Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Destination: Jamaica

Tara W. of River Falls, WI
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: RIU Palace Tropical Bay
Date: May 2012
The vendors and musicians kept us entertained and were very kind to us so we definitely got a taste of the “shops.” We also had a couple nights with different vendors and musicians right on the resort so that was perfect. I would have felt completely safe walking around though – and definitely want to go back.

We even had one of the guys from the resort climb a palm tree and retrieve a coconut for us – so very fun.

That cove is incredible. Again, I would go back in a heartbeat.

The crib was in our room and set up with sheets and everything when we got there. Plus we had asked at the desk if they received our request. They confirmed they had and about 20 minutes later another person came with a second crib just to make sure we had everything we needed.

We did have something happen that we thought was super strange and forgot to ask about it before we left. Our first night there we were in bed super early and I don’t think anyone stopped by our room. The second day we ordered a little snack and about 9:30 at night housekeeping knocked on our door – we didn’t get to it in time but my husband caught them out of the peep-hole walking a way pushing a cart. So we thought they were probably coming to pick up dishes. So, the next day we were putting our daughter down for nap and we got another knock on the door – this time one of the reception people dropping off a Thank –You letter and a bottle of Rum as a gesture of thanks for the partnership between Travel Leaders and the RIU – very cool. He also mentioned that if we had the red-sign on our door no-one would knock. So the next few nights we put the red sign out and no problems. Our last night there we forgot to put the sign out and again at around 9:30 housekeeping knocked on the door (this time we had not ordered food and they were not dropping anything off). We answered the door and they were just checking to make sure ‘everything was alright.” Do you think this is strange? Maybe I am just sensitive because we had a young child with us, but doesn’t 9:30 at night seem late and to be randomly knocking on doors? We thought it was very odd we are just not used to that type of service!!

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Liz W. of Farmington, MN
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: Secrets, St. James
Date: January 2011
As far as the resort goes I would say overall it was a beautiful and well-kept resort. Being a newer resort, the foliage was not quite as mature yet as other resorts and they were doing some landscaping yet here and there, but nothing that bothered us or took away from the beauty. Mike and I both agreed that the beach was the best we had been to! I have been to Hawaii, Cayman, Mexico, Florida and a few other places but this beach was amazing! (granted it was manmade). Oh, and the spa! We had a couple’s massage and then enjoyed the water circuit, that was fantastic!!!! One of the best I’ve had.

They also had a lot of activities on the resort such as snorkeling, glass bottom boat, kayaking, wind sailing…a lot more that I can’t remember, but that was fun! The staff was very friendly and willing to help. I would say, the people are also a “perk” of the resort. We actually exchanged emails with one of the staffers. The rooms were very beautiful, contemporary and very clean! One of the things the resort gets a lot of positive feedback on are the beds. I just agree, the bed in our room was amazing and I wish I could have taken it home with me. The view was breath taking from our balcony. The endless drinks were so good and fun! They had several pools to choose from, one for everyone’s liking. We were in the preferred club so we had a heated pool and an infinity pool which we loved both! They also had a few with swim-up bars and were more geared towards the “fun crowd”. The nightly entertainment was pretty fun! They usually offered several different options and a wide variety of different shows.

The only thing we weren’t the MOST impressed with, was the food. This isn’t to say it was “bad”, it just wasn’t as great as we have had elsewhere. There were a couple of restaurants on the resort that were great, but all 8 or 9 weren’t anything to write home about. The selection seemed lacking and all of the restaurants were obviously supplied by the same chefs. But really, this didn’t matter to us much as we went there for the beach and the sun and just to spend time together.
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Joleen G. of River Falls, WI
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: Couples Swept Away
Date: February 2010

We hired a local to drive us from Rose Hall to Negril. He was a friend of a friend back in the states. He charged us $80. We gave him $100. We probably could have taken a Juta Cab for close to the same price. This guy wasn't very informative and we probably won't use him again. But, we did stop at a place that he swore had the best curried goat on the island.
Glen and I actually tried curried goat. I have one word. YUCK. NOT
AGAIN.

Room- Great House Jacuzzi Suite- WONDERFUL. We never had problems with a lack of hot water or water pressure. The room was spotless. The mini bar was restocked daily. They even refilled my ice bucket EVERY day!! We ordered room service for breakfast almost every day. It was GREAT. Our view as amazing. The bed was fabulous. We also had a walk in shower. Oh
yeah- flat screen tv with cable tv and premium channels.

Food- Wonderful. We ate at all of the restaurants at least twice each.
Our favorite was Feathers.

