Newbie Intro & Caves booked!

[TKim]

Hi everyone! I’ve been excitedly waiting for my account to be approved and reading all of your wonderful stories, trip reports, and recommendations while I do. Thanks to everyone who makes this board an awesome source for info. I read about the board on Trip Advisor and I totally like the close “personality” of this place better, so I’ll be sticking here for as long as you’ll have me.

My husband and I are Negril first-timers, with our honeymoon coming up in mid-April. We booked at The Caves, and I don’t see many people here talk about it. We did not want a standard All Inclusive, but we did want to treat ourselves right for something once-in-a-lifetime. I hope we didn’t make a mistake! Is The Caves not often mentioned due to lack of popularity, or is the price just that prohibitive that people usually go elsewhere?

I kind of regret going the AI route, now, because I see so many awesome places that I’d like us to be able to go – to get the real lay of the land and to get our tourist dollars into the local economy. Still, we’ll be there for 8 nights, so we will hopefully have plenty of time to do a mix of both.

It looks like April is a very popular time to go, based on the check-in thread I saw. We won’t be there when the “boardie” festivities are going on, which is a shame because you all seem like awesome people to hang out with and I’d love to have met some of you. As it is, we’ll be there April 16-24, and we’ve already arranged to head out on the One Love Bus Crawl on Thursday the 18th. (Isn’t it usually Wednesday? Maybe it filled up and started another day that week…)

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself before I start jumping into all your threads willy-nilly. I’m Kim, from Maryland, and this will be my first International Trip at all. So please forgive any stupid questions – I’ll try to use the search before I ask ‘em.

Take care everyone!

[saeyedoc]

You'll love it, The Caves is a very special place. There are some people on this board who stay there, but for most it's out of reach financially. I've been there twice if you have any questions.

[Flipadelphia26]

The caves is a great place form everything I have heard, seen, read.

You'll have no problem getting off the resort and checking out the beach and the other places on the west end. Congrats on the marriage and enjoy your trip.

[HarryS]

I wanted to take my wife to The Caves, but it was out of our budget. Spending a couple nights at Catcha Falling Star instead.

Are you sure you're on the One Love Bus Crawl on April 18th? I signed up for Wednesday April 17th just a few days ago and was confirmed almost right away.

[rinakim]

Welcome to the board Kim! I hope you fall in love with Negril just as we all have.
I don't know anything about the Caves, haven't been. But we do our travel on a limited budget which allows us to go more often.
We've been to AI's in other countries, but I just find that we never left the property because everything we had was paid for and we are cheap ....... lol.
You will LOVE the pub crawl, great way to meet people and see places that you may never have even thought of stopping at.
Enjoy your honeymoon to the fullest and please take the time to explore what Negril has to offer.

[TKim]

Hi HarryS. Yeah, The Caves would be out of our budget, as well, were it not for a gift.

As for the One Love Bus Crawl, I'm reasonably sure, but I thought it was weird, since everyone mentions Weds the 17th. But I talked to someone over on TA who also got booked on the 18th. When I emailed Lenbert for availability during our stay, here's what he put in the email:

"Thursday the 18th and sunday the 21st of April are available with a 200pm pickup at Caves"

I'll bet he's letting people go on the 17th if they know other people going and ask for it specifically, but it's probably getting pretty full. That's my guess, anyhow.


saeyedoc: I'm so glad to hear from people who had a good time at The Caves. I actually have a ton of questions swirling around in my mind. Give me some time to pull them all together. Would you rather I post or PM them?

[Fred Stripe]

Trip Advisor is a joke.It's like asking your boss where to go on Vaca,it's really governed by a group of "elders" ya know the ones with 4/5/6000 post. If they don't like you they team up on PM"s and all send in a complaint to TA to get you kicked off...

Very homoginized....Real info & real Negril folks here Kim....

[HarryS]

Trip Advisor is a joke.It's like asking your boss where to go on Vaca,it's really governed by a group of "elders" ya know the ones with 4/5/6000 post. If they don't like you they team up on PM"s and all send in a complaint to TA to get you kicked off...

Very homoginized....Real info & real Negril folks here Kim....

I haven't been participating here for long but it's plainly clear this place is homogenized as well... Certain subjects are off-limits, or if not off-limits severely frowned upon. People get banned from here as well...

[TKim]

I didn’t mean to make this an “anti-TA” post. As HarryS says, all forums have their “celebrities” and their “group-think” about certain topics. As I get to know the rhythm of this forum, I will learn… hopefully not making too many missteps along the way. All I meant to point out is … because this place is Negril and Jamaica specific, and you really have to hunt for it, it has a closeness about the community that I find more attractive than TA, which felt a lot more impersonal.

Here, I already feel pretty well welcomed, where at TA I didn’t over a few weeks of reading and participating. So thanks for that.

[mn negril fan]

Hey Kim, Welcome this is a great place to learn and ask questions. I dont post much but will answer what I can. Never been to the caves but have heard many good things about it. Have a great trip.