We arrived in Jamaica, safe and sound. We had a very long flight and day mostly due to the fact I completely
neglected to think to notify the airlines about our meal requirements. We haven't been anywhere since we started this whole process and because we had the travel agent deal with the hotel around the gluten free, casein free issue, I wrongly assumed he had taken care of that! Breakfast showed up on the airplane as eggs with cheese or french toast with yogurt and a croissant. You would be hard pressed to include more gluten or dairy in that if you tried! There were no other options and no fruit at all.
We left yesterday morning at 5 am and travelled until we hit the hotel at 5pm, the boys having survived on a banana and the almonds and cashews I packed in the carry on. They both had a cashew butter and jam sandwich ( which they looked at with disdain holding the very corner of the plastic bag as though it were someone's dirty diaper), but neither got that hungry ( mom's are way less picky, trust me, I ate mine!). We didn't even make it to the room but headed instead to the buffet to plow a trail, only to find that it was Asian night and everything in the restaurant was gluten covered in some way. The a la carte restaurants were long pants ( the boys were in shorts) and the italian restaurant was an hour wait with no guarantee of corn or rice pasta.
The boys were so droopy they started to talk about just going back to the room which I knew would be a disaster with no food when a waiter with a sharp eye, noticed us kind of circling around not knowing what to do. He asked if he could help. I explained the problem briefly and he reached for the walkie talkie on his belt and said a few words in Patoi which is a mix of African, French and Spanish. Within minutes, the head chef for the complex was standing in front of me with his big white chef hat perched on his head. Once again I related our situation. He gave me a huge white smile and said , "No Problem Man! Let's get these men fed! They are not looking so good! " And with that he swept us into the restaurant past the one hour waiting line and told the kids to order whatever they wanted. They would make it especially for them. My oldest son was so tired he settled for a plate of fries and a big fruit plate, and my youngest son ordered up a huge steak and fries and ate the whole thing like a starving man.
Once food was on the table, he explained that all we needed to do was let them know where and what we wanted to eat for dinner and it would be waiting for us in whatever restaurant we chose to go to. Wow. Talk about service. Everyone smiling and so willing to be helpful.
This morning, the kids are exhausted and still enjoying their sleep. I have been up for hours. I forgot what it was like to be a teenager! I went to the hotel orientation this morning and the cheery Sunwing representative started out her talk by saying " you will hear a lot of No, Problem Man! here, that's because in Jamaica, there are no problems, only situations needing to be solved." How right she is. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the kind people who helped us out last night, may the universe pay you back in kind. Bless you all!
A great start to what I am sure will be a memorable vacation.....if I can ever get them out of bed! LOL
Thank goodness I have all of you!
In love and light,
Kathryn
neglected to think to notify the airlines about our meal requirements. We haven't been anywhere since we started this whole process and because we had the travel agent deal with the hotel around the gluten free, casein free issue, I wrongly assumed he had taken care of that! Breakfast showed up on the airplane as eggs with cheese or french toast with yogurt and a croissant. You would be hard pressed to include more gluten or dairy in that if you tried! There were no other options and no fruit at all.
We left yesterday morning at 5 am and travelled until we hit the hotel at 5pm, the boys having survived on a banana and the almonds and cashews I packed in the carry on. They both had a cashew butter and jam sandwich ( which they looked at with disdain holding the very corner of the plastic bag as though it were someone's dirty diaper), but neither got that hungry ( mom's are way less picky, trust me, I ate mine!). We didn't even make it to the room but headed instead to the buffet to plow a trail, only to find that it was Asian night and everything in the restaurant was gluten covered in some way. The a la carte restaurants were long pants ( the boys were in shorts) and the italian restaurant was an hour wait with no guarantee of corn or rice pasta.
The boys were so droopy they started to talk about just going back to the room which I knew would be a disaster with no food when a waiter with a sharp eye, noticed us kind of circling around not knowing what to do. He asked if he could help. I explained the problem briefly and he reached for the walkie talkie on his belt and said a few words in Patoi which is a mix of African, French and Spanish. Within minutes, the head chef for the complex was standing in front of me with his big white chef hat perched on his head. Once again I related our situation. He gave me a huge white smile and said , "No Problem Man! Let's get these men fed! They are not looking so good! " And with that he swept us into the restaurant past the one hour waiting line and told the kids to order whatever they wanted. They would make it especially for them. My oldest son was so tired he settled for a plate of fries and a big fruit plate, and my youngest son ordered up a huge steak and fries and ate the whole thing like a starving man.
Once food was on the table, he explained that all we needed to do was let them know where and what we wanted to eat for dinner and it would be waiting for us in whatever restaurant we chose to go to. Wow. Talk about service. Everyone smiling and so willing to be helpful.
This morning, the kids are exhausted and still enjoying their sleep. I have been up for hours. I forgot what it was like to be a teenager! I went to the hotel orientation this morning and the cheery Sunwing representative started out her talk by saying " you will hear a lot of No, Problem Man! here, that's because in Jamaica, there are no problems, only situations needing to be solved." How right she is. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the kind people who helped us out last night, may the universe pay you back in kind. Bless you all!
A great start to what I am sure will be a memorable vacation.....if I can ever get them out of bed! LOL
Thank goodness I have all of you!
In love and light,
Kathryn
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