CHARLOTTE – Our new series will be a “Ride Along” for you of our last 3 trips since the “C” word put a damper on travel. This is a showcase of what travel is like these days and how two “old folks” like Barbara and I managed travel in this new era. First. Our most recent trip in January, to Jamaica. The next 2 series will be our November trip to Barbados, then our October trip to St Lucia. Let’s start with Jamaica this past week.
We arrived at Charlotte Douglas at 0745 in the departure terminal. It took 15 minutes to check-in. 20 minutes to go thru TSA. We Arrived at gate 4 at 0835. Boarded at 0900. Departed on time at 0940. It was a very smooth flight. Our Plane was 40% full, leaving plenty of room to move and spread out if you wanted to.
One couple was going for their wedding. and there were 3 honeymooners. We had a row each for us. The new norm of a plastic bag with water, pretzels, and wipes was certainly not impressive, but we had brought our own snacks anyway. We got coffee by request, had good views of the east coast during the flight. There were few clouds and great scenery. One Hostess stopped and talked to us for quite a while and that proved a new benefit during this new “norm” in travel. Cuba was in full few as we flew. There were beautiful Beaches and plush clouds. We arrived in Jamaica 25 minutes early. They have a relatively new passenger terminal with jetways and that was a big improvement for Montego Bay Airport. We had studied all the travel requirements. We had the Covid Test within 10 days, filled out the Jamaica Visitor form, purchased the newly required on island Insurance, and had made arrangements for the departure Covid Test right in our resort, at no charge. We got thru immigration and health screening easy. The last stop was evidently security. For whatever reason, they were opening many suitcases and we did spend 15 minutes standing still here. Allin all it was a good experience. We just had to keep reminding ourselves we were on Island Time.
Please call Phil or Barbara at (980) 406-1650. We are proud members of the Mint Hill Chamber of Commerce.
