Punta Cana Vacation 2024

Listen to George and Lisa as they talk about their recent trip to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.  They talk about all the wonderful changes that they have done to the resort.  Learn what they loved about the resort and how you can benefit from their experiences.  So sit back and enjoy the ride.

Transcript

Lisa RichartHernandez  0:00  
Hi, welcome back to RView. We've got a great show for you today, we're going to tell you all about our latest trip to the all inclusive hard rock resort and casino in Punta Cana Dominican Republic. So stay tuned.

Outro  0:13  
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week, listen as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. George and Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A Tiffin motorcoach and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  0:43  
Hi, welcome back to RView. I'm Lisa RichartHernandez.

George  0:46  
And I'm George Hernandez.

Lisa RichartHernandez  0:48  
And we have a great show for you today we're going to tell you all about our latest trip to the Dominican Republic, the Hard Rock resort and casino all inclusive. And we've been members there now for probably about five or six years. But this time we went with some a group of friends, which was a great time. And there's been a ton of renovations since we were there last. So we'll tell you all about it. Yeah, we

George  1:13  
thought we'd fill you in on all the new stuff and how our trip went. So let's get started.

Lisa RichartHernandez  1:20  
Well, first off, let me just say that we had legendary status for this trip. Hard Rock does like a VIP status, a legendary status and then like Hall of Fame Hall of Fame, we were a Hall of Fame. Okay. So there's different kinds of status that you get when you go there. If you are a member, which we are we bought into the membership, I guess, probably about five or six years ago now. We were there loved it so much they did the time. You know, it's kind of like a timeshare show where they you know, get you to come and sit down and talk to them. Basically, you're prepaying for your vacation. That's not a timeshare. Because you can't like really, I guess you don't own in one place. We can use it at any one of the all inclusive hard rock arrays, right.

George  2:08  
And the good thing about not being in a timeshare is that we're not limited to the one week that you buy, we can go anytime we want. We have I think 52 weeks that we basically pre purchased. And as the guy told us, we could go 52 weeks straight and be done with it. Or we can spread the 52 weeks over 20 years. I don't even know there if there is ending time. But it's also transferable to our kids. So we kind of liked that aspect of it. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  2:39  
because we were traveling if you're VIP or over, whatever your status is, if you're just a regular traveler, you'll get a normal shuttle bus from the airport, they have that you're kind of with everybody. And when you're with everybody, the bus basically stops at all the resorts on the way so it takes you a little bit longer to get to your destination then would you travel VIP or Hall of Fame like we were you'll get a private transfer from the airport to the resort which is included in your booking be correct. And so of course when you arrive at the resort, they have a welcome reception. The receptionist is right there there's a bar ready to serve you craft cocktails and they make the check in process very easy and you're there for vacation and they really make you feel instantly like you're on vacation

George  3:33  
yep but that there is also a difference there if you come in as a regular guest there is your typical check in counter and you go and stand in line and you go check in with VIP and up there is a separate check in area which is for those designated guests and it's really quick and the last time we went there I don't know what what changed but the last time we went we went on their hall of fame status and they checked us in in our room remember our well that was in Cabo so I don't know if that was in Cabo. Yeah. Okay, scratch that. Well, the check in process was smooth as cake really quick. They give you a wristbands they want you to start partying and and that's when you get to meet your concierge which is we'll get into that but that is one of the best features of bumping up to the VIP our Hall of Fame status. Now,

Lisa RichartHernandez  4:26  
I don't know if you get a butler you don't with the VIP VIP Hall of Fame. Yeah. So I think the last time we went was our first time going at that status where we had the butler and it was so nice because especially traveling this time. Okay, so we went with what for for their couples. It was a loving there was 11 of us in total and he would go every morning and we would tell him what pool we wanted to go to that day. And he would put our names reserved On lounge chairs by whichever one of the 15 pools that we wanted to go to that day, and then he would send us a message in our WhatsApp, which just a little side tip, if you are going to travel there, you definitely want to download the WhatsApp before you go so that you can communicate via Wi Fi and not have to use your international minutes or whatever. It's great for communicating with your group. And all of the butler's and concierge will communicate with you through WhatsApp. I

George  5:27  
think it's a big thing anywhere in the Caribbean, because in Bimini it was WhatsApp. Yeah. And when we were at the BVIs, there was WhatsApp also. Yeah, yeah. So definitely downloaded on your on your phone cost nothing. Yep,

Lisa RichartHernandez  5:42  
exactly. And start a little group with your friends if you're traveling with friends or family. So he would text us every morning, he would give us the schedules for all of the restaurants. Really nice thing because we were traveling with 11 people, he went ahead and took the liberty of basically reserving us a reservation every night at a different restaurant. And that was so nice and convenient if it's easier to cancel something than it is to get the reservation at the last minute. So he had us booked for some things. And then we did a few different a couple nights we couldn't make the dinners that were scheduled because of one time we had a harbor cruise and the other time we did a different dinner and he rearranged everything for us and and just not having to deal with that when you're on vacation was yeah, not

