Breezes MoBay & Breezes Runaway Bay
We are from Nova Scotia and this was my 4th trip to Jamaica. Previously, I stayed with my sister
at Jamaica Grande, and with my husband at Sandals Inn, and Grand Lido Braco(on a ss+).
We booked a ss+ in May, with a departure date of June 22, 2002, returning June 29th. Luckily we were able to use my
Aeroplan miles, so we flew for free.
The airline- Air Canada, no complaints with them, they did have a special meal available for us
mostly vegetarians on every flight as requested. Flew from Nova Scotia to Toronto, to Jamaica.
The booking company- Air Canada Vacations. I have written them a letter and am waiting to hear
back from them to find out if we will be receiving any compensation. I requested a partial refund
or some travel certificates.
The arrival in Mobay- This was not so good. Absolutely awful in fact. We were informed by the super
clubs desk that there was no availablity for us anywhere and that we were being shuttled immediately
to Breezes Mobay. I tried to negotiate for another resort since we had excluded Mobay on a ss+, but
was informed that there was no availablity anywhere and that we had no say in the matter. So off
we went to Mobay for the night. I was very pissed off, as was my husband.
Breezes Mo Bay- I do NOT recommend this resort to anyone, ever. If I had to stay there for a week,
I must say that I would have rather stayed at home. Home looked a lot better than that. The resort
was very small, and the pool was very small. The room was infintismal. Once we were shown to our
room by a very friendly bellhop, we had trouble finding a place to put our luggage. We could barely
walk around the bed. We jumped into suits(YUCK) and headed out to see where SC had placed us.
It was very loud, and there was a lot of smoke from the grill rolling across the tiny pool. It was
disgusting. After we walked around, Jeff looked around and said, is this it? Unfortunately, it
was. He was quite worried that they would try to keep us there all week, but I wasn't too concerned
with that. I just wanted out early the next day.
Trying to put on a brave face, we jumped in the ocean and swam around. Ahhh, the warm carribean, that
was more like it. The front desk had not given us towels or towel cards, so we headed back to the room dripping wet
to clean up and see if we could find anything edible. We shouldn't have bothered. At the buffet,
I tried mussels, salads, some chicken. It was all awful. Even Jeff couldn't find anything he
liked to eat. I ended up mashing some boiled potatoes with some butter and s&p and that did me good.
Then we went to the bar there, to discover that they had a great bartender working. I ordered a
drink, but Jeff just wanted a coke. The bartender would not give it to him though, he insisted that
Jeff have a drink, so he ended up drinking a few margaritas. It was quite funny.
We did find the employees here were excellent with good attitudes. However, we were not in a partying
mood so we went back to the room to make our own fun and watch some bad tv til we fell asleep. I woke
up at 2 and couldn't get back to sleep. The resort was very loud all night long, but I was just
irritated that we were not where we were supposed to be.
In the morning, we had some fruit, and J ate some cereal. We didn't attempt anything else after
the previous night's experience. We sat in the lobby and waited until the general manager was supposed
to come in. She was not there and we didn't end up speaking to her. There were a few other
couples waiting to speak to her as well. Finally, the front desk told us that we were being
shuttled out at noon. So we headed out to the beach to swim and try to enjoy the morning.
The breakdown- At 12.30 the bus picked us up along with 4 other couples. All of us had been bumped
to Breezes Mobay on the ss+, and we were all going to Breezes Runaway bay. Unfortunately, it was a
very small bus, and there was 10 of us plus the driver and all our luggage. It took 20 minutes for the bellhop and
driver to fit all the luggage and us in the bus, and we were on our way(complete with luggage
sticking into our back since we were in the last seat). All was well until we were almost to runaway
bay, then our bus pulled over. It had overheated and was smoking. Jeff and I had to climb out the window
to get out since the luggage had us boxed in. We waited while the driver tried to fix his bus, adding
water to the rad. Nothing had shown on his guages, but when we added some fluid to the rad, we discovered
that is was completely empty. We spent an hour on the side of the highway waiting for some way to
get to the resort. Eventually, another bus picked us up with our luggage and we were on our way.
The worst thing about the breakdown was that we wanted to scuba dive the next day and we were worried
that they would be full, or that they would want us to do a pool check out and we would be too late.
So when we arrived, I left it to Jeff to check in and went directly to the dive shop. He said no worries,
come back with Jeff. So I got him and we signed in before we even had a room! Then we went back to
the lobby to register. By now, we are tired, very slightly grumpy(not much- this is vacation) and
sunburned from the unexpected exposure on the highway. The front desk told us to go to our room and
they would deliver the luggage soon. I said that since we didn't want to wait in the room for the
luggage to show, we would take it ourselves. So she sharply called over a bellhop who came over and
told me that I had to let them bring it. I said,no worries, we will take it. He got quite upset,
and told me that they would deliver it! I said, I know, but we want it now so please back off. He
stood back while we picked it up and wandered off. In the wrong direction, thanks to the front desk
telling me to turn the wrong way. Before we got to our room, a friendly bellhop ran up and took it
from us and showed us the way, which we were grateful for.
