Trinidad Carnival 2016: A Review of Yuma Vibe

REGISTRATION

Yuma registration was fairly easy. Global Carnivalist, the concierge service that I used had a special relationship with committee members of Yuma. It took about 2 weeks for me to be fully registered. Global Carnivalist handled the payment, and all other transactions with Yuma directly.

COMMUNICATION

The band adds you to their mailing list from the moment you register, then proceeds to send out information about the band, costume, mas camp and finally the carnival as time goes by.

COSTUME PICKUP

Costume pickup for YUMA went extremely well and took about 20 minutes. I arrived early, paid the balance of my costume and was attended to in a timely manner. Please note, i picked up my costume on it’s scheduled day and that makes a huge difference.

COSTUME EXPECTATION vs. REALITY

The costume I received was the exact rendering of the costume that Yuma offered for my section. Though I loved the costume, I’ve had a better experience with its sustainability with other mas camps. Before I even wore it feathers and gems were falling off, so I just glued them back on myself.

In addition, my panty was missing from my costume package and while I expected YUMA to immediately resolve the situation, I dealt with a lot of pushback considering how much I paid for my costume. The common theme among bands in the Caribbean is the lack of customer service. For the price I paid though, I was disappointed that I still had to make adjustments to my costume.

While I understand that your band is highly sought after, year after year people spend their hard earned money to be a part of your band and should be treated as such.

THE ROAD – Food/Music/Staff/Vibes

Carnival Monday & Tuesday was amazing as usual. VIBES VIBES VIBES. Everyone was enjoying themselves and dancing with each other. You see people from all over the world come together to dwell in this similar experience. The DJ’s certain played songs over and over, but I think that’s because their wasn’t a lot of variety in terms of the songs that were released in time for carnival.

The truck bar was quick, not so much accommodating. Very often the servers would act as if you were bothering them when you asked for a new drink. The rest stop was poorly set up, there wasn’t enough chairs and umbrellas to accommodate all the masqueraders that desperately needed a break.

The rest stop had great food, giving me options other than veggie or chicken, like creole, jerk, and chinese. On the road, I found that they didn’t properly allocate their drinks for Monday and Tuesday because on Tuesday, they had already run out and couldn’t replenish certain brands of alcohol like Hennessy.

Overall Experience 7 out of 10