Let’s rewind a little shall we?

(If you don’t like this kind of stuff, no worries my feelings will not get hurt… just wait until I get to Negril to start following along….some folks appreciate a good back story)

My first trip to Negril was July of last year so I still consider my self a newby. Some of you may have read my trip report. If you haven’t and you wanna, here is the link to it: http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...port-1st-Timer )

If you did then you know that I loved Negril right off the bat, but sadly that trip did not live up to its full potential due to a party pooping travel companion. I knew I needed to go back for a Re-do, but I didn’t think I would be able to swing it for a couple years…

Fast forward…


I was dating a guy for a couple months around the beginning of the year. We are gonna call him Crikey. It was nothing serious, but I guess he had lots of money to throw around and maybe he thought he would impress me by booking my dream trip to Jamaica as a birthday gift. I was stunned, because to me, something like this is a BIG deal. I thought maybe Too much TOO soon. Ultimately I didn’t really care. Jamaica drowned out anything logical trying to invade my thought process. He mentioned something about booking a big package deal and I said “NO, please let me plan it”. I knew he was the type to book at a big AI so I wanted to take the reins on this because that’s just not my style. Basically there was no budget, so I started out looking at places like Rockhouse and the Caves. Looking back now I am so thankful those did not work out. Finally I had it narrowed down to Sea Grape Villa and Catcha. Ended up booking the Moon cottage at Catcha Falling Star. I had heard so many good things to date about this property and the staff so I was stoked. We would be leaving Sat April 21 and returning Thurs the 26th. I hopped on the board to see about the runnings for the month of April. Looks like a GOOD week to be in town!! Lots of fun stuff in the works…

I noticed a list of boardies a mile long that would be in town. Apparently I had booked our trip for the week leading up to something called a “Boardie Bash”. Excuse my prior ignorance, but I had yet to attend one. In fact I had never met a real life boardie before. As it turns out we would miss the Bash by one day. Bummer. Bright side… I was happy to know there would be some familiar people around to party with. I keep reading the list… Wait, it get’s better….looks like boardies have Catcha almost booked solid for that week! I remember laughing to myself and thinking….I know everyone at this place….and I’ve never met a single one of them. LOL

This is about the time things with ‘ol Crikey get a little sketchy. I didn’t actually “talk” to him for a whole month leading up to the trip. However I did receive several semi-cryptic emails verifying that we were still “on” for Jamaica. How comforting. Clock is ticking….one week before go time and I was getting real irritated and stressed out with the lack of communication. I’m pretty “go with the flow” but it was a little unsettling not knowing if I would still have a ticket, hotel room, or travel companion. Assuming I was on my own, I started trying to make alternative plans for when I got to town. I would still owe half the cost of the hotel upon arrival and I definitely couldn’t afford Catcha rates. Spoke with a boardie friend from TX and he put in some calls to see if he could help me with possible accommodations. BTW Vince, even though things worked out as planned, you really helped me to relax and quit stressing and I thank you!

Counting down the days….so weird…don’t really know what I’m counting down to but whatever happens it’s gonna be FUN!

2 days until Jamaica. I get an email…

“I’m sorry I cannot go on the trip ….blah blah blah”

How rude! But I was so relieved. Couldn’t even imagine going on vacation with this guy. (Although he does make an appearance...u will see) I responded asking if I could pay him back for airfare over the next couple months and he said “don’t worry about it” OK I WONT  I remember calling my bestfriend to tell her what happened and suddenly it hit me. I was really going to Negril in 2 days!!! Then it hit me that I would be going alone. This is a first but it will be fine. I called Catcha to see what to do about the room. Can’t remember if Mauvette or Andrea answered. I told her the situation and she laughed and told me they would be charging the amount to his card anyways so I should just come!! Hahahaha. NO PROBLEM. We laughed.

Checked into the April roll call to update myself as being “solo”. It didn’t take long before I found peace of mind thanks to a really friendly woman known as Marley9808 and a rather funny fellow simply called Booger. “Dont worry about a thing”, they said…and for whatever reason, at that moment I knew every little thing was gonna be alright. LOL Marley and her husband Ninja were going to share a ride from MoBay to Negril with Guirigay and his SweetiPie. They were really kind to extend the invitation to me as well, and I accepted. Fantastic now I have virtually nothing to think about. I was actually feeling relieved that I was going alone and getting more excited, and curious about meeting all these people that had only been a screen name and avatar for the past year. It was a strange thing ya know? I mean WTF is a “Guirigay” anyways??

Hahaha

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THANKS CRIKEY