I know I mentioned in an earlier post how inspired I was to write while on my honeymoon. Unfortunately, most of that inspiration has run out since I've been home. Ideally, I would have liked to post this as soon as I got home, but I've been having some serious computer issues and this is the first time I could really get on for more than an hour or so (here's hoping it doesn't crash while I write this).
Our honeymoon started on Monday, June 13th. Our flight was at 6am, so we were supposed to be at the airport at 4am. Our travel agent told us that ideally, we should be there three hours before the flight, but the airport didn't open until 4am. Awesome. I'm not, by any means, a morning person (I don't even start work until 9:30 or later), so this was hard to swallow for me. In this instance, though, I was cheaper than I was lazy, because a later flight would have cost us more. So, I dealt with it!! Sunday we had spent opening wedding presents and driving to our parents' houses to find all of our stuff that was left there from the wedding. We figured we'd never be able to get up so early to get to the airport, so we thought we'd just take a nap at some point. So at about 9pm we got into bed and slept until about 1am. I had to shower to trick my body into thinking it was morning and then we headed to the in-laws'. They have this silly tradition where they pass a bottle of peppermint schnapps around at all of their weddings, but we didn't do it at ours (mostly because I refused, because it's kind of disgusting, but also because the country club didn't let us). So, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, I was made to take a sip of schnapps. I'm not a drinker and I'd never had it, so it wasn't a pleasant experience for me at all. They got their picture, though and hopefully they were satisfied with their tradition and I never have to do it again. After that, I needed to eat something, so I had some of the leftover hoagies they had from the wedding day that the guys got to eat and we just watched TV for a couple hours. We got to the airport pretty much at 4 on the dot and there were lots of newlyweds. I was wearing my "Just Married" tank top and the girl in front of us had her "Mr. & Mrs." luggage tags. She's the one that eventually cleared up my confusion as to why the flight was two hours there and four hours back (Jamaica is an hour behind...it was actually a THREE hour flight...HA!). While we were waiting to get our boarding passes and check our luggage we saw a woman taking forever to get her bags checked. She had a child in her arms (looked about two years old) that she refused to put down because she was sleeping. I assume her bags weighed too much, because she was taking stuff out of one bag and putting them in another. She was there the whole time we were in line. It was pretty easy to get through security and customs, so we had a little bit of a wait. Ryan got coffee, I posted a picture on Facebook and we saw the woman from the baggage check with the child again, who was wide awake now. We boarded the flight around 5:30 and guess who we were sitting next to??? Ryan and I were supposed to have the window seat and the middle seat and the woman and child were supposed to have the aisle, but when we got on the plane she's sitting at the window seat with the child on her lap and asks us if we mind. Well, yeah...we did, but it was too early to argue, so whatever. Ryan sat in the middle and I got the aisle and she continually asked him if he could help her get her bag off the floor...why didn't you just sit on the end????? Thankfully her and the child both slept from take-off to landing, so Ryan didn't end up in jail. The in-flight meal was a ham & cheese croissant (gross), Sun Chips (yum!) and shortbreak cookies (Ryan's favorite!). It was about a three and a half hour flight, but it definitely felt longer, because I was unprepared (I thought it was only going to be two!). I tried to read some, but I was way too tired, so I eventually tried to sleep a little bit. We got to Montego Bay about 8:30 local time (it was 9:30 at home). The airport was much smaller and easier to get through and everyone was so friendly! They took our bags (then begged for a tip) and then we caught a bus to our resort (and the driver begged for a tip). They're sneaky about their begging, though. "I don't work at the resort, so I don't get paid for this. Think of your driver when you leave." It got pretty annoying and another passenger on the shuttle was pretty vocal about his annoyance. The driver taught us some Jamaican lingo on the way (unfortunately "ya mon" is all I remember...). The drive was a little creepy, as it's a pretty poor country and you can tell how different life is from what you experience on the resort. Everything is run down, but very laid back. The drive to the resort was only about fifteen minutes from the airport, but we didn't get there until about 9 or 9:30 local time after going through the airport and baggage claim, etc. Check-in wasn't supposed to be until 3:00, which seriously bummed me out, because I was exhausted beyond words. But, we checked-in at the concierge office and waited for our butler. Calvin came to get us and took us to the breakfast buffet, which we ended up eating at almost every day. Here is what our view was that first morning:
The first disappointment of the trip was the bacon. Haha! I love me some bacon, but this just wasn't very good. I'm still convinced it wasn't real bacon! After breakfast, we waited about another thirty minutes for Calvin to come get us again. I changed into my bathing suit while we were waiting and Calvin took us to the main pool. He seemed to be fishing for a tip, because he lingered for a little bit after we sat down, but after a while we realized he was just really shy (which seems odd for a butler...) and he didn't seem to know when to leave. Ryan took advantage of the pool-side bar while we were there. We figured out pretty quickly that the main pool is where most of the activity happens. While we were there, an "aquasize" class took place (pool aerobics, basically), then poolside bingo, neither of which we participated in. We did however, play a nice, friendly version of "whose boobs are real?" Ha! We're terrible people sometimes...
Everytime a resort employee walked by it was "good morning!" or "you good?" The friendliness was definitely contagious. For some reason, Ryan joked about how cool it would be to make friends with British people while in Jamaica and we got a good laugh when the people next to us at the pool-side bar were British. We didn't make friends with them, though...I was finally about to fall asleep by the pool when Calvin re-surfaced and told us our room was ready. FINALLY!! I couldn't wait to jump into bed and lay down!! Unfortunately, though, this lead to disappointment #2. We splurged when we booked the honeymoon and paid more than we wanted to to get a "swim-up suite." In the pictures we were shown, there were chairs literally IN the water and you walked out of the pool into your room. Our wasn't like that...apparently there are two different ones. While we DID have our own, private(ish) pool, it did not lead right up to our door. Here's what it did look like:
The suite was smaller than I expected, but big enough. It had a high king-sized bed, a fully stocked, FREE mini-bar, a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and a large shower with a seat. We were finally about to tip Calvin when he mentioned something about not being allowed to accept tips, so we got super confused and still didn't give him one. After we un-packed our bags, we walked around the resort for a little bit to get to know where everything was. We walked along the beach, which was pretty small, but gorgeous. We discovered the beach-side bar, which had a stand where you could serve your own popcorn, nachos, soda and ice cream cones (which I had at least two of a day). I ordered a daiquiri from the bar, but it was too strong for me. Then, we went back to our room, where I attempted to nap before I passed out and Ryan took a dip in the private pool. While I was trying to nap, a random marching band decided it was a good time to play, so the nap never happened:
I remember after that sitting on the bed thinking how hungry I was and literally at that moment, there's a knock at the door and our other butler, Hector was there with cheese & crackers and fruit. The pineapple there is AMAZING!! I ate it at least twice a day everyday and I miss it...:(
Throughout the day, we kept hearing about the pool-side buffet that was supposed to happen at 6:30, so we started getting ready for that. We found out the dress-code was all white, but we didn't pack any and we were afraid we wouldn't be allowed to go. We tried to hide in the back and three other couples ended up joining our table. One was celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary (they were from Texas), another was on their honeymoon (from Indiana-married the same day as us) and the third never introduced themselves. The Indiana couple were David and Lo and we ended up becoming friends with them and hanging out a lot throughout the week. The food was all amazing - the potatoes during dinner and breakfast were my favorite. During dinner, a steel drum band played and we LOVED it!! They were so good and so animated and you could tell they were having a great time! They were so much fun to watch...as well as the man on stilts, who was dancing around the patio area and posing for pictures with people. We left at about 8:15 and went straight to bed.
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