Trip Report 10/16 to 10/24

I'm not one for keeping track of things and after many rum punches I hope I can remember enough to recap the trip....it's kind of boring but it was good for us to try and remember what we did. You come home and it's back to work and the vacation is so quickly forgotten.

We flew Jet Blue out of JFK -- smooth as silk flight and we arrived on time after leaving late. I'm always amazed at how that works. We were literally through the airport with luggage in hand in maybe 30 minutes. Amazing experience.

We drove over to Carefour to purchase a few items and then headed to Divi. Check in went smoothly with the Manager, Ann Marie on hand to insure things went smoothly. We were in the room and then out to dinner by 6 pm.

We wanted to try Sandbar after reading so many positive reviews here but it was closed--reopening on Tuesday so we quickly went over to Dinghy Dock for a quick bite and some cocktails. When we come in October, we make a promise to only try "new" places for dinner -- places we've never been to before. Happy to report that we enjoyed Dinghy Dock--some wings and a nachos hit the spot along with a couple of rum punches. The tap IPA beer was also very good but sadly no one knew exactly what it was. For the week we ate at Dinghy Dock twice --we went back later in the week so we could try the Mexican food offered by Pinche Gringo -- they share the same spot so you can order from either place, Sandbar (delicious Mahi Burger and tacos), Driftwood (good burger), The Pub (Friday sausage night), Dutch Blonde Beach bar for lunch, Rancho del Sol -- (great location and good food), one night at Divi after a boat ride on the Billy Bones boat appropriately named "Rum Punch"!. All in all, the meals were great, service was friendly and very good. I will even say that I noticed some improvement with the food at Divi which often doesn't get the best of reviews. We had lunch there a few times during our stay and enjoyed it all. The gals in the cafe--I think Wendy and Mimi are fantastic and can whip up pretty good sandwiches for either breakfast or lunch at a very reasonable price. I know some folks here like to grade the french fries on the Island. I was in search of the best rum punch -- maybe Driftwood followed by the one I had at the Yellow beach bar on Pinel.

Weather was a bit odd --we had some rain and were chased from the beach twice. On Friday the 22nd, the waves at Divi were crazy. I've never seen waves come up so fast. I went home with a mean looking black eye after being tossed like a rag doll in the surf. Could have been worse.

One of the places we didn't get to was Rembrandt--another recommendation from folks here. It's on the list for next year.

We dropped off the rental car with Michael from Unity and arrived at the airport at about 10:30 am for our 1 pm flight on Sunday -- the airport was empty and we breezed through and were at the gate in no time. We had probably the easiest trip over the mountain and a very smooth flight home to NY.

We had applied for Global Entry in July and had interviews scheduled for December. I had received an email indicating that when we land on Sunday we could just head to the Customs office for the interview. I wasn't sure where to go but they let us go through the Global entry line (there was none) and then he directed us to the customs office. We were interviewed quickly, Global Entry done and quickly in our cab heading home. The "travel" part of the trip went so well I'm still in shock at how quickly we were in and out of both airports.

Great trip, huge thank you to everyone for sharing their knowledge and experiences -- what I've learned here has enriched our time on the Island.

Sounds lovely. Thank you for sharing, knowing so many of us live for the trip reports of others.

Rum punches at Driftwood are very good. Thanks for the report.

Love , love, love the rum punches at the boat bar! One is not enough and two is too many.

Glad you had a nice trip. I didn't think that much of Divi's food in June so am glad you enjoyed it.

Glad you enjoyed dinghy dock. Gets mixed reviews. Not my kind of service or attitude that usually prevails there.

Glad you had a wonderful trip. We're here now, first few days. It is amazing how fast the time goes by. Thank you for sharing your report.

Thanks for the report! So difficult to choose where to eat, when there are so many great choices! Sounds like you were happy with yours!!

One thing I forgot to mention was the gambling....we felt COVID safe wherever we went. So safe, I think we were vaccinated against winning. The early part of the week was dismal--lost at Hollywood, Princess and Casino Royale. The tables were kind of quiet so we stuck to slots and it was abysmal. But then the tides turned--no pun intended after the black eye I'm still dealing with. We went back to Hollywood on Friday night and I met two really nice guys at the roulette table. We had lots of laughs and wins! I was halfway back to even. We returned on Saturday night and I think i was in the Casino for maybe 15 minutes when the slots became my friend again. It was the kind of magical night where you sit down and maybe spin twice and here comes a jackpot. Crazy time! I then met up with the same two guys at the roulette table. We didn't have that much success at the table but we didn't lose anything either, came away a little ahead. I put a lot of it back but still left ahead for the week which was a good thing!

We won't be going back until next year regardless, but what is the Covid situation with the casinos? Do they still have those weird plastic shields up at the tables?

I am flying back to FLL and onto Boston on a Tuesday and wanted to do my GOES interview, about how long did it take? I have to make sure to re-check luggage and get my connecting flight. Any details you can provide would be great.

The Global Entry interview took all but 10 minutes.

We used the Global Entry line in Customs because we thought that was where we were supposed to go. That saved us a lot of time in the customs area. That customs agent told us to retrieve our luggage and go into the customs office which is located right within the luggage area. The agent that does the "interview" was on his dinner break. After a few minutes, he saw us waiting and came over and took our passports. After another few minutes we went into his office. He confirmed some information and we were on our way. There was no one else waiting for the interview so for us it was probably 20 minutes altogether.

If I remember correctly, there was no plastic shields at the tables. Certainly at Hollywood when I was playing roulette, there were no shields. Instead of high fives, there was a lot of fist bumping going on! The machines at Hollywood have dividers in between most if not all slot machines but they were more permanent than plastic. I looked at those as more like "privacy" screens. There were signs on the machine to show the machine had just been cleaned. They were very good about cleaning the machines once you got up and moved on.

At Casino Royale I saw more of the plastic shields around the slots --didn't notice much at the tables. At the Princess, I don't think I saw a plastic shield at all. That seemed to be the least Covid conscious casino that we visited.

I don't play machines, so not really interested in that.

Sounds like a fantastic trip! Thanks for sharing.