29 Jan

Day 1 – On Our Way!

Today was the day! We both had our Covid tests and submitted our paperwork. We were approved! Woohoo! But we had to arrive today! If our flights were delayed a day, it was too late! Yikes!

For Turks, you have to have a PCR Covid test, not a rapid or antigen test, within 5 days of travel.  You also have to have proof of travel insurance with medical coverage.  It all has to be uploaded to the government site and approved before you can even get on the plane!

Nerve wracking, but doable.  And worth it!

My flight was insanely early. 5:15! Am! What was I thinking?

I was so excited to find a non-red eye, and when I figured out what time we had to leave Colorado Springs, it basically was a red eye!

When we saw there was a little bit of snow in the forecast, we realized we should get a hotel in Denver. That would give me at least another hour of sleep! So, we did, and I was able to sleep until 3 am! Yay?

Got to the airport where it took one solid hour to check in. An hour! Insanity. But I made it!

Slept for a while on the flight and then read. I had a short layover in Miami. I grabbed some pizza because I was starving, and inhaled it before boarding. Audrey was texting me, she was supposed to leave an hour before me and they had just come back to the gate! She was still sitting on the plane when I took off, so my fingers were crossed she would make it!

Miami to Turks is only about 1 1/2 hours which was great! Before I knew it, I was there! Look at this water!

I had to show my travel authorization and Covid negative test twice already today (in Denver and Miami), so I got it out again and had all my paperwork ready when we landed.

I decided to try Fast Track which is kind of like a FastPass through customs upon arrival. We had tried the similar service (Club MoBay) in Jamaica on our anniversary trip. It’s amazing when you need it!

I checked flight schedules, and there was a big flight landing 10 minutes before mine, so I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry! After we got off the plane, I made my way to the Fast Track lane. I realized I didn’t have one of the customs forms (I must have been asleep when they passed them out), so the Fast Track guy went and got me one and I filled it out as quickly as I could.

I showed my paperwork, and I was done! Audrey was waiting!

We hadn’t checked bags, so the Fast Track guy took us outside to the Beaches waiting area. He was worried that there wasn’t a Beaches person there, but we said we were fine. After about 20 minutes, we realized something must be wrong. Audrey went to ask someone, and we found out we were in the wrong place. Because of Covid, Beaches wasn’t picking guests up in the shuttles, they were paying for their guests to get in taxis so they could separate families. Makes sense!

By the way, Audrey was the go-to person on this trip whenever we had to ask for something. It’s not my gift. I avoid uncomfortable situations (even potentially uncomfortable situations) at all costs. Ha!

Beaches is about 10 minutes from the airport, which is awesome!

When we arrived, they took our temperature and gave us some welcome drinks and cold towels! We sat down to wait for our room number. Here are our mocktails!

At Sandals, your room is fully stocked with juices, sodas and alcohol. At Beaches they do not stock alcohol in your room because there are probably children in the room. They gave us a form to fill out requesting what types of alcohol we would like. I wrote “Coke Zero if possible” on the bottom. Fingers crossed! 😊

Someone came over to walk us to our room. And carry our bags of course! They didn’t want us touching them!

Our room was cleaned and ready!

When we got inside, we quickly realized we had a two story, two-bedroom! Woohoo! We were excited!

It was in the Key West Village area of the resort. We got a room tour, and then we unpacked a tiny bit. I mainly was looking for some shorts and my camera!

Here’s our living room and kitchen:

When we realized the main floor had a bath tub, Audrey kindly gave me that room!  

I need a bath tub.  It is known.

This was the balcony off my room:

This was the balcony off the front of our living area:

You can see the pool right outside which was great! The ocean was barely visible, but it’s behind those buildings in front of us.

Here are the new cleaning protocols:

Let me tell you, this wasn’t just talk! We walked in while they were cleaning one day, and they were mopping the floors and changing the sheets and all the linens. They did this every day!

Here’s Audrey’s room:

And bathroom:

This was the balcony off her room!

Here’s a video tour of our room if you would like to watch!

We were starving, so we sat down and ate some of the fruit they left for us, and looked at our swag!

Swag –

We decided to head out for a quick tour before our evening reception.

This is looking back at our room. Our room was on the second and third floors!

Here’s our room number –

We just did a quick walking tour, where I apparently took no pictures? That’s very strange for me!

But don’t worry, lots of resort pictures to come over the next few days!

We quickly realized the resort felt empty. I mean empty!

I was in search of a hat, which I had neglected to bring, so we stopped in one of the many shops to see if they had any cute ones for my very particular sized head! And they did! Woot!

We both bought one, and we went back to the room.

We changed for the reception, where we met the general manager, as well as other department heads. They socialized and answered all of our questions about the new safety procedures and other things. We found out the resort was only at 20% occupancy this week, which is why it felt so empty earlier. Crazy!

After our reception, we went to dinner at the adult only restaurant – Sapodilla’s. I had an absolutely amazing steak, and Audrey had lobster I think?

We were eating with another travel agent and decided not to be obnoxious and photograph everything.

That only lasted one meal, thankfully! We were ready for bed after that, so we headed back to our room. Tomorrow we would start the real touring!

Feeling Normal-ish in Turks and Caicos! – January 10-15, 2021
Day 1 – On Our Way!
Day 2 – Resort Tour 
Day 3 – Live Zoom!
Day 4 – Touring Nearby Resorts 
Day 5 – Relaxing Allll Day 
Day 6 – Last Few Hours!