Gustavo and I have decided not to reserve a room block at our host hotel. For the convenience of all involved, we truly believe that it will be easier this way. Again, the hotel is:
Be Live Hamaca - All Inclusive
Duarte St No 1
Boca Chica, 2973
Dominican Republic
866-539-0036
All of this information will be listed in the invitations, but if you would like to get a jump on the room reservations we have done the research for you and you have 2 options.
Option #1: Book through the hotel directly.
$176 - Double Garden View Room
$224 - Double Ocean View Room
$350 - Superior Executive Floor
Option #2 Book through Hotels.com or similar.
$212 - Double Garden View Room
$250 - Double Ocean View Room
$308 - Double Superior (not offered on hotel website)
$346 - Double Superior Executive Floor
Things to consider:
For both of these options, the rates are based on a 4 night stay with 2 adults. If you book through the hotel directly - the longer you stay the cheaper the price per night becomes. Whereas, if you book through hotels.com the price is constant. Infants under the age of 4 stay for free, but children ages 4-12 have to pay $40 dollars a night. Extra adults in each room will be charged a fee of $69 on the base price of the room.
As always, dont forget about the American Airlines discount that was mentioned in a previous blog posting.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Gustavo or I.
Besos!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Dominican Republic Newsletter #1
Every few weeks I am going to do a post that includes some questions that I find in books, or that I hear from people that include details about the wedding or about the locations in general. Read, or dont read...it's your perrogative :)
-Why did you chose this destination for your wedding?
I have always dreamed of a casual beach wedding, and well marrying a man that grew up in the Dominican Republic made the choice easy for me. Most of Gustavo's family on his mother's side is from the Santo Domingo area. Santo Domingo is the capital and is about 20 minutes west of Boca Chica, the wedding location. I have to admit that there was some reservation right before we finalized the location. I was struggling with the fact that having our wedding in the DR was going to mean that not everyone that was meaningful to me would be able to attend. I found solace in that fact that I was staying true to what I have always dreamed of and prayed that who was meant to be there would be there - at least I knew Gustavo would be there!
-What will the weather be like?
According to MSN weather, the average temperature for the month of February is a high of 85F and a low of 69F. The average precipitation for that month is also 0.03cm of rain per day. Do you know what that means? Neither do I. But it sounds pretty good...
-What's the time difference?
Well I don't know much about how all this time zone stuff works. But, Dominican Republic is in the GMT (UTC) -4 time zone. Apparently they do not use daylight savings time. So I dont know what that means for February, but right now it's 6PM in Arkansas, 7PM on the east coast, and 7PM in the DR. That's all I got :)
-What's the local language and currency?
Yes, this is copied and pasted.
The Dominican Republic is almost entirely Spanish speaking. Due to long-standing and ongoing immigration from Haiti, Haitian Creole is spoken by several hundred thousand Haitian immigrants and their descendants. There is a community of about 8,000 speakers of Samaná English in the Samaná Peninsula. They are the descendants of formerly enslaved African Americans who arrived in the 19th century.[77] Tourism, American pop culture, the influence of Dominican Americans, and the country's economic ties with the United States motivate other Dominicans to learn English. French is also spoken by a good portion of the population.
The Dominican peso, also called peso oro ("gold peso") is the currency of the Dominican Republic. Its symbol is "$", with "RD$" used when distinction from other pesos (or dollars) is required; its ISO 4217 code is "DOP". Each peso is divided into 100 centavos ("cents"), for which the ¢ symbol is used. It is the only currency which is legal tender for all monetary transactions, whether public or private, in the Dominican Republic. The current exchange rate is 1 USD = 36.85 DOP.
-How many days should we plan to stay?
That is up to you! Gustavo and I are going to be there for about 10 days. We are planning on having wedding activities formally and unformally Thursday- Saturday. Come for the wedding, stay for a vacation!
Also, FYI: Dominican Republic has a national celebration in the month of February for their Independence Day...Carnival.
-Why did you chose this destination for your wedding?
I have always dreamed of a casual beach wedding, and well marrying a man that grew up in the Dominican Republic made the choice easy for me. Most of Gustavo's family on his mother's side is from the Santo Domingo area. Santo Domingo is the capital and is about 20 minutes west of Boca Chica, the wedding location. I have to admit that there was some reservation right before we finalized the location. I was struggling with the fact that having our wedding in the DR was going to mean that not everyone that was meaningful to me would be able to attend. I found solace in that fact that I was staying true to what I have always dreamed of and prayed that who was meant to be there would be there - at least I knew Gustavo would be there!
-What will the weather be like?
