Arrival: Flight – We flew Sunwing out of Toronto. Flight was delayed an hour, everything else was great. Check-in – There were alot of us so checking in took quite some time.
Rooms: I’m not a picky person when it comes to things like this, but our room was filthy. Earwigs on the door and in the bathtub. Ants in the sink, on the desk, and on the toilet. The room was very damp when we arrived and there was no water in the mini fridge. We arrived late, so we couldn’t buy bottled water from the gift shop because it closes at 9pm. We drank from the tap (which is OK to drink in Jamaica) however would have been nice to have bottled water. My girlfriend stole cleaning supplies from the cleaning staff and cleaned our room inside out for 2 hours on the first night there. We turned on the AC to get rid of the dampness. Once we cleaned our room, had a nice cool,dry room, and bottled water the next day from the gift shop, the rest of our stay in our room was awesome. We only went to our room to sleep anyway. The view from the balcony was awesome and having so many friends there, it was nice to wave to people you knew across the hotel on the other balconies in the morning. Our room was 410 and we had an OK view of the ocean. At night, if the temperature in the room was above 20 degrees celsius, bugs got in through the vents. We also put a towel at the bottom of the door so ants couldn’t get in at night. I found myself having to kill them at night while watching TV – the remote didn’t work – even after programming it for that TV, it still didn’t work – batteries weren’t the problem. You will most likely not be impressed with the rooms here, so be ready to clean them yourself on the first night and if you are arriving late, make sure to buy bottled water at the airport beforehand so you can have bottled water. This is a 3 star after all, so expect a 3 star room. If you are prepared for a 3 star room, you’ll be fine.
Restaurants and Bars: The food is awesome! The buffet was great. There is a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a midnight snack buffet that offers a variety of great food. When the buffet isn’t open, there is a snack bar by the pool where you can get hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, nachos, and patties (we were obsessed with the chicken patties). We ate at two of the restaurants there – Giuseppe’s and Casablanca. The food was some of the best food I’ve ever had. The steak at both restaurants is amazing! The pork at Casablanca was great! The bars close at 1am so if you plan on drinking after that, you’ll have to mix your own from the bottles in your room. Drinks of choice – Hummingbird, Mai Tai, Yellow Bird, and Banana Daquiri. It seems like the closer you get to the lobby, the bars make the drinks stronger. The bartenders at the bar near the snackbar didn’t put nearly as much liquor in the drinks as the ones at the lobby. The staff are all fun people. Good sense of humour!
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Beach – The beach was very nice…not as big as I was hoping, but most of the time it wasn’t hard to get a good spot. The locals aren’t allowed on the beach, but are allowed in the water, so they will try to sell you things. Although it can get pretty annoying sometimes, most of them respect you if you don’t want to buy anything. Be nice to them, because they are nice to you – they are only trying to feed their children and themselves. Don’t be rude to them, they are very nice people. "Everytinz Irie, Mon!" The watersports people should really use some common sense when using the jet skis. As someone else pointed out here, they drive very close to the beach, and do tricks very close to people swimming. This isn’t all the time, but on the occasions that they do ride the jet skis, it’s dangerous.
Pool – The pools are very well kept, they are clean and cool. The sun is very intense near the pool area so find shade! Grounds – The grounds are nice…beautiful trees, and gardens, not immaculate, but beautiful. The basketball court could use some work…the tennis courts were nice.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel: This resort is geared towards kids during the day. Rock climbing and trivia games are everyday at the pool area. At night, there is usually a band at the stage near the buffet. There is a beach party on Tuesday nights, a circus Friday nights (I think) and a few other activities. But nothing spectacular.
Tours – we did Dunn’s River Falls…this was really neat. Great scenery. The first leg of the climb is actually a little more difficult than I expected. The girls we were with were actually pretty scared during the first little bit. After that it gets better. We were worried because we didn’t get our DVD of the tour until the day before we left. Our camera man was named "Sugar Daddy" – we had to point out to him that his lense was still on while he was taping at the start of the climb. It’s all good fun on this trip. You can’t bring your cameras because they WILL get wet. Bring an underwater camera. Anything you have on you WILL get wet. So keep that in mind. Ziplock your money. If you can, buy your own water shoes before coming to Jamaica and make sure they fit. The water shoes we rented at the falls were OK but lots of rocks got in and were a pain in the butt while climbing. Each time we reached a new pool we had to empty our shoes. $7 to rent, $17 to buy at the falls.
We also did snorkeling at the resort. I think we were ripped off a little bit because we only snorkeled for approx. 25 minutes. When others said they were out for an hour and a half. Snorkeling was neat. You are taken to a reef and you get to see a variety of fish. All non-motorized water sports are free at the resort, you just have to book. Kayaking is great, the big catamarans are fun, and wind surfing is not easy!
Other Comments: There are several locals that we met at the beach who we became friends with during our trip.
Dan was the nicest man on the beach. He didn’t harass people like some of the others would, after we said no the first time, he stopped. He is usually found with a white, golf-style hat on, has a goatee, and usually wears a "wife-beater" with long jean shorts on. Very nice man. Treat him good! He has a son named David who we met. On our last day there, we visited his shop, bought all kinds of stuff, and gave him all kinds of gifts and food. His nephew might be seen wearing a corona cowboy hat…Dan himself might be wearing it. We gave this to him.
G-Unit, as we came to call him because of his G-Unit hat, was the coolest guy on the beach. He is not a big man, but totally ripped. He can be found kite-boarding sometimes. After visiting his shop, he walked us out past all the other shops so no one else would bug us. Tony, Dale, and Leon the Lobster man were all very nice! One of the bell hops working in the lobby was also a very cool guy – his name is Winchester. We called him "trouble maker". Good sense of humour and just an all around cool guy. Whenever we saw him in the lobby, he would come over and joke around with us. He will most likely be one of the guys loading and unloading your luggage from the bus. Treat him good too!
We also met a few local kids. We were playing tennis in the far court and they were playing soccer in the field next to the resort. We talked with them for awhile and learned a lot about Jamaica. We learned that in Trelawny, a foreigner can walk anywhere and be "free" – meaning no one will give you any trouble. However, if you are in Montego Bay, you have to walk around with a black person, otherwise you might be robbed. And in Kingston, it doesn’t matter who you are with, you will wind up in trouble with the locals. All this according to these kids…they live here so I’ll take their word for it. The kids names were Hakim White(or akeem…I’m not sure), Anthony Johnson, and Kevin Noble. Good kids. The kids were right – Trelawny is a very safe area in Jamaica. Four of us guys walked out of the resort and down the street to find "Jerry’s Bar" because we were hoping that we could see a big UFC fight on Pay Per View there. Jamaica doesn’t have pay per view so there was no luck there. But we walked down the street and there were groups of people hanging out on the corners and we were pretty nervous because at first glance they seem sketchy. But what a shocker to find out just how friendly and helpful every single one of them were. We walked past a group a people and two of them came out to talk with us and walked with us to show us where Jerry’s Bar was. We met Jerry and he was a cool guy. On our way back, one guy got out of his car as we were walking by…only because he wanted us to follow him so he could show us what Hockey really was…I don’t know if it’s Ackey or hockey, but apparently it’s some kind of fruit. "You don’t play with the food, mon!" Great people in Jamaica. At least the people we met.
Conclusion – We went with a group of 30 people so we could have stayed at a garbage dump and probably still had fun! If you go as just one couple…this resort might be a little boring. Room aren’t great, but deal with it…it’s a 3 star resort and you aren’t there for the room anyway. Food is awesome. Beach is great, and the locals are some of the nicest people I have ever met!