Honeymoon booked at CSA this June - A couple of questions

[LK/JK]

Hi,
We are very excited and are really looking forward to June! These message boards and TA really helped make the decision to go to CSA an easy one. We'll be there from June 13th to the 24th. I still have a few questions that I couldn't find answers for. Sorry for the length just trying to get some more SA before we get there.

1) What can we expect the weather to be like for our time period? My impression is that we'll have some rain and temps in the 80s. Any thoughts from people that have been to CSA in June before?

2) Reserving chairs and places on the beach. I know this depends on how busy they are at the time but is it ever a problem? Some seem to take the "marking" of chairs as rude.

3) Honeymoon upgrade? We are in the Atrium Suites and I'm sure they'll be more than fine but some have spoken of an upgrade for honeymooners. I wouldn't shy away from a beach front suite if it was on the menu.

4) Beach vendors? Some say they don't take "no" for an answer, some say they are respectful. I am thinking that if I can handle the card slappers in Vegas this shouldn't be a big deal. Can Ms LK/JK walk around the beach without a worry if I'm at the bar getting drinks?

5) Speaking of Vegas, how's the CSA Casino? Is there a scene there or is it a small side attraction like a game room in a hotel? No biggie, just curious.

6) Is there a beach party/fire every night?

I think that's all for now but as time goes on..... Thanks everyone! Hope to see you there.

[LK/JK]

I think I found my answer to the beach vendor question. One more though:

Any ATMs around the resort? Do they use American or Jamaican money?

[sherrynchuck]

Weather in Jamaica is essentially the same temp all year round. Daytime will be upper 80's or low 90's, evening temps upper 70's. It often rains a bit in the afternoon...a few minutes to an hour or two. It will still be warm though so many people stay outside or it's a nice time to go back and enjoy that beautiful hammock on your verandah.

Depends on how early you get up and how full the resort is whether you need to reserve your chairs. We would get up and go to breakfast when the restaurants opened (7ish) and then go to the beach and we were among the first to arrive. We never had trouble getting chairs and even got the same spot everyday. When it's more full obviously it's going to be more of a challenge but there is room for everyone, you are just going to have to go looking for chairs. As far as reserving, the palapas are a bigger issue. People will get up with the sun and put their stuff under one and then not show up to use it until noon...yep, it's rude. I haven't heard comments about the beach chairs but to be honest I'd say common sense dictates. If you are going to reserve a chair while you are gone at lunch or out for a swim in the water, or something like that nobody will likely even pay attention. If they see your chairs sitting for 8 hours out of the day with your stuff and two hours with your bodies in them likely it will be viewed as rude. Is anybody going to confront you about it? Doubt it.
Room upgrades can happen but shouldn't be expected, particularly during the busier times of year as the resort is more full and rooms are already booked so there is no availability for the upgrade. Truthfully, many will tell you that an atrium is the best room in the resort. We did have a BFVS and enjoyed being right there but we like to spend time on our verandah so that fit "us". If you aren't the type to spend a lot of time in the room then you may find you also prefer the atrium.

I've never heard anyone say the vendors won't take no for an answer. If you are on the CSA beach security is very good about keeping them moving along, you won't even have long to make a deal if you want to do so as they don't want them lingering...I got this info directly from one of the guards. If you don't make eye contact they won't even speak to you, if they see you looking at them they'll tell you what they are selling and ask if you are interested, if you aren't just a polite "no thanks" and they walk on unoffended. A female can absolutely walk around the beach at CSA alone, off the property I preferred to have my husband with me but perhaps others felt fine alone there as well. At night I wouldn't walk the beach even together off the CSA property.

The casino is small but friends of ours went several nights and won. We just peeked in, looked like slot machines but maybe there was more we missed.

The beach party is once per week, I can't recall for sure but I think it was Friday night...someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[razzldazzlme]

Congrats on your pending nuptuals! June will be hot & humid. Heat index will be much warmer than 80s, I'd venture (been a while since we've been to Negril in June). Reserving chairs under the palapas and then not using them for hours on end, irritates the guests. Don't know about honeymooner upgrades. You can surely ask upon arrival. You & your bride will be A-OK on the beach. A respectful no thank you works just fine. In all our trips to CSA, never been in the casino or played the slots. There is a bon-fire night too. Not sure which night that is but surely other folks on this awesome MB will know and help you further. We will just miss you & yours as we depart on June 11th. Have a wonderful honeymoon! Razzl

[redinthehead]

1) What can we expect the weather to be like for our time period? My impression is that we'll have some rain and temps in the 80s. Any thoughts from people that have been to CSA in June before?For us the weather was great ( but we are from the desert) I would say it felt like the 90's and we had an afternoon shower everyday that lasted 10-20 minutes, but it is a warm rain.

2) Reserving chairs and places on the beach. I know this depends on how busy they are at the time but is it ever a problem? Some seem to take the "marking" of chairs as rude.We never had a problem finding chairs. We just moved them to were we wanted them. We got the same spot everyday. As for Marking chairs people do claim the palapas and you dont see them using them. I think this is rude but it takes all kinds

3) Honeymoon upgrade? We are in the Atrium Suites and I'm sure they'll be more than fine but some have spoken of an upgrade for honeymooners. I wouldn't shy away from a beach front suite if it was on the menu. Love the Atrium, Its that Hammock. Not sure about an upgrade? We thaught about trying the beach front siute but they are right were people walk by on the beach.

4) Beach vendors? Some say they don't take "no" for an answer, some say they are respectful. I am thinking that if I can handle the card slappers in Vegas this shouldn't be a big deal. Can Ms LK/JK walk around the beach without a worry if I'm at the bar getting drinks? Ms will be just fine, I found all the vendors to be very nice and respectful. My husband went parasailing and was gone for awhile. No worries

5) Speaking of Vegas, how's the CSA Casino? Is there a scene there or is it a small side attraction like a game room in a hotel? No biggie, just curious. Looked small to us

6) Is there a beach party/fire every night?

just once a week, WED I think?

We will be there June 8 -16 so see you on the beach

[melody]

It might be in the 80's but the heat index is much higher due to the humidity and direct sunlight.

It does happen, sometimes worse than others. You can always find a chair but it's frustrating when you want to be in the shade and all the shaded chairs are being used or are being saved with nobody in sight. Some of the times we have been there is was not so bad and sometimes there were many (like 40 or so) people saving one chair in the sun AND one in the shade. Some of them would switch back and forth but some would drop their towels on both and then we never saw them again. Not cool.

I have yet to hear of a honeymoon upgrade. As of now the upgrades are for high level repeaters or people who are in an overbooking situation. Even if they do overbook the atriums they would likely give the upgrades to repeaters first. If you do manage to get an upgrade it would be very unlikely that would you would move all the way up the a beachfront room since that's like 5 categories higher.

The beach vendors are not bad at all. They aren't allowed to come up the beach away form the water. Anyone who says they can't shake the vendors is doing something wrong. If they keep talking you can seriously just walk away and there is nothing they can do about it. I have seen people on beach chairs wave them up and they don't go because they are not allowed and they know the security guards will tell them to go because it's private property.

[melody]

Sorry, forgot to answer the last two! I haven't really hung out in the casino but it isn't huge. It's nice and everything but I don't think it gets too busy.

The beach party is once a week but there is some sort of entertainment at the Palms every night that there is not a beach party. There is also entertainment in the Greathouse.