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Wyndham Rose Hall 02/24/02
Reviewers Rating:  Great
Here is a summary of our trip. We really liked the Wyndham Resort. It was very nice. The 8 1/2 days were perfect. It made for a much more relaxing vacation vs the normal 6 1/2 day trip. We have no idea why the Wyndham gets some bad reviews on the message boards. Sure there were some things that weren't perfect, but overall I would rate the resort a 3.5 star. The Wyndham is very much a family resort. The rooms at the Wyndham were very similar to most resorts and are average size. The beds at the Wyndham were soft and comfortable and the A/C worked great. We had a room on the 5th floor with an excellent ocean & pool view. The Wyndham is an older resort, but were still in good condition. The Wyndham buildings are 7 stores high and were like a motel room with a balcony. Waiting for the elevator was sometimes a slow thing at the resort. At certain times of the day, when everyone was out, the elevators were slower than at other times. The two pools at the Wyndham weren't nearly as big as those of the other resorts we have been to. But we really liked the pool better at the Wyndham because there was more to do, with the water slides, lazy river and swim up bars. One of the water slides was a series of small water slides that you went down without a tube. The other slide was a winding, twisting water slide that you went down on a round inner-tube. You could really get some speed up on this slide. Both slides emptied into the same pool. This pool had the swim up bar and connected to the lazy river. We had our chairs at this pool. There was more family activity around this pool. They also had a small apartment like pool which was the original resort pool. They played water volleyball in this pool. This pool also had a swim up bar and this is where most of the couples without children hung out. The grounds were very tropical with a lot of plants & palm trees. The resort was set back from the road, and had palm trees lining the winding road to the resort. The beach at the Wyndham was about 500 yards long. But was plenty big enough as it is a private beach and the Wyndham has only around 350 rooms. The water clarity wasn't as clear or blue as it is in Mexico. The water seems warmer than Mexico. The water was calm the first four days, then we had two really windy days were the ocean got really ruff. As a result from the wind and ruff waves, the ocean turned up a lot of seaweed. For one day, the ocean was full of this seaweed. The people at the resort worked hard and raking it up and hauling it away in order for the beach to again look good. Other than these two days of wind, the weather was perfect. The buffet food at the Wyndham was good. They have the Java Cafe which we ate at about 1/2 the nights. You don't need reservations, but you are waited on and order off a menu, like a regular restaurant. We found this quite relaxing and enjoyable, as we weren't constantly running up to the buffet. You could get all you wanted to eat and the service was very good. We looked at the menus of the two restaurants you need to make reservations at. Our kids would have not liked anything they were too trendy. We didn't find anywhere on the resort where we were charged for food that wasn't included in our plan. We didn't have a problem with the credit card they gave us vs the wristbands. We felt the inconvenience was to the staff for having to go to all the trouble to scan the card, and then get the signature. All of us had a family card, including the kids. It's a plastic card you can get wet and carry in your swim site when swimming. I highly recommend going all-inclusive. If not, the food and drinks are very expensive at the resort. The actives during the day weren't organized as well as we would have liked. We got to be friends with "Richie" the head actives person. He included us in volleyball, basketball, soccer and the ping pong tournaments. The kids were always welcome to play, and if there were a lot of people, then the kids played first, and then the adults. The nightly shows consisted of bands, beach party, cooking show, and an Elvis look alike singer. Each were good. The shows only lasted 45 minutes or so, but this was o.k. as we usually were ready for bed by 9:30. We went to Ocho Rios and Negril with a private taxi driver that worked at the resort. It cost us $100 for all of us. We could go at our own pace, and there wasn't a time limit on when we need to get back. We spent 9 hours on our trip to Ocho Rios. He took us all over and showed us the sights and we climbed Dunn River Falls with him. He was a great guide and we felt safe going in to town with him. We liked him so well, we hired him another day to take us up to Negril. In Negril, we stopped in and visited the Rui Tropical Bay Resort. The Rui didn't appear to be as big as the Wyndham. We were only there 5 minutes, but based on our very short visit, we felt the Wyndham was as good as the Rui and possibly better. The Wyndham was more tropical and we liked the way the Wyndham was set back from the highway with a long landscaped drive. All the other resorts appeared to be right on the highway. We never saw any kids at the Rui, not even in the pool. In fact we saw very little pool activity going on. We also stopped and walked along 7 Mile Beach. We were there when the ocean was wavy. We didn't feel that the beach was that much greater than where we stayed. We did notice that water was a more blue-green color. We were not sure how we would like to have that much foot traffic along the beach. A lot of people walking along in front of your resort. If you are a beach walker then you would enjoy it. We enjoyed our private beach. The only people on the beach were people at our hotel. We also walked along the beach in front of Swept Away Resort & Beaches. From the beach, neither of these resorts looked any better, if as good as the Wyndham. We were told by some of the locals that Jamaican's go to the Wyndham and stay because of their water park. While we were there Bill Murray was filming movie there. One side of the Wyndham is a beautiful golf course. He was filming on the golf course and then around the beach. Ocho Rios was a great place to shop and climb Dunn River Falls. We went with there with our cab driver and since we were with a local Jamaican, we didn't have to go on the guided tour to climb the falls. We only saw a little of the beach at Ocho Rios and it wasn't very nice. We spent most of our time in Ocho Rios sight seeing. Our cab driver took us into the middle of town where the local Jamaicans shop. This was fun and we felt safe with him. I would highly recommend taking a private taxi with your own guide. It's cheaper and you are on your own time schedule. Overall, I would go back to the Wyndham again as I thought it was a great resort. Please e-mail me if you have any questions at jpjones7@aol.com. John
John
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