Well, we are back from Jamaica (5/14 - 5/18), and none to happy about it. Hehe...
Let's see, where to start. Woke up Tuesday morning at 2:30am to make it to the airport (BOS) by 5:20. We had a 7:20 flight on Air Jamaica. Check in was a breeze. Bording was a breeze. The flight was a breeze. We landed in Mo Bay around 10:30 local time. Imigration was a breeze. Baggage claim was a breeze. SuperClubs Desk was a breeze. See a pattern forming here. :-)
On to the bus ride. We were the only couple going to BRB. 3 other couples were heading to Hedo III and 1 other couple was heading to another Super Club Resort. The bus ride was a lot of fun. I've read horror stories about it but my wife and I had a blast. We were preparing ourselves for the poverty we've heard about but to tell you the truth it wasn't as bad as we imagined. Sure, there were some broken down houses and the towns were on the poorer side, but so are many houses and towns in the states. If anything, these Jamaican towns seemed quaint and inviting. The driver was excellent, kept us laughing and was a good driver to boot. We had a couple of close calls, but again nothing like we expected. Stopped once for refreshments.
Arriving at Breezes. We finally get to Breezes and depart the bus. We tell our new found friends on the bus that we will see them Thrusday at Hedo III, since we've decided to take a day trip there during our stay. They tell us to bring our luggage, as we won't want to leave. :-)
Check in was easy. No champagne though. Room 1225. Looking from the beach it's the farthest building to the left. Great location. Nice clean room.
We get changed into our suits, put on tons of sun block, and head to lunch, which is still being served. Then off to the nude beach. This is our first time at a nude beach. We found 2 chairs, then off with the suits and we're now basking under the Jamaican sun. We decide after about 2 minutes that we never want to wear swim suits again!
After that we shower, change and head to dinner. Then to the nude hot tub. We're really liking this au natural thing :-). We meet up with 2 couples in the hot tub that we met on the beach earlier that day. After soaking in the hot tub, we decided to go find a hammock and enjoy the ocean. That was when we really let out our first sigh and were really glad that we had taken this trip. To explain, we got married 3 years ago and had never had a honeymoon, and now we have 2 kids so we've never really even had a vacation to ourselves. This was heaven!
Wednesday. This is our anniversary. We meet with a rep from Air Jamaica in the morning, who helps us decide what we'd like to do while we're in Jamaica. She tells us day and night trips to Hedo III are free! Woo hoo! We book a day trip on Thrusday. We also book the Ocho Rios Highlights Tour for Friday, which is Shopping, Botanical Gardens, More Shopping, Dunns Falls, More Shopping, then back to the resort.
On to breakfast. The Omlets are great, we end up having them at every breakfast. Then off to the nude beack again for a while. We had booked massages and Cat had booked a manicure and pedicure for the afternoon so off to those we go. I also decided I needed a haircut so I booked that as well. This was an experience in itself! My barber, Gregory, used a razor blade to cut my hair! Strange experience. At first I though he was giving me a crew cut, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Ended up being one of the best haircuts I've gotten in a while! Hehe. As I was sitting at the beach bar waiting for Cat to finish up with her massage, Sandra from the beauty salon finds me and tells me that Cat wants her hair braided, and she'll do it for a discount. What can I say? So when Cat gets back from her massage she gets her hair braided poolside.
Back to the nude beach after our day of pampering. We watched the sun set over the ocean and it was the most beautiful sunset we've ever seen! Then back to the room to shower and head to dinner at Martinos. On the way we stop at the duty free shop. I buy Cat a ring for our anniversary. It has to be sized so we'll come back tomorrow night to pick it up. The restaruant was really nice, the food was good, and our personel waiter, Keith, was terrific!
After dinner we head to the nude hot tub. This time we were the only ones there. We'll leave the rest to your imagination... Then off to Karaoke, we get there in time for the last song. Then it's off to the disco. That was a blast! The resort seemed like it was about 50% full, so we didn't know what to expect for a crowd, but it was fun, without being overcrowded. We finally leave the disco around 3:00am and head to bed!
Thursday. Hedo III day! We get up what we though was ontime, but when we get to the desk we find out we missed the shuttle to Hedo. No big deal. 10 minutes and a $10 cab ride later and we're there. First thing is breakfast, since we didn't have time at Breezes. You could tell even at breakfast we were no longer at Breezes. The clothes and atmostphere had changed. We were ready for a party!
