Dan & LK - January, 2011

                        N-Resort Trip Report, January 28 – February 4, 2011

 

The following is a brief summary of our trip to N-Resort. We are a late-50s non-swinging couple and have spent time at Haulover Beach, Hedo II, Desire, and Caliente (Tampa). We enjoy nude vacations but do not consider ourselves serious nudists. We opted to try N-Resort because the rates were good, and we wanted something more relaxing than the constant noise and games that we encountered at Hedo.

 

Arrival at Sangster: no problems. After customs, go into the airport reception area and turn Left – go to the far wall, and the JT desk is there. They will direct you to the parking lot where you get onto a bus that goes to N (and other resorts). We did not have to suffer through the beer stop, and got to N in about 30 minutes.

 

Check-in was easy – took about five minutes, and we got to the room before noon. Lennox gave us the 5 minute description of the resort, and we were ready to hit the pool.

 

The resort is being upgraded to adult accommodations, and about half of the buildings are not ready. We’d requested the Garden View suite and were put into an Ocean Front (beach Front) room. The room was literally a few yards from the ocean – when the tide came in, we could have dropped a glass into the water. Note that all the Ocean Front buildings are built up to be above high tide – you cannot walk straight into the ocean. You have to go out the back of the room, down steps, and around the building to get to the beach. Rooms were good sized, well kept. There are six drawers, an in-room refrigerator (that you can have stocked as you wish), and, in our room, a chaise lounge of sorts. TV is small, reception was really bad, but we only needed to check weather for return, so no problem. There is a small A/C unit that did the job. Housekeeping was unobtrusive, and left decorative folded towels with local blossoms (similar to Desire). Bed was firm, lots of pillows.

 

I was a bit surprised at the size of the resort – much smaller than I expected. The entire length of the beach is probably about 100 yards. You can walk the entire resort in a couple of minutes, so there are really no rooms that are “too far away” from anything. We were beach front, and it took me about 1 minute to walk to the tennis courts.

 

While we were there, there were only 12 – 16 couples on the resort. So, meal options were limited, activities were limited, but service was great. Meals as a whole were pretty good, but selections were limited. Breakfast was buffet style with an omelet/egg chef option – certainly OK, but selection was much less than at Hedo. Lunch was available at the pool-side grill (mostly burgers/fries/jerk chicken and pork) and sometimes at the buffet restaurant (soups, salads, etc). Pretty typical, pretty good, but not spectacular. One afternoon they set up a stir-fry station at the pool which was quite nice. Dinner rotated – sometimes buffet in the restaurant, sometimes in the Italian Restaurant. Meals were presented very nicely, and were better than Hedo’s (but not as good as Desire’s), but selection was not great (due to small numbers of guests). Entrees ere actually duplicated the two times we ate at the Italian restaurant, but it was good enough that we could chose different courses and be happy. We enjoyed the local fare  - shrimp, fish, rice, etc. I especially liked the curry pork.  The wait staff was friendly and attentive. A personal note : sirloin was offered, and I tried it. Won’t do it again – very tough… no, really, really tough – no steak knife was offered, and I could barely cut the thing.  I was tempted to try to gnaw off bites by hand. I’ve been told this treatment of steaks is fairly common in Jamaica.

“Activities” were limited at best. The ECs tried to get folks fired up with limited success. The water slide “race” was pretty well attended. Water volleyball was well attended, and several folks participated in tie-dying shirts. They offered a mixology class, and a class on how to make your own jerk sauce. One guest went into town with an EC and came back with a variety of fruits for a tasting session that went over well. But… no “beach activities” like at Hedo – no bocce ball, no twister, no golf, and most disappointing, no beach volleyball. They do have a net (nicely rolled up) but it was so windy on the beach that it’s best we didn’t play. It would be nice to have a  sand volleyball court somewhere… We were a bit disappointed at the lack of activities the first day or so, but settled in to reading and talking with guests and staff, and really didn’t miss it much. There were a variety of evening shows that, for us, were not terribly interesting.  They did have some small bands during dinner that were actually pretty good. We didn’t go to the disco or the piano bar (early risers, early retirers…) so I can’t comment on these.

 

Sports: The resort does have a sport coordinator. Venus/Takesha did run on the beach with a guest, has bikes in the pro shop, and I played tennis five times against her. Note that Venus is NOT a WTA-level player. She’s a good high-school level player who can hit with pace and has a decent serve (she’s young and 6’2””…) She can give a 4.5 player a decent workout.

 

Staff was attentive and pleasant. Drinks were available, and with the small group, easy to get. Staff walked around the pool and down the pier to get and deliver drink orders. Top shelf liquor is available on request.

 

Note that the resort is on the North side of the island. It was windy – REALLY windy, every day from about 9:30 AM until sundown. We tried to stay on the beach, in the shade of the building, the first day or so, but the wind drove us to the pool. The large pool is partially surrounded by buildings, so you could get some relief. But there wasn’t a whole lot of shade on the pool deck – we chased the shade most of the time. There were only three umbrellas available, but we were able to find one whenever we needed one, so no problem. Lots of lounge chairs, not so many cushions.

 

Currently some of the resort “rules” are enforced liberally at best. The first couple of days we were there, there was a (younger) couple that wore swimming suits the entire time – no nude at a nude resort… About the middle of the week, a small group (“naturists”) showed up, and one of the group’s wife did not attend (not into the nude thing). The single guy seemed to do fine (and the staff made an effort to include him) but the “no single males” policy was not enforced. We weren’t concerned about either of these exceptions, but it does suggest that there are some guidelines instead of rules.

 

Dress at dinner and after dinner activities was mixed. Most folks wore clothes – shirts, shorts, dresses, skirts. Some wore nice coverups, and occasionally, a towel. They did have nitely themes (toga, “leafs”, pirate night) that a few couples participated in but most did not. Think Hedo Light…

 

I had only a couple of minor complaints. Surprisingly, the coffee was pretty bad, both in the room and in the restaurant, even when brewed with bottled water. Also, the bread and (limited) pastries were very average (think your local supermarket). These seem pretty picky, but when you’re on vacation you really do expect something better than you can get at home, and it wouldn’t cost much to correct these.

 

On the flip side, there were a couple of examples of the extra effort the staff makes. Housekeeping supplied packaged dry creamer in the rooms. I got milk from the restaurant for early AM coffee. I used the last of it up on Tuesday AM, and when I gat back from dinner there was a new cup of milk in the refrigerator. My wife asked at the bar if they had any Jamaican Ginger Beer (she’d never tried any). They didn’t have any, but a couple of hours later Christine brought her a store-bought bottle.

 

Return home was interesting. We did not get the “eviction notice” with departure times, but I’d checked that previously anyway so no problem. We were the only guests leaving, so the resort had a car – Lincoln – take us to the airport. The driver was pleasant and we had no problems getting to the airport on time.

 

All in all, our trip to N-Resort was great. If their prices stay competitive, this could be our regular winter retreat. It will be interesting to see what happens if they get enough guests to make a go of it, and how they will handle the increase. Now, it’s definitely a “relax and get away from it all” resort, and not a Hedo. We enjoyed our stay, and especially enjoyed several of the guest couples that were there. We’ll definitely consider a return to N.

 

Dan and LK