Newbie Trip Report - 4-15 Feb, 2013

[ThreeBlackCats]

Sorry for the delay! Man, life can get crazy. Phew!
So where was I? Oh yes, DAY 5! Here we go...

After our quick stop at YS Falls, we hit the road to Treasure Beach. The ride was great. I really enjoyed driving all over the island throughout our trip and seeing the different communities, the gorgeous scenery, kids going to school, different shops and restaurants... just the everyday life stuff. Love it. I won't lie though, I was beginning to get very worried as we became more and more isolated as the drive went on. I was already starting to panic that we were not in Negril anymore. When we got to Treasure Beach we hit Jack Sprats first and took Chicken for lunch. I was pretty disappointed with the menu there as it was a lot of the regular North American type foods. As vegans, there really wasn't anything we could eat there. But the restaurant itself and outdoor patio was really cute.



It was starting to get a little cloudy so we headed over the Jakes to check in and get settled. We were in Octopussy 3, the honeymoon sweet. It looked exactly like the photos online.







The view from our rooftop patio...



Where we enjoyed the first of many sunsets..



We got freshened up and headed to Jakes restaurant for some much needed supper. I was happy to see Ital Stew on the menu and ordered that. Jason had the pesto pasta. Now, keep in mind that when I booked Jakes many months prior to our trip, I made sure they were aware that we're vegan and I was told it was absolutely no problem to accommodate that and that they always have veggie/vegan options on the menu. I figured it would be fine and if we weren't happy with the food that we could hit up some local places off site, which is what we prefer to do anyway. When we checked in, the front desk woman verified that they had on file our food needs and again, we were told it was no problem. Back to dinner... after eating the fantastic food in Negril for a week, I was extremely disappointed by the most bland Ital Stew I have ever tasted. Jason's "pesto pasta" that he ordered with no cheese arrived swimming in a bowl of cream sauce. What part of no dairy do they not understand? We chalked it up to an off night for the kitchen, ate my bland Ital Stew, and paid at least double what we would have paid in Negril for a dinner that we couldn't even eat half of. Not a good first impression. We had a few drinks and then headed back to our villa.

[OAngie]

Great report loving it!

[Lola]

Octopussy looks nice!

[ThreeBlackCats]

DAY 6

We wake up hungry, throw on some clothes, and head to Jakes restaurant for breakfast. Surely there will be something for us to eat. The menu was lots of eggs, meat, omelettes, etc. They did have porridge, fruit, and toast though so I thought we'd be fine. We ordered coffee (for me), some oat porridge, fruit, and toast with jam. Our server then explained that they do not carry soy milk for coffee and all of the porridge dishes are made with cow's milk instead of water. So much for eating vegan at Jakes being "no problem". So we were left with fruit and dry toast. Panic is now setting in as I'm realizing we are stuck here for an entire week with no food. We go out for a walk after "breakfast" to see what food carts, restaurants, etc we can find. We walk and walk. Nothing. We are literally trapped at Jakes with no food. We head back to our room and lay out on our patio reading and eating macro bars I had packed in our luggage for emergency backup. Good thing we brought a hearty stash of subs from Negril. I desperately needed something to calm me down.
After I started to feel a little more relaxed, we had some local fisherman go by while we were enjoying the ocean view.





Later, I enjoy a nice outdoor bath and try to forget about the food issues.



After a relaxing afternoon, we get dressed and make an attempt at supper again. I was excited to see curry veg and rice on the menu. Jason ordered the pasta and veg (again explaining no cheese/dairy). We decide to order the arugula salad which sounded good. Sadly, the curry veg tasted exactly like the bland Ital Stew we had the night before (I didn't taste any curry at all) and the salad came covered in cheese which was not indicated on the menu (after we just said no cheese on the pasta). The worst though was Jason's pasta and veg once again arriving swimming in a cream sauce. Yes they did hold the cheese. Jesus. At this point I'm about ready to snap so I go inside to ask if we can check out early and go back to Negril. They say yes, we could check out, no problem, but we would not be getting any refund on the remaining nights that they had already charged to my credit card (for a whopping total of $3400, not including the meals we couldn't eat). We sat and seriously discussed calling Chicken and having him come and rescue us the next morning, but we couldn't justify throwing away $3400 and letting Jakes just keep that cash and rent our room out to someone else, making a double profit. We tried to make the best of a really bad situation. We talked to the manager and discussed the food issues. They said they'd get some soy milk for us.... wait for it.... AND CHARGE IT TO OUR ROOM! I was floored. So they got us the milk, and we had to carry it around with us to and from the restaurant for the rest of our vacation. So not only were we paying outrageous prices for food we couldn't eat. We were also now paying for the individual ingredients for this food.
We went straight back to our room. Subs galore. This became the trend at Jakes. Self-medicating to disperse the anger. Not the birthday trip I had envisioned.

