I’m a huge fan of fruit, bread and cheese platters at parties, and recreated a little platter for myself for lunch today.
I made an apple and cheese quesadilla on a whole wheat tortilla.
Apple 'n' Cheese Quesadilla
Hello 'Dilla Insides
On the side, I had a mini-fruit salad with chopped apple and strawberries.
Apple and Strawberry Fruit Salad
Dessert included two pieces of Easter candy.
Dessert
Post Suggestions
Thank you for your post suggestions! So far on my “to do” list for posts I have:
- BodyPump Overview
- A Day in the Life
- Songs of the Day
- Wedding Posts (This should really pick up soon as I have quite a few wedding planning “to dos” coming up!)
- Tips for New Runners
Feel free to send any more suggestions my way at pbfingers@gmail.com or comment on this post. 🙂
All-Inclusive Honeymoons
Ryan and I are in the process of selecting our honeymoon destination. We’re really intrigued by the all-inclusive resorts since it makes vacation planning easier and can help save money on food and drinks. We don’t want to go on a cruise since we live in Florida and can do that anytime for pretty cheap, so we’re looking into Caribbean all-inclusive resorts.
Have you ever stayed at an all-inclusive resort? Thoughts? Recommendations?
At my Invisalign appointment this morning, my orthodontist recommended Excellence Resorts with locations in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The website sure makes these resorts look breath-taking!
Excellence Playa Mujeres Resort and Spa
My main concern with all-inclusive vacations is the added fees associated with activities or spa services. Both Ryan and I like to explore on vacations, and I know we’ll want to do fun activities like scuba diving. We don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for the added adventures.
Decisions, decisions…
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My hubby and I did an all-inclusive resort for our honeymoon. In fact, we’re going back there next week for vacation (woo hoo!).
Ours was the Aventura Spa Palace, which is a part of the Palace Resorts. It was awesome. Besides all the food and drink, the price included 7 excursions, and then there were a few additional ones that you could pay for. I think we did 4 of the included ones and they were awesome (snorkling, visiting the Mayan Ruins, etc).
We went to Vegas, but I think all inclusive would have been good for us because my hubby eats so much!
By the way, we got champagne when we checked in, tshirts that said “Honeymooners,” and a special dinner with other Honeymooners. All inclusives are great!
i LOVE the idea of adding apple to a ‘dilla! wow! i have been to all inclusicve resorts in playa del carmen, mexico and in montego bay, jamaica. both were the iberostar resort. i definitely enjoyed both vacations~ the jamaica resort was nicer and the food was better. all inclusive is definitely an affordable way to do it all. i am currently trying to figure out my honeymoon, as well! we don’t want to do tropical because our company takes us on a tropical trip every winter (that is when i went to both mexico and jamaica) so we are looking more into stateside destinations that include less beach and more sight seeing, hiking, etc. do you have any suggestions? hope the rest of your day goes great!
ryan & i went to maggie valley, nc a year or so ago & loved it!! we went in oct. & the leaves were changing & it was gorgeous! you should also look into savannah, georgia or charleston, sc – i’ve heard both are adorable places! we loved savannah & i’d love to check out charleston!
Janetha-definitely go to Washington if that is what you’re looking for! You’ve got the ocean, INCREDIBLE mountains, rainforest, hot springs and so much more! My husband was born there so we went for a week and I’ve been dying to go back! We went the first week in August and the weather was absolutely perfect.
All-inclusive are great. I stayed at one in a few years back for the first time. My fiance and I booked our honeymoon at an all inclusive in Cabo. There are some good all inclusive deals out there. You save a lot by having the food and drink included which will help justify paying for some excursions and activities.
Ohh – honeymoon…
You´re so lucky, girl!
Have a great time choosing 😀
So many great options… Haha!
Delicious lunch, btw!
Brazilian XOXO´s,
Gabriela
Julie,
Once you go all-inclusive you CANNOT go back! There is just no other way to vacation after that IMO! Hubby and I went to Secrets Maroma Beach in Mexico- they are fairly priced for all that you get and we loved it. If you are on FB, look me up, you will see 2 albums of pics from our trip there this past December. Their customer service was AWESOME and we are planning on going back again within a year or so. I have also been to Sandals in the Bahama’s, and Adventura Spa, AND Excellence Riveria Maya. They’re all great….Excellence was prob. my second favorite – but for the money, Secrets resorts is where it’s at!
thanks for all the suggestions!
My brother and sister-in-law went to Turks and Caicos and loooooooved it. I don’t think you can go too wrong with somewhere as beautiful as the Caribbean!
