Linda and I have just gotten home from a much needed tropical vacation. Based on advice from friends and our travel agent, we decided to try Jamaica this time. We stayed at the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton, an all-inclusive resort and spa between Montego Bay and Negrill outside of Lucea, Jamaica. We left St. Louis before the sun came up on Saturday so we had to have everything (and everyone) ready to go on Friday. Savannah
got to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa while Chip became best friends with Brooklyn, Jen’s Rottweiler. We lucked out as we had no hassles in our travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had a 3 hour layover in Miami, but that airport is so big, it takes you an hour to get off the plane, figure out where the next flight is and then walk to that gate. Plus we had time to eat lunch before the short flight to Jamaica. For those of you that
have been to Negrill before, they have fixed the road between Montego Bay and Negrill, but not the busses! Actually, it was not that bad. They packed us on the bus and I ended up sitting shotgun to the driver. He asked me to move 2 bags on the passenger seat. One was warm, and I guessed it to be his lunch. When I suggested that they were both lunch he looked at me and said “uhh, nah mahn, that’s for lata”. When we arrived at the Grand
Palladium we were promptly greeted with an orange drink in a tall glass that was full of Rum. It was a good start to the vacation. We got checked in and the bellhop took us to our Villa. Our travel agent must have gotten us upgraded. We had a Honeymoon Suite which was unbelievable. There were only 4 villas per building, two on top and two on the ground level. We were on top. Each had it’s own outdoor entrance and sat directly on the
beach looking at the Caribbean Sea. It was a simple room, but truly amazing. It was just one big room with a ¾ high wall in the middle. On the front side, a king size bed extended from the wall towards the sliding glass doors which lead to the balcony overlooking the beach. There was also a couch and table looking out towards the balcony. On the opposite side of the wall was a jacuzzi tub that was about the size of our kitchen
table. Sinks on both sides of the room and another glass door that lead to the outdoor shower. Sounds weird, I know, but hear me out. Off the back of this room they constructed 3 walls with no ceiling. There was a shower basin made out of tile with a cats head that water poured out of as your shower nozzle. It’s so warm there year round that they can get away with the outdoor shower. With a room like this, we really didn’t have
any reason to leave, oh yeah, they didn’t have room service. Lucky for us, we were right across the pathway from the adults only pool, bar and beach. We had a beach that our Villa sat on and then behind us we had the adults pool and bar and then just beyond that was the adults beach. We were on a peninsula. The place was so big that we would leave our room, stop and get a “walking” drink so that we could have a cocktail while we
walked to the main resort area which is where the food, swim-up bar, lounge chairs, shops, everything else was. Because of the low number of people staying at the resort, many of the things were shut down, or would shut down early. The adult bar was supposed to be open until midnight, but was closed by 7:00. There was only one place to get breakfast, but it was a breakfast bar and was pretty good. After breakfast we would
come back and change to hit the pool/lounge chairs. We would either go to the adult beach where I would go snorkeling while Linda worshiped the Sun Gods, or we would go to the main pool and have a few cocktails and relax in beach chairs under palm tree huts. Once the drinks were flowing, around mid-afternoon, we would head back to the room for a nap to prepare us for the evening. Dinner was not that good. The food at the all-
inclusive leaves a lot to be desired, nothing like the cruise ships. But, we would typically find something worth eating and then back out to one of the many forms of entertainment. The first couple of nights we went to their version of the sports bar where we met many people including a surgeon from Barnes/Washington University. He and his wife had taken their two kids on a beach excursion that day. Their was a heavy smell
of ganga in the air so his kids asked him “Daddy, what’s that smell?” his reply was classic “That’s a skunk, Son.” On the return bus ride home his son looked at him and said “Daddy, they have lot’s of skunks in Jamaica.” We also met a lot of Canadians, most from Montreal. They were a little different. One couple was straight up odd. She had done everything, always knew someone, and been through much more tragic events than
