Last year we visited Beaches Boscobell and were super impressed. Though the hotel is not a 5 star by any means, we had such a good experience and dealt with the nicest staff ever which prompted us to "brag" a lot about the place. URL for that review below:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147312-d148874-r7567679-Beaches_Boscobel_Resort_Golf_Club-Ocho_Rios_Jamaica.html

This time around (maybe due to our previous Beaches experience) we were a litle dissapointed. We expected the same service as in Boscobel and it was nowhere near.

1. Resort Location- the most amaising beach I have ever seen. Read other reviews and people complained about bug bites. Did not experience any, however, we were not on the beach at night either. I did notice some red ants on the property every now and then but otherwise, your typical mosquito is your primary enemy.

2. Resort Grounds - i found this place to bee too "packed". buildings seemed to bee too much of one into another with not enough breathing space. Also, there are a lot of steps everywhere which means that strollers become a work out. Not terrible, but not baby friendly (while this is what this resort is supposed to be all about). Pools seem larger in pictures and were not that well maintained. At night, if you looked at the pool lights, you could see that the water was a litle murky.

3. Resort Food - I was dissapointed with this especially since I was expecting the same or better than Boscobel. The Last Chance Saloon had decent not great food. The Seville - we never visited (16 and older only), the beach grill is the beach grill (hot dogs, fries and burgers for the most part), and the International buffet I found to be very limited on options and very repetitious. This place had about half the options that were available in Boscobel with very litle different things from one night to another. Otherwise the food was decent.

4. Resort Drinks - I found them to be good enough and not watered down. Besides, if you want something with double shots of liqeur, just ask and they would be more than glad to provide. Also Black label, Chivas, Jack, California red wine, etc are the type of drinks available. Not bad at all.

5. Resort service - i found this part very dissapointing. For example, a dinner at the Last Chance Saloon would take a litle over two hours. We ate there twice and it was the same both times. The japanese restaurant the same - we waited 35 minutes to receive a boul of soup and salad. Everything in this resort was in slow mode (nothing like this experienced @ Boscobel). Staff very not interested for the most part and very forgetfull. We would ask for a glass of wine and another drink and only one would be delivered. We would order two dinners (mom and dad) plus a small dish of pasta with red sauce for the baby (21 months old) and they would forget to bring the pasta (after a 30 - 40 minute wait when the first item would be brought to the table). I would group the staff as follows - about 10% very nice and helpfull (above and beyond), about 15% just good enough, 25% just doing their job, 50% careless and taking their time.

6. Resort Spa - this was pretty nice and the service was very good as well. Worth every penny. Got a total relaxing massage and was excellent.

7. Hotel Room - we had the honeymoon deluxe room booked.. Upon arrival, we got bumped up to honeymoon ocean front suite. The room overall was nice, still a 3 star. Things that were broken were fixed in "jamaican" style. A pin on the AC vents must have broke and they put in a drywall screw to hold it in place. that screw kept falling everyday (not good when you have an infant aroud the room that puts everything in the mouth). A piece of the counter from the bathroom must have broken and the piece of marble was replaced with a piece of plywood and painted green to "match" the marble... LOL. Water pressure at the sink and bath tub was a joke. It would take my wife about 10 minutes to rinse her hair. with maximum pressure on, it would take a 6 oz glass about 10 seconds to fill. Small water leak from the ceiling in the sink area ( I think it was from AC condensation and not water from outside as we had it all the time. Leak was very slow - it would drop a drip every now and then / not enough to create a puddle. The view was OK not great as too many trees were in the way of the beach view and you could hardly see it throguh them. This was room 921 the Monteplier Building (#7) the one on the extreme exterior of the resort. Also, this building was located right next the the Couples Resort's. At night, between the hours of 9:30 and 11:30 the music is terrebly loud from the resort next door so don't plan on falling asleep prior to that if you are a soft sleeper. $10 left on the pillow the first morning after the arrival ensured the room was always cleaned promptly and propperly. We did notice that room was cleaned really late and towels were missed one day and it turns out the maid that normally cleans our room was out sick that day ( i met her and she offered that information to me without a question ) I guess she knew that the room would not be taken care just as well by someone else. It was wierd to hear her tell us that when she saw us walk out to the beach in the am...

