My girlfriend (Shannon) and I (Brian) have a trip planned for june 2012 to negril. I have been travelling to jamaica for 8 years, i have been for short trips 4 days and trips that lasted 6 weeks. I have been a boardie for a long time, but dont post much. Shannon has only been 1 time and the june trip will be her second trip to jamaica. Her first tripis what i will be reporting about. It was 2010 (two years ago) in May. I have to give some added info and background to paint a good picture. For our may 2010 trip i used the boards to get the most of my trip, and owe this board a BIG THANK YOU.
but i have to apoligize for my style of trip reporting, bare with me and thanks for reading

First about me, I been going to jamaica for 8 years, I am 31 now. A friend of my parents lives in redground, I call him Uncle dave. he has two daughters under ten, and has friends that have become my jamaican family. I take care of them by bringing down things they need or want. They take care of me when i am down there. I have stayed in sheffield (outside negril) in an unfinshed house with no doors or windows for a month, it was roughing it, and i didnt mind at all. I always rent a scooter for the entire trip. I am also big into snorkelling.
I am a dj by trade and on one month long stay, i decided to dj at a party in the hills, I was the only tourist, they were shocked that this white boy new dancehall music and lets just say i killed the crowd (in a good way). Since then i have dj'd parties both in jamaica and in the U.s. that were dancehall style bashment parties. I was dubbed by elephant man (the energy god), he called me "energy jesus" and it stuck as my dancehall dj name.
Now because i am a dancehall dj my gf Shannon has fell in love with the music. We attend events in our area and i am a known dancehall dj. She listens to a radio station out of Sav la mar called Linkz96. She listens to them over the net everyday at work. Me i am a hits 92 fan.

Now on to some trip background. We went in may 2010, for ten days i think. Its been two years since this trip, i dont have notes, but this trip had historical signifagance, so details will come easy i hope. The two main reason's for this trip was - 1. Shannon never been to jamaica. I pulled one of those sleep over and never leave moves when i moved into her appertment in sep 2009. In dec 2009, i went to jamaica for a month by myself from dec 13 2009 til jan 15th 2010. She was on the phone with me like everyother day. She was gun ho about seeing the place she heard about for a month over the phone. so it was gonna be her first trip/vacation. 2 second reason was my mom was going down with 3 friends and she wanted a small party on the beach for her 50th birthday. while we were up here planning trip, a promoter heard i was coming down and asked me if we wanted to do a party together, I would dj. So, we planned to throw a "moms link up party" on mothers day at the fisherman bar right at the start of the cliff road. An awsome boardie (sorry forgot your name) went down to the billboard and took a picture for me of the sighn with my name on it.
The guy painting the sign messed up and put me as the promoter and not as the dj, and put sound alone with no other djs. oh well, its advertised, so good to go. well no go, because there was some sort of issue at the bar a week before the event so, the party got cancelled thanks to babylon. no worries, went to a party and the hills and killed it. but i geeting head of myself.

So in planning the trip, i was in charge of setting things up since my gf thinks i am a ja expert. Shannon and i would be taking a flight saturday morning that took off at 6am in hartford ct, and we would be on the ground in ja by noon.my mom would be coming down wensday, so we had a few days to get stuff together for her party. Well i was in charge of picking and booking mine and shannons hotels. My mom was handling her own hotel and things. So for her first trip, i figured an all inclusive for part of the time would be a good idea. I found on expidia.com that let you book airfare and only part of your hotel stay if you wanted to. So we decided to split the trip, 6 days non a.i. and 4 days A.i. Over the years, on the way to negril we pased this huge place they were building called the :grand palaidieum. I like big resorts because of the options of food and bars. I found on expidia 4 nights with airfare at grand palladiuem for $744pp. That was perfect for us, and we would stay there our last four days of our trip. So what to do about the first 6 days. I am a cliff guy, but the gf is a beach lady. So i came to the boards and pleated my case. well one of you wonderfull people suggested the blue cave castle. I rember thinking, G O A L. I have seen this place many times from the sea and on pics here on these boards. I did my research, 60 a night on the water. Knowing nefril pretty well, wasnt sure if i would find closer to the water for cheaper than that. So i emailed blue cave castle for our first 6nights. so we all booked, now on to the show

May 2010

I dj'd til 2am the friday night before we left. We had 6am flight out of hartford, not sure where our layover was, but i bet i snuck out somewhere to have a smoke. Flying for me is tough with no nicotene. So we had no sleep before our flight, right from the club to airport, my girl deffently felt like a celeb. The flight was unevent full. in airport it went smooth as always. I did all the talking, my gf just smiled and nodded. I wish she was like that all the time. lol.
Now after you get out of the gates, it was raining, so crammed under the awning, i called my friend jose who was to be picking us up. He was in mobay in traffic, "rain wash out road" he said. I knew he would be there shortly, so i pulled out a battery powerd radio i brought, wipped it out and turned the dial til i found hits 92. My actions calmed shannon down alittle, she was getting overwelmed, be packed in a small space in an unfamilair area. within no time a car pulled feet from our faces, we were sitting on curb waiting. She had a shook look on her face, but all changed when jose jumped out of the car. Loud (like me), Big smile (like me) nice dresser (like me sometimes) and full of posivive energy my good friend jose. He jumps out the car, with his thik accent he says "wha gwaan mi brudda", hugs me and then immedate pushes me aside to introduce himself to shannon. They had never met in person but have talked on the phone. When i stay for a month or buy myself, i usually stay with jose. He is rast dont drink or eat meat. I feel bad because i do and do alot of each. He always make sure i am taken care of. He will go out of his way to make sure i am happy.
they made there introductions, filled the car with our bags and we were on our way. Jose knows i am a big smoker and always stops outside of mobay so i can enjoy my first ja spliff. Not exactly sure where we stopped, but i do rember we stopped at bar it had alot of shade and near sea with a breeze. jose knows me pretty good so he know i get hot easy and always says the first few days i am still defrosting. Now its been two year since this trip so i will do my best to rember tings and not mess up stories.
On the way to negril jose and i pointed out to shannon te grand padliedum, where her and i would be staying for four days in a week. I mentioned to jose that i wanted to rent my usual scooter for 6days.

i just relized this is long and first post so it will have advertisment. so i will continue in a moment in this thread. rmber this is from two years ago