02 Oct

Day 1 – Travel and Arrival

 

The few days leading up to this trip were a little crazy as Hurricane Danny developed. Jenell had texted me to see if I’d seen it a few days before we left. I had, but I was thinking about any cruisers we had out there. I didn’t even think about the fact that I was going to the Caribbean!! Duh!

It was forecasted to hit St. Lucia on Sunday and Monday and we were flying out on Monday afternoon! We kept watching it and kept our fingers crossed.

I booked flights really late, so to keep the costs low, I had some horrible flight times! My fault though. I left the house at 9 am to run some errands and take Chase and his girlfriend to the airport in Denver. They were flying out much earlier than I was, but it didn’t make sense for me to come home in between. A dear friend drove us up and dropped us off. I said goodbye to the kids and camped out in the USO for a few hours.

Love those volunteers, thank you to the USO!

I was watching Danny and it was moving North a little, but still going in that direction. I started to feel okay that we were going to be safe, but our weather was going to be horrific! I was okay getting stuck in St. Lucia for a few days (throw me in that briar patch), but Jenell couldn’t be late getting home. Luckily, she wasn’t leaving until the next morning, so we were hoping for another turn North overnight.

My first flight was delayed so I stayed in the USO as long as I could. About 10 minutes before the flight was originally scheduled to leave I got up and started repacking everything I’d gotten out. I glanced up at the screen, and my flight was showing as on time!

Oh noeses!! I wasn’t even in the right terminal!

I took off. The whole time I was thinking, did I really get to the airport 6 hours before my flight only to miss it?

When I got to my gate the door was closed. The flight was still listed on time at the gate. There was no one there. Oh my word!!

Then I noticed a lot of people sitting waiting for a flight. It dawned on me that there were too many people there for a flight that wasn’t even posted yet.

I tried to stop sweating and catch my breath and about 2 minutes later the new time appeared at the gate. 45 minutes from then!

PHEW!!!

I flew to Salt Lake City and landed around 10:15.

My next flight wasn’t until 11:55 and I was hungry! Surprisingly, most things were closed!

McDonalds was open! I haven’t had McDonalds in about 3 years or so. I had actually just been talking to Chase about McDonalds the week before and he was trying to convince me it was still good.

Well why not?

I had a cheeseburger Happy Meal and it was outstanding!

I was wrong about McDonalds. Mostly.

My next flight was a red eye to Atlanta. Yuck! I did get a couple of hours of sleep.

When I landed Stephen had texted me and told me the storm was still turning North. Yay!

I was planning on going to the USO for a few hours until I realized it was outside of security. Shoot! But I passed Chick-fil-A which made it all better.

I went to my next gate and waited for Jenell. Her flight was delayed and she only made it with about 15 minutes to spare! We were the last two people onboard!

I texted Ally to tell her I was definitely going to St. Lucia! She said this:

She loves me.

It was gorgeous out!

It was gorgeous out! Hurricane schmuricane.

When we landed it was still gorgeous out! Yay!

The customs line was decent, we waited about 20-30 minutes I think?

After we made it through we followed the signs to the Sandals lounge. Transfers are always included in a Sandals vacation and the lounge is a great place to wait for your transfer.

Once we were in the van they passed out cold wash rags which felt heavenly.

I finally got out my real camera in the van, but I wasn’t on the right side for great pictures.

We’re here!

There was a party happening when we got out! They tried to give us drinks but we declined based on the alcohol. They were very disconcerted by that.

They had us sit down in the beautiful open air lobby while they checked us in.

A few minutes later someone brought us some non-alcoholic drinks. So nice!

They brought us our folder of information and iPads to confirm all our information on.

When we finished they needed to imprint our credit cards but their computers were down.

I took a few more pictures.

One of the 9 restaurants was right below the lobby next to the pool.

Then they took our luggage for us and walked us to our room. He showed us everything in our rooms and said goodbye.

There is no tipping at Sandals (unless you are in a room with butler service) and he did not hang around for a tip at all! I do love not having to worry about that. 🙂

My room!

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Here’s the best part of my room! Look at my view!

Fridge stocked with drinks!

Bathroom spa products:

Balcony selfie!

One last look!

Now off to pick up Jenell!

We had a reception to go to.

I felt a little self-conscious with my giant camera so I put it away while we were there. Sadly that means no food pictures. I had some of the most amazing shrimp ever! And I don’t really like shrimp! But these were deep fried and spectacular.

I did snap a phone picture of my drink!

Because Sandals is all-inclusive and alcohol is a big part of that for many people, I was anxious to see how easy it was to get non-alcoholic drinks and if it was just standard soda options or would they make me more exciting options.

Well the answer was, they would! Most of the bartenders had to double check to see if they had heard me right when I said no alcohol, but they were more than willing to accommodate. Tonight’s bartender whipped that drink up and it was delicious! I had two!

I’m sure I looked like a lush to anyone who saw me getting two and assumed there was alcohol in it. Lol

After the party started to break up we were on our own for dinner. We had finally gotten internet on the way to the reception, so we sat down by the fire for a few minutes and caught up on the world wide web.

They joked about how much people like the fire places in a Caribbean climate, but it was really nice! Not really hot, just pretty and romantic for couples!

Jenell and I went to the front desk to ask about dinner options. There is a big street party on Friday nights so we walked by there. It was a massive buffet and there were dancers, fire eaters, live music, etc. We decided we wanted something quieter, so we caught a shuttle to the top of the bluffs and went to the Italian restaurant. We could tell we were next to a pool but it was too dark to see anything else. We assumed it was beautiful and the next day we discovered it was.

We were in a very dark corner of the restaurant so food pictures were impossible. We were a little too stuffed from the reception to really enjoy but it was good and the atmosphere was really nice.

The restaurant was beyond empty, most people were at the street party which was still hopping when we walked back down the hill.

That was not an unsubstantial walk by the way! We were huffing a little at the end! I guess that’s why they run shuttles!

It was pretty late at this point and I’d been mostly away for two days, so we said goodnight and went to our rooms.

Busy day coming up tomorrow!

Thanks for following along!

Sandals in St. Lucia – Does it Get Better? April 20-25, 2015
Day 1 – Travel and Arrival
Day 2 – Classes and Tours of Three Resorts!
Day 3 – Relaxing!
Day 4 – Departure