Hopefully all goes well on this travel day. Looking forward to your report
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Hopefully all goes well on this travel day. Looking forward to your report
I'm missing Jamaica so much, cant wait for your reports Crusher to ease my suffering.
^^^^Feeling the same bro. :(
Well we made it to Toronto in like 2.5 hours. Knocked off like 30 minutes of the normal flight time due to a tail wind....which was awesome. The flight itself was good with only one crying baby. We got a row to ourselves as the flight wasn't very full. We will cross our fingers that the same happens on the flight to Montego.
We are currently sitting in the Irish Pub by Gate B25 having some lunch and drinking some pints! :)
When we get to Montego I am hoping that we have the same luck that our friends did with Immigration last night as they were through in a breeze. Late flights have one advantage I guess. We are using Kingsley for our transfer and I can't wait to exit the airport and get on the road to happy town!
We will hit the beach running tomorrow and I am going to try and check out Cafe Goa if I can work it in. First day logistics are always a bit up in the air as we need to pay for the room, hit the grocery store and the cambio....or I might just say screw it and do that Monday! :)
Here's hoping the next flight is awesome. I will keep you posted.
Now there is some useful information. As soon as Mrs Sandman gets her Christmas 2015 school teaching schedule we will be ready to book. Our last years trip to Port Antonio was great but we really missed the beach in Negril.Quote:
Originally Posted by JitterBug
Up Up and away!!!!- MBJ bound!!!!! then Negril bound!!!
But then you have to overnight in Winnipeg cause the flights are so early in the morning. Trust me I looked at that option. I actually don't mind this route. The shorter, broken up flights are easier on my old wrestler hips! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by sandman66
Crusher, Beer going down well mi fren?-lol!- Cheers boss!!!
Well I am on pint number two...everyone either went for a smoke or is out shopping at the Duty Free so I am going to have another! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Vince
^^^HELL YEA BRO!!!!! That's how we roll!!!
westjet direct to mo bay leaves at 8 a.m.
there are no connecting flights from regina to winnipeg in a.m.?
So excited to see this report. Please keep it coming so that I can read it for the next 5 days before I join you!
Did your friends room at Travellers get figured out? Lots of my friends are arriving with me on the 30th and staying there so I hope they don't have any issues. I can;t wait to see some pictures of my favorite place - Negril Beach Club!
There is but they arrive about a half hour before the Direct Flight leaves. Not going to chance that! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by JitterBug
Well we made it to Jamaica. The flight from Toronto went well. There wasn’t any crying babies or jerks kicking peoples chairs so that’s a bonus. When we landed at 7:30PM we were the only flight in at the time. Immigration was a breeze we were through in 10 minutes or so which is pretty much the norm with this later flight that we take. We made record time through the rest of the airport, even though I had to stop and grab some Amaretto from the Duty Free stand for our friends staying at Travellers. Apparently its not readily available…..who would have thought that in the land of Red Stripe and Rum! LOL!
We come out of the airport and our transfer from Kingsley is waiting for us. The drivers name is Milton and he has come to pick us up in a small tour van. He’s seems like a great fella and in no time we are loaded and on the way. DK had arranged with Kingsley some extra beverages so I had some Red Stripes in his cooler along with her and her man’s Cold Guinness. She’s mad for the stuff back home but almost loves this bottled stuff more than the pints at our local hangout.
We get situated in the van, with me acting as bartender, apparently I am the only one who can open beer with a lighter in our crew. I thought that was an essential life skill that all Canadians learned lol! As soon as we are seated we open up the windows in the van and it begins. The breeze, the sounds of the streets of Montego and the cold refreshing first Red Stripe of the reach! Yeah that’s a good day my friends. That’s a good day.
We make our way through Montego Bay and soon we are on the way to Negril. Being a Saturday night there is lots of activity on the road to keep us entertained. Unfortunately because its dark I can’t really get any pictures but I am sure most of you are familiar with the scenes. Cars pulled off the side of the road, small bars jumping with sound systems bigger than their seating area pumping out the music. Cops doing shake downs and loading up guys in the back of trucks for transport. We were definitely in Jamaica.
