Heaven on Earth!
Let me begin by saying that we entered into this vacation with "managed expectations". The main draw for us was the Nanny Service. Wary of other negative reviews regarding food, cleanliness and accommodation standards we found a great price and set off with open minds and exhausted hearts....

Having said that, we were elated at every turn by the delightful service (Collin, Marquis, Randy, Jeffrey) helpful GM (Freddy) and wonderful Nanny (thanks Tresha!).

Accommodations:
The fragrant 2 story cedar buildings were charming, connected by woven windy paths with lush foliage, butterflies, lizards, crabs and colorful flowers. We could get our children to go almost anywhere with the lure of trying to catch geckos and colorful chameleons on the paths. The decor of the insides of the suites are a bit dated and damp (beach musty) but we spent little time inside and a lot of time on the balcony, at the beach, beach bar and pool. Our nanny did a fabulous job of cleaning, straightening our room and to Jamaicans our fussiness must get a little weary. Instead of having the nanny clean first thing in the morning, she would tidy up as our little one napped from 1-2pm each afternoon.

The hotel is a boutique type hotel with only 90 or so rooms arranged in 12 buildings they called “blocks”. There were “blocks” overlooking the pool or the ocean. Most rooms have an ocean view but the ocean front rooms are really worth the upgrade. It felt like the ocean was running right under our room and from the second story, we could see the sting rays lazily swimming in the water in the mornings.

When you arrive, make sure you get mosquito nets for the king size bed as well as for the kids beds. There should be a hook in the ceiling for both locations. If the either hook is missing, ask the front desk to install the hook and the nets and they will send over a friendly maintenance crew. The mosquitoes come out at dawn and dusk but are not as bad as some people say. We used bug spray and let the nanny spray the room with citronella and we didn’t get bitten at night.

Overall, the resort pulsed with a relaxed Jamaican atmosphere that you will not get at the megaplex type of all inclusive resort like the hospital looking 7 story Starfish resort next door.

The Nanny:
Our nanny was a little cool at first, but warmed up the more I coaxed her. Some almost seem scared to do anything wrong or intrude. You HAVE to give specific directives and they will execute perfectly otherwise you will feel like they are just standing around. They want your instructions, do yourself and your vacation a favor and tell them what you want! My husband and I wanted the best of both worlds time together and with the kids -at this resort YOU HAVE THIS!

We had our nanny come at 8 a.m. (an hour early) work her day until 4:40 and return after a rest at 6 pm to take the kids to the kids buffet so we could have dinner alone. Then we would return at about 8 p.m. to see the show with them. This worked amazingly for us! She gladly wanted overtime money and we enjoyed calm, quite dinners. Overtime is $4 an hour. We always paid more - happy nanny happy child we thought - but I don't know if that is the norm. Give a generous tip at the end of the week. The Nannies make ridiculously little money and have to pay for transportation, as most don’t drive.

Food and drinks:
The food was buffet style with carving stations – ham, roast beef, turkey and giant baked snappers were served alternately. A pasta station also served fresh grilled fish and doubled as the omelet station at breakfast. There was often a barbeque station too serving barbequed and jerked chicken, pork and sausage. Fresh grilled, roasted and steamed fish were usually served at both lunch and dinner. I was in heaven with the variety of fresh veggies and salads offered at every meal. There are local dishes like “akee and salt fish”, Jamaica’s national dish, curried conch, jerked chicken, pork and fish. At one meal I took what looked to me like a scallop wrapped in bacon only to discover it was one of the local bananas wrapped in bacon! Don't cringe! Try it and other interesting local fare - it was delicious. Don’t worry if Jamaican food is not your thing, much of the food was not Jamaican and was always delicious. OK, sometimes the buffet food wasn’t piping hot, but I only noticed this on the one day they served dinner on the beach with torches and candle light, it must be kind of difficult to put that on and keep everything hot too.

