Our family spent 5 nights at the Rose Hall, Jamaica. We have two 12 year olds who had never been to Jamaica until now, but have traveled on other tropical vacations. They were very happy with our resort, the selection of food was nice, they loved the on-site water park and beach as well as the activities for children. My husband and I were able to relax by the beach as the waiters came out and offered us drinks and food. The all inclusive is the only way to go, as the food is rather expensive...4 people for the dinner buffet is $160...breakfast and lunch will run about $100 for a family of 4....all-inclusive is $290 per day for a family of 4. The water sports were great, we enjoyed sailing the Hobie Cats, the kayaks and windsurfing...the ocean was so warm...about 85 degrees! Service was excellent at every bar and restaurant! Nice family get away! Make sure you book your dinner reservations for the french and italian restaurants as soon as you arrive so that you can experience the excellent gourmet foods that they have to offer. There is nightly entertainment which is low key for adults, the kids have movie nights and a marshmallow roast on the beach which the entire family will enjoy! Although tipping is not required, if you do choose to tip you will be treated extra special, so it's worth it! Make sure you bring $1 bills with you..we brought $60 worth and that seemed perfect. You will need them as soon as you arrive at the airport to tip the baggage handlers and drivers, as well as the staff at the resort. The ATM is off the property so it would be a $10 cab ride to go use the ATM. Enjoy your trip!

Although this is a resort aimed mainly at longer stays, Rose Hall was happy to book me for a single night stopover ,and I could not have had a better experience. Staff friendly and incredibly helpful, restful atmosphere from poolside to restaurant. After a disastrous experience a week earlier at another hotel in MBay, Rose Hall came as a welcome and pleasant interlude in a busy travel schedule. I hope to return for a longer visit.

After reading many reviews on different resorts, we were prepared to have to choose between lots of kids activities for our 7 & 8 yr old girls and sacrifice our comfort level. Needless to say, everybody got what they wanted at this awesome resort.

For the Parents:

When we first arrived at the hotel lobby, we were seated and waited on with drinks. The desk attendant brought over the paperwork, keys, and bracelets (for all inclusive) to us. We did not have to stand in line so I thought this was a nice touch.

We did have to wait about 45 min for our room to be ready, but that gave us time to explore the resort and get something to eat while we waited.

We were taken to our room by the bellhop who brought up our luggage, and the room was immaculate. We had pillow top mattresses on the queen size beds, and the best part is the view. We reserved a mountain view but was given a room that had a view of the ocean that could be seen from the balcony, a full view of the golf course, and a partial view of the mountains. Absolutely gorgeous!

We always had hot water for bathing the kids and ourselves and had absolutely no problems with any insects like at one of the other resorts. Hint: If the resort you are evaluating comes with mosquito nets for the rooms, I suggest you high-tail it over to Rose Hall.

For the kids:

Where do I start. On day one, I highly recommend that you enroll your kids at Kidz Club. Its free of charge and it will give parents time to relax without having a child constantly underfoot. Kidz Club began at 9a, break for lunch at 12 and resume from 1p - 5p. They have a schedule of activities that will be done on each day, and you can drop off your kids during specific activites that they like. My 8 yr old loved going to kids club everyday but my 7 yr old like hangin with mom & dad, so she didn't go everyday.

There's also a bulletin board in the courtyard next to the activity center that displayed activities that were going on for that day. There were so many activities that it would take 3 months just to complete them all such as:

Water slide & tubing
Bingo
Volleyball
Family kite making
Jewelery making
Movie nite
Magic show
Beach parties
Contest & races
Trivia
Board games
Ping pong
Bananna boat
Glass bottom boat tour
Kiacking
Parasailing
Water aerobics
Exercise bikes class
and the list goes on...

Some resorts talked about being bombarded from the locals. You will find none of that at Rose Hall. This resort respects the privacy of their guest and we never had any locals roaming around trying to solicit us. The employees were very attentive to us and never expected a tip. Of course if we offered them one they took it but they didn't have this look of "expectancy" on their faces like at some of the other resorts I reviewed. They literally walked around the poolside asking "can I get you anything". I looooved being waited on!

I also like the fact that they were constantly keeping the resort clean. There was always someone wiping down the glass, doors, picking up liter, dusting, removing towles people left laying around, etc. Kudos to the staff!

The Food:

You have got to try the Jerk Chicken at the Seaside resturant. It's outside, next to the ocean and has a covered section and an uncovered section. The jerk sauce they put on the chicken & pork is to absolutely die for.

They also have a little resturant next to the waterslide & pool called Mangos. There's a section off to the side that has bar stools & tables in the pool so you can sit in the water while you drink.

Nobody got sick or had any gastrointestinal problems with the food. You could either eat at the daily buffet for breakfast, lunch & dinner, or mix it up a bit with some of the outdoor resturants. There are also 2 resturants that you had to make reservations for and dress appropriately such as no shorts, tank tops, or flip flops.

Even tho the food was good, i didn't care for the burgers because it didn't have the consistency or taste of ground beef in the USA. The chicken & fish was awesome and I love the variety of choices. If you wanted something stir fried, go to the wok station, if you wanted eggs cooked to your liking, go to the grill station. There's definitely something for everyone to eat at this resort, including the most picky eaters like my daughters.

Overall, we got the best of both worlds at Rose Hall for the kids and also for ourselves. I highly recommed this resort and it is worth every penny. We spent more taking the kids to disney every summer. We never left the resort for any extra excurrisions so I don't have an opinion about those. Nevertheless, it's back to Jamaica next year for us!

We traveled with our two young daughters and we all thoroughly enjoyed our 4 night stay. Easy and quick from the MoBay airport, water park was ideal for kids and adults, beach/beach activities were simple but again for a family with young children perfect. We did get roped into the all -inclusive since the regular price for meals was going to be more than doing the daily all inclusive rate.

Excelent staff and service who were genuinely friendly and helpful. Nice clean and comfortable rooms. Small but lovely beach area, fun pool/water park.

Food was pretty good with decent options (I'm a vegetarian so the only challenge was at lunch but was able to always find something). Kids liked all the options but the ketchup was not usual (my kids aren't picky and I heard about the ketchup thing from several parents)

Beach activities were good though not well developed or advertised (family kite making was great fun). Not a busy active resort but fairly low key with fun activities.