Hello Patty. You are most welcome!

Quote:- Thank you for reminding all of us what is truly important, on this day, and every day.

I want you to look beyond the hotel. The most important factor that will make the difference on your special holiday are the wonderful people of Jamaica. These are the people who will be keeping your rooms cleaned, attending to your needs during dining hours, at the beach and by the pool, keeping the gardens manicured. Stop and greet them. Talk with them and you will feel the warmth, spirt and hospitality of the real reason why people love Jamaica so much. They are the real gems of the Tourist Industry.

The beach is only going to be a small part of the fun during your whole holiday. If you are not pleased with this, please take Steves SOUND and HONEST advice. A little walk or short drive will take you to some of the finest beaches on the north coast. Please dont let this upset you or your family.

Have a look at some very interesting topics on this forum.

"Going to Jamaica, what can you do" by WHAMS

"Royal DeCamerun" by Fergie. Both of these are very entertaining and you will immediately get a feel of the spirit of visitors who have been to Jamaica and their comments after their return. Some heartwarming stories also. I have a list of places outside the hotel property for anyone who likes to have experiences in the real Jamaica. Please tell me.

ENJOY your Xmas holiday!

Thank you gentlemen! I will go on my trip with a better focus and actually did read numerous posts about the wonderful people at the FDR Pebbles being like family. And I will take the walk down to explore the other beaches as well. I appreciate your replies and honesty. Blessed holidays, peace and prosperity to all, Patty

Patty,

Although we have not been to the FDR Pebbles, we have booked a two week stay there over the March Break. We chose this resort based on a close friends recomendation and we were quite happy with our choice, until I started reading some of the "not-so" great reviews here on this site... I confronted our friends about these horrible reviews and this is what they said...

Beach.... Okay, we actually normally travel to Cuba and they do have the best beaches in the world... If you are looking for a "beach" vacation this is not the place.... However the beach is not HORRIBLE, Just very, very narrow (quite long) and at high tide practically disappears... The water entrance is quite rocky and the water is shallow and its not the "Clear", "Turquoise" colour that you get in Cuba, the water can be a little murkey and sometime (especially when its windy) a large amount of ocean "debris" can wash up on shore, however they have staff whose job it is to clean this debris away and apparently they work quite hard in trying to maintain the beach here....

Side note... Our friends had a chance to visit FDR Runaway Bay (The sister resort to Pebbles) and said that the beach at FDR Runaway Bay was HORRIBLE... Just a little rocky cove with the water barely deeper then yours knees...

Food.... Another complaint I have heard about is the quality of food.... My friends assured me this is just a case of "when in rome"... In other words..... If you have an open mind and like to try new things, you will have NO problems with the food here.... They make a lot of local Jamaican fare which is apparently excellent...A lot of curries and jerk... The more traditional (Canadian/American) food that many tourists are looking for is apparently not so good... Rather institutional, something you would expect at a "high school" cafeteria... The deserts are quite good as is the fresh fruit... Most kids will be fine, lots of hotdogs/hamburgers /french fries/make-to-order pasta/pizza and so forth... The people who had problems with the food tended to be "picky" adults who were not "into" trying local fare and who wanted a more "North American" menu....

Lack of things to do.... This is by far a fallacy (according to my friends) Now with that being said, both times they went was during "high-season"... However apparently they have activities "around the clock" for the kids... They have a 14 yr old son and a 12 yr old daughter and they swear they never saw them... My friend Karen had to "beg" her kids to spend time with her and her husband...

The Teen Coodnators came by and introduced themselves the very first morning and convinced the kids to join in (These kids are very shy) and pretty much had them participating in activities "around the clock"....

An example of things they did:

Nature Hikes

Tennis lesson

Sailing lesson

Kayaking lesson

Dance class (Even the son joined in)

DJ and Rap clasess

Billiard Tournement (Kids were able to represent there own county)

Bike trips on and off the resort

Camping Martha Brae

Crafts/Local Art lesson (Palm weaving)

The son went on an excursion to Montego Bay with the "teen"club.