We also got champagne and fruit and honeymooner stuff in our room when we checked in. 24 hour room service was a MUST for Tim. We had nachos and hot wings delivered at 3am almost every night we were there!!
We stayed at an all inclusive place in Egypt on the Red Sea and it was NOT worth it, the food was not all that good and I don’t eat enough to make it worth it and the beer/wine was horrible.
I don’t know that I would do an all inclusive again, but… we are not the type of vacationers to just sit at the beach all week. It was good for a few days but we had so many other things we wanted to see.
We got married and honeymooned in Italy and we had the best time. 2 and a half week to travel around and see lots of place and eat lots of good food. Do a more adventurous trip!
i would love to go to europe! ryan is pretty scared of flying though so we’re trying to keep the flight as short as possible. 🙂
We never took a honey moon 🙁
We’ve been meaning to do one soon though and per our friends and family recommendations we are also looking into all inclusive.
For my honeymoon last August, my husband and I chose an all-inclusive resort in Aruba. We absolutely loved it! All food, drinks and entertainment is free while you do have to pay for excursions and spas. We are like you and your fiance in that we like to do activities on our vacations, so we did end up spending a good amount of money on excursions but it was well worth it. It was great having fantastic food and drinks readily available and not having to worry about having money always on us. We did venture out a few nights for dinner in highly recommended restaurants to celebrate.
If you are on a budget, I think all-inclusive resorts are the best bang for your buck. It is hard to find resorts that offer excursions and spa treatments in their packages so you may not have much luck with that. Good luck with your search, whatever you decide on you will have an amazing time because after all it is your honeymoon!
very cool! do you remember what the name of the resort you stayed at is?
I’ve stayed at a lot of all inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Carribean and I think they’re a great option for a honeymoon! The only think I would check into is food reviews of the resorts because some resorts take the fact that they are all inclusive for granted and their food is pretty sub par.
My parents went to Excellence and loved it! We’ve done 2 adult-only all-inclusives, Sandals in the Bahamas and Secrets in Riveria Maya (for the honeymoon). It is the only way to vacation – everything is paid for in advance, there are no worries and no KIDS!
I got Married Feb 20th 2009.
We honeymoon’d March 7th-14th 2009 in Hawaii on the island of Kaua’i
If I could make one suggestion to you it would be to not go on your honeymoon the day following your wedding. I was SO glad I didn’t
1) you’re exhausted
2) your house is in shambles
3) you need to unwrap your gifts
4)You just need time to unwind and take in what just happen
5) there will be loose ends that need to be tied up…did everyone get paid…was anything left at the hall… you don’t want to be away on your honeymoon thinking about all these things!
Anyways, I’ve been mallinclusive many times before…do it! but you’re right there are many hidden fees so read carefully an buy insurance 😉
I live in Toronto and the 14 hour flight to Hawaii (not including lay overs) was WAY too far for a week…I would never do it again! It’s be pretty far for you from florida too…I wouldnt recommend it unless you’re going for more than a week!
i’d say go all inclusive. we went to jamaica all inclusive in negril which was *relatively* “cheap”, a little under 6k but we did go for 2 weeks, upgraded our room to an oceanview and that included airfare! things like snorkeling, sailboating, free 30 mins spa treatments were included and this was 3 years ago before the economy went bad so if you look around, you can probably find a great deal!
Check out the Sandals resorts. My fiance and I have been two Jamaica two times, and stayed at the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios, and the Sandals Whitehosue, both are great! And they include snorkeling, scuba diving, wind surfing, skiing, etc. You will love the all inclusive route!
hey gorgeous girlie!!
thank u for the sweet comments on my blog! looking through your’s real quick i think we have mucho in common!! I can’t wait to read more! I am loving the apple-chessy-licious combo! I swear you can put anything in a wrap and enjoy deliciousness!! I hope you are having a fabulous week and have a great weekend ahead of you!!
xoxo!
We went to the Turks and Caicos, and while our hotel wasn’t “all inclusive,” we got some nice free perks (champagne, spa treatments, etc.) as part of a honeymoon package. The all-inclusive thing resorts definitely have their perks though!
I’ve never been to an all inclusive resort, but I’ve been on cruises and they’re sort of all inclusive except when you get off the boat. Have you considered a cruise?
We are going to sandals grande st. lucian. We chose this location because St. Lucia is a gorgeous island with an inactive volcano and beautiful mountains.
