Before Our Trip
MY GOSH, this trip has been the most exciting yet stressful thing to happen in a while. We originally booked a trip here for our one-year wedding anniversary which was in 2020, but for very obvious reasons we had to cancel.
We didn’t know when we would be able to reschedule the trip, but when things started to look up we decided to rebook it for our 3-year. Since prices were still lower than usual for this destination when booking, we went ahead and decided to do it for 2 weeks….ðĪ
The night we were supposed to leave, David got a message from American Airlines that our flight to Miami had been canceled. He literally walked up to me and said, “Don’t freak out…but our flight just got canceled”.
Having already gone through the excitement and letdown of this trip before, I wasn’t ready to do it again.
Surprisingly, I didn’t freak out. I felt like it would all get sorted out since in the message they sent they mentioned they would be rebooking us. But after about 5 minutes I started to panic.
What would happen if we couldn’t get on a flight until 2, 3, or 4 days later? Would part of our trip get refunded? What about flight costs? Would the resort give up our room if we didn’t arrive on our scheduled date?
We had travel insurance, but the summary of what all that covered was very vague and I know for a fact when it comes down to it, nothing is guaranteed. It also sounded too good to be true that American Airlines would be rebooking us just like that.
We bought our trip through Costco Travel, including flights, hotel, and transportation. While it makes things easier to book that way it can also complicate them when something goes wrong because prices aren’t listed separately for everything, it’s all just packaged together so when the insurance company asked how much the flights were there was no way to look it up as part of the purchase history.
About 10 minutes after receiving the message, I decided to get on the phone and try to get connected with someone. Meanwhile, David called the travel insurance agency to see what could be done if we rebooked with a different airline. Their answer: we could add the cost of the new flight to the policy in case anything happened with that one, but we wouldn’t be getting reimbursed for the new flight even though all of this was out of our control and the airline’s fault.
After considering our options and seeing that no flights were available with AA (and also being that I was on hold for two and a half hours with American Airlines without getting through to anyone), we decided to book a new flight with Delta. It would be leaving 30 minutes before our original one and arriving at PLS around the same time as the original flight as well.
This seemed like the best thing to do because there was already transportation scheduled to take us to the resort from the airport and this way all we had to do was worry about the additional flight cost instead of missing out on a number of days at the resort and risking not being able to get a partial refund for that.
It’s still crazy to me how close we were to having to cancel everything for the SECOND time. If absolutely no flights would have been available that night, I think we would have had to in order to get any sort of refund.
I was already imagining myself sleeping in the next morning and going to breakfast at First Watch together in complete sadness that it wasn’t meant to be. Thankfully, the flight with Delta had a few seats left and we were able to book it with only 5 hours until take off.
Once we got to Turks and Caicos, we took the rest of the day to relax. It was Memorial Day so we couldn’t contact anyone anyways to see about the return flight. The next day, we called Costco Travel to find out if our return flight would still be valid since we didn’t make it on the connecting flight from Miami with the first part of it being canceled.
After being on hold for 2 hours, a lovely lady finally answered and after doing some investigating of her own, gave us two options. One was to call American Airlines and request them to not automatically cancel our return flight. As it was, they were considering us “no-shows” and we would lose our spots on the return flight. The representative said we should have gone to the ticket counter that morning to speak to an agent, which was my intention, but the terminals for Delta and American weren’t the same so we couldn’t just hop on over after checking our bags in. Plus, the Delta agents were running late and we didn’t get to the gate until 10 minutes before boarding even though we arrived at the airport 2 hours in advance.
Our second option was to take a refund from Costco Travel for the amount of the roundtrip flights ($1336.94) and book our return flights on our own. I’m not sure how they determined that amount because it’s all packaged together, but maybe on their end, they can see an itemized version that we can’t.
We went with the second option which would at least get us some money back and save us some time. Who wants to be on hold for hours when you could spend it outside on the beach or literally doing whatever else you want on vacation. There was no way I was going to spend another 2+ hours with AA and risk not getting an answer.
As of now, we’re still waiting to hear back from the insurance company to see if they’ll reimburse us the additional amount for the flights. It’s been almost 4 weeks since we submitted the claim so hopefully, we’ll hear back soon.
I’m still livid with AA, but of course, they can screw people over and not bear the consequences or even try to fix it. We booked our return flight with United (the cheapest we could find) and although they’re not any better than American, we were at least able to get home in the end without any additional flight cancelations. (It was a close one though because our connecting flight home was delayed 3 times and I really thought we were going to be stuck in D.C. for a while ðĪĢ.)
During Our Trip
Hotel
There was SO much to cover with just the resort alone, so I made a completely different post about it. To read about our stay at Alexandra Resort, click here!
Grace Bay Road Shopping Centers
These shops are located on Grace Bay Road, in between The Sands and The Ritz-Carlton resorts. We drove by them one day on our way to Blue Haven, and we added them to our list of things to do.
If you know me, you know I like to shop. Even if it’s just window shopping. ð
I say that because the prices at some of these stores were definitely out of budget. There was one sweatshirt I saw that I wanted to get, but not after looking at the $115 price tag.
I’m so used to going to Florida souvenir shops and getting 3 T-shirts for under $40 that that’s what I was expecting here. But be warned!!! The cheapest t-shirt I found (that was actually cute) was $33.50. Some of the others I liked but didn’t get were $40-$50.
I did end up splurging a little at one of the shops. I’ve never gotten anything from Yeti, so when I saw this tumbler with a unique TCI engraving of the islands, I had to get it!