We promptly dumped our luggage, thanked our bellhop profusely, and put on something easily removable
and headed out to the nude beach. It was small, and not crowded. There is an excellent self serve
bar which we really enjoyed, no waiting for drinks, and you can mix them how you like it. They
had a bottle of rum, vodka, rum cream, and a few other alcohols, I can't remember what right off.
Juices included pinapple, cranberry, orange and grapefruit. They had pops and waters as well, and
a cooler full of ice. We brought our own insulted thermos containers with screw tops, and I recommend
that you do the same if you go. Watch out for the very slipper floor around the bar, esp if you have
wet feet. I wiped out so fast once that I fell right down on my hip, totalling one of our thermoses.
I wasn't hurt, but I did tell Jeff that since I had lived through it, it was his thermos that had
shattered ;)
The au natural beach also has a shower and a small hottub that 4 people fit in quite comfortably.
The beach had a different feel than other places we had been, it was small, and many people stuck
to themselves. For this trip, this suited us fine. We met enough people to enjoy ourselves, and since
we work together, it was nice to have some quiet time to ourselves to think of other things than work.
The beach-The nude beach has a great reef 15 feet from the shoreline. Just put the mask and snorkel on and go
check it out, there is lots to see even that close to the beach. There were lots of kids and clothed
people snorkelling there, but it didn't really bother us much. If you don't like clothed people aroun
when you are nekkid, this may not be the resort for you. Also, there is always a security guard there,
no matter the time of day. I was there many times in the middle of the night to get something to
drink from the bar, and security was always there. Oh yes, also, they take the booze away around 6pm
and bring it back in the morning sometime, but you can always get water and juice there(pop too I think).
Martinos- We did eat here 3 nights. It was nothing special, the salad bar was better here than
at the buffet, the food was pretty good everywhere we ate. We like gourmet food, but we knew
better than to expect it in Jamaica, we were happy and satisfied with what we ate. If we tried
something not to our taste, we just didn't eat it. There was lots of variety.
Beach grill- Expect a long wait, but do it. The jerk chicken and fries here are awesome. We ate
it every day, either for lunch or a 3 or 4 pm snack. Don't forget to pour extra jerk sauce on
your chicken if you like it spicy. We thought it was the ultimate luxury to eat our chicken and
fries naked on the beach, then go float around the ocean together to get the grease off our fingers.
We basically followed the same routine monday to friday. Up at 7, breaky at 7.30, then off to
get our gear together to dive. They have a small, somewhat run down dive boat, but it did the
trick. It was usually filled to capacity. The dive staff were pretty efficient, I have seen better,
but we enjoyed the time we spent diving, so who cares? We got on the boat usually by 9, and did a
ninety foot dive for 25 minutes. Then everyone back in the boat, change tanks, and get geared up again.
That always took 30 minutes, including the boat ride to a new site. The second dive was 30-50 feet for
35-45 minutes. We did 10 dives this vacation, it would have been 12 had we not been bumped to BMB.
But no matter, the bad feelings we had on arrival disappeared immediately on our arrival. We both
tried to keep a positive attitude, even while waiting on the highway. There is no point being miserable
on vacation, because you can do that at home when you aren't paying $2000 to do it. ;)
Overall, we found the food and service from all staff at BRB to be very good. It was a good deal for the
price we paid. Everyone we met there had been placed at BRB by SC on the ss+. It seemed as if
no one had paid for that resort. We did meet one couple in the lobby who were on their way to Braco.
They had complained and paid the difference for the upgrade. Having experience at both resorts, I
enquired their reasons. They told us that they found the service atrocious at BRB. They said that
they waited 30 minutes for a drink of water at breakfast 2 days in a row. I told them to have fun at
Braco, but I seriously doubted that they would. People like that always seem to find something
to complain about. We found the service in the dining room to be excellent, and it seemed our
water glasses were always full.
I cannot comment on the nightly shows, the regular beach, pool or hottub, or the daily entertainment
or the EC's. We did not partake in any of these things. We stayed in room 3107, and it was close
by the nude section. We were happy with our room, but next time we would like to be on the second
floor so we can leave our gear out to dry between dives. Everything in the room worked, the only
glitch was that the bathroom door wouldn't close but we didn't complain or ask to be moved. We had a
firm king sized bed that we enjoyed ;). The air conditioner worked, and really, what else do you need?
Friends and Hedo 3- We did meet a few very nice couples, Dominique and Richard, and Ann and Alan. The 6 of us went to
Hedo 3 on a day pass friday after Richard, Jeff and I did our dives. The day pass was no charge, but
you did have to take a taxi at a cost of $5 per person per way. That was a small cost to get there.
We were told that you either have a day pass or a night pass, not both. But at 6 when we were
supposed to go, we sent two people to the front desk to plead our case, and we were granted permission
to stay as long as we liked. We participated in our first body shots, and we all enjoyed our
day there very much. I think that we will be staying at H3 for our next trip in April 03. We will
probably do another ss+ someday and will not be disappointed to stay at this resort again.