I was asked to give a word on my Carnival 2012 experience. Hmmm, what can I say. That it was an adventure from start to finish? LOL
TOUCHDOWN!
I landed on the 10th of February, traveled with Caribbean Airlines. The flight from Ft Lauderdale is usually 3 1/2-4 hours long but the pilot told us that the 'winds' were blowing in our favor and we would be landing at or about 10:30 TT time AS WE DID, that was 3 hours!!!! I feel like that pilot had plans to go ARMY fete too! Every year with the exception of ONE I've landed the same night as ARMY fete and have gone. This year made it year number 2. With all the excitement of landing and most of all EATING I along with my friends had NO desire to go to the fete. We gave the hubby our tickets to try an have them sold outside and gave in to the niggeritis. He came home around 5am (if I remember correctly) and the reports were not great. I guess it depends on your crowd because I was told by others that it was really good. I just think it was his first fete and it had some getting used to but our tickets were backstage passes and only 1 out of the 3 were sold? He literally brought back 2 tickets, used 1 and sold 1, so maybe it really was ta-ta.
COSTUME COLLECTION FROM ISLANDpeople Mas
The intent was to get to the Oval on Friday for 10:00am. I was picking up for two sections and they both were being distributed on Friday, so Friday it was but that planned time failed. We got to The Oval around 10:30 and the place was full. There were two separate rooms, each with a line. One room was to finish pay off balances and pickup zero balance receipts/printouts and the other room was to pickup costumes. If you had a zero balance receipt emailed to you from Island People, that wasn't sufficient. You still needed a zero balance receipt printed from the camp (which had a different appearance) or from the distribution center. So if you came in with your emailed zero balance, you had to wait on the payment line, to get another version of what you ALREADY HAD in hand, printed out, to then go on another line for costume collection. Luckily I'm not new to the game and went into the camp before everything was transferred to The Oval and got my receipts printed before hand. Anywho, I thank God that I linked up with a good friend who happens to work for Island People and got me in the beginning of the line to get all 7 of my costumes pulled. It had some that realized what went on but who dare say anything? They would have done the same thing if they had the chance. The young lady pulled all 7 of my costumes. There was a male and frontline Scarlet i costume and 5 Sun Re's. Of the Sun Re's there were 3 frontlines and 2 backlines. The young lady began with The Scarlet i, I was given everything for both the male and female costumes. The costume was nice. It was made really nice. The entire costume was stitched! Not even I could have gotten that messed up on the road. Then came time for Sun Re. The Sun Re backlines were given to me first. Nothing was missing and everything was in tact. Then came time for the frontlines. I remember thinking that this was too good to be true because I heard rumors that there was an issue with the Sun Re frontline headpieces but there they were, all three headpieces, looking exactly like the prototype. I was given everything but then came time for the footpieces and backpacks. The young lady kept the receipts and gave me a paper and there it was.....my attitude. The nose started to flare as I was talking to the young lady. Seeing as I was getting a 'hook up' I couldn't act too too much like a beast. I was assured that I would get the legpieces and backpacks the following day. (Saturday). This entire process took a little over an hour. It could have gone faster but it seemed like EVERYONE distributing was moving EXTREMELY slow on purpose or something. When I was leaving with all 7 boxes, 4 headpieces and wings, YES I stopped by the counter and collected my chocolates, cups, some eye creams, soap, etc. Nothing that I would use but if is free, is me, so I took it all!!! I didn't see the green and black pouch that people received earlier in the week but decided not to say anything as I would be coming back the following day.
COSTUME COLLECTION FROM ISLANDpeople Mas II
So after collecting my boots, I went to The Oval to collect my things. It went well in the beginning as I didn't have to wait on any line with that paper and went straight to the front. When I got there, they took the three papers from me and disappeared for about a half hour. When the lady returned, I was told that I could get the leg pieces and that the backpacks were not made. Not coming later, not come back tomorrow to pick them up but they simply didn't make them. So, I start ta cuss! What the hell they waste my time for bout come back tomorrow when they know damn well they didn't make the blasted backpacks for??? The lady kept her cool while listening to me vent and offered to give me my money back for all three of the backpacks. They were $800TT and that's what I got. This process took an additional half hour so in the meantime, I decided to switch out my daughters Monday panties, I'm sorry, her superhero shorts for a larger size. We had enough masqueraders playing among us that we could switch and swap but even after all of that there was still one that had to be taken back to the distribution center. That was done with ease. The money was refunded to me, I signed for it and that's when I inquired about my green and black little bag that wasn't given to me. This was when Marlon overheard me having trouble getting the bags and pulled me aside. He took my name, address and telephone number and assured me that if he himself had to deliver all 7 bags to me at midnight, that he would do just that. After jotting the information down, I left. I could not believe it when I was driving to INSOMNIA, I got a phone call from none other, ISLANDpeople Mas, advising me that they have a delivery for me and is anyone home. Kudos to them for that but the bags should have been available at time of pickup for ALL masqueraders and not some. But say wha, I got mine.