Overall take - this is a 3 star resort (though they don't like to be rated) and the service is not as good as in the Boscobel one. Drinks are good, food is average at best, and service needs improvment. The grounds are too packed while the beach is very large and one of the nicest you will ever see. Cristal clear waters with no sea weeds and the perfect sand. The pictures on their website tend to make the resort look more "aired out and larger" than it actually is. Though I relaly liked the beach, I would probabbly not return to this resort in the future but rather try another one in Negril.

Last but not least and not directly related to Beaches - don't ever fly Air Jamaica. They are terrible. We were late 4 hrs getting in ( that put us at the resort check in @ 11 pm at night). This was due to a late arrival of the incoming plane (while the weather was not a factor that day anywhere on the east coast). On departure, we were about 5 hrs late and didn't get home until 2:30 am which made the trip with an impatient infant a nightmare. A lot or people on the plane were agravated and served with a terrible attitude when they asked for flight status, reason for delays, pillows and blankets that they didn't have enough of. I am a big guy and get hot pretty quick. So when Air jamaica didin't have blankets for the passagers and about half were complaining of being cold, they decided to raise the temperature in the cabin. This was great, except for the fact that I spent almost 4 hrs on a plane sweating... Also, check in is terrible especially in Monego Bay. If you are unlucky to fly air jamaica, keep in mind that they have about 10 counters that check in about 9 flights that take off within a few hours. When we got there ( and this was the same last year - though last year we did american) the air jamaica counter had a line of about 1000 people. If you already got air jamaica tickets listen to this: YOU WILL NOTICE (MOST LIKELY A YOUNG GUY) AN AIR JAMAICA BADGED EMPLOYEE THAT COMES AROUND THE TREMENDOUS LINE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO'S PATIENCE SEEMS TO RUN OUT. TAKE $10, PULL HIM ON THE SIDE - BE DISCRETE - AND HE WILL PUSH YOU THROUGH THE BUSINESS CLASS CHECK IN LINE. YOU WILL SKIP ABOUT 2 HRS OF WAITING ON LINE! I saw him do this about 3 times while on line for about 10 minutes. With a screaming and unpatient baby, I quickly learned the trick.... I am eastern european and very familiar with this kind of things. Picked up on it and got myself checked in faster than you can immagine.

I hope this review helps all travelers. Overall, it's not a bad place, but we expected much better due to our very good previous experience with them. We might try Turks and Caicos with them and move on to other resorts...

Good luck and have a great vacation!

The Beaches property definitely has the best beach in Negril. Alot of the other resorts including, Sandals suffered from beach errosion since I've been there 10 years ago. The beach is narrow near Sandals, Sandy Bay ect. but you get a good ocean view room. Beaches you can barely see the ocean in an ocean view room but you have a spectacular beach.

Beaches is not at the same level as the two Sandals properties we stayed out or the Grand Lido. Service was good, not exceptional. We remembered everyone being friendly, happy, and helpful. It was mixed here. Perhaps it's the new generation of workers.

The food was average. I actual got sick from the food, vomited and had to miss more than a day of vacation. My son also got sick and missed a day but, didn't vomit. My husband had GI distress. I think the oil in my veggie wrap or the salad was to blame. My son says it was bad ceaser dressing. After reading the previous review and their experience with food poisioning, we are now sure it was the salad we had in the same restaurant. We had a bad dessert and bottle of wine in the Seville (white glove dining). The cream was bad, I'm not sure what happened to the wine, but it was great the day before and the day after. We never experienced that before in Jamaicia. Enough staff asked us how we were doing, so we were able to address our concerns. I though they responded well but didn't offer anything. I did ask for mango and it appeared for breakfast the next day.

