jamaica | Michael's Woodcrafts

Jamaica airport

My wife and I have been married for 32 years this year, three children (triplets, two daughters and son) and two grandchildren, both boys. To celebrate our anniversary we planned a trip to Jamaica. Week before last, our US Air flight left Charlotte, NC at 9:30 AM on Monday, it was a three hour flight.

After arriving in Jamaica, we had to go thru customs then pick up our bags. Our vacation package included transportation to our resort and it wasn’t long before we were headed to The Jewel Dunn’s River Beach Resort and Spa in Ocho Rios. This is the first time we had ever been to Jamaica and our first time at an all-inclusive, adults-only resort. I can tell you this place is luxurious and the beaches are incredible beautiful.

View from our room

In a word, WOW!! The Jamaica beaches were breathtaking and The Jewel Dunn’s River is a beautiful resort. We arrived around 1:30 in the afternoon. We were welcomed and immediately handed a “Gem of the Day” cocktail which was exactly what we needed to get our vacation started. As we checked in, we were handed an ice-cold face towel. Our room was ready so we proceeded to the room. We were greeted by many of the staff along the way; they were incredibly friendly and happy.

We quickly changed and headed to the beach. As we walked toward the pool and beach we were greeted again with drinks and fruit. I love the ocean, love walking on the beach and swimming in the ocean. The sand was white like snow. The colors of the water are like none I’ve seen, blue and emerald green. Be sure to enlarge the pictures to get the best view.

Being all-inclusive we had unlimted access to six restaurants and six bars of which three were pool side. Two of the bars had seating in the pool if you wanted. There are two pools, one had a game area with a pool table and huge movie screen where they had different movies playing each day and evening. You could watch the movies while swimming in the pool. This pool was the more quiet pool with the other being the party pool where they had music and games all day long.

The staff were extremely friendly, always asking if we were having a good time and if there was anything they could do to make it better. Someone was always around the pool and beach to bring drinks and food to you. The food and drinks were great, we didn’t have a bad meal the whole time we were there. Desserts were great too and the soft serve ice cream included chocolate, vanilla and chocolate vanilla swirl was available 24 hours a day!

On Tuesday evening we had dinner at Moonstone by Dominic which serves fine italian from both north and south regions of Italy. We got us a glass of wine and walked to the beach. We sat on the lounge chairs and chatted until late. It was quiet except for the waves, the sky was clear and the breeze was nice. After a late evening dinner and walk on the beach we returned to the room and we had a surprise! Our bed had been turned down and they had left us two heart shaped brownies covered in chocolate and sprinkled with coconut. It was the perfect touch to end the day.

Purple rain and mango daiquiri drinks

There were several peacocks on the resort but this one was very friendly, he would walk right up to you. He would let me hand him a french fry but ould not let me touch him.

Dirty banana and banana mango daiquiri

There were so many different drinks to try and not enough time!

Red Stripe is the local Jamaician beer.

The six resturants on the resort either over looked the pool or the caribbean. On Thursday evening we had dinner at The Jade Samurai which is a Teppanyaki style entertainment serving exotic gourmet food from the Far East. The food is cooked table side and it was wonderful. The meal started with an appetizer of your choice then soup, salad, chicken, steak, shrimp and tuna served with fried rice and vegetables. The chef was great with his cooking show and was very funny, he kept everyone at our table laughing all night.