GIRL POWER 2012
Lets get the record straight, I don't go to all inclusive fetes nor VIP because the food doesn't interest me and I'm not a drinker per say. I'm just saying. I understand the direction parties are trying to go with all the extras but at the end of the day IS A FETE, and that's all I come to do, fete. Okay, we got to Girl Power around 1am because that was the day my daughters flew in and to get the best of both worlds on the same day, they landed around 11pm and it took some time to get ready. There was no line and the food that was available to us smelled like it was burning so THAT was out of the question. All in all, we had a damn good time, we enjoyed Kes, (funny hat an all), Bunji and FayeAnn with their Asylum Band was decent, my girl Destra was in the mix and imagine my shock when I came to the realization that her act was THE LAST! Minutes to 5am Destra began begging for an additional 5 minutes where she literally ran through some of her songs an with that, Girl Power was DONE...... No explanation, no Machel, no announcement, no apology, no nothing. Its not til Friday that passed that Island People gave an apology and an half ass explanation as to what in the hell went on. They said that the police shut down the fete. I think that FAIL seeing as it was TWO WEEKS LATER!
INSOMNIA
Insomnia was nothing short of ah-frickin-mazing!!!! The water came right on time, the music was straight and the vibes were nice. Can't complain about ANYTHING!!! It was just simply amazing. I will never miss an INSOMNIA fete once I'm in Trinidad for carnival!
THE FOOD
On both days I received chicken and on both days the food was mediocre. By the time we hit the rest spot, I have no desire to eat. EVER. I eat because its part of my 'package' and refuse to let it go to waste but I never finish it, I never think its as good as home cooked food and that's basically what it is. NOT FOOD FROM HOME!!! People does beatup themselves over the food and want to compare it to food made out of their own kitchen. That's not happening so move the hell on! What I drink, never ran out and it was just fine for me. I'm no big drinker, pretty much a light weight but on carnival Monday and Tuesday, you wouldn't know it. I DRINK! I will get my money's worth! LOL
All in all, I had a wonderful time with IP and I will be playing with them come 2013 but they have to understand that not everyone is like me. I love my carnival and honestly do not expect all the things that others do. They have to get their act together when coming to crossing the stage. They can not do as they did this year and distribute so late in the game. Do as all the prior years and start from the Monday because carnival Friday will always be a madhouse no matter how early you start to distribute. Whats left of the overseas masqueraders flock in on that day so Friday and Saturday should be set aside for them alone. Be honest with their masqueraders, if you don't have it, you don't have it. People respect honesty more than ANYTHING else. Don't waste people time by telling them to come another day knowing fully well there is nothing to collect. Hire adults! Lemme repeat, HIRE ADULTS and people that can multitask. Part of the frustration was watching how slow these people went. It took a little over an hour to collect 7 costumes and that was with my sister and I doing half the work. If we could have went in the back and pick things ourselves the wait time would have been cut in half! No offense to anyone but there was a girl there with one arm distributing costumes. How much can she really do and how fast can she do it? There's a job for everybody and maybe inputting things into a computer would have been a better fitting job for her. I think I am THE diehard of all diehards when coming to ISLANDpeople Mas but I an all know that IP need to tighten up because like previously stated, everyone is NOT me and eventually people will get fedup, if they're not fedup already!
TOBAGO
No complaints. After all, it was my birthday, what's there to complain about?