Service- Great. Tips are not accepted at this resort. In fact, they make it very clear that if an employee is caught accepting tips, they will be terminated. We saw tipping happen 1 time. We never tipped anyone, other than candy bars and school supplies.

Beach- Weather was extremely turbulent. Lots of days where we couldn't be in the water. The south end of the beach had TONS of seaweed wash in.........to the point where they brought in machinery to remove it. Our side of the beach was much nicer.

Spa- Wonderful. I had a body wrap, facial, and also had my hair and make up done for our ceremony. Glen and I enjoyed a couples massage. This was Glen's first massage ever and he really enjoyed it. I still laugh when I think about him referring to the spa as "The Massage Parlor".

All 3 pools were really nice.

Drinks were awesome. They had some top shelf liquors----Absolute Vodka was my go to. But they also had cans of Miller Lite. Every day, they had a different drink special, so we made sure to try them. I have a new found
passion for Dirty Banana's and Jamaica Brownies!! It also seems like
there is a bar about every 10 feet. We never had to wait for a drink.

We were a little disappointed with the water sports people. Glen really wanted to learn how to sail a hobby cat. The lesson was poor and they were not willing to go out with us or him.......even though it looked like they didn't have alot going on.

We took a taxi up to the cliffs one day and experienced Rick's Cafe and Sexy Rexy's. Next time we go, we will spend an entire day at the cliff side. It was very pretty and we loved everyone we ran into there. Rick's is a big tourist trap, but the surrounding businesses have the real Jamaica appeal.


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Joleen G. of River Falls, WI
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: Hilton Rose Hall
Date: February 2010

15 minute cab ride from the airport. $35.00 (US)

Room, bed, bathroom.......fabulous. We had a resort view room that overlooked the roof, but could still see the ocean. We also had a balcony that we really enjoyed sitting on in the mornings and had coffee.

My Hilton Honors points did cover the basic all inclusive plan with NO PROBLEMS.

Food........WONDERFUL. In fact, I liked the food here better than Couples.
Glen felt they were comparable. We had reservations one night at the Grill (I can't remember the name......Seascape....maybe) It was here that I had the best lobster I have ever had in my life.........seriously. Another night we had reservations at Three Palms. The resort takes you in a Mercedes mini van to this restaurant. It is like a 2 minute ride. Three Palms is on the golf course. We both had some kind of sea food medley........again it was FABULOUS

Service......WONDERFUL. We did tip, but never felt it was expected. One day, I left a bag of school supplies on the bed for our housekeeper. We came back to the room and she had made a beautiful swan out of towels and placed fresh flowers around it and even left a Thank You note.

FYI. This would be a great resort for people with kids. Lots of activities. Lots of families around. There is a lazy river with 2 water slides and a swim up bar. There is also one really large pool. The beach
is pretty nice..........as long as you don't compare it to Negril. Our
2nd day there, a big storm hit and washed in monster jelly fish, so they were advising everyone to not swim in the water. People still did.......not us. LOL!!

Spa.....I had a manicure and pedicure. Prices were ok, service was ok.
Nothing exceptional.

We did pay extra one day to have room service brought to the room for breakfast. It cost around $30 for a small fruit plate, coffee, and a small basket of pastries. A nice luxury.
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Teri D. of Watertown, MN
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: Beaches Sandy Bay
Date: February 2010

Jamaica was AWESOME!! I want to go back! Right now!
Negril was beautiful. We did not travel off the resort much.
We did go to Beaches Negril, Ricks Cafe and Margaritaville.
The one thing we did not like about the resort is that they are always trying to get you to participate in their evening entertainment. If you do a lot of the times you have to be somewhere at a certain time in the afternoon to rehearse and then again at a certain time for the entertainment. That would then limit you to where and when you eat. Sometimes they were just too loud. If we ever do go back, we said we would stay at the same resort but venture over to Beaches more often.
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Jason H. of RochesterDestination: JamaicaResort: Couples Swept Away
Date: October 2008

Our trip to Jamaica in September/October was absolutely amazing! We loved every minute of it and have already talked about when we can go back. I want to thank you again for all your help and recommendations. Our trip went smoothly and we were able to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the warm weather and the beach! Michelle and I would highly recommend Couples Swept Away to anyone who is interested. We had a great time with the various activities on the property and the food/drinks were excellent. In addition, we tried deep sea fishing and had a blast! Everyone there was very nice and we felt completely at ease the entire time. Again, I am very sorry that it too me so long to reply to you. That is the only drawback from a long vacation, it takes three times as long to get caught up again!
Thank you again for all your help, we appreciated it more than you know!
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Mary E. of Ellsworth, WI
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: Grand Pineapple Beach Resort
Date: February 2009

