First Trip Report after many visits

Attachment 16225Attachment 16226This is my first trip report, after many visits to Jamaica and reading the message board for years.
As a family of 3, we just love Jamaica (Negril especially). We decided to take our first summer trip to Negril. I had many reasons to argue my point, anniversary, daughter’s graduation, my birthday etc.
Our daughter is just a few months shy of 19 and she brought her friend along. We decided have 10 days for our first time also. We booked Rocky for pickup and his son Wayne picked us up. We had a great trip from Sangster and Wayne had icy cold Red Stripes and stopped in Lucea at a Cambio for us.
We stayed at the Rayon and Pansy and her staff greeted us. We stayed at Rayon last year so it felt very familiar and Pansy was happy to see us once again. We were told to let the staff know if there was anything we might need. We ended up with the villa with a connecting door, and the girls had their own place more or less. We quickly unpacked and headed over to Sun Beach Bar for a cold drink and swim. Miss Pansy asked if they could go back into our room as she would like us to have a new large flat screen tv for our room, very nice and much appreciated.
As I have been watching webcasts from Real Negril for quite a few years, I made notes prior to our visit as to which nights webcasts were done and at what restaurants/bars we could find them. I also printed a map of Negril beach & cliffs which had most places marked on it. I also studied Trip advisor restaurants and menu’s and made notes of what kind of meals were being served at the places we wanted to try out. Quite often I referred to my notes, they were really handy.
First night, we went out to Sea Star for the buffet and entertainment. The girls were exhausted from travel and the sun, so we couldn’t stay late. I’m a lot older, but they couldn’t seem to make it.
My husband & I would wake up quite early and head to the pool for an early morning swim. Each morning, I would wake the girls up for breakfast. I didn’t want them to waste the day sleeping. We spent our next day at the beach and enjoyed an evening meal on the beach at Sun beach bar.
Monday morning we just stepped out front of Rayon and Desmond our last years taxi man was ready to take us anywhere we desired. We went down to the Scotia Bank and stopped for some minor groceries. Miss Pansy glady provided us with some dishes so that we could prepare a few meals for ourselves. We were able to have grilled cheese, hot dogs, spaghetti and garlic bread and enjoyed it very much. We had another beautiful day on the beach. We went down to the cliffs and had a very enjoyable meal at Push Cart. The food was delicious and prices reasonable. Our taxi man left his number and they called him when we were ready to leave.
Tuesday, we went out on the Red Stripe catamaran. We had a really good time. The water was rough, so we were not able to get over to Rick’s Café. They stopped right near Blue Cave and a few brave (our daughter’s teen friend) jumped from the top of the cliffs until Mr. Policeman said no more, this is private property. We ended up having about 4 catamarans around us as this water was much calmer. A couple of ladies on our boat had very weak stomachs. This turned out to be a very nice trip.
Wednesday, the girls were enjoying a few beers and probably way too much sun. We went out snorkelling on one of the boats from the beach and that was just another good time. They didn’t want to listen to Mom & Dad. Stay out of the sun, get back under the trees and drink more water. No, they wanted to get the best tans possible. Evening time, we decided to have a home cooked meal.
Thursday, the tummies of the teens were not feeling that great. Even though they said they hadn’t drank that much, they dumped out the bottle of rum they bought. I would have given it away, but it was too late. They stayed in bed and said they felt well enough to get out for dinner. We went down to Canoe, and managed to run into Rob at the end of his webcast. He asked us what were were choosing from the menu, and said we made excellent choices. I must say, the Chili Coconut Shrimp was absolutely great. Our daughter wasn’t feeling well at all, so we had to head out promptly and Desmond was right there to pick us up. We asked him about where could we find some soup for the girls and he knew just the spot and stopped and we got a cup. Once back in the room, I poured the girls a cup, minus the veggies and they had a few sips. They made quite a few washroom stops over the night. I put the rest of the soup in the fridge.
