After landing in Barbados, we de-boarded (“de-planed”? “got off”?) the plane onto the runway and, once inside the terminal, we met our Fast Track Representative, who was elegantly dressed in black and pink, exactly as promised in the confirmation email. This is an optional service (tax) that you buy (pay) order to jump the customs queue, as well as be accompanied by the elegantly dressed host who will patiently answer all your noob questions (do I need my passport again? when do I show my pre-completed customs form or QR code? do you have a record of my Covid test? can you tell us where to find a cab?) TWO thumbs up to my cousin Kelly who brilliantly recommended this service to us.
We are staying at The Club Barbados, an all-inclusive resort that we felt would be most convenient in the Time of Covid. The Club is a nice resort, with several 4-story units that surround a series of pools and a couple of restaurants. No swim-up bar, sadly, so we will have to use our legs to obtain beverages. Both our rooms were wisely booked on the ocean-view side of the resort, on upper floors (us on 2, the Dunses on 3). It’s a bit more private than the rooms that face each other into the pool courtyard, except that there is a walkway along the beach that is open to the public, making the ground floor rooms a little less awesome. Added bonus: our view of the ocean was breathtaking!
The resort pre-reserved us for a 6:30 “new arrivals” dinner so at 6:20 we headed to our rooms to get ready, and at 6:25 the power went out. We cell-phone-lit our way to the restaurant, where all was confusion about how to handle the 6:30 dinner seating. We were STARVING because we didn’t get to the hotel until 3, too late for lunch, and had elected to wait until dinner to eat. In the darkness and confusion, Dave managed to rustle us up a basket of bread from the kitchen and I found some fruit tarts at the coffee bar to tide us over. Eventually, the resort decided they had to feed people – it seemed like the power outage had affected most of the island, or at least the nearby towns and showed no signs of being restored quickly. Presumably the kitchen stoves ran off gas so they could at least continue to cook food. We ended up having a nice dinner, after all, and the power came back on, but then went off, then came back on, then went off again.
The huge private mansion next door never lost power (generator). Andi thinks Rhianna lives there. Maybe she’ll invite us for tea!
Addendum: Andi asked the gardener whose house it was, and he told her he wasn’t allowed to say. Hmmmmmm.
Enjoy your beautiful view and have a great vacation!