Weddingbee Blog

Catching up on our Jamaican honeymoon? Here you go:

Jamaican Me Crazy: Experts at Lounging
Jamaican Me Crazy: Crab Hunting

After being the laziest people on the entire planet (besides acting as crab paparazzi), we finally got some energy together and did a few of the free resort-provided activities.

Shopping Trip

We decided to participate in the shopping trip they offered for the day. However, when we arrived to board the bus, the staff member explained that the shopping trip would take us into the city of Negril, but the shops were owned by people who weren’t Jamaican and weren’t selling Jamaican goods. It was more like “made in China” type retail. An alternative option would be to walk two minutes down the road from the resort to the craft market if you wanted to buy local goods from the local population. There was an organized trip there once a week, but we could go right now if we wanted to. So, we joined up with one other couple, for safety’s sake, and headed down to the craft market.

The walk was a teeny bit scary, but only because they drive on the opposite side of the road. Also, the drivers all seem to honk constantly around corners and whatnot to make sure other drivers know they are there. So the whole time we were walking, we were trying to be as careful as possible, but I got pretty jumpy due to all the horn honking. Anyway, we arrived!

The owners of the shops really really wanted you to come in and take a took at their goods, and while you are inside, they wave a handheld fan at you to keep you cool. What nice service!

I’m so glad we elected to see the craft market. The whole excursion took less than 30 minutes, which made me so happy because the other shopping trip was two hours long and ate into precious beach time. Mr. HW was not feeling well at this point in the trip, so I’m glad we could get all of our souvenir shopping completed ASAP and get back to our #1 priority of the trip: Lounging.

Water Sports and Boating

We did a little kayaking in between lounging sessions, and I couldn’t leave without doing some paddle boarding. I’ve always always wanted to try it. Both are un-pictured, since I don’t have a waterproof camera. In case you are unfamiliar, here’s what paddle boarding looks like:

Image via Paddleboarding.com

It is a lot easier than I thought it would be! It was so fun to paddle around.

Day four was deemed “Boat Day,” and we started off with a glass-bottom-boat tour.

About to set sail!

Ready to ride!

I spy a starfish.

Our boat mates and tour guides

Scenes from the boat

A small island that we passed by

There were several resorts all along one big stretch of beach. (Seven Mile Beach was the name, and our little cove area was known as Bloody Bay.) The resort pictured above, Hedonism II, was another nudist-friendly resort. The guests at these resorts were pretty irritated and shouting obscenities toward us because we were riding by on our boat and looking at them. But…uh…sorry? We’re just taking a boat ride. Don’t be all naked in public if you get angry when people pass by. One couple even intentionally stood up out of the water and flashed us their private parts. It was a little bizarre.

Later that afternoon, we took a catamaran cruise.

There was an afternoon thunderstorm brewing very close to where we were. The guides didn’t seem bothered by it, so I tried to not imagine our (very tall, metal) boat being struck by lightning.

We safely made it to a little cave area where we could jump off and swim through one cave and out the other. Check out this cave action:

Mr. HW was busy enjoying his leisurely swim, while I was busy taking care of business trying to get the cave swim over with so I could get back safely onto the boat. Open-water ocean swims do not relax me. I both respect and fear the ocean and all of its living sharks creatures.

It was a “booze cruise,” so they offered jungle juice, beer, and a full bar. I drank very little on this vacation, simply because I didn’t want to miss any of it nursing a hangover. After the cave swim, we started the ride back to the resort. It was a beautiful ride!

Food and Beverage

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at the food. There is quite a bit of variety considering the resort itself isn’t very large.

We enjoyed the beachside grill, which offered Jamaican beef patties and other “bar food” type selections available all day and late at night.

There were also Italian and Japanese restaurants on the property open for dinner. We ate at each of these and thought the food was great.

We most often ate at the main large restaurant, which was where the daily breakfast and lunch buffets were located. We both enjoyed the large selections available on the buffets (hot local and foreign dishes, made-to-order bar for things like omelets at breakfast or pan-seared fish for lunch, sandwich and cold salad station, dessert bar).

I have to mention that the main restaurant also had the most rockin’ dessert selections. I often ate tiny meals so I could have a full plate of desserts at most mealtimes.

Each restaurant had a fully stocked bar with premium liquors, beer, and fruity frozen drinks. There was also a great swim-up bar in the main pool area, as well as beach bars on the main beach and the au natural beach. I can’t vouch for how tasty the alcoholic drinks were, since I mostly stuck to orange juice/pineapple juice mixtures. But the juices were fresh and tasty!

When Mr. HW was feeling under the weather one evening, the staff happily packed up his dinner to-go along with silverware and extra napkins so I could take it back to the room for him. There was no room-service menu besides a limited breakfast option unless you made specific arrangements with the concierge. But that didn’t really bother us.

We enjoyed some more lounging on the last full day of our trip (I know, are you shocked?) before heading to the fancy “reservations needed” restaurant for dinner.

All photos personal unless credited otherwise

I dined on bottomless glasses of wine (seriously, they just kept refilling them when I wasn’t looking, apparently), pumpkin soup, lobster tails, and ice cream parfaits. So yummy! Our reservation put us at a table with two other couples, and that was basically the only socialization we had the entire week we were there. The word hermit doesn’t even begin to describe it. We are usually such social, friendly people! I can’t believe we went an entire week without talking to almost anyone. So crazy.

Staff Interactions

We’ve already discussed the flag situation on the beach. That service was great!

The beach also had a towel stand where you could exchange your wet/sandy towels for fresh, clean, white ones at any time during the day. It was an awesome amenity.

Couples Negril has a strict “no tipping” policy, and for the most part, the staff was still very accommodating even though they weren’t working for an extra tip. There was a large gift shop as well as a convenience store where you could purchase bottled water, snacks, sunscreen, medicine, etc. Everything was automatically charged to the room, and we paid at checkout.

The drivers and baggage handlers between the resort and the airport do not work for the resort, and did expect a cash tip. Everywhere that we needed to have cash (the shuttle ride, the craft market) accepted American dollars.

Overall Final Thoughts

When they say all-inclusive, they really mean it. Except when it comes to sunscreen. Please don’t forget to pack some and save yourself the EIGHTEEN DOLLARS we had to pay at the resort shop. And it wasn’t even enough to last us the whole week. We ran out on day five.

Even if the resort claims that the water is safe to drink, stick to bottled water. My attempt to stay healthy and hydrated backfired when I had a bad reaction to too much local water and wound up sick the first night of the trip.

Other than that, it was perfect. I didn’t even take the time to process the wedding weekend. We just enjoyed our time and didn’t let any of our responsibilities back home enter our thoughts. We are lucky that we have been able to do quite a bit of traveling during our relationship so far. Since we had already taken several vacations that were all about the sightseeing and staying extremely active, we felt comfortable taking a trip like this where we didn’t do much of anything but find a comfortable beach chair. After all of the crazy-busy weeks leading up to the wedding, it was exactly the medicine we needed to recover.

That concludes our honeymoon recaps. Thanks for sticking by me as I try to cover every last possible detail of the trip. I hope you enjoyed these. There are a few more planning posts for y’all that I want to share, and then we’ll start diving into wedding-day recaps. Yay!

What kind of honeymoon do you have planned? Relaxation station? Sightseeing? Lots of activity? I’d love to hear your plans and/or experiences!