Here we go, off to Jamaica for our dream wedding! 28 of us left our small home towns in the early morning hours of Wednesday 4/13/11. 26 of us flew out of MNPLS at 530am and 2 out of Chicago. With a layover in Atlanta we sat in anticipation of what was to come. I had been to Jamaica over a dozen times since 1999 and my family has always wondered why I keep going back. My fiancé, Kevin, both brothers, and my mom had all been there once with me on separate trips. We landed in MoBay at 1pm 4/13, I walked out into the warm, fresh air to the hundreds of taxi offers to find Rocky waiting, with such a friendly smile and cold beers. We loaded people into one small bus and our luggage into another small bus.
We stopped to exchange money at a cambio. I collected money from 25 people and exchanged it all together,that was interesting, dividing up over $400,000J. Then to Mega Mart for some groceries/beer which proved to be overwhelming for most at this point. Then off to Negril, down the same path for all these years, the sights, sounds, smells! I sat in the “drivers” seat and watched the scenery go by. It was a quiet ride as everyone was tired from the long travels and the strong Red Stripes. I hope they got to soak in some scenery. Going through Lucea is always a treat. I love the feeling I get when we are close to Negril and start seeing the all-inclusives and all the familiar places. We arrived at NBCC around 5pm. We all got our rooms and got settled before meeting on the beach for dinner. Jean was so organized and such a sweet lady. I told our guests to walk down the beach and look for Coconut International or any other place to eat, C.I was closed so we ate at Beach House Villas. I am sure the size of our group overwhelmed them but they didn’t tell us that, just took our orders over a 45 minute period and the food came out …..slowly. Not a good first night, I would say a total of 3 hours later we were paying the bill. Most were disgruntled, crabby, and tired and I thought to myself “what have I gotten myself into with a group this big?”