Monday, 6 Feb 2017 Regina to Montego Bay

First I must apologize to the multitudes awaiting our travel blog with baited breath. This is our last full day here and I have not yet posted anything. I have some notes and pictures. Now to make something out of them. The pictures might have to wait for another day.

Last fall brother-in-law Ron Sprung told us that they were planning on going to Jamaica to avoid his 50^th birthday on February 6 and asked us if we wanted to go along. How could we say no?

Our scheduled departure was at 8 AM and the airline said to be there three hours early, so we arranged to leave home about 4:30. Nathan picked us up. I am sure he would rather have been doing just about anything else. We were at the airport by 5 with no one else in line at the just-opened counter. We sailed through security screening, again, without waiting in line. You could argue that we were too early, but I would rather spend my time sitting down and reading something than standing in line.

As our departure time drew near, the counter agent made some comment that the crew was on board and we would be boarding soon, 15 to 20 minutes late. Not sure what this was about, except that we were definitely going to be late. After boarding, we were pushed back for de-icing, as there was an inch or two of snow on the wings. The end result was that our departure was about an hour late.

The flight over Miami and Cuba was uneventful. We arrived at about 3 PM Jamaica time, an hour later than our original planned time, but then had to wait for a gate because we missed our slot and had to wait our turn at the busiest part of their day. After waiting for 80% of the airplane to empty in front of us and wandering down what seemed to be endless corridors, we finally reached the immigration, lineup at about 4. That took about another ¾ of an hour, but we were waved through customs, quickly found our bus, and were soon on the five minute drive to our hotel, arriving shortly after 5 PM.

We settled in and met at the bar to plan our next move and have a drink. We decided to eat at the Italian restaurant on the premises, Dolce Vita. We lined up for the 6:30 opening and were each presented with a glass of champagne while we waited. Inside there was a generous buffet of salads, appetizers, and desserts, while we ordered entrees off the menu. We all selected the beef fillet with mushroom sauce. Very, very good. (Sorry, no pictures.) The wait staff kept our wine glasses full throughout. We complemented our dessert with Sambucca. I, for one, got a bit of a buzz on.

When we finally wandered out of the restaurant, a reggae band was playing at the entertainment stage. Who would have guessed that? They only played a few numbers before finishing up. They were followed by a hip-hop dance act that also did some comedy skits. The performers were quite talented, but weren’t quite as professional as a Broadway cast. Nonetheless, they were entertaining. After their show we retired for the night at about 11:30.