Couples Negril -  1/21/02-1/28/02 by Wayne G.

We arrived in Jamaica right on time and had to jump in a pretty small van (only two seats behind the driver) and headed for Negril. The road is worse than ever as they are rebuilding the whole stretch from Montego Bay to Negril so part of it is just crushed coral and some is paved so it is pretty rough. Two hours is a realistic time to estimate, a lot of people take the small planes from Sangster International to Negril and the cost is between $40 to $60 per person but it only takes 15 minutes and you land across the street from Couples Negril.

We drove maybe 15-20 miles and the van was overheating so we pulled off the road and some guys building a new house brought over some water and our driver was able to cool the radiator off enough to get some water in it. Apparently someone had left the overflow cap off. We traveled maybe another 10 miles and had just crossed what the locals call the Ganja Bridge where we had large stalks of weed shoved in our faces. The van started to over heat again but this time the driver pulled over where there was several little shack type places next to the road and there were several people just sorta hanging out.
So here we are standing behind the van when one of the locals pulls the radiator cap right off and flooded the inside of the van with a geyser of hot water. We stood around for awhile and the driver said it looked like a hose had a crack in it and we may have to have someone else take us to the resort and it could cost us $40 American.

We were not happy with that and after a while a couple of vans went by that looked scary and then another guy stopped and asked if we needed a lift, so the driver gave him the slip from the resort so he could get paid.

Oh man, (his name was J.R.) he was going like 75 to 80 where the road was paved but he got us there, I gave him an extra $5 American. The return trip took 2 hours and fifteen minutes but was a much better ride at a normal speed.

At the Resort.

Check in was easy, we got there and they gave us a cold washcloth scented with lemon and a glass of champagne while we checked in, a very nice touch! The rooms are pretty large with king-size bed, ceramic tile floors and baths, central air, tv radio/cd palyer and balcony. We were on the third floor overlooking the wedding gazebo and pond (gonna miss the view) in room 8302. The first night we received a bottle of Champagne in our room.

We had a little problem with our bathtub drain not working but they did take care of it. Every evening they turn down the bed for you. The plants at this resort are beautiful and the paths from building to building were densely covered with plantings and trees of all types.

The large pool is 160 ft long by maybe 30 wide and it flows into a second pool via a waterfall and that is where the pool bar is. There are five bars total, At the buffet area, the swim-up bar, the beach grill, the piano bar and in the Otaheite Restaurant

The buffet in the morning was excellent at The Cassava Terrace; omelets made to order with a good selection of other items such as scrambled eggs, French toast, pancakes bacon, different types of potatoes, cereals and the made to order fruit smoothies.

We switched off from the buffet to the beach grill in the evenings, which they would convert into what they called the steak house at night; they served Italian selections and Ribeye steaks there. The main buffet at night would alternate from buffet to sit down meals every night, had two large lobster tails at one of the formal sit down meals on Friday at the terrace buffet.

At the beach grill, which is currently being expanded you can get burgers, jerk chicken, chips and a variety of other items throughout the day until dinnertime and then they open up after the dinner serving for late night snacks.

The food was all great as well as the drinks, a few good drinks we tried Purple Rain and Hummingbirds, and don’t forget the Bob Marleys. .............nice..............

The staff as far as we were concerned was generally very friendly and helpful, a few of the staff may be a little hesitant to speak but all in all they were great, Ray the Entertainment coordinator was very nice and you can have fun at bingo with him.  The beach is great with a combination of open beach with white sand and shade areas so you can get out of the sun when you lobster out (which I did without trying).

 
The resort gives you a lot to do if you want, a schedule is posted each day by the beach grill and they play Reggae and Soca music all day (very cool). We went an a sunset booze cruise (included) on a big catamaran to The Pickled Parrot where I did some cliff diving (and I am 50), I almost backed out, but I did it. There was a guy named Rasta Ralph that was playing guitar and bouncing around the cat, he appears to be on all the cat trips as I saw and heard him a few days later. We went on a boat-shopping trip to Negril (included) they cover the panels on the glass bottom boat for this. Oh yeah, Thank You Robert of Water Sports for the water trips, he was great on the trip to Negril.

I went snorkeling twice out on the reef (included) some of our group took scuba lessons and went on two dives (included) We also went on a glass bottom boat trip (included) and the last night we were there we took a bus trip up to Rick's Café (included) to watch the sunset, the cliff diver's and listen to a really good Reggae band. All in all a REALLY GREAT trip I give this resort a 41/2- 5 out of 5 *****
Fix the road and we will be back. Irie,
Wayne G.