needed (I'm assuming this is when my account got flagged as pregnant), but when we went to get on the boat they kept asking me for the form from my doctor and had to get a manager involved to let me on without the form that I was previously told I didn't need. I had previously been diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (uncontrollable vomiting) and even hospitalized for it, on 2 different nausea prescriptions, and still throwing up almost daily up until our cruise so I was very nervous to go on the cruise, but it had been booked before we even tried for a baby. I took my nausea prescriptions along with Dramamine and didn't really feel I needed it. I don't normally get motion sickness so the rocking of the boat didn't do me in like I thought it would. I even took 2 smaller ship to shore boats and felt totally fine! I also thought it was VERY helpful to have essentially an unlimited variety of food non-stop so I could always eat right when I got hungry.

Carnival Sunrise Review

The Sunrise used to be the Triumph, but it got remodeled and renamed in 2019. The ship does look and feel updated, which I liked. It's a smaller ship, with only about 3,000 people. We really liked how the layout took advantage of the small size so it never felt like you had to walk far to get where you were going. Like any cruise, there were lots of small details that we loved. The Alchemy lounge at the back of the 5th floor was a great quiet place for us to play our favorite card game that we brought, but you can also borrow a deck of cards from guest services for free. The Red Frog Rum at the middle of the 9th floor (not to be confused with the Red Frog Pub at the front of the 5th floor) was a great place for a chill drink that had shuffle board and foosball hidden in the back corner. And the Skybox room in the back left corner of the Casino in the middle of the 5th floor was great for watching games on. We also  liked seeing the comedian, playing Deal or No Deal (the audience member won the grand prize on our ship!) playing trivia, and playing Bingo.

Now for my gripes... First off, the names are confusing as hell! As I just mentioned there's a Red Frog Rum and a Red Frog Pub. Why??? There's so many other colors and animals (like how they have Blue Iguana room) it just makes NO sense as to why the names are so similar and confusing. But wait, there's more! There's also a Liquid Lounge which is their main show lounge where Bingo/Deal or No Deal were played and excursions met (but to me sounds like a bar name) and a Limelight Lounge which is where there's karaoke and comedy shows. Again, too similar sounding so you can get confused. And oddly, the Limelight turns into the Punchliner when there's a comedy show, so it's confusing to call the exact same room 2 different names, depending on the activity in said room. This all makes it more difficult than it needs to be to meet up with someone in one of these rooms. 

My other complaint was that they didn't consistently enforce the "adults-only" rule in the designated area. We went to the adults only pool two days in a row and got splashed by kids playing Marco Polo while the lifeguards said nothing. After like 15 minutes, all the adults abandoned the pool because of the yelling and splashing. This is totally fine in the main pool, but we went there for a quiet area to sip pina coladas and read or relax in the pool. I'm not surprised that kids ended up in the adults-only pool, because the main pool felt tiny for a cruise. It looked about the size of a backyard pool.

The rooms on Carnival Sunrise

We got a balcony room on the 8th floor, room 8391, and absolutely loved it. Our room had 3 closets, a long desk, in-wall storage shelves, a couch with small coffee table, king bed (that splits into 2 twin beds), one nightstand (they could've fit 2 and I think it's weird there was only one), and a small patio furniture set. Not only did we have all of the space and light from the balcony and balcony door, but our window right by the balcony was HUGE so we basically had a full wall of windows. We played around and if you were outside on the balcony you couldn't hear someone on the inside talk or even raise their voice, but if you were on the inside you could hear someone on the balcony. 

One thing I was surprised at coming from Royal Caribbean was that there were no drawers in our room, only closets and cabinets. There was still plenty of room to store clothes, it was just weird to put underwear in a cabinet instead of a drawer. One thing I'm really glad I did was have 2 dozen water bottles delivered to our room on day 1. It was like $10 to do so and absolutely worth it. Sure you can also get free water from the several drink stations around the boat, but that tastes basically like tap water and cold filtered water straight from your fridge is much better on a hot, humid day. 

We also got the social wi-fi package ahead of time and I do recommend that (it's more expensive to purchase starting the night before the cruise and on-board). The next tier up is the value package which is essentially just the wi-fi package but with email and is about double the price per day so I think it's pointless. We could iMessage each other and people back home, Google, and post to Instagram. The only thing we couldn't do was stream music/videos, but we just downloaded those ahead of time. If you don't want to get the wi-fi package, you can also just pay $5 for messaging other cruisers in the Carnival Hub app so you can stay connected with everyone you're cruising with.

Eating on Carnival Sunrise

We thought we had early dining, but we accidentally booked the Your Time dining and that was a first for us. We LOVED it and honestly probably have permanently converted to this from normal dining. With formal dining, you eat at either 6 or 8 at a designated table every single night. The downside to this is that literally hundreds of people are lined up to eat at the exact same time so it can be a long wait to finally get to your seat and get fed. You also have to plan all of your activities around your dinner time. In comparison, with Your Time you just get on the app and reserve a table and usually by the time you get from your stateroom to the restaurant your table is ready so you just walk right in, give them your table number, and you're instantly seated. You're also at a new table every night so if you don't like your table location you're not stuck. We looked into it and the menus, restaurant decor, and entertainment were all the exact same as the normal dining (with the exception that you might just miss the entertainment). With Your Time, if you're not hungry or not ready to eat until later, your dinner can fit your schedule rather than the other way around. You also can eat any time from 5:30 - 9 so you have a huge window of when to eat. I definitely think this is the best option for families because of the flexibility.

For the Your Time dinner, the restaurant you eat at is on the back of the ship on the 3rd and 4th floors. Because of its location, we could definitely feel the boat rocking way more than we did in our room. We both realized after night 1 that we would need to take Dramamine while we were getting ready so we could make it to dinner. But, it did have beautiful views on 3 sides of the restaurant. The normal dinner was in a restaurant in the middle of the ship on the same floors, and I bet it rocked a lot less. The other main eating area was basically the entire 9th deck. The buffet was at the back of the boat, with a lobster station and pizza station behind it, and a taco station and burger station in front of it. So, you essentially had the taco/burgers between the main pool and buffet, and then the lobster/pizzas between the buffet and the adults pool. 

