u/Flimsy_Assumption265

We currently have both resorts booked for our kids spring break because when I was looking yesterday, suddenly Dreams La Romana had dropped in price due to the sun kissed savings promotion, so I booked that too! I have been reading about sargassum situation and construction at Flora and was worried about that during our trip.

I will cancel one or the other. I was looking to get some feedback from preferably people who have been to both resorts.

We have two kids. They will be seven and 10 at the time of our trip. We have previously been to dreams Playa Mujeres and Dreams in Costa Rica. My kids loved both resorts, but it was a huge bummer to have seaweed at our trip in Mexico so much so that we could not get into the water. We will be traveling in March, and I realize the chance of sarcasm is low but the beach at La Romana looks beautiful! Our kids loved the water park and slides at both dreams resorts previously. Both of the water parks seem somewhat similar in my opinion. I think my kids would enjoy both!

My real question comes down to the food, the beach, and the entertainment team. Our kids loved the entertainment team in Mexico. They remembered our names, they spoke to my children every day, and they got them involved in games. It’s truly one of the highlights of the trip. We are usually asleep by the nighttime shows, so just factor in daytime entertainment. They play hard, so after dinner they are usually wiped! Although they are older now, so who knows! While we aren't foodies by any means, we found the food at both previous dreams resorts pretty average. I was pleasantly surprised after reading the negative reviews, but we do appreciate tasty food. Does one resort have way better food than the other? That could swing our vote too!

What resort would you recommend for us? Thanks in advance!

Good morning I actually have several questions and I thought this might be the best place to ask. I applied for the AA platinum select card in February of this year, followed by the Chase Sapphire, preferred July 2 of this year to get car rental insurance for our trip to Ireland. Prior to that I have not opened any new credit cards in at least ten years. New to the world for points and miles!

We have two international trips coming up in the year of 2027. I’d like to apply for the Chase reserve card in October or November of this year. My goal would be to stack the current IHG/Edit credit for the 2027 trip to Greece, using it in Athens.

I have not bought plane tickets for our Dominican Republic trip yet, so I would do that before booking the Athens hotel to utilize my travel credit.

My first question is will I still have two $250 credits to use in the year of 2027 if I booked that hotel in the 2026 calendar year. Theoretically, making up for the annual fee especially for the first year.

We do usually connect in Philly for our international flights and would organically use edit credits, dining credits when traveling, and the travel credit….BUT my main goal in also getting this card is the 1:1 Hyatt transfer. I hate burning a quarter of my points with the 4:3 ratio. It’s killing me every time I do! 😂 We travel as a family internationally twice and year and then at least twice domestically for soccer tournaments which I’ve been able to use chase points to book stays for already through Hyatt.

So when would you apply for the Reserve and would you go to a branch to do? Thoughts! Thank you in advance.

Good morning I actually have several questions and I thought this might be the best place to ask. I applied for the AA platinum select card in February of this year, followed by the Chase Sapphire, preferred July 2 of this year to get car rental insurance for our trip to Ireland. Prior to that I have not opened any new credit cards in at least ten years. New to the world for points and miles!

We have two international trips coming up in the year of 2027. I’d like to apply for the Chase reserve card in October or November of this year. My goal would be to stack the current IHG/Edit credit for the 2027 trip to Greece, using it in Athens.

I have not bought plane tickets for our Dominican Republic trip yet, so I would do that before booking the Athens hotel to utilize my travel credit.

My first question is will I still have two $250 credits to use in the year of 2027 if I booked that hotel in the 2026 calendar year. Theoretically, making up for the annual fee especially for the first year.

We do usually connect in Philly for our international flights and would organically use edit credits, dining credits when traveling, and the travel credit….BUT my main goal in also getting this card is the 1:1 Hyatt transfer. I hate burning a quarter of my points with the 4:3 ratio. It’s killing me every time I do! 😂 We travel as a family internationally twice and year and then at least twice domestically for soccer tournaments which I’ve been able to use chase points to book stays for already through Hyatt.

So when would you apply for the Reserve and would you go to a branch to do? Thoughts! Thank you in advance.

I am looking at booking the corner suite at the Grand Hyatt in June for a partial points/cash rate. It is a good redemption according to Chatgpt and far less points than the travel portal (Chase) even with points boost. I think it came out to be 32,000 points and 686 dollars, versus 50,000 chase points plus 900 dollars for the same room. I originally was trying to collect enough points to book it all, but it seems that option has disappeared, and I probably won't have enough points until the end of September to make the booking, so I am tempted to proceed.

