Fall Destination Wedding at Sandals Ochi, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Beth and Joe’s destination wedding at Sandals Ochi in Ocho Rios, Jamaica will always be one that I remember. Not only because their wedding day was beautiful and her personal vows to him were on a whole other level of sentimental, but because of the lost luggage travel saga that I experienced with this one (thank you, SouthWest Airlines *she says sarcastically).
All things considered, it could have been worse, but it definitely felt like anything that could go wrong, went wrong for me that weekend.
I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to get dressed and to my gate at the airport by 5:30 a.m. to board.
I get to the airport, pick up some coffee and a pastry (my breakfast go-to) and sit down at my gate. I’m there 10 minutes before we start boarding. Sweet. No stress.
The second I sit down at the gate, I get a text from Southwest. Your flight has been cancelled. I hadn’t even taken a sip of my coffee yet. And if you know me, you know it was an instant state of hell no this is not acceptable, you have got to be kidding me, where’s the manager of this joint. So the gate agent tells us there’s a correction, it has not been cancelled, it’s just been delayed and we need to move to a different gate. Awesome. Coffee and editing for an hour and half and I was not complaining because I would still make my connecting flight to Jamaica.
When it came time to board, I swipe my ticket and - nope - the attendant tells me I’m not on the flight. Um, WHAT?! So I go to the desk and the attendant tells me I’ve been put on the flight the next morning at 6 a.m., which I obviously couldn’t accept because WEDDING.
She waves her magic wand and I’m back on the original flight that was previously “full.” We land in Baltimore and I walk across the hall to my connecting flight to find Kayla (photographer traveling with me). I even have time to grab lunch.
We board and sit on the tarmac for an hour while one singular crew member loads our luggage. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there thinking, “just my luck it will be my luggage that this kid forgets to put on the plane.”
We land in Jamaica and this was my third time traveling there in 2021 so I got the whole lay of the land down pat. We wait for our baggage. Kayla’s baggage comes. Mine, of course, does not. I was preparing for this in my mind and I knew exactly where the baggage help desk was so I went there to fill out the forms and sign off for them to deliver it to the resort once it arrives (likely the next day since we were the last flight arriving that day). Next stop: find the free drinks.
We ride the bus to the resort. It’s about a 2-hour drive with one stop for a bathroom break, food and more drinks. By the time we get to the resort it’s about 6:30 p.m. First thing we do is get dressed to go to the pool. I obviously don’t have my luggage (just my carry-on with camera gear) so Kayla let’s me borrow one of her swim suits. We head to the pool - it’s closed for treatment.
Next option: Dinner. We go to the closest dinner spot and they refuse to seat us because I’m not wearing any shoes. And I’m like, my luggage was lost, we were planning to be at the pool so I literally have no dinner shoes to wear. They feel bad and seat us outside in the corner where others are least likely to look at us.
We’re fed, we’re (somewhat) happy (because endless drinks). Exhausted, we head back up to the room. I get ready to shower, turn on the water and … drips. Nothing is coming out. OF COURSE. So we call the front desk and they say someone will come to fix it.
No one comes until the morning. They fix the shower. I personally see, watch, hear and approve of the work. Problem solved. We go to the pool. There’s a foam party happening. Raging. We come back up to the room to shower. The water no longer works.
I AM LAUGHING AT THIS JOKE SITUATION because what else can you do?!
We go to the front desk and they refuse to move us rooms until our fairy godmother acquaintance, Kim (and her fiance), tell their butler to get us new room.
Meanwhile, I still have no luggage. LOL.
I’ve asked about it so many times (because at this point I’m freaking out that it’s lost in the travel abyss). And I’ve asked about it so many times that the front desk staff knows me as “the girl with the lost luggage” who describes her matching luggage “like a momma and a baby.”
I had expected my luggage to come within 24 hours and it was past 24 hours so I allowed myself to panick, slightly, because SOME of my essential video equipment was in those bags. Tripods, audio stuff, things like that.
The best part is that my luggage arrived by 9 p.m. (27 hours after our arrival at the resort) and it was even escorted to the resort in its own private vehicle. All of my items were in tact. All of my stress instantly disappeared. We tried to order champagne to the room to celebrate and got denied (of course). So we got drinks at the bar downstairs instead.
The next day Beth and Joe had a glorious, stunning, beautiful wedding (minus a 2-hour rain delay) — so watch the highlight video below!