Breezes in Jamaica?

[gonnabmrsg]

Hey all! We're getting married at Coyaba Beach Resort in Montego Bay and we've decided to resort hop for our honeymoon as many of our family members have chosen to stay later. Has anyone ever stayed at Breezes Negril or Breezes Runaway Bay? We've been eyeballing these two and the call center seems really only interested in booking. Any other recommendations near MoBay? I think we've started to go cross-eyed during our search.

[Sax Lady]

I stayed at runaway (thats where I met FI). this was before the renovations and FI use to work there it was very nice back in 05 and he said after the renovations its even nicer they added a few things and updated a lot. I am actually getting married at trelawny (formely starfish) I'm not sure about negril but I'm sure its nice also. Happy planning. I think if you decide either one you will have a great time.

[Jennyco116]

From the research that I have done for our honeymoon, Iberostar Rose Hall seems to have excellent reviews for their weddings.

[krizstyling]

I have stayed at Breezes Runaway Bay, unfortunately since the last time I was there the staff has changed DRASTICALLY. I was there after the renovations. I don't think of Breezes as a Honeymoon place. It's more of a party spot. I'll post my review from tripadvisor below. There are other places you can stay for about the same price that are probably more honeymoon friendly.

 

Here's my review:

 

I stayed at BRB from 3/18-3/25 and WOW what a week!!! The stay included my sister and I (27 years of age). After scouring tripadvisor for days on end trying to figure out where to go and what fit our price range BRB seemed like a decent spot but some of the reviews worried us. I am an avid traveler (this was my sisters first trip overseas) and we wanted something that was all-inclusive (as that is the only way I travel) and fun for our age group with a great beach and spa (love spas!) and figured this was as close as we were going to get. After visiting BRB I realized why some people’s reviews weren’t what I experienced, simply because they are the type of people that expect everyone to cater to them for nothing. A closed mouth doesn’t get fed, period. I’ll explain more in the sections below that I have broken down to make this review easier to read for those of you who are only interested in certain aspects of the resort and to make it easier for myself.

ARRIVAL:

Couldn’t have been more smooth. Once we entered Sangster Montego Bay Airport we knew not to talk to any of the many people who asked to hold your bags and headed straight to the Superclubs lounge where we were offered water and after a quick smoke outside (yes we are smokers) we hopped on the bus and were on our way! We stopped off to get a few beers (which took only about ten minutes) and after another 40 minutes (about an hour total) we pulled into BRB! It looked exactly like the pictures. We went to the front desk and Sandra came out to greet us! Not only did she come out to greet us but because it was our first stay in Jamaica and my sisters first trip overseas she upgraded us to a Plunge Pool room! When people on here say that Sandra is the BEST, you really can have no idea until you MEET this amazing woman. It’s not just because of the upgraded room, it’s the fact that everytime she passed you she had a smile on her face and your name her mouth to say hello. Anything you needed you could ask her and she would alleviate. After arriving we showered quickly changed clothes even quicker and headed to the nearest bar as we knew it was too late to get into the pool or beach.

 

BAR /DRINKS:

WOW!!!! Let me tell you, anything you want you can have. And if they are out of something, why complain?! Just ask for another type of drink, you’re in JAMAICA on VACATION that YOU paid for, why in the WORLD would you BEG to find something to complain about?! No one only likes one type of drink and you should venture out and try special drinks anyway! Throughout our stay I can honestly say I think I tried every specialty drink and never went thirsty, I have posted pictures of various drinks but will also name a few SPECIAL bartenders etc so you know what to expect from each if you visit and need something.

Kino – Everytime we came to the bar he had our drinks ready and waiting and knew if we asked for a shot, we wanted two each. Definitely have Kino make your Monkey Brain shot or your Bob Marley shot.

Dean – He was a Trainee but seemed like he’d been there forever. He always kept the drinks coming but what was great about him was the fact that he would talk to you about his country Jamaica and gave me SO much knowledge that I feel would be remiss to disregard. Truly a class act and if BRB is smart they need to just hire him on full-time because it was truly a pleasure getting to know him and his culture and he served great drinks too!

Lennox – When Lennox wasn’t working we couldn’t get our favorite drink! If you’re ever at BRB make sure to seek out Lennox and ask him to “Make it RAIN” he has the best drink called “Rain” and its his specialty so only he knows what is in it and it’s GREAT.

Special mentions of bartenders that also look after you and are tons of fun: Jermaine, Sandre (He loves Mariah Carey), Kelroy & Courtney (who makes AWESOME reggae CD’s, and is EXTREMELY funny).