anyone. It was kind of funny. After that evening, Linda and I spent our evenings at the outdoor bar that overlooked the main pool and Sea. It was very nice and relaxing to just sit after dinner, have a normal discussion with my wife and enjoy each other’s company. We didn’t do anything exciting on the trip, the idea was to relax. On our last full day there, while we were getting ready to take a nap, the workers were preparing for a
wedding right outside our room on the beach. We had to watch, of course. All the guests arrived and the bride was walking down the isle when the older lady in a two-piece walked up in the back of the ceremony and started taking pictures with her phone. I had to take a picture of that. It was too funny. We did however, have some complaints about the resort. The second to last night we were without water or air conditioning. Seems they
had a water main break on our end of the resort. They worked on it until about 3:00 in the morning and I didn’t fall asleep until about 4:30. I got just under 4 hours of sleep that night. Then the next day the air conditioning started to work around 4:00, but wasn’t taking the humidity out of the air so I didn’t sleep well that night either. What they say about Jamaicans being relaxed and on island time is true. They worked on that water
main for 3 days. When we left, they still weren’t done. On Thursday we were told our bags would be picked up between 11:30 and 12:00. At 12:00 we called and they had no clue what was going on. Our bus was supposed to leave at 12:30. Well, the bus turned out to be a taxi. He showed up to pick us and another couple up, however, there was a third couple they forgot to pick up an hour earlier so we were all crammed into the taxi for the
30 minute ride to Montego Bay. The one couple that we were crunched in the cab with were super friendly and were on the same flight we were on going back to Miami. We had lunch with them at the Margaretville in the Montego Bay airport while we waited for our flight. No hitches coming through Miami and we were back in St. Louis by 10:30 and home by 11:00 Thursday night. It was a truly enjoyable and relaxing trip. It’ll probably be a long time before we get to go on another one like that.
Linda and I have just gotten home from a much needed tropical vacation. Based on advice from friends and our travel agent, we decided to try Jamaica this time. We stayed at the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton, an all-inclusive resort and spa between Montego Bay and Negrill outside of Lucea, Jamaica. We left St. Louis before the sun came up on Saturday so we had to have everything (and everyone) ready to go on Friday. Savannah 
got to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa while Chip became best friends with Brooklyn, Jen’s Rottweiler. We lucked out as we had no hassles in our travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had a 3 hour layover in Miami, but that airport is so big, it takes you an hour to get off the plane, figure out where the next flight is and then walk to that gate. Plus we had time to eat lunch before the short flight to Jamaica. For those of you that 
have been to Negrill before, they have fixed the road between Montego Bay and Negrill, but not the busses! Actually, it was not that bad. They packed us on the bus and I ended up sitting shotgun to the driver. He asked me to move 2 bags on the passenger seat. One was warm, and I guessed it to be his lunch. When I suggested that they were both lunch he looked at me and said “uhh, nah mahn, that’s for lata”. When we arrived at the Grand 
Palladium we were promptly greeted with an orange drink in a tall glass that was full of Rum. It was a good start to the vacation. We got checked in and the bellhop took us to our Villa. Our travel agent must have gotten us upgraded. We had a Honeymoon Suite which was unbelievable. There were only 4 villas per building, two on top and two on the ground level. We were on top. Each had it’s own outdoor entrance and sat directly on the 
beach looking at the Caribbean Sea. It was a simple room, but truly amazing. It was just one big room with a ¾ high wall in the middle. On the front side, a king size bed extended from the wall towards the sliding glass doors which lead to the balcony overlooking the beach. There was also a couch and table looking out towards the balcony. On the opposite side of the wall was a jacuzzi tub that was about the size of our kitchen 
table. Sinks on both sides of the room and another glass door that lead to the outdoor shower. Sounds weird, I know, but hear me out. Off the back of this room they constructed 3 walls with no ceiling. There was a shower basin made out of tile with a cats head that water poured out of as your shower nozzle. It’s so warm there year round that they can get away with the outdoor shower. With a room like this, we really didn’t have 
