FUN IN THE JAMAICAN SUN
No shortage of activities at resort
Two days after we came back from our family vacation I crossed paths with a friendly dad at the daycare drop off.
“Back to work?” he asked. “No, one last day of my vacation,” I said. “Just dropping off the kids so I can relax at home.”
Ahh he said. “Now for the real vacation, eh?”
Wink, wink. Nod, nod.
I knew exactly what he meant, but he was so wrong.
I had been on that family vacation before and it wasn’t worth the hassle for the two hours of alone time my wife and I got at the end of the day.
We’ll spend our days trying to entertain the kids in the kiddie pool only to hear those dreaded words: “I’m bored.”
This time the vacation was different and a bit of a déja vu — we had spent four days at Beaches Negril Resort and Spa in Negril Jamaica.
Full confession: my family vacationed at Beaches Ochi Rios three years ago, so when deciding where to go this year my wife insisted she wasn’t going anywhere that couldn’t match their kids camp.
We would drop off our two- and four-year-old at their camp and not worry about them until supper.
They took their naps there, they played, were entertained by Sesame Street characters, did arts and crafts — in short, they loved it.
And we had loved spending time having an adult vacation. It was win-win for everyone, but had set the bar high for future family vacations.
After all my research, I found the only place that beats a Sandals Beach Resort is a Sandals Beach Resort on a better beach.
Hello Beaches Negril. Named the No. 1 family resort in the Caribbean by Trip Advisor, Beaches Negril has double the beach space of Beaches Ochi Rios and is part of the famous 11 kilometres of whitesand beachfront.
Our only concern was, would our kids who now scoff at afternoon naps and are easily bored still enjoy cooking with Cookie Monster and going to day camp now that they had a choice?
We need not have worried. On our first day, our daughter Maya, 7, woke up asking, “Can we go to kids camp?”
It seems her memories were just as good as ours.
“It’s like he was 16,” said a mom from Colorado as we sipped beverages at the poolside bar, mid afternoon.
“He waved goodbye and he was gone,” she said in regards to her nine-year-old son.
This was their third time at Beaches Negril and their son was eager to be reunited with his favourite staffers.
Sam and Julie, a Vancouver couple who had already been there a few days assured us, “You’re going to love it here, everything is first class.”
Sitting with other adults, midday, sans kids seemed odd and sophisticated, maybe even a bit sinful.
We had spent the morning lounging on our beach-front cabana that our butler had prepared for us. Yes, a butler at our beck and call.
He was never far and for the times he was out of sight we were given a cellphone to call him on.
We were overwhelmed by the choices of included activities that we now had time to try; scuba diving, water skiing, standup paddle boarding, snorkelling, the banana boat, kayaking, tennis, sailing, miniature golf or even the fitness centre.
And with all this available to us, we chose, most days, to watch from our cabana, a drink in our hands, the turquoise waves lap against the white sand, gently retreat and repeat.
A few times a day, my wife would wander off to Café Paris, a French pastries shop she couldn’t get enough of, for a latte and cookies.
Being kid-free didn’t inspire us to be adventurous, nor create a need for us rush out and do things. We were content to enjoy the kidfree time alone — as a couple.
Had we wanted we could have extended our time alone by hiring a babysitter after camp hours for romantic dinners, just the two of us, but the truth is at the end of the days we missed the kids.
We wanted to hear about their day.
My daughter described it like this:
“The camp we go to is not just a camp. We do activities. We make pizza — and we get to eat it. We go swimming and we play and we get Supermans (red and blue snow cones — from the bar.) And have tea parties with Abby Cadabby, make cookies with Cookie Monster, play Xbox, have dances. We do a lot of things. We jump into the ball pit — it’s got a lot of balls, you can’t count them. Kids camp is really fun.”
Most mornings we had to insist she eat breakfast before running off to camp. At times during the day we would see the kids and their fellow campers floating on the lazy river, playing in the Pirates Island Waterpark, swimming in the pool or going for pizza under the watchful eye of a staffer.
We never had to worry about them.
In the evening we made it a habit to stop in as a family to YoYo’s, a wonderful shop offering yogurt, gelato and sorbet with 60 topping options. Over yogurt we would catch up with the kids on their day, which more than a few times meant going back to YoYo’s for seconds as they retold their adventures.
Then we’ld head off to the evening’s entertainment, a Sesame Street show in the theatre. The kids still loved Big Bird, Ernie, Abby Cadabby and friends.
Then it was off to Café Paris for a late night latte and cake for my wife and hot chocolate and crepes for the children.
And when it was time for bed, our rooms were fabulous, and separated. Our joining rooms meant the kids each with their own double bed and mom and dad could relax, in our connecting room.
At the end of our four days, Maya announced on behalf of herself and her little brother that they had had the best vacation — away from us.
I looked at my wife and winked.