WARNING!! This is an account of a one week (March 23-30, 2008) stay at an all-inclusive resort. It is not an adventure story! Do not read this while performing any task that requires alertness!! Do not read if tales of eating, drinking, and relaxing cause you discomfort!!

Sunday & Monday, March 23 & 24, 2008 Regina to Montego Bay

We are departing for Montego Bay, Jamaica today with Glenn’s’ sister, Gail, and her husband, Dale. We were supposed to depart at 11:35 a.m. this morning, but received a phone call last night that the flight was delayed until 5 p.m. Dale was checking online for the latest developments and observed another delay until 6 p.m. and then another until 8:30 p.m. We arrived at the airport at about 5:30 and found the flight listed on the departure board at 8:45. The airline provided some meal coupons, so we had a bite to eat and settled in for the long wait. We finally boarded at 9:30 and lifted off at 10:15. As we were boarding we were each given an application to send in for a $100 voucher for our next trip with Skyservice.

After we were airborne, the pilot explained that there had been an error indication on the airplane’s spoiler system in Cancun. Mechanics there checked it out for three hours and cleared the flight to return. Then they decided to check it out again here (or in Saskatoon?) which took another three hours.

The flight was uneventful, except that, at 12:15 a.m., we got a hot meal that I wasn’t expecting. We tried to sleep and managed to catch a few winks here and there. We caught a nice tailwind and arrived at 3:15 a.m. Regina time (4:15 in Jamaica. Jamaica time from now on.), about 20 minutes ahead of estimate. By the time we got to the resort and got registered, it was starting to get light outside. Breakfast started at 7, so we thought we might as well stay up a while longer and take part. After breakfast we toured the grounds for awhile. Dale decided he needed a nap and went to his room. The other three of us staked out some recliners on the beach while we waited for the 10 a.m. orientation meeting. I made another quick tour of some of the facilities and took some pictures in the brighter light, then joined the girls on the beach where we napped a bit in the morning sun. As the sun climbed higher, we eventually retreated to our rooms to avoid burning on our first day.

This is a little man made suntanning island just off the main beach. The water is about knee deep at its deepest.













View of the main pool area from the main building.













Another view from the main building with the main pool area in the background and the entertainment stage out of view to the right.












They have a 9 hole mini golf course, but it was a little worn out and quite plain.

















Two views from the island. To the left is the main pool and main building. Below are a few of the 7 hotel towers. Our building was at the far right and set back a bit so that it is hidden behind the others. Dale & Gail's is the second from the right.

Our room.








View of the adult pool from our balcony.





















The building below serves as the Sea Breeze retaurant most nights, but on Tuesday and Friday they have beach parties in this area. They set up tables and chairs on the basketball court to supplemnet the permanent picnic tables and serve a buffet from the white tables in the background.

We gathered again for the buffet lunch at 12:30. After visiting together we toured the facility some more, returning at 3 p.m. to book our dinner for Tuesday in one of the specialty restaurants. Then it was time for another nap.

We had to take our pictures in their little wedding gazebo.

We met at the buffet again at seven for supper and stayed for the evening to take in the entertainment on the adjacent outdoor stage. The house band started playing dinner music at 7:30. They were pretty decent. Then they played for a couple of dance numbers for four male dancers who were pretty good. Then, a promotion for Jimmy Buffet’s Maragaritaville took over. Part of their act was a fire eater. Fire eaters are always good! After that the program got a little weak. They had a pageant for Miss Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort International 2008. Not as impressive as it sounds. Nine girls, mostly age thirteen to sixteen with one eighteen year old, went through the usual pageant steps. There were competitions in swimsuit, formal wear, talent, and answering lame questions. The talent was pretty weak and included two lip-synching acts. However, there was a pretty good male singer who came on a couple of times to allow for costume changes. He came on again at the end of the pageant and finished off with a couple of numbers. We got back to our rooms about 10:30 and were sound asleep by 11.

If it sounds like we did a lot of eating, what do you expect at an all-inclusive resort with a buffet? I am really trying not to overindulge, but, by the time you have a small sample of several items, you have quite a plateful. Suffice to say that we haven’t been hungry yet.

It was a beautiful day, starting out sunny and calm. However the cloud coming over the hills behind the beach built up during the day until it was mostly overcast by mid afternoon with a couple of very light and short rain showers. The wind also picked up during the day, but not to the point where it was unpleasant.

In our wanderings, we managed to find all the bars and tried out a couple of new cocktails. I think we will be back!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

We slept like logs until about 7 and met Gail and Dale for breakfast at 8. After breakfast we went for a walk and took in a craft display. It was interesting how so many of these supposedly hand crafted items looked identical and how one of the carved figures was identical to one we picked up in Cuba a couple of years ago. We then went back to our rooms to relax and read or do crossword puzzles and have a short nap. We reconvened at noon for lunch.