SPA

I received a body scrub and a massage while there and both were exceptional. Being from NY I am used to paying about 250-350 to receive both services and so $135.00 couldn’t be beat in my opinion. A special treat was after my body scrub I was able to get up and they take you to this lil shower off of your massage cabin and its outside! Of course no one can see in but you can see the trees and sky above you and sun shining down on you, I wanted to stay out there forever! Also there is no extra cost to have your massage with someone else! Perfection. They worked those much needed kinks out of me and even had a few moves I’ve never had used on me before. Please remember, tips are not included for the massage therapists, tip them and tip them as well as you would in the States or Canada or wherever you are from.

POOLS

Games all the time and fun people can be found in the pools. You’ll never have to worry about a lounger although people are rude and do set towels on them it’s fine because there are always plenty of chairs (Altho ridiculous that anyone would set towels down to save seats) and plenty of sun or shade depending on what you want. The pools were cleaned every morning and the resort was at 90% occupancy while we were there and I never saw so much as a LEAF in the water.

BEACH

This was the best part of the resort in my opinion (do I say that about everything)? Such soft sand and enough loungers to get as much sun as you want no matter how big your group is. We played many fun games on the beach also and even saw a cute little sand crab. I loved the water, the beach and everything about it. I am a beach girl and this is by far one of the best beaches in Runaway Bay.

ACTIVITIES

I’ll break this down by my favorite activity person(s) and the games we participated in:

Dwane (Kumar haha): He was awesome. His spirit and joy when leading activities was second to none. I know people on here talk about Chris a lot but this week Dwane FAR outshone any other activity staff person. He lead goat racing for us (I won!) and it was extremely fun! Not only does he do a great job with activities but we were lucky enough to share lunch with him one day and he is a great conversationalist, don’t miss out on talking to him!

Jason: He lead Mixology (oh man that was sooo crazy if you don’t do any other activity this is a must!) the rest of the week I was called RUM by so many resort guests I forgot what my name really was. That’s how badly I kept messing up haha. But seriously everyone that played this game at the end gets a list of Jamaican drinks and it is going to come in handy next time I head to the club! I can just hand the bartender the sheet and tell em I want a cool runnings! Jason was the perfect MC for this event!

Keniel – GIVEN He is NOT part of the Activity hosts but he should be! Well he is great at his job as a Photographer too but we had SUCH a blast with him. He shared his knowledge on everything from where to get the best side of the road food to where to party to the newest reggae jams (which we then downloaded!). DO NOT miss talking to this guy or having him take your photos.

Aldean – She has got to be the sweetest girl and can dance her butt off! She helped us to make Toga’s for the Toga party and also made sure we were always okay and told us about the various activities going on and where to have fun off property.

There was also a Battle of the Sexes going on and of course us ladies won! (apparently on a winning streak for the past 5 weeks now) so ladies if you’re going soon make sure to play and keep up that streak!

When you’re playing these games you can win fake money, If you get 20 of the fake money you can get a free bottle of rum, 25 you can get a bottle of Tia Maria, 30 you get a bag of Blue Mountain Coffee. Or sometimes during certain games (Battle of the Sexes and Bingo) you win bottles of rum or coffee straight out and we won twice) so it’s not hard. PLAY THE GAMES! They help make your stay more active, I didn’t gain any weight while at the resort because I was always running around doing one of the activities they had going on, in fact there were times I FORGOT to eat, not because the food was nasty, on the contrary, but because I was having SO MUCH fun trying to do EVERYTHING that I just forgot.

FOOD

We ate at every restaurant. By far the best is Pastafari. We had a waiter named Odane who was fantastic! Our meals were brought out hot and delicious and exactly as ordered (and we are a bit picky) and he was kind and knowledgeable. Definitely recommend him.

Munasan was also great, we had Mr. Fabulous (who is in the video I posted) and he was a riot. The food there is just as if you were eating at Benihana. Order it all! We were so stuffed after every meal at every restaurant we never ONCE even tried dessert.

Starlight Grill was also good but by far we preferred Munasan and Pastafari due to the food and great servers we had!

The Buffet had awesome pasta’s and yummy panini’s and tasty chicken, potatoes or whatever you wanted. I had pasta A LOT hoping that the carbs would suck up some of the alcohol from the night before and I believe it might have. That pasta was GREAT. And they are not shy about giving you as much shrimp or scallops or whatever else it is that you might want, if you want more ASK. Again a closed mouth doesn’t get fed.

