Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

**DiamondDave** · 09-30-2004, 08:18 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

in addition to what other's have said here, y'all are to be commended on your upbeat spirits!!

"Yeah, there's a hurricane goin' on, so I'll just keep readin' my book..."

that's so cool [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

**ale** · 09-30-2004, 11:45 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Thanks all (Frog007, Laurel, JamaicaMiss, Maryclear, SugarShug, Sammy, Puttus, Lady Beach Bum, Geo, and Diamond Dave) for your kind remarks.

We are glad to be home but like usual (and maybe even more so) we are looking forward to going back again.

Frog007- be sure to take pictures and post them please. We are anxious to see Jamaica as it mends.

SugarShug- I'm so glad you and the others picked up on my staff comments. Yes, I also was sooooo impressed with the staff and the way they came in to help get the place back in shape. Before the storm actually started we talked with one security guard who told us that CoCoLaPalm would be the first beach property cleaned up. I'm sure he was right. Not only were they cleaning the grounds but there was people repairing the roofs already on Sunday, even during the rain that continued on and off all day. And they seemed to be enjoying themselves somewhat as they worked. No one seemed to be afraid for their jobs but rather had such pride in the property that they really sincerely wanted to put it back right as soon as possible.

And George, we don't feel so special. The thought of the hurricane was so much worse than the hurricane itself. We kept thinking that it would get worse and it just never seemed to. The first night we didn't hear a thing after we went to sleep. As I said earlier, we are heavy sleepers and we didn't even hear the sign that crashed behind Sean and Lyndsey's room 3 doors down. It woke them up when it fell but it was the crashing noise that startled them! They agree with us that we were all in a very secure place, if we had to be in a hurricane. And the hotel and staff were as prepared as we could EVER hope for. They sent most of the staff home and just a few remained but those few were continually checking on us to make sure we had everything we needed. They came out in the storm to bring us towels, for goodness sake!

Diamond Dave...we can honestly say that we were NEVER afraid during any part of the storm. Our first room was surrounded by other rooms and there was not tall landscaping where it could be seen from our windows. We couldn't see much from there. We did have an awning over our patio that really "thumped" in the wind. Sean said it made things sound so much worse in our room. At least once we went to the door thinking someone was knocking! I think if we had been in the room we were in the 2nd night during the day it might have been scarier because we could have seem more of the trees falling etc.

As for reading... that's what we do here alot anyway and since we couldn't do anything else....
At least it passed the time!

As for being afraid...we sort of live with the opinion that God's in his heaven. We couldn't change anything so we just let him take charge.

Everyone, there is really no way for us to describe our feelings about the storm. If I had to choose a word, it would be boring!!! I know that sounds crazy. (I don't mean to belittle the havoc it played on the Jamaican people lives. It was a very destructive storm and we were fortunate to be in such a secure place. We realize that it was not so for many and it will take a long time to put things back to rights IF that will ever be possible.) We went into our room Friday before dark and except for changing rooms did not come out till Sunday morning. No TV or radio. No phones except to the other rooms. Thank goodness for the books we brought! I don't remember ever staying in one place with no means of communication with the outside world for that long.

When asked later by another guest that stayed during the storm if we had any life altering revelations during Ivan we thougth a bit and the only thing Don could come up with was.. "she learned patience"! I guess I did. Now if I can just hang on to it!

Ok, enough said... on with the report.

**ale** · 10-01-2004, 12:40 AM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Mon. Sept. 13th

We wake up to....SUNSHINE !!!!!! yeah! Oh, and chainsaws too but that's a good thing. They are still cleaning up!

We get showered in the dark. (daylight but shutters stuck closed! This was the only window in the bathroom. The generator is resting. We head to breakfast and the head of housekeeping stops us and asks if we had been in room 822 before we were moved. We had been in 802 so she asked if we knew who had been. We aren't sure who had been till she tells that room 822 was where the big tree came down. OK, that would be...Kathy and Dee? She tells us that they have a phone call so we go to the bar where they are serving breakfast. Kathy is there and we ask her what her former room # was. She was in 824. But Cassie over hears and tells us that 822 was her former room. We tell her that she needs to go to the office for a phone call. She does and then it dawns on us...a phone call???? Yes, the phones are working again. We go to the office and have an outside line set up to our new room.

I call US Airlines to reschedule our flight that we missed on Fri. I'm told that the first available seats are for the 15th. Oh my, that long...wait a minute what's today? Is today the 13th? Yes, the 13th. Ok, the 15th, that's great, we'll take it. She gets the names of all 4 of us, tells us we are to have the same flight as we would have had on Fri. just on Wed. She puts me on hold for about 5 minutes and then when she returns she tells me that she can't get the tickets to me in time so just be sure to go to the airport early in case there are any problem.

