Thursday

Today, we are blowing up the floaties and staying on the beach to read and relax. We ordered breakfast from room service. Hard boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt, granola and coffee. Pack up the beach bag and off we go.

We made a pit stop at the front desk and called Ivan’s for reservations. They will pick us up tonight at 6:45 pm.

We get to the beach, blow up our floaties and decide to take a walk. We head down to Club RIU and find our friends. We have a few drinks with them and decide to head back as it is starting to sprinkle. We ended up not leaving because the heavens opened up with rain……..for like hours. We ended up taking a taxi back to our RIU. Here I sit waiting for the rain to let up, my floaties, sandals and towels all still on the beach soaking wet. Don’t get me wrong, still having a great day.

This gives me a chance to tell you about RIU Tropical Palace.

Check in: quick and easy. Your bell hop can and will get you anything you need.

Our room: We have a king sized bed with a Jacuzzi tub, separate seating area, shower, bar with refrigerator a flat screen tv and a balcony you could do gymnastics on. The room is checked at least twice a day for towels and etc. I think this is the nicest room we have ever had. Water pressure and temp are fantastic. No problems at all. The hairdryer in the bathroom doesn’t work the best. I have long hair and it takes a really long time to get my hair dry. If you have long hair, bring your own hairdryer. The clock in our room does not keep accurate time…………it is off by HOURS. Bring your own clock if that is important to you. They also provide shampoo and conditioner and soaps. Again, if you have long hair, bring your own. Not top shelf stuff.

Room Service: Menu is limited and breakfast has to be ordered the night before, but we found it to be just fine. It is amazing how fast they are……..like 10 minutes.

Food: Jerk Chicken hut on the beach FABULOUS. We ate there almost every day. Of all the places we have had Jerk Chicken in Jamaica, this really is our favorite. The chef who runs it is a bit crabby. If you remember the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, you will appreciate the Jerk Chicken Nazi at RIU TPB…NO JERK FOR YOU!! That’s right, just get your jerk, say thank you and move on. The buffet is good and lots of variety from cheeses to fruits and vegetables to pasta bar to stir fry, etc. If you can’t find something to eat here, there is something wrong with you. They do serve red and white wine with dinner, out of a bottle and we thought it was good.

Beach: It is fantastic and we never had a problem finding a chair, no matter what time of day we went out.

Staff: Top notch. Always helpful and friendly and never seem to have a hand out waiting for a tip. We tip about 50% of the time for drinks- $1 each time. Housekeeping, $2-$3 per day, servers at dinner/lunch $1-$2 and the man who restocks our room fridge gets $5 only when we ask for something special….rum crème, extra red stripes, etc.

Swimming pools: Can’t really give you an opinion. We are beach people and avoid the pools like the plague. The water did look clear and I think people were having a good time with the bartenders at the pool bar.

Entertainment: Surprisingly BAD. Well maybe not BAD, but the acoustics are BAD. Tonight they have a Jamaican band with a female singer. We can only here feedback and an echo. We try to imagine how the band would sound if they were on the beach. Our bet is they would be good. RIU does everything so well that we agree that they would be better off doing nothing for entertainment than what they are doing. So, RIU, take our advice, either QUIT the entertainment all together or figure out away to do it right.

With that said, hands down this place is fantastic. If this resort could somehow move to the long bay, we would return again and again. I do want to encourage those considering Negril to check this place out. If you are thinking about stepping stones from Ocho or Mbj to Negril, this area is a great way to slowly immerse yourself into the vibe of Negril.

Ivan’s


For dinner, we get picked up by Ivan’s. We both enjoyed our dinners and are disappointed we didn’t come earlier to take in the sunset. Ivan’s is beautiful. I wish they were open all day long. Next time here, we may try a stay on the cliffs, just because Ivan’s left such a great impression.

We end the night in the Jacuzzi in our room discussing the trip and our sadness of the next day being our last one here