Jewel Runaway Bay Resort in Jamaica

[Catperson]

Has anyone in our cruise world booked this hotel on a day pass from "Resort for a Day"? The Hilton Rose Hall is already booked, this would be option #2 from Falmouth. I would love some feedback from anyone who has recently gone here. Thanks! (I've already posted a similar message on the Jamaica board.)

[Littlebrookfarm]

We stayed there for 5 days in March 2013 and it was "ok" - very pretty but nothing fancy at the resort. Defintely not pleasant to walk "off resort" down the pubic beach area off the resort. The beach is nice with plenty of chairs, but be careful as there is a coral reef right off shore in fairly shallow water & sea urchins. The pool area is nice, but bring a towel as they ran out frequently. The drinks were not made with name brand alcohol so if this matters to you, consider yourself warned. The only beer was red stripe. The buffet food was pretty good, the pizza place was really very good if you like wood fired pizza. Depending on which port you dock at, you are looking at about a 45 min or longer taxi ride.

[Jmillsarch]

My family went there this past May. At the time children 6 and under were free. That was the reason we selected it. We will be in Falmouth again in January, and it looks like children are no longer free.

 

The resort itself was okay. There were very, very few people there. This made getting a chair very easy. They also had plenty of towels. They have a pool that's only about 1 foot or so deep which was great for our kids. We didn't use the beach area, but I did walk up and down it once. I was not very impressed. I would say it was average to below average for Jamaica.

 

The food at the pool was above average bar type food. The wood fired pizzas were made from scratch and were very good. This was quite a nice surprise.

 

The mixed drinks were okay and served in a washable plastic cup. No fancy garnish on the glass or anything. I thought the beer was on tap, but I may be mis-remembering.

 

One note on the resort not being very busy. While we were there the Baltimore Raven's cheerleaders were there. I believe this was a promotion to drum up business. It did not work. There we very, very few people there.

 

Aside from the resort, I was less than happy with the Jamaica for a Day service. They advertise nice new buses to take you to the resorts, but sense we were the only family that was going to Jewel Runaway Bay we had a very old minivan. It was very old and could not keep up with traffic and was constantly passed by other vehicles on the almost hour long drive.

 

All that being said, we are going to try Red Stripe Beach in January. For the savings I'm sure I can eat and drink as much as I want and still save money.

[Catperson]

THANK YOU for the replies. I think I will give this a pass; I really don't like the long drive and I certainly wouldn't want to be the only cruisers going to this resort. The pizza sounds good though. :D