Mr. X does Negril (2010) with No Reservations

[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.