This is from APRIL 16-25, 2013, sorry for the confusion!
My first trip report, so bear with me. My wife and I were in Negril for 9 nights, split 4 nights at Samsara, 3 at Riu Negril and finally 2 at Catcha Falling Star.
Our first impression of Samsara is that their spot on the cliffs is really nice. They've got plenty of shaded areas and beds to lay in. The pool was nice sized, and clean. The hot tub was lukewarm and cloudy, and I couldn't figure out how to turn on the jets so we didn't use it.
We were in room 110, and it was a basic room, two queen beds, TV, large shower. The A/C worked well. We had water leaking through the light fixture in the bathroom every evening. I complained and the best they did was bring us towels to soak up the water. I did not enjoy sitting on the toilet getting dripped on by water that came from god-knows-what. They kept telling us they would take care of it, but they never did. Our last day, they actually asked if we would check out early so they could get started on fixing it, I told them NO and stayed in that room every last minute.
The all inclusive food was basic, most of it tasty. Breakfast had fresh eggs, can't go wrong there. Not much Jamaican food, but lasagna, mac and cheese, some grilled fish, stuff like that. They had burgers, they were terrible, like hockey pucks. The all inclusive bar drinks are all bottom-shelf, which I expected. The rum is Appletons so I stuck with rum drinks. The Red Stripe is on tap, and as far as I could tell tastes nothing like what's in the bottle. That became a recurring theme all week...
Then we moved to the Riu Clubhotel. First impression was WOW - there's a lot of people here! And, some of the people left their manners at home... Such as people carrying around a boombox wherever they went, even if there was already music playing... carrying it into the pool to the swim up bar... rap music with offensive lyrics...
Anyway, we hit the buffet, and I was impressed. I've done 15 cruises, as well as stayed at large all-inclusives before so I had an idea what to expect. Lots of selection, food was fresh and tasty. Had Jamaican choices (including curry goat and oxtail that day) After being disappointed with all the people, I thought the food would make up for it. Nope. I can say with 99% certainty that the Saturday buffets are special, and the rest of the week they cut back. Not only were there fewer choices other days, but the quality wasn't the same. The fish wasn't as fresh, that's for sure. Breakfast was OK, again because fresh eggs, and the bacon was crispy. We wanted to try the specialty restaurants (a steakhouse, french/fancy restaurant and an Italian restaurant). Turns out you need to reserve 48 hours in advance, and we were only staying 3 nights. Since it was the second day, it was too late. I mentioned it was my wife's birthday that night and our anniversary the next day, and they managed to seat us in the steakhouse, which isn't a separate restaurant but the same space as the lunch buffet. My wife ordered a steak, I had ribs, and we also asked if they could bring us the sea bass as well. The ribs were bad, more like McRib from McDonalds than anything you'd get at a steakhouse. The fish was meh, and I doubt it was sea bass. I didn't try my wife's steak, but she ate it so it couldn't have been that bad. The Red Stripe here is on tap, and it was BAD. I think that they don't clean the lines and everywhere I got beer on tap I thought it tasted funky. So I drank the Red Stripes that were in the room (they put 5 bottles in the minifridge every other day) and mixed drinks other times. Again, no real top shelf booze to be found. I wanted a gin and tonic and all they had was the cheap stuff. Couldn't get Beefeater, Bombay, etc at any price.
The coffee sucked. They had Nescafe machines at the bars. Don't think they were using the good Jamaican stuff.
Their spot on the beach is nice, lots of chairs, but still crowded. The pools were much smaller than I expected, and I think the one with the swim up bar was supposed to be adults only, but that wasn't the case.
Our room was adequate. At first glance it was nice, with lots of wood and tile floors, but little things like rust on the bathtub took its toll, and the A/C unit was extremely loud and caused the bed to vibrate. They sent someone over to look at it after I asked a second time, he arrived at 10:30pm. He spent a couple minutes poking around and told us nothing could be done, parts needed to be ordered and they could move us the next day. We didn't bother moving because the room stayed cool enough with the A/C off overnight after letting it run all day when we weren't in the room.
I doubt I would go back, the large AI experience is not for us.
Then we went back to the cliffs, Catcha Falling Star. We checked in and since the room wasn't ready we went and explored the property. The place is stunning. My wife walked around, eyes wide just saying wow over and over. Everyone was really nice and friendly, and we felt at home right away. After an hour or so they showed us to our room. We were upgraded to Moon, a two bedroom. The cottage has a huge wrap around balcony with a daybed, table, couch and hammock. You walk into a living room with two chairs, TV and stereo as well as a small kitchen with full size refrigerator, microwave, toaster and coffeemaker. The bathroom is well done, and there's also a large private outside shower which I enjoyed using every day...my wife wouldn't, afraid that people somewhere could see... I guess I just didn't care? The second bedroom has it's own entrance which I thought would be a nice touch if two couples travelled together, gives a bit more privacy even if you still have to share the bathroom.
The one thing about the room I didn't like? No A/C. it was warm at night, and even with two fans blowing over the bed I had a really hard time sleeping, but that's me. I could see it being unbearable during the hotter times of year. We will definitely stay again, but I will be sure to book a room that has A/C in the bedroom.
Ivans was delicious, my wife and I both had fish dishes and they were excellent. Breakfast was tasty too, but again, hard to mess up eggs. My wife had stuffed johnny cakes, gave them an A+. Drinks were good, but could get pricey, this is no cheap shack on the beach.
That's the rundown of the three places we stayed, feel free to ask any questions if you want specifics. I also took a bunch of pictures but haven't moved them to the computer yet. I will update with pictures when we get a chance. We also did the bar crawl and ate and drank at lots of other places, more info to come in a future post!
