Tuesday, May 26, 2009

View from Parrot Cay

When thinking about our honeymoon, IC and I figured that by the time our wedding was over, we will have been on Turks&Caicos for 7 days. This led us to conclude that we should only honeymoon for 2 nights since, what, we'd be sick of being in paradise by then? I don't know but looking back our calculations seem...misguided. I remember leading the charge of "let's only stay on for 2 extra nights" and in retrospect I am just baffled at my reasoning. We got there on Thursday, the wedding was on Monday, our day-after shoot was on Tuesday and we left for our honeymoon on Wednesday. In what universe did it make sense to come home on Friday? (Don't cry for us, Argentina, we've already taken a second honeymoon-esque type trip to LA and are planning to be in Israel this summer. Still, who leaves before the weekend begins!?).

Sidenote mostly for Trip Advisor folks visiting my page: We made a great little discovery with booking this honeymoon. None of the major travel sites, including Parrot Cay's own site, would let us book for less than 3 nights. But the site Tablet Hotels let us book for the two nights and had the cheapest rate and upgraded our room because we joined their Tablet Plus service (it was $195 for the year and a Parrot Cay next-level-up room was $200+ more per night, a no-brainer).

Anyway, the honeymoon recap:

The day we left for our honeymoon was the first cloudy, cold, drizzly day of our entire trip. The weather for the entire wedding weekend was just glorious, perfect, so we were ok with having the first not-great day be after all the guests left. The Parrot Cay bus picked us up from the Gansevoort and took us to their private dock. They gave us warm towels and beverages while we waited for the boat. (That thing wrapped in paper by IC's thigh is our cake-topper. He didn't let that thing out of his sight).

Shai at Parrot Cay dock waiting area

They had a model of Parrot Cay at the dock:

Model of Parrot Cay

Then the boat arrived and the ride began:

Use steel hammer to break glass windows

It took about 40 minutes. The ride was kind of choppy due to weather but not too bad:

On the way to Parrot Cay

On the way to Parrot Cay

When we get to Parrot Cay, we were greeted by a woman in a golf cart who took us to the main building:

Parrot Cay

Parrot Cay

She drove us through the lush, beautiful property:

Parrot Cay

Parrot Cay

Traffic jam:

Parrot Cay

We were greeted with rum punch drinks while we waited for our room key. The main house was cute and rustic:

Parrot Cay

Parrot Cay

Parrot Cay room key

When we got to our room, well, that was rustic too:

Parrot Cay room ceiling

Parrot Cay room balcony

Frankly, we thought the room was really weak. It wasn't even the fact that the room was very bare, or that the mini-bar was on the balcony, or that the air conditioner would turn off by sensor when the balcony door was opened, or that there was no wi-fi in the room and I'm a certified internet junkie. It was the little things. The sheets and the towels were terrible. The bed was really uncomfortable. The shower was old-looking and lacked water pressure. We kept wondering if we were disappointed in the room because we had just come from staying in the most incredible room of all time but the fact is we expected better for the price we were paying. We'd expect better from a random Sheraton and this was the world-famous Parrot Cay.

The property is beautiful, the food is terrific and the service is outstanding. But the rooms are a real downer and I swear we are normally the type of people who don't care much for the room. But when the bed is bad, it starts the day off wrong. Plus, the price to stay at Parrot Cay is so high that it really should be more luxurious. I understand they go for a retreat/rustic sort of vibe but that doesn't mean the sheets need to feel like sandpaper or that the towels should be worse than Holiday Inn.

Anyway, the weather was still not cooperating so we just took a long walk around the property and along the empty beach:

Shai

K

Parrot Cay

Parrot Cay

We sat on a rock at one end of the beach, kissed a lot and stared at our new rings:

Shai and K at Parrot Cay

We were all alone on the beach, it felt like the end of the earth:

Shai at Parrot Cay

We had drinks at the pool bar. The drinks were outrageously priced but very delicious:

Drinks at Parrot Cay

We ate dinner that night at the casual pool-side restaurant. It was realllllllly good. The food was just terrific, I don't have a single complaint about it.

I was still feeling bridal and rocking the all-white:

K at Parrot Cay

The next day the weather was better. Still a little cloudy and windy but warmer. This is where we had breakfast:

Parrot Cay

We lounged on the still mostly-empty beach, then moved to the beautiful infinity pool:

Parrot Cay

Infinity pool

They make drinks goooooood:

Drinks by the pool

They also had cute little touches like someone bringing around popsicles while you lay by the pool.

Then we had massage appointments at the Como Shambhala spa. The massage was great, and the space is very beautiful.

So, remember when I said that the weather was better but it was still cloudy and windy? Well, you know how when it's cloudy and windy you may not realize how hot the sun is and be less diligent than normal in your sunscreen application? Yeah. That happened to us. We were little tomatoes after our massages. I'd post photos of us miserable and red lounging on our balconies but IC doesn't want to be reminded to it so instead I'll just show you our last sunset on Parrot Cay:

Parrot Cay

That night we had dinner at their more formal restaurant, also incredible.

And the next day we went home, married, rested and completely in love with Turks&Caicos and each other.

Leaving Parrot Cay

We'll be back, maybe for our one-year anniversary, and maybe we'll invite the 65 people who watched us wed to join us. Or maybe we'll just run off on our own. :-)

I hope you've enjoyed reading my recaps. I'm happy to answer questions for any prospective T&C brides.

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful, beautiful!

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  2. I'm sad this is over - I loved reading it while I was feeding Eli on my iphone...I will miss the gorgeous photos the most!

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  3. Hi,

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  4. you look so killer in that white dress! can't wait till you get back!

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  5. Wedding planning is an art. A wedding planner should take care of all the aspects of wedding from the bride and groom’s dress to banquet hall arrangements. Wedding arrangements should be very perfect from point of view of every quest.

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  6. WOW!! Amazing pictures!! It looks great! Just shared it to my facebook :-)

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  7. It is the fantastic wedding destination or honeymoon. The place was the perfect choice. Keep it up. I really enjoyed the photos and information. One of my friend also planned his wedding in Hawaii using the wedding planner iPhone app as a assistant. Thanks for sharing the information.

    ReplyDelete