George  6:31  
having to be the one that has to herd the cats was priceless. I mean, he took care of everything, anything we needed. If there was something wrong in the room, or we needed something in the room. It's just so nice to make that shoot him a text and you know, it's taken care of. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  6:47  
so it was great. Also traveling with our friends who had never been there before. And for us, we hadn't been there since 2020. And when we were there in 2020, it was under renovation. So they have redone all of the rooms, many of the restaurants, the whole place kind of got a facelift. During COVID When they were shut down. They were I think we only were allowed to have like a maximum 60% occupancy during that time. So they really took advantage of that opportunity to just renovate. And so we had a big beautiful room are the normal suite. They used to have like a hot tub in the room. Now they've moved the soaking tub out to the balcony. I don't know there's pros and cons to that to me. Georgia likes it. I think it's weird because you have to wear your bathing suit out there. But yeah, so anyways, there's that, but I didn't really use our, our soaking tub on the balcony. But in

George  7:49  
all reality, I think when we walked in all the times that we walked around, I maybe saw one person in a tub. Yeah. It's, it's, it's a cool feature, but not like it's gonna be used tremendously. It's just a cool thing to

Lisa RichartHernandez  8:03  
have. Yeah, so the rooms are very nice, big, huge, you know, walk in shower, or private toilet area and the bathroom. dual vanity is lots of storage, we have our own, you have your own inroom frigerator that's fully stocked. You just tell the bar service or whatever, what you want in your room. And they will have it there for you. So for example, I order a bottle of Grey Goose that was delivered to the room and then any mixers or anything that you want. They'll replenish that I drink a lot of water. There's plenty of bottles of water in the frigerator and stuff. So really nice little thing. There was a bottle of champagne waiting for us when we got there and some little cookies. So the bottles of

George  8:47  
did you say that the bottle of vodka that you ordered was included in the room? Right? Yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez  8:51  
Okay. Yeah, yeah. So there's no fee for that because it's all inclusive. So they used to do the mini bottle, the poor oars in the rooms, and then they had some, you know, there were some incidents where people were getting sick or whatever. And they thought that it was possibly from the in room liquor. So they changed that up. So now we

George  9:15  
Yeah, which makes a lot more sense to us. Give me a fresh bottle that I can pop open. And I know it hasn't been opened before. Nobody's touched it. Yeah. And ours was, well, I guess I however you look at it half empty or half full when we left. And I told the concierge if he wanted to take it, take it, you know, we're gonna give it to him. And he said, No, we can't do that. I'll let my supervisor know. And I said what do you guys do with it? And he goes, honestly, we pour it out because we just, it's our policy can't

Lisa RichartHernandez  9:45  
have the liability. Yeah. And I'm like, pour it out. At a time I didn't feel like trying to pack the fact the vodka to take it home. But anyways, that was a nice feature. Yes. And if you're a wine drinker They wouldn't there. You kind of had to get the wine from the restaurant. If you wanted a bottle of wine. There was a wine. Like if there's a wine tasting room there that wine

George  10:09  
bar with that was new uncork? Yeah, but it's,

Lisa RichartHernandez  10:13  
it's not included, you have to pay for your wine in there. Yeah, there

George  10:17  
are certain things that are not included in the all inclusive, which is kind of weird. Well,

Lisa RichartHernandez  10:23  
they added some other like optional things for you to do that you have to pay like a nominal fee for. And I think the reason that they do that is because the resort is so big. If it was for free, then everybody would be waiting forever. If people are willing to pay, you know, 1015 bucks or whatever to do bowling, then you can do that. There was also like, 3d arcades for the kids. Yeah, the Children's Center. We didn't obviously use this time our kids are all grown. But it looked really nice. And that is also included. Nick. Keep your kids busy and kids club.

George  10:58  
Yeah, they'll take their kids away from you for as long as you want. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  11:02  
well, I don't know about how all that works. But we'd really don't have too much details on them that but it looks like it was it was really nice and and we'll go well organized. Yeah. And so that's another additional thing that they've added is a full on waterpark, not just the KidZone of the lazy river and the splash pads and stuff but a full on waterpark with big water slides and stuff like that, which we didn't get a chance to go visit while we were there. But as a family I think that would be like a great activity and selling point to be right there to have the waterpark. I'm sure. Our kids when we were when they were younger would have absolutely

George  11:37  
we would we would have never seen him. Yeah. And that resort is really really family friendly. There are a lot of kids so if you're single looking to get away from kids that there you can get away from them. The resort is big enough, but there's definitely a lot of kids at the resort and especially depending on what time of the year you go if kids are off from school there's it's just it because it is a family friendly place. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  12:05  
and and I like for example, we hung out a lot at the main pool, which is where they have like the the DJ music and a lot of like activities like I don't know, they had Summer Olympics things swimming in the pool, just different contests.