To escape from the endless heat, we went into Turkberry for some frozen yogurt. The menu had endless options especially when it came to building your own. I went with the donut base and a bunch of toppings, but it didn’t look anything like the advertisement. ð
Paradise Scooters Island Tour
I found this company online when looking for activities to do around the island. They had pretty good reviews and it sounded like so much fun touring the island on a Vespa while being guided. I sent an inquiry through their website about a month before our trip, but never received a response.
Instead, I decided to just call once we were already there and set it up that way. On the day of the tour, once we got to the place, we learned that Paradise Scooters wasn’t actually operating anymore and they sold the scooters to this new place called Caicos Wheels. I’m not sure who’s running their website or how the phone number still worked, but I would’ve wanted to know beforehand so I could look up reviews for this new place. (I’m all about the reviews ðĪĢ)
I really didn’t think we’d be the only ones for a tour that day, but what I thought would be a group tour ended up being a private tour with just me, David, and the tour guide. Private tours are usually way more expensive so this really worked in our favor.
Instead of renting two scooters, we went with a double so David and I could ride together. I can’t even ride a bike so I wasn’t about to attempt to ride a scooter especially on the highway and in a country that drives opposite of what I’m used to.
We made a few stops to look at the different sceneries and overall, the tour lasted about 3 hours.
At the end of the tour, we stopped for lunch and tried fried conch for the first time. I can’t say I was a huge fan of it (I’m a super picky eater), but the fried fish and Caribbean rice were amazing! ðĪðž
Pictures can only show so much, so I made a quick TikTok video about our day which you can view here.
Royal Turks and Caicos Golf
What’s a trip to Turks and Caicos without trying out their golf course? When David and I first mentioned the idea of going to a golf course in Turks, I thought that was way too bougie…but might as well while we can, right? ðĪŠ
Everything at the course was absolutely beautiful and well-kept. The carts would even disable if we drove on the greens where it was prohibited (on accident). We weren’t used to any of these features and we even had the option to order food from the cart’s touch screen and pick it up shortly after.
We tried saving some money by booking during twilight hours but were also nervous we wouldn’t get done in time before it got dark. It might have been because it was a weekday, but the course wasn’t busy at all. This made it more enjoyable not having to wait behind too many people or feeling the pressure of having others wait on us. I say “us”, but David was the only one playing. I just tagged along for the ride and views. ð
Graceway Gourmet
One of the things you hear a lot when someone mentions this island is how expensive it can be, especially the food. That was a big reason we went the all-inclusive route with our resort, but I still wanted to see what grocery prices were like so we walked to the nearest one which was about 25 minutes away (driving time was about 5 minutes).
I also really wanted to see if there were any fruits we could try for the first time. I was pretty disappointed when all I found were some $12 packages of strawberries and a few other overpriced fruits, but nothing new.
I expected a lot of the items in the store to be at least double or triple the price of them back home. For the most part, the prices were under what I had in mind, except a gallon of milk was $9. ðĩâðŦ
The only things we ended up getting were rotisserie chicken-flavored pringles and a box of donuts. There were some other things from the hot food bar I was craving, but we decided it was best to skip it since we were staying at an all-inclusive resort after all.
Cost Summary
Like many, I’m always curious about what specific trips cost others and whether or not something is or was a good deal. I also find it helpful to look back on, for my own reference, to figure out budgets for any future trips we plan out.
With that said, here’s a trip cost breakdown. A couple of things I didn’t include below are airport snacks and tips for the staff at the resort and taxi drivers.
- Costco Travel Package (flights, all-inclusive hotel & transportation): $9,354.27
- Rebooking of departure flight for both David and I (departing from MCI with Delta): $918.59
- Rebooking of arrival flight for both David and I (departing from PLS with United): $1,255.74
- Flight refund from Costco Travel (original AA flights with the package): -$1336.94
- Travel Insurance (with Trawick): $393.25
- Bag check-in: $60
- Covid tests at the resort before going home: $122
- Paradise Scooters Island Tour: $270
- Turkberry snack: $7
- Magnet souvenir: $7
- T-shirt set w/ hat: $30
- T-shirt: $33.50
- Yeti w/ TCI engraving: $57
- Royal Turks and Caicos Golf (18 holes w/ club rentals after 3:30 pm, no ride-along fee): $135
- Titleist hat: $50
- Taxi ride for golf (roundtrip, not including tip): $28
- Taxi ride from the grocery store (not including tip): $14
- Blue Haven Market souvenirs (to use up the room credit): $110.72
- Room credit we received from booking with Costco Travel: -$100
Trip total: $11,409.13
Summary
We were scared 2 weeks would be WAY too long and we would get tired of the same routine or foods. BUT I’m so happy that wasn’t the case and we actually enjoyed the trip to its fullest. I think anything longer than 2 weeks would’ve been too much since my pants were already fitting a lot tighter than when we got there. ð Also because my lips kept getting burnt from so much sun even though I’d reapply SPF lip balm like crazy.
Although my lips couldn’t take the sun’s rays, my skin was glowing during our trip. ðŦððž David says it’s because of the high humidity (usually around 87%), which he’s probably right about. As soon as we got back home, my face started getting small dry patches and a few breakouts here and there, even though my meals at home are a lot healthier than what they were on the trip.
If your goal during vacation is to relax, tan, drink and eat, then this is THE place to go. I’m always excited to go to new places, but this is one of those on our list that I think is worth visiting more than once.
