We will be at Dreams June 10-17 with our 2 kids (12 and 15).The place has great reviews on tripadvisor...hope they're accurate!!! 2 weeks from today and counting.
We just got back from a week at Dreams with our kids and absolutely LOVED it. Can't say enough good things about the resort and staff (especially entertainment staff). Location was perfect (close to the action but off the beaten path). Views were breath-taking.I'll post a trip report within the next few days once we get caught up with reality back at home.If I can figure out how to post pictures I'll do that too. Beth
Very kid friendly. In the buffet restaurant the is a kid's buffet table set at a small child's height. The kid's can serve themselves to a variety of favorite foods (hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, fries etc.) There is a Kid's Club open from about 10am til 9:30 pm. (no extra charge) with a posted schedule that varies from day to day. Our kids are older so we didn't use it but the people we talked to said their kids had so much fun they didn't want to leave. They looked to be very well taken care of and they even give you a beeper in case they need to get a hold of you while they are there. Evening entertainment at the resort was family friendly most nights, a magician, Mayan festival, Carribean festival, Mexican festival, various musical guests. Some were pool/lagoon side and some were in the ballroom. There is a very shallow end of the pool, maybe a foot or less that is separate from the deeper parts of the pool (3-4 feet). The great feature is the protected lagoon though, the kids loves swimming, paddle boating, and snorkeling (equip. provided) looking at the tropical fish and very friendly sea turtle!!His name is Poncho and he loves canteloupe.Apparently the lagoon took a big hit during the hurricane and they lost several of their sea turtles and tropical fish. They are working hard to get it back into shape.One of the entertainment staff told us the owner is purchasing 2 dolphins to put in the lagoon in the future. Sounds very cool but I'm not sure if it's deep enough. We'll have to wait and see on that one. Hope this helps, I'll write more about the resort as a whole later.
Here's our trip report from 6/10-6/17 at Dreams. First of all I must say that we will definately go back to this resort. The location, grounds, staff, and food were all excellent. Ok, maybe not all the food was excellent but at the very least it was good. We reserved 2 rooms for ourselves and 2 kids. When we arrived at 1pm they were not ready yet, which was no big deal as we were starving. We went to eat lunch at the buffet resaurant which was quite good. BTW you can order off a menu as well at this restaurant, we didn't bother because when we chose to eat there if was for breakfast (made to order omlettes excellent) or we wanted to eat quickly and get back to the fun. Variety was decent, pasta, pizza, burgers, fish, soup, salad, oriental and mexican. Plenty of kid friendly food. By the time we got back to the front desk, 1 of our rooms was cleaned and ready, the other was empty but not cleaned. They gave us both keys so we could move into the second room as soon as it was ready. We had asked for 2 ocean front connecting rooms 1 with a king, the other with 2 dbls. The rooms were not connecting but had 1 room between them, no biggie.The view from the balconies were breathtaking!!! Looking left you had a fabulous view of the lighthouse, everywhere else nothing but turquiose blue water!We quickly unpacked and headed down to the pool to check things out. One of the great things here is that they didn't have towel cards to keep track of. Towels were rolled up in huge baskets all around the pool/beach and you just took one and got a fresh/dry one whenever you wanted. The pool itself was not huge, but had a swim-up bar (Miquel was awesome).We never felt crowded at the pool, but we did come down early (about 7:30 or 8am)to save chairs as we need 3-4 of them together. The Lagoon area was a favorite for the smaller kids at the resort. They could snorkel, swim and play in the ocean water without worrying about currents.The red flags were out for the first 3 days or so due to Alberto so swimming with small kid's in the ocean was not a great idea. There was also a very friendly sea turtle named Poncho who loves canteloupe and lots of fish. The beach itself was not terribly large either, but had plenty of chairs with and without shade. Out in the ocean they had a giant floating trampoline, inflatable rock climb and kayaks. You could also parasail or jet ski for an extra fee. The entertainment staff was absolutely awesome!!!!!There were activities around the pool, ocean and lagoon every hour starting at about 10am (water and beach volleyball,kayak tours, salsa lessons, cocktail lessons, etc.). My kids (12, 15) had such a blast!You know how kids that age can be hard to please... we didn't have one comment about being "bored".The staff was very friendly and really tried to get to know everyone by name. Freddy, Zaire and Ronnie were our kids favorites. The specialty restaurants did not require reservations and you could go to any of them as much as you want. We never had to wait for a table and the resort was just about at capacity.The Oceana was an open air restaurant right on the water near the beach. Food/variety was excellent for everyone, we ate there several times.The oriental restaurant was also open air on the water but we didn't try it. I'm the only one who would have enjoyed the food. The Seaside was adults only on the Club side of the resort so we didn't try that either, but everyone raved about it.There was also 24 hour room service which the kids used a few times for snacks and dessert...they didn't complain. The resort had an exercise room which was actually decent for hotel/resort criteria. I know, we're on vaca, why are we exercising!!My son had to go to wrestling and football camps the week we got back so he really couldn't take a whole week off. The rest us us just felt guilty if he went without us.2 treadmills, 1 bike, 1 elliptical and various weight equip. There was also a running/walking path around the whole resort which was beautiful as it ran right along the ocean. That's all for now, I'll write more later. Beth
PM me with your e-mail and I'll send you the link for what we have so far in an album...over 400 pics to go thru! Beth
Was finally able to open the album :lol: Beautiful pics...I understand the red flags were out for three days in a row. Looks can be misleading, though, cause the pics of the beach appear to show how calm the waves are. Is it safe enough ten yards into the water?
Some days the current was stronger than others, the waves were not always a great indicator of this. I'd be very aware every time you go in the water, especially if you're not a strong swimmer or swimming with your kids.