As always on a cruise, the food was great. A pro tip is that breakfast room service is free, so don't forget to put out the door sign and order breakfast in bed! There were other specialty restaurants on board that were for a fee like sushi and steak, but we didn't try those out because we felt there were more than enough free options. 

What to do on Carnival Sunrise

We did your typical cruise ship activities on board. My husband did a ropes course (make sure to bring closed-toe shoes if you plan to do this), we did Bingo, and we actually won a "stick on a ship" at trivia!

We also spent some time near the central bar on ship and just hung out at a table playing card games we had brought from home. You can rent a deck of cards from guest services, but we prefer to bring Monopoly Deal when it's just the two of us. We also wen to the SkyBox Sports Bar to watch some basketball together, and it was a really nice and comfortable bar. One of the nights we went to Deal or No Deal and the first girl actually won it! I had never seen someone win that before! After Deal or No Deal, they actually started up The Newlywed Game and Ryan really wanted to go (we were celebrating our 1 year anniversary [and babymoon] after all! Unfortunately for him, by now it was 9pm and as a pregnant girl, I was was too tired and had already been nodding off at that point.

We also went to the late-night comedian on board in the Limelight Lounge, and although most of his stuff was funny, some of it was raunchy just for the point of being raunchy so it was just meh. Another let down was the pool situation. We went to the adults-only pool at the back of the ship, and it consistently would have 4-5 kids playing marco-polo taking up the whole pool (which isn't that big to begin with), and there seemed to be no one enforcing the "adults only" part. I think part of the problem was poor planning, because they put this pool right near the pizza and ice cream stations. 

Exotic Eastern Caribbean cruise itinerary

 

Bahamas

We had 2 stops in the Bahamas, one in Nassau and one at their private island Princess Cay. For Nassau, I strongly recommend you stick to the group on the public beach or with an excursion. I do not believe it is safe to leave the port on your own, because apparently 2 people were robbed at gunpoint during our stop. Personally, we went for the Blue Lagoon VIP Adults Only excursion and I give it 4 stars. The Blue Lagoon is its own island so you take a smaller boat from the ship to the island. The island has an inflatables park in the ocean, a dolphin encounter, a shark encounter, and the adults only part. Everyone all rides the little boat together (snacks and alcohol are available but cost extra, even if you have the unlimited drinks excursion) and then split up into different groups based on your wrist bands. The VIP adults only had unlimited drinks, but it was only Bahama Mamas or non-alcoholic fruit punch, lemonade, or water. Lunch was included and we thought the food was great. There's also several staff members always walking around to bring you a drink or food, so I do think the VIP lives up to the name. And because the staff was always out serving, they were really good about keeping out anyone who wasn't in the group from crashing our private area. This is because the inflatable park and VIP area are connected by a bar (I think if you want to drink anything other than the Bahama Mamas you have to pay for drinks here). The lack of star is because the beach and fenced-in ocean part are TINY. As in like 2 minutes to walk from edge to edge. We brought our snorkel gear but there was definitely not enough room to snorkel in the water, even with over half of the group not being in the water. My biggest tip is to make it back to the boat about 20 minutes before they tell you to, because if you're on the last boat out like we were, you have to wait until they round up every last straggler onto your boat.

For Princess Cay, the ship anchors down in the middle of the ocean and then smaller boats take you from ship to shore. We didn't do any excursions and just booked a clamshell shade for the day. This turned out to be a GREAT use of our money! The clamshell was about $30 ahead of time and it was great to have a great spot reserved and to have shade. We will forever do this if it's an option on future cruises. You could also rent the normal snorkeling, water bikes, kayaks right there on the beach for pretty cheap, or use whatever you brought. The beach is a little on the rocky side, not bad, but I did think water shoes were helpful. The lunch had really good burgers, but for some reason the buffet was set up where you get your toppings, then burger, then condiments, so it's weird to have to construct your burger later. 

Turks & Caicos

We didn't have an excursion planned for Grand Turk, and it worked out for us. It's a pretty established port that has shopping and restaurants with a big pool surrounded by free lounge chairs or you can rent like a mini house. We grabbed lunch at Margaritaville and then headed to a chair by the pool. We were only there for about an hour before it just started downpouring on us with no end in sight, so we went back to the ship early. There was also a beach that looked really well-kept, but we didn't make it in time to see it. 

Overall thoughts of this cruise

This was my first Carnival cruise, and it was better than I expected. Carnival's own island, Princess Cay, definitely was much simpler than Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay that I'm used to. And while Carnival's ship had waterslides, mini golf, and a ropes course, it didn't seem to have much else. That's not to say that Carnival cruises are bad, it's just going from an over-the-top Royal Caribbean cruise to a "fine" Carnival cruise was an adjustment. I think I might like a Carnival cruise if I went on a bigger ship with more bells and whistles. But, Carnival is significantly cheaper than Royal Caribbean, so as an affordable getaway, it did the job just fine. I'd give this cruise an 8/10. 

Travel Guide | Disney Aulani in Oahu, Hawaii

My husband's family are Disney Vacation Club members and for years Ryan and his sister have joking-but-not suggested we need to take a trip to Hawaii and visit the Aulani resort. For Christmas 2019 we found out it finally worked and it was announced that the next Disney trip would be to Aulani in 2021. Obviously this was long before anyone had ever heard of Coronavirus, but after 2020 we decided that as long as we could, the trip would still be on. 

So vaxxed and masked, we went for Labor Day week, which just so happened to include my 29th birthday. Our trip was a Saturday-Saturday trip and what was great about such a long trip is that we had plenty of time to just relax and explore at the hotel while also being able to go out and explore a bit of the Oahu island. 

Disney Aulani Resort Review

Disney Aulani was smaller than I was expecting. It is just a hotel, not a monstrous resort like what you get at WDW. It was part of the Ko Olina suburb (idk how best to describe it so we'll go with that) on Oahu, which is about an hour away from Honolulu and Waikiki (everyone told us to avoid Waikiki because it is overcrowded, even our Uber driver avoided that area!). The entrance to the resort is open air and the view is breathtaking, if not obscured by the massive rock where there's a water slide, and was a beautiful resort. 

