Anniversary Trip to Jamaica Recap

Chances are if you’re reading this, you know me and my husband recently celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in the amazingly beautiful island of Jamaica! Someone asked me how did we choose Jamaica for this particular occasion and honestly it felt like a full circle moment. Can you believe this was our first international trip together? We actually planned on vacationing to Jamaica for our honeymoon 4 years back (we had our wedding a year after we got married so that’s when we planned on taking our honeymoon trip) but I was 6 months pregnant at the time with Channing, that’s when Zika was this big thing and they were recommending pregnant women didn’t travel, and honestly our finances weren’t great at the time so we kept talking ourselves out of spending thousands of dollars on a vacation.

Then next thing you know we kept adding more babies to the family, finances were still tight, and whenever we did save up enough and had to the opportunity to do a some traveling we would always use those resources to do a family trip, because if it came down to choosing a family trip verses a trip for just us two, a trip that the kids could experience and enjoy always came first. That’s how we looked up 5 years later and still never had a big trip with just us two. We made a vow that for year 5, half a decade of marriage, we were going to do it big and Jamaica was going to be the place since we never got to visit for our honeymoon. We refused to back out of it, although we had every excuse to, especially since our 5-year wedding anniversary landed in the middle of a pandemic…but I’m so glad we pushed forward and that’s how we decided it would be Jamaica! We couldn’t have made a better decision. We had a BLAST!

Now let’s jump into trip details. Speaking of the pandemic, most of you guys questions revolved around navigating travel during this time with Covid. Let me tell you, honestly speaking, it was not easy. You definitely have to jump through a few hurdles to enjoy international travel right now and things change daily. But I will say, one good thing about all the current travel requirements is at least you know it’s extremely SAFE right now to travel. It’s honestly probably safer to travel right now then to go to your local grocery store, just saying lol. Jamaica is one of the countries that requires you to provide a negative Covid test to travel to the country and we had to take it 10 days before our travel date. They require that you take the PCR nasal swab Covid test. It also must be taken at a certified lab that Jamaica excepts results from. You also can’t take the rapid test so we had to wait a few days to get our results. Talk about being anxious for a while lol. Our travel agent recommended any Next Level Urgent care because Jamaica accepts Covid test results from them. This requirement made me so nervous because although I hadn’t been exposed to anyone who had Covid nor am I around big crowds or anything of that nature, you hear things about false positive test results and I’ve had so many friends take test who felt fine and were surprised to get positive test results back so it was quite nerve-racking to pay for a trip, plan it for months, shop for it, get it excited about it, and a positive Covid test result could ruin it all. Thank God both Bryan and myself test results came back negative but that wasn’t the end of the road as far as Covid was concerned and our trip.

You guys, the week that we were scheduled to leave for our trip, the CDC implemented the new rule that not only do you have to take a test prior to traveling but now you have to take a test 3 days before you’re scheduled to come back to the US. Talk about dropping a bomb on us the week of travel. With the rule being a new one, there were still so many unanswered questions that travel agents were scramming to figure out for their clients scheduled to travel soon. We wondered what’s the worst-case scenario if you do end up testing positive in another country? Are you stuck there? Would we have to pay for 2+ weeks of stay somewhere else until we got negative test results? Where the heck do you even take a Covid test at in a different country? The list of questions and concerns we had went on and on. My mom and grandmother who both still work also took off a week to watch our kids so of course we were like we can’t have them stuck with our kids for 2 weeks after our trip either if we were to test positive in Jamaica. We started to question if it was all worth it but our travel agent played a big part in making sure we were knowledgeable about how the process would work and reassured us that our specific resort, which I’ll share more about later in the blog, makes the process extremely seamless. Our resort offered complimentary onsite covid testing AND if you were to test positive, they allow you to stay free of charge for 14 days. That calmed our nerves a lot! The process was very simple. We actually scheduled our covid test with the resort upon check in. All we had to do was walk down to the nurses station at the resort 3 days before we left, take the test there, we sat there and waited all of 10 minutes to get our results on the spot. If you’re thinking about traveling right now, I would check to see what processes the resort you’re thinking about staying at has in place for the new travel rule to get back in the US. I have heard that local clinics in other countries are price gauging covid test so I would research places to take Covid test close to where you’re staying and the cost prior to going if your resort doesn’t offer complimentary covid testing, although from what I’m hearing most do!

Other than that, we also had to fill out some paperwork online (travel authorization form within 5 days of arriving and customs forms within 3 days of arriving) and that was it. Prior to the trip I didn’t know if it would all be worth it but now post trip, I can say without a shadow of a doubt it was so worth it!

As far as feeling safe in regard to Covid in Jamaica, we felt very safe. There’s not many people traveling right now to be honest. Our planes weren’t overly crowded, nor was our resort, or any of the excursions we did while in Jamaica. A lot of the things we did we were literally the only people there. Everything seemed pretty normal as far as what you can do there and all the popular tourist attractions were still open. We didn’t have to wear a mask at the resort, but we did off the resort. But let me tell you, the amount of hand sanitizer Jamaicans make you use EVERYWHERE, from the airport, to the resort, to local places we visited, is enough to last a lifetime lol. They don’t play about washing your hands and using hand sanitizer.

The next most asked question is where we stayed! Our travel agent recommended our resort which was the Sandals Royal Caribbean resort in Montego Bay, and I can’t speak highly enough about it. It’s an all-inclusive, beach front, adult only, resort that has a private island and over-the-water bungalows as well. There were 7 pools & 5 whirlpools, 8 different restaurants with everything from Thai, Jamaican, French food and so much more, an amazing spa where enjoyed a marvelous couples massage, and there’s excursions you can book straight through the resort such as the popular Dunn’s River Falls, snorkeling, and so much more. We had a walkout beachfront honeymoon one-bedroom suite with a patio that led straight to the beach that included a tranquility soaking tub on the patio as well. The room was huge and had a private sitting area with a bar and flat-screen tv when you walked in. There was a separate room with a comfortable king-size bed, a HUGE bathtub that I enjoyed every night (and want in my next home lol) and an oversized stand alone shower. It was just next level. I will say the food and the drinks are the resort were just OKAY! Nothing really wowed me. We actually enjoyed the local food off the resorts more. But the perks of an all-inclusive resort with unlimited food and drinks is if you don’t like your food or drinks you can just try something else.

We had a butler level room which includes an on-call butler who is at your service for your entire stay. I highly recommend it. They can answer or do ANY and EVERYTHING you can imagine. They give you a cell phone to reach them for your whole stay as well. It allowed us to do things like call them on the way back to our resort from a day of exploring off resort and request we have food, drinks, and snacks waiting for us when we got back. They made dinner reservations for us nightly and would come and escort us to dinner. They go as far as to shine and clean your shoes, unpack your luggage, iron your clothes, collect and return all laundry to you, the list goes on and on. We didn’t have them do those things, but the service was just beyond. We loved our butlers. They made the experience amazing and we would request the same ones on our next stay!

Quite a few people asked me how safe I felt leaving the resort. We even had people tell us prior to our trip, not to leave the resort because it’s dangerous. I’m not going to lie, it did make me a little nervous but there were a few places off the resort I scouted out for picture purposes that I was determined to visit. So, our travel agent arranged transportation with Ultimate Excursions and Tours and Taxi transportation company and off we went. The second day there we had a full day off the resort where we ventured hours away from our resort. We got to stop and eat at local places, drive through towns that I’m sure most tourist stay away from, but it truly gave us a chance to really see Jamaica. It was an adventure for sure but I’m so glad we had that one day to explore. When we got back to the resort and told some of the staff where we had gone, they couldn’t even believe themselves that we had ventured that far off lol. But our driver Navar made us feel extremely safe the entire time. You guys, he was the sweetest person ever. I highly recommend using him for all your travel needs in Jamaica. He was even able to make a call to a friend of his that helped us do an excursion that was closed for the day. You can email him at [email protected] to book with him for your stay.

