Rick & Ivy - July, 2010
7/24 to 7/29
We had planned this vacation since
September of 2009; we have been to H-II 3 previous trips and were going with
friends Elaine and Brad to show them H-II before our annual trek to H-III. As it turns out, this became a working
vacation since the announcement of the closing of H-III.
We host a travel group, AWOL
(Another Week Of Lunacy) with 2 other couples, one of which are the friends
mentioned above.
We flew out of Houston this trip,
still trying to find the perfect departure point since AJ gave up the LAX
route. We have now gone Delta thru
Atlanta, American thru Miami and now Continental thru Houston. We had no issues during the flight, upgraded
to First Class on the net before departure, a most excellent choice Brad.
This was our first time arriving
on a Saturday since our first trip in 2001, and hopefully our
last…lol…Immigration lines were a bit long, but it is Saturday and we are in
Jamaica. After finding our bags, Customs
was a breeze. Off to the Superclubs
desk.
We had pre arranged for a taxi as
this was not our first trip, a good choice, lots of rain on the way to Negril,
the driver was fantastic and the cost $80.00, well worth it for the 4 of
us. We asked the driver for a business
card and intend to include his (Courtney) information on our group website,
anyone that would like his information, DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT US!!!!
Arrived at the resort, our rooms
were ready. We were upgraded from GVP to
OVN, I like H-II already. We met our
resort contact for the rest of our stay that week. Rusheen was a great asset to us this week and
we look forward to working with her in 2011.
Off to the room, clean, cool and right next door to our friends.
As I mentioned above this was
going to be a working vacation since we needed new photos for our website and
researching the excursions on this side of the island so work we did, in
between we managed to have some fun.
The piano bar is much better at
H-II than at H-III, we will visit here regularly on our trips.
We live in Vegas and have a huge
beach that surrounds us, just no water, so the beach is not our
playground. I did talk Ivy into going
out on the big float thing, seems critters live in the water and one of them
did not like me, walking thru the seaweed stuff I was stung by a jellyfish or a
sea urchin, life went on….and back to the nude pool.
Glasses were a rare find at the
nude pool, one time we were served beer in paper cups, I mentioned this to
Rusheen at dinner that night and the next day, and glasses magically appeared,
thank you Rusheen.
Food was plentiful and good, we
are not picky eaters but the food at Munsans, Pastafari and the buffet were
easily edible, with breakfast being the best of the buffet meals. We also ate at the Reggae Café and at the
nude beach grille while we were there and were very satisfied with the service
and the food.
The disco was busy most evenings
and a fun place to hang out until it was nude pool time again.
We did two off resort excursions
on the same day, we hit Margaritaville first.
Easily and without a doubt the best one on the island and we have been
to 4 on Jamaica. We love that you can
walk in the front door and when you walk out the back, you are on the beach.
Off to Rick’s Café, our friend
Brad took the leap. He was so funny, I
started to chant his name as he was standing on the platform BRAD! BRAD BRAD!,
the crowd joined in and before you knew it, he was an Olympic high diver. Waving to the crowd right before he leapt,
when he surfaced, the wave was going strong, way to go Brad. I have been stationed in many foreign
countries and have seen the sunset in them all, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Panama
to name a few. I have seen the sunsets
in Jamaica before, but the best by far are the sunsets at Rick’s in Negril.
We had a blast, Ivy danced until
dawn on more than one occasion and her floor time with MJ was her at her
best.
The EC staff were a bit scarce,
but they do not make our vacation for us..
As I said, this was not our first
trip to H-II but it was our longest time on the resort and was a full fun
packed trip. We met some new
friends…Roller Chick (D) and S, thanks for joining us for the pigskin pork (we travel
with snacks) out and nutz munch in B/E’s room during our group chat night. It was fun to finally meet you guys.
Our last night at H-II we had
arranged for a couple in our group, S/A, to spend their first night on the
island at the resort with us, they too seemed to have a good time albeit a very
short one.
Departure day came and we took an
early shuttle back to Montego Bay, we were headed to H-III for our groups last
trip there…
We look forward to next year as we
bring our band of crazies over from H-III,
AWOL 2011, Devastated But Relocated, The Party Continues…