First of all, the Sandals brand is reputable and a brand that I trust. I know that booking a vacation to any of their resorts is going to ensure a wonderful vacation. We wanted an all-inclusive vacation for our family, but most family-friendly all-inclusive resorts do not have children’s programming for kids under age 3. A lot of the resorts require the children to be 3+ and potty trained. That doesn’t work for our family because our children were 1, 6, and 9 at the time of travel. At Beaches, they take children newborn and up! I took Logan when he was 2 months old and he did amazing. Childcare was a huge deciding factor for us.
The quality of care is also reputable within the kids clubs. All of the staff is international nanny certified and they are trained to work with children that have special needs, particularly autism. This is a huge draw for families who are overwhelmed at the thought of taking a family vacation but also want an adults only break. Lastly, the other main reason why we picked Beaches Ocho Rios over the other Beaches properties is because, frankly, it was the least expensive of the three resorts when we booked. It is the smallest resort in the brand, but after lots of research we felt we made the right decision. Smaller doesn’t mean “worse” is what I ended up learning (again, I’ve been to the Turks property twice and know how amazing it is). I felt the smaller resort was wonderful.
I read a lot of “What’s Club MoBay and is it Worth It?” blog posts, and the short answer is YES! We didn’t have a lot of extra costs for our all-inclusive vacation but one extra service that we paid for was Club MoBay. Club MoBay is a VIP airport service that is worth every single penny! Here’s what you get when you purchase the VIP Arrival and Departure passes.
ON ARRIVAL: – You are greeted by a Club MoBay representative (who is holding a little whiteboard with your name and all – very VIP feeling, haha) – You will be escorted through a fast lane through immigration and customs, all with your representative. The immigration line at Montego Bay is insanely long, as all of the flights seem to land at the same time. Being able to skip that line with small children was so valuable to us! – You get access to the Club MoBay arrival lounge to wait for your transportation to your resort. We didn’t use this lounge, but more on that in a minute (in hindsight I wonder if it would’ve been better than the Sandals lounge).
ON DEPARTURE: – You check in at the kiosk and have access to go through a shorter security line to get to the terminal. This line is immensely shorter and goes very quickly. (Note: it is not like TSA pre-check. You do need to remove your shoes and take items out of your bag like you would the regular security line.) – You get access to the VIP departure lounge, which was incredible! Unlimited food and beverages (including alcohol), nice restrooms/shower area, and even a kids’ play area! We found this to be an amazing end to our trip.
Beaches Ocho Rios is the smallest resort of the Beaches brand, in Ocho Rios. The resort is situated on a hillside overlooking a beautiful cove beach. Beaches in many parts of Jamaica are not wide and expansive coastlines – a lot are small coves. 7 mile beach in Negril is the longest span of sandy beach, so if you’re looking for something like that, you may want to check out Beaches Negril. Beaches Ocho Rios, while small, has lots to do! There are 7 restaurants on property, a few wonderful pools, a beautiful beach, and a water park!
Everything is included at Beaches Ocho Rios! Well, nearly everything! Here’s what is included: – Unlimited dining – Premium liquors and all non-alcoholic beverages – Swim up bars – Stocked bars in every resort room (including non-alcoholic beverages) – All tips, taxes, and gratuities – Roundtrip airport transfers (but remember to bring a little extra cash to tip drivers!) – Kids Camp with certified nannies for all ages – Pirates Island Waterpark – Sesame Street character interactions and shows – Entertainment – PADI-Certified Scuba Diving – Snorkeling – Hobie cats, paddle boards, kayaks – Beach volleyball, basketball, pool tables – Teen club – Liquid – Xbox play lounge – Fitness center – WiFi
There are some extras you can add on at Beaches Ocho Rios, in case you were wanting to book some! I will go into more details about the extras we did! Here are some of the optional vacation extras at Beaches Ocho Rios: – Red Lane Spa services (and gratuities) – Candlelight dinners – Island Routes Excursions – Sesame Street packages – Beach / pool cabanas There are more but those are the big ones.
Beaches Ocho Rios is the smallest resort of the Beaches brand, with about 220ish rooms. There are a bunch of different room categories and are great for families of all sizes. What I like about this resort is that most of the rooms face the ocean (although there are rooms that do not). Every room seems to be close to everything, as well. We stayed in a Caribbean Honeymoon Oceanview Concierge Suite King. Our room had a king size bed with a little room divider. On the other side of the room there was a trundle bed with two twin size beds. This room fits 5 people, and I assume that means they will roll in another twin size bed for you. We did not need that, but we did have a crib in the room for Logan. We felt we had plenty of space to spread out. The room wasn’t the most new and updated space, but it was clean, comfortable, the bathroom was fairly updated, and I loved the large balcony that overlooked the resort and the ocean. We were very comfortable.
Dining at Beaches Ocho Rios was a pleasant surprise. I thought I would be a bit disappointed by this after experiencing the endless options of 21 restaurants in Turks & Caicos, but I was not disappointed! I found that the restaurants were decent quality and I didn’t have a bad meal. Would I travel there just for the food? No. But we were happy and there was always something for everyone to enjoy. There isn’t a wide variety of traditional Jamaican food, but there were a few items here and there.
When we went to Beaches in June 2021, the resort was at about 70% capacity. Like I mentioned, it is the smallest resort in the brand, so you’re not going to have a huge crowd to begin with, but we never felt like we were in a crowded area. There is a Platinum Protocol of Cleanliness that has been implemented, and we found everything to be exceptionally clean across the board. Masks were not required around the resort with the exception of a few spots – in shuttles/car transfers, in the Red Lane spa, and in the Kids Club areas and Xbox lounge. All staff were wearing masks, even outdoors. At the time of our visit, there was less than 10% COVID vaccination rate for the residents of Jamaica, and they heavily rely on tourism, so they were very strict about mask wearing. Guests seemed to be polite about keeping space and not crowding, particularly if they were not wearing masks. A lot of what we were doing was outside and we weren’t around a lot of people at all, so we felt safe!