Three years ago, some friends came along with us to Riu Palace for our daughter's wedding. Since then, we have spoken about that trip - and how much we love going to Rooms (before the wedding and after) and decided to plan a trip with them to Rooms in March. Last July, we booked our trip and the planning began.
Here's our little tale of our adventure...
We found a flight that left at 6 am and landed at noon - BOOKED. Fast forward to the night before. Taxi to airport scheduled...bags packed....money sorted and ready....and a text comes in from Delta. Flight will leave at 6:55 am instead, meaning we've already missed our connection in Atlanta. Frenzied calls to Delta to rebook and taxi to change pick up time. Nothing like being crazy mad the night before...I just kept saying...24 hours this will all be better. All changed - friends came here and off to the airport. Let the games begin! Or so we thought. Leave here on time and arrive in ATL a bit early. However, on the flight, my friend gets crazy sick. Uh oh! Get to our gate...and the waiting game starts. We find out our plane has mechanical issues and instead of now leaving at 10:45, we switch gates and leave around 11:30. Calls to NegrilOneStop to let them know to alert our driver we are coming in even later. Sigh. Finally, we're off.
Arrive in MoBay and my friend is feeling a bit better. Club MoBay reps meet us and we bypass a looooong line! Quickly through to the lounge and we are drinking rum punch. They found Tulla (our driver) and out we go with a mug full of rum punch for the road! We hit up the cambio to change some money (because I wasn't sure if we would make it in time to Negril to change money), quick stop to HiLo (which was under remodeling) for more Red Stripe and supplies, and out of town we go. Traffic was heavy heavy - but we made it to Bigga's for a late lunch. YUM - as always.
Rolled in to Negril around 4:30 to Rooms, checked in, dropped our bags and headed to the beach. Amy was feeling awful by this time (probably should have skipped the rum punches on the way in!) so she ended up going to bed. However, my husband, and I headed right out to the water! Every single time, I always am the first one to put my feet in the water. This is my AHHHH I'm home moment. However, I may have been slightly stumbly already, so hubby got there first and continued to rub it in all week. From here, we went right over to Sunnyside to see Robert. Now, we have completely neglected our newbies at this time (remember I'm stumbly...and COMPLETELY relaxed.) Well, who should we meet there? But Rob and Lisa. I've seen them many times over the years, but for some stupid reason, I'm always too nervous to introduce myself. I'm not a shy person, but being as I'm not a huge poster on the board, I just figured they would be like, who are you? Being relaxed, I marched right over and introduced myself and hubby to them. Well....we ended up sitting there til way past dinner (which we missed, because evidently a liquid dinner is best for me on the first night!) We had a blast with them! The beers were flowing, the laughs were great, and then oh yeah...there's Tom (our friend) at the bar at Rooms. He didn't know where we went (and clearly we had forgotten!) So he comes and joins us...more beers...more laughs....then Lisa suggests we go hit up the West End. I'm all in. We walk (some of us better than others - read: Everyone better than me) over to their car and suddenly, I can't. I am not in any condition to drink any more. Hubby and Tom take me and order some food (which I cannot eat) and they take me back to my room where I fall asleep instantly - while they head back out. Evidently, I was in bed by 9. I have no pictures from this day...shocking.
Wake up the next morning wondering what sort of train hit me the night before....