Couples Negril: Roy - June, 2011

Couples Negril - June 29 - July 6 2011

Photographs of the resort located at:

http://s1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff487/RoyinNC/

I know that many here on this site will, at least in their minds, will try to compare CN to Hedo. The resorts are worlds apart in many ways. If you are looking for a classy and romantic resort on a great beach, with great food, well attended activities, nice tropical rooms, a nude beach as an option, and lots of inclusions for the price then CN is very hard to beat. It can never challenge Hedo when it comes to the sexual activities that are so prevalent there sometimes. If you must have or must see open sex than CN will simply not work for you. If you want to party all night you can do that at CN ... but it might just be you after midnight. :) CN is not a replacement for Hedo or really a rival for the same vacation experience. CN costs more per night but we felt it was $ we got back in better food quality, better entertainment, free wifi, free Sunset Bar shuttle, free Sunset Catamaran Booze Cruise, and a nicer beach. Hedo is the most fun we have ever had at a resort and it's hard to put a price on that. We love it. We do love CN too, and will be back to both. Couples simply does a better job of running and maintaining their resorts IMO. Everything was top notch all week.

Who are we?

We are a married couple in our 50's. We have been going to Jamaica since the late 1980's. Many of our trips have been as a couple, some have been with our children or other relatives. Most of our visits have been to Hedonism II, but we have also visited Hedo III (2x), Breezes Runaway Bay (3x), Grand Lido Braco (3x), Grand Lido Negril, Grand Lido SansSouci, Boscobel Beach Resort, Beaches Boscobel (2x)(same resort, years later), Beaches Negril, Sunset Beach Resort, Swept Away, Couples Negril (2x counting this one), Riu Palace Tropical Bay, and maybe I missed some since my memory fails me more and more often. We love Jamaica, Jamaican Resorts, and the Jamaican People we have met over the years. We have enjoyed all of these resorts in different ways and I feel we are fair in our assessment of each, but naturally we all see things a little differently so your mileage may vary. :)

Guests:

Since this is a couples only resort ... that speaks for itself. The couples are of all ages. There are a lot of young couples there, but there were just as many in our age group (50's). All ages and descriptions seemed well represented.

Flight/Arrival:

We flew non-stop to MBJ from BWI. Our last couples of trips to Jamaica that included connecting flights did not go well. The number of things and can screw up your travel schedule is doubled when you use a connection. In addition the flight home is leaps and bounds more relaxing since we don't have the headache of having to claim and recheck baggage to go through customs at our connection airport.

Sangster was very quick and efficient getting us all through the arrival process. They had an ample number of agents working and it went very well and very quickly.

Couples Lounge:

The Couples Lounge might be a little smaller than the SuperClubs lounge. The upside is that there is a bar in there serving ice cold drinks including Red Stripe and Red Stripe Light on tap. They had us on our way in 15 minutes or so.

Transfer to Negril:

The ride to Couples Negril took about 70-75 minutes. Once we got out of MoBay it went quickly and the driver seemed to never consider stopping, so we went non-stop to CN.

CN Arrival/Check-In:

Cool, wet towel and a glass of champagne within seconds after getting out of the shuttle bus. Our room was ready ( we asked for a 2nd or 3rd floor since we prefer a balcony over a patio) and we were taken quickly to room 1205. Our luggage arrived in minutes. We were eating Jerk Chicken and drinking Dirty Bananas within a few minutes.

Room:

Our rooms was very nice. Lots of natural light, bright tropical colors, very clean. Like every resort I have visited in Jamaica there were areas that could have used some updating (the bathroom grout looked like it was installed 'less than professionally' in places. Everything was clean and bright. Wall mounted TV with lots of channels, ipod/iphone player/charger, ceiling fan, excellent A/C. Sliding glass door opened to good sized balcony with table, chairs, and a drying rack mounted on the wall for wet clothing.

The stocked mini-bar is included at no extra cost. When you arrive there is water, juice, and sodas. Beer and bottles of hard liquor are brought the next day based on what you request using the form to fill out on top of the cabinet every day. We replenished the water, Ting, and I had them replace my Carib beer with bottles of Red Stripe. The mini-bar is a nice inclusion, but we never asked for any bottles of liquor and drank very little of what was in there because we are really not in the room so much. Glad to have it though!

Pool:

The main pool is large and active. There is a hot tub at each end. There is plenty of room to swim or float and for a water volleyball area. The pool is clean and the water was warm. There is a sort of waterfall that drops a few feet into a separate section of pool that is where the swim up bar is located.

There is another smaller pool used almost exclusively for scuba course training with chairs arranged for the 'classroom' part of the certification training.

Beach:

Awesome. Bloody Bay is the nicest beach in Jamaica. The combination and clear blue water, white sandy bottom, and calm waters make it perfect for swimming, floating, and all water sports. It gets no better than this!