Overall, though, if we weren't DVC members I can't say if we'd say it we'd go again. I know it's Hawaii, but the prices were really outrageous and it didn't feel very Disney aside from the one lone Stitch statute by the lazy river, the one lone Mickey lamp in our room, and we did see a Mickey and Moana character. The staff was still really nice, but despite our trip being during Aulani's 10th anniversary year, it felt they just had this location for the sake of capitalizing on Hawaii.

 

The rooms at Disney Aulani

Because this trip was through DVC, we had the most amazing suite I've ever been in. We absolutely could not afford them if we had to pay with cash instead of points. We stayed in a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, ocean-view villa. Our villa took up the entire width of one tower of the resort, and our balcony was the entire width. I can't stress enough how amazing the balcony was! 

For this villa, you walk into the living room, with the living room in the front, the kitchen/dining to the right, and the master bed/bath to the right of the dining area (there was also an second separate entrance just for the master), and then to the left of the living room was the smaller of the 2 secondary bedrooms with a detached bathroom, and to the left of that was the larger of the 2 secondary bedrooms with an attached bathroom. 

Our villa had a full functioning kitchen, complete with supplies, so all we had to do was Door Dash groceries from Safeway on day 1 (and run the dishwasher) and we saved a lot of money on breakfast and snacks. There also was a full washer and drier and soap to do dishes. 

My husband and I ended up in the smallest bedroom because we were too busy gawking over the balcony to realize that his sister and her husband where already choosing rooms. I was fine by this because although our bathroom was detached while there's was attached, our bathroom had a tub/shower combo while theirs only had a stand-up shower option (the master has both a separate shower and jacuzzi tub with a view of the ocean, oh and a very fancy toilet!). This meant I could use my Lush bubble bar (easier to travel with than their bath bombs) and the leftover petals from my lei for a luxurious bubble bath (sadly, Disney did not give us leis! We didn't get any until our luau). Both secondary rooms had 2 queen size beds, but unlike a cruise they couldn't be combined into a bigger bed. But there was plenty of room with lots of places to store clothes and suitcases, and it was great that we had a wall of sliding glass doors to lead to the balcony from our room. My only gripe was that our room didn't have a lot of plugs so charging both our iPhones and Apple Watches wasn't as easy as a normal hotel.

Eating at Disney Aulani

We actually didn't eat at Aulani all that much. On our first day, despite it being 3pm, our villa wasn't ready so we headed to Off The Hook near the water slide. It was odd being sent to the bar (only for the bartender to tell us that we were standing on the wrong side of the bar and to scooch down to order drinks) and then going back to the hostess stand to try to get a table. Ryan and I split the mushroom pizza, and it seemed like everyone else really liked what they had. I got the mint coconut mojito for my drink and it was so damn good it's the only drink I ordered the rest of the trip. Ryan's sister and brother-in-law got the Lava drinks and said they were really good too, and his mom got the Mai Tai and she said it was very strong. All of our drinks came with flower garnishes that were fabulous. You'll mostly find local beer on your trip, so I suggest the Longboard beers in the red cans. 

The most of our eating came from Ulu Café, which was directly under our room and right between the main pool (Waikolohe Pool) and one of the side pools (Wailana Pool). It was great because it had beer/white claw (the bars didn't open until 11, so you also couldn't get liquor before 11), snacks, pre-made meals, and fresh meals. Our first night we ordered 2 pizzas from them and they were great. 

The only other place we ate at was their main restaurant, Makahiki, which is right under the main entrance. Go at night and it is beautiful! Outside, you can look up and see stars, or inside there is a huge mural that takes up the entire length of the restaurant and the lighting constantly changes which gives the mural new and interesting looks. The menu is a pre-set 3-course menu for $62 each ($25for children) where you choose 1 appetizer, 1 entrée,  and 1 desert. I got the caprese salad and it was good, but after trying Ryan's Cesar salad, I would recommend that more (it does come with anchovies). The shrimp fettucine was also good, and I got the brownie desert. It was good, but it wasn't amazing. This place also had breakfast where again it's a set price and set menu, but we never went. 

What to do at Disney Aulani

Our party was 6 adults, so for us I felt there wasn't a whole lot to do besides the pools and beach. One weird thing is that you have to go to the towel stand every day to get a towel and a wrist band to access the pool/beach. The wrist bands are neon for non-DVC and glittery for DVC but you have to get a new wrist band every. single. day.  I don't know why, but that was very annoying. Because we went during Labor Day weekend, we did learn that a lot of locals actually are DVC members and come for stay-cations during long weekends.  

 

There were several pools we went to: the main pool Waikolohe, a lazy river at Waikolohe Stream, which also had access to the 2 water slides, an infinity pool at Ka Maka Grotto which also had a hot tub, a secluded pool at Wailana Pool, an infinity 2-level adults-only hot tub between the main pool and the beach. The pools were actually heated so it was no problem at all to switch from the hot tub to the pool. You can bring drinks in the pool, but you have to stay on the edge of the pool to drink them. There are wait staff that will come by so you can at least order food/drinks around the pool. 

The beach is part of a cove that is 1/3 Disney, 1/3 Four Seasons, and 1/3 public access. There's lots of beach chairs, but they are zip-tied together so you can't move the chairs and the umbrellas are buried so you move them, and there's a table between every set of chairs but you also can't move that because the chairs are zip-tied together. If you're a DVC member, a cast member will help you find a chair but we never needed to use it because the beach was pretty empty most of our trip because we went at the end of the busy season and during COVID. There is a big boat that will take you beyond the cove for a couple hundred dollars, and there are stand-up paddle boards that you can rent for like $50/hour. There's also 2 seater covered loungers for about $100/day that Ryan's sister got and said it was nice, but those are up on the grass behind the beach. There is a beach-side bar that opens at 11 but we never used it because we were gone by then. But, there is no wait staff at the beach so you have to leave the beach to order drinks/food. The water itself is pretty cold, but you get used to it quickly once you get your whole body wet. The water is also very clear and you can see fish that will swim up into the cove, or you can snorkel in the cove for an even better view. Even while we were there, a wild seal came and sunbathed on the beach with us.

