Dominican Republic
One drawback of visiting the Dominican Republic from where we are is that there are no non-stop flights at all, on any airline. United has flights from every hub staritng at Denver and heading east (five of them!), multiple flights daily from some, but nothing from LAX?? With a one-stop routing being mandatory, decided to burn a free night award at the Marriott at IAH, because at least being directly connected to the terminal makes for a quick walk and no shuttle bus hassle. Plus, for whatever reason, they gave us a huge suite upgrade-- you could have run laps around the living room. o_0
The next morning's flight to Punta Cana was uneventful, although we did ride the "subway" around the long way the basement of IAH that morning, and had just a touch of concern due to TSA checkpoint closures; turned out no issues. Food on United's domestic first class/short-haul international was its customary edible, and it turns out Punta Cana International Airport is filled with American tourists, busy descending stairs into waiting buses, a good sized but crowded baggage claim, and a massive indoor/outdoor pickup area. Also: why would you build an airport with jetbridges, then not use them?
After a bit of hassle trying to find our hotel pickup (oops...), a ~45 minute drive to hotel, it was then into the Live Aqua Punta Cana's massive lobby, and then almost as efficiently, from the lobby into their VIP lounge. Still not sure why we had VIP lounge access, but they welcomed us with beverages and arm/hand massages (?!) before shepherding us up to our room, where, like the lobby, we found yet another rubber duck (is that part of the water theme?). By then it was too late to enjoy the private patio/semi-private pool directly attached to our room, so we instead did a quick exploration of the main building, the dessert shop/coffee shop, the gym, and a few of the restaurants.
Liberi is indoor breakfast and lunch buffet, changes into an outdoor grill for dinner. As a buffet, service is quick, and we quickly found that the quality of the beef was best descibed as chewy, and the chef really loves adding salt and oil. Sigh. Also found that grilled eggplant, grilled bell peppers, and grilled zucchini were going to be at basically every meal, along with the same cheeses and, well, yeah. At least the fresh fruit was mostly good, and the ice cream, at least this first night, was okay.