Weddingbee Blog

There may be some confusion: We booked our trip to Jamaica last year and went in April of this year. This blog was written after our trip this year. Just to clarify.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Rosehall Resort, Montego Bay, Jamaica

On the plane—hadn’t even taken off yet, and I was already snapping pictures

Beautiful hotel grounds when you arrive

We have been planning our wedding for the past year and a half, and we wanted to see the resort in person before we booked it. We arrived with no problems, check in was a breeze, and we booked our reservations for the restaurants as soon as we got there with no issues. We ended up with a rooftop view, which was horrible; when we asked to switch rooms, they wanted to charge a ridiculous amount per night. Whatever, no thanks.

Most of the water activities we were interested in doing were closed the week we were there due to no wind. You need wind to parasail, windsurf, and boat ride, and all were closed. We tried to snorkel, but the water was too stirred up both times we tried. Thank goodness the water park was a blast, everyday, all day. Yes, please.

Yea that’s me, throwing up peace signs. I’m gangsta like that…

I could float on a lazy river every day of my life….seriously.

View of the hotel from the ocean

Food was great at all the restaurants, minus the buffet, Fresh. Fresh was more like cafeteria food. We always seemed to be hungry when the restaurants weren’t open. From 3:00 to 5:30 food is not available at all, not even snacks or finger foods. The fact that we seemed to plan our day around when food was available was pretty aggravating. Who wants to pay for all inclusive and have someone dictate when you can eat? Seaside Grill served up the best jerk chicken I’ve ever tasted in my life. Not that I’d ever had it before Jamaica, but I’m just saying. I think the next time we go we will hoard jerk chicken in our rooms for the off times.

Some of the female staff were rude and unwelcoming, but all the men were fantastic. Some of the staff had the worst attitudes I had ever come across, especially when you needed something. We might have had two nice women the entire time we were there, and we made sure we thanked them. They tell you that tipping isn’t necessary, but we found that they sort of expected it. At first it was annoying, but we quickly realized that our money goes a long way for them. It made us very appreciative of everything we have.

We also took a tour to Ocho Rios to visit Dolphin Cove and Dunn River Falls. We booked it through the hotel, which was our first mistake. We were charged almost $200 per person for Dolphin Cove, and we were told that Dunn River Falls was included in the Dolphin package. It even had it written on the booklet at the tour desk. We went with a group from our hotel and a few other hotels. When we got there, for some reason our ticket said “no falls” when we paid for it. The tour guide tried to call the hotel and the rude woman that sold us that package said that Dunn River wasn’t included; we were livid. On the way back to the resort after the day at Dolphin Cove (which was amazing), we all compared prices and we found out we paid almost double what everyone else did and weren’t allowed to do the falls. But whatever, we had a blast with the dolphins anyway.

Our tour guide—Wayne! He was awesome.

In Ocho Rios

I LOVVEEE Dolphins

He was terrified of this stingray.

We snorkled with stingrays.

Despite all this, we still had so much fun just being together. We spent most of our days lounging in the lazy river, walking around the beautiful property, and sleeping. We were usually up early and in bed by 10pm. Overall, we loved the location and the food, the hotel was very clean and decorated beautifully, the men staff were awesome, and even the housekeepers were attentive. There were five restaurants on the resort and four were amazing. They had lots of activities to do during the day and even had water aerobics! Overall, I feel like we just had a bad experience with a few things, as we know many people that have been there and loved it.

The only thing that really turned us off was the staff; I am too opinionated to have someone else be mean to me for no reason. I may or may not have gotten into a couple arguments and had to speak up for myself once or twice. (Also, I may or may not have almost been arrested in the airport on the way home. Yes it was that serious.)

I think things may have been different if someone had warned us regarding the rude staff. I checked Trip Advisor, and no one seemed to have the same problem. Just to make sure it wasn’t me, I asked some of the women on the tour bus on the way back from Ocho Rios, and they agreed with me and complained of the same issues. So I felt relieved to know it wasn’t just me. But other than that, we loved our trip.

We were sun kissed by day three!

(all photos courtesy of Mr. Handy and me)