George  12:20  
foam party,

Lisa RichartHernandez  12:21  
the foam party is definitely one you don't want to miss, check out your calendar, like before you go and make sure, try not to plan your excursions on that day. I think the foam party in the pools is a fun activity. They've you know, really pumped the music up and get everybody involved and it's really fun. But the kids, generally speaking are the kids the pool that is more targeted towards the children? I wouldn't say like there's 15 pools there. So when we say oh, yeah, it's family friendly. And there's a lot of stuff for kids. It's not like don't think, Oh, well, I don't want to go there because we're an adult couple. And we wouldn't we just don't want to be run over with kids. Because there's adult pool only wear that there's no children allowed there. And there's like some other quieter pools that really don't tend to have very many children at all in them. Right

George  13:08  
with like Lisa said, with 15 pools, you can find a pool that will have no kids for sure at the adult pool, and some that will have minimal kids.

Lisa RichartHernandez  13:18  
Yeah. So another thing that the new hard rock, upgraded a new addition that they made that I thought was pretty cool, is in addition to the restaurant offerings that they have, when you're out by the pool area, they added all these food trucks. And you could go to different food trucks like oh my God, the one in the legendary pool had like that chicken sandwich was amazing and had like fried chicken sandwich with oh my god, that was horrible. What was so good about it was so good, that they had all kinds of stuff a really, really good grilled salmon salad. So a lot of different offerings. Other one had, like hamburgers and hot dogs. There was one that had a big thing of like pie a and they were grilling chicken and octopus and all kinds of stuff on the fire grill that you can eat,

George  14:08  
I will say on this trip. And I think you'll agree with me. The food was way better than on any other trip that we've gone.

Lisa RichartHernandez  14:18  
Yeah, it was definitely much better. Like they definitely have stepped it up a notch. I would say since the last couple times we were there. I don't think it's just because we were legendary status.

George  14:29  
Because we they're all the same restaurants.

Lisa RichartHernandez  14:31  
It will there's certain restaurants that you can't go to with that. But like even when we went to the steakhouse, which is included for everyone, our steaks were really really good. Very well prepared. Like the sides were good. The atmosphere or the martinis were great. Like, everything was very good. I think while we're talking about food, I just have to talk about this is one of those things that you have to pay extra for. Okay.

George  14:55  
Just mention it. And then let's tease them because that that it, we just have to have a good, full conversation about that near the end. Because that's how good that was.

Lisa RichartHernandez  15:07  
Well, okay, what was the name of it?

George  15:10  
The all immerse yourself,

Lisa RichartHernandez  15:13  
immerse yourself dinner,

George  15:14  
oh my god, you'll,

Lisa RichartHernandez  15:17  
you'll see it on the website and look at the pictures. So $150 a person. And so some of the people in our group are a little hesitant, you know, like, do I really want to spend $150 on this meal. And just as an aside, so a couple quick tips. If you will listen to their sales spiel, which takes about an hour, one day that you're there. And I would do it one of the very first like the very first day. So if you listen to their sales spiel, they will give you free things. So we got our catamaran booze cruise for free. And we got our immersion dinner for $65 a person, which is an absolute steal. And then they gave each person 1000 resort credits that you could use in the spa, or anywhere else that you wanted. So I highly recommend, even if you're not interested in becoming a member, just get the opportunity to listen to the, to the to the sales spiel about joining and becoming a member, they'll show you all the cool like sweets and stuff that are available and what you can upgrade to. And then also know if you are interested in becoming a member, wait till you get to the fifth sales guy because he has. He's got the deal. He's got the deals. And they always crack up when I'm in there was like, listen, just cut to the chase, give me the fifth guy first. So we can move on today. And they'll laugh at you and the second guy will come they bought that boss's boss will calm and then that boss's boss, welcome. So, so

George  16:50  
if you're, if you're gonna sit in there, at least get something out of it. And they'll give you something for Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  16:57  
they'll definitely give Tom what excursions you want. When we went with the kids last time, we got our ATV excursion, which was almost $300 A person. And there were six of us, we got that for free. So make it worth your time. Do that right when you get there. So you can take advantage of the credits that they're gonna give you and use them while you're there. It was well worth it. I mean, you eat breakfast, they serve you cocktails while you're there. I mean, you just have to remember to say no, if you're not interested in buying, and honestly,

George  17:23  
even all our friends that went with us, our friends that went with us, we gave them the heads up and they were like, Yeah, we're not gonna get anything, we're not gonna get anything. And two of the four couples ended up buying fine because they were like, wow, we could we kind of they bought one week, they bought

Lisa RichartHernandez  17:38  
one week for $2,400. And any one of the hardrock resorts anywhere in the world, like any one of the all inclusive, right. And $2,400 for a couple for any one of those resorts like that's almost that's almost 40 50% It's like half price. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, and then they had two years to use their week. So just just definitely worth taking a listen to I guess.

George  18:02  
And I was completely off with the name. Let's awaken your senses.

