Magnolia Mamas : Jamaica

Showing posts with label Jamaica. Show all posts

Friday, June 26, 2015

Montego Bay, Jamaica {Part 3: Entertainment & Dining}

Today wraps up my mini review of our Jamaican vacation (Part 1 & Part 2), but first order of business is announcing our winner for the VersaLiving Carseat Cover.

Congratulations to Tracie Cattanach! You are our winner!

Tracie said, "My car is always a disaster! This would be amazing. I can't clean my car during the summer because it's too hot outside in Florida! This would be a lifesaver!"

Shoot us an email so we can get your information, and we will get your new carseat cover out to you. We know this will make messy car clean up so much easier, even in the Florida heat. Yay!

Now back to Jamaica Mon! Sorry just can't help myself. We heard it - a lot!

Dining during our stay was always pretty easy. There were multiple restaurants to choose from on site. From casual beach side fare to upscale fine dining, there was a little something for everyone. Breakfast was always a buffet in the morning and I am hating that I didn't take a photo or two, but seriously best french toast ever! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

A few nights we also opted for the buffet for dinner as well. Each night was themed and they went all out. It was one of the few dinner options that didn't require a reservation and with littles who wanted to soak up as much water sliding as possible it was easy to shower quickly and head back down to enjoy an easy dinner.

There were always tons of options and for children usually a few standards to choose from (i.e. pizza, chicken fingers, etc.). My personal favorite might have been the dessert buffet. How can you say no to that?

The kids loved buffet nights and quickly learned there was always an ice cream bar set up.

Some nights we even snuck in and just participated in the ice cream bar. It was quite yummy for all!

One of our favorite meals was at the golf course restaurant Three Palms. It was for the most part open air and displayed wonderful gardens and golf course views.

The restaurant has an extensive wine list available and excellent dining options. It became a little dark to photo, but I ordered the filet and it was excellent.

Men are required to wear pants or dress shorts at this restaurant and while temperatures were pretty moderate it became hot pretty fast. Word of warning when you pack your bags to include lightweight dress shorts and bug spray. Lots and lots of bug spray.

A second restaurant that was quite delicious was the Seaside Bar & Grill. This restaurant overlooks the ocean and provides a wonderful atmosphere matched with great food.

The food here was excellent and we had a wonderful waiter, but oh my we could not cool off. This day there wasn't a breeze in sight and even being directly on the water everyone was quite toasty.

We ate and dashed to one of our favorite nightly routines, which was a necessity after a meal we literally sweated through, night swimming!

The pool located just off the hotel lobby was perfect for night swimming. It was always lit up and you were able to watch/hear the nightly entertainment going on the patio.

Every single night there was some sort of live band or dance party going on. It was so fun and the littles LOVED this. Every night after dinner they would check out who was singing and regale the crowd with some very interesting moves.

Each band we heard was excellent and whenever there was downtime there was always a fun comedian or trivia going to entertain during down time. It was so much fun, and everything was pretty family friendly so we had no problem letting the littles stay up late to enjoy.

In fact, they often had an activity or two for late night littles to participate in. S'mores will always win over a child's heart.

Who am I kidding? S'mores will always win over my heart. :)

Overall, we loved our stay in Jamaica and can't wait to go back one day. It was a super easy trip with kids, and those who vacation with children know that sometimes traveling with children seems like more work and less vacation. The hotel made it super easy at every turn, and often went above and beyond to help entertain the kids and keep them happy.

If you are childless, I could definitely see this being a fun resort to visit as well. I might wait until school is in session, but there was plenty of adult friendly entertainment and private areas on both the beach and pools to enjoy a "quieter" trip.

Have you been to Jamaica? Did you enjoy the experience? Have a favorite place to stay?

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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Montego Bay, Jamaica {Part 2: What We Did}

Our stay in Jamaica was nothing short of wonderful. Our accommodations for the week were at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort, which is an all inclusive resort located in Montego Bay. Once we arrived at the resort, we never left.