any reason to leave, oh yeah, they didn’t have room service. Lucky for us, we were right across the pathway from the adults only pool, bar and beach. We had a beach that our Villa sat on and then behind us we had the adults pool and bar and then just beyond that was the adults beach. We were on a peninsula. The place was so big that we would leave our room, stop and get a “walking” drink so that we could have a cocktail while we 
walked to the main resort area which is where the food, swim-up bar, lounge chairs, shops, everything else was. Because of the low number of people staying at the resort, many of the things were shut down, or would shut down early. The adult bar was supposed to be open until midnight, but was closed by 7:00. There was only one place to get breakfast, but it was a breakfast bar and was pretty good. After breakfast we would 
come back and change to hit the pool/lounge chairs. We would either go to the adult beach where I would go snorkeling while Linda worshiped the Sun Gods, or we would go to the main pool and have a few cocktails and relax in beach chairs under palm tree huts. Once the drinks were flowing, around mid-afternoon, we would head back to the room for a nap to prepare us for the evening. Dinner was not that good. The food at the all-
inclusive leaves a lot to be desired, nothing like the cruise ships. But, we would typically find something worth eating and then back out to one of the many forms of entertainment. The first couple of nights we went to their version of the sports bar where we met many people including a surgeon from Barnes/Washington University. He and his wife had taken their two kids on a beach excursion that day. Their was a heavy smell 
of ganga in the air so his kids asked him “Daddy, what’s that smell?” his reply was classic “That’s a skunk, Son.” On the return bus ride home his son looked at him and said “Daddy, they have lot’s of skunks in Jamaica.” We also met a lot of Canadians, most from Montreal. They were a little different. One couple was straight up odd. She had done everything, always knew someone, and been through much more tragic events than 
anyone. It was kind of funny. After that evening, Linda and I spent our evenings at the outdoor bar that overlooked the main pool and Sea. It was very nice and relaxing to just sit after dinner, have a normal discussion with my wife and enjoy each other’s company. We didn’t do anything exciting on the trip, the idea was to relax. On our last full day there, while we were getting ready to take a nap, the workers were preparing for a 
wedding right outside our room on the beach. We had to watch, of course. All the guests arrived and the bride was walking down the isle when the older lady in a two-piece walked up in the back of the ceremony and started taking pictures with her phone. I had to take a picture of that. It was too funny. We did however, have some complaints about the resort. The second to last night we were without water or air conditioning. Seems they 
had a water main break on our end of the resort. They worked on it until about 3:00 in the morning and I didn’t fall asleep until about 4:30. I got just under 4 hours of sleep that night. Then the next day the air conditioning started to work around 4:00, but wasn’t taking the humidity out of the air so I didn’t sleep well that night either. What they say about Jamaicans being relaxed and on island time is true. They worked on that water 
main for 3 days. When we left, they still weren’t done. On Thursday we were told our bags would be picked up between 11:30 and 12:00. At 12:00 we called and they had no clue what was going on. Our bus was supposed to leave at 12:30. Well, the bus turned out to be a taxi. He showed up to pick us and another couple up, however, there was a third couple they forgot to pick up an hour earlier so we were all crammed into the taxi for the 
30 minute ride to Montego Bay. The one couple that we were crunched in the cab with were super friendly and were on the same flight we were on going back to Miami. We had lunch with them at the Margaretville in the Montego Bay airport while we waited for our flight. No hitches coming through Miami and we were back in St. Louis by 10:30 and home by 11:00 Thursday night. It was a truly enjoyable and relaxing trip. It’ll probably be a long time before we get to go on another one like that.
2 comments:
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO jealous! Love the pic. of Linda. She's a HOTTIE! :)
Why isn't the picture of Cameron in the bananna hammock posted? He is so proud of that thing!
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