Lisa RichartHernandez  18:07  
awaken your senses. Yeah. That was the name of it. Yeah, that

George  18:11  
that was even if we would have paid full price that would have been worth Oh, 100%. So incredible. Yeah, so that was one of the new restaurants. And we'll come back to that. We're gonna tease you on that one.

Lisa RichartHernandez  18:23  
The, the, the Zen restaurant was the hibachi we did that which was, which was very good. Not as good as my home cooked. hibachi bow away. It was good. We did the steakhouse. Like I said, already was good. I missed the night when we went to Italian Chow. It was

George  18:39  
very good. All the food was really good. And but one of the new places that they opened since the last time we went there was also the market, which is kind of their version of a buffet buffet. But it was really, really good. I was surprised. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  18:53  
we went there for breakfast a couple of times, they need to order omelets and eggs and whatever you wanted. And I mean, there was something for everyone. There was healthy options, and there was unhealthy options and just that there should be something for every person's taste at that, at that place

George  19:08  
and touching on the healthy option. I have to give them kudos. We had one person that was highly allergic to mushrooms and another one that was gluten free. And every restaurant accommodated them. 100% 100% It was like not even a blink of an eye. They were like we got you even at the awaken your senses. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  19:29  
we were nervous and they were nervous because you know, they didn't want to, or they didn't know if it was going to be worth paying for an all inclusive dinner. Like if you're gluten intolerant or gluten free or whatever. They did such a great job. They would bring out the meal and they would say we've replaced this with such and such and explained to each person who had their allergies or whatever. You know how they accommodated them to make sure that they were certain that it was prepared properly for them.

George  19:56  
Yeah, and koi who was the gluten guy Every meal that came out him and I would talk and he's like, I don't feel like I'm missing out because I'm, I've got everything you have except that little piece that has gluten in it, whether whether it's the bread or the pasta or whatever, and

Lisa RichartHernandez  20:11  
they even have like, really like the first restaurant that we went to actually, while we were waiting for our rooms, we went to the Mediterranean restaurant, which is also really good. They said, you know, sorry, you can't have this as gluten, he said, but I'm happy to bring you fresh bread, fresh gluten free bread, and they they brought him like this big thing of like gluten free bread. And I was like, dang, that actually looks really good. So

George  20:33  
he said it was good. Yeah, yeah, totally. It's pretty dry and it

Lisa RichartHernandez  20:37  
tastes like styrofoam. But he was very pleased with the gluten free options. So for those of you that are gluten free, that's a good little tidbit of info there.

George  20:46  
Yeah. Another cool thing that they do is usually it's around the weekends. When it's late night and people are coming out of the clubs and coming out of the casino they set up in the main building is massive. So there's this giant hallway that goes from one side of the building to the other and in that hallway, they'll set up food vendors. Oh my God, there's so good. They had the taco guy they had that they have the corn guy this time the street corn. I think they did. The only thing that really was not good was the hot dog.

Lisa RichartHernandez  21:20  
I know. And it's funny because I don't know if it was just that day like the hot dog itself that we got seemed like it was just like overcooked in water or something. But I like all the toppings and everything to go with. It was really good. It was just weird. So zero taste possibly was just a fluke that we just got a bad hot dog that day. That was at no flavor. It was a weird, weird, overcooked watery hot dog. But other than that, hey, but that's the only complaint we got so far. Yeah, that was literally probably the lower just like two bytes of and I was like yeah, late something else. Go get tacos. You know, the good thing about all inclusive is if you don't like it, then just set it down and move on to something else. Which when we came there the first night we got there. We came in on a Tuesday to Tuesdays at what we did and the first Tuesday night we did a it was members party. And it was a gigantic buffet. They had lobsters. They had shrimp they had roast beef prime rib, chicken chicken they had it it was called for all kinds of stuff big outdoor thing with music and dancing under the light then that was that was a nice

George  22:30  
kickoff to our trip

Lisa RichartHernandez  22:31  
yeah kickoff to our our trip. The lobsters they grilled and cut like in half. I think I ate three of them because you only got like half of a tail or

George  22:41  
the spiny lobster. They're not the Maine lobster. So they're little bit smaller. But they're still delicious. And yeah, you probably put down three of them.

Lisa RichartHernandez  22:50  
Yeah, yeah. So that that was that was the first night and we enjoyed that. And again, you have to remember to I think take that but it was interesting because there were so many people there and to see how many people are actually members and how

George  23:05  
many aren't. And I finally i this trip I kind of like looked at people's wristbands to see how many because members are silver and up any any other color red, blue, yellow, green, or just basically vacation people. Oh, yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  23:24  
I thought Red was VIP but no. Silver, they're all different. They're all different color responses. The point can't lose that wristband. It's it's it gets you in your door to your to your room and charge

George  23:37  
things that even go to the spa and go to the well not you can't use it at the casino. No, but

Lisa RichartHernandez  23:42  
But you you can get a player's card with it. Oh

George  23:44  
yeah, they'll tell you no, but if you just say, yeah, you can they'll