The restaurants offered an intimate menu and alternated weekdays. We tried both the Italian and Jamaican. They offer reservations at 6:30 and 7:30 pm. One couple went at 8:30pm and found out that they run out of some dishes. Both were excellent! The portions are smaller than N. American restaurants as I think they expect you to order the soup and appetizers.

Drinks – every type of alcohol is available, but lower shelf stuff is generally used in the mixed drinks. Some upper shelf liquor like Gran Marnier and Absolute vodka were sometimes available by request (tipping in general is a good idea). Draft beer is either Red Stripe or RS light. Bottled beer of the same variety is only available through the Nanny.

Activities:
We did leave the resort to go to the Dunn River Falls. We teamed up with another couple and brought our Nannies. The kids (ours being young 2 &5) swam at the beach while we climbed the falls. It was beautiful but the guides were a bit annoying -we wished we had gone up alone (and you can, so walk right past the guides).
One bit of advice: NEGOTIATE for everything! The resort wanted $140 per family to the Falls - we went with another family and paid $60 each - wow, huh!

Negotiating at the spa however didn't work. Oh well worth a try... I do highly recommend treating your wonderful, tired wife, as my husband did:) to the Total Rejuvenation package $140- a massage out on the pier surrounded by beautiful turquoise water, a full manicure and pedicure with a papaya/brown sugar facial. The lovely ladies spent over 3 hours on me!

The beach crew led by Mr. Collin managed the snorkeling trips, glass bottom boat tour, dragging kayaks, windsurfers and sailboat to the water and setting them up for you. They also raked up the seaweed every morning and night! They will give you windsurfing lessons, take you out sailing on the sunfish and point out hidden delights while snorkeling. They were one of the highlights of the vacation.

Visit Bamboo village down the beach. It is safe and the people are very nice...negotiate. We got braids, carvings, anklets you name it, trinkets and carvings that made the kids happy and supported locals.

Bring small bills and tip a few dollars to important people like your drink server at dinner (in order to receive a real size wine glass or ask for the bottle on your table). Tip early and often and receive even better service than is already provided. These kind, hardworking people will serve you well either way, but it was a joy to give them a few bucks during the week and at the end to help them out.

Traveling and "relaxing" on vacation is a serious challenge with young kids FDR Pebbles made it a breeze!
Have Fun!

We stayed for one week and had the best time ever. Our nanny, Kimberly Williams was wonderful. Both my girls, ages 6&8, loved her. She was really good to them, taking them to do anything they wanted. She fished with them all the tiime, went swimming with them, took them numerous times during the day to feed the animals. She made sure they had plenty of sunscreen on and took care of them. We had plenty of time to see them, but they were having such a great time with her they couldn't wait for her to come in the morning and then they would ask if she could babysit everynight! My husband and I finally had some time for dinner together. Kimberly would come back around 6:30 and take the girls to the kid's disco and get them involved in all the activities offered, they were a part of Carnival and even the Talent Show. Kimberly was even able to convince my shy 8 year old to enter the show! She is still so proud of herself. The resort itself was really beautiful and clean. Someone was cleaning all the time. You always felt that your children were being well watched and cared for. I would definately recommend that you request Kimberly Williams.

