Reviewers Rating: 
Fair
My Trip Report. 7/20/02 to 7/27/02
This Is My Review of the Resort and Activities. Please Take it as You Want.
Flight from JFK to Montego Bay via Air Jamaica. Then Montego Bay to Curacao. Late. Always Ran Late. If You Expect to Get There on Time or Come Back on Time Take American . Otherwise, Bite the Bullet. Jamaica Air Still Gives You Free Champagne, Beer and Food I guess to make you forget how late their flights are. Overall to Curacao We Were 1 Hr Late and Coming Back to NY We Were 4 Hrs Late with no air conditioning on the plane nor is the airport in Jamaica air conditioned. Hence no one was pleasant nor happy on the plane especially not the locals who were very vocal on how late everything was.
We Were Met at the Airport by Breezes People. Looks Disorganized but They Get it Done and Everyone Is Happy.
As Soon as You Get to the Hotel, Head Straight to the Check-in Counter . Give Them Your Credit Card and Get a Lock for the Safe. Then Immediately Go to Make Reservations for the Restaurants(just Turn Around and Look Toward Your Right to See the Service Desk).. There are only 2 restaurants with very limited seating so if reservations aren't made early you'll never get one.
My Wife Checked That the Bags Were Unloaded While I Was at the Check in Counter to speed everything up. She Went to Check the Room While I Made Reservations. This Way, I Didn't Have to Think about Anything Else for the Week Except to Have Fun and Relax.
We Were Set for an Ocean View but Our Agent Was Able to Upgrade Us to an Oceanfront Room. My Wife Went to the Room and To Her Surprise There Was Someone Else in the Room. No Problem. She Just Went Back to the Front Desk and They Gave Her Another Room it was perfect. If I Tell You That When I Opened the Slider to the Patio it Was like a Postcard, You Can Appreciate the View We Had. We Were on the Ground Level and in Front of Us We Saw the Beach and Lagoon with its Island and the Wooden Ship That They Have on the Beach. Slightly to the Right We Had a Nice Size Pool That Was in the Middle of the Horseshoe of Rooms. This was great because the main pools gets a bit crowded at times.
To the Far Right there is a wall jutting out into the water which usually has many kids swimming all day I Later Found out That on the Other Side Is a Public Beach. (**remember This**)
We Unpacked and Went to the Main Pool to Get Drinks , Swim and Unwind from the Trip. We Checked in with the Dive Shop, Signed up for the Dive for Sunday Morning and My Son (Age 12) Decided He Wanted to Get Certified, So I Signed Him up to Do the 3 Day Course to Become Certified. I must Tell You That the People at Ocean Encounters Were Great and Would Recommend Them to All.
The Week in Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Sunday Went Diving at 9 Am and at 11am. The Water Is Ok to Good, but I'm Spoiled with Diving in St. Thomas Where You Can See Forever in Crystal Clear Water. My Son Was Taken to the Dive Shop Which Is next to the Sea Aquarium with 5 Other Men to Take the Course. He Spent All Day Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the Dive Shop Taking the Class and Diving at Least 1 to 2 Times Each Day. They Were Great with Him.
In the afternoon my wife and I went to the main pool to just relax, drink, (i had my mug) swim and talk to people we met. I was in the pool talking with someone and my wife was on a lounge getting some sun. There were a few kids in the hot tub, jumping and splashing with no adult supervision. As I watched , I realized that they were local kids. All of a sudden there was a commotion and I saw a woman pulling up a child that was maybe 6 or 7 out of the tub. He had on water wings and was crying and coughing. My wife , hearing and seeing this went to the child to try to help him while the rest of the children (the oldest no more then 10) just looked on in bewilderment. At no time did I ever see any of their parents come to find out what was going on or if the kids were ok. As I saw during the week this was not the only time that I saw kids in the hot tub or with absolutely no supervision. On a number of occasions, I watched as adults that were sitting there were overwhelmed by the number of kids and had to get out of the tubs. Needles to say. Whenever I had the inclination to get into the tub, there were too many kids in it. (I usually wanted to go into it around 4 to 6 pm and the kids didn't leave till 6 to 6:30pm.)
Oh Well, I Guess I'll Just Have to Overlook this Incident and Not Sweat the Small Stuff.
