Mr. X does Negril (2010) with No Reservations

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations

Chapter 7 - Snorkeling and Floating

Snorkeling Equipment
Snorkeling gear check buying at home verse renting in Negril. Would be great to have our own set so we can just go in the water any time we want. Since we are going to be near the water most of vacation. Check at sports places and wholesale clubs. About $39 for full set of fins, mask and snorkel. When I tried to put my foot in the fins it was like hard plastic and painful so knew cheap sets were not going to work. I went in local dive shop and got the scoop on what I needed. Fins, mask and snorkel.
With these I got pair of rubber booties ($10) which is good so I will have something to wear on the walk to the water. The thing I liked the most about these were they were very light weight fins which will be great for travel. Masks with snorkel fit good and felt fine. Black mesh bag big enough to carry 2 sets.

Excited about being able to go snorkeling anytime I want on vacation. I know I could have got them a little cheaper online but I wanted to feel them myself plus local businesses need my money and the guy was nice and helpful. Little over $100 total for mask, snorkel, fins and footies. Times 2. but looks like stuff that could really last. Not super heavy duty for everyday use but hopefully work for our purposes.

Even more excited about combining snorkeling and my other main vacation pastime of laying on my float. That reminds me I got to do some float research.

Floats
Got float for $4 at Marshalls. Only had one. Wife got. It’s exactly what I want. Just so happens Marshalls is on her regular circuit of shopping. Wifey is in the shop everyday mode for vacation only x days to go. Gee how many more beach covers, bathing suits do you really need?

Richards Variety Store
Got all kinds of cool stuff but more importantly they had cheap floats for $4 cool. Bunch of floats. Got 3 and had 1. Got other float ($7) that rolls up? So you are bringing 5 floats to Jamaica? If I have room in my suitcase I might. Floats are light enough to carry easy in suitcases and at $4 won’t care about leaving anywhere. Why do u need float? I notice especially on the cliffs some kind of float is very helpful. If u are cliff jumping you don’t need a float. Just jump. Swim to ladder climb out and repeat. But if u are in the water relaxing or swimming. I notice many people swimming and treading water and start to get tired. Not me I am just hanging on my float expending no energy. In fact you could smoke or drink or whatever it is you do all while relaxing on ur float.

August 28th, 2010 - Saturday
1 week baby we will be on Jamaica time. Tested my fins out today. Black water socks that slide right into fins. Worked great. Feet little sore but not bad. Mask and Snorkel seemed fine but water was so muddy (it’s a lake) could not see 3 inches. Did not leak so that’s a plus. Few minor adjustments but will do fine. Try it again on Sunday.

August 29th, 2010 - Sunday
Tested flippers again. Water visibility same zero. Normal. No wonder I don’t like lakes. Feet not sore this time.

Jamaica Table
Have had a Jamaica table since we got the airline tickets. Just put anything we are thinking about taking on the Jamaica table. Got snorkel gear, floats, sun screen. Negril is the easiest place in the world for me to pack for. Let me see it’s going to be warm 100% of the time. Shorts. Bathing Suit. Shorts. Bathing Suit. Keens and flip flops. No dress shoes. Comfort and practicality all the way. Could take a backpack and easy have all my stuff. Nowadays with iPods and kindles don’t have to lug a bunch of music or books on vacation with me.

Professional Floaters League
Last year I mentioned maybe some kind of professional floaters league might be interesting. On further thought I realized there would be no way to eliminate floaters to have a “winner”. It would have to be some kind of competition such as really cold water or shark infested water. There would be some Chinese guy who could go without food for a month or some Russian guy that the cold water did not bother or some Jamaican Floater that was really fast. I would have to specialize in warm non shark infested waters. Best for me maybe to keep my amateur floater status I guess.

[countryman]

Can't wait till you and Mrs. R. hit the island!!!
Love your writing style and sense of humor!

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations

Chapter 8 – My First Trip to Negril

I had visited Ocho Rios (70's) from a cruise ship and later stayed for 1 week with the parents in Ocho Rios (80's). So it's the early (90's) I guess. Now this was my first trip where I am paying. Girlfriend at time wanted to go on vacation so I said we have to go to Jamaica. Talked to travel agent etc. Ocho Rios was the only place I knew besides MoBay. Came up with Sandals. Funny how travel agents always put you into an AI. Sandals at the time big advertising was stay at one Sandals and play at any of the other Sandals. I guess they were doing this to show they were a big chain etc. Anyhow so we split the 8 days over Ocho Rios and some place with supposedly the best beaches called Negril.

