Mkeflyer717 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 431 posts, RR: 16 Posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 5664 times:
Hello everybody, this is my second report and I hope you enjoy it.
Every summer our church goes on this mission trip through Catholic Heart Work Camp and this time we went to St. Ann's bay Jamaica. Our group consisted of 6 including me so it was pretty small. Early Sunday morning (July 2) I got up around 1:30am and left the house at 2:30am and then met the rest of the group nearby. We took a limo for the 1.5 hour drive down to ORD
The sweet limo
Chilling in the limo (I'm on the left)
There wasn’t much traffic at that time on a Sunday so it didn’t take long to get to ORD. We pulled up to the international terminal around 4am and went to ticketing.
The terminal was pretty dead because there’s not a ton of international flights early in the morning... there's mostly a couple smaller ones to the Caribbean and Mexico. After some of the group grabbed a bite to eat we passed through security and headed to the gate M11. I would have liked to take a lot more pics but it was still dark out and most didn’t turn out but eventually as the sun rose I got a few while we waited to board.
Our plane an A320 at the gate
UA 744 landing on 27L (sorry for the quality)
nice looking aircraft
Sweet looking UA 763 came in to the gate next to us from Sao Paulo I beleive
Air Jamaica 70
July 2, 2006
ORD-MBJ
A320
load factor: 95%?
We boarded our flight early and I took my seat in 8F which had a very dirty window. Our group of 6 sat straight across row 8. Pushback was ontime and we taxied to the runway at 6:40am. I got a glimpse of some more of ORD on the way...
Mkeflyer717 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 431 posts, RR: 16 Reply 1, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 5669 times:
This UA A320 took off before us but besides that there were no other planes and we were next to depart 32L.
rolling down the runway we passed the United terminal with a few heavies at the gates.
After take off we made a sharp turn to the left immediately and began going south. It was cloudy out and soon we were in them.
To me it took a little to long for the food/drink service to come around and when it did it seemed unorganized and not really efficient. Don't get me wrong though the food was great!
Breakfast included sausage, eggs, tater tots, yogurt, and bread.
I felt that we weren't given enough to drink and they flight attendants didn’t come around much to check on you. Also the garbage sat on our trays for like 45 minutes before the came around to pick it up. Our flight path took us over Florida and Cuba but I couldn’t see much because it was kinda cloudy and eventually I slept for a few minutes. During the flight I mostly listened to music and watched Wedding Crashers on my psp. About 3 and a half hours after departure Jamaica was visible in the distance.
As we got closer we made a turn to the left and flew along the coast lined up for 07.
beautiful water!
Mkeflyer717 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 431 posts, RR: 16 Reply 2, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 5667 times:
Landing was smooth and we made our way to either gate 15 or 13.
Pulled up next to the Air Jamaica A320. The walk to immigration and customs seemed fairly long but once we got there it was nice because we were like the only flight there at the time (10:30am). Our bags came out quickly and then we had to get these 2 boxes inspected. In them we had toys, candy and other little stuff to pass out to the kids. When we went outside to look for our bus we couldn’t find it so we just sat there and sweated. lol Then the bus pulled up and our driver Mike said there were more groups on the way that we had to pick up but it was like 2-3 hours later so instead of just sitting there forever he took us on a quick little tour of Montego Bay. We stopped at Margaritaville but only to shop and look around.
Me at Margaritaville..... what a view
After that Mike took us to a nearby beach which was right by the approach to MBJ!!!!
SXM??????
It was funny when Mike pointed out the few planes we were waiting for...
A group from Michigan was on this flight
Another small group from MSP and a person from MEM both came in on this flight. When this NW plane came in Mike was like " get down.... get down... its too high!" lol I thought that was funny. The only other group which was from Oregon came in on AA. Once those planes came in we headed back to the airport and waited over an hour for the groups to get through immigration and customs then we all got on the bus and drove about 2 hours to St. Ann's Bay. It was along day with out much sleep.
There is much more I would like to share about what we did during our mission trip and how our return flight was so I plan on posting a part 2 as soon as possible.
767747 From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 1518 posts, RR: 28 Reply 5, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 5593 times:
Excellent report! Nice pics from ORD and from the flight. That's great you got a breakfast on your flight! Wow, the views of the landing aircraft over the water do make it look like SXM!!! Looking forward to the return flight.
