Honeymoon in Barbados... Our story by request.
20-09-2007, 10:26 AM
#1
Honeymoon in Barbados... Our story by request.
As many of you will know, we got Married on September 2nd and flew away on our Honeymoon the weekend after to Barbados. A few people have requested i do a quick report on our Barbados honeymoon, so, here we go...
Honeymoon. Day 1.
We both got to bed after packing at about 1am, and sadly had to crawl back out of bed to the sound of the Taxi's one hour warning call. Doh, well tired, but excited too... we get showered and dive in the cab.
We got to the Airport at 6.30am, fashionably early for our 10:05 flight. we just hung around like zombies, as you do, trying to stay awake buy purchasing magazines you will never read, sweets you really shouldn’t eat and Noise cancelling headphones that cost too much money. Doh.
The gate should open about 9:30am, we are getting quite excited at 9:15 but they then announce a one hour delay. Doh, great news.
We decided to go and wait at the departure gate as we surely couldn’t buy or eat any more, so may as well be at the front of the queue for boarding.
Whilst reading a BMI leaflet, i noted it wasn’t actually as much as I expected to upgrade to the next class up and get some extra legroom for the 9 hour flight, so I had a chat with the staff and duly upgraded us. The plane was to be an Airbus A330. Great, never travelled on one of those and was excited to compare it to the Boing Equivalent as I love airplanes.
10.30am came and finally the boarding call started.
They were calling rows 30 - 50 first and we are seated at row 11.... Hmm, that means, oh no, we get on LAST now; they are filling from the rear forwards. DOH!
Got on the plane and to our seats, only to find after requesting window seats, we didn’t get one. Hmm.. I enquired as to why and was informed there weren’t any and we should have been told. Would we like to go back to our old seats with less legroom? We opted to stay, nothing worse than being really cramped! After a short delay, we are underway at 11:30. Good times.
The 9 hours went quite well and we managed to take in a couple of movies and even play a few games on the built in Nintendo systems. LOL I absorbed quite a few magazines about home cinema, LCD and Plasma TV's as that’s what I was buying for the new house when we got back home. ( Its always worth ensuring that your return wont be too depressing eh?
)
Lunch came and went, as did the free wine and the evening meal. We had been in the air 9 hours when we came to land, so our bodies said it was of course 8:30pm. It was in fact only 3:30pm Barbados time, and we had been up for over 11hours! Not nice. But exciting all the same... : DD:
Bonus time... Being nearer the front of plane now meant that as we disembarked from the front, we could get off first and into the awaiting air conditioned coach. Hurrah! Sadly though, that meant we got off the coach last and into passport control at the BACK of the 2hr queue as seemingly around 3 planes had landed at once and there were over 1000people queuing with only 3 people on the Tiny Bajan passport control. Doh! Why us? The only time being at the back of a queue would have been helpful, and we end up at the front feeling smug! 
Not to worry, we just stood, and shuffled, and sweated and dehydrated fast. Man it was hot at this part. Due to the open entrances, the aircon, if they had any, wasnt working at all and it was definitely 30+ in this holding area. Still... 2 hours later and we are through passport control and collecting our luggage!
At least the luggage safely... Albeit LAST! We got outside and were met with pandemonium! How on earth does the cab system work, there appear to be affro Caribbean men collecting cabs for you for tips.. and there was a MASSIVE queue. We decided to walk to the front of the incoming road and ry to grab one on its way in, this was successful and we had one within 2mins flat.
"Yo man, where you headin?" Shouts a big affro caribean fella with a massive shit eating grin, populated with gold teeth who was driving the cab I hailed. We told him we were staying in Holetown, and upon hearing this he dived out to help us load up the cases and introduced himself as "TC,s 24hr taxi service. At your service until you leave..."
TC took us on a truly hair raising 50min horn tooting journey to "Villa Escape" the pad we had booked for our honeymoon... Its amazing how many times these people blast their horns, its seems to be done to say hello, it certainly isn’t used as a warning or in aggression.
