ARRIVING IN MOBAY AND THE BUS TRIP:
The airport in Mobay is on the smallish side but with most everything any other airport has. We arrived made our way quickly through customs and out to the bus that would take us to Negril. We were offered a plane ride at the airport for extra $$ but declined as some friends who had been there earlier said the bus ride was a good way to see the "Real" Jamaica. We stopped at a little roadside place for Red Stripe - the official drink of Jamaica - and found the establishment very clean and hospitable. NOTE: If this is your first time in Jamaica now is your first chance to put your skills at bartering to use. They charged everyone ahead of me in line $3 for a bottle of Red Stripe and I pulled out a $5 and told them I wanted two and this was all I had. Worked like a charm! The sites you will see are very interesting and even though the ride took 1.5 hours it was not bad. I think the next time I go back I will probably take the bus again.

ARRIVING AT SANDALS:
We arrived at the resort and were greeted with cool towels and champaigne. Little did we know that this was because it was going to take 30 minutes or more to get checked in. NOTE: I traveled from Minneapolis wearing jeans and a sweatshirt as it was April. Next time I will be wearing shorts a bermuda shirt and flip flops for the the trip. I was hot, sweaty and getting a little frustrated. After taking information from us as well as a credit card number for incidentals we were shown to our rooms. Our luggage came up separately and in short order.

TOUR:
Sandal's offers a tour of the resort a couple of times a day and we were told by our friends that it would be informative and that we should consider taking the tour. Unfortunately at the time we arrived the tours for the day were done and the next one was the following day at 10:00. We did go on the tour the next day and they did a wonderful job of taking us around the resort and pointing stuff out, but we had actually taken a little stroll our first night and saw everything they pointed out. So if you get there and there is a tour right away I'd do it otherwise just take a little time and walk around, there really are no hidden areas that you can't find.

ROOM:
We stayed on Paradise block on in a Grand DeLux room on the thrd floor (5324). It was a very nice room with a balcony. The bed was comfortable and the closet was roomy. The in room safe is very small so it won't hold much more than small items. However I would have felt comfortable leaving all my cash right on the bed when we were away from our room. The bathroom was roomy and clean with fresh towels every morning. Unlike hotels in the states they didn't replace the bar soap every day. No big deal just a little difference I noticed. The view from the balcony was awesome.

BEACH:
The beach was very nice. I am an early riser and every morning I would get to watch as the maintenance crews lined up all of the beach chairs and raked the beach. I noticed several guests bringing towels and books out early and claiming chairs. I thought about doing this after our first morning there but decided it was completely unnecessary as there were helpers on the beach that would find you chairs and put them where ever you wanted. Several times when we were looking for a spot someone would ask us if we needed chairs and then go get them for us. We usually sent several hours on the beach per day and would advise parking close to one of the fine beverage serving establishments as walking a distance to replentish can be a drag.

NEW FRIENDS:
We really liked this resort because of the people it attracted. We met several very nice couples there and am sure that we will keep in touch with them.

BEVERAGES:
What can I say. Every tropical concoction under the sun is available there and I am pretty sure I tried them all. I loved the Red Stripe not so much because it was beer but because it was the only beer there. I didn't see stuff like Crown Royal on the shelf but from what our friends whoe went there before us said it was available if you asked for it. If you wanted to slug Johnny Walker Black Label all night long you could have. The Pina Colada machine was one of my favorites. I must have had 5 or 6 of them and was not feeling any kind of a buzz when I mentioned it to one of our new friends. He let me know that the mixer didn't have any rum in it and you had to get it from the bartender! With that little problem solved I really enjoyed the rest of my stay.

FOOD:
The food was very good. We arrived on a Saturday and that evening they had a huge buffet near the pool bar. We ate at Kimono's the Japanese style restaurant. To be honest I was a little disappointed in the food. Not that it was bad but it set up in the style of Benni Hanna's and the food was just OK. It was a fun time though. We dined at Sundowners and the food was good but took forever. The time between appetizers and the main course seemed pretty long. The breakfast buffet was simply amazing. From the excellent coffee to the omlettes cooked to order and all the good stuff in between. I also took advantage of the late night quisine at the Beach Bar and Grill. One night at around 2AM they made a me a fantastic Cheese Burger and Fries. On another night I had a couple of Grilled Cheese sammys and they sure hit the late night spot! The only place we didn't get to was the 4C's. I heard it was really good but we just managed to miss it. Diet before you go so you can gain it all back!

SHOPPING:
There are several places to shop while you are there. We picked up some stuff at the gift shop early only to find the same stuff outside the gates at better prices. We took a cab to "Times Square" it's about a 5 minute cab ride from the resort. I was told to use the red license plate cabs and to never pay their asking price. When we told the cabby where we wanted to go he said $10. I told him $5 and he accepted. On the way back I paid $4. Times Square is a very nice and modern shopping center. You can buy fine jewelery and watches there duty and tax free. As with everywhere else when shopping in Jamaica the price on the item is merely the starting point. We were able to negotiate a price $1000 less than the asking price for the items we were interested in. There are also many "Native" shops to look at. These places carry pretty much the same exact items. We found that if you didn't get your price move on to the next shack because chance are they were going to have it too. There is one place I would mention that we liked a lot right on the beach. We walked south (facing the ocean we went left) down the beach and about a hundred yards give or take from the guard shack is a little shop that is a building. They had pretty good prices and a large variety of t-shirts.

SPA:
My wife took advantage of the spa and loved it. About the only thing I took advantage of at the spa was the Hot and Cold pools. Coming out of the frigid cold water into the warm Jamaica air was very refreshing. She got some of the braids ($5 per) and had her eyebrows done, a pedicure and a massage. I guess there were a lot of other things you could get as well.

NIGHT LIFE:
The night life at the resort was pretty tame. I would recommend going out to one of the other clubs like Rick's Cafe if you want to dance or listen to a Reggae band. The sports bar seemed to have the most activity while we were there.

BOOZE CRUISE:
This was a pretty good time. We went to Chance's Bar and Grill and hopped on the "Wild Thing" catameran and cruised over to Rick's Cafe. It was a fun time with (no suprise) lots of alcohol and a gorgeous sunset.

UNMENTIONABLES:
It seems that the climate in Jamaica is very conducive to the growth of the cannibas plant. If you are interested in sampling the local product don't worry about looking for it. It will find you. I don't know if I just look like someone that would be interested in that but just about every local I came across on the beach or in a cab offered to sell me weed or just about any other drug you could think of. They were not pushy and a simple no thanks worked most of the time. I am sure no less than 25 people asked me if I wanted to buy weed or coke or ecstasy the week we were there.

FAVORITES:
This was my first time on a vacation like this so I really enjoyed the entire experience. I think one of my favorites about the trip was simply sitting on the balcony early in the morning reading my book and enjoying a fine cuban cigar. I can't think of anything that sticks out that I didn't care for other than the check in process.

FINALLY:
There is so much that we experienced that it would take forever to write it all down here. We have already booked a return visit for next March with the couple that recommended the place to us and we are looking forward to doing some of the things we didn't get to do the first trip down. If you have any specific questions or anything feel free to contact me at mableiter@thecnc.net