As I stayed in the pool relaxing and talking, all the kids from the hot tubs thought it was time for a change and came into the pool. They ran and jumped in. One child jumped into me, straight into my chest, while others splashed a number of people around the pool from their jumps. During my time there, I never saw an adult talking or maintaining control over the local kids, but at the same time, I saw parents of full time guests maintaining control and supervision over their children.
Oh Well, I Guess I'll Just Have to Overlook this Incident and Not Sweat the Small Stuff.
On another occasion while we were around the main pool, we saw a group of kids all in the same color shirts. We asked one of the staff about it and they said it was a camp day trip for the kids. During the day, the kids used every activity to its utmost. While most of the guests just watched or tried to stay out of their way, so as not to get hit by a paddle boat or kyack. On one occasion when my wife and son were swimming in the lagoon, a boat almost hit them because the kids could not control it. When my wife didn't get out of the way fast enough, they were yelled at and even though they didn't speak the language they knew very well what the gist of the conversation was.
Oh Well, I Guess I'll Just Have to Overlook this Incident and Not Sweat the Small Stuff.
I won't go into detail about the time 15 kids started to play soccer around the pool and almost hit a number of people. They were just getting their last few minutes of fun in before they left. I understand that they were kids having fun I just didn't pay to go to summer camp I paid to go on vacation and unfortunately this facility is used as a trip for local camps.
Oh Well, I Guess I'll Just Have to Overlook this Incident and Not Sweat the Small Stuff.
We Went to Dinner at Jimmy's on Sunday and Monday since All the Restaurants Were Either Booked or Closed for the Day. The Food Is Good and Everyone Will Be Able to Find a Few Things They Like.
After dinner we would usually watch the show or the band that they had, and then go to the casino to play slots. My son would go to play the video games for a half hour or so then back to room .We had two way radios, and we could keep in touch with him.
Monday
Son Went to Class for the Day. I Went on the 9 Am Dive. Then on the 2:30 Boat Trip Dive to the Tug Boat. Very Good Dives.
My Wife Just Relaxed on the Beach near Our Room. In the Afternoon, She Got a Drink from the bar(something green a "perfect love" still don't know what is in it) one of the ingredients was coconut milk. And she loved it. ( you have to understand that a bird drinks more than my wife). I usually would drink a pina colada or a strawberry colada from the machines and have the bar add rum to my mug.(I loved my mug). Well you are not going to believe this. On tues /wed they ran out of coconut milk for her drink and they ran out of both colada mixes. This was not going to make or brake our vacation but as a resort I can't believe that they could run out of all the basics.
Oh Well, I Guess I'll Just Have to Overlook this Incident and Not Sweat the Small Stuff.
I Switched to Beer and She Stopped Drinking.
Dinner at Pastafari the Italian restaurant was great. Food was very good and so was the wine. Service was very good as were the desserts.
Tuesday
Son Went to Class for Last Day. He Came Back at 7pm a Certified Diver. Now My Wife Can Worry about Both of Us.
I hired a 40' charter to go fishing. Caught a dorado(25lbs) and a wahoo(30lbs). It took us 6 hours of trolling to catch the fish. Left dock at 7am and got back at 6pm. From the reports on the radio, no one was catching anything. I must say that my captain(Ismael Gonzalez) was great. They stayed out there till we caught fish. It was not just a trip for him, but a quest to make sure that I was happy and caught something. We went out 20 miles offshore to Klein Curacao to catch fish. Call him at (599-9)7675195 or (599-9) 5604998-cell. The name of the boat is "speedy's". If your looking for new yacht and in perfect condition, don't bother. But if you want to go out with a fishermen, you will have a great day.
Dinner was at Munahana Japanese restaurant. Food was very good and we met some nice people. Service was also very good.
Wednesday
Did the Morning Dive with My New Dive Buddy(my Son). It Was Great. I Was So Proud of Him. .
In the afternoon, my son and wife stayed at the resort and almost got hit by kids on a boat, as per above. I did the boat dive to directors bay. This was the best and the clearest dive of all.
When I came back from diving we passed by the main pool in the afternoon, but decided to go to our pool by the 8000 block of rooms. (Remember the wall that separates the public beach and the resort?)
