First trip to Negril - Travel Report - Day 4 - Moving over to the Coco La Palm

[Clarity]

I was still holding my new carved butterfly signed by Courtney in my hands when we pulled up to the Coco La Palm hotel. We spilled out of the cab and paid the taxi driver for the ride.

The lobby had a colorful Jamaican mural, and the receptionist was wearing a bright yellow shirt and was in the middle of talking with a customer on the phone. We waited a moment and gazed around at our new surroundings. We could hear the sound of water trickling from a big fountain in the distance.



"Hi!" the Receptionist greeted us with a big smile. "Welcome to Coco La Palm!"

We gave her our last name and she went into the backroom to check her files. She came back and spread the paperwork onto the table for us to sign.



"We're excited to be here... we've heard a lot of great things about this hotel" I said

"Is this your first time in Jamaica?", She asked.

"Yes, we're celebrating our upcoming 9 year wedding anniversary", I told her happily

"Congratulations!!", She said. She shuffled the papers a bit and pulled out a slip of paper that she placed on top of the forms. "Well,you'll be happy to know that you have a free complimentary upgrade to your room."

Complimentary upgrade?



I was so excited that I whipped out my camera and took a picture of it. She watched me with amusement. (We could only afford the most discounted rate which only guaranteed a bed to sleep in... so I figured we'd be stored in the maids quarters or something. I was really okay with that.... So this was a big deal!)

"Here are the keys and your towel cards. You'll be staying in room 536", She continued. "...That's the honeymoon suite"

THE HONEYMOON SUITE?! I froze. At first I thought she was joking with us. Then I realized by her expression that she was totally serious.. Markus and I looked at eachother in shock.

"Wow, I-thank you.. that's... amazing!" I managed to stutter out.

The concierge came up from behind to take our bags and show us our room.



I was still in a bit of a daze as we navigated through the lush surroundings of the hotel. I could see kids splashing in a pool through the palm trees and a hot tub nestled in the foilage. Everything was white with murals painted on the walls. The rooms seemed to be named after different Jamaican birds.

[Clarity]

We reached our door and Markus used our keys to open the door.



There was a loft-like narrow staircase leading us up to our private room.

When I saw the room, I nearly fell over. There MUST be a mistake here...



I looked over at the man that was putting our bags down and expected him to say
"Ooops.. sorry, wrong room. My bad" but he didn't. Instead he pointed out the fridge and the coffee machine to us..

The room was stunning.. large wooden ceilings.. big windows.. massive poster bed..So amazing!!



"The doors lead out to the balcony with a view of the ocean, there is a walk in closet in the bathroom and a Jacuzzi" he continued

A JACUZZI??


We just gazed at him speechless in shock. He laughed at our expressions. "Well, if you need anything you can just call the front desk... enjoy your stay at the Coco La Palm", He said with a smile.


we tipped him and he head back down the stairs.

We stood there frozen in place for a second.

"Oh my god...", I whispered. "Am I dreaming right now?"

Markus started laughing "I... can't- I can't BELIEVE this!!!..."

Then we started running around like little kids checking everything out...

Markus swung open the balcony doors and took in the view. "Honey.. this is... look at this!!!"



We stood there taking it all in.. the sound of the surf, the view of the beach through the almond trees.. the soft breeze..the sound of reggae music from the downstairs bar... It all felt very surreal. I had tears in my eyes that I kept brushing away with the back of my hand so Markus wouldn't see. They were happy tears, but I will still embarrassed.


It's just that we couldn't afford a honeymoon when we first got married. Our entire wedding cost 500$ - which was a lot for two kids right after their college graduation. We had to go back to work a few days later. We always said "Someday we'll have that honeymoon.". So naturally we had never experienced staying in a room like this before. This was all new to us.

Now 9 years later we finally made it to Jamaica..in a honeymoon suite with a view of the most beautiful beach we'd ever seen in our life...