My wife and I have been to many all inclusives in the Caribbean and this is the first time we’ve “dropped” our 5 star requirement. This ain’t no Sandals resort but it ain’t no dive either. The other reviews are generally spot on. Like a Yankee game in June, there’s a chance you might get a stinker but more than likely that it’ll be a good game.
If you’ve only stayed in resorts with a private butler drawing your baths, feeding you chocolate covered strawberries and turning the pages of your Danielle Steele novel for you, this may not be the spot for you.
On the other hand, if you’ve only ever booked last minute specials in 3 star resorts in Cancun drinking the bad water, eating soggy nachos and complaining about the 4:00 AM partiers, this will probably be heaven to you.
There’s going to be one or more minor things about your holiday that won’t go right. Best advice: at the moment you encounter those minor things, think about the snowstorm you left behind and the job that’s waiting for you when you get back and you’ll probably feel a little better about your current “predicament”.
Some key points worth knowing that may make your holiday better:
1) Stay In The Honeymoon Villas – There are 12 4-plex style honeymoon villas (or bungalows) on a reef jutting out into the ocean. We paid about 400$ more per person for one week than the regular rooms and it was ABSOLUTELY worth the extra cost. There is a massive 4 person Jacuzzi in the room as well as an outdoor shower. My first thought was that an outdoor shower would be a bit cheesy but…how do it put this…it was…epic. 3 of the bungalows are very close to the main beach and would have minimal privacy however the other 9 bungalows would provide a lot of privacy and would be very quiet. We had a second floor villa on the backside away from the beach. If you want a quiet romantic holiday, these are the villas you want. Only one room could see our balcony, so with a couple of towels hung on the side railing we had absolute privacy, oceanfront and sunset views. This definitely made the vacation extra amazing!!!
2) Use Miss Lou’s bar – Premium drinks. Shorter lines.
3) Beaches – Alright, all you folks who expect every footfall to have shimmering crystals of undisturbed, powdered sand run between your toes will need to look elsewhere, but the main beach is fairly soft and fluffy. The Sunset cove and adult beach sand is a little firmer/rougher but the actually beaches themselves are more secluded. Let’s face it, you have three beaches to choose from and that can’t be bad. They’re all different and you’ll find one you like more than the others. Definitely buy a 10$ pair of water walkers before you come.
4) Room service: Non existent. Best bet is to try and smuggle food out of the buffet.
5) Unorganized Towel Dispersement System: All the reviews are right. Some days you get a face towel, other days not. Some days 4 bath towels, some days 1½ . The suspense is so exciting, isn’t it!!! When you go to the beach bars, they may or may not have beach towels. My advice, once you get your beach towels, only return them IN EXCHANGE for new ones, that way you’ll always have a towel. I often saw people walk up and take 1, 2 or 5 towels and not give any towel cards in return….and we wonder why they run out. It’s like the Bacon tray at the buffet, if you see the staff drop off new towels, you only have approximately 5-10 minutes before you’re scraping up bacon grease of the bottom of the pan.
6) No Conveyor belts: the resort is big. Most of the time it’s not a huge deal, but when you finally get set up under your palapa at sunset cove and realize you’ve forgotten your sunscreen, it’s a long walk back…I’m currently looking into a motorized cart. (Yes, I’m only 33, don’t judge me…)
7) A Fast Forward Button: I read reviews that said that the bar lines are long and you’ll have to wait for your drinks. This should be explained further. I never saw a line longer than 5 or so people, but keep in mind that a line with 5 people in it is about 20 minutes long. They are in no hurry, but you shouldn’t be either. The view is amazing, chat it up with those in line with you and enjoy it, you’re in Jamaica! Definitely bring a insulated cup, and don’t worry about thinking that your cup is “too big”, we saw cups that 7-11 big gulps would be jealous of.
RECENT REVIEWS: Due to the storms on the East coast of the U.S., there were many flight cancellations and, as best we understand it, the resort found other people for those rooms. When the flights finally flew to Jamaica, you’ve got an overbooked scenario. Any negative reviews that deal with the over booking are likely due to something of this sort. The resort was offering a pretty sweet deal to anyone wanting to switch resorts to accommodate the overbooking which involved free tours, additional perks, etc. Was it the best way to deal with it, I don’t know, but I would think it would be a fairly isolated incident.
A word on Dinner: The A-la-Carte restaurants are very good, everyone has their own personal tastes, we enjoyed the Indian restaurant and found that there were never any lines for it. The goofy thing about the Creole, Asian, Steak and Mexican restaurants is that there is only one hostess station per two restaurants, so twice as many people are lined up for dinner. This is very impractical and given the Jamaican “speed”, it only further compounds the issue. The longest lines were for the Italian and Steak/mexican restaurants - you could wait up to an hour for a table (this may be due to people’s reluctance to try new things so stay with their steak and potatoes). BEST ADVICE: go for dinner before 6:00 pm before the tables fill up, otherwise wait until after 8:00 so the first group of people have finished.
Breakfast and lunch at the buffets are generally the same with minimal changes. The buffets are like the Chicago Cubs, they may occasionally surprise you but in the long run will probably miss the plate-offs. :)
