Dominican Republic

After all my hard work in graduate school we decided to go on a relaxing vacation...to the Dominican Republic. I did a lot of research to determine where I wanted to go back in Jan. The hotel I chose (Dreams La Romana) had a facebook page where people who work there and have visited there post comments and pictures as well as people who are going ask questions. I watched this page every day for 3 months. I was super excited that we were going to have the most amazing time.....
So on mother's day morning we woke up at 2:45am and headed to the airport. The day was off to a great start. We got front row parking at the airport, caught the bus and the shuttle right away, and were told that we could check up to 3 bags for free (I was planning on them being $25 a bag according to American Airlines website). We arrived in Miami a couple hours later, ate, and were on our way to the Dominican. We couldn't land right away b/c it was raining so hard (but according to people who've been there the showers are short and refreshing so I wasn't worried) After a nice 20 minute drive from the airport we were at our hotel. We checked into our room and headed to check things out. Everything looked wonderful, awesome pools, great beach, palm trees...that was pretty much day one...
Day two we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the pool. After 5 minutes in the pool it started pouring. Based on what I had heard these showers were short and most people acted like they werent even occurring (as most people just swam as normal) after a good twenty minutes i figured I better grab our stuff b/c i doubt the towels were keeping things dry. shortly after dave and james followed. we headed to the room b/c it looked as if the rain was going to be happening for awhile. As i opened our door I saw that our room was flooded. there was water running down one whole wall. (thank goodness we didnt have anything on the floor) after an hour of phone calls and waiting we were upgraded to the preferred club (not sure why anyone would want to pay that much extra for it...wasn't that special other than some discounts, private pool, and internet use) By the end of monday night I was feeling pretty frustrated that it had rained all day and things were not going well. (oh i forgot...the whole shower fixture fell on james in the shower in our "upgraded room" that night too)...after dinner I started to relax a little and hoped that tomorrow would be better...
day 3 was SUNNY. we spent the day in the pool and the ocean. We snorkeled, swam, had our pictures taken with parrots. I was feeling much better until we went to get cleaned up for dinner and was told the hot water was broken (which we didnt get back til the morning we left!!!!)
Day 4 we went on an excursion to Saona Island which is an island with no electricity or plumbing and extremely beautiful. on the way back we went to the "natural swimming pool" in the carribean and saw lots of star fish. by the end of this day we were so fried from two days of straight sun. no amount of sunscreen helped. We were toast.
Day 5 we spent doing other things around the hotel. James had had enough swim time and there was no way dave's skin could handle another ounce of sun.
Overall we had a lot of fun and some wonderful memories....the hotel itself left a lot to be desired (and the food was really bad...way worse then mexico). We were happy to be back home with American food, hot water, and our doggies. the vacation was fun and relaxing...not sure if we'll return ever to the dominican...I think next time we visit an island it will be a cruise. I've discovered while an island is beyond beautiful, Im actually very content at a cottage on a lake in michigan