After lunch we went exploring across the street at a little strip mall of all tourist shops. They all had pretty much the same stuff and many items were identical to the hand crafted items we saw earlier at the resort.

We returned to the resort in time to make our dinner reservation for tomorrow and take in the resort casino. It consists of only about 20 video slot machines. On check in we received a card that allowed you to play $5 free if you first put up your own $5. So Gail played out her card. Next we waded out to the small island just off the main beach and soaked up a little sun, although it had become mostly thin overcast again by mid afternoon.

We again retreated to our rooms for a bit before reconvening for dinner at 7 in the Cappuccino restaurant, one of three specialty dining areas on the property. None of us could resist the beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon and none of us were disappointed. We unsuccessfully tried to resist dessert.

We then wandered the resort for a while waiting for some of the nighttime venues to open. We found that the buffet area was strangely quiet and deserted. We then noticed a sign that said it was Jamaican party night at an area on the beach. Although we enjoyed our dinner immensely, I was a little disappointed that we had missed the opportunity to sample several different local dishes.

We then settled into the loungers by the pool and caught a few winks before checking out the disco and the piano bar. We didn’t really think the disco would be to our taste, but thought we would check it out anyway. Although the music was noisy, the activity was quiet, as we were there near opening time. We moved on to the piano bar, which was more our speed. The bar was open, but the piano player was late – running on Jamaican time. He played a few numbers and then his friend showed up trying to start a sing along. He was pretty talented, although unschooled, but we didn’t go there to sing. We went there because it was about the only quiet public area on the resort. We were all still pretty tired anyway, so we wrapped things up returning to our rooms by 11:30 and going to sleep shortly after that.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

We slept in until 9. No more excuses for several daily naps now. We watched a little bit of Star Trek on TV before dragging ourselves out for a walk by 9:30. We went up and down the beach a couple of times until we ran into Gail and Dale and went for breakfast. We then hit the adult pool, which is at one end of the resort next to our building and far from all the commotion around the main pool. We soaked up some rays there, read our books or did our puzzles, took a swim, and had a drink at the swim up bar. At 2, it was back to the buffet before it closed, not that it would have hurt us to miss a meal. We watched a bit of the afternoon show in which the entertainment staff led a bunch of kids in a dance competition. More entertaining than it sounds.

Celeste and Gail down a cocktail at the catamran bar in the main building.

Then we played Celeste’s $5 card in the casino before returning t our rooms to get dressed for dinner at 6 at the Jamaican restaurant. Having missed my chance to try the curried goat the night before, I decided to bite the bullet and have it tonight. It was pretty tasty, but, by the time I got through all the bones and gristle, there wasn’t much meat. And what there was was kind of chewy. Sure wish I had tried it last night at the buffet! Other than that, the appetizers, meals and desserts were great. We got back to our rooms a little after 8 for a little blogging, a little TV, and an early night because we have an early morning tomorrow.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

We were up at 6:30 getting ready to catch our 8:15 tour bus. We first drove into Montego Bay to pick up some people from another hotel, then went east along the coast for awhile before turning south into the interior. The countryside was very pretty with small mountains, in the eastern Canada sense of the word, and deep valleys with steep sides.

The villages were not prosperous by our standards, but were far from destitute. It seemed that the people generally lived fairly comfortably, but not at the standard we are used to. There were many partially completed cinder block homes, as they only build as they can afford it. Occasionally there were openings flat enough to permit some larger scale agriculture.

The roads were another matter. They were up and down and back and forth and narrow no matter the terrain, just more so in the mountains.

We reached the south coast and turned west toward our first stop at Black River where we took a tour boat in search of crocodiles. And it didn’t take long for our search to be rewarded. We left the dock, crossed over to the other bank, and there was a 10-12 footer waiting for us. As the guide reminded us, crocs are territorial, so the guides know where to look for them. We spotted about four or five of them before returning to find our original croc basking in the sun on the shore. At first it was so motionless and so conveniently placed that we thought it was a statue until it moved. Our guide joked, “All right. Who is playing with the remote?” But there was no question that it was real.

This fellow was bailing out his canoe as he fished in the river.



















Looking down thw river toward the mountains.










This is probably the same croc we saw when we first left the dock, but it is now out sunning itself.









Carl, our boat driver and our boat.

From Black River, we drove a few minutes to lunch at Luana Club. It was on a hillside, so we had a good view of the plain below.

The restaurant and our bus.

After lunch we were off to YS Falls. I never did figure out what the YS stands for. It is a picturesque series of small falls with swimming holes in between them. We left the bus at a parking area and rode a cart for a couple of miles through the countryside to the falls. We climbed up a ways and took a dip in one of the swimming holes.

Then it was on the Appleton Estates rum distillery. After a short tour, we were given a long tasting session. Yummy! From there we retraced our u-shaped route three hours back to Montego Bay, even though the map showed a more direct route through the interior. We took our guide from the Appleton tour with us and dropped him off part way back. So, either we went a long way out of our way for him, or the other road through the interior was a lot worse than the one we came on.




