Lisa RichartHernandez  23:48  
do it. Yeah, you definitely want to get a player's card when you go to the casino bring your driver's license, I'll give you a card and that way you get points and credits and they'll want you to come back and spend your money there. I'm

George  23:58  
actually I have a very nice casino considering I mean it's it's Vegas style they've got a really nice big bar in the middle of Friday and

Lisa RichartHernandez  24:06  
Saturday nights is a nightclub in there oh no, they don't open until 11 o'clock at night which was a challenge for me to get to because all of us you know when you're at the pool all day long having cocktails and hanging out you're just be after that you go to dinner and like I I couldn't do both I was too tired

George  24:25  
we actually made it one night for about what 10 minutes yeah

Lisa RichartHernandez  24:29  
over maybe like a drink or two. I think it would have been really fun if I had the energy to stay out.

George  24:34  
Yeah, but I will say we weren't the first ones to leave. There was other people that were did the same thing. They just went in to see it and laugh tired. Yeah, one thing I will say about the casino the casino is run separately from the resort so drinks are not included in the casino you have to pay for your drinks. Unless

Lisa RichartHernandez  24:53  
you're playing well, but you can't get upgraded drinks that's like the basic like a president a beer right?

George  24:59  
Not a Coors Light kind of thing. Right? Anything else you

Lisa RichartHernandez  25:02  
got to pay for? Yeah. So like, well drinks and beer was included in that.

George  25:07  
So if you go to a casino, just make sure you win. One

Lisa RichartHernandez  25:09  
thing you don't want to miss is the spa. And it's probably one of my favorite spas I've ever been to, to be honest. I've been to a lot of different spas. I went to the Grove Park Inn in North Carolina where I wanted to go for ever. And while I didn't get a treatment there because they were all booked. I did pay to go use the amenities which was $250 for just the day. And I would say that the spa in Punta Cana at the Hard Rock is twice as good as that.

George  25:47  
We've gone to so many spas, and I totally agree with you. We've been to spas in Vegas, we've been to spas all over Dallas, everywhere. Yeah. So one of our things. So

Lisa RichartHernandez  25:56  
when you go to the spa, and do just the hydrotherapy, or whatever they call it, there's like a lady that kind of like takes you through. So you go into the steam room, then you go into the dry sauna. And you get a bucket of ice cold mineral water poured over you from this one shower, then they take you to, I forget the order of events, but there's like an ice room or you for the ice and it's freezing cold and then you go to like a mudroom mudroom, or they give you this bowl with like, just like mud. Think that mudroom is warm, right? Like yeah, and you it's supposed to like take the toxins out of your body, you don't put it on your face or whatever you just put it like on your body. And it's not like sitting in a mud bath. It's like putting it on your arms and legs in chests or whatever. And you're when you wear your bathing suit the whole time, it's not a new thing, then you rinse off after that, and like some other kind of cold water thing. And then there's like hydrotherapy spas, that's like a foot one, and then another walking one, and then a hot one, and then a cold one. And then you go back out to where you can meet up with your, you know, that's co ed that has like waterfalls and everything in the final room. So it's quite extensive. And just that treatment thing alone, probably is an hour and a half worth of stuff to do. So like if you are going to get a treatment and you get the resort credits. It's included with a treatment. So using the resort credits, like we told you, if you get the like the you could do the tour and they give you 1000 resort credits, for example, and say you get I think an 80 minute massage was $200. So I had to pay $40 cash. So 80% of it was used in resort credits. And then the 20% was paid in cash. And then of course you want to tip your, your therapist or whatever with

George  27:55  
anything you do. It's 20% cash. Yeah. 20% is cash or whatever you do if you play golf $300 It's whatever works out 60 bucks, 60 bucks.

Lisa RichartHernandez  28:07  
See how quickly I calculate the 20% after all those years and food and beverage. But yeah, so the I also went to the I had a pedicure manicure while I was there, she did a great job. And those were all also, you know, on the resort credits, as well. One thing I didn't do was I love to get my hair like blown out and do that. I didn't do that. But I do that a lot of times when I'm on cruises, but there's all kinds of options for that kind of thing.

George  28:33  
So you were talking about you're getting your hair blown out, and cruises cruises typically have a fancy night everybody gets dressed up. Yeah, in this resort. It's really just dress casual. It's some people get dressed up but you don't have to get

Lisa RichartHernandez  28:48  
dressed super dressy. But it's also not like casual casual. Like there is a dress code you should bring like men should bring like golf shirts like a collared shirt. It's no flip flops tank tops or ripped up jeans right? No bathing suits. Yeah, especially at night. Yeah. So you know if you're gonna be in your bathing suit eating you're gonna be eating out one of those outdoor pools or food trucks. They've got a bunch of restaurants out there are like right by the pools in the beach. There's the food trucks are literally right on the beach. There's bars right on the beach. All of those you can go to in your bathing suit, but if when you're in the main restaurants and stuff, women are gonna wear like sun dresses and everybody

George  29:27  
looks sharp, not nothing. What I'm getting at is you don't need a gown. You don't need a tuxedo right? Just wear some decent clothes.

