On Arrival
Ocean Eden Bay in Jamaica is around an hour away from Ocho Rios and the adult sister of the family-oriented Ocean Coral Bay resort.
After going through security at the entrance and being directed to the Ocean Eden Bay Lobby, a greeting from the concierge and a welcome drink followed.
The lobby is vast and decorated beautiful, with black and white tiling throughout with wooden accents. The concierge table is off to the side next to the reception, and a bar in the middle of the lobby.
Check-in complete, confirmation of room and explanation of the site, our assigned butler popped our bags on a golf cart, and off we went.
Reaching our room, our ‘sea view’ room had no sea view. We strained to squint, but nothing. Wrong side of the hotel. Our butler checked our booking and confirmed they had given us the wrong room.
We quickly returned to the lobby. Yet, our actual room wasn’t ready. We had an additional 30 min wait and no top-up on our welcome drink either. It was now clocking closer to 5.30 pm.
Arriving at the correct room, we quickly forgot about the mixup. A spacious corner suite with a large balcony and precisely the view we wished for, in fact, paid for, this wasn’t a cheap room after all.
We booked the Privilege Junior Suite Rooftop room. It was spacious and designed in the same style as the rest of the resort.
You can see the room and views here:
Hot Tub on the Roof
On setting up the hot tub, our butlers added a large amount of soap to the water. Which created a considerable amount of bubbles. The wind freed the foam from the hot tub and allowed it to fall to the ground below gently. People wandering past were now looking around for the direction of the foam party. The pumps did a great job of creating the bubbles. Yet, the butlers were not satisfied.
Insisting that their hands could create more bubbles, there was competition for how far they could get the bubbles down the complex. However, they were very proud of their achievements.
We even found a collection of bubbles on the way to the restaurant an hour after we had got out.
The Hotel
Split into two. One side is Ocean Coral Bay, a family-orientated complex with a kid’s water park on the side. Separating the two complexes is a collection of restaurants, bars, and shops, with pools between the hotel blocks.
The area at the time had a lot of rain which caused flooding on the nearby roads with all the rain coming down from the surrounding mountains. In addition, poor drainage on site caused some areas of the complex to flood.
One of the areas flooded was the grass around the adult pools, with the pool and grass area becoming one.
The pools were closed the entire time we were there, and maintenance was trying to pump out the excess water each day. I suppose whoever designed the site got this wrong.
Given this, Ocean Eden Bay was quiet, and most rooms were empty, which made us laugh about how they got our room wrong in the first place. While some individuals complained about not having an adult pool to use, the beach at least was just next door. The sand was cleaned constantly, and there was plenty of room for the number of guests using it. Lifeguards stood around, and the ocean so alluring and satisfying.
Things we were disappointed in for a 5-star hotel.
Some of the finishing touches to the room themselves were a little disappointing. The grout around the tiles in some regions of the bathroom was terrible, worse than my bad, and I haven’t tiled.
Restocking the fridge was hit and miss. Having no water in a room, especially for being a high-rated hotel, is an essential service we expect in most, if not all, hotels. Even if you are happy with tap water, hardly anyone would want to drink warm water in the morning.
Popping out to get supplies from nearby shops was easy for us as we drove to the hotel from Kingston. However, we found other guests complaining in the lobby about the same issue with empty fridges and restaurants being closed. Some had paid a large amount of money to fly over and enjoy their holiday for a few days and were unhappy with the service they were getting.
Food Options
For our visit, most restaurants were out of various food items. The biggest disappointment was the steak house, which was out of steak! In addition, certain restaurants had reduced menus and a reduced wine list.
Yet, the food we did have, was good. It didn’t strike the mark every time, though on the whole, it was ok. When we did have the steak, funnily in another restaurant, it was succulent and well cooked to our tastes.
Conclusion.
Ocean Eden Bay in Jamaica was a lovely resort. However, we are not sure we would return with the ease of travelling to the north of the island and plenty of other accommodations/resorts available.
With our holidays either enjoying the beaches or visiting the surrounding areas of interest, we prefer to stay in private villas. If you wish to read about one, follow this link: Bahia – A Perfectly relaxing beach house, 30 mins from Ocho Rios.
Here is a link to the resort’s website – Ocean Eden Bay