Also, since Sandals has 3 properties on the island, you can eat at any of the restaurants at any resort. i think it adds up to be like 25 restaurants or something. you can also use the beaches and pools at all the resorts.
Since we got a good deal, we’re not really concerned about the price of excursions. We’ll probably do 1 or 2.
We went on an all-inclusive honeymoon to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and loved it! It is so nice to not have to pull out your wallet everytime you want a drink or a meal….I would DEFINITELY recommend.
I have done both types of vacations…and personally I prefer not to go the all inclusve route. First of all my husband and I don’t drink so that doesn’t factor in for us. Plus we are really into exploring and going all over wherever we go and I don’t like having to be confined to a certain location to do my activites and dining.
I went to Paradisus Punta Cana in the Dominican for our honeymoon and LOVED it! I definitely recommend the all inclusive for a honeymoon. Ours even included free water sports like catamaran, kayaking, paddle boats, etc. And other excursions like horseback riding and biking.
The Columbus Isle Club Med in the Bahamas is incredible, and it’s all inclusive…I don’t think any activities are an added cost! Plus, it’s an adults-only resort, which is nice when you want alone time without a thousand kids in the pool. The food is incredible too!!
all inclusives are nice! i went to a bunch of iberostars and they were all great! after a few days the food got a bit overload lol i am sure you two will have a great time wherever you go!
HOW does that lunch fill you up?!! thats crazzzy!! just want to make sure you are eating enough for all that working out you do! 🙂
i did end up having a snack about two hours later! 🙂 it was more filling than you might think though b/c i used two pieces of cheese, and ate the entire apple (which was really big). i think the entire luch had around 400 cals.
went to an all-inclusive in the dominican and loved it – amazing weather and great people! we went at the end of august…. but I’m not sure how much was affected with the recent haiti earthquake (since they are apart of the same island)…? went to st. lucia for our honeymoon (very southern caribbean) and although we did not do an inclusive (we went to ladera resort, ladera.com), i would recommend checking it out. it’s changed possession btw english and france like 17 times so the culture is cool and food is amazing (creole/french/southern/seafood)! Plus it’s a little more english speaking so easier to get around than dominican which is primarily spanish speaking. hope this helps!
thanks so much! st. lucia is a top contender at the moment! 🙂
We went to Dreams Resort and Spa in Cancun and absolutely loved it. We went last July, and got an insane deal through orbitz (I think it was also because people weren’t traveling as much to Mexico then). It was all inclusive, we had an ocean front room, it is on the tip of a peninsula so perfect turquoise water was on 3 sides of the resort, there were dolphins on the property to swim with, everyone was so nice, the place was really well-maintained…I could go on and on! Good luck with your search-when we got engaged, that was what I spent so much time on!
I’m probably a little late with this, but there is a website we’ve used before that has luxury vacation packages at deep discounts and on auctions. Luxurylink.com. Check it out.
I love your blog by the way. Congrats on the engagement, thanks for the great ideas, and it’s been fun following you!
thanks for this link! it’s awesome.
We went to an Excellence resort in the Dominican for our honeymoon. It was really nice having everything there and not having to worry. Horseback riding was included and the extra trips weren’t too pricey, but we chose to stay at the resort. I found trip advisor to be very helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.
perfect, thanks!
I’ve heard good things about Secrets resorts, they are couples only so they cater more to honeymoons than family vacations. I would definitely recommend Mexico. I stayed in Playa Del Carmen last summer and it was beautiful. The resort I stayed in (Windham Maya) wasn’t great but there are a ton there to choose from.
I just planned my honeymoon too, fun process 😀
Hey Julie,
Love the quesadilla idea – looks delish.
Also, I’d look into Paradisus resorts – they only have a select few but I went to the one in Cuba about a year ago and it was amazing. The staff are incredible and the food is really good (considering its the Caribbean). My parents went to their resort in Costa Rica and it looked even better than the one I went too… so keep an eye out for those. Have fun planning!
i’ve never heard of paradisus – thanks for the head’s up!!
My husband and I just went to an excellence resort in October for our honeymoon. We went to Playa Mujeres (sp?). It was amazing!!! Although it’s not in a city so exploring is a little difficult. There is an island nearby that you can take a 10 minute ferry ride to so it’s definitely an affordable option! As far as the resort though there are no hidden fees or anything. I’m sure all the Excellence resorts are amazing. It was an unbelievable experience!
p.s. You can also book through expedia or another travel website and get a pretty good deal. Just search for the exact resort you want (get that info from the official website).