[541lion]

So sorry to hear about jakes!! Makes me glad we choose to head to PA after negril instead.. We were thinking about jakes too!! This is why we won't make any more reservations!! We don't want to get somewhere and hate it but not be able to leave cuz they have our money!! That and we change our minds a lot!! It's nice to be able to have a basic plan and just go with what we like.. Great pics and report !! Ready for more.. Glad you had plenty of subs too!!

[ThreeBlackCats]

541lion - Do you ever have a hard time getting a room when you're traveling around? I worry about things being booked up and having nowhere to stay. I'd love to hear how that has worked out for you in the past. We definitely would never go to Jakes again. We absolutely fell in love with Negril and Jakes is just the opposite of there, sadly.

[541lion]

Well, see this will be our first trip. And it will be in June so I don't think we will have much of a problem finding places to stay.. We just have a few places picked out so if one happens to be booked then well move on to the next.. But if I didn't do my research then I would have no idea where to go.. So I've got lots of places in mind and have an idea of where they are at.. Trip report coming around July

[ThreeBlackCats]

DAY 7

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Feb 10 - the big 40!
We woke up, grabbed our box of soy milk out of the fridge (haha), and headed out for breakfast. We had coffee, toast, muesli, and fresh fruit.
We had pre-arranged a trip out to Pelican Bar that afternoon so we went back to the room for some relax time before we headed out to Frenchman's Bay. As we walked down the beach and across the rocks, one of the first things we saw in the bay was this:



Lucky Girl F.B. 100 - Indeed I was a lucky girl to be in such an amazingly beautiful place on my birthday. I have to say, the scenery at Treasure Beach was breathtaking.

As we got to the beach we were met by Jason, Captain Dennis' second in command. Such a nice, friendly guy. He took us over to where we would climb into the boat, Super Cool. There were a few other couples coming out with us and we thought that was great. The more the merrier. We all climbed in and off we went.





On the way to the bar we saw the most impressive rental properties along the shoreline. Just gorgeous places.







The boat ride was fantastic. Nothing like fresh sea air. A giant sea turtle swam right up beside our boat and then dove down, but only a couple of people got to see him before he disappeared. And then we saw it in the distance (notice all the beautiful pelicans to the left)...







We all climbed out of the boat and stepped inside for some cold Red Stripe. Of course, much like cross border shopping, there's no escaping the Ontario plates. Haha. Go Canada!

[ThreeBlackCats]

DAY 7 cont...

The water was so clear and we could see fish swimming by and then I spotted this little crab underneath the bar:







More visitors!







I absolutely fell in love with the pelicans while we were in Treasure Beach.



On the way back from the bar we stopped at a beautiful sandy beach and walked for about 15-20 mins while Jason (second in command) took the boat and met us farther along.
When we got back to Frenchman's Bay I asked Captain Dennis where we could find some good Ital food. We were in luck. There was a Rasta who just opened a food hut on the beach called Lion Rock. The food was well worth the long wait (which probably seemed longer than it was because we were absolutely starving at this point). We had delicious, flavourful Ital Stew and Festival. Absolutely delicious and not a drop left on our plates. And my lucky boat was back while we ate.



We talked to Captain Dennis for a bit before we went back to our villa. Wanting to make the most of our time in Treasure Beach, we hired him to take us out for a day on the water to try and spot some dolphins. We got his number and said we'd call later to set up the time. I cannot recommend Captain Dennis enough. He is one of the nicest guys we met on our trip. If you're planning a day trip to Pelican Bar or just going to Treasure Beach for a day or two, definitely call him. He totally made our trip to Treasure Beach. http://www.captain-dennis.com/

Back at the villa we got showered and changed and went over to Jack Sprats for some beer and music. They had a DJ there and the music was the loudest I had ever heard anywhere. The place was pretty dead but the DJ played all my requests so it was like having my own private birthday party there. We were the last ones to leave that night. Turned out to be a great birthday.

[OAngie]

I'm loving your report!