ROOMS

As stated we had a plunge pool room but we also went into a LOT of other people’s rooms as we made many friends there that will last a lifetime. Each room looked entirely clean to me and big enough for two/three people. If you want to stay in the new side request the 1000 block. The shower is to die for, 6 shower heads and one you can take off of the wall to get at the sand that may have ended up in hard to reach places. I thought for sure I’d miss my shower back home but after returning home I found I missed BRB’s showers!

The beds are comfortable! I have no idea what anyone is complaining about here unless they have orthopedic beds back home, then I can understand because they are used to one thing and need it…but other than that these beds were soft and they gave you different types of hardness/softness pillows. And if you need something ASK.

Room service was awesome and everyday we had a cute towel art on our beds. I would leave out my ipod, blackberry, camera etc (just forgot to lock it in the safe) and I never ONCE had anything stolen. Our refrigerator was stocked well with 5 bottles of water, 4 beers and different assortment of soda’s everyday.

OMG! One day our room wasn’t cleaned and our refrigerator wasn’t serviced! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! THE NERVE! You know what we did? We called and asked to have it cleaned and serviced and fridge restocked, you know what happened? It was restocked and cleaned. Problem? Amended. Don’t complain about something that would take you less than 30 seconds to fix. Seriously. You’re on vacation, It really breaks my heart how hard this staff works and when I read reviews by people who act like they are too good to pick up a phone and ask for something (esp when it’s not like they are paying the price they would pay at a Boutique Hotel or the Ritz).

The rooms also had enough drawer space for two people, a lounger, a flat screen tv that we only used once but had tons of channels (including BBC for news and MSNBC). There was a closet by the huge mirror with the sink OUTSIDE of the bathroom (which was great for those times one was in the shower and the other was putting on makeup or doing hair etc).

OFF PROPERTY EVENTS

Priory Beach – A great party on Sunday nights about ten minutes away from the resort that played REAL REGGAE music. If I had any complaints my one complaint would be that the resort itself does not play any REAL reggae (no vybz cartel, no Movado, no Busy Signal). But if you don’t like it, bring an ipod dock and take it to the bar with you and play your own music! Our friends did that and we all took turns playing the best in reggae. I highly recommend prior Beach party, AFTER 11! This is for those of you who want REAL Jamaican music and dancing.

Margaritaville – I didn’t want to go here but the staff kept telling me it would be fun so I finally relented and Jason led this excursion. I filled up my bubbakeg and hoped this place wasn’t as Americanized as everyone said it was. Well it was Americanized but guess what? The staff and the Jamaicans that were there made up for it ten fold. This ended up being the highlight of my trip! I danced, I sang, I drank, I partied! Drinks weren’t as expensive as I previously thought. I was able to get a HUGE glass of PinaColada with basically straight up rum and two Heinekens all for 12 bucks. That’s a steal in my book.

DISCO

Okay so this was fun. We closed it down every night. It was never PACKED (except for Toga night) but the DJ took requests and would play anything you wanted! The bar in the disco stayed open until you were ready to leave. I think every night we ended up in there we were up until four am!

 

The people REALLY make this resort. If you go up to the bar and you see someone that looks like they’re having a good time, TALK TO THEM! IT was the best feeling in the world to meet sooo many different people and we even have a few offers of vacations to visit them that I plan on taking them up on! And hopefully they take me up on the offers to come visit NYC! We’ll be back to Jamaica soon and hope to schedule trips with them in the future!

OVERALL

This resort is great for all ages! I am 27 and partied with people from the age of 18-73. I mean I seriously can’t imagine a better place to PARTY. And if you have a child that is 18 and you are thinking of bringing them but concerned about them drinking, JUST DO IT! You seriously ONLY live once and I guarantee one hangover they won’t be drinking again.

 

One last thing: This resort is a non tipping resort, but seriously, if you get good service a few bucks here and there doesn’t hurt. As long as you do it slyly there shouldn’t be any issues. I averaged only about 10-15 dollars of tipping a day and some days not even that much, what is a few bucks here and there? It means a lot to the staff to know they are helping you out and you are showing your appreciation. My trip wouldn’t have been the same had it not been for the STAFF and PEOPLE so I tried to show my gratitude as best as I could and I hope you do the same.

[soontobemrsdow]

thanks for the review kriz...we're thinking about staying there for our honeymoon and your review helped a lot!

[want2gosouth]

Ohh I was thinking of hitting up this resort in Feb!! Thanks for the fab review!