International Travel

With our AYCJ pass we had a option to fly international, we planned trips to Montego Bay/Jamaica, Cancun/Mexico and Santo Domingo/Dominican Republic which will bridge us to a off pass final trip to Port Au Prince/Haiti.  We want to note that International Travel is a lot different than domestic trips and will need a different preparation than domestic.  Check out our checklist below to get an idea of how best to prepare for an international flight.

Pre-Travel Preparations

JetBlue flies to several international destinations which makes pre-international travel preparation a must, what you need to do as a basic pre-travel prep for international flights is listed below.

Passport:

Unless you have one you will not be able to enter any foreign countries, make sure you have a valid passport that is not expired. Note if you need an expedited replacement passport you will need to be within two weeks of travel to be eligible.

Vaccinations: Do you need shots to enter that country?

wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/    

Find out and quick or you might not be able to leave for your trip or worse you could be susceptible to an infectious disease.

Languages:

Dutch, English (Patios), French (Creole/Patios), Spanish.  The JetBlue International destinations will undoubtedly lead you to countries that speak these major languages or have tourists who speak these languages, it is always a good idea to know or bone up on these languages/dialects/patios before you get to your destination.  We include patios of english as even though you might be speaking basically English or French in places like Jamaica and respectively Haiti the "slant of tongue" used by the people might still be unintelligible if you are not prepared in advance for it.

Exchange Rates:

www.x-rates.com/

Know what the value of the US Dollar to the domestic currency of the country you are visiting, this will allow you to avoid being taken advantage of when and if you have to exchange your dollars with banks or money changers.

Climate, physical and political:

 

Know the season, rainy, hurricane, winter, etc.  And always try to know about current political unrest or civic disruptions it could be critical to your safety.

The Flight :

It had to happen...  we had a bad experienceL

We were the last to board, but on time for the flight.  When we got on board and walked towards the back of the plane to our reserved seats it became evident that a traveling group of passengers had taken it upon themselves to fill our seats.  There was confusion, but a flight attendant determined who were the persons sitting in our seats and they were asked to move. The movement of those passengers though became a bit protracted.  The more the out of place passengers delayed in moving the more frustrated the flight attendant got and finally she proposed that “we” change our seats to two isle seats nearby.  We were waiting patiently, but in no uncertain terms did we want to change from our reserved seats. We immediately said “no”.  The flight attendant was miffed at our response and threw up her hands …then briskly walked back to the front of the plane exclaiming how she was “through with the whole thing”!  Another flight attendant, this time male  was enlisted to restore order and approached the back of the plane, let’s just say his approach did not alleviate the problem and Eric lost his cool…it was almost a major incident, but order was eventually restored, we got in our seats and the flight took off on time.

Cooler heads did prevail, but the mishap spent a lot of good will we had for JetBlue and set the trip off on a bad foot for both of us.

Jamaica, Jamaica!


Dates: September 14 - 16

History

http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History of Jamaica 

Did not know that Arawaks Indians who were the original people of  "Xaymaca" invented the hammock. Did not know there are Jamaican Chinese and Lebonese who have lived there since the 1800's. Did not know that Jamaican Maroons/"Runaway Slaves" had fought the British to a standstill and had won their freedom through treaty 50 years before slavery in Jamaica was officially abolished! Did not know Marcus Garvey the revolutionary and populist leader was also a poet.

Current Events

www.jamaicaobserver.com

Why Jamaica?

When we first reviewed places we wanted to fly to the Caribbean was a great option that JetBlue had on its roster of destinations.  The ability to go romping in the sun was a lure that caught us, but also we both had Caribbean cultural roots, Jamaica/Dominica and Guyana/Grenada respectively.  Since JetBlue does not fly to Guyana, Grenada or Dominica it was Jamaica for sureJ

Our Personal Peas and Rice Stories

Our Caribbean roots are uniquely interesting so we share individually to give perspective on how we view this trip.

Eric

Well both my parents immigrated from Guyana to the US in the 60’s, but it was particularly my Grandfather on my father’s side that had the most interesting story.  My Grandfather was originally from Grenada and when he was a young man about the time of World War I. He took a ship to America as citizenships were being offered to all enlisted emigrants, but got on the wrong ship and ended up not in America but in South America, whoopsJ   Anyway… I have family in Grenada, Guyana, Trinidad and probably every Island, so this trip for me was not just about fun it was about seeing up close how my people were doing on this island called Jamaica

Kelynn:

One of my most vivid memories I have as a child was when I was four years old, I was terribly missing my grandfather who was away on business in his homeland of Jamaica. He was a businessman and would travel there very often. One day I heard him come through the door and I went barreling down the hallway to meet him. He had a cardboard box with something moving and scratching inside. I looked in the box and it was a puppy! My grandfather told me that he had brought back a  Jamaican puppy and if I listened closely I could hear it go "Ruff Ruff Mon"....I loved that puppy and I loved my grandfather for giving him to me.  I named him "Jahpoepoe" and he is one of the fondest memories of my childhood. 