Cocktail/Pizza Party

Movie night slumber party

Basketball/Vollyball games (W and w/ot family participation)

Even had "Patios" classes...

One more big complaint..... I had heard this place was "rustic", "full of bugs" with NO level of luxury 2* or 3* resort at best....

My friend struggled with this one a bit.... She finally came back with this response...

Think..... Summer Camp meets Jamaica AI

The "FDR Pebbles" experience will be enjoyed by people who:

Enjoy learning about the people and the country they are visiting.

Open minded and willing to try new things...

Enjoy a more "tropical" enviroment . The grounds are lush and very tropical so you will have TON's of mosquitos around (Bring repellant).

Love tons of activities.... The coordinators work tirelessly to keep everybody involved and happy...

Enjoy interaction with staff members.... The people who work at the resort are more like an extension of your own family....

First thing the front staff member said to my friend after they went back to the resort the second time was "Welcome Home"... Karen said thats what FDR Pebbles feels like... A second home....

Is it perfect???? No! Would you go back agan??? Yes and I would recommend this resort to my best friends!!!

And with that we were once again relieved that we booked this vacation... For us here in Ontario I can assure you this was not the cheapest place for us to book, We could have booked the "Starfish Trewlany" for about $2000 less... However we were looking for a more intimate/more jamaican/more activity driven vacation....

So we figured we could forgo the beutiful beach/elegent dining/plush accomodations for a more "real" jamaica adventure vacation... I think we made the right choice and you know what.... It's only two weeks, not my entire life!

Hope this helps somewhat, sorry its so long, if you have any more questions I could pass them along for you!

Cheers

Budges

Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed reply. I think it will be a good experience for the kids to actually interact with friendly people of another country and not have a sanitized American run hotel experience. As for the food, I love (and can actually prepare) jerk chicken, peas and rice etc. so I will happily eat the local cuisine. And you're right, its only 5 days of our vacation, so as long as its sunny and warm, it will beat being New Jersey in the dead of winter.

I'll report back after the trip. Hope you enjoy yours as well. Again, thanks!

WE are also going to FDR PEEBLES over Xmas and all of a sudden I am very nervous because of all the bad reviews . I have read many great reviews from the past, so I am just hoping for the best. See you there.

I just answered your message, but forgot to say that my kidsare 18 and 12. Do you have sons or daughteres?

Yes, I am taking a son who just turned 13 and a daughter who is 16 but thinks she is 20 :). I also have a 21 y/o daughter who is not invited and needs to hone her work ethic. The 2 kids are excited about the trip, just to get away to somewhere warm. My husband just wants to relax and watch CNN at night. I guess I am the nervous beach fanatic. Yet, I am hoping for the best; actually in all my travels I have never had a "disaster", it seems to always turn out ok. I once went to Club Med in Agadir, Morocco alone (in my 20's) because the travel agent told me the club was run in English. Ha - it was ONLY French and Arabic. For the first 2 days I talked to myself and then I met a group of Europeans who made the rest of the trip wonderful. (Dutch, French, Belgian, German). The beach there wasn't beautiful either, but it turned out to be a memorable 2 weeks. So, maybe I will find something in Jamaica I wasn't looking for. Lord knows, I have seen enough clear turqoise water in my life, so maybe this will be about the people and making friends. We will be there on December 25 mid-day and leave at night on December 29th..direct from Philly-Jamaica. I look forward to meeting you!

Thanks for answering- We will be arriving on Dec.24. We are also excited and I look forward to meeting you. My husband is a sports nut and he also is a t.v. watcher. The girls and I love to shop as well as be outdoors. I hope that the resort has something fun for Christmas. I also want to explore the island a little. Bonnie

Sorry to be such a bummer, but you will be disappointed by FDR/Pebbles. Its run down the owner is a pomptious a** who doesnot want to spend money. My advise would be to change. I know Sandals and superclubs are expensive but hubby and I are saving our tax returns to go to beaches negril or boscobel kids camp next year.

Take it from me Ive worked at FDR and for the Sandals group.