It was a nice luxury resort at Sandals Dunn River Falls. High rise building. Enormous pool. Beach small and just ok at best. Dress up for dinner etc. had fun but was really looking forward to seeing something new in Jamaica.

So on the appointed day we are supposed to catch the Sandals shuttle bus to Negril at 9am. We are up packed and ready. Looks like it’s going to be a long ride so we load up our drink things with a strong cocktail to at least last until the airport.

Way it works is a lot of hurry up and wait. Stopped and picked up people at this Sandals and other Sandals who were on the way to the airport. We enjoyed view but still spent about 2 hours getting to airport. Once at airport we wait another hour for new people at the airport to load up. Drop them at Sandals in MoBay. Drive 30 minutes and then stop at their approved stop. Where it’s clean and safe and expensive for beer or food. Of course we want to get to Negril. Finally about 330pm we are pulling in the Sandals Negril. Then got to get off big bus and wait to check in with everyone else. 30 minutes later we get to our room. We had a view in Dunn River because it was a high rise. Less expensive rooms face away from water. I liked inland view.

In Negril we have the least expensive room which is still pretty expensive. No patio no view but we knew that and not a big deal. Put all stuff in room. I get my groove on. She wants to unpack. Of course tons of outfits she does not want to get wrinkled I guess. No problem I am going to beach. I hit beach and then go to right - away from all the people. At the time it took about 1 second to realize the beach in Negril is way way way better than Ocho Rios. Natural beach verse man-made beach. I get situated with my towel, frozen drink and try to relax after long travel day. Beautiful property, beautiful beach and beautiful water. This Negril place is pretty cool.

They always say out west in USA is Big Sky Country. Felt like Negril was really Big Sky Country. Could see so far with nothing but beautiful sky and water. Chillin. Finally starting to relax. Way in the distance I can see a tiny little plane flying. Cool because the sky is so big and vast that I can follow this plane. Appears to be headed this way. Wow flying really slow because it seems to be taking forever to come this way. Chugging along not too high above the water and appears to be heading directly towards me. Too funny. Couple more minutes and the plane is slowly coming at me and is still what looks like 20 feet above the water. Truth is I have been drinking on the long ride here but I am not tripping the plane is coming directly at me. Nobody else within 100 yards of me. Nobody else even close enough to notice plane. I am laughing to myself that I just got here and now a freaking plane is going to crash into me on a deserted beach.

Now I don’t want to look like an idiot and move from my lounger because a plane is near me on the other hand I don’t want to be so cool that I let a plane crash into me if I can move a few feet to the left or right and save my life. Closer. Closer. Damn that plane is going 100% directly at me and only 20 feet (?) above the water. It’s going really slow but I sit up in the chair just in case. I fight the urge to move and the small plane passed directly over my head. Of course it was probably higher but seemed like 20 feet. Anyhow I stood up dumbfounded and turned to watch the plane crash into the marsh or whatever is on the other side of the road. I don’t hear anything. No crash. No sound. No nothing. Just quiet. WTF?

Girlie finally gets done unpacking and makes her appearance at beach. I tell the story of the plane and it must have crashed or something over there. She has no interest in the mystery plane (crash or no crash) just wants to know if her hair looks good.

I got other things to worry about instead of that plane. We sit on beach and see our first Negril sunset. That did it. Relationship with her did not last but the relationship with Negril sure has.

Was not till a couple of days later when I went parasailing that I noticed the small airport and runway across the street. No wonder, I knew I was not (that) crazy.

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations


Chapter 9 - Cliff Jumping

Growing up I was always fascinated with jumping off something into the water. I am not a diver. I dove off high dive as a kid at the pool and no matter what I did my head hurt when it hit the water. Maybe something to do with my pumpkin sized head I guess. Anyhow don’t care about diving but love to jump.

As a young kid visiting relatives in Oklahoma they have a state park nearby called Roman Nose State Park. They had kind of a swimming pool surrounded by rocks. You could jump off the rock ledge into the pool. So cool and seemed so high. (When I went back a couple of years ago I was shocked that it was only like 10 feet high but as a little kid you felt as you were jumping off a high cliff.)

I remember Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid jumping off cliff to avoid the law. Just seemed to me if the water was deep enough you would not get hurt no matter how high the cliff.

