John Mitchell

Review of Beaches, Boscobell

I probably would have given this three and a half ...

I probably would have given this three and a half stars if that was an option. But three stars was too low.
We went here with our children 7, 8, and 10, and another family with a nine-year-old during the first week of November.

The good:

1. The staff was absolutely phenomenal. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and genuinely seemed to want to do everything possible to make our trip as fantastic as possible. The bartenders, the restaurant staff, and the beach staff in charge of lifeguarding and ocean activities were particularly good.

2. There were three separate pool areas as well as the beach and none of them seemed overly crowded most of the time. There were plenty of activities and while you had to sign up early for some of them it was easy enough so we tried snorkeling multiple times, banana boat rides, and sail boating. The kids also loved the Xbox room, obviously.

3. The food. While the waits for entrees at the restaurants were ridiculously long, even when the restaurants were not crowded, the food itself was particularly good and better than I expected. The buffets had freshly-prepared and delicious foods, the salad bars were well-stocked, and the restaurant staff was accommodating to our vegan diet. They made several freshly-prepared items specifically for us when there were not sufficient things available on the regular menu. They also had a separate vegan menu which we were allowed to review in advance and then make selections even before arriving at the restaurants.

3. Accomodations. We stayed in a concierge King Veranda Suite in the "Carribean" portion of the facility which is basically the main building. It was really only one room but it was more than sufficient for our family of five. There was a sleeper couch with a pull out trundle and they brought in a rollaway bed so each of the three children had a separate bed. My wife and I had the king bed. The rooms were clean and well-maintained.

The bad:

1. Off-site excursions were ridiculously high-priced and were inflexible with regard to scheduling. I highly recommend contacting a local tour guide to pick you up at the facility which we did one day to go to Blue Hole. But the other excursion to Mystic Mountain booked through the resort was somewhat of a hassle and overpriced.

2. The resort is touted as luxury high-end but the property is starting to show some wear. While it seems the staff is trying their best to keep everything up you can just tell it is not fresh and new.

3. The kids club for very small children seemed fine but for older kids it was very boring and low energy. There were barely any kids there which I assume is the product of the fact that it just did not seem like a lot of fun.

4. They overbooked special events. On our last night there, there were three weddings + a rehearsal dinner for a wedding the next day. As a result multiple portions of the facility were closed off to the rest of the guests. And we could not even retreat to our room to relax that night. There was a wedding with obnoxiously loud music right outside of our door that went almost to midnight. And on the other side there was another wedding we could hear from our balcony. It was just too much for one day. Left a bitter taste.