"Red Flag" service ... set up your flag whenever you need something and soon someone will show up to get your drink order or just to bring you a fresh one once they know what you like.

Chairs are plentiful. We were told the resort was at about 85% capacity but there were always tons of extra chairs all around. Never a shortage at all. Every chair has a foam float on it, so anyone who wants one has one at all times. Some of the floats look brand new, some looked like they were due to be replaced soon.

Hammocks are located all up and down the beach. I saw them all over the resort.

Nude Beach:

Small, but beautiful. There were around 50-60 lounge chairs there, each with a brand new looking foam float on it. (Be careful of those because the ink of the Couples Logo put some blue color on the towels we put down on top of them) . There is a very nice elevated hot tub, and fully stocked bar with bartender most of the day (sometimes when the bartender is on break you just fix your own). There is "red flag" service here as well but it is a short walk to the bar anyway.

Food:

Best I have had at any of the many resorts we have visited! Breakfast and Lunch in the main buffet was fairly typical, but with better service than we have had at many other resorts. Spent no time ever looking for utensils, waiting for coffee or water, etc..... This staff is well trained and good at what they do and also very personable and happy to talk a bit. In the evening during the shows the staff was often dance and singing at their stations as they stayed vigilant to see that every guest had filled water glasses or whatever they wanted from the bar. Excellent staff!

The other lunch option is the Beach Grill. Jerk Chicken, Burgers, Patties, Hot Dogs, French fries, Onion Rings, coco bread, cole slaw, corn on the cob, daily soup, salad bar, nacho stuff, ice cream, fresh fruit and a fully staffed bar too. This is open all day and we ate lunch there almost every day.

Dinner choices are excellent.

Cassava Terrace:

This is the main restaurant with stage for show time. It is a buffet 3 nights per week (but this included the beach buffet/party dinner on Thursday nights). The other four nights it is an ala carte restaurant with a daily changing menu to order from. We ate here on Lobster Night (every Friday lobster is in season it is served in all of the restaurants that night). We were each served two large split Caribbean Lobster tails grilled with herb butter. It was outstanding.

Helliconia:

The Beach Grill turns in to a dinner restaurant called Helliconia. It is an ala carte restaurant with an Italian theme. Lots of pasta dishes, seafood, and excellent chicken parmigiano. It hardly looks like the same place at night with different lighting, nice table cloths, and fine dinner ware. No reservations are required here and the menu changed at least some every day.

Lychee:

This was my favorite place to eat. It has excellent A/C and serves a variety of Asian specialties. The Tasting Platter for Two is perfect to start with, the entrees are all very good, but the Pad Thai is amazing. We ate here 3 of our 7 nights. No reservations are required. It is open every night except Monday since it is closed for the Repeat Guest Dinner on Monday nights.

Otaheite:

By reservation only. This is the one restaurant the requires men to wear long pants and a shirt with a collar on it. You don't need to be all that dressed up, chinos and a polo shirt will do. The food is outstanding and the service was very good. I can only speak to the Filet Mignon... but it was excellent. It has A/C and is closed one night per week. It was worth making the reservation for sure, but I preferred Lychee so we only went once. It is very nice!

Activities:

All the things you would expect from a tropical beach resort. Most things are well attended and well handled but the Entertainment staff. Full array of land and water sports with lessons and good equipment.

There was a visiting tennis pro from the US most of our stay in addition to the head pro and an assistant pro. Good program with four nice hard courts kept clean and in good repair.

The free included Sunset Catamaran trip was about 2.5 - 3 hours. All beer, sodas, and Rum Punch was included. We cruised to the cliffs at the West End and anchored for a while near the caves at Rockhouse Resort. It was a great trip and a great thing to have included in the resort price.

Entertainment:

Every night there was outside entertainment, many that I had not seen before. I went through a spell were we began seeing the same acts (AJ Brown for example) at every resort we went to. Hedo II seemed to stop hiring outside entertainment altogether for a while, so this was very refreshing. The acts included:

The Silverbirds Steel Drum Orchestra (lots of YouTube stuff out there)- these kids are outstanding! http://www.silverbirdsentertainment.com/

D'Jani : Solo singer, very good. www.mrmsrecords.com/djani.html

Kahlil : A reggae and dance group. Very good also!

jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110304/ent/ent6.html

Alexxa - Better than average solo singer

Jimmy Graham - Very entertaining talent. A cross between reggae and blues. Really enjoyed it!

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Jimmy-Graham-mixes-blues-with-reggae_8312296

There was also a Jamaican Cultural Group that was very good, but I did not get the name of the group.

The Resident Band, "Sweet Sensations" was very good alone during dinner and was excellent working with the outside entertainment.

Overall CN is a great resort experience. A bit slow for some perhaps, but wow.... what a great place!

Roy