I guess in hindsight you could say that I am somewhat of an island mutt myselfJ My maternal great-grandparents families came from four separate islands, but ultimately their children ended up in two, my grandfather's family wound up in Jamaica and my grandmother's in Dominica. They both came to the U.S. as young children, later met and married, but would travel back and forth to their respective islands on vacation and business throughout their lives. 

Both my maternal grandparents passed away by the time I was twelve, but I was always very curious about their history and began researching information about them on Ancestry.com a few years ago. I found tons of stuff.  My grandfather's documents included papers detailing his first arrival by ship from Jamaica in the U.S. at about 5 years old. Census records showed his military service records and his business travel on various ships. For my grandmother I was able to retrieve several U.S. census records, including one with her age listed at 11 years old. The magic of this document was that on this Census which I believe was the 1930 Census, I saw her address handwritten in...and it was an apartment building in New York City that is only about a block away from the very apartment building where I live now. I certainly found that amazing.  How industrious and conscientious they must have been to carve out a life in such a all consuming place like depression era NYC yet still stay connected to the islands that they were from. 

My Caribbean and Jamaican heritiage are things that have always facinated me and this trip is one of many Island journeys to come, each time I hope to find something more about my wonderful Island people and possibly about myself.

Where we stayed

RIU Ocho Rios Resort

The RIU Ocho Rios, was modern, new, and entertainment was a premium experience. We played tennis, we swam in the beautiful blue and calm ocean and frolicked on the immaculate beach day and night!

We also enjoyed horseback riding.  The horseback riding was the single most enjoyable thing we did and it was punctuated by a water ride, meaning you get to ride your horse into the shallow ocean about 5 feet deep, sorry no pics of that, did not want to risk losing our cameras that would have been a bummerL.

What a blast horseback riding was!

Night Life RIU Ocho Rios!

We enjoyed the night entertainment and had dancers and bands galore at the hotel main stage and could dine at either restaurants or buffets. 

All was really great except…will have to say that we found the food “tolerable to horrible” neither buffet nor reserved restaurants proved worth it…sorry can’t pull any punches on this one it was just too much of a disappointment.  Maybe we caught the resort on a bad couple days, but be advised this place is pot luck when it comes to foodL

Jamaica the Place the People

As we have stated we are of Caribbean decent so we have an affinity for not only Jamaica the vacation spot, but we have a familial connection.  In saying this… we found it curious that amongst so much finished hotel construction that there were so many unfinished residential structures along the highway. 

We found it also curious as we rode our horses in the back woods, just a 5 minute drive away from the grand hotel we stayed in, we found it curious that shanties with tin roofs and no inside toilets were juxtaposed against all the beautiful beach, buildings and wide toothed “Hey mons”.  Jamaica is the third largest Island in the Caribbean and one of the largest economies in the region, but poverty is abundant and growing, even its mainstay tourist industry can’t hide the deep economic hole that Jamaica finds itself in today.

How it got to this state of affairs is debatable, but one place to start a review is

Life and Debt

What will be Jamaica’s fate, we don’t have much of a clue, but we were greatly dismayed  to hear that  its ubiquitously famous and historically lucrative Music Industry was also having major problems of late.

What is the solution?

While Jamaica remains alive and vibrant it is surely injured, our prognosis would then be that Jamaica needs to re-establish a more self sufficient manufacturer based economic eco-system and quickly if it is to fully flourish and not continue to fall deeper into stagnation.

One Love One Heart

As we bid goodbye to Jamaica, we clearly were impressed with its beaches and wonderful people, it is a land of great views and great times, but also a place where our hearts ached.

The Flight Home

Montego Bay departing flights are checked for liquids just before you board, we mentioned that previously, but be advised even if you want to bring on bottle of water that will be confiscated, no exceptions, no other Airport  we have been too does that prior to boarding.

As for the flight, well without our usual libations allowed on board and our previous arriving flight issues we braced for a difficult trip.  To our surprise it was a joy, we had the best three stewards.  They were organized and allowed orderly seat changes as the flight was not full, even did some baby sitting when a new dad alone on the trip with his 18 month old son got overwhelmed.  Nice way to come back strong JetBlue!

Tornado Warning!

We were delayed for about an hour as we were told inclement weather hit NYC and we would ride it out instead of land elsewhere, it was a bit disappointing but the crew was so good we barely noticed.  It was a great thing too as when we landed we found out NYC had been hit by a deadly mini-tornado, thanks again JetBlue for getting us home safe!