We're not in Kansas Anymore

We took the ferry from Dominica to St. Lucia, took a taxi to our rental car, and drove most of the way down the west coast to get to our lodging.  On most major trips we splurge on something, and for this trip it was the St. Lucia lodging. Fortunately Jeff had confirmed the coordinates and we only  missed the last turn.

The last 2 miles were along a rutted dirt road that the guidebook calls "rough."  Um, yes, rough.  Worse than Dominican roads. The kind of road that most car rental companies ask you not to drive one.  We finally reached the end where the resort security sits after 7pm, were told to park and wait for the shuttle. We then unloaded our bags, took the shuttle to the greeting area where we were presented with chilled wet mint-scented washcloths, served a tasty non-alcoholic drink complete with a sugar cane to enjoy and informed that the assistant executive manager wanted to meet us.

Yikes, had the booking fiasco a few days before the trip caught up with us? Maybe so.

The executive assistant manager, Jonathan, had spent much of the day at the international airport looking for us, had called the other airport, and had finally returned.  Seems not many of their guests arrive by ferry and then drive themselves. Turns out they'd overbooked last night and we were the ones being moved. 

Jonathan apologized profusely and noted that it was entirely their error.  To make up for the inconvenience they would be sending us to a nearby resort for one night, we didn't need to move our car and they would pay for the cab both ways.  They would also upgrade our breakfast-only meal plan to breakfast + dinner for the remaining days and give us a double upgrade on our room.  Would we like dinner here or there, and they would be paying.  We would have a little pool and complimentary sparkling wine at the other location. Um, ok, let's eat there "so we can freshen up first" (really because we figured it would be interesting to compare).

Jonathan followed us there, and handed us over to his counterpart at the other resort, who also supplied us with chilled cloths and tropical beverages.  Our room was incredible.  Jeff later commented that he couldn't even have imagined something like that.  It had a private entrance to an open-air porch with our own pool and a view of St. Lucia's iconic site, the Grand and Petit Pitons; it also had a couch, side chair and table.  We descended stairs to a spacious room, though surprisingly a queen rather than king bed.  The bathroom was amazing -- a tiled octopus on the floor at the entrance, a huge shower with tiles depicting the Pitons and banana trees with a tall shower head.  It had nearly every amenity we could think of -- a complimentary and stocked refrigerator, the aforementioned wine chilling, robes, a basket with beach towels near the pool.  Um, yes, we would suffer and accept this alternate accommodation.  We had an excellent dinner, during which the executive chef visited our table, and then enjoyed the room. 

When we returned to our reserved resort this morning we were greeted like long-lost friends and thanked profusely for our flexibility about the snafu. We received chilled cloths and the same beverage.  It turned out we wouldn't be getting the double-upgrade after all....but only because it had been changed to a triple-upgrade (there seem to be 5 classes of rooms so we moved from the cheapest to the 2nd most expensive).  The woman who checked us in referred to us as "my little VIPs". We'd already decided to send our laundry out -- hey, we're getting 6 free dinners so we can pay them to do our laundry -- but after we gave them the dirty clothes they said they would pay.

Poor Jeff and Marla, getting a triple room upgrade, 6 dinners, wine, etc. all in exchange for the inconvenience of the most memorable hotel room we've ever had and a great story to boot.