Planning a Thanksgiving Trip

[MrSteve]

Hello all
This is my first post (but have read and learned from reading many prior posts)
My family is trying to plan a Thanksgiving trip and looking for an All inclusive
My wife and I are in our 40's and have 3 girls (7, 10, 13)
We are also traveling with another family Single Dad and 4 kids (7, 9, 12, 14)
as well as his parents.
So here are my questions... (and there are several)
My friend can get 2 rooms one for him and a few kids and one for his parents and a few kids. However, I have 5 in my party. Thus far, I have been told that this is not possible and I would need 2 rooms (good in theory, but they cannot guarantee connecting rooms) so my first question is if there is a room configuration where all 5 of us can be in one room. I gladly spend more for a suite that can accomodate all of us, rather than pay for 2 rooms especially if they cannot guarantee they will be connected.
Then then next question would be which would be the best AI resort for this group.
I have thought about the Iberostars Paraise Maya, the Barcelo Palace, The Grand Riveiera Princess, Playacar Palace and Barcelo Colonial
We are looking for nicer accomodations, decent food (Nothing too fancy) and activities for the kids..plus some nighttime entertainment shows etc...
My kids can be happy sitting at a pool, my friends kids need to be in constant motion with planned surpervised activities.
Yikes, that's a lot of pressure for all you wise and experienced travellers to help pick the perfect spot for our families. But I am sure you are up to the challenge.
Lastly, anyone know the weather around Thanksgiving?
I appreciate your input
Steve

[carolina]

The Marina EL Cid in Puerto Moreles has one, two and three bedroom suites. The one bedromm suite has two full bathrooms. They have a kid's club. The rooms are supposed to be very nice and the food and drinks are supposed to be good. They have a water slide at the pool. The suites are pretty reasonable with the all inclusive plan. We were planning to go, but my husband insists on all adult resorts. Have fun.

[Shammy]

None of the resorts you're interested in allow 5 per room, you would have to get two rooms. Those hotels that are family of 5 friendly only allow 2 adults and 3 kids age 12 and under so that won't work either. Marina El Cid is the only hotel that I know of that will let you all stay in one room (and the Presidential Suite at the Moon Palace - $$$$!!!!), but if that's your requirement, you just limited your resort choice to one hotel. As an FYI...you can request adjoining/adjacent rooms but no hotel will guarantee that, but they really do their best to make it happen when it's a family with young kids. Sometimes however, they just can't assign rooms that connect or are adjacent.

[gkjellsen]

Riu Playacar has adjacent rooms that are separated from other rooms by a little hallway. You can shut the door to the hallway and it's like having 2 rooms together. Also many things there for the kids to do.

[mouse]

The Sandos Caracol has ajoining rooms I know because I stayed in one two years ago. I asked for a room change because it literally felt like we were all in the same room. We could hear everything. There are plently of ajoining rooms at this resort so there shouldn't be a problem. Also except for the fact that there is not much beach at this resort anymore it is a fabluous resort. The food is fantastic and there is a sports bar for the kids to play pool etc.There is also a kids club and a kids disco. Great entertainment and an adult disco also. There's a martini/coffee lounge with live entertainment. I have nothing negative to say about this resort. We stayed there for 2 weeks and had a wonderful time.

[Tarris]

The Sandos Playacar allows 5(2 adults/3 kids) to a room.

[Shammy]

Originally Posted by Tarris

The Sandos Playacar allows 5(2 adults/3 kids) to a room.

But ALL the kids must be age 12 and under, and that won't work in this case since at least one child is over age 12.

And there are many hotels that have adjoining rooms (either a few or more than a few), but there's no way to guarantee you'll get one, they can only be requested.

[mbelec]

We've traveled during Thanksgiving the past 3 years, once to Mexico, once (this past Fall) to the Dominican Republic, once to Jamaica. Our kids are a little older (oldest is now 18), so I can't address the room issue (we just got rooms nearby, which worked fine for us).

However, in regard to weather. Weather can be constantly changing, but here's our experience. Mexico was warm (low to mid 70's during the day), but cool once the sun went down - we were covering with our towels by 5:30pm when the sun went behind the buildings. We needed sweaters in the evening and air conditioned restaurants are unnecessary. Pools were cool - chilly getting to the swim-up bar, ok as long as you stayed in the sun, but cool otherwise. Ocean was too cool to remain in for long. This is coming from someone from Maine who has a hard time getting into our ocean at all in the summer!

Weather this past Fall in DR (La Romana on the southern side) and Jamaica (we rented a villa 1 hr from Montego Bay) was great - high 70's during the day, ocean and pools comfortable to stay in all day. Just being a little bit further south helped. Sunset the same time, and needed a sweater in the evening.

Hope this helps. It's fun traveling Thanksgiving week. The kids only miss 2 days of school (for us), and it's off-season for the rest of the world, so the prices reflect that.