Lisa RichartHernandez  29:36  
I did not use the fitness center while we were there but our friend did that it they have a very nice fitness center. I mean I looked at it I just walked right past it. Listen, I got probably 10,000 steps a day anyways just from walking around the resort because it is HQ massive, massive resort and one of the probably the most calm The negative, I would say that I've seen from the reviews is when people are like, it was just too big. It was just too big. There's literally a 24 hour shuttle that goes around and round. And you just wait a second, it'll pick you up. And if they see you walking down the street, they'll they'll say, Do you want to ride? I wouldn't complain about the size of it. I mean, it was never endurance complaints

George  30:24  
like that. drive me nuts, because there's maps online, there's pictures online, you know? It's like, when somebody goes to an expensive restaurant, they go, Oh, my God, I can't believe how expensive it was. They told you it's like $4. Yeah, one thing I will say, we were talking about the size of the resort. And here's one thing that kind of hard to the room we had was closer to the beach, which was really nice. But every night we went to the main building, because that's where everything was. And it was a hike.

Lisa RichartHernandez  31:01  
Yeah, so I actually, let's just say you're in building five? Well, there's five, there's five A and five V. Right? Correct. And five is the closest to the ocean. And then there's like, five, b, which is second closest to the ocean. And then there's like five A that's closest to the main building? Well, I want to be closest to the main building. I think I like we were supposed to be like and closer so we can, you know, as a realtors view of the ocean from our room. But I feel like I would have rather just been closer to the main building. And then because that night time when you're actually tired and you want to get home, you know, from wherever. Sometimes it seemed like a long walk. It was like a weird catch. 22 is like, do we wait for the shuttle or do we just walk because it was like, like halfway? You know, it was like in the middle? Yeah, kind of halfway. That

George  31:55  
one was tough, because you just couldn't win. During the day. It was great because we were right by the pool. So we just walked out and we were right by the pool.

Lisa RichartHernandez  32:04  
We weren't right by the pool. We were halfway to the pool. Now we were right

George  32:07  
by the main pool. Our view was the main pool from our deck.

Lisa RichartHernandez  32:11  
The building in front of us was literally right next to the pool. So they just had to walk out their door and the pool was right there. We had to walk a little ways to get to ours.

George  32:20  
Okay. You obviously had too much than ever look at the maps. Okay, so talking about drinking. Be careful because it's all inclusive and they are not scared to pour you a drink. Yeah, yeah, it will pour you a drink. And

Lisa RichartHernandez  32:35  
I usually do really well with my, with my calorific caloric intake when I go on these because I try to do a little bit better, and not let myself go crazy. And this time, I really needed the vacation. I've been working really hard. And I just said, You know what, I'm just gonna have a good time and eat what I want. Well, and that was devastating when I had eight extra pounds on me when I weighed myself when I got

Unknown Speaker  33:01  
back after the week. Yeah, that the food

Lisa RichartHernandez  33:04  
bite and all that walking, I still eat and drink a pounds worth of calories.

George  33:11  
Oh, and part of the problem too is they get you with the food drinks.

Lisa RichartHernandez  33:18  
I didn't even drink any of those food drinks.

George  33:21  
Yeah, you did. Not not like not a lot. But you drank enough where? A couple of nights were like, oh my god, we did not need pina colada or whatever.

Lisa RichartHernandez  33:30  
Yeah. But I mean, they're they're really good. So that was fun. Plenty of food and drink. That's for

George  33:38  
sure. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  33:39  
The other restaurants. I think we've touched on almost all the restaurants are as a pizza restaurant. I didn't make there this time. But the pizza is good. It's like a stone. Like a brick oven. Type pizza.

George  33:54  
You have a new ice cream shop. Yeah, it was good.

Lisa RichartHernandez  33:57  
Yeah, ice cream, a coffee shop that has like sandwiches and stuff to go. So you can just like kind of grab and go a ham and cheese sandwich or whatever you want. They had. I'm trying to think of the Mexican restaurant. That was your favorite restaurant of the whole thing. That was really good. Yeah, everyone's really thrilled with a Mexican restaurant.

George  34:17  
That's the one you missed. Yeah, that's the one. I think you might have missed two of them. Yeah. I can't remember the Mexican was really Yeah, cuz we that's when we did Jerry's fake birthday.

Lisa RichartHernandez  34:28  
Oh, yeah. That was fun. All right.

