Travelling in the Time of Covid - Part III

 Catalonia Bavaro Beach has four a la carte restaurants. They are currently not all open every night. There are 2 open weekend nights, and 1 open on weeknights. They are open on a rotating basis, so you have a chance to try each one. Sadly, you only get 4 a la carte nights, so you have to make other arrangements for other nights.

The first one we tried was La Toscana, which was Italian food. The bruschetta was okay, although appies were served buffet style, and the seafood was properly cooked, but not really exciting.

The next restaurant we tried was Yuca, which was Caribbean themed, and quite tasty. All the dishes were served at the table. We were started with an appetizer of cassava and refritos which was quite tasty. Then went on to the "Golden Fillet with Yucca Crust". I can't be sure, but the "golden fillet" had the texture and flavour of mahi mahi. It was quite delicious, as was the rum cake for dessert.

The next place we want to was Rodeo Steakhouse. I confess I had assumed it would be a Brazilian type place, and was mentally pronouncing it Rodayo, but it's American cuisine, so definitely Rodeeyo. Like, there are potato skins and mozzarella sticks on the menu, as well as the expected steaks and hamburgers. The selection is not healthy, but hey, you're on vacation.

The feather in the resort's cap is Mikado, the teppanyaki restaurant. The seating has been altered for social distancing. A chair is left between parties.  Everyone gets a dish of sushi to start; some of the selections were quite novel. Then for the main, there were veggie fried rice, vegetables, and a choice of proteins. My friend and I both chose the shrimp and squid option -- delicious. This was easily the best meal we had here. 

They finished us off with hot sake served in wine glasses, and then invited us into a more lounge-like room for dessert. This made a lot of sense. It allowed us to finish our meals in a leisurely fashion while they sanitised the cooking area for the next seating.

Next - Experiences off the resort

Travelling in the Time of Covid - Part II

(I lost my camera whilst on tour there, so the pictures for this report are all from my phone, and I didn't get everything.)

We were at the Catalonia Bavaro. There are signs everywhere explaining how to clean and distance. You are supposed to wear masks when you're not at your table in restaurants. Some facilities are not available due to limited capacity.

We upgraded to Privileged, so we have a more exclusive beach, with its own bar (premium spirits are available to us here), and room that is close to the beach, the pool, and the pizza stand. The upgrade cost us less than $100 CDN each, so infinitely worth it. The service at the beach is mind-blowing. 

The room itself was pretty good. Two queen beds with king-size pillows, two sinks in the bathroom across from each other, and two showers at opposite ends of the shower stall, suitable for social-distance shower with a buddy (thankfully only one toilet, though), a living area with chairs, a bench, and a tv clearly visible from the beds. There was also a closet with an umbrella, safe, and the standard amenities. The balcony view we had was of the buildings opposite but we hadn't paid for a view, so that was fine. The only thing we found odd there was that there was a long unfurnished section along the room with everything crammed into a square in front of the sliding glass doors. The everything was a hammock, set high and unevenly on the walls between the door,  and the patio set.

I wasn't thrilled about the buffet (the food is never going to be that good, you know?) but the pizza stand was open Monday to Thursday from 10:30 am to 5:00pm, so there was a safe option for brunch those days. There is also a snack bar option, but it is also a buffet, and you can't take the food away. It's just hamburgers, hotdogs, tortilla chips, and fries anyway -- and you have to wear shoes, and sit at a table in the dining area: no takeout.

I'll cover the a la carte restaurants in another post; but while I'm talking about the resort, I definitely want to mention the most important parts of the resort: the water and the bars.

The Pure bar is the Privileged beach bar, and the bartenders and servers there are phenomenal (special notice to Johanen and Miguel). They had premium spirits for us, so that was nice. They do serve the sunbeds and loungers in the exclusive area as well, so we were able to stay well-hydrated. It should be mentioned that there is an even more exclusive area, with access to top shelf booze we couldn't get. I am not sure how you get to those things, but I didn't want to ask for fear the answer would involve a high pressure timeshare pitch.

There was also plenty of space and loungers at the free form pool, which had a nice bar, lively music, and a good water temperature. Due to the plague, the swim up bar was closed, but we managed anyway. 

Next: the Restaurants

Travelling in the Time of Covid - Part I

 I am sorry that I have not gotten back to finishing my Universal report, but I just returned from the Dominican Republic. I was there from 3 - 10 October, and I thought it would be more useful for my readers to have this information first.

I figured today I would talk about my airport experience at Pearson, only people flying that day (and employees) are allowed in the building. There's contactless kiosks to print your luggage tags by scanning your passport and boarding pass. After that, you head towards security. There is a place where it looks like you are going to get a mugshot taken, and that is where they take your temperature from a distance. 

You are allowed to bring a 12 oz hand sanitiser through, in addition to the normal liquids bag. If you set off the metal detector, they wand you, but no pat down. There was no line when I was there.

Only the Maple Leaf lounges are open, and there are limited other options for food and drink while you wait. Duty Free is open, though.

Boarding is extended. There were 8 boarding zones on the Dreamliner, to facilitate social distancing. It is useful to have a wheeled carry on to keep people from trying to bunch up behind you.


On board, you are given a kit which includes a mask (you already must be wearing one, so I am not sure of its purpose), a small thing of hand sanitiser, pretzels, a bottle of water, and a code to sign up for post-trip testing.
We had one service of non-alcoholic beverages only. The selection was very limited.


On the bright side, I finally got to try the 787 -- the Dreamliner. It is very nice, and I wasn't too cramped even in economy!