The following resort review was provided to us to share with you here, from our client Jennifer H. Jennifer and her family needed a large accommodation for a family trip to Jamaica to attend a family funeral. Like any short-term planning situation, options aren't plentiful when booking at the last minute, but especially more pronounced is the difficulty of last-minute planning when your family is larger than the "traditional" family mix. Jennifer and her husband have five children and needed some space to be able to spread out and relax a little bit after the funeral portion of the trip was over for some much-needed family bonding time.
We helped arrange their trip, and are grateful for the following review of the property that they stayed at.
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"We stayed at Mystic Ridge while in Jamaica for 3 nights in February of 2015. It is in a beautiful, lush green location on the top of the hill overlooking the ocean. Check-in was easy and the staff was very helpful. We stayed in a two-bedroom apartment. Our apartment was on the top (3rd floor). We are a family of 7 and we were pleasantly surprised that space easily accommodated all of us. That is not an easy feat. The apartment was very clean and furnished in bright Caribbean colors. It had a lot of natural daylight and was very open. It consisted of a kitchen and living room that opened to the balcony with a large table and chairs. The bedroom held two full-size beds and a nicely renovated bathroom. The living room had a couch that doubled as a daybed and worked perfectly for our youngest. A wooden spiral staircase led to a large bedroom connected to an open loft space that had a pullout couch. The bedroom had a Cal-King bed and was connected to another large updated bathroom that had a large soaker tub. The soaker tub however took forever to fill up and after all of us showering from the day, the hot water seemed to run out. Again, we are a family of 7 though. The air condition worked well and the ceiling fans were nice and adequate on a cool evening. The apartment had two nice televisions that had movie channels.
The resort has a restaurant on site that we had breakfast at daily. The breakfast was very good and gave many choices. The choices from day to day did not change much but it was a very nice buffet breakfast. The wait staff remembered us each time and were friendly and accommodating. We did try to order snacks at one point and they were out of 2 of the 3 things we wanted. The hotel is close to everything though and offered a free shuttle to the beach and to several other area attractions. They arranged a driver for us to go on one of our adventures.
I would say that this is not the place to stay if you are elderly, physically challenged, or out of shape. The three flights of stairs to our apartment were steep and there is no elevator. It would also be difficult to get luggage to the second floor of the apartment up the winding staircase if my strong husband hadn’t been with me. The kitchen did need updating and had tiny ants in it the first two nights. It was wonderful to have a place to cook if you’d like though and have a place to keep snacks and drinks from the grocery instead of paying three times that amount at the hotel. It appears they are still updating them also so the kitchens might be in the next phase.
The pool on site was huge and the poolside chairs were comfortable and nice. The pool could have used some attention but was clean and refreshing. There is a swim-up bar but we didn’t ever see anyone working it.
With a 3 night stay, you received tickets to Mystic Mountain which ended up being a highlight of the trip for our family. It was a great value at a savings of $46.20 for adults and $24.00 for children 12 and under. It offered breathtaking views and half a day’s worth of fun activities. We are very thankful we took advantage of the offer.
If you are looking to be in the center of the action and want to try all the water sports and activities then this is not the place for you. If you would like a clean and comfortable place to stay while you discover all Ocho Rios has to offer or a calm quiet place to call home in the sun for a week, this is a great spot. From looks and comfort alone, since the kitchen needs updating and the soaker tub was more for looks than practical, I would give it 3.5 or 4 stars out of 5. From a large family budget perspective, it gets a solid 4 stars. Maybe even 4.5 because there is not another place I know of that can sleep 7 without renting a home or needing 2 rooms. It was a perfect place for us and we would definitely stay there again."
