After 6 Trips.....Finally......My First Trip Report!!

Hello Everybuddy!!

I have been lurking and making the occasional post on these forums for a few years, and have always wanted to do a TR. With our next (7th) reach coming in January, I am finally ready to start my tales. It wouldn't be fair to start the story in the middle, so I am going to have to make you all suffer through the travails and triumphs from the beginning. My name is Woody, and I was born in...................just kidding, we don't need to go back that far.

Back in 2007, my fiancee, Angie (Lovin Negril) and I were trying to decide where we should get married. She was actually the one who thought it would be cool to do a destination wedding. After looking around she found us a deal that was hard to beat. It was a small AI called Coral Cove, located in Little Bay, JA. We discussed it for a couple of weeks. I was leaning more towards a traditional wedding at home, but the more I looked at the pictures of the resort, the more I was thinking how great it would be to have a wedding and honeymoon all at once. We started running it by our closest relatives to get feelers out on how they would feel about it, and got positive reactions from enough of them to make our decision (greatest decision ever).

Day 1

On February 20th, 2008 we finally landed on the rock. I remember, even when descending, I could feel the heat rising in the cabin, and I was getting extremely excited. It took us about an hour to get through Customs, as there were two or three other flights that arrived at the same time as us. After getting our baggage and getting outside I was delighted by the glorious smell outside of the airport. I still don't know why that smell makes me so happy and relaxed at the same time. It's not like it is a very pleasant smell, but it has an intoxicating effect on me. After finding our liaison, we were escorted to where we would be picked up shortly. I ran (ambled) over to the little bar and got a couple of Red Stripes and just soaked in the surroundings. By the time I was finishing my first Stripe of the trip, our driver showed up and we were on our way.

I wear a seat belt religiously at home, but did I bother to put one on this day.........no. I don't know why I was feeling so fancy free but I threw safety out the window, even though I am sure my fists were clenched up tighter than ever before. Holy Sh*t!! These people all drive like they are in a Grand Prix. This crazy ride lasted about an hour, and then, it was the complete opposite. The roads became filled with some of the biggest potholes that I had ever seen, and at times only room for one lane to travel at one time. The further we went the more I was wondering where we were really heading. I had seen a lot of positive reviews of Coral Cove, but I was starting to question the validity of those reviews. I started to have images of the movie Club Paradise, and wondered if we were going to meet up with Robin Williams and Eugene Levy (not sure if anyone will get that reference).

Well, lo and behold, all of a sudden we pulled into the gates of Coral Cove and I knew right away that the reviews hadn't lied. This was a beautiful property and I was sure we had made the right choice. We checked in and were promptly escorted to our rooms. I had been wondering before our trip how easily I would be able to get some tasty sandwich ingredients, and I wasn't disappointed. As the nice young man carried our bags up to our room, he put the bags down and asked if I would like some subs. Well, that was easy, and the subs were very tasty.

After chilling for a bit, we went down to dinner. Then we hung out at the bar and waited for the rest of our party to arrive as they had taken later flights. By the time they arrived we were pretty wiped out from travelling. We hung for a bit more but then had to call it a day.

I think that I was so inundated by the new experiences that I only ended up taking two pics that first day. In fact, I didn't take any more pics until our third day, the wedding. But trust me on this, there are plenty more pics to come, as well as more stories. I hope you join me on my journey down memory lane so I can catch up to the present.

Our bed:
Attachment 31637

The "Beach":
Attachment 31638

Do continue.....

Ya, mon, there's something to be said for stepping out of the airport building, feeling the lovely heat, smelling the breeze and seeing those hills in front of you, just melts the trip stress right off.

Can't wait for more.

Ready for more.....

Nice...pls cont.:)

WisconsinWoody! Your reference to Club Paradise made me laugh - every time I see people parasailing I can't help but think of that movie! It's a classic.

Funny too...if you're in Trempealeau, I'm just across the river from you on the Minnesota side! :)

Bring it ON!

So, my wife has informed me that, indeed, I have written a trip report in the past...............hmmm...........I don't remember. It must have been before the site was updated because I don't see it anywhere. I also have no idea what I may have told in the first version (too many subs). So I am going to soldier on in this TR. If any of it is old news to you, you may stop here and wait for TR #2. For everyone else, let's carry on-----

Day 3--The Wedding

When we first got to Coral Cove we immediately wanted to be wed out on the rocks that jutted out into the magnificent ocean that surrounded us. Unfortunately, the winds had risen up so high in the first two days that the wedding planner told us that it would not be a place fitting for us to take our vows..............."That's OK, we are here to get married and I don't care where we have it", I thought.

Here is a pic of where we were thinking of, taken on the day of our wedding (we would have been right out on the point):

Attachment 31673

There were continuous gusts on the day of our wedding, probably around 20-30mph, and cloudy. Not the ideal situation for a wedding, but we were still so excited to finally be wed that the weather could not deter our plans. In order to save some time and get onto stories that you may care about I will just insert some pics of the nuptials, so that we can hurry up and move on to the funnier and more interesting stories of our first reach.

My Beautiful Bride:

Attachment 31674

Me, getting ready for the wedding. Not sure why I was cleaning my flip flop, as I had to walk down the beach to get married:

Attachment 31675

Our wedding arch:

Attachment 31676

The Nuptials:

Attachment 31677Attachment 31678Attachment 31679Attachment 31680Attachment 31681

Awwwww, how lovely!!.

More please, great pics. I have a feeling this is going to be an awesome TR!!

P.S. Lovely wedding pics

I agree, beautiful wedding pics. Love her dress and the bouquet

We hired a reggae band to play on the night of our wedding. After we had dinner, we all headed back down to the beach/bar area to begin the festivities. The band was there and starting to get setup when, all of a sudden........................The power goes out.

No problem, mon. It will probably turn back on in a few minutes. 30 mins later, no power. 1 hour later, yep, no power. So the band says that they have a generator on the way and we will be enjoying some music soon. After about two hours, the band finally procures their generator, and they finish setting up. The frontman comes over and tells me that they are about to begin, and we are all fired up.

The band turns on the amps and speakers, begin tuning their instruments, and the most godawful noise is coming out of the speakers. It is a mixture of feedback and this WHOOMP, WHOOM, WHOOMP sound that sounds exactly like the motor of the generator turned up to 11. The band turns everything off and starts to mess with some wiring and making adjustments to their boards. They turn it back on and it sounds exactly the same. But this time the band starts to play like it sounds fine. After their first "song", I go over and ask to speak with the frontman. I told him this really wasn't working out and was wondering if we could put it off for a couple days and try again. He was very reluctant until my new wife came over and used her "subtle" acts of persuasion to get our way. So, in 3 more days we were going to be having another beach party.

We still partied the night away, and were pretty much useless the next day. Luckily, we didn't have a care in the world anyway.

Next up. Our first visit to Negril....................hhmmm.............friend s are gonna be there...................supposed to be a nice beach....................hope it's cool, because I don't really feel like going anywhere............I guess we'll see.