This demonstration shows the old fashioned way of squeezing the juice from the sugar cane. The donkey rotates the wheels of the crusher while a worker feeds in cane and a bucket catches the juice.









We arrived back at the resort after 7 p.m., late for our dinner reservation. However we were able to get in a 7:30. Unfortunately, Dale was not feeling well and had to miss out. After dinner, we took in the entertainment program for a while and went back to our rooms. I went out for a late evening walk and turned in around 10.


Friday, March 28, 2008


We were up at 7:30 and went for a walk. We claimed our beach towels and staked out 4 loungers under an umbrella at the pool before going for breakfast at 8:30. We then went back to the pool and waited for Gail & Dale who showed up a little later. We did a pretty good job of hiding in the shade until we went for lunch at 1:30.
















After lunch we went to the little mall across the street. We bought some liquor to make some of the cocktails we learned here and a few other items. Some of our purchases were basically donations because we didn’t really need or want what they were selling, but they seemed so desperate and those few dollars meant a lot more to them than they did to us. We gathered that it is a pretty tough life across the street from a walled and gated resort from which few people venture out. There are a couple of dozen stores and they are all desperate to get you inside. Some of them even keep their lights off until they get you into the store to minimize their electrical bills. And several of the bigger, better financed stores are owned by East Indians, although they also employ locals. The local independents emphasize that fact in their pitches.


We returned to our spot at the pool until we went for supper at 7. We took in some of the entertainment and went back to our rooms about 10.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

We were up at 8 and went for a walk, again picking up our towels and staking out a location at the pool before going for breakfast. We returned to the pool to wait for Gail and Dale. We weren’t early enough to get a spot under an umbrella so when we lost the limited shade from the building, we decided to move on. First stop was at the paddle boats where Celeste and Gail went for a spin. As they headed out, I waded toward the island to get a picture of the floating souvenir vendors. From there, I saw that much of the water just off shore was less than knee deep. I decided to wade out to the girls to say hello. As I approached them, I found that they had run aground and were stuck on a sandbar. After taking a picture as evidence, I helped them get free and returned to shore, finding the deepest water (to my armpits) in the swimming area close to shore.

















Selling merchandise from small boats outside the swimming buoys.















The girls hung up on a sand bar.










From the paddle boats, we found shade near the entertainment stage and took in some of the shenanigans while Dale tried unsuccessfully to get on the internet for seat selection on our return flight. When Dale returned, we went for lunch. From lunch, we went back across the street to the little mall looking for the bottle of liquor Gail had left behind the day before. Sure enough, they had saved it for her. We returned to the pool and found a little shade while Dale retreated to the coolness of their hotel room.

Gail and I decided to go snorkeling, since our gear had yet to be baptized. It wasn’t a great snorkeling experience, since we just went off the beach and the water was murky from all the activity, but I did see a few fish, and the snorkel set that I purchased many months ago at Costco preformed beautifully.











After our snorkel adventure, we returned to the pool for a while and finally went for supper at 6:30. We listened to the house band for a while, but when they started the bingo, we hid out in the piano bar where it was nice and quiet since the piano player didn’t start until 10:30. The next phase of the evening’s entertainment was a female singer. She wasn’t bad, but not good enough to hold us for the entire evening. We were in bed about 10:30.





Sunday, March 30, 2008


We were up at 7:30 and I went for a walk. Celeste had found that it was already too warm for her at this time of the morning. On my return we showered and packed and went for breakfast at 9. We returned to our room to finish packing and kill some time until checkout at 11. I did some blogging and Celeste watched some TV until about 10:30. We checked out and stashed our luggage and met up with Gail and Dale. We decided to stake out some chairs in a covered outdoor waiting area where we could enjoy the fresh breeze without the burning sun until our 4 p.m. pick up for the 7 p.m. flight. We spent the afternoon there chatting, reading, and doing crosswords or Sudokus. We took turns going for lunch so we wouldn’t lose our prime location.


After lunch we checked the schedule and learned that we were now looking at an 8 p.m. pickup for an 11:30 departure. We settled in to our hideaway for a few more hours. After supper, we moved to the loungers by the pool, as the sun was now low in the sky. We claimed our bags around 7, boarded our bus, and were at the airport 10 minutes later. After check in, we investigated the duty free shops and found our booze at better prices and even found the rum cream we had been looking for unsuccessfully. We settled in for the rest of the wait for flight, now delayed to 12:30.



I missed our actual departure time, but it was near what was advertised. We had another hot meal en route. Same as on the way there. Not just the same menu, I think it was the same food reheated. We touched down in Regina about 5 a.m. and breezed through customs quickly. We took a cab to Colin's (Dale and Gail's van was parked there), and were home by 6 a.m.