Sunset Jamaica Grande: Paradise Lost

I am a very lucky individual. I love entering contests and, quite often, I win. I actually won several trips in 2006. Craig and I went to the Daytona 500 care of Mavis Tires and went to England care of WABC Radio in New York. This time, I was fortunate enough to win an all-inclusive vacation to Ocho Rios Jamaica from Friendly's Restaurants and a Long Island radio station WBLI. This means that the airfare and hotel were fully paid for. NICE.

Upon arriving at Sangster Airport in Montego Bay, we went to the JTL Tours Desk to get our bus to the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios. After getting our tickets, some guy brought us to another desk, and demanded a tip. At this desk, another man brought us to the bus, and demanded another tip. We finally got onto our bus without tipping anyone else and endured the 2 hour bus ride to the resort.

The bus ride was painful, but the bus driver made it a little more bearable by pointing out interesting places along the way. Fortunately, I slept for most of it. Once we finally arrived at the hotel, we tipped the driver and got our bags. As my husband got the bags from the bus, I ran inside and got on the check-in line. I highly recommend you do this, as the check-in line gets very long and is painfully slow. As we were waiting in line, we were brought a non-alcoholic punch, which was delicious. We were also given bracelets that we were instructed not to remove during our stay. These bracelets gave us access everywhere in the resort and identified us as guests.

Finally, after waiting 20 minutes in line (even though there were just 3 people ahead of us), we checked-in. Well, sort of. The check-in procedure itself took 10 minutes. However, even though we were there well-after the specified check-in time, our room wasn't ready. We were told to come back in 30 minutes to pick up our keys.