Accommodations

Due to booking my flight extremely late (don’t do like me, do better than me in this department), I arrived a day earlier then the rest of my crew. I took a cab ($17 usd) from the airport, and stayed a night at The South Beach Hotel, in Rockley Beach located in Christ Church parish.

The beach was right across the street from the hotel, there were many restaurants, lounges, and bars nearby. My favorite was the Tiki bar about a block away from the hotel. The drinks and buffalo wings were amazing, my favorite were the coconut mojitos (honestly I'll drink anything with coconut in it)!

*(BDS currency is 50/50 US dollar; so divided BDS prices by half and you'll have your USD price)

The remainder of my travel crew arrived the next day and we later met at our Home-away accommodations located on the West side of the island in St. James, Barbados. The Home-Away was absolutely amazing! The Home-away was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom beach Villa, which gave me Santorini, Amalfi coast vibes. The loft apartment was gorgeous, modern, clean, and large enough to house 4 grown women. We had access to our own rooftop housing a lounge set which provided more views and photo opportunities.

We had our own beach entrance to a semi-private beach which was gorgeous!

There weren’t many (actually less than a handful) of food options around our HomeAway which was discouraging, but we were always out and about so we made sure to grab food before coming back to our accommodations.

Getting around BARBADOS

Chauffeur/ Taxi Service

Our HomeAway host left plenty of chauffeur/taxi business cards, if you’ve been to an island getting around town also means finding a good, trusted, safe driver you can call to drive you around. We randomly called some of the numbers on the cards and lucked up with Peter. Our driver, Peter, was truly amazing.

We called Peter at all times of the morning and evening; he was always available. Peter was professional, safe, courteous, and provided a luxury chauffeur experience for an affordable price. Peter even gave us a tour of the island, took us to Harrison’s Cave which is one of Barbados natural attractions, and to Barbados Flower Garden.

Public Transportation

We rode the city bus a couple of times which ran very frequently and was only $2 BDS or $1 USD per ride. If you’re all about hanging with the locals and saving some money along the way it was a great experience. There were plenty of buses that went straight into Oistins, Bridgetown, or further up the West coast into Speighstown. I truly enjoyed being around the locals, everyone was very sweet and respectful.

Jouvert Party, August 3rd

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We didn’t do a ton of partying, at all, for me this was a vacation so I wanted it to be 70% rest and to not come back needing another vacation, that’s just how my crew and I roll. With that being said, we went to Jabnival Molassie Jouvert party in Bridgetown on August 4th (early morning). It was on the beach, not all inclusive so you paid for your alcohol and food, but still a good time.

Foreday Morning (Official Jouvert)

We played with Bakshun Foreday Band. In Barbados, the ladies get glammed up for jouvert which I enjoyed and took note for next year. Honestly, it seems like most ladies get slammed up for other jouverts now and I'm just tardy for the party. Most of the ladies didn’t have their hair tied up, makeup beat, and were happily whining with their hair covered in paint and powder. I loved it. Meanwhile, I wasn’t dressed up because I was more concerned with protecting my tresses vs. being exposed and cute. Honestly, I rather be exposed and cute going forward, judge yo’ self.

Price: $97.50

Pros

Received a cute shirt and shorts
All inclusive food and drinks
Great Communication
The band owner was kind enough to drop off all of our costumes to my hotel and I was able to pay the remaining balance (put 50% down, pay remaining 50% at distribution)
I even over paid him, I was extremely nervous he would run away with my money but he didn’t and paid me back once I found him on the Foreday route.
There was plenty of paint and lots of alcohol. Alcohol runners were all throughout the route which made it easier to keep your cup full without having run around and find the drink truck.

Cons

The speaker blew out, which happens, but it took a while for us to finally get on the road.
The drink cups we were given didn’t have a lid, if you’ve been to jouvert you know how important it is to have a cup with a lid. Paint and powder is being tossed all over the place and possibly into your drink, definitely important to have a cups with lids..
Breakfast and Lunch was a complete disappointment. Actually it was horrible, hotdogs, oatmeal, some other nonsense. I didn’t eat.

Overall:

Save your coins and don’t play with this Foreday morning band. There are plenty of Foreday bands to choose from, do your research and find one that’s worth your money.