Now.. we have the flight arranged. But how do we get in touch with Sienna and Sala, our ride to the airport. I figure that the hotel could help us out but we WANT Sienna and Soloman if at all possible. I call their home #. It just rings and rings. Does that mean they are not home or that the phone isn't working yet...I try their cell phone. Sienna
answers. "Hello?", "Hellooooo?" click. Uh oh....
I try it again. The same thing happens. I can hear Sienna just fine. She can't hear me. Great. As we are trying to decide what to try next, Sean and Lyndsey meander to the fron of the hotel. Just as they reach the front...beep, beep. I hear Sean say "hey!" "Is it them?" I ask. Yep! They have come all the way into Negril to check on us! God loves us!

They park and we tell each other how we weathered the storm, etc. We take them around the hotel property and let them see the damage and we watch the staff as they work. We talk about walking down the beach to see the other properties but Soloman wants to go to the West End to see what things are like there. We all hop in the van and take a tour of the damage all the way past Rick's. What a mess everything is in. The road is one lane in alot of places due to trees down, etc. The smaller properties have more damage. Sienna mentions that she is seeing places that she has never really seen before since so much of the foliage is gone. People are working all up and down the road. Cutting up limbs and trees. Picking up debris. We didn't get many, if any pictures. (Our card was full) but we take video. (Sorry, don't have the means yet to get the video into the computer. But our son is working on us!)

We stop to get some travelor's checks cashed but the bank closed early that day. I'm surprised they opened at all. Sala and Sienna take us back to the hotel after making arrangements to take us to the airport on Wed.

Then we walk up and down the beach to see other properties. Very few other properties were cleaning up yet. Didn't go very far either way. The beach was narrower and the waves were still coming in pretty far. Don gets hit by a wave that hit a short wall and gets soaked. (Later he remembers that he had our cell phone in his pocket. It was fried!)

Dr. Rock... one of the staff, a bartender, comes to the room letting us chose our dinner choice from a limited selection. Tells us they will call us when it's ready. We can go to the bar or take it to the room.

Tonight we take it to our room. Don reads... I play solitaire. (Sean and Lyndsey have been spending alot of their time playing cards with another young couple who were there for their honeymoon and not scheduled to fly home till Wed anyway!) Still no TV or radio. Go to bed sort of early. The chainsaw alarm might be back again tomorrow!

**ale** · 10-02-2004, 01:22 AM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

I'll post a few shots that Sean got from outside CocoLaPalm;

I'll try a couple of before and after shots he got later.

**Jamaicamiss** · 10-02-2004, 10:45 AM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

It is great that you are posting more on your trip and the pics. My friend lost his home and furnishings outta Negril, so anything that I can look at about Negril is just eaten up by me.

**Pepper** · 10-02-2004, 05:31 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Ale,

This is a fabulous trip report. Thanks again for taking the time to share your story with us.

Like everyone else, I am overly impressed with the service you received before, during and after the storm. They went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure your comfort and safety.

Great photos.

BTW, I forgot to mention earlier...you must be a Seinfeld fan huh?

**ale** · 10-02-2004, 07:47 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

I'll try a few before and after...

**ale** · 10-02-2004, 09:03 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Tues. Sept. 14

Got up to sunshine again today. Still no radio, or TV. Went to breakfast at the bar. The restaurant still hasn't been opened up. (Few guests left to feed.) We are to fly out tomorrow as well as the young honeymooners. Most of the others that we had met before and during the storm have managed to leave by today at least.

The staff is still working on clean up of the grounds. Things are looking really good.

One of the things I noticed today was how hot is was without the shade that had been there before Ivan. It was hard to find and the best place to get shade was in the "breeze-way" type places between buildings. The breeze sort of went right thru them and there was shade!

Still didn't feel like we needed to get in the way of clean up along the road so didn't venture out. Did walk across the road to Coco's other property. This is where the laundry (among other things) is. Kathy from a couple of rooms down had told us that they had a very nice garden over there. We went to see what was left of that. Not much of course.

We had been told by Wesley that the small pool toward the beach was finally clean enough to get in. We spent probably about 3 hours there today. Since we don't swim it was more to cool down. Got wet, sunned a little, got wet, sunned a little! Sean and Lyndsey joined us, then Cassie and Htein, the honeymooners. Even Wesley got in to cool off a bit!

Ate our supper at the bar. The manager and a few of his local friends were there. Took as long as we possibly could and just sat and chatted with Sean and Lyndsey, Cassie and Htein.
We were getting pretty tired of our room by this time. Don overheard the manager telling his friends how the resort had weathered the storm. Told them about the generator and tanks of water. This is when we learned that he had been turning the generator off every morning from approx. 7:00 to 9:00 so it could cool down. We realized that this could be a problem for us getting ready to go home in the morning. We had packed a battery powered alarm with us and tell Sean and Lyndsey and Cassie and Htein that we will give them wake up calls. Head to our rooms to finish packing. (We had most of it packed last night. Another way to pass some time!)Tomorrow we go home and by now we are ready.

Wed. Sept. 15

We get up by the electric alarm clock! We still had power! We had it all morning. The only thing I can think of is that the manager thought ahead enough to realize he had guests going to leave this day and left it on so that we could get ready with lights on!

I just can't say enough about the staff there. These were special circumstances and we were still treated with the greatest respect and care.