We quickly found out why they called it Villa Escape that as we spent the rest of the night depressed and trying to escape it. Its 32 degrees c in the shade in Barbados that night and according to the thermometer in the kitchen, it was 39 degrees in villa escape! When they said it had aircon in the advert, they meant it had some roof fans and an aircon unit in the bedroom! Oh no, this is a disaster as neither me, nor Nicole can deal with heat like that and we got quite down about it... the Honeymoon isn’t looking good now!
We had a pointless argument with the owner by telephone who insisted the advert was correctly worded (albeit misleadingly) and then dived into the local directory and hired a comedy car from a hire company who delivered it to our door and were very friendly indeed. (Direct rentals Ltd) it had a truly gutless little engine that simply would not go, but should be reliable and cool with its aircon, so we locked up and headed out into the dark to try and find more accommodation. We had cheered up a little as we were mobile, and started to make some fun out of it, and started to laugh and giggle at the mess we were in.
We proceeded to sp[end over an hour then, lost in what seemed like Stabville. We didn’t realise that Barbados was such a poor country, and had expected, i suppose, something more like Florida.. we were quite shocked and a little intimidated i must admit, and to cap it all, anywhere that looked remotely hospitable was full. There was no room at the Inns for the newlyweds. DOH!
We spent another hour lost in Stabville, giving the hire car some real grief up and down the hilly back roads when we came to a stop area populated with gangs of young affro Caribbean’s. A little scary at night. We later learnt these people are fabulously friendly, but looks can be deceptive and we were a little scared. The smoke that started to pour out from under the bonnet and bottom of the car didn’t help our nerves at all, the damn thing was on fire in stabville... top of the range news!
We chose trial by fire over death by raping and stabbing, and hammered it down the next hill, with smoke a plenty pouring out... it wasn’t a great 20mins, but we finally found some civilisation and got to find there was oil dripping quite badly onto the catalyst from a leak due to somebody adding at least an extra 2 gallons of oil to the sump. Seems mechanics in Barbados are as bad as some of the ones in the UK then? lol
This is a genuine "why us" story and amazingly, ALL true! Are we happy? Loving every minute, we have never laughed so much, in fact both our jaws were actually aching! At 1am Barbados time (6am UK time... we had now been awake and travelling for over 13hours) we checked into paradise at a place that looked in the travel guide like we couldn’t afford it, but on making a last ditch call out of desperation they gave us a nice discount for being newly weds on Honeymoon, and another for the fact they have some construction going on in the complex. The hotel is called “The Crane” and by chance it is set atop a beach rated as one the 5 best beaches on the planet.
We set fire to our virgin plastic to pay for it and got a huge honeymoon suite with fully equipped kitchen, front room, shower and toilet room and bathroom with Jacuzzi and double shower with a massive double bedroom equipped with a queen sized bed and a terrace with its very own private 28ft pool overlooking the sea.
It seems our bad luck had come to an end and we had finally arrived at Paradise.... We had no problem falling asleep... but what will the rest of the Honeymoon bring? Here are a few pictures of the Crane hotel (www.thecrane.com)
I Will continue the story later...
Honeymoon. Day 1.
We both got to bed after packing at about 1am, and sadly had to crawl back out of bed to the sound of the Taxi's one hour warning call. Doh, well tired, but excited too... we get showered and dive in the cab.
We got to the Airport at 6.30am, fashionably early for our 10:05 flight. we just hung around like zombies, as you do, trying to stay awake buy purchasing magazines you will never read, sweets you really shouldn’t eat and Noise cancelling headphones that cost too much money. Doh.
The gate should open about 9:30am, we are getting quite excited at 9:15 but they then announce a one hour delay. Doh, great news.
We decided to go and wait at the departure gate as we surely couldn’t buy or eat any more, so may as well be at the front of the queue for boarding.
Whilst reading a BMI leaflet, i noted it wasn’t actually as much as I expected to upgrade to the next class up and get some extra legroom for the 9 hour flight, so I had a chat with the staff and duly upgraded us. The plane was to be an Airbus A330. Great, never travelled on one of those and was excited to compare it to the Boing Equivalent as I love airplanes. 10.30am came and finally the boarding call started.
They were calling rows 30 - 50 first and we are seated at row 11.... Hmm, that means, oh no, we get on LAST now; they are filling from the rear forwards. DOH!
Got on the plane and to our seats, only to find after requesting window seats, we didn’t get one. Hmm.. I enquired as to why and was informed there weren’t any and we should have been told. Would we like to go back to our old seats with less legroom? We opted to stay, nothing worse than being really cramped! After a short delay, we are underway at 11:30. Good times.
The 9 hours went quite well and we managed to take in a couple of movies and even play a few games on the built in Nintendo systems. LOL I absorbed quite a few magazines about home cinema, LCD and Plasma TV's as that’s what I was buying for the new house when we got back home. ( Its always worth ensuring that your return wont be too depressing eh?
)Lunch came and went, as did the free wine and the evening meal. We had been in the air 9 hours when we came to land, so our bodies said it was of course 8:30pm. It was in fact only 3:30pm Barbados time, and we had been up for over 11hours! Not nice. But exciting all the same... : DD:
Bonus time... Being nearer the front of plane now meant that as we disembarked from the front, we could get off first and into the awaiting air conditioned coach. Hurrah!
Sadly though, that meant we got off the coach last and into passport control at the BACK of the 2hr queue as seemingly around 3 planes had landed at once and there were over 1000people queuing with only 3 people on the Tiny Bajan passport control. Doh! Why us? The only time being at the back of a queue would have been helpful, and we end up at the front feeling smug! Not to worry, we just stood, and shuffled, and sweated and dehydrated fast. Man it was hot at this part. Due to the open entrances, the aircon, if they had any, wasnt working at all and it was definitely 30+ in this holding area. Still... 2 hours later and we are through passport control and collecting our luggage!
At least the luggage safely... Albeit LAST! We got outside and were met with pandemonium! How on earth does the cab system work, there appear to be affro Caribbean men collecting cabs for you for tips.. and there was a MASSIVE queue. We decided to walk to the front of the incoming road and ry to grab one on its way in, this was successful and we had one within 2mins flat.
"Yo man, where you headin?" Shouts a big affro caribean fella with a massive shit eating grin, populated with gold teeth who was driving the cab I hailed. We told him we were staying in Holetown, and upon hearing this he dived out to help us load up the cases and introduced himself as "TC,s 24hr taxi service. At your service until you leave..."
TC took us on a truly hair raising 50min horn tooting journey to "Villa Escape" the pad we had booked for our honeymoon... Its amazing how many times these people blast their horns, its seems to be done to say hello, it certainly isn’t used as a warning or in aggression.
We quickly found out why they called it Villa Escape that as we spent the rest of the night depressed and trying to escape it. Its 32 degrees c in the shade in Barbados that night and according to the thermometer in the kitchen, it was 39 degrees in villa escape! When they said it had aircon in the advert, they meant it had some roof fans and an aircon unit in the bedroom! Oh no, this is a disaster as neither me, nor Nicole can deal with heat like that and we got quite down about it... the Honeymoon isn’t looking good now!
We had a pointless argument with the owner by telephone who insisted the advert was correctly worded (albeit misleadingly) and then dived into the local directory and hired a comedy car from a hire company who delivered it to our door and were very friendly indeed. (Direct rentals Ltd) it had a truly gutless little engine that simply would not go, but should be reliable and cool with its aircon, so we locked up and headed out into the dark to try and find more accommodation. We had cheered up a little as we were mobile, and started to make some fun out of it, and started to laugh and giggle at the mess we were in.
We proceeded to sp[end over an hour then, lost in what seemed like Stabville. We didn’t realise that Barbados was such a poor country, and had expected, i suppose, something more like Florida.. we were quite shocked and a little intimidated i must admit, and to cap it all, anywhere that looked remotely hospitable was full. There was no room at the Inns for the newlyweds. DOH!
We spent another hour lost in Stabville, giving the hire car some real grief up and down the hilly back roads when we came to a stop area populated with gangs of young affro Caribbean’s. A little scary at night. We later learnt these people are fabulously friendly, but looks can be deceptive and we were a little scared. The smoke that started to pour out from under the bonnet and bottom of the car didn’t help our nerves at all, the damn thing was on fire in stabville... top of the range news!
We chose trial by fire over death by raping and stabbing, and hammered it down the next hill, with smoke a plenty pouring out... it wasn’t a great 20mins, but we finally found some civilisation and got to find there was oil dripping quite badly onto the catalyst from a leak due to somebody adding at least an extra 2 gallons of oil to the sump. Seems mechanics in Barbados are as bad as some of the ones in the UK then? lol
This is a genuine "why us" story and amazingly, ALL true! Are we happy? Loving every minute, we have never laughed so much, in fact both our jaws were actually aching! At 1am Barbados time (6am UK time... we had now been awake and travelling for over 13hours) we checked into paradise at a place that looked in the travel guide like we couldn’t afford it, but on making a last ditch call out of desperation they gave us a nice discount for being newly weds on Honeymoon, and another for the fact they have some construction going on in the complex. The hotel is called “The Crane” and by chance it is set atop a beach rated as one the 5 best beaches on the planet.
We set fire to our virgin plastic to pay for it and got a huge honeymoon suite with fully equipped kitchen, front room, shower and toilet room and bathroom with Jacuzzi and double shower with a massive double bedroom equipped with a queen sized bed and a terrace with its very own private 28ft pool overlooking the sea.
It seems our bad luck had come to an end and we had finally arrived at Paradise.... We had no problem falling asleep... but what will the rest of the Honeymoon bring? Here are a few pictures of the Crane hotel (www.thecrane.com)
I Will continue the story later...
20-09-2007, 10:41 AM
#4
"Yo man, where you headin?" Shouts a big affro caribean fella with a massive shit eating grin, populated with gold teeth who was driving the cab I hailed.
Wow thats some serious time spent doing nothing in the airport Stu. On a lighter note though, that hotel looks lush with all of those views.
Glad you had a great time pal
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20-09-2007, 12:24 PM
#13
Originally Posted by The Diva
Originally Posted by StickerPaul
Great write up as always & the hotel looks stunning
WHY US......
WHY US......
Did Dan make the phone call to the hire company......
Err mate,concerning this hire car.........there`s a little problem..
20-09-2007, 01:01 PM
#14
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the sort of thing that always happens to me!
you did the right thing to plod on and make light of the situation.all ended well by the look of things-that hotel looked awesome
cant wait to hear more........
what sort of car did you hire?wasnt a cossie was it
you did the right thing to plod on and make light of the situation.all ended well by the look of things-that hotel looked awesome
cant wait to hear more........
what sort of car did you hire?wasnt a cossie was it
20-09-2007, 01:35 PM
#15
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Shame about the start of the holiday, at least your car had aircon you could have got one of the door less and windows less mini moke things that the tourists sometimes hire! Whoever excellent choice of hotel Stu!!
21-09-2007, 06:32 PM
#23
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after looking at the pics i wouldnt mind looking into a holiday to america somewhere & barbados looks
any links of who you got it thru stu?
or anybody else that knows?
pm if you like
any links of who you got it thru stu?
or anybody else that knows?
pm if you like
22-09-2007, 07:59 PM
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Stu did you go to Oistins fish market on the Friday evening ? St Lawrence Gap was pretty cool too, least theres a few decent bars, lovely place though Barbados, think im going back in 2008 deffo for the cricket
23-09-2007, 07:40 AM
#27
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Originally Posted by The Diva
Originally Posted by StickerPaul
Great write up as always & the hotel looks stunning
WHY US......
WHY US......
Did Dan make the phone call to the hire company......
Err mate,concerning this hire car.........there`s a little problem..
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHHH....... What a drain..............
24-09-2007, 07:24 PM
#28
Originally Posted by Tangodeltasierra3
Stu did you go to Oistins fish market on the Friday evening ? St Lawrence Gap was pretty cool too, least theres a few decent bars, lovely place though Barbados, think im going back in 2008 deffo for the cricket
24-09-2007, 07:38 PM
#31
Originally Posted by dave cos4x4
looks a really nice place Stu,glad you 2 seen the funny side of things.
I must finish this write up, will try and do it tonight.
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