Kadooment, Carnival Monday, August 7th

Getting Pretty: Makeup

For any Carnival, I always go with my favs, Face Candy Studio. It was my 3rd time having them do my carnival makeup so as a special promotion, I received 50% off the price of my makeup! I only paid $30 total, and an extra $10 for lashes for my carnival makeup. Face Candy is quick, organized, and extremely efficient with great customer service. They have different stations including; Eyes, foundation, and jewels. You can also choose from a couple of different airbrush packages and times. Face Candy Studio usually picks a nice hotel that’s very close to the park where carnival bands meet before going on the road, which makes them even more convenient and accomodating.

The Mas Band: Erup the Band

The Costume

The Cropover Carnival band we played with was Erup the Band. It’s a newer band, and they definitely had hiccups when it came to costume distribution, thankfully on my day of distribution it didn’t take long to receive my costume. My crew picked there’s up the day before and waited for hours due to them being closed during distribution hours with no prior notice! I was given my box and before signing off you’re required to check and make sure everything is intact and all the pieces of your costume are present. If there was a gem loose or had fallen off you would inform them and it’d be immediately fixed. I loved my costume, everything matched exactly as pictured on the model, which is a HUGE win.

The price of my costume was $460, backline, for the Lamanja section, some prices for Mas costumes can be outrageous. I did find this reasonable for Barbados due to paying around the same amount for Miami and double for Trinidad. When choosing a Mas band, make sure to research past masquerader experiences, if the costumes are exactly as pictured, customer service, food, and road amenities.

Food

The breakfast was good, they had salt-fish and bake (my absolute favorite), sausage, and eggs.

We never had lunch because they decided to serve it at the end of the Kadooment route. It was way too chaotic at that point and we just headed back to our HomeAway.

Crossing the Stage: For Kadooment, you cross the stage first which I always like, but the wait was outrageous. It was extremely hot, and the water stations were packed. The music was cool, there was a lot of bashment which is Barbados version of Soca. My jam on the road was “Give it to ya” by Marzville which I’m sure you’ve heard and will be hearing for well into the carnival season.

Dranks: My favorite part of carnival is dancing half naked with an alcoholic beverage in my hand. The band definitely did this right, the drinks kept flowing, Erup had drink and snack runners all throughout the route. The drink truck was also easy to access and had plenty of workers. My favorites were the alcoholic popsicles and liquor snow cones because it was hotter than the bottom of Satan's feet outside.

In Conclusion

As far as playing Mas with this band again, that’s a HELL no. In the future, I’ll take a note from Trinidad and jump a more seasoned band.

Lastly, no I didn't see Rihanna *exhale, roll my eyes*

DO

Purchase your plane ticket in advance, look to spend anywhere between $700-$1400 on a flight, Crop-over is during peak travel season in Barbados and lots of families especially from the UK vacation there during the summer with the kiddos out of school.

DO

Wear sunscreen, a whole lot of sunscreen! When I tell you that sun is no joke! Even I got a tan, my costume was imprinted on my body for months, no lie!

DO

Stay on the West side of the island, I stayed in St. James, or another favorite is the southern part of the island, in the Christ Church parish. This is the touristy part with all the resorts, hotels, restaurants, lounges, etc. It's super close to Oistins and a short cab or bus ride into Bridgetown. Book early to stay in Christ Church, they book fast and of course accommodations become expensive during this period.

DO

Go to Oistins which is in the parish of Christ Church, it's a fishing village were fresh seafood is cooked up and served. The flying fish is the most popular but you can also get all types fresh seafood for reasonable prices. Oistins on Friday nights is the place to be, theres food, music, dancing, art great vibes and people, it's an all around good ass time. We even went back on Saturday, wasn’t as crowded and not all of the restaurants were open but they had karaoke and it was a good vibe.

DO

Your research on what carnival band to play with! Erupt was a no go for me (and a no for many masqueraders this year according to comments on IG). I would do your research and as always pack a glue gun, always.

DO

Drink the Rum Punch, its something special about Rum Punch in Barbados and by something special I mean something strong and good!! So good *insert drool emoji here*

DO

Pray it doesn’t rain, this is also during Barbados rain season it down-poured a couple of times during our stay, but thankfully not to the point were it ruined our trip and not during Kadooment.

DO NOT

Wait till the last minute to purchase a place ticket, accommodations were easy to find, plane tickets as noted are on the pricey side so purchase early! I didn’t purchase early and paid the price, the price as in a whole lot more money than I needed to pay, but it was so worth it. You only live once, live it on a plane and a beach.