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Pineapple Beach Club, Antigua - Part 5
This week we’ll talk about our experiences leaving PBC and the island itself.
Leaving the Resort
At PBC (and I would assume all Elite Island Resorts) the final bill is delivered to your room on the last day of vacation. It includes a list of 2 items: (from the FAQ section of the website)
“Service fees are included in your nightly rate. A resort fee of US $24 per room per night and a statutory tourism levy of US$5 per person, per night also apply to all bookings and are payable locally at the resort. The resort fee includes wi-fi.”
These fees are not optional, and other resort chains only charge the tourism levy. However, the opinion among travellers seems to be that other resorts build the fee into their pricing. That being said, when you’ve already paid for your vacation, it’s a bit of a shock to add these up, especially when they’re in USD.
Here’s a pic of the Reception area from outdoors in the evening – it’s a beautiful spot and being there takes a bit of the sting out of leaving!
For the first time, our flight home this year was cancelled. You wouldn’t think that would be anything to be upset about – but for many reasons, it was the beginning of a list of annoyances.
First, Westjet decided the night before to cancel their Toronto-Antigua-Toronto flights due to a snowstorm. However, Air Canada made the trip to Antigua and back on the same day. So we were left with the decision whether to book on the return AC flight (which had seats available), or to go with Westjet’s offer to fly us back (in Economy) 3 days later. The resort had rooms available, but we had to move from Beachfront to Oceanview (up many stairs and much further from our usual haunts) We (stupidly, in retrospect) chose to stay the extra 3 days, thinking that our trip cancellation insurance would cover the additional costs.
Here's what happened:
Travel insurance covered an extra $100 per day (the resort charge is ~$450 USD)
Westjet reimbursed the difference in airfare class immediately
Westjet reimbursed 50% of the resort expenses in July, in USD – but 5 months after the flight cancellation
So…… not the end of the world, as we got 3 additional days in paradise, and saw parts of the resort we wouldn’t have otherwise, and met a lovely couple from the U.K. with whom we’re still in touch. It was also a good education for this travel advisor as to how these things work in real life. Here’s a pic from the balcony of our Oceanview room.
Westjet Vacations contracts the transfers to and from the resort with Nexus Tours. This is important to know when something unexpected happens. Part of the flight-cancellation annoyance was that no one at Nexus could advise whether our airport transfer would be moved to 3 days later. Nexus said they would take us to the airport on the regularly scheduled day, and didn’t seem to understand how dumb that was, given there would be no flight! Westjet advised that Nexus was the only source of transfer information. Eventually, I gave up and booked our buddy Shem to take us to the airport.
Leaving Antigua
So even though we’ve done this many times already, the Customs system in Antigua is kind of unique. For starters, upon arrival and departure, access to and from the plane is done by walking outside and heading up the stairs. For those of us who travel like Diana Ross on Tour, this is always amusing to watch. It also ensures that you’ll be extra warm getting on the plane to leave, since most people wear their winter travel clothes on the way home.
The Customs Hall at V.C. Bird International Airport in St. John’s becomes very crowded when multiple flights arrive at once. The most important thing to remember is to keep any paperwork they give you on the plane and at Customs, as there is at least one piece of paper you need to complete and provide to Customs just prior to going through Security when you leave at the end of your vacation.
So, that’s the end of this year’s trip to PBC, Antigua. A wonderful time, as usual! We’ll be back!
Next week, we’ll talk about a trip we made in March much closer to home – Ottawa!!
Happy Travels!!