So, at the end of my last post, I promised to give you a rundown of my holiday companions. Let me describe the motley crew (major understatement!):
· Molly (I’ve changed her name ... you’ll see why in later posts) – 60 something lady who was kinda huge, both tall and stout! (I’ve got quite a lot to tell you about her as my posts develop, so I won’t say too much here)
· Jean – a rather large black lady (we couldn’t make out her age, although she said she was a student, so I’m guessing early 20s) – she hardly said a word for the whole week. She just kept saying “hmm” “hmm” – even when no-one was saying anything ... very odd. When you asked her a question, you get a very short answer, followed by “hmmm”. I didn’t see her much during the holiday. She never sun bathed, I never saw her in a swimming costume and she either wandered around (who knows were?) or stayed in her room for the whole week.
Don't get that. Why would you stay in your room when you're in the Caribbean????? I find that lots of people do it ... you’ll see them toddling off to their rooms and I’ll ask them where they’re going, “To my room for a lie down” ... there are beds on the beach for goodness sake!! What’s the matter with these people!
· Sue – a lady in her 60s, who again, I didn’t really have a proper conversation with ... she was very quiet. The only thing I found out about her was that she had a son in his 20s.
· Alvin (changed his name too - dunno why really!) – Alvin, bless him. Alvin was 57 and had hurt his shoulder before he came away, so his arm was in a sling. For the whole holiday, even when he was on the beach or round the pool he wore a shirt (both long and short sleeved), long elasticated waist shorts, socks and trainers. Honestly ... I kid you not! I spent most of the time around the pool and would watch him commandeer a spot in the shade every morning and stay there, fully clothed either playing with his iPad or messing with his iShuffle. Now, we’re talking a constant 32˚C/89˚F heat here! I don’t think it’ll surprise you when I tell you that he still lived with his mum.
· Cordelia– love love love Cordelia (real name!) ... the only normal one (besides me, obv!) there. We got on really well and she was somewhat of a saviour in the midst of all that oddness! I missed her hugely when she left (she was only there for 10 days and had already been there a couple of day when we arrived).
I don’t think I’ve missed anyone out, if I have, they must have been spectacularly quiet, either that or I drank far more rum punch than I remember! Anyway, these were my holiday companions for the first week. It changed for the second and as I’m trying to keep this in some kind of chronological order, I’ll get to them in a later post.
So ... Once I’d cleared security (me being the last one from the whole plane ... how the hell did that happen?!) we clambered on to the mini bus to the resort. Luckily it’s only a 15 minute transfer, which is always a bonus when you’ve been travelling for so long.
We checked in at the hotel and which I guess I should tell you a bit about. I went there last year so I kinda knew what I was coming to ... it’s far from fabulous, however the people I was away with last year were amazing, absolutely fabulous and that made it one of the best holidays I’ve ever had! It’s really pot luck who you end up with on a singles holiday ... it really is! Up until now, I’ve been really quite lucky with the people I’ve met, of course, you can’t like everyone, but as I say on the whole I’ve been really lucky.
As I knew the hotel wasn’t fantastic, I really didn’t want to go back, but if you want to go on a singles holiday, you can’t just walk into a travel agent and say, “I want to go here on this date and this is what I want to spend”, you’re severely limited to what’s available and what ‘singles’ tour operators are going where (it’s even more restricted at Christmas/New Year) ... I really wanted to go back to St Lucia again for a bit of 5* luxury, but they wanted over £6K for 2 weeks ... I’ll repeat that, £6K for 2 weeks!!!!! Now it’s not that I can’t afford that, luckily I can, however, I just find it ridiculous to spend that on a 2 week holiday... and at the end of the day, it’s not that good!
Back to our hotel ... the location is amazing and very central, it has the most beautiful beach, the rooms are fab ... large, comfortable and clean – the beds are to die for - that’s pretty much where the positives stop. I think I’ve probably been a bit spoilt from previous holidays, especially the St Lucia one with Champers on tap, but again, I knew what I was going to having been there last Christmas.
We were supposed to be ‘soft’ All Inclusive (soft meaning soft drinks included and only 2 glasses of rather fowl vino with dinner). However, the food ... its availability and the service left a lot to be desired! The food at breakfast and lunch was fine, although at times, we did wait up to an hour (in the end, due to all the complaints to our Rep, they did a buffet breakfast each morning – Alvin complained about that though, because he couldn’t lift the lids on the servers and he said that the food was cold when he came down at 10.00 for brekkie ... my answer to that – having a rather smart mouth as I do – “Have breakfast earlier” ... that didn’t go down well! Ho hum.).
The evening meals were a complete nightmare, they rarely had what was on the menu, what they did have was often cold (although I do find that most food in the Caribbean rarely comes piping hot like we have it in the UK) and could take anything up to 2 hours to come. Towards the end of the holiday, due to that and a few other things, me and one of the new guests, Fiona, ended up eating out most nights ... but I’ll get to that in due course.
All that said, I actually did have a good time (I was probably a bit more tolerant of the hotel negatives than my companions - especially those in the second week - cos I’d been before and knew the pitfalls). I pretty much kept myself to myself really and largely sat on my own round the pool each day (bliss!) and had a fab rest and re-charge of the batteries. Regarding beach versus pool ... I usually like the beach for the first week of a holiday, until the sand starts to get on my nerves (I can't stand my whole body crunching when I re-apply suntan oil!) but this time, I was far too tired to be bothered with it, so stayed by the pool ... it was right on the beach anyway ... so I had the best of both worlds.
Well lovelies, I must get on (off to the gym now!). Stay tuned, I’ve still got lots to tell you, including my being told off for being loud when I’ve had a drink (and I’d only had 2 drinks ... I kid you not!), a tipsy, rainy afternoon and the fabulous dinners we had out. Until then, be fabulous!
Lots of love
Jx
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