For kids, there's also a splash pad and a water playset to play at. There's also a small lagoon where kids can feed the fish or snorkel with the fish. People start lining up around 7:30am to get tickets for those because they sell out fast. We didn't do the snorkeling, but a family we chatted with said that your snorkel purchase lasts all day, but the water is so cold that kids don't really want to stay in there for long. There is a spot next to the snow-cone stand that is like an aquarium so you can see the fish swim by for free. There also seemed to be some scavenger hunt that kids could do on a green iPad, but we didn't look into that because we were all too old for that. There was a character breakfast that I saw kids going to, but it looked like Mickey was the only character you could see.

Eating outside of Disney Aulani

I think to get the most out of your Aulani trip, you really do have to leave the resort. This isn't a problem at all because you're on the small island of Oahu so everything is close by. We had dinner the first night and lunch our last day at Monkey Pod across the street from Aulani. The food was great and they have live music, but they only serve local beer (I recommend Kewalos Cream) and it's reasonably priced compared to the resort. There's also a great shopping center right there that has a grocery store where you can stock up and has gift shops and a Tommy Bahamas. 

For our second dinner, we ate at Roy's which was also within walking distance of Aulani. This was our priciest meal at over $100 per person. The food was great, but the service was the best I've ever experienced. Ryan's sister and I split a bottle of the house prosecco which was only $16 and really delicious. Ryan and I split the crab cake appetizer and it was amazing. His sister and her husband split the mac & cheese which was good, but more like risotto than mac & cheese. 

Our last meal was at Longhi's at the Marriott, also walking distance from Aulani. The zucchini fritta was okay, my crab-stuffed salmon was really good (the sauce was amazing), but Ryan's shrimp fettuccini was the best food we had the whole trip! This restaurant was also pretty pricey, but it was cheaper than Roy's and tastier than Makahiki at Disney.

The only other place I ate at was at Moke's Bread and Breakfast. Did I choose it just because it the name was similar to Monkeypod from earlier? Yes. Do I regret it? No. The food was pretty good, it was nice to just have normal food after all the over-priced fancy food. The waitstaff was the best, really, super friendly! But be warned to park very carefully because they tow like crazy (and quickly!!) over there.

What to do outside of Disney Aulani

What I loved about this trip was how we had so much time to do so much!! Our first big thing was the raptor tour at Kualoa Ranch. Kualoa Ranch is where a LOT of movies have been filmed, my favorites were Jurassic Park and 50 First Dates. The raptor tour is a 2-hour long UTV tour of the ranch, a little Hawaiian history, and a little movie tour. I loved it! This place also had 4-wheeler, bike, bus, and horse tours, each with their own focus at the ranch. There's so much to do here, I will definitely be coming back for more tours the next time I'm on Oahu. For the 2-hour raptor tour, it is very dusty so absolutely bring sunglasses (if you have skiing/off-roading googles bring those, you'll feel silly until you're on the trail) and bring a bandanna. But, this place is over an hour away from Aulani, so eat a big meal before (there's a small café but it was just okay) and be prepared to wait for over 30 minutes to find an Uber to take you back. What I wore: a bodysuit, jean shorts, Chacos, and sunglasses (women's/men's).

The day after Kualoa, we went to Pearl Harbor. You can book this through Disney and I recommend that because we had a van that could take us all over to it, and our driver showed us all around downtown Honolulu on our way there. Unfortunately, when we went there the actual memorial was under construction so we could only go to the submarine they had to tour and eat at the little food truck that was there. It was still a great experience, but I would definitely want to go back to the see the USS Arizona memorial. When we went, there was a clear bag policy in place and we saw several tourists being turned away for having the wrong bags, so pay attention! I knew this ahead of time so I brought my clear sunscreen bag, but I suggest you have a clear purse for this trip. There is a water fill-up station near the bathrooms behind the food truck, so pack a reusable water bottle to save money. It is mostly outside with not a lot of shade, so it gets hot fast. What I wore: black tank top, jean shorts, UPF hat, and sneakers.

One of my favorite dinners/things to do was at Paradise Cove luau and I can't recommend it enough. A lot of people we spoke to who had stayed at Aulani said that this luau was better than Disney's, and I can believe it. This is also walking distance from Aulani! It's a 5-hour ordeal so block off half a day for it, and get there early (doors open at 4:45). We did the Deluxe package, which I do think is worth it. For this package, you get front-row seating, servers (instead of having to go to the buffet), an arrival photo, and a free gift (they gave us metal wine tumblers with lids that we used the rest of the trip). Because we got there so early, we had time to take professional photos in the grass area. The photos were only $20 for a big photo, a medium-sized photo, and wallet-sized photos. It looked just like a cruise photo but instead of a fake background, it was a too-beautiful-to-be-real landscape for your background. They also had free spear throwing and Hawaiian bowling. There was also a small cove you could go to which had a canoe, but we didn't do that. The show itself was amazing and all of the performers were very professional! I also thought the food was great, especially the chicken and pork and salads, and the bar was great prices. Although the deluxe seats are right by the stage, the chairs are cheap flimsy plastic chairs, so if you want real chairs you'll have to book the Royal Box in the back, and those tables also have fans over them. But, the entire place is on sand!! We saw so many girls who showed up in heels and had to walk around barefoot all night because they weren't prepared for the sand. Where shoes for sand. Oh, but you do get leis when you get there! What I wore: maxi dress (so flowy and breezy) and platform sandals (super comfortable, wore them almost every day).

The last thing we did was on my birthday, Ryan rented a Jeep through the Alamo at Aulani. Every one else wanted to chill at the hotel, so it was our only day just the two of us, and we had such a great day! I wore a white body suit and paperbag shorts and my Chaco's, then I could easily change to running shorts for activities and a swimsuit for later. I threw this all in a packable backpack along with our JBL so we didn't  have to worry about syncing music to the Jeep and we had music for later. We did get delayed a little by eating at Moke's instead of eating before we left and as you can guess, our car was towed so we had to take an hour detour to go down to Honolulu to grab it and head back. After that, we hiked Lanikai Pillbox which is a gorgeous hike. Parking is difficult so try to park at any available spot you see near Lanikai beach, and if you've driven up to the golf course then you've gone too far to find parking. Once you're parked, walk up to the golf course. You'll see a small driveway/street on the left and there is a chain-link fence on the right side of the driveway. Walk along that chain-link fence and you'll find the trail. It is a short hike but it is HOT so bring a water backpack because not having enough water makes this normal hike pretty difficult. Tip: there is a lot of loose dirt so if you start sliding, turn sideways and crab-walk and you won't slide so much. After that, we tried going to Waimea Falls but apparently they stop accepting visitors after 4, so we just grabbed some beers and went to one of the free public beaches to chill until we had to head back and get ready for dinner. We had a lot more on our itinerary, but we didn't have time for it all. This is the itinerary that Ryan's dad gave us from a previous trip, and if we go back we'll definitely do more. 