The kids loved the property and the beach but got tired of the food by the last day. Kids camp was okay, again mixed staff. Entertainment was good but we were so tired from the day, we were not really looking for night life.

Scuba and snorkeling were okay. The reef they take you to is pretty dead.

Overall, I would rate the vacation a 4 out of 5. We had good weather, loved the beach and ocean. The resort and grounds are beautiful. Enjoyed all the watersports. We had our room upgraded, which we loved! The food was average and we spent way to much time at the nurses office. We would go back, ya mon it's Jamacia, but I think I would try the Turks property first.

By the way, if anyone wants to barter for crafts, they love U.S. candy, jeans, Nike, Reebok, perfume. We tipped the maids candy and they were thrilled!

We visiting Beaches Negril 3 times during our stay in Negril (we stayed at Beaches Sandy Bay and Sandals Negril).

Usually I wouldn't write a review for a resort I didn't actually stay at, but we spent enough time there and I after our last two visits I really felt the need to write one.

My biggest complaint is the staff. They were downright rude to our entire group no matter what we requested. And I don't believe they had any way of knowing we weren't really staying there- just visiting. But even if they knew that does not excuse their attitudes.

At the Last Chance Saloon we requested a table for 13. The hostess looked at me like I was the most evil thing she'd met all night. She huffed off without saying anything and came back a few minutes later to tell me it would be about half an hour. We weren't that hungry yet so we decided to wait.

45 minutes later we were informed that it would be impossible to seat us together so we'd be seated at two different tables. My suggestion of putting the tables together to allow the group to eat at one table was greeted with another disgusted look. (Note: We made this same request at Beaches Sandy Bay several times and with more people and were allows accommodated with no complaints from the staff.)

Eventually I just gave in and we sat at different tables. But the problems didn't end here- EVERYONE who ate the salad there got food poisoning and were sick for the next three days. Luckily for our group- it was the last night in Jamaica. But unfortunately for everyone in the plane with them the next day- they were all sick when they left.

On another visit to the resort with just my husband and I the staff at the main bar were extremely rude. My husband stood at the bar for almost 5 minutes before being served even though there were only two other people there. The staff was too busy talking to one of the waitresses to serve those waiting at the bar. When he was finally able to make an order (just a rum and coke) the bartender started making it, but another waiter came up and he stopped to chat with him, too.

We had a few more run ins with the staff, which I find crazy because we weren't there for very long at all! I think we interacted with a total of 25 staff members and over half were extremely rude and only one I would label "polite".

Also, while the resort is beautiful and the beach is AMAZING- it's WAY too big. We came over with a toddler and younger child on a few occasions and never felt like we could let them out of our sights or else they'd disappear. If I was a parent bringing my child here I wouldn't feel safe letting them run around at all. Even in the lazy river we saw a parent lose sight of their kid around a corner and go into a panic and it took him several minutes to find her just in the water park area!

We did enjoy the water park but spent maybe an hour there and felt we got all we could out of it. Definitely not worth paying the price of the rooms there when you can stay at a cheaper resort and visit for a day.

We traveled to Beaches Negril for Spring Break with our family of five, three kids ages 9, 11 and 13. We rented a two bed room suite. While we were unimpressed with our room (basically it was two identical rooms connected - one had a king bed and the other had two couches), we really did not spend much time in our rooms. With all the amenities of the resort, we spent most of our time outside. We lost our teenager as soon as he discovered the teen group. The teen group was a very well coordinated group of teens which were supervised and constantly had fun things to do. Our 9 and 11 year olds basically fell through the cracks of activities, which are geared for toddlers or teenagers. But with the water slides, lazy river ride, two pools and a beach, there was plenty to do. It was quite crowded and limited on restaurants for the number of people there, but the service was extraordinary! Our first trip to an all inclusive. Quite expensive, but our kids will be disappointed if our next vacation is not to a similiar resort.