George  34:32  
Now. We got to talk about awaken your senses. Yeah. Okay. So wrap it up with that because there's nothing else we can talk about after that. That's

Lisa RichartHernandez  34:42  
true. We did do an excursion. That was the catamaran booze cruise, which I highly recommend. Those are all always fun. The weather wasn't so great that day that we went out but if it was warmer, it would have been even more fun. But I would say that the awaken your senses was probably one of the coolest experiences. I have had anywhere in a super long time. And we do a lot of

George  35:03  
cool and airy experience, even a visual, everything, everything the whole

Lisa RichartHernandez  35:08  
entire thing was so freakin cool, they did a great job. So let's just start with the table only seats 12 people, there was 11 of us. So they put us all in there. So it was just our party, which is great. If you're just a couple, you're probably going to get with a room of people that you don't know. But totally doesn't matter because it's super freaking cool. To describe the room, it's really just like a square room with white walls and a white table in the middle. And basically they do a projection of, for example, you're in an airplane. And it looks like you're taking off. And you're we traveled to like all these different countries and stuff like that. So

George  35:51  
you start in an airplane, and a map will come up. And I remember it said, Our next stop is Rome, Italy. So you're like cool, and you're sitting inside, it feels like you're sitting inside the airplane. And the table looks like a seat tray. Yeah. And they bring you some little cocktail or something. And then all sudden, you're in Rome, and a whole scenery, all which is projected on the walls and on the table, changes to the Colosseum, the anything in Rome, and then they bring out. So it was like

Lisa RichartHernandez  36:24  
all the food went along with whatever place you were in the food was excellent to like, not just like, okay, it was like super cool, and really

George  36:35  
good. And I have to say I really didn't say anything, but I had really low expectations for the food Saturday because I was like, Okay, this is going to be more visual and high tech than food. I was totally wrong. The food was phenomenal. And they also brought out a drink with every meal that corresponded with wherever you were. So we got a glass of wine when we were in Italy, and we got something else when but so that that's Oh, yeah, that's sorry. It

Lisa RichartHernandez  37:06  
was like a cocktail. Oh, my

George  37:07  
God, we have so many cocktails. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  37:11  
Like I look back at some of the pictures, a little fuzzy towards the end, I think because there was we all were

George  37:16  
there was it's a seven course meal. So the seven cocktails plus they give you one when you get there to get you whatever

Lisa RichartHernandez  37:24  
you wanted. Yeah, like it was whatever you wanted for for drinking. But then they had the ones that went with the, with a theme of whatever it was. And there was so cool. Like the table itself was interactive. So like, for example, when we were at the beach, it was like the water. And you could put your hand on the table and it would make ripples in the water. And you could put your like tap it with your finger and make shells in the sand. Yeah, shells would pop up in the sand. Yeah. And then like in Italy, it was a green table and you press it and grapes popped up, remember? Yeah, I mean, there was all different interactive things. And then I think probably the coolest one was the desert, which was this layout of this world out of this world. And it was like we were in space. And it projected down. I believe that that that the actual desert was just white chocolate.

George  38:24  
No, it wasn't it project. It was no, the desert was a model of Jupiter. I know. But I think that the light, the light shined on it, no, I moved it. And I have a picture. The whole desert is just it's made out of chocolate. But they added colors to it. And they actually put a ring around this ball of chocolate, which was filled with chocolate mousse. Yeah, it was sun. So

Lisa RichartHernandez  38:50  
good. But the like the way the light shined on your bowl, it would look like like a little planet on your bowl. Like it was just,

George  38:59  
we will post a picture you have to see the picture just and honestly, like, doesn't know justice anyway. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  39:07  
it's just they, it's almost like you don't want to ruin the surprise for somebody. Like, I wouldn't want everybody to tell me all that all the like, I'm glad I went in there with really no, like, clear expectations of what to expect, right. But I will definitely say that that was 100% worth it to the point where I was like, Okay, we need to when we go back to Charleston, and we need to find an investor and open up a restaurant that has just this whole entire concept, because you could change the theme for whatever you wanted it to be. And I was like this, like, you could change it up all the time and people will keep coming back. You know, could be for different holidays or whatever you want it to be it was just so cool.

George  39:46  
I imagined, you know, that is a great idea. Imagine you could do an anniversary, and you post pictures of their whole life and

Lisa RichartHernandez  39:54  
yes, I mean there's a million

George  39:57  
people don't steal our idea. Damn it Now, but it was unbelievable. And we all said the same thing. When we left, we got that one for free as we 65 $65, but basically free, because we sat through the spiel. But we all said the same thing. We, I would have been happy paying the full price 100% Every like, if we when we go again, that's guaranteed on the

Lisa RichartHernandez  40:25  
list, I would do it again like I would, I would have do it, I would do it twice. Like that's how much I loved it. Like I would do it the same dinner over again. It's the something different than that. Like it was just so much to take in. And it was so freakin cool.

George  40:38  
I agree with you like yeah, like, if you do it the second time, then you probably soak in more, because you probably miss so much.