As far as the excursions we did while there, we arranged them all with our driver. We didn’t do any through the actual resort. We did the rafting on Martha Brae River, which was the excursion that was closed but our driver Navar called his friend that works there and had him come do it for us. A river that typically full of tourist, we had all to ourselves, we told ourselves it was a private tour lol. It’s a must do while you’re there. It’s relaxing and the scenery is something out of a magazine. We got to get some amazing pictures there as well. Our tour guide was hilarious, you can ask for “Caption 100” (the name he gave himself lol) and he’ll make it an experience for sure! We also did the famous Dunn’s River Falls where our driver once again was amazing. His only job was to drive us there, but he came along simply to take pictures of us. We didn’t ask him to do that either, he just offered on his own. But we had a blast, this was another tourist hot spot that was pretty empty unfortunately due to the pandemic, so we had the waterfalls to ourselves once again. It’s a must do for sure.

As you can see throughout this blog post, we were able to capture some AMAZING content and that’s due to the photographer and videographer we brought with us, Calvin and David, from A Love Experience. I saw some pictures David captured in Jamaica a while back and I knew whenever we visited, we had to take him along with us to capture amazing content while we were there. The content creator in me wasn’t going to go to a place as gorgeous as Jamaica and not come back with next level pictures lol. They are based in Atlanta, so we flew them down to tag along a few days with us and snap some pictures while we enjoyed ourselves. It allowed us to still be in the moment without having to worry about pulling out our own camera and tripod. It was definitely a splurge but so worth it because not only were the pictures BEYOND, but with it being a such a special occasion it’s memories we’ll have for a lifetime. I’m going to print out all the pictures and make a really nice photo album with them all soon!

Now let’s talk vacay wear because I mean, that’s why yall are here right? Haha. You guys know we love to match, so it’s only right we matched on vacay as well. I literally stumbled across the Kenny Flowers website one day and went crazy haha! All the matching looks you see are from their site. We got so many compliments every single time we stepped out the room. Their pieces are a tad bit pricey, in my opinion, but so worth it. The quality is great and pieces that will last a while. For every single day we were there I packed a bathing suit, day-time outfit, and nighttime outfit. A lot of it I didn’t even wear but it’s better to be over prepared than the opposite. Also, don’t sleep on Amazon for super cute vacay wear. Things such as cover ups and sundresses you can get for really cheap straight off Amazon.

It’s funny I have to mention this, but I did get quite a few questions about my hair and what type of hair I use because of how well it looked being wet. I have a traditional sew in with my real hair out at the top. I use Ikon Luxury Hair Extensions in the Cambodian Wavy texture. The hair was perfect for the trip because it just waves up after getting wet. I didn’t have to flat-iron, curl it, or honestly mess with it at all after getting it wet. Highly recommend if you want low maintenance hair while traveling somewhere tropical.

I also want to share the amazing brand Mentionables to you guys. They sell gorgeous and classy lingerie, and what’s an anniversary trip without a little something sexy in your suitcase, right? I know this may not be something that even crossed your minds but take it from me ladies, your husbands will thank you later. I love that they have sizing for just about everyone and everything I ordered was so comfortable and soft. Check them out!

Last but not least, I want to finish the blog of by sharing my AMAZING travel agent with you guys, Stephanie, from Traveling Ears Vacations! This trip would not have gone off near as smoothly as it did without her. She was there every step of the way, beginning to end, with the planning, recommendations, and most importantly, keeping us on top of all the traveling during Covid requirements. She booked our trip, scheduled transportation around Jamaica, scheduled our excursions, booked dining reservations for us, sent a detailed calendar with all the due dates for Covid testing and filling out our travel forms, and so much more. She even dropped off the sweetest package to our doorstep with goodies and out trip itinerary in printed form. There was no detail left off. Her service is top notch. I highly highly recommend not only using a travel agent for international travel right now but using Stephanie as well. This is our second trip we used her for, and she never disappoints.

I hope this helped you guys if you’re considering traveling to Jamaica soon. If you have more questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. Jamaica, it’s not a goodbye but more so a see you later!

As Always…Love you All,

Courtney N. Williams