Right about now is when you begin to notice it. You know what I mean. I know you know what I mean. The smells.They are vibrant and you are quickly reminded by the bodies strongest sense that you are indeed in Jamaica. The smell of the moist air is what gets you first. We don’t have that where we live. You can feel it on your skin but the air you draw into your lungs is just different and a reminder to your body you are indeed in the Caribbean. Of course as you drive by the bars and food joints the familiar smell of the pits begins to drift into the van. Oh my I miss those smells the most. I smoke meat at home on my smoker so I am lucky during the summer to have some of that experience but not so much in the winter. The smell of the rendered fat from chicken and pigs is just amazing and that’s what gets me excited the most on the ride in. I resist the urge to make the driver stop and we carry on.
The ride was mostly uneventful and we powered through our drinks by the time we got to Lucea but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We cruised the road and only had to avoid a couple of mishaps. You know the ones. Bad drivers are plentiful in Jamaica lol! Before long we see the sign. Capital of Casual! We are back!
We arrive at NBCC and get our luggage all squared away. The rooms that we got are pretty nice. There was only a small issue with beds. We will get that fixed sometime today. We were supposed to have Queens or bigger in both bedrooms of our Condo but the one room only had a double. We made do for the night. We finished off the evening with drinks down at Sondru’s bar. They are selling ice cold Red Stripe for 200J or 6 for 1000J. Not bad prices for this end of the beach! We met up with a couple of our friends that arrived yesterday and mi Doc dropped off our stuff that we store at his house every year. He’s a great guy and we were all surprised to learn he’d given up Sub’s. Guess they were getting too fattening. He is well after a bout of kidney stones last fall and so is his pretty lady.
We made our way back to the room and went to sleep. I managed to get about 5-6 hours this morning. I watched the sun come out and I figured I would write a few words to share. Once I figure out reliable internet I will get to posting some more pics as I start taking them.
Have a great day folks!!!
Attachment 40534
Tired on the Plane to Mobay!
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My office this morning! :)
Jamerican....they sorta did. They wanted a king sized bed so that got fixed yesterday morning. They also wanted a fridge but I guess there's a shortage. They booked through Expedia I guess so its understandable that some stuff might have got lost in translation....Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamerican71
As for the Beach Club all is well....the hot tub is still broken lol....the bar is well stocked....and it looks like they have a TONNE of beach loungers! That's a new and good thing! :)
Is it weird that I am excited about my solar powered watch getting charged up? Yeah....I know....
Glad to hear you had a good trip down, looking forward to more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusher
FYI - they had Amaretto (Di Saronno) at Quality Traders in December...
Have fun :)
Good to hear you all made it safe and sound. I really enjoy your trip reports. Thank you for taking the time from your reach to share with us. Really enjoyed last years too. Cant wait to see what you are cooking this time. Enjoy and recharge!
too bad you arrive after sunset . . . kind of a wasted day . . . but still, you are there!!
Might work for us this December. I can live with an overnighter in Winterpeg, anything to avoid the nightmare known as Pearson airport. Seems to me we always end up overnighting in Toronto anyways.Quote:
Originally Posted by JitterBug
I laughed when you mentioned the bottle opening with the lighter. I have tried to teach my wife to do it, you would think its like piloting a jet. They should make a person show they can do it before giving them their Canadian passport lol.
I think most Saskatchewan residents of a certain vintage learned that in high school out of necessity lol. Thanks for this report Crusher, we arrive on the 2nd same flight, good to hear its not busy at airport. Two of our party are with a package deal so have transfers booked, I'm hoping to pay to go along with them.....
Well Sunday was one of those days.
We started the day making our way down the beach to Travellers to spend some time with our newbies and to get some breakfast. Saturday was a loooooonnnngggg day of travel and it took a lot out of the both of us. I let Miss B sleep in on Sunday but finally got her motivated and we made our way down the beach. Denise and Brad joined us first on the deck at Travellers. We didn’t order off the buffet and instead opted for the menu. This of course meant that breakfast took like over an hour to prepare lol. I could have had all our orders done in like 10 minutes at home but hey we are on Jamaica time! LOL! They also don’t have a clue what Poached Eggs are. Not sure what that is all about. Eventually we were joined by the second couple of friends that we came with Marc and Carolannn. We chatted about our days plans and I collected money as I was going to do some exchanging later on in the day.
