John & Mary, Couples Ocho Rios - 07/98

My wife and I visited Couples Resort for our 25th anniversary. We had been
on Premier Cruise's "Ocean Breeze" the week earlier, and returned to
Montego Bay. Our bus ride to the resort was interesting, and we didn't
mind the time driving there. We enjoyed the scenery.

When we arrived, we heard some reggae music from a small ensemble and were
given a moist towel. "What do we do with this?" hehehe. We were escorted
over to the check in counter, welcomed, and escorted over to a corner area
to fill out our forms. A glass of champagne was given to us as well.

When we arrived at our room, we were instructed how to use our room-safe,
and shown the room and how to use the phone. Yes, the towels were on the
bed in the form of a swan, a nice touch. The inhouse TV had the daily
schedule on, so as we unpacked we took a look at what was happening at the
resort.

We left the room and when we returned later, we found a bottle of champagne
and a cheese and cracker tray to snack on in our room. We had the first
room to the right down the hall from the foyer.

I'll add some new stuff but Dick and Chris did a great job of describing
the resort, and the events. Mary and I took home a lot of rum and Tia
Maria. We were quite involved in the activities, and I guess we were
lucky. My only complaint all week, was when I lost the "Tan and Burn"
contest. I have a great tan, since I am a nudist and member of a nudist
park. To decide the winner, you had to show your tan contrast, and I
didn't have any. I had no tan lines, so another client won. Oh well, we'd
won many activities anyway. They had enough floating lounges in the pool.
We played table tennis and squash while we were there, as well as beach
volleyball. We had a good time riding horseback and took tennis lessons on
three of our days there. It didn't take very long to soke our shirts in
the heat, but we had a great and patient instructor. It seems I have more
bad habits to break on the court than Mary.

There was a tropical depression the week we were there and the waves were
coming in quite strong. Some water activities were on hold for a day,
including SCUBA, but after a day or two, they decided to try the SCUBA
anyway. Thirty feet down, there wasn't much wave action to speak of and we
had two days of diving. We enjoyed playing with sea cucumbers, lobsters,
moray eels and numerous sponges. I chased a flounder around for a bit, and
chased it out of it's sand-covered hiding place. There was an old sunken
ship encrusted with marine life, and there were some large lobster-like
traps that had captured quite a variety of fish. One lobster on the
inside, had caught and was eating a fish on the outside. Kind of neat,
actually. The sea cucumbers felt like the softest plush toys you could
imagine.

As mentioned earlier, the women were supposed to sun top-free at the end of
the jetty, but one woman was in a thong top-free in the pool area, and no
one complained. Seeing that, I changed out of my bikini and wore my
www.skinzwear.com adjustable thong for the rest of the week, unless I was
over on Tower Isle. On one day, they closed the island due to waves, and
the women didn't object to us men sunning nude on the jetty with them.

Tower Isle is ok. I like nude activities such as tennis, bowling, or
volleyball, and there wasn't any of that. If you want to lounge nude, it's
great, and I did that as often as was practical. All of the resort
activities are on the mainland. There are enough locations on the island,
that if it was your first time nude, you could have some privacy with your
mate. Most people preferred to be near the swimup pool. I've included a
photo. Ozzie had to go to the mainland to get food for us and while he was
gone, we just helped each other. Party time! It was too bad you had to
put on your clothes/swimwear to return to the mainland.

Dunn's River Falls is a trip you shouldn't miss as stated earlier. Give
your guide your camera and he'll take your photos on your
climb...but...take some money to tip him. The shopping trip into Ocho Rios
was a great experience. DON'T offer to pay the first asking price of an
item or they'll tell you off. They enjoy playing the "game". Always try
to get them down one more "dolla". We just figured out what the item would
be worth back home, set a beginning figure a little lower, and made a deal
we figured was fair.

Mary and I were so active at the resort, that the staff included the two of
us separately in the staff entertainment night. Mary danced with the women
staff, and I dressed in drag with the guys; wig, heels, boa and dress, and
did a dance routine. Scarey though, I looked like a guy in drag, the
others looked great. Wow, what great legs! :-)

And the drinks....hmmmm. I held my own weight on the ship with four
full-course meals a day, but with unlimited exotic drinks for seven days, I
gained five pounds. Boy, those "strawberry milkshakes" tasted good. In
the inside restaurant, I enjoyed wine with my meals, and had to tip the
glass over as it seemed to be refilled automatically any time my head was
turned. The wandering minstrel was great. I had a good time in the
karaoke piano bar on two evenings. We enjoyed the pasta restaurant by the
water. My wife didn't enjoy the spicey foods and on the night that they
only opened the one outside-but-covered restaurant, the head chef actually
came out and asked my wife what she'd like that wasn't too spicey, and he
prepared it himself. Wow!!

It was a great resort, and from my internet research, it'll be hard to beat.

Take care,

John

www.geocities.com/scouton   

Picture from bar on Tower Isle.