So I hear about this Rick's place where you can jump off the cliffs into the water. So my first venture outside Sandals (early 1990’s) will be a trip to this Rick's place. Not like it is now but was still one of biggest tourist stops in the whole country.

Same as now big giant tour buses full off tourists driving at breakneck speeds from Ocho Rios, MoBay and all over the island – think Atlantic City Junket Buses. Show up at Rick’s hour or 2 before sunset. 2 minutes after sunset they are loading everybody up and hauling ass back. All the AI’s in Negril Area sent people to Rick’s everyday on “guided” tours. This basically is you paying 30 bucks a person for a ride to Rick’s and back on a bus. We don’t know any better so we are on that “guided” tour.

Had to wait in line and buy tokens. Then use the tokens to pay for drinks. Pain in the ass. Seems like it got filled up with people and things were fun and then its curfew and everybody leaves. 645pm curfew is a little strict in fact I am for no curfew. Seemed a big tourist trap with stunning location and views.

In order to jump off the high ledge back then you had to walk out and climb up to the right spot. Had to go barefoot on rock edges. This was my first time jumping off anything higher than the high dive at the pool. Yes this was higher. Seemed like 3 times as high but was probably only 2.5 times higher than high dive at pool.

Main thing is jump out so you don’t hit the rock edge. Not going to be a problem only got to jump out 2 feet. I played sports my whole life. I am going to jump out far enough where there is zero chance of me clipping the edge where the rocks and water meet.

Water was deep and clear not like Acapulco (remember cliff diving on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Where divers would have to time their dive with the surge or hit bottom.) Water was bouncing around but mostly from all the people jumping from the lower platform and boats etc.

Like parachuting (I guess) before for u know it was my turn. Not going to lie it looked high but since I had no intention of diving was not that scared.

So I made sure girlie had video camera on.

JUMP she said

Whatever just make sure you get it on tape.

JUMP JUMP JUMP

I hate when people egg me on but I was just getting ready.
So I took a little step and jumped out about 10 feet no problem
Right after I jump on my first ever high cliff jump, it quickly came to my realization that balance was going to be a problem. Cause I am rotating forward and a little to the right. Problem is I am flying thru the air and can’t just adjust myself upright. So I remember my arms. Rotating arms forward or backward you are able to make corrections. I am just getting the hang of it as time runs out. I hit the water mostly upright. I know one of my legs must have been a little bent because it feels like the back of my thigh and butt on right side had been paddled really hard. (Public school). Additionally as I was trying to swim to the surface I also noticed a pain in the right side of my chest. Had to swim over to ladder and get out without showing since many people are looking and girlie had to have a video of it.

Climb up ladder and figure out what the pain is. When I hit the water of course my arm was out so the impact of the water hitting my elbow (or vice versa) pulled a muscle in my rib cage.
Self-diagnosis guess I will live.
Whatever.
Anyhow I played it off and popped up the stairs to have a look at my big jump off the really high cliff.
Little bit of me getting “ready” to jump and then … the tape just stops. (That was our technology at the time)

She said don’t worry about it just jump again.
If the tape ended how are you going to video tape?
I will rewind just a little then turn it on.
My leg hurts my chest hurts, no chance of me jumping again.
I can’t believe you did not check that before I walked my ass up that rock cliff barefoot with my tender feet.
My chest and leg stopped hurting after a couple of days.

Lesson learned
1. Even jumping into water can hurt

To this day I still love to jump off cliffs into the clear ocean in Negril just prefer jumping from cliffs anywhere between 2 feet to about 15 feet high. At these heights I still have fun but don’t have to worry about getting hurt.

[negrilaholic]

Reminds me of when I jumped...I gave my camera to someone to take a pic of me..and of course he forgot..so I had to jump a second time, but it's all good, he bought me a drink to make up for it. Now that I have been there done that don't think I will jump from that high spot again.

I want to say thank you and am enjoying reading your posts very much.

[jeannieb]

I just started reading this today. Very nice! I'll be checking in to see what more you have to share. Thanks!