These two couples are really good friends of ours back in Regina. They are each others BFF’s and last year they went to Mexico as a group instead of coming with us to Negril. They regretted it and are WAY happier being with us this year. Marc is a Geo Cacher for those who know what that is. Apparently there are several around the island and he is determined to get a few of them. Later on the day he actually got a driver and went and claimed one of them. Its a GPS scavenger hunt kind of deal and yes....he's a geek too! :P
During our breakfast mi Doc showed up and we made plans to go and do some shopping. I needed my supply of Red Stripe and B’s wata! We also needed to fill our fridge with breakfast and lunch items as that is how we usually roll when it comes to Jamaica. We also needed supplies to make Curry Chicken one night this week. I love being able to cook in Jamaica and I love that we get to make whatever we want.
So after we ate we made our way back to NBCC as that is where Doc had parked his car. We settled up at the office for the room and headed out. We made our way down to Cafe Goa to say hi to Rob and Lisa as they were doing a webcast there. Rob was there but Lisa wasn’t as she was home with a sore back. We had a drink and chatted up Rob and then headed on down the road. Our first errand was to get our money changed. Doc informed me that the rate at the Chinamon store was the best in town right now so we went there. I changed cash for our friends, Miss B and myself. We did alright in the exchange and now everyone was flush with Jamaican. If you have never checked it out you really do need to go to the Chinamon shop!
From there we made our way up to the Hi-Lo. I spent like 350 bucks on various things…..Red Stripe…..groceries……Red Stripe…..groceries…..wata…..Red Stripe! We walked out of there with two carts full of stuff and enough supplies to keep us alive for a while. Last year when we were here there was a weird shortage of eggs in town but this year we were lucky and they were flush with everything we needed. We got all our breakfast and lunch stuff as well as our stuff we needed to make our curry later on this week. The guy who helped us did a double take when after loading my five boxes of Red Stripe into Doc’s car I said I would see him in a few days! LOL! Yes I do like my Red Stripe! :)
We made our way back to the NBCC and unloaded our booty. We thanked mi Doc and made preparations to go hang with our friends at Travellers. We chilled in the chairs on the beach and bobbed in the Ocean. The sun had its proper effect on us and before long we needed a nap. We headed back to the room. Brenda was in the lead and I got waylaid at the beach bar by our other friends. I had a few more Red Stripes before heading back. There are lots of characters at the club again this year and I spent an hour or so laughing along with a few of them before heading up for my nap. One of the nice things about our port of call is that you get to know the people that say there as there are residents and people who come at the same time every year. We enjoy each and every one of them.
After our nap we headed back down to Travellers for supper and Karaoke. For those of you who don’t know my wife is a professional singer and actress. Being a 5 foot tall white girl she catches a few people by surprise when she begins to sing. This night was the same. As soon as she began to sing the entire place was like wtf! She wowed them as she always does. Our friends are experienced singers as well so it was a pretty good night of entertainment. We rocked it!
After supper and a long line of Red Stripe we headed back to our room. I hadn’t slept much so I was really needing to go to bed. When we got back to the room our friend DK was still up and out on the deck of our Condo. Instead of heading to bed we sat and chatted about life and all the mysteries of the universe. lol….who am I kidding I was drunk….we talked about nothing and I managed a few more stripes! LOL!
Not sure what Monday is supposed to bring but I am hoping it includes more photos! :P
I am enjoying my 7AM jaunts to my office space lol. I think the girls are shopping today and I am going to grab Brad and make a foray down the beach I am thinking. Gotta hit up Bar B Barn and some other places. Or heck maybe I will walk into town and go have lunch at the Corner Bar(Seaview). I love their take away....best five bucks anyone can spend!