According to MSN weather, the average temperature for the month of February is a high of 85F and a low of 69F. The average precipitation for that month is also 0.03cm of rain per day. Do you know what that means? Neither do I. But it sounds pretty good...
-What's the time difference?
Well I don't know much about how all this time zone stuff works. But, Dominican Republic is in the GMT (UTC) -4 time zone. Apparently they do not use daylight savings time. So I dont know what that means for February, but right now it's 6PM in Arkansas, 7PM on the east coast, and 7PM in the DR. That's all I got :)
-What's the local language and currency?
Yes, this is copied and pasted.
The Dominican Republic is almost entirely Spanish speaking. Due to long-standing and ongoing immigration from Haiti, Haitian Creole is spoken by several hundred thousand Haitian immigrants and their descendants. There is a community of about 8,000 speakers of Samaná English in the Samaná Peninsula. They are the descendants of formerly enslaved African Americans who arrived in the 19th century.[77] Tourism, American pop culture, the influence of Dominican Americans, and the country's economic ties with the United States motivate other Dominicans to learn English. French is also spoken by a good portion of the population.
The Dominican peso, also called peso oro ("gold peso") is the currency of the Dominican Republic. Its symbol is "$", with "RD$" used when distinction from other pesos (or dollars) is required; its ISO 4217 code is "DOP". Each peso is divided into 100 centavos ("cents"), for which the ¢ symbol is used. It is the only currency which is legal tender for all monetary transactions, whether public or private, in the Dominican Republic. The current exchange rate is 1 USD = 36.85 DOP.
-How many days should we plan to stay?
That is up to you! Gustavo and I are going to be there for about 10 days. We are planning on having wedding activities formally and unformally Thursday- Saturday. Come for the wedding, stay for a vacation!
Also, FYI: Dominican Republic has a national celebration in the month of February for their Independence Day...Carnival.
American Airlines Discount
Woo Hoo get excited!!
www.aa.com
When Gustavo and I went to the Travel Agent the other day to work out a deal for the hotel room block we also asked her about airfare. She was not able to help us out, but she gave us a little tip to contact American Airlines. American Airlines actually has a section on their website where you can register your destination wedding. This was the result!!!
The Promotion Code you may give your guests is 5521BM.
Your guests will receive a 5% discount off the lowest applicable published air fare.
Discounts are valid FEBRUARY 8-28, 2011 for travel to SANTO DOMINGO, DR.
You may be thinking that 5% is not that much, but if you were going to use American anyways...at least it's something. I was pretty excited about it.
www.aa.com
When Gustavo and I went to the Travel Agent the other day to work out a deal for the hotel room block we also asked her about airfare. She was not able to help us out, but she gave us a little tip to contact American Airlines. American Airlines actually has a section on their website where you can register your destination wedding. This was the result!!!
The Promotion Code you may give your guests is 5521BM.
Your guests will receive a 5% discount off the lowest applicable published air fare.
Discounts are valid FEBRUARY 8-28, 2011 for travel to SANTO DOMINGO, DR.
You may be thinking that 5% is not that much, but if you were going to use American anyways...at least it's something. I was pretty excited about it.
Hotel options...
So we are officially just over 5 months out, and I am officially stressed out!
As most of you know, Gustavo and I have previously announced that the Hamaca was going to be the room block hotel. I have received a few calls from guest who have read the reviews from that hotel. Those people are a little apprehensive to stay there, to say the least. I completely understand, as I am a little scared myself. I will tell everyone that I did visit the site when I picked out El Pelicano as the site for the Ceremony and Reception. I did see an Oceanview room at that time, as well as the rest of the hotel. The hotel was not a 5 star hotel, but absolutely something I felt comfortable staying in. That being said, I did not experience the food, the casino, or the customer service - most of what the complaints on the review sites are about.
Gustavo and I have taken the last week to do some research - we have read other reviews, contacted our wedding planner, contacted his aunt who is in the wedding business in the DR, and looked into other hotel options. We have decided to keep the room block at the Hamaca Resort and Hotel. We have contacted a Travel Agent and should have all the details finalized for room and discount scheduling by next week. Please look back for another post regarding that. There will also be information in your invitation.
The picture that I have posted here is a picture that I physically took myself of an oceanview room at the Hamaca Resort. Also, I believe that they are under new ownership now, and their new name is BE LIVE Hamaca.
Gustavo and I understand if you would not like to stay at the Hamaca. We would like to let everyone know that we will be staying there from February 12-February 20th! There is lots of planning to be done when we get into the DR, and we would like a little honeymoon of our own :) Also the Ceremony and Reception will be held in this hotel - VERY CONVENIENT!! However if you would like to try out a different option, please let us know. We can point you in a direction.
161 days!!!
Kristin and Gustavo.
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