Ok, so I am pretty new to the site but decided to post a small and slightly late JBR from our honeymoon in October. I have had so much fun reading about everyone else's holidays and I hope that people might get something out of my story.
My wedding day was the 2nd October and I woke up to my bridesmaids in hushed whispers about if they should tell me. About the disaster in Bali, well I ruined it by putting the news on and seeing the story myself. There was never any doubt in my mind that we would still go if they let us. On Monday we finally got hold of our travel agent and he said the flights were still going, so off we went to the airport.
We flew with Garuda who were fine, and our request to sit at the front of the plane was granted. I did this because the last time we went we waited in the queue at customs for over an hour. We didn't really need to worry because there was no line so we were out in about 10 minutes.
We had transfers to our hotel booked because we were staying at Le Meridien and because it is a bit further out I didn't know if we would get a taxi. Our agent had totally stuffed up our transfers and it took us awhile to convince them to take us. This was one of many stuff ups that our agent caused, and while I wont go into it now I will never ever just go to whoever is cheapest again, I want service not just to save $50.
Le Meridien is a great hotel and I vowed that I would always stay there when I go again. I found the price of the accommodation excellent value for the facilities that you get. The service was incredible and nothing was too much trouble, we requested a room change and they moved us straight away. The slide was very cool and even though we are grown adults we still really enjoyed going down again and again. The pool was really fabulous and we always nabbed one of the gazebos in the middle of the water so you had to swim out to them. The free shuttle to Ubud and Kuta was a great service and the drivers were really friendly, it was also a great place to chat to other guests from the hotel.
Generally we were pretty lazy so only left the hotel on the few occasions so we ate there three meals a day, and drunk cocktails at happy hour. We also often ordered juices by the pool, but with all of that we were pretty happy with our bill at the end of about $550.00. I know it a lot by Bali standards but it was our honeymoon and we just didn't want to think about it.
When we went to Kuta we ate at the Simpang Inn on Legian and Bali Corner in Poppies 2. We love both of these places and they were by far the cheapest meals. The Simpang has the greatest rooftop restaurant and you can sit and little gazebos overlooking legian, it is really lovely up there.
There was no problems getting back to the airport, I do however wish I had know about the premier lounge because those plastic chairs were so uncomfortable.
Well that is pretty much it, not quite as short as I thought. I am so excited about going back to Bali in May and we are thinking we will stay a few days in Kuta and then the last part of our holiday up at the Le Meridien.
Hope that wasn't to boring and might be somehow useful to anyone.