Mkeflyer717 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 431 posts, RR: 16 Reply 7, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 5491 times:
Quoting Semsem (Reply 4): What exactly do you do in Jamaica
well we did lots of work from making, passing, and pouring concrete, cleaning/picking up trash, passing out food to kids at the community center, playing with kids, building a house, visiting the infirmary, buying a whole bunch of food and delivering it to a family, and did i mention playing with the kids... they were great and played with us a ton like every free second we had.
Quoting Semsem (Reply 4): Where is Margaritaville exactly
I cant really say exactly where it is but its not far from the airport.
Quoting IcLCY (Reply 6): Going on a misson trip in a limo? Surely the money would have been better spent on the mission in Jamaica
Ok wow srry maybe I shouldn't have put that in because if people like you but we had to get to ORD somehow and that happened to be cheaper than a bus because we got a great deal. So are you saying we should've walked to ORD and kept the money that was ALREADY set on the side for transportation!? It was going to have to be spent eventually. Another group flew first class because they booked it late and thats all that was left so is that wrong too? We worked our @sses off in Jamaica, gave the kids lots of love, attention, clothes, candy, and toys. This was one of the greatest expierences of my life and I can't compare it to anything else. This is my 4th mission trip and I'm going on another to STL in less than 3 weeks.My part 2 will have plenty of pics showing how dedicated and hard we work to serve others and I hope you think about what you said a little cuz you made it sound we did something wrong. How many teens do you know that are willing to pay for a trip to go somewhere and help people for a week or more during their summer. I don't know many and for you to say what you did really upsets me and wasnt necessary. oh btw how many mission trips have you been on??????
Flyingchoirboy From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 281 posts, RR: 6 Reply 8, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 5348 times:
nice trip report man! a few years ago i flew the same route on Air Jamaica w/ an A321. MBJ had no jetbridges then...seems like things have changed!
Flyingchoirboy: He sings, he flies, and sometimes he does both at the same time.
IcLCY From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2006, 252 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 5315 times:
Well I'm not going to get in to an argument but I think I'm more than qualified when I've volunteered in India, Nepal, Thailand, Ghana, Brazil , South Africa as well as here in the UK and will be going back to Thailand to work in HIV/AIDs education again soon. Which all ads up to more than 4 years worth of volunteering. I've never been on a 'mission'.
I work with lots of young people in the UK who have to do sponsorship events and save every penny to get the money together to volunteer at these places for 2 months + - of which religion is not a factor just giving yr time & helping the cause is all that counts.
And yes some of these kids in the UK, I work with would walk to LHR/LGW if it meant saving money and would travel the lowest class available on plane/train, etc. They usually end up travelling for hours on buses & trains in the UK just to get the airport & save the ££'s
Don't you see the irony of travelling 1st class to do 'mission' work?
I can rest in peace knowing that I have had a major effect on various peoples lives whether that be building a solar power project in the Himalayas, holding the hands of a AIDS victim as they die, teaching a kid who lives on the street in Delhi to read & speak enough English to get him a job, to teaching a generation of kids what a condom is & how powerful it is in furthering their lives or with my little sister's soccer coaching to giving women in Ghana self confidence and many many more cases.
Venezuela747 From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 1393 posts, RR: 6 Reply 10, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 5267 times:
MKEFLYER,
Nice trip report and love the pics but you never saw anythin wrong with taking a limo to the airport on a mission trip. I mean I'm sure you could have taken two cars and carpooled or grabbed some geryhound.....I mean come on.
And don't slap this crap on us that ohh well because u went on a mission trip to Jamaica u deserve a limo ride.
Reins485 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 136 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 5205 times:
Quoting IcLCY (Reply 9): Don't you see the irony of travelling 1st class to do 'mission' work?
It was not his group that went first class. Also, would you rather have those people stay home and not go on a mission trip?