Lisa RichartHernandez  40:45  
You're just so shocked the first time of like, everything that's happening that you probably miss some things, you know, like, just so we're

George  40:51  
not going to like Lisa said, we're not going to spoil it for you and tell you every little bit of it. But trust me when we say if you're there, or if you ever see that because it's a chain. And

Lisa RichartHernandez  41:01  
you definitely want to make a reservation with that because it was all booked up. Like we actually the only negative was we had to eat it at like nine o'clock was that we got we got Saturday night. Was it? Yeah. And so like, I don't really care to eat that late, and you'll be stuffed after so much food. But it was all I ate all of my dessert. Like it was just, I was so good. And then I was like, I'm gonna die. I'm so full. But it was delicious and amazing. Like, yeah,

George  41:30  
and like Lisa said, if if you go to visit, the minute you check in, make that reservation, because then you'll get a good time. We tried through our concierge and God bless them. Raphael, he tried everything. But they you know, they're only limited to 1112

Lisa RichartHernandez  41:50  
is 12 people and they do four dinners a night. There's it's not a big there's not a lot. And we couldn't imagine it sells out. And I imagine like when the word gets out that it would like some things that we didn't do. We didn't do the bowling which we have done before in the past with the kids. It's like a mini bowling alley there. We didn't do the escape room. That's like a nominal fee to do that. Which we'll have to try that the next time. They did have a silent disco some nights. One of the things if there's any like and to try to nitpick if I was going to nitpick one thing, there wasn't like just a regular old bar to hang out in like the everything had sort of a theme that was at the bowling bar or like the silent disco bar. Oh, we also didn't talk about the shows the shows were actually pretty good. We went and saw the Michael Jackson show. It's mostly a dancing show. And then there was another show that we missed. But the other people that were in our group were great. It was a rock show. They said it was incredible. So every night they have shows for you to to go to I think they're usually like nine o'clock like after dinner everyone goes to the show.

George  42:55  
So plenty of entertainment. There's plenty to keep you happy. Around the main pool. They constantly have something going on whether it's a dance contest or Harry chess contests. It's it's almost like being on a cruise without being on a cruise. The entertainers are great. They the DJs are great. They

Lisa RichartHernandez  43:16  
had pool aerobics. We did that one day. There's, there's all kinds of stuff to do for

George  43:21  
everybody. Yeah, you're not going to be bored. Or they have the Surfrider thing

Lisa RichartHernandez  43:27  
Oh, flow rider. In the past with the kids, that's always

George  43:30  
a good one, too. My favorite thing to do on the flow rider is grab a cocktail and just sit there and watch people. Yes, it's pretty funny. And then every once in a while, you'll get that one guy that pretends he doesn't know what he's doing. And he just starts shredding it. And it's like, damn, this guy's been playing this game before. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  43:49  
we really didn't spend much time there, this this trip. But again, the resort is so big. We were there for a week. And I always at the end of the week always felt like dang, there was a bunch of stuff I missed that I wanted to do that. We just ran out of time to do. But I was definitely satisfied and had a great time and it was good to get away. And then reality hits you back like a slap in the face going back to work. You worked so hard to go on vacation. And then you will go to work double them when you get back. So sometimes I wonder was it all worth it?

George  44:17  
This one was definitely worth it. And I'll give kudos to the Hard Rock. They've done a great job and keeping the place looking good. bringing in new ideas, new things and just keeping it fresh for repeat customers like us. Yeah, because if it was the same thing over and over, I'd start going somewhere else. Yeah, but we always we always look forward to go in there. So if you get a chance, go check out the hard rock and Punta Cana, the people are great. The resort is beautiful. And the weather is typically fantastic.

Lisa RichartHernandez  44:51  
Yeah, and if you want any more information, you can reach out to us at our view podcast.com. That's our V uw podcast.com and We can also connect you with our travel specialists there. We have one person that does all of that for us. We do have specials 30% off weeks, I think we still have some available. So if you're looking on the internet 30% off the lowest internet price we can give to our friends. As long as you go

George  45:18  
for a week. So, yep, so let us know. Yeah, so like

Lisa RichartHernandez  45:22  
and share this on your social media and tell a friend, we'll have some more shows coming up for you. We're getting ready to do our we're in Alabama now working at Paradise found we're doing great with sales down here. We've sold just about 50 lat so far out of 246 are planning to open that hopefully August or September of this year. And we're heading out to Tucson for the family motorcoach Association show, we'll have a booth there. And that's going to be next month. We're gonna go to Nashville before that, and then we're gonna hit some places on the way I think we're going to Austin for St. Patrick's Day weekend on our way out there. So we'll have lots of good shows coming up for you in the future. And we look forward to seeing you soon.

George  46:09  
And if you're here in the Tucson, if you're at the Tucson show, please come say hi to us and let us know that you listen and we'd love to talk to you. And if you've been to the Hard Rock or if you're planning on going to the Hard Rock, drop us a comment. Let us know what your thoughts are of the place and what you thought after you got back. All right. We'll keep you posted.

Lisa RichartHernandez  46:30  
Thanks, friends. See you next time.

George  46:33  
Bye bye.

Outro  46:36  
Thanks for listening to another episode of RView. Don't forget to drop us a line at RViewpodcast.com That's the letter R view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don't miss out on our next adventure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai