CN Trip Review 6/1-6/6

Hi all,

Thank you to this board and everyone's contributions! It was so helpful in my planning for our trip. The hubby and I are back from such a wonderful trip, we can't wait until we can return back to CN! We went as part of a wedding, 40 people. Everyone stayed on the resort.

Arrival: It was a breeze through immigrations & customs, probably only 30 minutes as we arrived on a Friday early afternoon. Once we got our luggage we enjoyed 2 red stripes before our shuttle took off for CN, only waited about 20 mins. The luggage porters are very up front about tipping, $1 per/bag. Don't forge to tip the shuttle driver to & from as well :) We took a rest stop for about 20 mins. Upon arrival to CN we were greeted with chilled towels and a glass of champagne, perfect after a long day of travel! Our check in was a breeze and our room was ready even though we were early. For those wondering about debit cards used for security deposit - yes, it is accepted. There is a "hold", not just an imprint of your card. Upon check out the hold was released and I've had no problems with my checking account.

Room: We opted for a Garden View and it was perfect. Clean, comfortable and roomy. Housekeeping was a hit & miss. Our routine usually consisted of leaving the room by 9:30 for breakfast and hitting the pool or beach after. Sometimes we found our room cleaned by noon, sometimes not touched and it was late afternoon. No biggie though, we only really needed fresh towels so those were easy to exchange. It was nice to have beverages & ice stocked daily. Also, we were on the ground floor of building 4 and have no complaints of any tiny ants in our room. The only con of having a ground floor room was not being able to keep our curtains open all the time since people walked by all throughout the day.

Food: OMG!! It's honestly true, all the food is delicious! I couldn't get enough of the snapper sandwich at the Beach Grill. Jerk chicken, burgers, onion rings and calamari were all so good! I love how late they are open. We usually stopped by after a late night dip in the pool, so convenient since it's right there. Cassava Terrace was great as well. They had set nights for buffet dinners and a la carte dinners, it was a nice change up and the entertainment was pretty good. I loved all the music groups and our last night there was a magician. It was entertaining, probably better if we had sat closer. One of the girls in our group got to go up and assist, she loved it :) Breakfast was nice, omelette station was always busy but not too bad. I am in LOVE with the fresh coconut and smoothie bar in the AM!! The smoothies were sooooo fresh and delicious, just amazing. Heliconia for dinner was lovely. We didn't have a chance to eat at Lychee or Otaheite so I can't speak about those two, next time!

Beach: I couldn't peel myself away from here. Everything everyone says is true. The water and beach is immaculate. One day my husband and I walked north past the resort and the beaches at the other places were just not as well kept as CN. Also, CN has great shade coverage when we compared that as well. We spent everyday floating for a couple hours. Tip - the water is MUCH more calm in the later morning/early afternoon hours and the sun is still beaming hot. There was never an issue finding a good spot with sun for me and shade for my fair skinned husband, lol. I will say though, that I despite how easily I tan I found the sun to be hot and had to use SPF 55 on our 3rd day. Even with that I would burn a little. Red flag service was pretty good, never had to wait longer than 10 minutes. The water is so clear and teal!! It is breathtaking. One of my favorite things about being at the beach is the guy with the guitar that serenades everyone, oh it was so lovely! And I'm going to miss hearing "Cigarettes, cigars cigars cigars! It's gonna be a hot hot hot one, hot one!"

Pool: It was never overly crowded. The pool bar is where it's at! Like others have mentioned, I did notice a slight smell on one side but it wasn't overpowering. One night there was an obnoxious group of people... the guy had a bullhorn, seriously? Aside from that service was awesome.

Gift Shop: They have tons of gift options. We had resort credits so we used it to buy a bunch of coffee, some shooter sized rum, picture albums, wood carvings, and rum cake. 2 flavors of rum cream; coffee and raisin for $28US. A group of 4 of us took a taxi to the Hi Lo and bought our rum cream there for only $18US for the larger size and $4US for the airplane size(slightly larger than airplane size), and they have more flavors like original, coconut and banana. The taxi cost us $40 cause it was from the resort, not on our own. The couple we went with told us they had previously taken the shopping trip to Time Square Mall where rum cream there was around $35, yikes! However, there are plenty of opportunities for souvenier shopping at the airport but we wanted our luggage packed and ready to go.

Excursions: Wanted to do the night snorkeling but it was booked for the night we wanted. So we did the day snorkeling and it was nice. Saw lots of stuff and it wasn't too long. The boat takes you out about 10 minutes away, snorkel for 30 minutes(good amount of time in my opinion) and then back to the resort.

Etc.: There was usually activities going on and the entertainment staff are excellent. Jamion is awesome! We enjoyed 2 auctions with funny money.

Overall, we had an excellent time at CN. I wouldn't hesitate to book another trip at all, just gotta save up the vacation time and money!! Everyone there truly makes you feel like a special guest and a request is always met with "no problem mon." What a beautiful place Jamaica is, my husband and I can't wait to return :)

Thank you for the review. We leave in 7 hours:):)

Thank you for your reply to my post!! I read it before I went to see if anyone had responded to mine! It was a great review. I can't wait to be on the beach reading my kindle and raising my flag for the drinks!! 5 days to go!!:cool:

Great review about our favorite spot. We love room 4107 so the Garden Deluxe Rooms are great in our minds. About the house keeping, and something I only found out on our last trip, the 4th one, they alternate days as to AM/PM cleaning of your room. I found a card that stated that in the room, probably has always been there, and I read it for a change, you know a man thing about reading instructions. Mornings one day, and afternoons the next, and so forth. All is good mon. ;)

Thank you for your review! My husband and I are making our first trip in August, and it is great to hear such positive things about the resort.

Thank you for your post! It brought tears to my eyes as we were there June1-10 and you described everything to a tea! It is a special place.