2020 was the year of lock downs. No gatherings, no events and no international travel which, for us, meant NO DIVING. HORRORS!
Mike was not a happy camper, but he powered on living as close to normal as usual…just NO DIVING.
When Mike discovered that he could make the st. Lucia trip happen for us this June, he set about bringing it to fruition with alacrity, great enthusiasm and very high hopes for making up for all the lost dives of 2020. He worked diligently to tackle all of the logistics and communicate all the requirements to travel to st. Lucia. After many hours spent working through all the details and picking up the ball where our travel agent dropped it…like a rock… everything was finally in order and our group of 27 was ready to go. We thought the tough work was behind us. We were ready to move on and were looking forward to a stress free week of diving with some of our favorite dive buddies. The flights to St. Lucia were too easy and comfortable. We pinched ourselves to make sure it wasn’t a dream. We arrived at the intake desk in St. Lucia and our easy street became a dead end as the tide quickly turned and reality presented with an experience of international travel in this post pandemic world that was both frustrating and eye opening.
The 3 most obvious issues seemed to be: lack of communication, lack of consistency of policies and the native peoples’ discomfort with international strangers travelling to their small island.
Changes in and decrease in level of service in house keeping, concierge and other guest services, made mgmt of our group’s stay challenging and frustrating. The quality of food and service had decreased. There was an overall lack of maintenance of the property and a general diminishment in all services. And covid seems to be the new excuse for businesses not to deliver services as promised. We have witnessed this in the US as well.
At home many have used the “year off” to make improvements and refresh but this did not seem to be the case in st. Lucia. The economy had suffered, their tourism industry was hard hit and many of their people seemed weary, anxious, disgruntled and even hostile. Can’t blame them. Their govt is allowing foreigners in, they received only a portion of their income while out of work and many had no work. Their government does not pay for their vaccine so many are working in close contact with foreigners unvaccinated and masked and gloved at all times. Very Unhealthy in the heat and high humidity.
I don’t blame them for not being excited to welcome tourists.
In order to enter the country
We were required to have a negative pcr test result within 3 days of travel, proof of full vaccination or agree to wear a mask during our entire stay and complete an online application to enter the country.
All travellers, including the fully vaccinated, were required to wear masks in all airports, on airplanes for the entire flight, in any public transportation vehicle and on all boats.
Masks were to be worn when off resort property and when in enclosed public spaces while on property.
Those who were fully vaccinated per their ministry protocol received a wristband. We were fully vaccinated but were not given the wristband bc the woman checking us in at customs wasn’t familiar with the J and J single shot vaccine. She misinformed us that we could obtain a wristband from our resort. We attempted to contact the ministry to obtain a wristband while at the resort, but were not successful. We were not able to go off property.
Our stay at Sandals was lackluster compared to our stay in 2019. The diving was still spectacular though the frogfish were not as abundant. We spent most of our time underwater which is where we wanted to be. The food was mediocre compared to 2019 and as mentioned before, the overall service and general upkeep of the property was noticeably diminished.
We had a good time with our companions and all were more than grateful to be back under water and blowing bubbles again. Most of those travelling with us were happy with the trip, overall. They did not experience the level of frustration that we did which is a testament to the careful planning and prevention that goes into each trip in order to make it a stellar experience for his groups. That said, the energy and effort to pull it all off left us frustrated, worn out and with less enthusiasm to travel to small isolated destinations with a large group until they get the kinks worked out and are more consistent regarding policies and procedures. Right now the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing and no one is communicating.
International travel at this point in time is not for the faint of heart. My advice, If you do decide to travel internationally right now; do a lot of research and then do some more, bring a large dose of patience and something to entertain yourself with, lower your expectations, expect to pay more for everything, travel in a smaller group, don’t expect to be welcomed with open arms by all and, PLEASE, say a little prayer that this isn’t the new normal.
Practice gratitude and be grateful that you are able to make the journey at all because just last year you weren’t!
May your journeys be joyful!
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