Just left a week ago - March 2008.
Resort was a great value. The staff and nannies were the best part. They went out of their way to get you what you wanted and seemed genuinely interested in your comfort. The resort was beautiful, and the best part was the nannies and activities for the kids. If you don't have kids, look elsewhere. If you do, and you want a tropical vacation and some downtime for yourself, I highly encourage you to visit here. Tons of activities for the kids, (and adults if that's your thing.). I have a 10-yr old girl and 2-yr old boy. The 2-yr old loved the pool, petiing zoo and fishing, and my 10-yr old loved the daily soccer games on the beach, water slide, various competitions (pool-side ring toss, pool races, family Name that Tune games, tye-dyed t-shirt classes, ping-pong competitions, bonfires etc). Since she didn't know anyone, she was a little hesitant at first, but there were other kids in her same situation and she met, mingled and particpated in more than I thought by day two. The nannies arrive at 9:00 a.m and they are yours until 4:30. Before going, I thought "what the heck do we do with a nanny? While I like the idea, I'm not going to hand my kids off to a stranger!" It's not like that. The nannies were with us, so we were able to play with the kids, but then take a break, go get a snack / drink, go to the restroom or whatever without worrying about the kids. They literally become an extra set of hands / eyes / ears for you so you can have a vacation too. the Kids loved our nanny as well. The food was adequate - good and very plentiful. The all-inclusive is always a nice thing as well. The rooms are clean and nice, but not plush, but then again, we were at the beach ... who wants to stay in the room all day! I read other reviews about the mosquitos being bad at night, and while my family never had a problem (an my wife is a mosquito magnet), I saw other families who had obviously had a few hungry ones in their room. The resort has an on-site nurse. I normally would say who cares, but it was relevant on this trip as I ended up having to go to a local hospital to have an abscess removed. While not the most pleasant of things, I include it just so you know that there's help available if a freak thing happens. Would I go back? You bet. Is it the nicest place I've stayed? No, but a Ritz Carlton isn't too relaxing for me if my kids are continuously "I want to do this, I want to do that..."

We just returned from a 6 day trip to FDR Pebbles. It was simply wonderful! Our kids (ages 7 and 3) were as happy as could be, and my husband and I enjoyed a much needed break from our usual hectic and stressful routine. This was our first trip to Jamaica and our first family stay at an all-inclusive, so in that context, here’s what you should know:

• The people of Jamaica and staff at FDR Pebbles are wonderfully warm, welcoming, and gracious. Everyone works so hard and is as pleasant as could be.
• Our vacation nanny was fantastic. She kept our kids entertained, safe, fed, comfortable, and happy. The resort is small, so I could always find them if I felt like checking in on their activities, or playing with them. There are so many different activities for kids (from early morning to bed time), we didn’t get to nearly all of them during our stay. Since there’s a 4 year age gap between our kids, one good feature was leaving the younger child with our nanny while we took our older child snorkeling or in the ocean. Also, since our younger child still naps, it was nice having the nanny stay with her in our room while we ate lunch or relaxed on the beach. I felt like our nanny was dedicated to taking care of all of us – we wanted for nothing.
• The grounds are lovely, and the pool and beach are great. We never found the beach to be overly crowded, even though we traveled during peak Spring Break season. I always felt safe and at ease.
• Another plus is that the background of the guests is fairly diverse, including Jamaicans. I believe the resort is Jamaican-owned, which we appreciated.
• The experience was incredibly relaxing for the grown-ups.
• The accommodations are simple and modest - we had a large room which was semi-split into two separate rooms. It was perfectly adequate and comfortable but not luxurious. We especially liked that no building is higher than 2 or 3 stories (it is not a high-rise type resort).
• The food is fine – nothing special, but since all I cared about was that someone else was taking care of cooking and cleaning, it suited me perfectly. The drinks are plentiful and delicious! Mixed drinks are included.
• You have to leave the resort for shopping (as I wasn’t remotely interested in that activity, not a problem). The all-inclusive price includes one shopping trip to Montego Bay and another historic tour of Falmouth (neither of which we attended).
• We took one day-trip to Dolphin Cove for the “touch” experience, which we loved (even though it was outrageously expensive).
• I wouldn’t recommend the resort to individuals or couples traveling without kids along.
• Bring lots of sunscreen from home! Bathing suits (with cover-ups for the girls and women), shorts, and tee-shirts were all that was needed during the day. I was comfortable in Capri pants in the evening.
• Lastly, we provided tips to our nanny and a few special staff before we left. I had no idea how much to tip the nanny, so I settled on $5 per day per kid, plus $2.50 per day for cleaning our room (which was one of her additional responsibilities). Hope that helps others.

All in all, if you are looking for a low-key, very relaxing vacation where your kids are happy and entertained, this is a great place to go. We were all sad to leave and look forward to returning one day.