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations


Chapter 10 – Souvenirs/Craft Markets

Craft Market
2 main craft markets in Negril. One up by the big All Inclusive (AI) and the one down by the River. Truth is I got zero interest in going to the Negril Craft Markets or the Craft Market anywhere on vacation. Would rather spend my money on food than crafts. Went to craft market in Haiti when i was a young teen. My sister says she still has nightmares about it. Craft market vendors anywhere are super aggressive because they got to beat everyone else. Who said the first front left vendor as you come in probably gets 50% of the business at whole craft market? Too funny and probably true. If I was to go to the craft market I guess I would go to the one near the river and enter (sneak in) from the beach side hopefully with a regular. I know there is food, great people and beautiful artwork I am missing out on but just not my idea of fun.

If you collected something specific like wooden turtle carvings for example you could get beautiful pieces at low prices. Or beach towels. Or whatever. Just have to have the right mind set for this kind of shopping.

Due to my budget last year (2009) did not factor in many/any souvenirs for us. Normally I don’t go for this kind of thing. Wife wants to shop (buy) 24/7 vacation or not. Mostly stupid sh*t. Dislike mass produced tourist trinkets in NYC, ATL or Negril. But those original paintings look really nice. I figure I cannot afford one. Read some trip reports including one where a lady had to track Ras Husmo down. Love those paintings. Now that’s something that would have real meaning for me.

Running out of things to check on. I guess I will read up on Karl Ricketts and Ras Husmo to see where they might be when we are in Negril.

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations



Chapter 11 – Airfare Revisited

This trip or any vacation is not on for me until the airfare is booked. If I don’t have tickets then not even a trip just a dream. Once I get tickets then it is on. Can get excited. In season you better have hotel lined up at time you book airfare. Offseason not problem to find a place to stay but the airfare can get booked up. Fewer flights I guess. If I got tickets good chance no matter what we are going on vacation. No airline tickets yet? Then just talking theoretical vacation.

Recent thread on Negril.com about staying for one (2) week vacation or two (1) week vacations from our favorite San Francisco couple. For me it is much better to go on two (1) week vacations. Easy Choice. This has to do with how long we can be away from home, pets, work etc. Gives you shorter time between trips etc.

In our example say it cost them (Daisy and Markus) $600 each ticket from SFO. So that’s 2 people so $1200 to fly one trip and $2400 to fly 2 trips. If you divide $2400 over 14 day trip then airfare is costing them $171 per day. If you divide $1200 over 14 days then it is a more manageable $86 per day. Other factors come in to play such as time it takes to arrive in Jamaica. In D and M’s case they have long flights and layovers. Lots of travel time. So (2) trips twice as much travel time. So while it is much better for me to do two (1) week trips it may be better coming from California (not direct to Jamaica) to do one (2) week trip.

So that means if you live far away you cannot come for a week?
No it has to do with many factors. Direct Flight. Say poolguywindsor is coming from Windsor, Ontario. I am an American Idiot so I don’t exactly know where that is but suffice to say somewhere in Canada. This trip he decides to come by himself and stay for 7 days. He says he has paid $350 for a direct flight. Even though he is coming all the way from Canada his airline cost per day is only $50 and a direct flight. Same example instead of coming by himself he brings family and pays for 6 tickets for a total of $2100 and only stays a week. So now the airfare cost per day is $300 and that’s getting a great rate of $350 per ticket. I don’t even want to think about how much it would cost per day if tickets were expensive. Yikes. You can do the math for you and ur party. Once you get to Jamaica the costs are the same for everyone. Getting to Jamaica costs are different for everyone. Travel time, number of people you are paying for, and actual cost of airfare are major factors.

For us it is (2) in our party. So for 2010, I paid a total of $474 (8 days). So we are at $59 per day. Got a steal. Still because we are just here for a week its costing us almost 60 dollars a day for airfare. In 2009 I paid $900 total and we stayed for same 8 days so that works out to $113 a day for my airfare cost. Looking at that number it seems high and don’t even want to venture a guess at what some people are having to pay. I guess around $100 per day and above starts to be (or seem) expensive to me.

People coming from far away say England then the cost is much higher. I understand these peoples need to stay longer due to the high cost of airfare.

Of course the regulars know all this and they are constantly coming up with ways to stay longer and spend less and still have it pretty nice. In our particular case cannot go for any longer and whatever it costs us on airline tickets we already paid so if it was cheap or expensive it’s irrelevant now. Distant memory. But when I look at total budget for trip ($2400). And planning future trips even getting a steal on airfare because of short length of stay it’s still costing us $60 a day for airfare. Well I guess that’s for 2 people so actually only $30 a day per person. Damn I knew I got a deal. Airfare is the biggest cost variable that i can not control.