I landed on the 10th of February, traveled with Caribbean Airlines. The flight from Ft Lauderdale is usually 3 1/2-4 hours long but the pilot told us that the 'winds' were blowing in our favor and we would be landing at or about 10:30 TT time AS WE DID, that was 3 hours!!!! I feel like that pilot had plans to go ARMY fete too! Every year with the exception of ONE I've landed the same night as ARMY fete and have gone. This year made it year number 2. With all the excitement of landing and most of all EATING I along with my friends had NO desire to go to the fete. We gave the hubby our tickets to try an have them sold outside and gave in to the niggeritis. He came home around 5am (if I remember correctly) and the reports were not great. I guess it depends on your crowd because I was told by others that it was really good. I just think it was his first fete and it had some getting used to but our tickets were backstage passes and only 1 out of the 3 were sold? He literally brought back 2 tickets, used 1 and sold 1, so maybe it really was ta-ta.
The intent was to get to the Oval on Friday for 10:00am. I was picking up for two sections and they both were being distributed on Friday, so Friday it was but that planned time failed. We got to The Oval around 10:30 and the place was full. There were two separate rooms, each with a line. One room was to finish pay off balances and pickup zero balance receipts/printouts and the other room was to pickup costumes. If you had a zero balance receipt emailed to you from Island People, that wasn't sufficient. You still needed a zero balance receipt printed from the camp (which had a different appearance) or from the distribution center. So if you came in with your emailed zero balance, you had to wait on the payment line, to get another version of what you ALREADY HAD in hand, printed out, to then go on another line for costume collection. Luckily I'm not new to the game and went into the camp before everything was transferred to The Oval and got my receipts printed before hand. Anywho, I thank God that I linked up with a good friend who happens to work for Island People and got me in the beginning of the line to get all 7 of my costumes pulled. It had some that realized what went on but who dare say anything? They would have done the same thing if they had the chance. The young lady pulled all 7 of my costumes. There was a male and frontline Scarlet i costume and 5 Sun Re's. Of the Sun Re's there were 3 frontlines and 2 backlines. The young lady began with The Scarlet i, I was given everything for both the male and female costumes. The costume was nice. It was made really nice. The entire costume was stitched! Not even I could have gotten that messed up on the road. Then came time for Sun Re. The Sun Re backlines were given to me first. Nothing was missing and everything was in tact. Then came time for the frontlines. I remember thinking that this was too good to be true because I heard rumors that there was an issue with the Sun Re frontline headpieces but there they were, all three headpieces, looking exactly like the prototype. I was given everything but then came time for the footpieces and backpacks. The young lady kept the receipts and gave me a paper and there it was.....my attitude. The nose started to flare as I was talking to the young lady. Seeing as I was getting a 'hook up' I couldn't act too too much like a beast. I was assured that I would get the legpieces and backpacks the following day. (Saturday). This entire process took a little over an hour. It could have gone faster but it seemed like EVERYONE distributing was moving EXTREMELY slow on purpose or something. When I was leaving with all 7 boxes, 4 headpieces and wings, YES I stopped by the counter and collected my chocolates, cups, some eye creams, soap, etc. Nothing that I would use but if is free, is me, so I took it all!!! I didn't see the green and black pouch that people received earlier in the week but decided not to say anything as I would be coming back the following day.
COSTUME COLLECTION FROM ISLANDpeople Mas II
So after collecting my boots, I went to The Oval to collect my things. It went well in the beginning as I didn't have to wait on any line with that paper and went straight to the front. When I got there, they took the three papers from me and disappeared for about a half hour. When the lady returned, I was told that I could get the leg pieces and that the backpacks were not made. Not coming later, not come back tomorrow to pick them up but they simply didn't make them. So, I start ta cuss! What the hell they waste my time for bout come back tomorrow when they know damn well they didn't make the blasted backpacks for??? The lady kept her cool while listening to me vent and offered to give me my money back for all three of the backpacks. They were $800TT and that's what I got. This process took an additional half hour so in the meantime, I decided to switch out my daughters Monday panties, I'm sorry, her superhero shorts for a larger size. We had enough masqueraders playing among us that we could switch and swap but even after all of that there was still one that had to be taken back to the distribution center. That was done with ease. The money was refunded to me, I signed for it and that's when I inquired about my green and black little bag that wasn't given to me. This was when Marlon overheard me having trouble getting the bags and pulled me aside. He took my name, address and telephone number and assured me that if he himself had to deliver all 7 bags to me at midnight, that he would do just that. After jotting the information down, I left. I could not believe it when I was driving to INSOMNIA, I got a phone call from none other, ISLANDpeople Mas, advising me that they have a delivery for me and is anyone home. Kudos to them for that but the bags should have been available at time of pickup for ALL masqueraders and not some. But say wha, I got mine.
