My Dad was visiting for the last few weeks and it seemed a little rude to sit typing on my computer while he was here so I took a break from blogging. Now I’ll continue the story. Where was I? Oh yes, I had just been majorly disappointed in the resort reviews on St. John. Add to those reviews, a good friend told me that she had been to St. Thomas and St. John and wasn’t overly impressed. The high levels of crime there intimidated her, but she had heard great things about St. Kitts and asked if I had looked into places there.
So off I went again on another (goose?) chase for the perfect hotel. I emailed a couple of places on St. Kitts but when I showed them to Sean he said, “Meh!” None of the places really seemed to sing to us. I resolved to go back to the beginning and read about each island in turn. I spent a whole weekend reading reviews of the islands themselves and was surprised to find that the island of Grenada, (pronounced Gren-ay-da, not like the place in Spain) seemed to meet all of my requirements. The crime rate is low, the people are very friendly, and the capital city has a reputation for being the prettiest in the Caribbean. It is a little off the beaten tourist path so wouldn’t be overly commercialized and there is wide range of accommodations which would give my guests lots of options for places to stay.
This really seemed to be the island for us. Having been disappointed in the results of being too choosy up front I decided to just email every hotel on the whole island with requests for specific information and see who got back to me. Our hotel is here I told myself. Somewhere on this island we will get married. Soon enough, the responses started flowing in. The first few were not very reassuring. $350/night? I don’t think so. So, all of the high end resorts were out. But there were loads left to choose from. No problem. Next I received responses from some of the lower end resorts. The room rates looked much more reasonable but when I looked at the photos online and the reviews it was clear that these hotels just didn’t meet our standards – thread bare carpets, worn, out-of-date furniture and few amenities just wasn’t what I had in mind. There were still the mid range places left though.
One in particular I had high hopes for. It wasn’t quite as nice as my dream resort but there were great reviews online and they all talked about the wonderful family run establishment where it was so obvious that the owners really cared about the place. After a week without a reply I sent them a ping just in case my email had been buried among other mail and received a weird one liner reply that I don’t think was meant for me, “Did you reply to this yet?” Oops. I replied and gently pointed out that I think I received the email in error but that I hadn’t yet heard anything back from them and was still interested in the answers to my questions about rates and packages etc. Several more days went by and my spirits began to drop. When they finally got back to me, my first reaction was that of relief. The room rates were in an acceptable range. They could offer rooms at $145/night + tax and mandatory service charge. That was still more than I had originally budgeted for but I was beginning to realize that hotels in the Caribbean are just really expensive. Nice hotels at least.
That night Sean and I went through all the information they sent in detail. The more we looked through it the more my heart broke. The room rates might have been OK but the price of everything else was astronomical. As an example they wanted to charge $45/person for a continental buffet breakfast the day after the wedding! The drinks, the food, the entertainment was so expensive I nearly cried. In fact, I think I did cry a few tears of frustration and disappointment. How many times could I get excited about a place only to find out that it wouldn’t work out?
Sean was great, as he always is in situations like this. His strength lies in recognizing when I’m just at the end of my tether and providing the calmness, confidence and support that I need to get me back on track. He put down the computer and sat back. “Let’s think this through again, “ he said patiently, “What other options do we have?"
We were, yet again, back to assessing our original assumptions.But don't fret, though I didn't know it, I was pretty close...
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