07/04/2025
Day Two: Dominican Republic 🇩🇴
Exploring Joia Bavaro by Iberostar 🌴☀️
I haven’t asked what the occupancy rate is, but I don’t believe the resort is sold out. However, I’m going to guess it’s at 80%?
I woke up early to see the sunrise and grabbed a cabana. (They do not charge extra for any cabanas here.) They have cabanas with loungers, cabanas with beds, loungers without cabanas, and some loungers in the water as well. Lots of variety! I prefer the cabanas with loungers. Those go quick FYI 😅. Then, the beach has the ‘palapas’ with loungers.
I walked down to the beach and let me tell you, Bavaro beach is simply stunning. They have beautiful beaches in this area. 😍 I watched the sunrise and wow, it did not disappoint. I urge everyone to get up once while on vacation and watch the sunrise at a resort! 🌅 It was around 6:15 am here DR time (5:15 am IL time).
I like to get all of my pictures of the beach and pool early morning before people are around, so I took some time to get that done. 📸
I decided to grab some breakfast around 830 and the hubs was still asleep, so I went alone. 🍳☕️
The buffet is smaller here, but offers plenty! You can also use the buffet at the family resorts and they are much larger! They also offer room service (order on the app), and put a paper in your room to hang out at night to have breakfast (or just coffee and pastries) delivered at a certain time in the am as well.
We hung out at the pool all morning and relaxed! Ronnie missed breakfast, so we ate a light lunch around noon. 🥗 They have a buffet by the pool that opens at noon, a snack place that opens at 11, and the main buffet that opens at 1. Plus, the coffee shop opens at 7 am and has pastries and ice cream. 🍦
More exploring of the pool, swim up bar, tequila shot, and reading my kindle. They have an activity pool where they did aqua aerobics and water volleyball. Later in the day, the entertainment team does some activities around the pool. Today, they did Spanish lesson and Bingo. Bingo is pretty entertaining. 😅 You win hats, shirts, etc. Then, ‘crazy games’ but we didn’t stay to see that. Usually fun pool games.
We headed back to room about 3:45 to relax on the terrace for awhile. You get a bottle of red and white wine, as well as a bottle of rum in your room. I had a glass of of red wine, while reading on the terrace, people watching. 🍷
We headed to the lobby for a pre-dinner drink. Ronnie surprised me with a bit of a romantic setup at the Italian dinner. Rose petals on the table, a pre purchase bottled of upgraded cab wine, and a table tucked in a quiet corner. Our anniversary was last month, so we celebrated that. 💕 Dinner: some was pretty tasty and some was eh. I loved the gnocchi! 🤤 I did not like the fried mozzarella or the lasagna too well. Ronnie enjoyed the fried calamari and the lasagna. He didn’t enjoy his steak however. Dessert wasn’t too bad. The ambiance of the restaurant was very nice! The service was great.
They had live music in the lobby - a mixture of rock, pop, and even country music. 🎶
They were supposed to have the main show which was a live music performance down below in the ship, but it was moved to the main theater for some reason. We decided to stay at the lobby bar, finish our wine, and then call it a night. 🌙
Back to our room where they had decorated our bed with rose petals, and petals on the floor that lead to our tub filled with bubbles! Another bottle of wine with chocolate covered strawberries! All arranged by my handsome hubby! 🫶🥰