Quoting Mkeflyer717 (Reply 7): Quoting IcLCY (Reply 6):
Going on a misson trip in a limo? Surely the money would have been better spent on the mission in Jamaica
Ok wow srry maybe I shouldn't have put that in because if people like you but we had to get to ORD somehow and that happened to be cheaper than a bus because we got a great deal
Yea maybe they could have driven two cars but either the cars would have to be left at ORD for a week or have other people drive them back. Either way that can get expensive with 6 hours of driving if people drove the cars back to where they are from, or the cost of parking. Plus, public transportation in Europe is better than in the United States.
Alex
NWA757boy From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 640 posts, RR: 5 Reply 14, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 5173 times:
Gaston,
Great report! Did you take that pic of a COex e145 with me in mind? lol
IcLCY From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2006, 252 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 5140 times:
OK this is going to be my final posting on this thread:
Quoting Reins485 (Reply 13): it was not his group that went first class. Also, would you rather have those people stay home and not go on a mission trip?
Yes it wasn't him that was in first class - I can read, but it was other 'mission' people in his group flying in & yes it would have probably been better if they had flown a bit later if it meant they didn't have to spend that extra on 1st just imagine how much candy, toys, concrete, medicine, etc they could have bought.
Quoting Reins485 (Reply 13): Yea maybe they could have driven two cars but either the cars would have to be left at ORD for a week or have other people drive them back. Either way that can get expensive with 6 hours of driving if people drove the cars back to where they are from
Such hardship a few of the parents getting out of bed to drive to the airport & back wow!(though they were Christian) when i lived in GRR as a teen i drove plenty of times to ORD at all sorts of hours. But I've spent many more hours working in villages where the women walk 2hrs there & 2hours back with a huge clay pot on their head just for water - that isn't even pure.
You don't seem to get it - taking a limo to the airport, flying in 1st class(whether the poster did or not) to do 'mission' work is pretty much against the point. You might as well have sent the money it cost to the charity.
As I mentioned I do a lot of voluntary work & I'm fortunately able to travel in the premium cabins wherever I go. I choose NOT too because I know that there's a big difference between £500 & £2000 that £1500 could bring clean water to a village, inoculate numerous people against disease, pay for a solar power project for 3 villages, buy text books for hundreds of school pupils, provide treatment for river blindness for 3000 people for a whole year. There's many more lines I could go on.
But I hope you get the point. I'm not taking away his vacation but
Quoting Reins485 (Reply 13): It was not his group that went first class. Also, would you rather have those people stay home and not go on a mission trip?
Yes is the answer here if they all donated the $$ it cost to fly 1st, the 'mission' would have been better off.
feel free to ban me but I can't go on with this predominately American drivel thanks
NZ8800 From New Zealand, joined exactly 6 years ago today! , 425 posts, RR: 3 Reply 16, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 5124 times:
I love the colourful livery of Air Jamaica
Good to hear the food was great - the drink service and attention from the F/As sound not so great!
And what a beautiful approach along the island, and also great shot from the beach under the MBJ approach path.
As to what lcLCY said - just pray about it if it upsets you, rather than flying off the handle back at them It sounds like you worked really hard in Jamaica - it's just that travelling by limo/first class for mission trips isn't that common outside of the USA. There it is commonplace and not that expensive - outside of the US it just looks ostentatious. And before you protest... I know what I'm talking about here.
[Edited 2006-07-12 01:41:17]
MDZWTA ~ Mobile Disaster Zone When Travelling Abroad
Mke717spotter From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 2119 posts, RR: 6 Reply 17, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 5076 times:
Great report & pictures! Looking forward to reading part 2 & the return trip.
[Edited 2006-07-12 02:09:21]
Will you watch the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions on Sunday? Only if coach Eric Mangini resigned after a loss.
Luv2fly From United States of America, joined May 2003, 11568 posts, RR: 53 Reply 19, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 5001 times:
Quoting Mkeflyer717 (Thread starter): To me it took a little to long for the food/drink service to come around and when it did it seemed unorganized and not really efficient. Don't get me wrong though the food was great!
From my experience with JM that is the norm and not the exception. Good job and well done, your parents should be very proud of you and the work you do.
TheLUREnyc From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 20, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 5001 times:
Quoting IcLCY (Reply 9): Well I'm not going to get in to an argument but I think I'm more than qualified when I've volunteered in India, Nepal, Thailand, Ghana, Brazil , South Africa as well as here in the UK and will be going back to Thailand to work in HIV/AIDs education again soon. Which all ads up to more than 4 years worth of volunteering. I've never been on a 'mission'.
