Here are the high points of our trip.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were told they upgraded us from an "ocean view" junior suite to an "ocean front" suite on the first floor, where we could walk off the patio right onto the beach path.
We avoided mentioning to anyone what we paid for the trip during the time we were there. But upon checking out of the hotel at the end, the people at the front desk asked us about our favorite part of the vacation, and Mrs. Scotch said "did you see what we paid for the room?". We asked what the regular daily rate for the room was. They said that the room we booked goes for $1,100/night, but the upgraded room was $1,250/night. We paid around $225/night.
The room had everything. Canopy bed, marble bathroom with two sinks, a rainfall shower, a soaking tub, and a separate private room for the toilet and bidet. The mini kitchen had a cooktop, a Nespresso machine, full compliment of glassware and silverware, and refrigerator
with an icemaker. I can't stress enough how nice it is to have a full tub of ice 24/7, without dealing with either hallway ice melting in a bucket, or little ice cube trays. Especially since I've upped my game for providing a constant flow of drinks all week. Mrs. Scotch is a big Yeti fan, and she bought me one, too.
We did the usual thing, where we go to the Graceway Gourmet supermarket as soon as we arrive, and I buy a big bottle of local Bambarra rum for the week, plus fruit punch, sodas and tonic for mixers. And then all day and all night, I have rum punch on hand; except of course when we're out and about. But for the beach and patio, I never need to buy a drink. And the Yeti will literally keep the ice as ice for a day. Aside from that, they left us 2 beautiful glass containers of water in our room everyday, plus 2 souvenir monogrammed tumblers for carrying on walks.
The weather was perfect; high of 80 to 82 each day, and lows in the mid 70s. They get stormy days sometimes, but we just got a couple of extra windy days. And near the end of the trip, a northern breeze dropped the high to 77 or 78. They get an average of 350 days of sunshine. The beaches were beautiful, as usual.
From time to time, they've gotten hit by hurricanes, and so there's some trucked-in sand, and around the beach bars and other structures there's sometimes a concrete base under the sand.
Aside from the daily walks on the beach, we rode bikes, and did some snorkeling. This was the snorkeling spot we were at:
Here's a funny story. I almost drowned while snorkeling. We got the gear from our hotel before heading out, and when they were about to fit us for fins, Mrs. Scotch said we wouldn't need them, because we were just snorkeling off a beach. So we didn't get them. And on our 2nd time out, I got hit by a strong tide while I was trying to swim back to shore. And without anything on my feet, I wasn't getting anywhere. I eventually got somewhat near the shore, but I was totally out of breath, and needed to be pulled in. Good times.
In addition to paying almost nothing for the hotel, our stay included a full-boat buffet breakfast each day. They "value" it as $80 for the 2 of us. By loading-up on that, we were able to either skip lunch, or just get drinks and split an app. For dinner, the restaurants were all awesome, but pricey. At one place, the cocktail menu had this (of course I had to get it):
And at a Caribbean restaurant, they had something called a Rasta Punch, with about 6 different things in it, which looked like this:
Every Thursday night, they have a kind of festival called the Island Fish Fry. A bunch of restaurants setup tents and cook on site, and there's a ton of craft vendors and live music. We went to that. It was our last night before flying home. During the week, I ate a lot of red snapper, grouper, conch, and even a grilled octopus. And the local beer, from Turks Head Brewery, was cranking out excellent stuff. I had their "Gon-Ta-Nort" amber for our room, and also enjoyed their "Down-Da-Road" IPA and "I-Ain-Ga-Lie" lager.
On the flight off the island, we got to cruising altitude, and we heard the dreaded "May I have your attention: If there is a doctor on board, please come forward". That killed the food cart service, but the flight wasn't affected; although EMS were on the runway when we landed.
