That’s entertainment…

It turns out Blue Domes is a pretty entertaining place. During the day, the animation team keeps adults and kids occupied with various games, both on the beach and in the kiddy area. Our kids loved the carousel, which runs until 21 or 22:00. In the main building, there’s a game room that you must pay for. Most of the time, it feels like a sauna!On the beach, there are volley ball games (low key), darts and a bacce ball-like game, all hosted by the young, frenetic entertainment staff.

At night, folks congregate in the main building for drinks in a good size bar area on the first floor (there’s a smaller bar upstairs, on the same level as the reception desk). There’s a show in the evening that starts at 21:00 with “mini disco”, music and dancing for the little ones. At around 21:30, the family show begins, with the young adults from the animation team dancing and singing. They get an A for effort (American education system’s highest rating),  but I must admit it’s not my personal cup of tea. Anyway, it’s takes some perseverance to get drinks in the bars, but the price is right. We haven’t ventured from the resort yet, but when we were coming in from the airport there seemed to be plenty going on in the city. We’ll probably head out tomorrow night. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Eating at Blue Domes…

As far as I can tell, there are 11 places to eat at Blue Domes. Breakfast lunch and dinner are served buffet style in the main building (see the post on breakfast for more info). Toward the middle of the resort, there are 6 small restaurants where one can grab a bite at lunch time, including a Burger King and Sushi place. One of these small places serves crepes from morning until 2:00 AM (this place also has great ice cream).

Right off the beach, there are four restaurants side by side (essentially in the same building). There’s Italian, Greek, Mexican and Asian. Overall, these places are OK but are a bit understaffed (2 wait staff or 20 or so tables), so patience is a virtue while dining there. Our experience so far is that the food is good, better than one would expect from an average all-inclusive. Not sure I would give it 5 stars though.

Note: Men are expected to wear long pants at dinner; jeans are fine. I’ve seen many families dressed up and others, like ours, much more casual. Men, be sure to bring long pants!

At both lunch and dinner, we’ve found it beneficial to arrive right when they open for a meal. 10 minutes later, you’ll almost certainly have to wait a non-trivial amount of time for a table.Here’s a rundown of the meals we’ve had so far restaurant-wise:

• Dinner at the Mexican: Good food. I had a chicken dish and the rest of the family had fajitas.
• Lunch at the Greek place: We had gyros and good salads.
• Dinner at the Italian place: good pasta and pizza. We arrived soon after they opened and noticed many people who arrived later were left gazing into the sun before it started to set behind the mountains.
• Lunch at the Italian place: We were served quickly. The menu is the same as at dinner. The tagliatelle with mushroom and the carbonara are quite good. I also like the Capri salad.

Breakfast…

As far as I can tell, the breakfast buffet in the main building is the only option for grub in the morning. There is plenty of juice, cereal, bread and cold cuts. There are also “warm” options, including eggs that are freshly fried if you don’t mind the wait. Good coffee is served both inside and on the veranda. From what I can tell, the rush starts around 9:00. Some of the tables on the veranda aren’t covered, so on sunny days they can be kind of hot.

Our biggest complaint? You can’t order Diet Coke, an addiction of ours. All things considered, that’s a fairly high class problem. From 1-10 in my book, breakfast here gets a least an 8 (especially if you get there before 8:30 to avoid the crowd).

Mo’ Pics…

Taken from the veranda outside the main building.

First lunch…

We just had our first lunch here. My wife and kids ate at the cluster of 6 small eateries near the center of the property. The kids had Burger King; the wife sushi. All seemed satisfied. I went up to the main building and had the lunch buffet/grill. Not spectacular, but solid. Service was fast and polite all around (although the kids had to wait a bit at BK).

Snapped a few more shots (I’m probably going overboard but I wanted visuals desperately before we got here).

Here are a couple of the main dining hall (taken HDR style). And a few panoramas… Not sure if it comes across in the pictures (I’m looking at them on my crappy laptop monitor), but this place is extraordinary!

The beach…

Soon after breakfast (which I’ll post about tomorrow after I take some pictures), we headed directly to the beach. There’s a terraced “river” of pools leading down to the Blue Dome’s pebble beach. It takes maybe 3 minutes to walk there from our room, which is fairly close to the reception building.

The beach here is small pebbles, with rocks mixed in – no sand whatsoever. I find it most uncomfortable to walk on, even when it’s not blistering hot (a state it reaches at about 9:30 in the morning). We bought slipper-like beach shoes for the kids and we wore flip-flops. I would strongly recommend the former for everyone! There are plenty of chaise lounges situated beneath small reed parasols. Folks head to the beach in droves starting at around 9:15. If you’d like some shade close to the water, get there early. The water is crystal clear and cold!The shot below was taken in waste-deep water. Pretty clear, no?

This being our first day, I didn’t want to be in the sun during peak hours, so we only stayed a few hours. We spent the afternoon at the pool(s). More on them later.There’s a small bar at the beach that serves beer, soft drinks and even cocktails. The wait us usually no more than 5 minutes or so.

The grounds…

While we still have a lot of exploring to do, I took pictures of the property on the way to the beach (mostly panoramas). I’ll let them do the talking save to say that I find this place spectacularly beautiful. Clicking on the picture should enlarge them a bit.