Jamaica was wonderful. Was more then what we were expecting, we had a great time. We will go back! The wedding was BEAUTIFUL...
For the booking etc with you went good. Although we had a few problems with our cancelation with Sun Country, but all in all it worked out in the end. Sure glad you got us the direct flights. THANKS!
Our transfer from the Jamaica airport to the resort went good....Although the transfer did seem long, but kind of our own fault for picking a resort on the tail end of the 7 mile beach. Just seemed to take a lot of time from the time we boarded the bus to the time we got to the resort. Not planning our day out very well, we pretty much went all day without eating. We got on the plane at 7:00 am and to our resort around 4:30 pm. Granted we could of purchased food on the plane, but of course we all were a little tight with our money at that time. We planned things out a little better on our way back!
We loved staying in Negril. The seven mile beach was awesome! Food was wonderful with a lot of variety that changed each day. Drinks were good, the bar tenders were great! Actually all the staff was good. We did not run into one staff whether in the dining area, cleaning, receptionist, gift store, groundskeeper or security that we were not pleased with. All the employees were great, polite and friendly! For the pool, we looked at it, but never used it...why use a pool when there is a beach? Beach was beautiful...clean, awesome security, different water things to do, plenty of beach chairs and beds...it was great!
Our room was good, was kind of a head ache as they moved us the second day. Wouldn't of been to bad, but from 10:00 - 4:00 on the second day, we had no room to go to. They were cleaning our checked in room, while they were getting our room we were moving into ready also. We didn't find out about this until morning. I had spent a couple hours unpacking and getting all the wedding clothes hung that first night; not realizing that wasn't the room we would be spending the rest of our stay at. If we would of been told this while we were checking in I would of waited with all the unpacking. As then the next morning I had to repack all the suitcases....and then in the afternoon (after 4:00) unpack again. We had brought down all the luggage for the kids; we needed to get all the wedding clothes hung up. That was kind of frustrating, but they did give us a voucher to their gift store and a bottle of rum. Don't know if that value equalled the value of time I missed on the beach and socializing with the others there for the wedding.
The rooms were nice, just some minor up keep things...but it was livable. Had water issues the first morning, but when we moved it was better. As the first morning we had NO water in our sink or bathtub/shower.
The grounds were very well kept and picked up several times throughout the day. You barely saw any garbage or dead leaves on the grounds. After walking the beach...we decided that if we would go back to Negril, we would probably stay at the Grand Pineapple again. They were the only ones we noticed that had beach security at 6:30 am. Never really noticed other beaches being patrolled as well as ours. As an example...my daughter and I went for a walk Saturday morning at 7:00 on the beach. I liked going in the mornings while everyone else was still in bed. Pretty quiet and not a lot of locals wondering around selling their stuff at that time. Before we got off the resorts beach a security person came over and asked us for our room #. He said, "we love you at the Grand Pineapple, and I love you and we just want to make sure you make it back here". It was very cute and nice. But no matter what time of the day you left the security would check you off and check you back in. They really keep good track of the residents at the Grand Pineapple. Also with the resort being so small, pretty much all the workers knew you by name after the first day. Made a person feel pretty good...and at home.
My only suggestion would be...if we would of known how long it takes from the time you land to the time you are dropped of at the resort; we would of reconsidered the kids taking a three day trip. As it only ended up really being one day at the resort (Saturday) and that was the wedding, so they never got much out of the resort extras! When I looked at the return flight time, I thought they would have Sunday morning to do a few things as the flight was leaving at 1:40....WELL, we had to have our bags packed and in front by 8:00 and we were picked up at 8:30. So we barely got breakfast in on Sunday as they don't start serving until 7:30. Once again, that is were a direct shuttle from this resort would be a great idea!
All in all, we went down for a wedding and it was beautiful!
Thanks for all the help in getting us down there.

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Paula C. of Ellsworth, WI
Destination: Jamaica
Resort: Grand Pineapple Beach Resort
Date: February 2009
It was a very nice and enjoyable time.
The wedding was beautiful and the bride and groom made the perfect couple.
The resort was good. Nothing frilly and fancy--but was okay by our standards. The selection of food was good-- some things were YUCK and somethings were good-- Every meal was buffet and we just made sure we ate right away--so the things were fresh and hadn't been sitting out for a long time.
The first night we stayed on the beachside manor (which was like a long motel hallway) and we were suppose to have beachside cottages so they moved us the second night. We got a bottle of rum and $30 gift certificate for the gift store. It was kinda of a pain to move but they compensated us for it. 3 of our rooms had to do that.
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