Arrival: December 19-26/08 We travelled from Kitchener to Toronto and then onto Montego Bay due to "Snowmageddon" here in southwestern Ontario on December 19/08. We were one of the lucky flights to get out of Pearson, thanks to Sunwing and their wonderful crew.
Rooms:
We stayed in Room 538 overlooking the ocean and the entertainment area. Elevators worked well, hallways carpeted in indoor/outdoor carpet, which is great because the hallways are outdoors. Rooms are basic, a bit dated, but well maintained. TV worked, alarm clock, hairdryer, bar fridge with 5 pops in it and 4-26 oz bottles of liquor (rum, vodka, gin, brandy). If you need a refill of one of these, you are charged $7.00 (cheap compared to home), pop is not replaced, but you can buy the 710 ml bottles in the gift shop for $1.00. We had a king bed, very comfy and a twin bed angled in the corner. We found this handy for luggage. Two chairs in the room, and a small patio table and two chairs on the balcony. There is a drying bar out on the balcony as well. Our room was cleaned daily, sometimes in the a.m. sometimes after lunch. We noticed that a lightbulb had burnt out in the bathroom and my husband called down to the desk. No word of a lie, they were up to our room within ten minutes. After being outdoors for the day, we were taking a break and were playing Yahtzee out on the balcony. Big mistake as my husband bounced two dice off the balcony. Luckily the maintenance man was nearby and gladly went down over the Giuseppe Restaurant and got them for us. What service!
Restaurants and Bars: As far as meals, we ate at the buffet our last night, preferring to take the opportunity to try the ala cartes. The buffet’s food was hot, had a variety of dishes, the soup was wonderful. We aren’t dessert people so I can’t speak to them. Most days we ate at the Snack Bar enjoying jumbo hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, nachos, meat patty things, (with breading around them). There was a lineup for drinks here, but everyone was patient and was served promptly. No complaints here at all. Guest Services arranged our ala carte meals. We ate in the Japanese restaurant twice, hope you have the pleasure of having "Crazy Chris" as your waiter and Dane as your cook. Many laughs and wonderful memories remain of our evenings there. We ate at Guiseppe’s one night and it was very good, hot pasta, great garlic bread with pesto, but the Casablanca restaurant was one of the nicest ala cartes we have been to in all of our caribbean travels. You are welcomed with a drink with an umbrella in it, and then seated at a lovely table with attentive wait staff while listening to a white player piano playing romantic songs. Both times we were there, the meals were second to none and we are so glad we took advantage of these wonderful restaurants. Yes there is an added cost to this, but very reasonable (roughly $130.00 for 5 nights of meals for the two of us) Don’t get me wrong, the meals at the buffet were very good, but we were looking to spend time with one another this trip and this option allowed us to have some very special meals together.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Seaweed would wash up on the beach but the staff was out in the morning to rake it up, but there would always be some that would wash in later in the day. Beach was nice, but was windy, most days we were there so we hung out at the pool. We are in our 50’s and got a kick out of watching the kids going down the waterslides, and all the kids around the resort were all happy and playing.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel: We enjoyed playing airhockey for .75 a game, played in Canada for $2.00 a game at a resort hotel there, so the prices weren’t bad and kids sure enjoyed the pool tables in the lobby. The bar in the lobby overlooking the pool was nice and relaxing before or after dinner.
Other Comments:
Having just stayed at the new Riu in Montego Bay in October (5 star all the way) we didn’t know what to expect at the Starfish. We paid for a 3 star and were pleasantly surprised. The Starfish is very down to earth, fun and more than we would ever have expected. We will definitely return here as we found it a nice fit. All the staff were just terrific and went out of their way to be helpful. A smile goes a long way to make your vacation a pleasant one. Our Sunwing Rep was there every day, Shelley was so helpful. It was nice to know that she was there in case you encountered a problem, which we never did of course. Try the Starfish and you will be pleasantly surprised. We sure were.