Sienna and Sala arrive to pick us up at 9:30 as we had planned. We are still in the office trying to get our bill staightened out. For some reason we had extra nights added to our bill. They said it had something to do with the office being closed and then trying to get the computers up etc. By the time it is all straightened out it is about 10:00. Still no problem as long as the roads are clear.

We had no problems getting to Montego Bay. In one place there was a back up of traffic because a wire was hanging down and you had to take turns getting around it. (There was also a big bus going the other way who was having a very hard time getting past the wire and had traffic snarled. Other than that we had no problems.

At the airport we chat with Sienna and Soloman for a little while and then decide to go on in so we wouldn't have to wait in line as long. We were right, the line was only about 15 or so deep and it moved quickly. TILL we got to the ticket counter. Don and I go first and hand our passports to the ticket agent. She begins to type in the info and says "So who is Sean?" I explain that he's our son and he's right behind us. She types some more and then says that she doesn't have any reservations for us!!!!! She asks about the conversation I had with the airlines via the phone on Mon. Asks if I was given a confirmation code. That's the first it dawned on me! No code! I hand her our printed itinerary from our Fri. flight that I had gotten off the internet. She types, another girl checks...and then she excuses herself and goes to the back to see what she can figure out. Ok..we wait. And wait...people pass us and we wait. Don says we waited for over an hour! It really didn't seem that long but...Finally Mellione returns and says..."OK, we've got Sean, Lyndsey and Don but nothing for you Anita. They sort of laugh and say "she's the one who called for the reservations!" Mellione tells us that the only other option is for me to buy another ticket! Wait a minute...this ticket I was flying on was a freebie...it was because we got bumped last year. And I'm on my way home...I don't have money left to buy a ticket and the hotel is using more of our credit card thanks to Ivan. Now don't get me wrong, I would have if I had had to, just didn't want to!

Anyway, Mellione asks me if I had any other paperwork. I did have the printed boarding pass type cards that our itinerary for our Fri. flight was on. I gave those to her. She goes to the back again, is gone about 10 mins. and comes back and gives us a thumbs up!!!!!! Yes! we're going home, me included! Then she can't find our immigration cards. She had taken them with her when she went to the back! She just gives us new ones to fill out. We go through the securtity and then stop to get something to eat. The kids and Don get Juicy patties and drinks. I'm not too hungry yet, so get a snack and drink. We go find our zone and we fill out our new cards. We don't wait long and soon we are on our way.

Bye Jamaica for now. We'll be back.

**ale** · 10-02-2004, 09:22 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Thanks Pepper for the kind words.

If there is one thing I wanted everyone to get from this report it was how great the staff was
and how well prepared the hotel was for just such an emergency. We couldn't have been any place safer in Jamaica.

Just curious...Seinfeld?

Thanks to everyone again for letting me know you enjoyed the report and pictures. I'd love to answer any questions anyone might have. Please feel free to pm or email me.

**Hush Darlin** · 10-02-2004, 09:41 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

thanks ale for sharing your experience with us and I ma happy you were all treated well.

**AngieB** · 10-03-2004, 08:55 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Ale, thanks for writing this exciting report. I know for you it was probably quite sedate, but for us it was exciting. I kept trying to imagine what I would have done to keep busy during those Ivan days. As everyone said, the staff was wonderful. Cool report...enjoyed it very much!

**Pepper** · 10-03-2004, 10:19 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Originally posted by ale:
[qb]
Just curious...Seinfeld?
[/qb]

Your linner and lupper comments. I thought is was because you were a Seinfeld fan.

**ale** · 10-04-2004, 12:12 AM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Pepper thanks for clearing that up.

I thought I made them up myself. I have watched Seinfeld but I swear I've not heard it from there. Just took the idea from brunch (breakfast and lunch) and went from there.

Kind of cool to think I'm right up there with the writers of Seinfeld! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

**Shortee** · 10-04-2004, 01:32 AM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

Thanks for the pics and the report

**Beachbound** · 10-11-2004, 07:27 PM

Re: Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

WOW...I want to thank you so much for posting your trip report! I have been online searching for Hurricane cleanup information on Negril for sooooooooo long and BAM here ya go!! AND...We are Cocolapalmers too!!

We just love Coco and YEP the staff is AMAZING and Mike is certainly a lucky manager eh??

My hubby and I are planning our 4th trip back to Negril next month and I wanted to know how Coco and Negril were coming with restoration and damages! I read your report to my hubby and we just laughed and had a ball listening to your stories! OMGosh I don't know if I could have handled being there during that Hurricane! Yikes!

Well...if you would like to share some stories and photos let me know! I don't think we are going to stay at Coco this trip because we want to venture out a bit! Still looking for a different resort so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Ohh...was Michele there when you were at Coco? She is one of the two bartenders at the Beach Grill and I know she had a baby this summer and was wondering if she was back on the Beach! She is absolutely wonderful as is all the staff! Hee...Dancin Kenny the Chef....What a Hoot!

THANKS AGAIN and so glad you and your family are safe and sound! AWESOOME PICTURES!! ARIE MON!
Kristen

Negril - The rest of the story...during and after Ivan!

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