Christmas Vacation 2016..trip report

[NRV]

We were fortunate to spend another Christmas & New Year's in Negril. Our daughter came with us, but could only stay for four nights at the beginning of our trip. We arrived on Dec. 23td at 10:30 a.m. The airport was EMPTY...This was a surprise, as the past four years, the airport has been a zoo, with lines backed up around the ramps. No champagne at the arrival duty free shop...We grabbed some drinks, freshened up at Club Mobay and waited for our driver. We only had to wait a few minutes and we were off to Negril. Vacation has officially started! Woohoo! The traffic in Montego Bay & Lucie was horrible - surprised to see it that bad so early in the day. A quick stop for beers and a case of water. We arrived at Charlea by 2:00.
It was our first time staying at Charela....LOVED it! Check in was quick & we were in our ocean front room in no time. Nicely decorated room, big bathroom, and big balcony overlooking the dining area and stage. Unpacked a few things and hit the beach. Walked down to see Delroy at Rondel for several cocktails and sunset.



Since our daughter was only here for four nights, we let her choose where we were eating dinner. It was good to see Eddie. The food was delicious!




Christmas Eve - Where is everyone??? There weren't many people (tourists) on the beach. Breakfast at Alfred's today. Took a ride downtown ValueMaster to get 2 bottles of Moet champagne and picked up a case of Miller Lite for our friends. In & out pretty quickly. Back to enjoy the beach. Sunset and cocktails at "Delroy's Office". Dinner at Kuyaba tonight. We got to dine upstairs...NICE! The warm coconut pie at Kuyaba is my favorite.







Christmas Day we had our customary mimosas with Delroy first thing in the morning. It's five o'clock somewhere, lol... We ate breakfast at Charlea. The staff remembered us from last year when we hung out with our friends that stayed there. Francella had my fresh ginger tea ready every morning, God love her! Breakfast at Charlea is very good and reasonably priced too. Their croissants are delicious. The weather was nice the whole trip ...sunny in the morning and partly cloudy in the afternoons. However, it was pretty windy several days, but we still floated in the sea. I called Ivan's to make dinner reservations, but the recording said that they were closed???WTH??? We had dinner at LTU. The past three nights, none of the restaurants have been crowed at all...The roundabout was decorated with lights for the holidays...beautiful!

Nice wide beach!





Our daughter's last night, she wanted to go back to Debar. It was packed. We got the last table. Eddie was busy busy. Our daughter bought a bottle of sauce to bring home.

[SLP]

Great report and beautiful pictures. I especially love your sunsets.

[NRV]

EveningTuesday our daughter left and our best friends from VA arrived! Everyday was spent laying under the coconut trees and floating on the beach. Evenings we had cocktails at Rondel with Delroy and watched the sun set. Wednesday evening we ordered pizzas from Chances and watched the VT/Arkansas Bowl Game on our balcony and then enjoyed the band at Charlea. Great view from our balcony!



We went to Margaritaville on Saturday to watch the VT/Duke game. The manager on duty tried several times to get the game for us, but he wasn't able to get it. So we sat at the bar and watched the updates on our phone and ate lunch and drank. Got to watch some highlights on ESPN after the game. Flip's Mom & sister sat next to us and then Flip & his wife showed up. Sorry Flip...I didn't introduce myself...didn't want to stalk you...kinda shy.

I had four massages in the 10 days we were there by my dear friend, Miss Pat at Pat's Beauty Hut behind the Boat Bar. Please stop by & see her. She is GREAT!



We had dinner at Ivan's on Friday. It was busy, but we had a blast! Laughed so hard, that I laid my head on the table on cried. I couldn't stop laughing...out of control. Good times with good friends...the best! New Year's Eve the four of us had room service on our balcony. We ordered it a few hours early and our waitress brought our courses right on time. It was great! We had bottles of wine, had dinner and watched the band from the balcony. We walked down to Rondel to watch fireworks and celebrate the New Year with Delroy & his wife. The fireworks were great, as were the Chinese lanterns that were being set off up & down the beach. There were bonfires everywhere and music pumping up and down the beach. We ended the night at the Charlea bar. New Year's Day we were on our own, as our friends had too much fun the night before. We hung out on the beach and floated. Walked up to Bourbon Beach for lunch. Had a tropical downpour while we were there. Thank goodness we had already been served, as everyone came off the beach and packed the place. Had dinner at Charela that night - very nice.
Jan. 2nd we had to go home....Airport wasn't very busy, but Club Mobay was crowded. I had a foot massage there at the spa and then went shopping while my husband caught up on emails. Our flight back to Charlotte was uneventful - slept most of the way. Immigration was a different story... It was crowded. We were directed to the kiosk by an immigration agent. Then had to stand in a long line. Stood there for an hour and nobody was moving, when they announced that the entire immigration system in the US was down. Let me tell you...there were babies crying, people melting down left and right...thank goodness we didn't have a connecting flight. More flights were arriving and it was a mess! Finally, they let us go through, as we had scanned our passports before the computers went down. It took us 2 hours to get out of the airport. We didn't let it spoil our day. We were still on vacation! Until next year!

Random pics

[NRV]

Thanks Sue! I should've named this thread Red Stripes and sunsets! I took tons of sunset pics.

[NRV]

For my friend, Erin. Celebrating 5 years cancer free!

[tranquilitygurl]

Awesome trip report and PICS!

[billndonna]

Great report and pictures,thanks for sharing!!

[Markospoon]

Nice, Thanks for the Pics.

Never did the Christmas /New years trip.
One day I will.

[Jenn]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing. We also haven't done a Christmas/New Year's trip - but I'm planning on it for my 50th in a couple years!

[Papa Georgie]

Great photos! Thank you!