We still haven't see the jerk pork guy Dean....we did manage to hook up with our juice guy.....and yes I got my friends instantly addicted....that guy owes me commission or something! I haven't seen Jen..the Fruuuuuuiiiiit lady yet either! Man I miss me some beach characters!
That's it for today tune in tomorrow for some dumb ass adventures...when the ladies are away...the fat guys will play! :P
Attachment 40540
Brad
Attachment 40541
Denise and Brenda....Day Two!
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sounds good so far . . .
Loving the report, and happy to hear about the Beach Club doing good. Beach club pics are getting me all excited. 13 More sleeps
Crusher what was the airport experience like as far as time in the line ups? Were you able to use/save time with those kiosk things people are talking about?
Your report is AWESOME and I have one question...Does the China Man give better currency exchange than the Western Union in Hi Lo?
Good to hear! Did they put you in Bldg B? If you still need a larger bed tell them to take it from my 3rd floor in B bldg. We are good with two double beds in each room -- no couples in our group.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusher
I think I'm about to burst with excitement! I keep checking back for an update!
Been waiting for this report since you left:)- *****ing report!!
Good afternoon Crusher
I am glad you all made it safely. I love your adventures! A huge thank you for prepping the beach for us until we arrive on the 10th. Your pictures and the ongoing report will be a morning ritual with the last of my Blue Mountain coffee. I will try and melt the icy ground here in Saskatchewan until you return. Cheers!!! Mr. and Mrs. and to the rest of the crew!
Great report so far, thanks for the pictures. You may type a few hundred works but the pictures say a thousand. We're in MoBay in 3 days, Cheers.
Awesome report, keep it coming!
I have a gut felling that a lot of Red Stripe is flowing with ole Crusher and crew!!;)
Clap...Clap.....Looking forward to day 3......... :)
Great report.Ate at Sondra's at NBCC last week impressed with food and price.Took advantage of the 6 pack for 1,000 J also.
Monday.
Well I just don’t know what to say about Monday. It was an interesting day. We saw the opening of Chez Kory’s Breakfast Joint and after that it gets a little hazy lol!!
I woke up early as I always do and started off with a luke warm Red Stripe. Turns out my flat mate doesn’t know which way to turn the dial on the fridge to make it colder….silly skinny guy! I made my way out to the office area at the NBCC so I could get some wifi access and send my trip report. I love it out there its just me and some pixels along with the sunrise.
After I finished my report I headed back to the room and chilled on our deck. Our friends were going to come over later as they wanted to go shopping with B who is the queen of shopping in Negril. We have the most awesome furniture on our Deck….the rooms….aside from the beds….are sweet and the deck is certainly the best part! I had a few Red Stripes and lounged. About 9 or so I went in and woke up my gorgeous wife and we started our plans for the day. Her’s included taking folks to Sun Island Outlet and Times Square. Mine included getting really drunk on our deck! Looking around this morning I think both goals were fulfilled! LOL!
When everyone got there I made Breakfast for the crew....all 8 of them! They needed fuel for the shopping adventures ahead! LOL! It was a simple breakfast of eggs and toast....Tuesday sounds like omelet day to me! :)
Kevin and I managed to avoid the shopping brigade. DK and Doc went on their grocery run and B took her gaggle with her on their escapades. I don’t know if there is such a thing as deck gravity but if there is I was consumed by it! Most of the day was consumed by conversations that I don’t remember lol.
Later on after a nap B and I went down to Bar B Barn for some supper. She had the curried chicken, which was great, I had the Garlic Butter Lobster, which as great as well. I really do love that little bar of theirs. After a few more Stripes we loaded up and headed back to the room for a sleep.
I think we are actually going to sit on the beach today. The seas are pretty rough though so we will see what is up with that.
I am in full Negril mode now. I have everything I need and all our errands are done. I might take a trip up to Sav to get a foamy for added softness for B's Bed. She has lots of pain and the concrete mattresses need a bit of adjusting down here. We will work it out as we always do and everything will be irie! :)
I will try and actually get some pictures today.....damn Red Stripe! :P
It was literally like 10 minutes and we were through! Best ever! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Stoners6
They gave as good or slightly better.....Quote:
Originally Posted by tranquilitygurl