Also, I haven't moved my Chase points to Hyatt yet so I can't see if it includes breakfast, but it does say this suite comes with club access. When I book with cash, I get the option to add breakfast which is served on the rooftop for a very low fee. Can I add breakfast booking with points/cash? Has anyone stayed here? Is their breakfast good? We are ending our Greek trip at the Hyatt. We wanted a somewhat "luxury" experience (pool, sauna, etc). We plan on utilizing the shuttle into the main town. Please know when I say luxury, we are not that bougie, but thought it might be fun to treat the kids to a nice hotel. We ended up staying at the Hyatt in Lisbon on our final night and I was blown away by the size of the room and just hotel in general! It was SO nice! Not sure what to expect in Athens!

Any thoughts? Have you stayed here? I can't find a ton of information and the reviews a mixed bag! Thank you for your help!

I currently hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I opened this card in June this year so I could get rental coverage for a car in Ireland. Being able to decline rental insurance at the desk saved us almost 300 dollars! I went back and forth between the Reserve and preferred in June, but ultimately decided to go with the lower annual fee. We got the SUB and I was able to immediately transfer points to Hyatt to book three nights in Savannah for our son’s soccer tournament (amazing!)!

We travel about twice a year, but usually big trips. We are headed to Greece next June and if my preferred transferred 1:1 I’d have enough points to book the Hyatt in Athens, but it doesn’t! UGH! I am solely looking at the Reserve now specially for its one to one Hyatt ratio as well as the other travel perks like lounge access. We will have a layover in Philly, so we could take advantage of the lounge there.

I probably won’t use the DoorDash and Lyft credits, but would really try hard to use the edit credit and dining credits. There are no restaurants near me, but looking at booking a weekend getaway to Charleston where we could take advantage of both of those credits. If I have it, I might as well use it! We also travel twice a year for kids sports right now probably more in the future.

I opened a Citi AA card in February of this year because Charlotte is our main hub and the Chase card in June. I have a 150,000 AA miles that I still haven’t really been able to use for our family of four, but I was able to almost immediately use my Chase points for meaningful travel. The Reserve offers 4x on airfare and hotels which is better than the preferred. I feel like I could justify the annual fee and the sign up bonus would be nice!

We are looking at traveling to the Dominican in March and Greece in June. I already booked flights to Greece, but still trying to earn miles to cover flights to the DR for the four of us. I even opened a Citi savings account to let money sit there to earn an extra 20,000 miles.

My question is when could I reasonably apply for the reserve and be approved. I only have the two cards mentioned above and got them both this year and my eyes have been opened to the travel points game. I did open the Citi savings account and got a card for that, but wasn’t sure if that counted or not! My eyes were also on the Citi strata elite, but I’ve still found more value in my Chase transfers than AA as of right now.

I would be keeping the Preferred card simply because it earns 3x on Airbnb and we book those pretty frequently when we travel. Reserve is just 4x hotel correct? Thanks for any input. Just wanted to make sure I could apply and get the SUB. Really want that one to one ratio, I don’t really need to apply until the new year, but wanted to get advice to see if I needed to wait longer. I have an 841 credit score, and the only other card I have is a TJ max card which I’ve had for 15 years. Thanks!

Good morning! I recently reached gold status and actually got a first class upgrade on a flight from Chicago to Columbia recently which was super cool!

I currently have about 44,000 loyalty points for the year. My family and I are planning to take a trip to Greece in June 2027 and I’m getting ready to pull the trigger on airline tickets. I have the Citi card with the $95 annual fee and I have a Chase sapphire preferred. I’m kind of stuck on which card to use to buy the airline tickets because I think 6000 loyalty points would be awesome but I still don’t know that I would necessarily reach platinum status by the end of February. I also know if I book them with my Chase card I would get 12,000 Chase points and I’m a few Chase point short of booking a really nice hotel in Athens for my fam. Chase also offered some travel insurance, which is another reason why I’m leaning towards using the Chase card.

But I wanted to come here for some advice as we fly about two times a year and most of those are international trips. Is platinum status truly worth it? I know I would love the main cabin extra seats to booking because I already chose seats that cost extra money on our current flight to Greece . We usually choose the bulkhead row when we can flying with kids. They tend the kick the backs of seats, and this prevents them from bothering other passengers! But with us flying about twice a year, i’m not sure if chasing the status is worth it. I’m also worried about that hotel in Athens closing its points calendar as there are only a few options left, but those points wouldn’t post till August 22 anyway so…. Half a dozen one way, six the other? Yall help me decide which card to use? 😂

Any suggestions for me? I just finished intent! I didn’t love it, but I finished! I felt like I was able to lift a little bit heavier with the unleashed series versus the intent series. BUT surprisingly, I did like upper, lower, upper, lower format.