Many of our vacations are filled with sightseeing and adventures from sun up to sun down, so I was a little skeptical if staying in one spot the entire week would keep us entertained. My skepticism was quickly diminished. The resort had beautiful pools, gorgeous beaches, and TONS of activities to keep both adults and children entertained the entire day.

Every day they posted a board of activities that you and the children could participate in for free. All activities are optional and most awarded prizes to the winner which ranged from t-shirts, to local art, to potentially an additional stay.

It only rained two afternoons the entire week, and even then it was very brief.

Most days we started out enjoying the family pool onsite. It had two super fun water slides that the kids never tired of. I am pretty sure we climbed the equivalent of 287 floors over the course of the week with all the stairs, but there wasn't one complaint...it helped to work off the fruity cocktail consumption.

One slide was for children a little older than ours, but that doesn't mean that the adults didn't give it a whirl or two. And it was FUN!

The family pool also featured a lazy river, a zero entry splash area, and multiple hidden mini pools and hot tubs.

Most importantly though...a swim up bar. :) Which was super convenient when one of the employees offered you a freshly fallen coconut.

The beaches were pristine and had a ton of fun water sports you could partake in. The daddies all took turns on the kayaks and even took some of the older boys out with them.

Little Cute was not too excited to be left behind, but still had fun playing amongst the boats and dreaming of "one day".

The men also tried their hand at sailing. I'm not quite sure that boat will ever be the same, but it did come back in one piece.

Aside the beach there were several games you could play including corn hole, ping pong, large chess, board games, and shuffleboard. Cute loved him some shuffle board.

One afternoon we did a little more venturing around the property, and made our way to the historic Rose Hall Aqueduct that was on site. It was an amazing site to see, and gave us a chance to learn a little bit about historic Jamaica other than just the bubble of the resort.

The remainder of the week we enjoyed pretty much the same pool/beach routine, and just enjoyed the relaxing family time together - which is rare.

The Cutes did try to bring back a pet or two, but I decided all creatures needed to stay in their natural habitat.

Tomorrow I will share the restaurants and the nightly entertainment we enjoyed while on site. And maybe a yummy fruity drink or two.

View our Etsy Shop HERE.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Montego Bay, Jamaica {Part 1}

Jamaica Mon! Sorry...still thinking island life. :) A few weeks ago, we left for our annual family vacation. Each year we try to take a few big trips...one with kids and one without. This year's trip we planned with some of our best friends and headed to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Some friends in our group had been and loved it. After hearing some of the details we determined this is just what we were looking for in a relaxing family vacation.

Our friends from out of town drove in late Friday with their little one, and bright and early Saturday morning we made our way to the airport. All three children were great sports and seemed so excited about everything the airport has to offer.

Cute was so excited to get he and his "Ellie" a ticket of their very own from the check in agent. Ellie kept track of his ticket the entire trip.

Because of our early arrival we didn't have time for breakfast. We planned for this and decided to eat in the airport. Mr. Cute shocked me when he came back with The Varsity as the breakfast of choice. Apparently the offerings in the International terminal lacked breakfast options.

"What'll ya have?" Apparently, burgers and fries at 9:30a.m. :)

This was Little Cute's first flight and I was slightly nervous. Sitting still is not her forte, and with all the things to see and do and touch, I had a feeling we were in for an entertaining flight. She was mesmerized by all things airport though and refused to move from her position by the window until it was time for boarding.

There was no turning back now... here we go!

The kids actually did excellent on the three hour flight. I brought lots to entertain them and followed Carrie Beth's road trip tips and applied some of them to flying. There wasn't an unhappy peep out of either one of them, and I am very thankful for the invention of the headphone.

About two hours and forty minutes into the flight Little Cute decided to finally take a nap. Just about that same time we were coming into Jamaican waters.

We landed in Jamaica right around lunchtime. The Hilton Hotel that we made arrangements for was only about a 15 minute cab ride from the airport and after enjoying a quick lunch we hit the ground running and headed to the pool.