We woke up to tropical birds, Caribbean ocean breezes and sunshine!
We slept through the 14 hours since last night on a very comfy bed. I was up for awhile between 4:30am and 6:30am as my internal clock struggled to figure out what time it was, but after a couple of hours setting up the blog and answering some personal email (I’ve deleted my work account 🙂 ) I went back to bed. We both finally got up around 8am.
The air conditioned rooms kept us cool all night which made the 27C morning outside a little bit of a shock, but we brought the right clothes for that so after checking out some of the room amenities – rainfall shower, coffee in the room – we wandered down to the Bayside restaurant for breakfast.
The Bayside is set on the ocean with half of the seating completely outdoors on a deck and half set back inside the resort, with no barriers between. Lots of shade is maintained and the ceiling fans maintain a breeze. There’s a bit of pineapple theme here, including carved into the high back chairs. Breakfast is buffet style with a wide selection of cereals, breads and pastries, eggs, pancakes and french toast, sausages and bacon, fruits, etc., available. We enjoyed our meal while looking out at the sea, being amused by the cattle egrets scavenging along the deck and a stray peacock strolling through the tables.
At 10am we were back to the lobby for a resort orientation. Our hostess was Kimberley and training was Jarvis. Kimberley gave us a great overview of everything we’d find on the resort: an overview of the restaurants (including which require reservations and what to wear), how to book off-site days, beaches, events and entertainment, booking water activities, gym, weddings, spa and gift store.
We spent the next couple of hours “acclimatizing” (literally) by doing the thing we had most been looking forward to – lying on the beach with a couple of “Jamaican delight” rum drinks! We went through the booklets we’d picked up and perused the spa and out trip options, and then just enjoyed the sun and watched the pelicans fish in front of us. Life is tough.
After video chatting with Mimi for a little while (Victoria is still stormy, and may be getting worse with storm 3 moving in – Molly is hiding) it was 1pm so we wandered back to the Bayside to see what was available for lunch. We were not disappointed. Again buffet style, we enjoyed selections of pastas, short ribs, smoked meats, salads, rices, and more fresh fruit, with chocolate mousse and “fruit lasagna” deserts.
Taking a little break from the heat we went back to our room for a short while and read and napped before deciding on a glass bottom boat ride out to the nearby reef.
We walked down to the water activity centre and signed up. then found the boat moored along the beach. The captain and mate welcomed us and four other couples aboard and we set out on a half hour tour of the local bay. The captain was a charming man who told stories and jokes along the way. We cruised over 4-5m of water most of the time while he gave us details on the urchins and anemone we could see, and then the various coral that went by as we crossed a reef. Lots of beautiful tropical fish!
Getting in and out of the boat involved a bit of a wade, so when we were finished we decided on a swim in the resort pool with it’s handy swim-up bar. We changed and then paddled about for awhile, enjoying the water and watching people pass around a ball. We hadn’t been in the water too long when the sky quickly got darker and we soon found ourselves in the middle of a thunderstorm.
While the thunder and lightning were quite impressive. we soon retreated to our room and played with the tv for awhile before settling in to watch the 2016 Ghostbusters movie. By the time that was done, the storm had well passed, the sun had gone down and the air was alive with the chirping of grasshoppers and tropical birds.
We decided that Caribbean fare was the obvious first choice for dinner and so had to get a little more dressed up for dinner – some ironing was required (!) – before heading back into the main resort. Normally the Caribbean dinner would be offered at the Sundowner, which was the original Sandals Negril building, but it was being renovated so we went instead to the Bayside again where the restaurant was now split into Caribbean and French sides. We had a short wait at the bar while we waited for a table.
Dinner was wonderful. All of the wait staff were also dressed to the nines and we had excellent service from several on staff. After some lovely fresh bread, I enjoyed a pepper shrimp appetizer – very tasty. For mains, Sharon had a beef tenderloin and I tried the jerk chicken supreme – both of which were cooked wonderfully and tasted great. For dessert we both had the coconut truffle cake with chocolate sauce – also delicious.
Just as dinner was finishing, the floor show started and featured a dance troop from Montego Bay. They performed a variety of dances traditional to several of the Caribbean islands, with a variety of beautiful, ornate and colourful costumes to go along with each. The show lasted quite awhile and we had a good time.
Starting to get late, we wandered back to our room and put on Dr. No for the novelty of watching a James Bond film set in Jamaica – still a great film. Then after a short read it was time for some more sleep!