Oahu Tips

Like I said, if we weren't going through DVC, I wouldn't stay at Aulani without kids. Don't get me wrong, it is a wonderful hotel and if you have the money to spend then do it, but it just seems like we could save a lot by choosing somewhere else. What I learned from our day Jeeping around the island is that if you have the time to just drive around and explore, there are LOTS of beautiful and free beaches you can go to without the Disney upcharge. Heck, 1/3 of the Disney cove is PUBLIC BEACH and right beside Aulani is an empty lot that will supposedly one day be an Atlantis Resort, but for now, it is also a FREE PUBLIC BEACH right next door. So, same view but for free and if you bring your own cooler you can save $20/drink and if you bring your own paddle board you can save $50/hour. 

As to getting to Aulani, we took a direct flight from Houston to Honolulu and then a private Disney van picked us up. For us, that was an 8-hour flight. If you're going during COVID, you'll have to show you're medically cleared to fly and you'll have to show this same screen again at check-in and again if you board a flight. For the flight, I highly recommend getting a Snuggie for the flight because the flights get cold and jackets are hard to take off when you're sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and blankets fall down, get a neck pillow, if you're short get an inflatable foot rest (the eye mask & ear plugs that come with this are also great), and a reusable cup with a lid because bumps are bound to happen in an 8-hour trip. Need a recommendation for movies/shows to download for your trip? Besides Lilo & Stitch and Moana, download something filmed where you can visit.

You're close to the Equator and the UV index can get up there in Hawaii, so avoid painful sunburns and focus on sun protection. I've had melanoma before, so I was obviously extra cautious. Here's what I recommend you pack: SPF face lotion to add to your skin routine (or a shimmery SPF for fun), an SPF foundation replacement, SPF lip balm which is also safe to use around your eyes, scalp SPF for your part (of anyone with thin hair), travel spray SPF to throw in your bag every time you leave the resort, and good old fashioned SPF lotion for everyday use because it covers better than spray. My rule is reapply every 2 hours IF the UV index is below 7, 1.5 hours for UV index between 8-10, and every hour if the UV index is above 11 (I've learned this from personal experience of burning too easily in high UV indexes. This is the Apple Watch face I use to keep track of all this. If reapplying sunscreen sounds like a lot of effort, the easiest thing to do is wear a long-sleeve swimsuit like this one or this one which I loved, pack a travel wide-brimmed hat, and wear water shoes to prevent both sunburned tops of your feet and hot-sand-burned bottoms of your feet.

For the beach, bring a metal koozie for your beer/cocktails or for your slim beers/whiteclaw to keep your drinks cold in the sun, pack towel clips (but also ask for an extra towel because one towel won't reach past your butt and the leg park of the chairs get REALLY hot), a silicone wedding band if you plan on getting in the water so you don't lose your diamonds (also recommend wearing this to Kualoa to keep dust out of your diamonds), a water bag if you plan to go to any waterfalls, an iPhone water pouch if you plan to swim with your phone (even if your iPhone is waterproof, it makes it easier to wear your phone as a necklace so you can swim and will float if you accidentally drop your phone), and a swimsuit coverup that is appropriate to go eat in. Other things that I'm happy I packed are a lightweight rain jacket because it is a tropical climate so it will rain on-and-off, a lounge outfit that is perfect for being comfortable while lounging on the balcony but also has a jacket for when the sun goes down, a sunglass box for all of mine and my husbands sunglasses (we packed 2 each just in case one of us lost on) and my extra large beach bag.

Last tip for traveling to Hawaii: book all of your reservations early in the day. We live in Houston, so a 7pm Hawaiian-time dinner reservation was the same as eating at midnight Houston-time. It sounds lame eating dinner at 4 or 5pm, but we actually found it really hard to stay up past even 10pm Hawaiian time. The good news is that it's very easy to wake up for a Hawaiian sunrise if you went to bed super early the night before!

Travel Guide | Luxury Ambar at Bahia Principe in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

We decided to go to Punta Cana for our honeymoon, and this was our first trip to pay almost entirely with credit card points. A few years before we even got engaged, I got the Capital One Venture card and started racking up miles. Then as soon as we got engaged, I got the Chase United Explorer card. I referred Ryan and that got me a 10,000 miles bonus. Since I already had well over 100,000 points on my Venture card, we put as many wedding purchases as we could on the United card to quickly rack up points. 

What we ended up getting was 7 nights for the 2 of us for about 111,000 miles plus paying just under $500 for taxes/fees and we were just a few points shy of using just points for the entire stay. Then we used our United points and it cost us about 70,000 points for each one-way first-class flight plus about $100 each flight for taxes/fees. 

Luxury Ambar at Bahia Principe review

Bahia Principe is a huge resort with multiple smaller hotels, which was similar to our experience at Moon Palace in Mexico. We chose to stay at Luxury Ambar because it was adults only, and after experiencing an NYE dinner next to a toddler having a meltdown at Panama Jack in Mexico, we knew that we definitely wanted adults only for our honeymoon. We went in April 2021, so there was still some COVID restrictions and limitations. But this was definitely a favorite trip of ours!

The rooms at Luxury Ambar

We splurged for our room, and it was worth it for the week! We booked a Junior Suite Deluxe Swim Up room that was recently renovated. I tried contacting them through email to ask about upgrading to a honeymoon suite and their honeymoon package and unfortunately never received a response. Then I tried calling them and was told that I could only do that once we got there. This was actually really disappointing because not only was it poor customer service for a 5-star hotel, it also stressed us out about availability for rooms. What ended up happening was once we checked in, I asked if we could upgrade our room for our honeymoon. They did have a nicer room available, but the couple in that room wouldn't be checking out until 10pm! So what happened was we had one room for half of a day and then that night we switched rooms. For context, we had to get up at 4am the morning after our wedding to make our flight, so we were actually asleep by the time they rang us that our new room was ready. We were eventually upgraded to a Junior Suite Deluxe Corner Swim Up room. Because of the wait (or because we mentioned it was our honeymoon?), we were given a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates, which both were great. 

