February 19, 2025 - February 26, 2025 -- Moon Palace Resort, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Written By: Wendy
If we rewind back to December and you have been diligently reading all our posts (obviously you have), you will remember that Scott and I spent an amazing kid free week in Cancun at Sun Palace Resort. If you will recall, we were coming off of less than positive RV life experiences and were then immersed into luxury and comfort. To sum it up, when they gave us the sleazy timeshare sales pitch, we fell for it and enthusiastically said, "YES! We want to members and come back! SIGN US UP!" So we bought in to their resort (which they made it abundantly clear that it is not a timeshare, but rather a membership to their resorts). We now have this membership and these weeks we have to use, so we started looking into their different locations. Lo and behold, they have a resort in Jamaica. We found a cheap flight with miles to fly to Jamaica from Miami. Done. Time it for to be there for my 35th birthday? Done. Ok, so let's see if anyone wants to come with us. My parents? Can't, already have another trip. Scott's siblings? Can't, they have work and responsibilities. Our travel buddies from the fall, the Herds? Duh! Of course they will come! Let me go on a brief tangent that I believe I have already gone on in the past, but I just need to go on it again. Friends that we've met traveling are so much more likely to say yes to crazy ideas and travel plans. Want to completely change your route to travel with us longer? Absolutely! Want to boondock with us in October in upstate New York? Why not! So when we asked the Herds if they wanted to come to Jamaica with us for a week, we thought it was a bit of a long shot, but we were not all that surprised when they texted us the next day saying that they had booked it. Amazing!! Ideal tropical vacation with friends, here we come!
All that to say that is how we ended up laying on a Jamaican beach on a perfectly bluebird day, sipping drinks and catching up with friends while the kids played with their besties in the warm ocean on my 35th birthday. Couldn't get much better than that. Our week in Jamaica was magically amazing. So much so that as I write this, 2 months later, our kids are still continuously asking us when we will go back to Jamaica. The resort we stayed at does a very good job of making you feel like the upper echelon of society for one blissful week. It is all inclusive, so we could order drinks from the bar at anytime. Our kids could get crepes and chocolate truffles anytime their little hearts desired (pending parent approval) from La Creperie. The beaches were pristine with warm water and a gentle wave. There were multiple pools, two of which had swim up bars. There were several restaurants to choose from on property, and they served actually good food incorporating flavors from the local cuisine. There was a kids club, where we could drop the kids off and enjoy ourselves as adults. Throw in our travel buddies that we haven't seen in 3 months, and it made for an incredibly fun week with no worries, mon.
One of the highlights of the week was our one off resort excursion. Since we are members, we are given resort credit that we can use on spa services at the resort or for various off resort excursions. As is classic in our experience with international travel, we were told very little about the excursion we chose. We picked this particular one because it was only half day and a short drive from the resort. The staff also assured us that it was good for kids unlike the excursion to the famous Dunn's River Falls, where you climb a waterfall, which our kids were probably too young for. They explained that during our excursion to Konoko Falls we would walk around a garden, see some animals, and look at a waterfall. Sounded relaxing and good to us! As we were walking out the door, Scott looked at the ticket they gave us for the excursion, and it said to wear water shoes and swimming attire. Hmmmm, suspicious. We set off on a clear sunny day with a small group from our resort on a bus through town to Konoko Falls. Once there, we were greeted by a tour guide and started off with a tour of the gorgeous tropical garden. We saw huge banana spiders and learned about the local plants. We then saw the animals and had the opportunity to hold a parrot and an iguana, which thrilled our kids. After that we walked to the waterfall. It was large and stunning with water gently cascading over the limestone and pooling in several turquoise pools along the descendent. At the top of the waterfall, our garden guide swapped out for two guides that had bright red shirts on that said "Lifeguard." Hmmmm, even more suspicious. We followed them down some steps to the base of the waterfall and there they began going over safety protocols for climbing up the waterfall. So we were not taking the stairs back up like we assumed, but rather walking up the limestone through the water. It didn't look extremely dangerous, but we were the only ones with kids on the tour, and our kids were not exactly completely independent. Caroline had a freak 24 hour fever the day before, and she still wasn't feeling her best, so she refused to let me put her down. I had slammed my pinky toe in our RV door just as we were putting it in storage on the way here, and it was still quite swollen and black and blue (2 months later it still hurts, so I'm guessing I broke it.). So to say I was wary about climbing up a slippery waterfall with a broken toe while holding a toddler is an understatement, but I decided why the heck not?! We went for it, and it ended up being an amazing experience and one we won't soon forget. Parker rocked it and climbed the whole thing like a champ. One of the guides quickly took pity on me and held my hand just about the whole time and to make sure I didn't slip. He probably thought I was crazy to climb this waterfall with a kid on my hip the whole time (unfortunately I didn't have our Ergo backpack for her). We all made it to the top, and everyone felt accomplished and was high on endorphins. Parker was beaming with pride when he reached the top, and continuously rehashed his perilous climb to the top. I guess it ended up being a good thing that we didn't know all the details for the excursion going into it. Maybe that was their strategy all along.
The rest of the week lazed along. We snorkeled and swam in the warm ocean, seeing a wide array of tropical fish and even squid. We got drinks from the swim up bars, laughed our heads off with our friends, and dreamed up future travel plans together. We swapped off date nights at the fancy Italian restaurant and girls and guys nights at the outdoor grill. We all did the sales pitch tour at the beginning of the week, so we had a good amount of spa credit that we had to use up. We took turns getting massages and facials at the spa and relishing in the quiet and relaxing alone during the treatment and in the sauna, steam room, and heated beds before hand. One day when I went in, they took me through the usual routine of sauna, cold room, and then heated bed, where I promptly fell asleep. The attend came to wake me up almost 40 minutes later and she said it looked like I needed a nap, so she let me sleep. Thank you, kind lady.
When our week came to an end, we were sad to say good bye to our friends and the lovely island of Jamaica. Our kids cried as we pried them all apart and waved good bye in the Montego Bay airport. It was our first international trip with our kids, and we knew that it was far from our last. This just lit a fire inside of us to travel even more to gain deeper understandings of other places, people, and cultures.