Well it seems that the local kids on the other side constantly try to sneak into the resort. In order to prevent this, the resort has a guard that sits there or walks along the beach to try to get the kids to stay on the other side. Some times they listen and other times they make fun of him and curse him out. It got to be so bad , that they brought in guards with attack dogs to sit there and try to scare the kids.
Imagine this Scenario.
Its 6:30pm. All the day trippers were to have left.
We were sitting on our lounges on our patio reading books and looking at the lagoon. Listening to the waves and the local kids screaming and goading each other on. Three teens swim into the lagoon from the public beach to the island. Then they walk to shore. All the while, 15 other kids are watching this from the public beach. The three come out of the water and walk back toward the way they came. All of a sudden, they make a dash for our pool while at the same time, 15 kids from the other side also make a dash for the pool. Guess what ?? from relaxing and taking in the beauty , we were overwhelmed by kids and teens. (I didn't hear a single parent from the other side call or look for their kids.) of course, as soon as the guards who were on the other side of the hotel saw this they chased them away. The kids went into the water where the guards could not follow and just yelled insults at them. It sure spoiled my mood. This was not an isolated instance. It happened 3 more times that I saw, and seems to be a persistent problem.
Oh Well, I Guess I'll Just Have to Overlook this Incident and Not Sweat the Small Stuff.
Thursday
Another morning dive then in the afternoon we took the bus into town. Had a good time some shops and the floating market. Enjoyed the walk, the people and colors, 3 hours was just right. We came back at 5 pm all hot and sweaty. We changed into bathing suits and went to the main pool for drinks and to swim and talk. I had my mug and my wife got a drink in a glass. We went into the pool, found an area in the middle next to one of the planters. We had a few sips of our drinks and put them on top of the planter. We turned our backs to look out towards the volleyball court. When I turned around, a very young local children again who could not swim with water wings on, emptied my wife's glass and into the pool and were using the glass to splash his friend. I raised my voice and I asked him where his mother was(in English and Spanish) he said he didn't know. And then left. I did not see him go to anyone but just start to annoy someone else at the other end of the pool. My complaints are not about the local children I would have the same complaint about any child doing any of these things, my complaint is that these children are left all day unsupervised and many are unruly.
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to overlook this incident and not sweat the small stuff.
Dinner Was at Munahana. Food and Service Just as Good as the First Time.
Friday
Had a lazy morning and just hung around the pool and beach.
In the afternoon we did the dolphin swim. If you do only one thing on your whole vacation, do the swim. Save your money on shopping, don't spend it in the casino, but you must do the swim. By the time we finished it with pictures it cost us $450. It was worth every penny.
Be sure to get box lunches from the hotel if you are going around lunch time.(Elly and the food staff at Jimmy's were so accommodating). We did and it was great to sit at the sea aquarium and see all the activity while eating lunch. We also were able to walk around the aquarium and see all the exhibits. Great way to spend the Afternoon.
Dinner at Pastafari. Food not as good as first night and service was also lacking. Could have been an off night .
Saturday
We found out that the hotel wanted us to leave on the bus at 12 noon. Bags had to be out at 11. Check out was simple and easy but this was a waste of a day since we had to leave at noon. The flight was delayed on each step of the travel, it was a very long day since we were due to arrive at JFK 10pm and didn't arrive until 2am. No Problem mon!
Final Thoughts
I definitely noticed a change in the resort as the day went on. In the morning it was nice and comfortable, everything flowed well. After 11 am when the influx of day passes came in, there was a change to the whole place. After 6:30pm, it seemed that the resort mellowed. I did notice that when the hotel had a big group of travel agents they were trying to impress and show the resort to , they limited the number of day passes and posted signs that they were sold out.
Did We Have a Good Time? Yes
Could it Have Been Better? Yes
Would We Come Back to Breezes? No !
Not if the same conditions exist. I looked forward to this vacation for months, and left disappointed. I really did try to overlook a number of incidents and to keep an open mind, but it was one thing after another and just kept on coming. At the airport I did meet people who were at an all inclusive in Jamaica who told horror stories from their vacation. Can you imagine going to a family resort who would not allow children into the restaurants. I guess it can always be worse.
Hey– it's my vacation and why do I have to be the one to overlook everything.
Next year, who knows ?
scubadan
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