I will say that the staff was great with our rooms. We were encouraged to make ourselves at home in our temporary room, and we always had our luggage moved from room to room for us. Both rooms had recently been renovated and looked great. Our new room had a tub, which our first one only had a shower, and the tub was in the living room (similar to Moon Palace) where you could overlook the pool as you bathed. The swim-up pool was great and because we had a corner room, our portion of the pool was much bigger! It was a little weird sharing a pool with other people, but we loved having a private pool. Our room was actually RIGHT near the pool and the beach so it took us no time at all to make it to the beach. I loved this because we had easy access to use our room for the bathroom or to grab items. Definitely a highlight of the room was the Bahia Principe hotel app! We could request additional cleanings of our room or fridge restocks and room service all through the app, which was a great experience.

The only downside was that our room just so happened to be right near a little golf cart stop and a restaurant, so we did hear a lot of noise from that. Oh, and I will say that the hallways echo VERY loudly and there is absolutely no one monitoring noise, so bring earplugs if you plan to be asleep before 1am because people are definitely still loud until late at night. 

Eating at Luxury Ambar

The room service had great options for dinner, but after one morning of their breakfast room service we decided the buffet was a better choice. The buffet Palmyra in the lobby had a lot more breakfast options than the room service list, so we ended up having breakfast here all other mornings of our trip. We also ate lunch here almost every day, but we did try the Portifino restaurant near the pool for lunch which was great, and one day we found burgers and hot dogs on the beach, which were also pretty good. We didn't realize it before we arrived, but almost all restaurants require a reservation for dinner. Once we found this out, we made reservations where we could, but the restaurant choices and times were pretty limited, so we ended up only getting to try 3 restaurants. The easiest way to make restaurant reservations is through their app. Now we know that if we go back, we'll book reservations once we're 5 days out from our trip.

We ate at their Limbo restaurant twice, and twice we were unimpressed. The food was fine, but the service was just terrible. Both times we were seated quickly, and then just abandoned. I'm talking, wow it's been so long since someone came to our table I'm going to start a timer just to see how long it takes until someone comes back to our table. I understand that they were understaffed because of COVID, but it was really frustrating sitting there and watching people who were seated after us be able to order before us, and watching people who ordered after us receive their food before us. Both times we left before our desert even arrived because at that point it had been well over an hour and we were just frustrated with the restaurant staff.

We also ate at their Portofino restaurant twice, and had a much better experience. They had a great Italian food selection and I loved their wine options. We were happy to come back for our second reservation and loved this restaurant. On our last night, we had reservations at Tequila at Beach House Las Olas. This was a little frustrating at first because it is in the same building as the Fish Market restaurant, and we thought we had reservations at the upstairs restaurant, then found out that was a "privilege club" only restaurant, then found out that Tequila is actually not part of Luxury Ambar but is actually part of the Grand Bavaro hotel. This meant that it wasn't adults-only, which was fine by us for one night, but just very confusing to find. We loved the Tex-Mex food options because we're from Texas, the views were great because you were right on the beach (I suggest getting an early reservation so you can ask to be out on the patio, and they had some AMAZING margaritas. But, it was a confusing restaurant because they brought us a variety of appetizers that we didn't even order, then no one came for a good 20 minutes and we weren't sure if our entrée would be brought out of if we could actually order. After flagging down a waiter, we found out that we could order our entrée. The food was still great, but the waiting to order was something that we were starting to get tired of after our experience with Limbo. The frustration with slow staff definitely made it feel like a 2- or 3-star resort.

What to do at Luxury Ambar

I don't know if it was because of limited capacity due to COVID, or the fact that we where at the Luxury Ambar side, but the beach was amazing! We never had to rush to get a chair on the beach and we could always find a set of loungers, even mid day. A lot of their loungers were set up under little grass thatched cabanas, and there were lots of little drink tables available. I loved that about our stay. We didn't see too many staff out on the beach to take drink orders, and the beach bar was on the opposite side of the beach as our room, so we ended up taking multiple trips to the pool bar to get a drink. We did hop into the pool one afternoon and it was a lot of fun. There was always a DJ and it was great being so close to the pool bar. As for the actual ocean, it was beautiful and very warm, but for our April trip there was a lot of sea grass floating around that was hard to avoid. 

Before our trip, I had found GetMyBoat and had booked a boat through Bebe's Tours, which I highly recommend. I wanted to surprise Ryan with this so I didn't get his help and ended up booking a 32 foot boat, which was way too big for and (and kinda pricey for 2 people since it cost $600), but we had so much fun. They asked us if we wanted a boat with a sail or slide, and we obviously picked a slide. We had a huge boat with a captain, bartender, and like a cruise director all to ourselves. We had homemade mamajuana and beer with really great chips and salsa. We went snorkeling and went off the slide a few times, and then when we got bored with that we asked them to take us to the next stop which was a natural sand bar and we spent the rest of our time just relaxing and drinking. It was a perfect start to our trip! We decided to go early in the morning so we wouldn't get seasick from drinking all day and so we could enjoy our trip before the sun got too hot. 

There was also a lot of activity options that the hotel would refer you to. There was a little scuba shack over by the beach bar where we signed up for parasailing, which I always love to do. 

Then, we went to the activities office in the lobby and signed up for a helicopter tour. We chose the Sanoa Island tour because it was a better deal than just an hour-long helicopter tour. The island was okay, but we weren't really there long enough to do anything and although we were told this came with unlimited drinks, the only option was to buy drinks. But, their paella was delicious and the helicopter views were amazing. 

We also got all-day tickets to the nearby Scape Park and we highly highly recommend you fit that into your trip! You are gone from 8-5 that day, but there is so much to do at the Scape Park! We absolutely loved that experience. If you go, bring your own little locker lock to save money because the lockers are free, you just have to buy a lock. And bring cash for lunch and drinks. Everyone there had a waterproof phone pouch which I ended up buying even though my iPhone is waterproof, because its just easier to wear your phone as a necklace with all of the activities going on. 

