Although I can never complain about being in a beautiful place like Jamaica, the resorts had its ups and downs, like every resort does.
Arrival:
Arrival was great.. it did take awhile to get there, but not a big deal, the scenery was nice on the way there. My mother and aunts were there before us so they greeted us at the door with drinks. Check in took awhile, but the check in lady was great. We had ocean view rooms, we were told that prior, they had put us in rooms that were suppose to be ocean view but you had to look to the side, so my aunts/mom complained and they corrected it and put us in rooms that overlooked the ocean (we were in building two). I know that my mom had an issue with one of the luggage people. She said that he was taking up their luggage and they had put their purses on the luggage push (their mistake), and he forced them out of the elevator at the last minute before they knew what was happening and when they got to their room my mother said that her money was in disarray and she was $40 light. So just be careful not to let your purse leave your shoulder, or anything valuable.. like everywhere, not everyone’s trustworthy.
Rooms:
The rooms were beautiful – however people are correct in saying that the beds and pillows were horrid. They are by far the most uncomfortable sleeping arrangments I’ve ever been in. My cousin said the pillows were like soft rocks, and she was right. We did have ants in our room (which was our fault b/c we smuggled up food and left it covered on the table, but they found it anyway). Our room did smell musty as well, but since it was cooler due to tropical storm tomas we kept the windowns open most of the time. The room service was good/bad at the same time. They did clean, but getting wash clothes was an effort. We had to call a few times to get them, every single day, it got rather irritating. We did tip our maid every day, and we had been tipping her every time she brough washclothes, but by the third day we were so irritated that we kept asking for them but weren’t getting them.
Restaurants and Bars: The restaurants were alright. A lot of the same foods, and it was different and unique – I ate mostly veggies and fish while I was there, so it was rather healthy. We tried to get the server terry ann at saint ann’s, she was really sweet and fun to be around. At the steakhouse Walvin was a very good server as well. There was another server that liked to sing and we really enjoyed him also during dinner.
The bars were great. We were mostly at the pool bar next to our building and the two or three in the lobby area. We had a blast with most of the bartenders
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
They were gorgeous.. very picturesque, we enjoyed walking around and seeing everything.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
The only really poor thing about the hotel was its entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, the ENT team were fabulous dancers, but the entertinament was just not that great… basically it was too long and drawn out. They would have different contests which were funny, but they lasted too long. Also, the lead girl in the group from Cuba,compared to the other girls is not very good. She’s a good dancer, but she really comes short compared to the other ladies. The one girl with super long hair we thought was the best, and the one guy (Nitro) was a really great dancer, but all the guys were really good. We also didn’t like that they lyp synched a lot of songs and grease – especially grease, the lady playing Sandy was off most of the time and it was just poor.
Other Comments: In relation to the lady that hated the place, we did have some issues with some of the men there being ‘overly’ friendly. I’m the mindset that, yes, flirt with me at the bar, take my tip money, but other than that please leave me alone. There was a security guard that was extremely forward and kept calling our rooms over and over again. We finally started leaving our phone off of the hook so we could sleep, as we had no desire to get him in trouble. Unfortunately, since we were ocean view they could see us while patrolling and knew our room numbers. I also had a person who tried very hard to get our room number and I had to continuously fib that I did not know it, nor did I have a key, which was a lie.
I could definitely understand them being forward if we were flirting shamelessly (we’re all married, engaged or committed), but it was irritating when they would approach you when you’re just trying to relax. We found though that for those that were most forward, if we told them to back off (mainly my sister in law b/c she’s beautiful!), they would without a problem.