tamashii’s Story
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So, long story short...
tamashii made the mistake of
eating at the breakfast buffet
My Advice to You is
unless you absolutely know your meals are included (all inclusive), don't eat at your hotel/resort
Here's the whole story
While we were staying at the Amaryllis Resort in Christ Church, Barbados, we decided to eat at the breakfast buffet (labeled as such). I have been to several resorts/hotels and every time the word ‘buffet’ is mentioned as a meal offering, it usually has meant something along the lines of “bad food for free”. I’m not too picky and the free buffets at hotels have always been a nice starter to my vacationing activities.
The Barbados dollar is half a US dollar; a real two-for-one deal across the island. Also nice is that everything is priced to what you would expect it would be here in the states. Overall, however, your dollar can really go a long way on Barbados and having a few 20s makes you feel like “Big Man On Campus” here and there. Not so with the breakfast buffet.
Obviously, it wasn’t free. No biggie. It’s a buffet of soggy, scrambled eggs and chewy sausage — how bad could it be? $20 USD. Per person. That’s right - my bill was over $80 BSD when I was handed the receipt. I couldn’t believe it. Shelling out just 10 US dollars for that would have been a stretch, but 20 clams?! Outrageous!
Anyway, make sure that when you are staying at any of the island hotels that you don’t eat there unless it is part of an all inclusive package.
Comments (5)
No sign or prices posted anywhere? You'd figure that'd be illegal.
@Dennis :: Ya - no signs or indications that it was a Pay-For Buffet. Additionally, the waitress/attendant didn't approach us about any form of payment until we were about to leave – she just handed us the bill as she was removing our plates. And that was really her only interaction with us. It was, after all, a self-serve buffet.
Obviously, this is common in Barbados and the other islands of the Lesser Antilles. Here in the states, you'd be hard pressed to not have any kind of notification of price. Additionally, I would have expected a hell of a lot more interaction with the wait staff for something I am paying for which includes a 15% VAT.
15% VAT?? Man. That's rough.
All inclusive trips, the only way to go... you think...
<em>All inclusive trips, the only way to go... you think...</em>
That's not always an option. In this case, it wasn't (as a matter of fact, the majority of hotels/resorts in Barbados are <b>not</b> all inclusive).