Lets get the record straight, I don't go to all inclusive fetes nor VIP because the food doesn't interest me and I'm not a drinker per say. I'm just saying. I understand the direction parties are trying to go with all the extras but at the end of the day IS A FETE, and that's all I come to do, fete. Okay, we got to Girl Power around 1am because that was the day my daughters flew in and to get the best of both worlds on the same day, they landed around 11pm and it took some time to get ready. There was no line and the food that was available to us smelled like it was burning so THAT was out of the question. All in all, we had a damn good time, we enjoyed Kes, (funny hat an all), Bunji and FayeAnn with their Asylum Band was decent, my girl Destra was in the mix and imagine my shock when I came to the realization that her act was THE LAST! Minutes to 5am Destra began begging for an additional 5 minutes where she literally ran through some of her songs an with that, Girl Power was DONE...... No explanation, no Machel, no announcement, no apology, no nothing. Its not til Friday that passed that Island People gave an apology and an half ass explanation as to what in the hell went on. They said that the police shut down the fete. I think that FAIL seeing as it was TWO WEEKS LATER!
INSOMNIA
Insomnia was nothing short of ah-frickin-mazing!!!! The water came right on time, the music was straight and the vibes were nice. Can't complain about ANYTHING!!! It was just simply amazing. I will never miss an INSOMNIA fete once I'm in Trinidad for carnival!
ON THE ROAD WITH ISLANDpeople MAS
What can I say about IP that people DON'T already know. The people have an energy that is amazing, the vibes are great and the people all act like family. A family that has had too much to drink and are all having a time together on the road. It just goes without saying that I had a time on the road. The issues I had however were that there was such a rush to hit the big stage that they completely ignored ALL the others. What happened to Ariapita? What happened to South Quay? IP took us on a journey and although it was eventful and entertaining at times it just seemed too long. I don't know if I'm just spoiled and like to go down the Avenue to stop and rest down my headpiece or what but I didn't like the route AT ALL!!! The rush to get to the Savannah stage, was it worth it? Not in the least!!! It had people like me who could have cared less for P.Y.F. and would have rather hear Miss Behave to cross the stage but we didn't, say what but with all the rushing (and waiting once we got there) you would think there would be some kind of organization within the band to cross. Of course, there was none and we looked like a complete mess crossing. I didn't have to see any video footage to know that. All I had to do was look around.
On both days I received chicken and on both days the food was mediocre. By the time we hit the rest spot, I have no desire to eat. EVER. I eat because its part of my 'package' and refuse to let it go to waste but I never finish it, I never think its as good as home cooked food and that's basically what it is. NOT FOOD FROM HOME!!! People does beatup themselves over the food and want to compare it to food made out of their own kitchen. That's not happening so move the hell on! What I drink, never ran out and it was just fine for me. I'm no big drinker, pretty much a light weight but on carnival Monday and Tuesday, you wouldn't know it. I DRINK! I will get my money's worth! LOL
All in all, I had a wonderful time with IP and I will be playing with them come 2013 but they have to understand that not everyone is like me. I love my carnival and honestly do not expect all the things that others do. They have to get their act together when coming to crossing the stage. They can not do as they did this year and distribute so late in the game. Do as all the prior years and start from the Monday because carnival Friday will always be a madhouse no matter how early you start to distribute. Whats left of the overseas masqueraders flock in on that day so Friday and Saturday should be set aside for them alone. Be honest with their masqueraders, if you don't have it, you don't have it. People respect honesty more than ANYTHING else. Don't waste people time by telling them to come another day knowing fully well there is nothing to collect. Hire adults! Lemme repeat, HIRE ADULTS and people that can multitask. Part of the frustration was watching how slow these people went. It took a little over an hour to collect 7 costumes and that was with my sister and I doing half the work. If we could have went in the back and pick things ourselves the wait time would have been cut in half! No offense to anyone but there was a girl there with one arm distributing costumes. How much can she really do and how fast can she do it? There's a job for everybody and maybe inputting things into a computer would have been a better fitting job for her. I think I am THE diehard of all diehards when coming to ISLANDpeople Mas but I an all know that IP need to tighten up because like previously stated, everyone is NOT me and eventually people will get fedup, if they're not fedup already!
TOBAGO
No complaints. After all, it was my birthday, what's there to complain about?
Beautiful costume, I love relive'n the memoryz thru everyone's blogs!!!
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