Our boat tour, helicopter tour, and Scape Park tour all had drivers who picked us up at the Aquamarine hotel, which was super convenient and very safe. The resort itself also had a whole mini village that we toured but was mostly all closed because of COVID, and it even had a ropes course and mini golf, but again, COVID ruined these. Although it was our honeymoon, we ended up doing a lot on this trip and loved it. 

Overall thoughts on Luxury Ambar

Our room, the swim-up pool, and the beach were our favorite parts of this hotel. The late-night noise and long waits at restaurants kinda ruined the experience for us. We definitely would do the Bebe boat tour and Scape Park again, but I can't say we'd stay there again. It wasn't so bad that we would recommend against staying or that we wouldn't ever stay there again, but it also wasn't so great that it would prevent us from wanting to try another resort. 

Travel Guide | Panama Jack Resort in Cancun, Mexico

For Christmas 2019, Ryan's dad gave us Southwest gift cards + a little cash for a quick getaway. We booked to go to Cancun for Cinco de Mayo 2020, and as we all know now that definitely didn't happen. We were able to reschedule our trip for NYE 2020 and had a great trip! 

Why we chose Panama Jack

We did a lot of research on Cancun hotels before booking. We had only ever been to Cancun once before on a work trip for Ryan, so we didn't know a whole lot about resorts. Our focus was to find an all-inclusive resort that wasn't crazy expensive. We finally found the Panama Jack resort and liked that it was a familiar name and the hotel looked so cute. 

Because of covid, we had to re-book our room and originally booked it for labor-day weekend, then our flight was cancelled and we couldn't find another reasonable flight, so we had to re-re-book our stay for NYE. I was very concerned about losing money over this dealing with a non-American hotel, but the staff was great! In fact, I later learned that Ryan was actually planning to propose to me on our original Cinco trip, and had been working with the staff to set something special up, and he said they were very helpful. 

A pro tip I learned when I studied abroad is that most hotels will actually allow you to arrive to the hotel prior to the check-in time. Your room won't be ready yet as the last occupants are either still there or they just left and the room hasn't been cleaned yet, but the front desk will likely store your luggage until your room is ready. They likely will still give you your wrist bands when you get there and allow you to start enjoying the hotel while you wait for your room to be ready. 

Panama Jack review

I really loved the Panama Jack hotel. It's on the smaller side so there was only one building and you didn't have to worry about getting lost at a massive hotel. Because it is smaller, we were able to visit almost every part of the hotel. Overall, it definitely feels family friendly because there's a huge pirate ship-themed kids pool that is on the opposite side of the hotel from the main pool. There is only one pool (besides the kids pool) but it had great views and there was always some activity planned. 

Because of the pandemic, we were able to upgrade to a bigger room for a fairly cheap price. The only downside was that although we got upgraded to an "ocean-front" room, our room was on the first floor so really it was a pool-view room on the "ocean front" side of the hotel. I definitely recommend you reach out to someone and make sure you get an ocean-front room. The other rooms face the busy road that connects to the hotel and the kids pool, so the view isn't nearly as good. 

We thought the staff here was great and we loved our room. Although this was an affordable hotel, it didn't feel cheap to us. 

The rooms at Panama Jack

Like I mentioned, we upgraded our room to a Junior Suite Ocean View upon arrival. Arrival is a little hard because it is in this big open-air lobby where it is hard to hear someone with all the noise echoing through. We got a junior suite which had a large bathroom, bedroom, living room, and balcony. Because we were on the first floor right by the pool so we didn't use our balcony for much besides drying swimsuits. They did have swim-up suites near the beach that looked nice. The couch in the little living area pulled out into a bed and was so comfortable we took several naps on it. 

Upon arrival, they had given us a little plate of chips and salsa to enjoy. The room also had a stocked fridge with beer and Lays chips. They restocked that beer all the time so we always had something to pre-game with. 

Eating at Panama Jack

We came at NYE, so eating was a little different than normal. On the actual NYE, we had to make reservations for the only available restaurant. This just so happened to be their buffet, Ventanas, so we were all dressed up and shipping champagne that we splurged for while getting up every 15 minutes for another round of food. That's on us for not thinking ahead about how popular all the food places would be on a major holiday. So, if you're traveling anywhere on a holiday, always ask ahead of time about reservation options.

We ended eating at Ventanas almost every day for lunch during our trip. It was a good buffet, but it had limited options as this is a smaller hotel. But, the views were beautiful and the staff was great of course so we really liked it.

We also ate at the little breakfast buffet by the pool We really liked the options they had here. You can sit outside and have breakfast facing the ocean. They weren't open all day, but we liked it enough to have breakfast here multiple days. We did order room service one morning, but it seemed to have even less options than the breakfast buffet. After comparing the two, we decided the more options were worth the effort to leave the room and head over by the pool for breakfast. We're early risers, so we did learn that there's no mimosas before 10am.

Because this was a short trip, and because a lot was closed due to covid, the only other place we were able to try was Viaggio. This was our biggest disappointment of the trip. We went down there and was told there was a one hour wait. So, we hung out at the lobby bar for about an hour and then went back. Then we checked in with the hostess again and had to wait almost 30 minutes for a table. While we were at our table, I had to go to the bathroom. Since our room was on the first floor not far from the restaurant, I told Ryan what I wanted and walked to our room to use the bathroom. By the time I got back, they had only taken our drink order. Later, we got our drinks. Later, we were able to order. Later, we got our appetizer. At this point, it had been 2 hours since we were originally hungry and an hour since we were supposed to be seated. Then, our food came. By this time I was ready to leave so we got up and left before our dessert was served. I was really annoyed at how slow this restaurant was and if we ever went back, I probably wouldn't eat here unless I wasn't really that hungry. The food was fine, but by the time we ate I was not in a good mood.

On a more positive note, we loved the food cart by the main pool. Every day they had something different, and we loved the burgers, hot dogs, and tacos we got from here. It's great because it's a short walk from the beach so it's perfect for mid-day drunchies.

