(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) We left off in part 1 with challenges on getting the room we paid for on arrival at the Luxury Bahia Principe (LBP) in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. With that behind us, it's time for vacation...
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25 years ago, my wife and I spent a week at Eden II not far from the spot we're at now. It was $1100 for each of us, all inclusive. This week is costing us $1300 each, not a bad rate of inflation over a quarter century. Of course, back then much more was included in our all-inclusive experience: a tour to Dunn's River Falls, transportation into Ocho Rios for shopping, sailing, golfing...all which must have met the budget ax over time.
Here at the LBP, we still get all we can eat and drink...including a la carte dining at the resort's themed restaurants every day(the other side of the hotel just gets a couple of nights of a la carte during their stay)...a hour of water sports equipment checkout each day, entertainment, butler service (which we never used), and a few separate facilities (you can check out a more extensive list in part 1).
Dinner last night was at Dolce Vita, an Italian restaurant about a half mile walk from our room. It was good. I had the saltimboca, which was more of a very good steak, and Tim and Letty had pasta dishes.
A common complaint here is that they keep the temperature too high inside the restaurants. For us coming from the north, it may feel warm but I think it's probably pretty comfortable for the locals that work here.
We're starting off by doing mornings at the pool and moving to the beach in the afternoon. LBP has three pools that look like one, big, quarter mile long pool.
Next to our building, the east end of the pool is reserved for the LBP guests and red-shirted security guards are there to enforce that. Have a pink armband and you're OK. Any other color will get you deported to what we took to calling the riff raff pool.
Our special section also included our own bar with a slightly better selection of liquors and a better bartender but we could also float under the bridge into the riff raff pool and sidle up to the swim up bar.
That was nice but I got tired of having to explain to the bartenders there how to make each drink I was ordering. After a couple of days, we pretty much gave up on the swim up bar. Especially after a server on the other side named Kayann adopted us and brought us a tray of drinks every time we showed up to the pool without even asking.
Yes, for all the complaints I have about the front office staff, the front line staff were outstanding.
We take Tim to a wading platform on the riff raff side and gingerly...and not entirely successful...try to ease him into an inner tube. We got it after much slipping and sliding. Then, it was just a couple of hours lounging in the clear water with occasional cruises over to the Island of Happiness...our name for the swim up bar.
After a while, we made it to the end of the pool closest to our room and noticed that the pool got gradually shallower and shallower. Hey, this is a giant ramp into the pool! After that, getting Tim into the pool and his inner tube was just a matter of wheeling him in as far as his manual chair would go, popping the tube over his legs, standing him up, and letting go.
It made things much, much easier.
After the morning swim, we head over to the beach which is quite a hike away. Probably close to a mile from our room.
Again, the accessibility here is very good. Although quite a walk, it's a very smooth route for the wheelchair, including the hard-packed sand path that the utility vehicles used to service the bars along the beach. It makes for a good, accessible route to the beach for the chair.
The LBP has it's own private section so we set up a base station under a palapa and some trees. A server keeps our glasses full of rum punch and we go for cooling laps in the warm water of the bay.
It's shallow and clear but I still can't get Tim to go in the water, especially after I show him a video of some stingrays that I took.
The hotel offers free loans of snorkeling equipment (again, quite a walk away from where we are sitting) but there's a $50 cash deposit required that you lose if you don't bring it back in an hour. I didn't know about the deposit and didn't bring $50 with me to the beach so I just bought a cheap pair of goggles from the gift shop and charged to the room.
The water was clear, maybe not quite as clear as when we went to Puerto Vallarta (Conchas Chinas beach) or Maui, but still the clearest we've yet seen in the Caribbean.
Along with the rays, we see an array of tropical fish on coral encrusted rocks and sea urchins. It's quite a sight.
We did adjust our schedule as the week went on to go to the beach in the mornings and migrating to the pool in the afternoons so we'd be as close to our room as possible at the end of the day when we've tired ourselves out.
The Jerk Bar was next to our beach so after a morning of swimming with the rays and the other guests, we regain our strength with heaping plates of Jamaica's national dish.
It was incredibly delicious.
Hanging out at the beach and pool while drinking the day away was not the only adventures we had on the island. Stay tuned for part three where we strike out beyond the hotel's gate to see what mischief we can find.
Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
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Photos Copyright 2014 - Letty Musick
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