Quote Originally Posted by Flipadelphia26 View Post
Is it a perfect paradise? Not exactly. But I love it. My wife loves it. My wife and I fell in love there. We were married there. We met life long friends there and we have returned there almost 20 times since 2012.

Maybe because it's not the perfect paradise. Maybe it's because it can be like the "wild west". Sometimes it's not the greatest place ever, but to me - it adds to the realism of the fact that we are not in Kansas anymore.. If I wanted the perfect vacation - with no complaints. I'd drop the money to go to Secrets in mobay. Or disney world. Negril isn't disney. I love it for that reason.

That's all I have to say about that.
I love this take on Negril. A paradise does not need to be "perfect" to be a paradise.

I have never found any theme park to be a paradise, but more of an attraction you pay for the day or weekend.

I wasn't impressed by Disney World, the animatronics look more like tronics than animals. Space Mountain and the monorail inside the hotel were cool, but overall it wasn't my cup of tea. But millions of people love it and have for generations. A lot of decades of planning have gone into the creation of the current version of Disney World.

Negril became a destination more by accident than anything seriously planned. Tourism took off when the Hippies came here in the late 60"s. The main places to stay were more often than not someone's backyard or guest room.

There was no electricity, clean running water or phones. No TV, no refrigerator, no AC, yet it was a paradise for the Hippies who could smoke ganja without judgement or many legal entanglements.

Now visitors complain, justifiably, when there is no working WiFi. The thought of no AC, TV or refrigerator is almost intolerable. No running clean water would BE intolerable. Yet when Disneyland was already a decade old, visitors accepted those inconveniences unimaginable today in Negril because of the freedom they felt. For them it was paradise.

Negril has grown on its own to its modern form with little planning. Being a village, there is no Negril local government, no Mayor of Negril or town council. Once Negril gains Town status, we will have more control to plan our own future.

Our paradise will keep evolving on its own with all its imperfections, and hundreds of thousands of visitors will continue to make it their paradise.