Jamaica was a unique vacation for us this year. We survived hurricane Dean!
Flying with Dragon was great - the trick with an infant is to begin nursing the minute the cabin crew close the aircraft doors. Doing this meant that he pretty much slept through the entire flight there and back. Our advice to new parents traveling with their child for the first time is to try to time their travel according to feeding times - not always easy to do - we were lucky this time. Another tip is to take advantage with the pre-boarding option open to travelers with children. This definitely allows you settle in and get comfortable before the aircraft fills up and gets busy.
Jamaicans love children. This made for a wonderful trip with a cute kid like Dragon. Everywhere we went we heard things like "sweet thing" and "blessed child"...so charming, so Jamaican. At dinner one evening at Jack Sprat (Jakes) a British woman who was dining with her Jamaican husband and family actually came over and asked if she could hold Dragon while we finished our meal. If it were anywhere else on the planet this would have been strange and we would have said absolutely not but somehow in Jamaica, more specifically in the laid back atmosphere of Jakes this was perfectly natural and actually a welcomed request. It was fantastic - we actually got to eat a meal in unison as Dragon was rocked to sleep at the table next to us.
Dragon slept through hurricane Dean. Typical. At 11 weeks he was in the path of a category 5 hurricane and yet he ended up falling asleep early and continued to sleep though the storm even at its strongest points! We were fortunate enough to get a reservation at The Roundhill Hotel and Villas in Montego Bay for the night prior to the storm (after being evacuated from Jakes and the South coast). The Roundhill is luxurious resort and ended up being probably the safest place to be due to its location in Montego Bay during a storm! We lost power on Sunday - just as the storm was hitting Kingston early in the afternoon. Despite no power it was a pretty damn nice place to be - we hung out poolside and just waited until we could get a flight home which turned out to be on Wednesday. One thing the hurricane experience taught me was to make sure you have extra supplies for your child when you are traveling - you never know what might happen!
