Haggling in Jamaica

My family is full of nothing but bad influences… but in a good way.

The day I got fired of course I had to make all the phone calls to let everyone know about the change in my life, from being consistently employed since 16 for the past 24 years, sometimes with two jobs and a couple side hustles, to now being unemployed. 

Secrets St. James, Montego Bay

After chatting with my mom for a couple minutes about the situation, she soon brought up my cousin’s upcoming trip to Jamaica that he had wanted me to join. Being a reasonable human being and a Budget Baller, I immediately dismissed the notion. Next I called said cousin and his response was “Now you have the time to go to Jamaica”, again, nope, not gonna happen. So he added yet another unreasonable cousin to the mix who also encouraged it. 

Over the next couple days, my grandmother gave me her opinion. But when I talked to my mom, about how everyone was being a very bad influence, she reminded me of what I had done to her when she was in a similar situation a few months ago.

I had made a powerpoint presentation on why she should join me in Italy and Greece for my birthday. A trip we had just returned from two weeks previous. She also reminded me that said powerpoint was a sequel from the previous powerpoint I had made a couple years ago to convince her to join me on a trip to London and Paris (apparently I make very persuasive powerpoints). She said I needed a “Fuck It Trip” to decompress and reset before getting back into the workforce, so I booked the trip.

Normally when I go on vacation, I spend so much time researching. I look into the best time of year to travel to whatever destination, best days to fly (based on cost), what areas to stay in, public transportation in said area, activities, weather, and soooo much more. Yet unlike all my previous trips, this one was already planned, so I just got the itinerary from my cousin and booked my flights and room at the resort, which I did through Apple Vacation because they had the best price at the time of booking.

Bombay Club (departure club is much nicer than arrival)

My cousin and his wife paid for us to get into the Mombay Club, which is a lounge and V.I.P. expedition through the airport, so you get a personal escort who takes you through immigration to skip the lines and can wait in their lounge where you get to enjoy free drinks and food. Since my flight arrived first, I waited for my cousin and his wife in the lounge as they were on a flight that arrived about two hours later with some friends of theirs. 

After a bumpy ride to the resort and four offers to buy weed, we made it to the resort, where after check in we explored the property (and had more offers to buy weed) before we found my cousin’s wife’s friends.

Only difference for the preferred room was a hot tub on the balcony tho

A pleasant surprise came to me upon check in. Back when me and my dad were jumping around the country, going to basketball games, I signed up for the Hyatt Loyalty Program, which is completely free and after a couple years forgot about it. Low and behold, since I was technically a member, when I checked in with the resort which was affiliated with them, I got a free room upgrade! The upgrade included access to the sister resort across the road, with much nicer amenities and a livelier, more youthful vibe and better food. So, sign up for the free shit! I have an email address that I literally only use for newsletters and free memberships, so that whenever I’m looking for something in particular, I can just pop over into it and search for either the airline, hotel chain, website, etc.

 We spent that first day of our trip hanging out on the beach and enjoying cocktails, while everyone else in the group talked about how this was their first trip out of the country and when I brought up my travels and my idea for Budget Baller, everyone was more than excited and encouraging, asking about the places I had been, where I was going next and if they could be included.

I’m not going to bore you with a play by play of what we did that weekend besides mentioning that we did some water activities at the resort, both tubing and a very chaotic banana boat ride. We also left the resort to spend a late morning at the beach driving around in jet cars while singing Fast and Furious and Jeezy. 

One thing that I have to mention about Jamaica is that having negotiation skills is a bonus. 

Unlike many places I’ve been, all prices offered were not set in stone. If you’re reasonable with your counter offer, slide someone a couple extra dollars or sometimes just bring them back a plate of free food from one of the vendors on your resort, you can cut a decent bargain. Sometimes you can even get a BOGO deal on drone footage for your jet car rides…

So between my family being terrible influences, free memberships and not having the pressure of planning one of my vacations, I truly had a wonderful time. Before this trip I had only stayed at a resort once and that was last year in Cancun for a cousin’s wedding where at least 5 people got arrested during the duration of the trip but that’s a story for another time.