I work with lots of young people in the UK who have to do sponsorship events and save every penny to get the money together to volunteer at these places for 2 months + - of which religion is not a factor just giving yr time & helping the cause is all that counts.
And yes some of these kids in the UK, I work with would walk to LHR/LGW if it meant saving money and would travel the lowest class available on plane/train, etc. They usually end up travelling for hours on buses & trains in the UK just to get the airport & save the ££'s
Don't you see the irony of travelling 1st class to do 'mission' work?
I can rest in peace knowing that I have had a major effect on various peoples lives whether that be building a solar power project in the Himalayas, holding the hands of a AIDS victim as they die, teaching a kid who lives on the street in Delhi to read & speak enough English to get him a job, to teaching a generation of kids what a condom is & how powerful it is in furthering their lives or with my little sister's soccer coaching to giving women in Ghana self confidence and many many more cases.
Yea - and now you're in the 'ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY' according to your profile. All this sermonizing from someone who makes PORN. ROFLMAO !!!
Quoting IcLCY (Reply 15): feel free to ban me but I can't go on with this predominately American drivel thanks
What a hypocritcal idiot you are. If you dislike this 'American drivel' so much, then why are you a paying member of this American website?
Mkeflyer717 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 431 posts, RR: 16 Reply 21, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 4998 times:
TheLUREnyc From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 22, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 4979 times:
Gaston:
For what it's worth - your Trip Report was terrific, as were the pictures - AND your reason for going to Jamaica to begin with as well.
For some of these people to have knit-picked such a minor point to harp and sermonize on is totally beyond me. But think of it this way -- if it weren't the limo they criticized your for, they'd probably have come up with something equally as lame .. along the lines of: "why did you accept and eat the inflight meal - you should have taken it off the plane and given it to one of the poor children... blahblah .. " LOL
Disregard all these armchair critic know-it-alls and keep up the good work - and the great Trip Reports!
Flyusairways From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 174 posts, RR: 4 Reply 23, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 4949 times:
Gaston,
Thanks for your great trip report and pictures!
Its nice to see that you were willing to go out of your way to help others, because heck, over half the people I know wouldn't dream (or care) about going on a mission trip.
I'm sure the people your group helped greatly appreciate everything you have done.
All nonstop flights are direct, but not all direct flights are nonstop!
Mkeflyer717 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 431 posts, RR: 16 Reply 24, posted (5 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 4943 times:
Quoting Luv2fly (Reply 19): Good job and well done, your parents should be very proud of you and the work you do.
Thanks for the kind remark
Quoting TheLUREnyc (Reply 20): Yea - and now you're in the 'ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY' according to your profile. All this sermonizing from someone who makes PORN. ROFLMAO !!!
good one lol
TheLUREnyc, Luv2fly, anf boeingguy1 welcome to my respected users list!
Avoid the Chicago ORDeal!! Fly MKE!
25 CRGsFuture: And that's why people are scared to talk about God because true hard core atheists tare them apart with their own beliefs. "You've done good kid."
26 CX889: Hi Mkeflyer717, I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your trip report, your photos (what camera do you use?) and most importantly, your desire t
27 Venezuela747: Sorry I didn't read the part where you said you gave candy to the kids...and if thats the case then you deserve a limo ride boy. This has to be probab
28 Tsaord: Finally!! someone on here flew Air Jam out of ORD!
29 NZ8800: No problem. God does reward his servants for their hard work sometimes
30 Delta732FF: Nice report, thanks for sharing. Would enjoy part 2 for sure.
31 Mkeflyer717: I use a Nikon coolpix S4 okay everybody I hope to have part 2 up sometime tomorrow so check back for it!
32 JpetekYXMD80: Holy shit, this has absolutely amazed me. You freak out at Gaston for absolutely no reason at all, and now you take the opportunity to give us your n
33 TMBishop7: wow... thats a little nervy of you. I commend you on your hard work and service. Nice report. I was in Jamaica in April...amazing isn't it. JM was di
34 VirginFlyer: Since a number of users seem unable to discuss this without throwing in a good dose of sarcasm and personal insults, thread is locked. I do not expect
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