Friday, the girls still were not feeling a whole lot better. They just stayed in bed. We took another trip to the bank and grocery store. We picked up a lot of spices, and sauces to bring home with us. My husband & I were feeling fine. I suspect the girls had too much sun or there was something off with the rum punch they had & we didn’t a few days prior. We had a great day on the beach and saw the resident sting rays pass by a few times. I choose to keep my distance from them, and I think they feel the same. That evening the two of us went across the street and had an excellent meal at Coco la palm. We were the only two eating in the restaurant and got very large delicious portions. We ended up with 5 little kittens sitting beside us with very full tummies. I said to my husband, I hope nobody saw us giving them some food and he said “I think it might be a little obvious since they are all licking their paws”. We got a piece of cheese cake to take back to the room and it was really good.
Saturday, early morning swim, and delicious breakfast. M y husband walked down to Best in The West and got us some chicken dinners and popped down to the soup shack and got another cup. Roy at Sun beach made the girls some white rice. Once back at the room, I started to make them their light meals, and scoop some soup. It was then, I realized that the soup was “Chicken Foot soup”. As a regular reader of the message board, I had seen it before. My husband & I felt a little guilty and a little giggly and we took a few pics and promised to not tell the girls what was in the soup.
Sunday, early morning swim, delicious breakfast prepared by Diane at Rayon. Roy at Sun Beach made the girls a nice cup of garlic & ginger tea with sugar. They really liked it and their stomachs were slightly better. Everyone noticed they were not well and someone told us to go over to Mikey’s and get some “Andrews”, it did the trick. Sophia mixed it up at the bar, and they drank it down. It was equivalent to Alka Seltzer. I must say, that Roy is a very nice guy. We had a small shopping trip to Times Square and it was perfect timing as there was a very heavy downpour while we enjoyed shopping. That night we headed out to 3 Dives—Opening day of Lobster Season, and very delicious I must say. We also got a jerk chicken dinner to take back to the room with us.
Monday, Desmond took us on a trip to the Blue Cave. We thought we were going to the Blue hole, but I guess we were confused and now we know there are two Blue holes. The one we went to was in Roaring river. Roaring river is very beautiful. The cave was nice and cool and we had a sulphur rub treatment and cool refreshing dip in the cave. We got to the hole in the cave, and I wasn’t brave enough to go down the ladder, but everyone else did. Once outside, I thought it was part of the tour, but our guide wanted to show us around the village. We stopped for cold drinks and saw the usual plants such as pineapple, garlic, turmeric, etc. It was a very nice guided tour, probably one of the nicest we have had after 10 visits to Jamaica. However, they got us in tips and we paid a lot more than we planned on this day. Later in the evening, I checked my map and we decided to check out Sea Splash and dine at Norma’s as I had also watched a few webcasts there. The meal was quite nice.
During the trip we gave out a lot of tips to everyone that gave us great service. It was a slow week in Jamaica and we got top service from everyone from the bars, taxi, our breakfast cook, cleaning lady, gardeners etc. We were told that we could make ourselves comfortable at the Rayon and go out and sit on the balcony of another room that overlooked the Morass, what a view.
Before we left,we said goodbye to everyone at Sunbeach and we divided up a few of our toiletries and left over food and gave them to the gardeners. They were very thankful. They carried our bags out to the taxi, and I’m sure they looked like they wanted to cry when we left, I know I sure felt like it. Roxy was ready to pull away, and Desmond our taxi man came knocking on the bus to tell us to get our picture and to thank us from his heart. I tried to hide the tears coming down my cheeks as I couldn’t contain my sadness to leave. It really felt like we were leaving our good friends. Our daughter said she definitely wants to come back to the same place again. Her friend said this was her first tropical trip and it was a 10 out of 10. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great and it was the perfect time to visit, June 23 to July 3rd. I would highly recommend it.Attachment 16218Attachment 16219Attachment 16220Attachment 16221Attachment 16222Attachment 16223Attachment 16224

