Our first trip to Jamaica - TR

[Winston]

Babe and I enjoyed our first trip to Jamaica (never been to Caribbean). We had 10 nights in Negril, and are looking forward to next time we are able to visit.
Last fall we knew that we wanted to take a vacation to a beach location as winter was going to be busy and long. When my buddy let us know he is celebrating his 50th birthday at Sandals Negril middle of April 2011, we figure that Negril will be the spot for vacation.
Do some research, one of the resources found is the Negril.com message board. So Babe and I plan five nights with them and three other couples at the all inclusive. With tips garnered from boardies, we liked the idea of splitting the trip up, so we plan to head to the cliffs for the last five nights. I’ve never stayed at an AI and am not sure what to expect. With all the positive comments about the west end we really looked forward to our last 5 nights on the rocks!
With six months from booking to departure I had lots of time to make a big list of potential things to do, but understood that ‘sand gravity’ will take over if we let it (we let it). Other than accommodations, the only other preplanning involved contacting Alrick Allen http://yourjamaicantourguide.com/ to arrange a transfer from the AI to the cliffs (with countryside tour) and airport transfer at end of trip.
Thanks to all the board members.
Winston.

[Vince]

Glad your trip went well:)_Bless!!

[Winston]

Leave Friday April 15th, light snow when leaving YXJ, delayed 20 minutes for deicing.
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Two hour wait in YVR for our connection to Montreal, so share a sandwich and watch tail end of Canucks game. Depart Vancouver 11:30pm, had couple hours crappy sleep on plane, arrive Montreal's Trudeau airport 7:15am, bite of breakfast, and then wait for 11:30am departure for Montego Bay.
Arrive Montego Bay Saturday 3pm, must have been last of six planes just arriving, 90 minutes to get through immigration,
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5 minutes customs, bit of a wait for shuttle to resort, arrive resort 7pm, check in is smooth and have dinner with the group. Quite tired as only got a few hours sleep in last 36 hours, Head back to room unpack and go to sleep just after 10pm.
Sunday, awake at 6am, claim a couple of beach loungers in front of room, breakfast, read book on lounger, go for swim off beach (sea is nice and warm) go for one hour snorkel trip, lunch, beach loungers, go to pool, lounge, play pool volleyball, shower, take sunset picture from patio.
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Go to supper at pasta restaurant, stroll around resort for bit, call it a night. No sunburns yet, keeping hydrated and spf'd.

Up early to claim some loungers, roll out of room 7am, read on beach til 8am, breakfast. Beach loungers til 10am, grab a taxi, go 'downtown' Negril, go to Scotiabank atm, get some Jamaica dollars (J$86 = C$1) and USD. Buy a cel phone, tour the 'duty free' Times square shopping centre, 4 expensive jewelry stores and 8 tacky souvenir stores, no buy anything. Take taxi up west end road past the light house, just me getting 'lay of the land'. Buy some patties at out of town pastry, head back to resort, hang out at pool until 330pm as have to get ready for boat trip for buddy's birthday at 4pm. They arranged resort dive boat for 3 hour tour, made loop around from just north of resort then south to Rick's Cafe, where we watched cliff divers, saw another sunset,
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then swim/jump on the margaritaville trampolines. Back to room, showered, and head out to late supper @ 9pm.
Tuesday, walked South down the beach past all the bigger resorts and past bunch of smaller resorts, bars, vendors. Made it down to White Sands, was getting warm by 1130am, White Sands bar not open yet so stop off at Aqua, Andre made us an excellent dirty banana,
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Very tasty, and then headed back to Sandals for lunch. Lazed by pool rest of afternoon, cleaned up and had some sunset photos taken by resort staff. Supper at 7pm bed by 930pm.
Claimed our beach loungers at 530am his morning, been checking emails and stuff from lounger since 6am. At 730, breakfast buffet opens and smell bacon, mmm bacon. Just lounge around resort today as last day here, transfer to new hotel tomorrow. Hung out most of morning and early afternoon at the beach just outside our room. Bit of time out at pool with friends til 5pm. Supper at 8pm, off to bed after getting a start on packing up for transfer to our new resort tomorrow. Checking out at 930am, scheduled to be picked up at 10am.

[Island Girl]

Great report Winston, and the pics are superior- so colorful! Can't wait to see how you like the cliffs...IRIE! *IG

[Winston]

Check out of Sandals Thursday, and Alrick is there as scheduled. Drove through countryside, through the hills, saw lots of goats,
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Dogs, chickens, some cows, and a skinny horse,
Homers Cove?
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Stopped off at a blue hole mineral springs, had a beer and a swim,
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Cute outfits, eh?
Drove past lots of sugar cane fields, asked to go to Sweet Spice so could try their curried goat for lunch,
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Went through local craft market (bought a carved giraffe), went to HiLo to stock up on room supplies. The HiLo cambio changed my Canadian money (J$87 = C$1). Checked into Catcha Falling Star, Libra cottage, nice place, simple, nice, ac, satellite tv, fridge, micro, as rustic as we want! Have a great dinner at Ivans Thursday night, orange snapper and Babe had pimento chicken.

[Winston]

Friday, up at 630am, got Babe coffee from the table set up in front of Ivans, our masseuse Oya showed up at 8am, me, then M at 9am.
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Then breakfast... pineapple pancakes and fried eggs this morning.
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lounge & pool dips most rest of day. Supper at Ivans.
Sunset & Libra cottage
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We didn’t spend too much time off the resort property, didn’t venture very far, down to Ras Rody’s (1/2 block north) for take out Ital, Leroy’s (50m north) for takeout jerk chicken, Market (100m north) for additional supplies (contribute to jar for a local’s medical care). Liked the vibe at Catcha and with the loungers just out front of the Libra cottage, short walk to pool or jump in cove, excellent food and drink at Ivans, clean, outstanding service, we really don’t want to go anywhere else.
Here's a tour of the property...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_FTf6jmtmA

Saturday was hot, lounger time by the cottage, pool to cool off, went down the cliffs for lunch at Canoe, taxi ride back, lounger time, pool to cool off, friends came to supper. Another excellent meal at Ivans.
Sunset with wildthing in foreground
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[Nurse Marcia]

Great report. Catcha is such a great place!

[Winston]

Sunday is hot, lounger time by the cottage, massages for me and M at 10am-12pm, jerk chicken from local vendor, lounger time, pool to cool off, supper at bar, met an interesting couple from Kingston. Beautiful sunset from Ivans.
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Supper was chicken alfredo and was yummy!
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Monday, last full day in JA, so must continue with the program. Snorkel with Famous Vincent after breakfast. Excellent snorkel tour, Vincent swam with us and showed us lots of fish, some sea turtles, and a ray.
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More massages, lounger, pool, food & drink. Start packing up. Not happy to be leaving. Another suberb supper at Ivans.
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Tuesday... sad. Going home today. Breakfast, some sun, pool, check out at 930am. Alrick picks us up at 930am, stop at roundabout craft market and Babe picks up a purse. Do some shopping in Montego Bay, grab some takeout jerk chicken at the pork pit.
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Thank Alrick for the awesome service, great country side tour and airport transfer. Check in for afternoon flight, smooth trip home.
Envy of fellow passengers with my inflight meal.
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Canuck’s continue on their quest for the cup.
Arrive home 10am Wednesday.
Loved our vacation in Jamaica and plan at to come back.
People were great.
I enjoyed the food and drink, gained 10lbs in 10days, I blame the mangoes and other fruit in the morning.
Chocolate Monkey
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Really liked the AI, really loved Catcha.

[Honey518]

Nice report-Glad you and "Babe" had a great first trip! Now, the million dollar question is... Which to do you prefer Cliffs or Beach? :)

[Clarity]

Great trip report and awesome pictures! Thank you for sharing this!:)

I particularly loved the footage of Catcha. We're planning on splitting our next stay between the cliffs and the beach next time we go to Negril. It looks so beautiful! What a view from the Libra cottage!

We didn't get to Margaritaville on our last trip. You mentioned swim/jumping on a trampoline. I didn't know they had trampolines there! Are the trampolines over the water? I'll have to check that out!
and that chocolate monkey looks so delicious!

[Hubby-man]

Loved reading your trip report.The video was really helpful to get an idea of Catcha Falling Star.
We have to find this famous Vincent on our next reach! Any advice on where to find him? We've been hoping for a sea turtle sighting but haven't had one yet. Great underwater shot of the ray! Thank you so much for sharing

[marley9808]

Thanks for posting the video! It's so nice to see Catcha back to looking beautiful, and it sure does! So happy to see that!


Clarity! Yes!!! Water trampolines at Margaritaville, so fun!!
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[Winston]

Nice report-Glad you and "Babe" had a great first trip! Now, the million dollar question is... Which to do you prefer Cliffs or Beach? :)

Loved both, so short answer is "Yes!"

Will definitely do a split again. Deciding in which order would take some consideration. Probably cliffs first to 'chillax' and get into the JA vibe.
Doing a tour on the transfer day was the ticket as not 'wasting' a day moving to new resort.

Winston

[marley9808]

oops, sorry for the small pics, I wasn't paying attention, here they are again

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[Winston]

Great trip report and awesome pictures! Thank you for sharing this!:)

I particularly loved the footage of Catcha. We're planning on splitting our next stay between the cliffs and the beach next time we go to Negril. It looks so beautiful! What a view from the Libra cottage!

Catcha was great, and pretty hard to beat location of Libra cottage.


We didn't get to Margaritaville on our last trip. You mentioned swim/jumping on a trampoline. I didn't know they had trampolines there! Are the trampolines over the water? I'll have to check that out!
and that chocolate monkey looks so delicious!

As stated previously, they have trampolines just offshore of Margaritaville, they are in about 5-6 feet of water.

Yes, they make some very tasty blender drinks at Ivans (had many dirty bananas!)

[Winston]

Loved reading your trip report.The video was really helpful to get an idea of Catcha Falling Star.
We have to find this famous Vincent on our next reach! Any advice on where to find him? We've been hoping for a sea turtle sighting but haven't had one yet. Great underwater shot of the ray! Thank you so much for sharing

He travels back and forth along the cliff resorts looking for business, look for his boat 'Elvira' and just flag him down and set up time for trip.
$25pp (I gave tips as well)
His web page has his phone number,http://famousvincent.coolnegril.com/
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Out at the reef
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Thank you all for the positive comments on the trip report.

[squarestatejeff]

Great report - glad you enjoyed the trip!

We're definitely beach people, but we occasionally like to stay a few days on the cliffs, too. Catcha is our favorite place to stay on the cliffs, and your video brought back some great memories!

[booger]

Great trip report. I was in Libra all of last week and am having huge withdraws. The room is perfect as in Catcha and all it's staff. Can't wait to get back. Thanks for the read.

[Scott and Janet]

Just returned from 10 days at Catcha........... again, one of our favorite places to spend a peaceful time......

[Schuttzie]

Nice report, Winston! Love the pictures :)

[gerryg123]

Wow that's a big ray, very impressive .... was Catcha expensive with all the meals and drinks?

[booger]

My tab for the week was $1400. Over $1k of that was alcohol :cool:. Drinks are relatively pricey, but the good thing is Wise Choice groceries are nearly across the street and you can buy your beers there. The China man shop at the round about was cheaper, however once you factor in the cab ride it's roughly the same. The food prices are comparable to the US if you are American. My wife and I drank everyday all day, so we might not be a good comparison.

[irieworld]

nice report and pics, thank you for taking the time to share. This is the first trip report I have read on the new board, well done! That is nice you got to do both the AI experience and the cliffs--gives you a broader perspective of the place.

[irieworld]

all those massages--that is the way to go, talk about true relaxation. Was the masseuse through Catcha? I am looking into find someone that can give me a massage in my room on the beach when I go. I would rather budget for a massage or two than expensive meals.

[VVHT]

Thanks for posting the video of "Catcha", really enjoyed the beginning of the video out on the West End Road. Seeing Seastar Lane, Wise Choice and Leroy's brings back many many memories....

Thanks,

VVHT

[Winston]

Wow that's a big ray, very impressive .... was Catcha expensive with all the meals and drinks?

We did not think Catcha was out of line price wise at all. For comparable quality, Ivan's is way less expensive than restaurants in British Columbia. We averaged $130 day for food and quite a few drinks. For the price of drinks, I think the dirty bananas were around $7 and sour sop martinis were $8, there is a thread on old board with drink menu pictures. Below are Ivan's food menus...
Breakfast (back page not pictured)
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Fruit plate
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Lunch
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Snapper sandwich, delicious
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Appys great, loved the jerk shrimp, shrimp wrapped in plantain and bamboo chicken
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[Winston]

all those massages--that is the way to go, talk about true relaxation. Was the masseuse through Catcha? I am looking into find someone that can give me a massage in my room on the beach when I go. I would rather budget for a massage or two than expensive meals.

Yes, Oya is the masseuse recommended through Catcha and she is wonderful.
http://www.catchajamaica.com/massagepack.htm
Lots of experience and great lady, she's been doing massages in Negril for many years.
http://www.jamaicamassage.com/index.php
We will be saving up for massages and tasty food and drinks on our next Negril trip.

[dickylobster]

Loved reading your trip report.The video was really helpful to get an idea of Catcha Falling Star.
We have to find this famous Vincent on our next reach! Any advice on where to find him? We've been hoping for a sea turtle sighting but haven't had one yet. Great underwater shot of the ray! Thank you so much for sharing
Hope this helps
http://famousvincent.coolnegril.com/

[russ&pam]

Drank some rum with Andre at Aqua and spent some time at Catcha also.Sounds like you had a great time.

[CaliCutie]

Great report! Thanks for sharing :)

[Laurel]

Catch A continues to ROCK!! always one of THE most romantical spots ever ~

[Laurel]

oops ~ forgot to say ~ thanks for sharing your trip!! glad you had a wonderful time.

[Clarity]

Thanks for posting the video! It's so nice to see Catcha back to looking beautiful, and it sure does! So happy to see that!


Clarity! Yes!!! Water trampolines at Margaritaville, so fun!!
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Marley - I can't believe I missed out on this on our last trip!! Thank you for posting those pics! I'll definitely be bouncing on those trampolines on our next visit to Negril! That looks like so much fun!!


Winston - Thank you for posting the contact information and photos of The famous Vincent. We want to take him out on the reefs next time. I'm amazed to hear that he gets into the water and swims with you to point out the fish. That sounds so awesome!

so are you planning another trip to Negril?:)

[love2travelchic]

Great report Thanks for sharing!!

[Winston]

Winston - Thank you for posting the contact information and photos of The famous Vincent. We want to take him out on the reefs next time. I'm amazed to hear that he gets into the water and swims with you to point out the fish. That sounds so awesome!

so are you planning another trip to Negril?:)

Yes had a great time with Vincent, he showed us a puffer fish too!
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Will be returning to Negril at some point, so many places to go, such a restricted budget:(
For 2012 looking at going to a Nascar race in the SE (virginia, carolina's).
So hopefully 2013 for another Negril trip! :)
Cheers, Winston

[negrilaholic]

love your report and pics, and that puffer fish is something else! Saw one of those at Pelican Bar once..

[gerryg123]

Wow, the restaurant is about 25 percent more expensive than Seastar Inn -- i guess you pay for the view, too. For $1,400 plus groceries for five nights, it looks like you treated yourself VERY well. Bravo, my friend!

Question: the swimming cove, how calm is it in the morning? Like a pool?

[irie always]

Pretty good 10 days - I'D say ! You covered quite a bit of the cool items you can enjoy in and around Negril. I've been going for 7 years now and have not made it to Out of Town Pastry or the Canoe - something for my next visit - which is cool - always something new to look forward to.
So when are you heading back! lol

[Nurse Marcia]

"Envy of fellow passengers with my inflight meal."

I sometimes feel a little guilty....... but only for a moment. ;)

Last trip it was Fatty's fried chicken for me.

Thanks for the great report and pictures!!

[Winston]

Wow, the restaurant is about 25 percent more expensive than Seastar Inn -- i guess you pay for the view, too. For $1,400 plus groceries for five nights, it looks like you treated yourself VERY well. Bravo, my friend!

Question: the swimming cove, how calm is it in the morning? Like a pool?

G - The food and service at Ivan's was top notch, we only spent about $650 for our five days at Catcha (stayed on site for all meals and drinks, except for three lunches). Booger was the one able to spend $1400 during his seven day stay!
The cove was swimmable all the time we were there. Most of the Catcha video I took was filmed at 6am. It was never flat like a pool, always some small swell, and ranged from ripples in the morning, to low chop when wind had picked a couple times later in the day.
Cheers, W

[booger]

My budget was probably towards the higher end. I believe all rooms if not most have a fridge, so you can easily buy your own and keep them cold in the fridge. I would compare the food prices to the US. We drank a lot, so our spend might be out of wack to most. I picked up a few rounds of drinks and shots as well, so my spend might be a little high.