Watch the full video on YouTube | Scenes from Riu Montego Bay

What started off as a disappointing experience, turned into a fun mini retreat.

While anxiously awaiting departure as I sat in the dreaded middle seat on a JetBlue A320 aircraft, I noticed it was taking longer than usual for us to leave the gate. At first it started off as a slight delay which then turned into a maintenance issue. Which lead to them asking for us to deboard the plane so they could shut the power off in hopes to reboot and “solve” the issue. By this point, I think we all knew that we weren’t going to be let back on.

I’ll skip all of the extra stuff that happened within the several hours we waited at the terminal afterwards and fast forward to the part where we were given accommodations until our rescheduled flight the following morning.

I’ve experienced flight delays but have never experienced a cancellation that resulted in me staying somewhere an extra day. I was a bit anxious but not as anxious as my friend who would now be missing a day of work because of this.

Before finding out where we were being put up for the night, many of us were wondering what kind of place would be able to accommodate so many passengers at the last minute.

It turns out that we were going to be staying at Riu Montego Bay, which is an all-inclusive resort located in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Although I can’t remember exactly what time we arrived at the hotel, it was quite late as the sun had already set. The process of getting checked in was a little exhausting since as usual I somehow ended up at the end of the line although I was not the last person off the shuttle bus.

It had to be almost about an hour of just standing and slowly making steps to move forward to the check in desk. I decided I might as well make the best of it and pulled out my camera and started taking videos of the entrance and parts of the lobby. There had to be at least 100 people in the lobby, so I didn’t record much of it. Just the empty parts.

When we finally made it to the front desk, we were given wristbands and at the time I thought only the passengers received this “all inclusive” treatment. It wasn’t until later on that I learned that was just the standard for guests when they book a stay.

Shortly after being checked in and given our room key, we were told that the buffet was going to close within the hour and that we should hurry up and see if we could get dinner. I had been so overwhelmed by the circumstances that I didn’t even realize how hungry I actually was until dinner was mentioned. We hurried to our rooms to drop off our luggage and then visited the buffet to see what we could get to eat.

I crack up now when I look back at the pictures of my dinner plate. (no, I will not post them here LOL)

I was so tired and out of it that I literally just did a lap around the buffet and scooped up whatever looked like “dinner food” This turned out to be a scoop of white rice, then a scoop of rice and peas, a piece of porkchop, a sprinkle of some kind of stir fry veggies, one piece of pumpkin and one piece of plantain, and then some other unidentifiable items. This may not seem like anything out of the ordinary to you but no way in my right mind would I ever share out a plate of half white rice, half rice and peas.

When we returned to our room, I sat outside on the balcony for a bit, just taking in the beautiful view. The night sky was so clear, and the moon was bright. It looked like it could have been a full moon that night.

Anway, as you can imagine, it was a very hot and clammy day so it was nice to unwind for a bit, also there was unlimited alcohol in our room, I’ll just leave it at that.

That night, I slept like a baby.

I woke up early the following morning and went back out on the balcony and relaxed while watching the sun come up. The moon was still very present and looked so pretty shining in the sky with the pink and yellow clouds.

We weren’t too worried about getting ready since our bags were packed and apart from getting breakfast, all that was really left to do was be out front in time for the shuttle back to Sangster International Airport.

On the walk to the buffet for our breakfast, it was nice to see everything that we missed the night before since it was so dark out. I really like that they have so many fruit trees around the resort.

Breakfast was delicious. I was happy to see so many options and couldn’t decide. So I went with a half traditional half typical breakfast. Well typical for me at least.

After breakfast, we decided to explore around for a bit and check out the amenities at the hotel.

We spotted a few little birdies in the trees and also got to see the aftermath of the raging party that appeared to have gone on the night before.

We then spent the next half hour or so hanging out by the beach. It was such a calm and relaxing morning.

After leaving the beach area, we collected our luggage and headed to the lobby where a line was already formed to head back on the shuttle bus and of course we somehow again ended up at the end of the line.

If you are interested in watching our flight back to the states, you can click here.