Bavaro Princess Resort in Punta Cana = Disappointment

Mmmm vacation…

Earlier last spring, Husband and I began discussing plans to take a vacation either during the summer before he started med school or around the holidays while we would both be on break from school. He and I had been saving basically since we'd been married (approximately three years' worth)  to take a big trip in the future anyway and we'd accumulated a respectable amount by that point. We decided to go through a travel agency in town to get the best suggestions on deals and make our arrangements. This was an easy decision because when we booked our honeymoon on our own, we'd run into major problems thanks to swine flu ravaging Mexico (where all of our cruise's destinations were scheduled) and our itinerary changing from sunny warm weather to the frigid temperatures of Canada without any warning. Husband spent every day after work for two weeks trying to communicate to airlines and Royal Caribbean that (to their surprise somehow?) we did NOT want to go to northern California and British Columbia for our honeymoon despite their offer of $300 onboard credit and that we'd just like our money back since, after all, we bought insurance for everything just in case something crazy like this happened. 

Anyway, we made our plans in June put down our deposit. In the fall, we paid for the rest of the trip and all that we had left to do was wait in anticipation. The generating excitement for our much-needed getaway together truly helped get me through the semester. Each time I was about to break down from stress and the demands of school and life in general while living apart from Husband, I looked at the countdown to our vacation for motivation to keep on going. 

Needless to say, I think I built the trip up in my head as the months of waiting went by. However, I don't think it was completely unrealistic. I dreamt up holding hands on a constant basis with Husband, sipping fruity drinks on the beach, squishing sand between my toes, the warmth of the sun flooding my face, ocean waves crashing in the background everywhere we would go, eating (pre-paid = "free") meals provided for us whenever and wherever we wanted, watching some fun entertainment at night before retiring to our air-conditioned room and sleeping in each day… 

However, in reality, our trip was actually not very glamorous. Husband wrote a very long post here on his blog outlining and detailing everything that went wrong during our stay (which, unfortunately, was a lot). While he reassured me several times during the trip that he would pay all the money I felt we just wasted just to spend time with me, I admit I cried on at least three different occasions, lamenting about what a disappointing and anti-climactic vacation we had both been anticipating for so long. 

Bottom line, though - at least we got to go on a trip at all. I am so grateful to at least have had the finances and the chance to travel with Husband to another country to relax and enjoy what we did during the week. While the overall trip could have gone a lot more smoothly, I will look back on the good memories we did have with fondness (and hopefully / probably laugh about the bad stuff in time). 

Here are a few of my favorite (unedited) photos we took during the week: