We woke up at the crack of dawn, made sure that our house was all locked up and then headed to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. In a lucky, albeit stressful twist of fate we actually managed to get a direct flight from Charlotte when Air Jamaica decided to cancel our flight out of Atlanta. So thankfully, we did not have to drag all of our stuff all the way to Atlanta.
After assessing all of our stuff, Jim decided that he would drop off our stuff at the curb and have me sit with it while he parked. Pretty good idea. It would not have been fun to drag all of that stuff onto the bus and then off again. Everything went fine until TSA thought that maybe my flowers were some sort of bomb. I can see this as I had 6 bouquets of fake flowers (wires) at the bottom of the suitcase. But unpacking my entire carry-on and then repacking was annoying. Oh well....
Once we checked in, we went to find Ashley and Mike at their gate. They managed to leave earlier than us and get there later than us. Gotta love a direct flight!! I also realized that this point that dragging a large, heavy wedding dress around a huge airport is not fun. By the time we said hey to the Privettes in at their gate, made our way to our gate, picked up breakfast, drinks and reading material, I was pretty much done with that dress!! I plopped down as soon as I could and tried to relax. As soon as the gate agent showed up, I again dragged myself and my dress over to him, and sweetly asked to pre-board, which he was so kind to allow. I really just wanted to make sure that I could put my dress somewhere where other people would not crush it.
I have to comend our US AIR flight attendants here. The lovely lady that greeted us pretty much grabbed my dress and Jim's suits from us the second we walked on the plane and promptly put them in the first class closet without even asking. This is great customer service! I won't go into any detail about the flight, as it was quite uneventful. I think we saw Cuba at some point, and I did not really get all excited until I saw that beautiful blue water.
Getting off the plane and through customs was easy, but long and slightly hot. Again...wedding dress! We managed to get to the JTL desk and nothing went awry there. The porter basically grabbed all of our luggage and dragged it the 50 feet to the bus for us, which we did not ask for, and then proceeded to make Jim give him money. He was not happy with the amount that we gave him - but really, he went 50 feet! I guess its just the Jamaican way.
The bus ride from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios lasted about 1.5 hours and was a nice tour of Jamaica, along the coast. We met an awesome couple - Shayna and Tom - who had recently moved to Charlotte. Other than them, there were 4 others on the bus, 2 obnoxious girls who kept turning up the volume on the radio so that we could not hear our new friends. We also made a pit stop for our first Red Stripes and Beef Patties (yum!!), and also realized just how many goats mill around.
After a stop at another resort, unloading the now drunk girls, we made our way to the RIU Ocho Rios. One word - WOW!! The lobby is breath-taking, with a direct view to the ocean. And the breezes that blow through are fantastic. Pictures do not even do this place justice.
Since our room wasn't ready, we left our stuff in the lobby, had lunch, and took a look around. The resort is huge, clean, and beautiful. Both pools are really nice, although I preferred the tranquility pool the most. The beach is just amazing, with the softest sand, lots of chairs and palm trees for shade, and amazingly clear water. I had never seen something like that in my life!
We made our way back to the lobby a few times, and finally asked for a new room so that we could go hang up our stuff and get my dress off the floor! They gave us a room with a great view of the tranquility pool and ocean. The Junior Suite that we booked was more than sufficient (RIU tends to upgrade the bride and groom, but since the resort was quite full, this did not happen) and contained a king sized-bed, bar, stocked fridge, separate seating area, large bathroom with double vanities and jetted tub, and huge balcony. Not much more to say than that - its just a place to lay your head.
The rest of the day was spent waiting around. Dana and Ed showed up first, followed by Mike and Ashley. We just all milled around, eating, drinking, and sitting in the pool, until family showed up later that night. All of a sudden, we were quite a large goup. That night, I think that we just checked out a show and called it a night, considering we were exhausted!
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