What to do at Panama Jack

We met another couple on our trip who took a day trip snorkeling out in the gulf. Because we were only here for a short time, and because 2020 was such an exhausting year, we chose to do nothing. We loved it. We would wake up early every day because we're early risers, set out towels and a beach bag of sunscreen on 2 lounge chairs, would take a mile walk down the beach, have breakfast at the buffet near the pool, then lounge/drink until the afternoon. 

The beach itself wasn't rocky, but in the ocean there were some very big rocks and some no-swim areas. The waves were pretty strong, but we had a lot of fun jumping into them and being blasted around. The current was also pretty strong, so we always were moved down the coast. If you have kids, definitely stay out in the water with them. But, the ocean was beautiful here and we really saw no seaweed or murky waters.

Our biggest regret of the trip was that we didn't get a cabana. I think they were about $50 and you got a cabana and a bottle of champagne. At first we thought this was dumb because it's an all-inclusive resort so the alcohol is free anyways and the beach chairs are free too. But after day 1 we decided it was worth the $50 but by then they were all sold out. We ran into another couple we met who reserved a cabana, and the FOMO got worse. Not only do you not have to worry about reserving a lounger on the beach, but you actually get a little outdoor daybed to spread out on, a cooler of the champagne plus a whole bunch of beer, and the staff visits more frequently. It just is a lot of convenience for not a lot of money, and if we ever visit here again, we'll definitely get a cabana ahead of time.

Overall thoughts on Panama Jack

We really loved this resort. The staff were always great, we loved our room, and we felt so relaxed during our stay. I feel that the problems we had at Viaggio was mostly due to the covid problem of being understaffed during a surge of guests during a holiday. I personally really liked that it was smaller and it felt more manageable. I would recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to enjoy Cancun without being overwhelmed, especially if you're traveling with children. I think it's safe to say that we'll be back.

Travel Guide | The Grand at Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico

We went to Cancun through Ryan's work in December 2018. His entire company rented out a huge chunk of the resort, allowing us to reserve entire pools and even have a Macklemore concert on the beach. Obviously this means our experience at Moon Palace was a little different than most guests, but I still wanted to share a little about it.

The Grand at Moon Palace review

Moon Palace is a "fortress" in Ryan's words. It really is a huge resort with several different hotels. It's so big that realistically the only way to get around is on golf carts. It's all inclusive and we loved receiving a Corona as we were checking in. There's several different restaurants and even a little bakery and shopping stores. It has multiple pools and direct beach access with hammocks and lounge chairs. While we were there, I never noticed any merchants bothering beachgoers. We went right before Christmas and we did see big bulldozers clearing off buckets of seaweed every morning, so just be prepared to see those occasionally. 

A pro tip I learned when I studied abroad... most hotels only require you to be out of your room by check-out time, and will allow you to enjoy the amenities until you leave! Our flight wasn't until 8pm, so even though we were out of our room by the 11am check-out, the front desk stored our luggage for us and we were allowed to eat and drink for free until we had to leave for the airport. 

The rooms at The Grand at Moon Palace

We loved our room at The Grand! We stayed in a Grand Deluxe Garden View room which had a bathroom with windows that opened to the room, a full step-down living room area which had a two-person jacuzzi tub, and a huge balcony with lounge chairs. This truly was a 5-star room. The room was stocked with CHI bubble bath, body wash, lotion, and blow dryer. Each day we were given a new bottle of red wine to go with our bubble baths and I loved it. Our room also had a diffuser in the room which the staff would turn on when they were done servicing our room, so when we returned to our room in the afternoon it had a lovely vanilla smell. I know vanilla is one of the most common scents, but every time I smell it now, I think of our stay at The Grand.

Eating at The Grand at Moon Palace

What I really liked about The Grand was how easy it was to eat compared to other all-inclusive resorts we've stayed at. Almost every morning, we would set up room service on the balcony. Their room service had a great selection and the food was always great. For lunch, we typically would eat near the pool or go over to The Grand Buffet. The buffet was obviously a pretty popular place, so be warned that it can be about a 30-minute wait to get a table at peak time. But, they had a huge buffet with lots of options so the wait is definitely worth it. The best place we ate at was Tavola which had amazing Italian food and wine. We actually came back to have this as our last meal because we liked the food here so much.

What to do at The Grand at Moon Palace

Our room actually was right near the water park, and we loved going here on our last day. There's a huge slide that my little 5'2" self technically was too small to go on according to the "you must be this tall to ride this ride" sign. I went anyways and rode down with Ryan, and I definitely flew out of the tube a little and kinda agree that maybe I was too short for it. But, it was a lot of fun! We spent most of our time racing down the slides, and would relax in the lazy river when the slides wore us out. They even had a little thing in the bathroom that could quickly dry your swimsuits. 

Obviously with a water park, The Grand allows children at the resort and is very family friendly. There is a huge (think Vegas-size) adults-only pool at the center of the hotel that has cabanas and swinging chairs everywhere. Ryan's company rented out the entire pool for a welcome pool party the first night and we had so much fun! We also spent a lot of time throughout our stay at one of the smaller pools that is very close to the beach. It's great because you can relax in the water with a beautiful view without having to worry about big waves knocking you over and still being close to the bar so you always have a drink in your hand.

One of Ryan's favorite parts of the lobby was that it had this amazing arcade room with this huge screen on the floor where you could play interactive games by walking on it. 

As for the beach, it was absolutely beautiful. The water was a little murky when we went in December, but it was still the perfect temperature to splash around in and the beaches were so soft and there were no rocks at all. We never had a problem finding a lounger to sit on. And because the resort has multiple hotels on it, you can walk for a long stretch on the beach and still be at Moon Palace, which we loved because we love long sunrise walks on the beach, but for safety reasons we don't like leaving our resorts if we can help it.

Overall thoughts on The Grand at Moon Palace

Ryan and I have a goal to stay here again. The food, THE ROOM, the pools, the beach, everything was absolutely perfect. The only reason why we haven't returned is because all that quality comes at a price. The cheapest room is still several hundred dollars a night, and Ryan is no longer with that company, so right now that's just too much for us to spend. But, if you have the budget for it then I absolutely recommend this resort! You will definitely receive your money's worth.