Reminiscing Our Trip to Jamaica May 2018 Part 2

Hello and welcome back to Part 2 of our wedding anniversary trip to Negril, Jamaica.

We stayed at the all-inclusive resort Couples Negril.  If you missed Part 1 you can find it here.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that upon arrival to CN you are given a cold cloth and a glass of champagne.  :)  Best way to start off a vacation in my book!

We ordered breakfast to be delivered to our room for the first morning.  Every day after we ate in the Cassava Terrace.  In-suite dining is provided in the Garden Suites and the Beachfront Suites.  We didn't feel like we were missing out as we were rarely in our room other than to sleep and clean up for dinner.

I mentioned in the first post that we stayed in room #1206 on the second floor.  Our room was located right by the beach, close to all of the restaurants, bars, spa and the game room was nearby if we wanted to play pool or grab a bag of popcorn.

Couples Negril was our very first all-inclusive vacation (other than airfare - we booked that on our own) and it was worth every penny.  The only extras we paid for were the souvenirs we bought, massages, and our photos.  Everything else was included.  Oh and the alcohol we bought at the airport.  :)  The rum cream is delicious!!!

We spent several days on the beach reading or taking part in some of the many activities.  While planning our trip to Couples Negril, I told the hubs they have a Beach Bar with flag service.  All you have to do is stake your beach bar flag in the sand near your chair when you want a refill or a fresh drink.  He didn't believe it until he saw it in action.  (Note our stake with the red flag between the two chairs.)  There were many times they came to us even when we didn't have a flag up.  I'm telling you...service was second to none.  

We brought our Yeti cups with us to keep our frozen drinks cold.  They worked so well our Pina Coladas were still frozen the next morning.

I will say we way over packed.  Like way, way over packed!  They joked with us and asked us if we were staying for a month.  :)  I have been known to over pack.  I want to make sure I have everything I need.  Having said that all you really need is 3 or 4 bathing suits, a couple of cover ups, several hats, a few pair of shoes, one or two nice outfits for photos or dinner, sunscreen, and you are good to go.  Now that doesn't mean I'll pack light for our next trip to CN.  Just saying!

You can leave your "stuff" on the chairs while doing the various activities, floating in the water, etc. and no one will bother it.  Everyone is minding their own business making sure they are having a good time.  

Here's a photo of our Pina Colada on the first day without our Yeti cups.  We drank Pina Coladas, Hurricanes and some other drinks I've forgotten the names of...and yes, they were delicious!

#pinacolada

#lifeisgoodatcouplesnegril

Here's the hubs on the paddle board.  He was pretty good at it.  Unfortunately for me, the day I chose to learn the water was quite rough.  I didn't do as well as he did.  Not surprising as I am not very athletically inclined.  :)

There was a board near the pool with the list of activities for the week.

Our attempt at taking a selfie.

Nearly every morning the hubs and I would walk down the beach.  I believe it was about 2 miles.  I'm always behind if I have my camera because I am taking photos.

If you are traveling to a country for the first time you may have concerns about safety.  I know I did.  Let me reassure you...CN has security on the grounds.  They keep a watchful eye at all times.  No one is allowed to sell their wares unless they are chosen by management.  If someone comes by, they will move them along.  No one is allowed to bother the guests.  They also have security posted at each end of the property along the beach.  They want to know when you are taking a stroll down the beach so they can keep an eye open for your return.  We always waved and let them know when we were back on property.  We felt totally safe our entire stay at CN.  Having said that, I can't speak for any of the activities off property.  We felt like there was enough going on at CN that we didn't need to venture out.

The Jamaicans sold their wares in this particular area of the beach.  They called it the "Jamaican WalMart".

We bought several beach towels and a few wooden carvings for the patio.

Our sightings while walking along the beach...

We walked the property to check out the grounds.

The gardens are so lush and beautiful.  It truly is paradise.

#paradise

#onelove

#jamaica

I absolutely loved the almond trees.  The leaves are so large and pretty.  I wanted to plant a few in our yard but they won't survive in our zone.

The Bird of Paradise plants were huge!!!!  I mean huge!!!  I have two in our bed in the backyard and I've been fertilizing them to get them to grow big like these.  Mine are recovering from the freeze we had a couple of years ago.  You know the one where we had snow on the ground for 3-4 days.  :(

The trees with the red/orange flowers are called Poincina.  They call them the "shake shake" tree which is simply the flower becoming a mature fruit.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  They are beautiful in person.

The grounds were meticulous.

See how clean everything is?!

The weddings are held in this area.  The AN beach is located behind the shrubs on the left.  Can you imagine getting married with all that going on over the fence?

Select vendors had booths to show their wares.  There were paintings, wooden carvings, jewelry, and many other things.  The hubs would walk around checking everything out while I was reading my Nook.  From time to time, he'd bug me to go and see what they had...he was relentless.  One particular time I went and ended up getting a Jamaican Santa Claus.  :)  Imagine that!

He had a guy paint our water bottles from Couples Negril as a souvenir.  We also bought several hand painted magnets for the fridge and several wood carvings for the grandkids.

The views at night are simply gorgeous.  These photos don't do it justice.

There are four bars all open at various hours.

Beach Bar

Terrace Bar

Sunset Bar

Piano Bar

You may hear steel drums, soul to reggae rhythms (my favorite) or rock 'n' roll.  Hands down, everyone's favorite is Domick.  He's really good.  You will find him in the Piano Bar.

The weather was nice.  It rained almost every afternoon but never for very long.  An hour at the most.  The rain always cooled things down and was never a hindrance.

One afternoon, the hubs and I decided to get in a hammock under the trees.  As you probably know, its a balance thing to get in it with someone else.  We were laying there relaxing and all of a sudden it started thundering and raining.  My first reaction was to get out of the hammock.  He immediately shouts "don't get out" so I wouldn't flip him over.  We were laughing so hard.  We saw we had an audience as a lady was sitting on her patio laughing hysterically at us.  I guess you had to be there.  :)

Bloody Bay is known for beautiful sunsets.  I believe we only had one sunset where the weather was clear but that was fine with us.

We were a little sunburned by the time the last day rolled around so we decided to lounge in the shade near the pool.  We ordered lunch from the Beach Grill and told our waitress we'd wait for it rather than her bringing it to us because we were hanging out at the pool.  After discussing back and forth with her insisting she'd bring our food to us, we finally gave in and went back to the pool.  I'm telling you, the service was second to none.  

Our trip to Jamaica was wonderful.  I can't think of anything that could have gone any better.  Even with the rain, you are guaranteed to have a wonderful time.  The employees of CN are amazing.  Their goal is for you to have a wonderful time so you will return for another visit.  CN is a no tip resort.  CN has so many repeat guests.  I'm talking about people that go every year for 15+ years. They have a huge following.  So many call it "home".

We met a lot of nice people from all over the states.  Quite a few of them were on their honeymoon.

#couplesnegril

#jamaica

#onelove

For those of you that are wondering, they do have free WiFi.

Photographers are available if you want a keepsake.   We decided to go for it as we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary.

We chose the package of stay 5 nights and get 1 night free.  We both said six nights and seven days is perfect.  You have plenty of time to unwind from the real world, totally relax and kick back.

We will be back!!!  Sooner rather than later!!!

Take care and have a wonderful day!

One Love!!!

Debbie