I have finished YT iron, epic heat, endgame, and epic three as well as unleashed, Max, and intent on the app.

I’m a teacher and we are just starting school back so iron on the app is very intriguing and it’s only about 30 to 35 minutes, but I was concerned because it seems like there’s two sets for exercise. Any thoughts on app iron? I work out in the morning before school so a shorter workout and more sleep are def. pros! If you’ve completed it, I’d love your feedback! Thanks!

I know Ios has a reputation for being a party island. However, it looks beautiful! We are headed to Greece the summer of 2027. We will be visiting Athens, Milos, and Naxos. I am tempted to add in 2 nights in Ios between Naxos and Milos. We are traveling between May 26-June 9. In my research this seems to be before the huge party scene takes off, but would you visit with your family?

We have traveled extensively with our kids (ages 7 and 10 at the time of our trip) and just thought it might be a charming island to see and explore. Thanks for any feedback!

I know Ios has a reputation for being a party island. However, it looks beautiful! We are headed to Greece the summer of 2027. We will be visiting Athens, Milos, and Naxos. I am tempted to add in 2 nights in Ios between Naxos and Milos. We are traveling between May 26-June 9. In my research this seems to be before the huge party scene takes off, but would you visit with your family?

We have traveled extensively with our kids (ages 7 and 10 at the time of our trip) and just thought it might be a charming island to see and explore. Thanks for any feedback!

Potentially looking at planning a trip through the portal in the DR for my family. I just hit gold status for the first time ever and even got upgraded to first class on our flight back from Chicago which was super cool. The trip would be around January so could help me potentially hit the next level of status which is the only reason I was considering it! I'd love to be able to book main cabin extra at booking.

I usually book straight through Hyatt, so I can redeem those points for free stays in the future. I was wondering if I booked through the vacation portal, would I still earn my Hyatt points? Also, is it a pain to make changes? I have booked a hotel through AA previously and that was painless, but it was a small hotel in Ireland, so I didn't need to worry about earning points somewhere. Thanks in advance!

We’re planning a family trip to Naxos next year and would love to spend a day in Koufonisia, but not sure about a boat tour just yet….comparing our options! I wanted to spend two nights in the small island, but we are traveling with our kids and didn’t want to move as much.

Is there any type of water taxi or small passenger boat that will simply take you from Naxos (or Agia Anna) to Koufonisia in the morning and bring you back later that afternoon? I’m not looking for a private charter—just transportation.

If you’ve done this, what company did you use and roughly what did it cost? Or is the regular ferry still the best option?

We plan a trip for our family each year that we gift to our two kids at Christmas. We usually don’t travel till spring break or summer because I am a teacher and it just makes sense for our schedule. This past year we traveled to Portugal for 10 days and our kids traveled like champs! They hauled they luggage up flights of stairs and walked 20,000 to 30,000 steps each day with minimal complaining.

We’ve been searching for places that will be a good mix for our whole family. We adored Portugal and could have spent more time in Sintra.

My current plan to go fly out to Athens around May 26 and spend one night there. Then-

Milos-4 nights
Naxos-5 or 6 nights
Athens-2 nights on the backend and then fly home around June 8 or so.

We plan on renting ATVS to beach hop. My husband and I grew up in South Carolina and have driven ATVs our whole life. We are not tourists renting for the first time ever. If that makes sense? In my mind it made more sense than tracking sand and wet clothes in a rental car and I thought parking would be easier. Let me know if I’m wrong about this…would also consider the beach buggy rental. We rented ATVs in Costa Rica and it was a highlight of our trip going from Beach to beach and exploring.

My question would be should we go to Milos first or second? Second question: I know the water will be cold….our kids don’t care about that, but how cold is cold? I want to be able to swim and enjoy the beaches with them. My third question is should we consider another island? We love walkability and really don’t want to rent a car unless absolutely necessary. Our kids will be 10 and 7 and are adventurous. We plan on hiking, checking our remote beaches, and really want to immerse our kids in Greek culture. I’ve done a ton of research and it gets a little overwhelming. I did check ferry schedules for this year to help plan out our rough itinerary.

We plan on staying at the White Rock Villas in Milos and Birikos Studios in Naxos. If you have stayed at these places, would love your feedback! If you have other suggestions that would be good for families let me know. We prefer a 2 bedroom.