Thanks for a great trip report, sorry to hear your girls got sick, and glad to hear that they had a great time anyway. Love the pics! :)

Thanks for posting and you take some nice pics, great clarity.....

oh man, those chicken feet would have had me freaking out. Good thing you kept that secret from your girls. Sounds like a great trip, too bad the teens got so sick--that is no fun on a vacation.

Very nice report.
Did you show the girls the pictures of the chicken feet? It would be funny to see how they react!

Thanks for posting a great report! :) Bummer the girls had a rough time of it but sounds like they had fun anyways and maybe learned a valuable lesson for future return trips lol.

Now...you stayed at Rayon... Is Sun Beach the bar there or just closeby??

Hello all, Answer to if I showed them the pic with those little feet, yes, right before we came home. They were back to normal. They didn't want to look at the picture (lol), when I said do you want to see what was in your soup? They replied, Oh I can't believe you fed us that stuff.
Rayon Hotel is directly across the street from Sunbeach, so that is the easiest and probably one of the best places for a Red Stripe. The locals usually stop by there too. Easy access to many places, Margaritaville is just a short 3 minute walk. You are close to many places. We were lazy and took a taxi to shop. Stopped at the bank 3 times and grocery stores 3 times also, just kept wanting more.

Jamakafun, The way you wrote about your family's visit has me wanted to hear more. I really enjoyed reading your report.

Even with the sour bellies, I’m glad everyone, especially the girls, had a good time and are looking forward to returning.

Maybe that will warn them of the dangers of drinking too much! Hard to recover from those circumstances...

Sounds like y'all had a great time!!

Sounds like it was more than just a hangover with the girls being sick for so long--probably sun posioning/dehydration mixed in. Travelers must be careful, the sun is intense there, and you can get sick from too much, especially if alcohol is in the mix. I drink around 12 cups of water or more a day there--and have a full cup after each rum drink or beer. The tap water in JA is good--so as well as always carry a bottle of Wata with me I get a glass at each bar or home stop. I also love coconut water and have at least one a day (great for dehydration). I am lucky, I drink lots of water at home too, and like it so it takes no effort on my part.

The girls were lucky to have you with them to look after them. One time I got sick to my stomach when traveling on my own and my Jamaican friend brought me soup and made me drink a whole cup while he watched as he said it would make me better. I didn't think I could keep it down, but took his word and forced myself to drink it. It was miracle soup--it did make me better. I have no idea what was in it.

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Originally Posted by irieworld

Sounds like it was more than just a hangover with the girls being sick for so long--probably sun posioning/dehydration mixed in. Travelers must be careful, the sun is intense there, and you can get sick from too much, especially if alcohol is in the mix. I drink around 12 cups of water or more a day there--and have a full cup after each rum drink or beer. The tap water in JA is good--so as well as always carry a bottle of Wata with me I get a glass at each bar or home stop. I also love coconut water and have at least one a day (great for dehydration). I am lucky, I drink lots of water at home too, and like it so it takes no effort on my part.
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That's the best advice imo. Water between drinks and coconut water every morning was my method and it works well. Coconut water = good for you :)

Your report was just precious. I truly truly enjoyed reading it. I think you have made a new Jamaicaholic in the kids. I am glad that all went well with your trip and I wish you many more happy vacations in Jamaica.

My trick is, to mix in a red stripe light between red stripes and rum punches.

I already see a Boardie Down moment waiting to happen :P

We are definately Jamaicaholics for sure. My daughter has been travelling with us every year since she was 5 years old. It was her friends first time however. We are so addicted, love the air, the sights and the sounds. Each time we visit we find new things to do, we've seen the birds at Rocklands and the Luminous lagoon, Dunn's River, YS (my fav), Black River, Appleton's Rum factory, Mayfield falls, rode the Wild Thing to Rhodes Hall, snorkelled so many times, and been to a Kymani Marley concert (excellent!), bought his book & he autographed it too. I'm not trying to brag at all, just saying, that everyting is Irie in Jamaica mon. Negril is the best. I have many more restaurants on my agenda and much more I want to check out. Attachment 16280Attachment 16281Attachment 16282These are a few pics from Rayon (our villa) and a small tip regarding the moon shaped windows-they let in way too much light for sleeping, so bring along a large garbage bag and just hook it in the door and you have a new black out curtain.

Turns out that the sickness was Salmonella, verified by our local health unit after a few problems once home.

What's the remedy for that? Seems with all the jerk chicken the odds are good someone's gonna get it

Rayon looks interesting. We travel sometimes with our two daughters and try to get them their own room.
With the girls have been to rooms nirvana and grand pineapple.
Had u stayed at rayon before?

Nice report. Did you swim in the blue hole?

Great report and pictures, thanks !

Sounds like FUN was had by all! NICE pictures! I also remove the feet! LOL

Yes, We stayed at Rayon last year.
think the Salmonella came from rum punch (just guessing). Luckily, and hopefully the sickness has passed. For some people it can be quite severe. It didn't really spoil our holiday too much as we had 10 days. Can't wait til next time. We always have fun.
The Roaring River Blue hole garden (as pictured above) is once again more money to go in an swim, so we passed it up. We didn't mind as we had already dipped in a few places inside the cave.