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations



Chapter 12 – Company is coming


August 18th, 2010 (D-Day minus 17)
Our friends say they would like to go to Jamaica. Exact flights we are on is now up to $1500 for which we paid $479. We will put you on the list for next year’s trip I am thinking.

August 19th, 2010 (D-Day minus 16)
Friends are serious about going but they can only stay till Wednesday. No problem. Not on same flight as us but arrives 30 minutes before us. Which is perfect. Not going to do anything until they have the tickets. Changes the trip around but it will be a blast with them.

Still think the Seastar Inn will be perfect and affordable for the first night if they are doing the webcast and party.

Having 4 people actually gives us more options on the hotel and will get us a better rate. Some like Catcha have the 2 bedroom suite available for some nights. When divided by 2 more reasonable.

Cliff options
Seastar Inn
Catcha Falling Star
Banana Shout
Xtabi

Beach options
Idle Awhile
Bar B Barn
Tree House


August 20th, 2010 (D-Day minus 15)
O sh*t they are booked! They are flying American Airlines to Miami at 830ish then land MoBay at 130ish us land MoBay at 2pm promptly. Well sure in theory it sounds perfect. We all know amount of things that can go wrong. But if we both are anywhere near on time things should work out swimmingly. (Is that really a word?).

Got to go over options with upper management. Then talk to them about budget etc. They got an anniversary on the day before they leave. They might want to blow it out one night. I mean get a nicer room or place just for them. I still would like to stay in the Seastar Inn on Saturday.

Maybe Seastar Inn 2 nights then Catcha for 2 nights. Would be awesome but girls might try to weasel the beach. We can stay at Seastar Inn and go all over the beach Sunday and then end up at Aqua for webcast. Wait no webcast at Aqua that sunday.


August 24, 2010 (D-Day minus 11)
Friends are coming over to dinner. That way I can explain what I had in mind on trip. Not have to answer million questions spread out but answer all at once.


Big Jamaica Pow Wow
Lot of eating, drinking and Thanks and Praise. Explained the 411 (my version) on Jamaica. They are only going to be there from Saturday to Wednesday. People told them they had to do Dunns River Falls. I explain that we are going to be on other side of island. Showed them utube video with 500 tourists locking arms climbing up Dunn River Falls. They and us are not those kind of tourists. Big trips that take all day are out. We will give them a great tour of the Negril area. People told them they had to stay at Catcha Falling Star. Yes we will show it to you and maybe even stay there.

They are cool with Seastar Inn the first night and then see what happens for the next 3 nights. I explained how we could visit beach anytime and still stay on cliffs.

Friend is big into music. It is off season for concerts. Sure there is still plenty of music to hear. It is Jamaica. If we decide to see a show at Bourbon Beach then we could stay next door BarBBarn.

[Mr. X]

Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations



Chapter 13 – Final Week (August 28th, 2010 - September 3rd, 2010)

Seastar accident
Read online Negril.com where a young well liked employee and family member at Seastar Inn was killed in an accident. (Please don’t ask details). So sad. Last thing I want to do is be acting like an idiot on vacation when people have this to deal with. Guess I better find someplace else to stay. Back to the drawing board.

As the week goes on I don’t know what to do. I am following events online. If Seastar Inn is going to be open for business and have the Saturday night webcast and show then maybe we should go and stay there and be supportive. If they cancel the show then obviously we better find somewhere else and stay at the Seastar Inn another time. Seastar Inn gets such rave reviews. I want to be there if they want us but do not want to “get in the way” or be a “burden”.

Damn I don’t know what to do.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
Thursday (September 2nd, 2010)
I call the Seastar Inn and ask if they are doing the show on Saturday night. They don’t know but said no problem if we want to stay at the hotel. Ok I figure even if they don’t have the show we will still stay there on Saturday and just stay the hell out of the way.

Last few days went by moderately fast. Basically did not get anything done. Could not get motivated to clean house, laundry, yard etc. Just did not happen. Few things to pick up and do at work. Getting pets organized before we left.

Cannot find passports day before we leave. I know I saw them. Damn got to go thru bunch of stuff looking for them. Trying not to panic. Only mild panic. Only waste about an hour of time on afternoon before we leave. Found them on the mantle, right where I put them so I would know where they are. Damn. That wore me out. Got to sit down and rest. Going on vacation can be stressful.