After eating we scoped the place out a bit. It seemed dead for some reason. The main area was pretty deserted. We thought the nude area was the main area so we were a bit confused. Then we wandered a bit more and found IT. The nude area is kind of hidden and off the main path at Hedo III, which we thought was kind of strange, since it's the main thrust of going to Hedo.
The nude pool area was packed. We couldn't find an empty chair anywhere, so we kept going to the nude beach, and dropped our stuff, and our clothes. Then we head back to the nude pool and bar to get a drink. We ended up spending most of our time at the nude bar, which is in the pool. Next time we may participate in the games and stuff, but this time we were observers, having been au naturel virgins just 2 days ago :-)
PDA. We saw a few, and were surprised by that after reading on this board how the sex police try to control that. It was no problem though, and everyone was enjoying themselves! After a few hours we left the pool and found a hammock not far from it, and decided to have our own PDA. LOL.
Then it was back to Breezes for dinner. After dinner we picked up Cat's new ring, then just kind of hung around, bar hopped, played ping-pong, and actually went back to the room early. Had to watch the season finale of ER you know! We were just exhausted from Hedo I guess!
Friday. Get up early, head to breakfast, then to the front desk to meet the bus to head out on the Ocho Rios Highlights Tour. The bus has already left! Huh? It's not supposed to leave until 9:00am. Come to find out booking tours through Air Jamaica is NOT the same as booking tours through the resort. Very important to remember! The resort tour left at 9:00 but the Air Jamaica tour we booked left at 8:00. When our Air Jamaica rep arrived we explained our dilemma to her. She was very nice about it and was able to get us on another bus that was heading in the same direction to catch up with our tour! The only thing we really missed was some shopping, which was fine by us.
The Botanical Gardens were beautiful. They used to be a part of a grand hotel, which failed miserably, but the gardens are still kept up. Very nice.
Dunns Falls was a blast. We got some nice pictures and bought the video of our climb, which was pretty funny. I did injure my knee and shin when I slipped and fell on a rock, but it was still worth it. All the blood and gore was caught on video. Hehe. BTW, bring a swimsuit, watershoes and a towel.
Got back from the tour and had a late lunch, jerk chicked again. Man that stuff is good. Then we played bingo by the beach bar. We didn't win anything though :-( Back to the nude beach for another glorious sunset, then onto the game room for more ping-pong. Off to dinner, our last dinner here, as we were leaving the next day. It started to hit us we were leaving in less than 24 hours and we're getting depressed.
One more night in the hammock by the beach. We wanted to go back to the nude hottub but I don't think my new open injuries could take the heat! We strolled the grounds for a while then back to the room for the night.
Saturday. How depressing, we have to leave today. Get up early, have breakfast, then off to the nude beach for the last time. After that we head back to the room, pack up and get everything ready for checkout. Head down to the desk to check out, then proceed to the beach bar where we drown our sorrows over as much Rum Punch as we can get in us before we have to leave. We also get our last jerk chicken dish.
The bus picks us up and we head back to the airport. Another uneventful ride back, with a quick stop for bathrooms and last Red Stripes.
No problems at the airport or with our flight. We land back in Boston to SNOW!!! What a way to end a vacation.
Now to specifics:
THE RESORT. Beautiful grounds. The beach is not very long but long enough to take a quick stoll. The facilities on the nude beach were nice, self serve bar and bathrooms. The hot tub and area was well maintained, and there were usually towels to be had. Lots of water sports, but we never participated. The beach bar was always well manned, but they kept running out of Coconut Rum, which Cat was drinking most of the time with Pineapple juice. The pool looked great, but we never used it. The rec room was nice, although they could use new balls for the pool tables.
THE ROOM. We had a deluxe room, which was clean and comfortable. Nothing special but it did the job. Our tub backed up one night and they were up quick to fix it. TV has most major networks. We didn't watch a lot of it, but it was nice to get quick CNN updates so we knew what was going on in the "real world".
FOOD. The buffet was generally good. Nothing spectacular, except maybe the omlets at breakfast, but nothing terrible either. Martinos was very nice, offering more elegant selections. The beach grill is the best, excellent jerk chicken and burgers!
STAFF. Excellent!!! Always friendly and willing to do anything to make your stay pleasent. Marlon, Gizzy, and Lisa and the rest were great Entertainment Coodinators. It seemed like a slow week, or maybe it's been that way since 9/11, but they did a great job keeping everyone entertained.
In conclusion. We loved the place, and will be knocking ourselves out to get back soon. We may split a trip between Breezes and Hedo. We would recommend Breezes to anyone though.
Please feel free to email us with any questions.