We just got back from a week at Beaches Boscobel with our 4 and 5-year old. Overall, this was an okay vacation for our family. The food was pretty good, the people were friendly and helpful. The waterpark was great for the kids. Because of a number of problems, however, we won't be going back.

We reserved an Oceanfront, luxury suite and we got one--but unfortunately it turned out to be right behind the main music stage. Night after night the walls of our room shook from the loud music of the live stage show which did not end until 10:30 p.m. Earplugs and BOSE noise cancelling headphones did not work. Management was unsympathetic to pleas to lower the volume. We felt that this was unreasonable for a resort that caters to families with young children.

Don't go to this resort expecting a Caribbean beach paradise. Beaches Boscobel has a small, steep, artificial beach, often murky water (from the churned up sand) and at times is seaweed filled. No shells, just trucked-in sand and rocks. Any of the eastern U.S. seaboard beaches are better than this beach.

You can sign up to go somewhere else to snorkel and scubadive, but you have to get up early in the morning and wait in line to sign up for the next day. They tell you that there's not a limit-- that everyone gets to go (scubadiving), but that's not always true. There is a cut off, and if there are too many people you won't be able to sign up for the next day.

They ran out of apple juice on four of seven days. (tragedy with a 3 and 5 year old.)

The pools/waterpark are the place to be with young kids, but if you want poolside beach chairs you have to stake out your turf early in the morning. The first day we didn't know this and didn't get beach chairs, but on day 2 and subsequent days one of us went down by 8:00 a.m. to stake out chairs. This worked fine. At times there was competition for clean towels at the pools.

The resort has photo shop employees going around taking photos of your kids at play. They take a picture then pop a numbered wristband on your kid's wrist to help you id your photos at the photo shop a later time. You can purchase separate photos for $16US each or you can purchase one of their packages, (eg. 100 photos for $400US.) Seemed too pricey to us. Take your digital camera and save a bundle. Note: they have a photo shop on the premises, but they won't burn the photos from your digital camera onto a CD for you b/c it competes with their photo taking business.

The Kids Club didn't really work out well for us. We didn't expect it to be a problem since both the kids are used to preschool, but neither of them liked it. They spent about three hours total in the Kids Club and spent the rest of the time with us.

Having said all of this, I know that my two kids loved this vacation (mostly on account of the pools, waterslides, ice cream cones and pink slushies) and they would both have given it a five out of five star rating. But they felt the same way about cheap, nearby Rehoboth beach last year. For the bucks, I would stay closer to home next time.

Mom and 3 adult daughters had a wonderful time at Beaches Boscobel! We go on a Mom and Daughter trip every year and decided to try somewhere new this year. Although this resort is to be a family place with children we decided to give it a try.
It started out a litttle rough as our flight out of Miami was delayed and we spent our first day at the airport but once we arrived in Jamaica we were shuttled to the resort. It was not a bad ride except it was dark before we made it there due to our flight being 5 hours late. Our driver did a great job!

The first day we spent by the pool and there were several children that were active in the pool but the lifeguard seem to have them in his sights. It was a little too crowed for us by the early afternoon.

The next two days were spent lying on the beach. We snorkled, sailed and went on the glass bottom boat tour. We must say our beach days were our favorite. Oneal was the best!!!! He was waiting for us in the morning and took care of our needs all day. He went the extra mile and started calling Mom....Mommy! We can't say enough about how special he made us feel. Also, Prince the snorkel guide was wonderful. One of the daughter's got a cramp in her foot while snorkeling and he was there right by her helping her. It was like he just appeared when she needed him. All of the beach staff were great!

Our meals were fabulous. The food and drinks were delicious!
The servers were all super nice and remembered us throughout our vacation. They would see us around the resort and would always say Hi. We did notice that the female servers at the Bayside were not as accomodating as the males. They did not seem to be as friendly. Orlando always was happy to see us and would come to our table even when we were not seated in his section. He was our server at Eleanor's along with Kirklon and they made that night a great dining experience. They are super!

We did have pedicures at the Red Lane Spa and enjoyed getting our tired feet pampered. The day we had our spa day they were doing free hand parafin treatments and that was a nice bonus.

As far as our room....We had the perfect room. We will request the same room next time. We were on the top floor above the Arizona. Mom sat on our balcony and watched all the weddings on Sunday. She now has a new nickname the "Wedding Crasher". Shantel was our housekeeper and did a wonderful job! She was so kind when she would come in, always smiling.
We did get spoiled with the bed turn back service!

Every evening we would receive a newsletter about the next days activities which was really nice so that you could plan your day accordingly. We stayed busy at the resort and never felt the need to leave for other excursions.

Thanks Beaches Boscobel for a wonderful vacation!

The resort was wonderful. There are plenty of activities for the kids, as well as nightly entertainment for the adults. The recommended tours are great. The staff is very professional, courteous and attentive to guests needs. The jerk chicken at midnight was one of my husband's favorite parts of the stay. We got lucky and when we did eat at restaurants other than the Bayside (excellent buffet style food) we had the best seats in the house, either by the water, or a quiet corner in the back with candlelight. If I had to change one thing about my trip, it would be that I would have stayed at Beaches Boscobel rather than moving to Sandals (even with a butler) after my wedding night.

We stayed at Beaches Boscobel during the week of June 7 - 14, as our annual family vacation with our 9-year-old daughter. We chose this resort because it appeared on the list of "Top 10 Family Resorts" for 2007, and the activities line-up seemed interesting, and it has a Kids Kamp.

We always go with all-inclusive resorts because we like the overall experience, including the accommodations and activities. We also prefer those that have a Kids Camp (or Kids Club) so that we can have some adult time during our stay.

I rate this resort very good for the accommodations, but average (at best) for the activities. It is for this reason that we feel our trip was nice, but not memorable.
I won’t spend much time writing about the rooms, food, and service. We were very pleased with all these features. Our room was clean and comfortable, the food selection was good, and there was plenty of staff which were all very friendly and helpful (including the staff at the Kids Kamp).

We feel that the activities are what differentiate one good resort from another. And we feel this one fell short.
On the surface, there seemed to be a good enough variety of activities for the kids. But when you boil it down, they basically had: pool, water slides, Kids Kamp, and a show in the evening. The water slides were a favorite of our daughter, also she spent quite a bit of time in the pool. However, we live in a warm-weather state with plenty of pools around, and less than an hour away from one of the best water parks in the U.S. So this was good, but nothing really special for us. We did use the Kids Kamp, but selectively, because we were disappointed that many of the Kids Kamp activities were indoor activities. They had only one outdoor activity each day to enjoy the amenities of the resort. Everything else was arts & crafts, movies, games, etc. These are things that she can do at summer daycare, without going to Jamaica. Also the Kids Kamp did not allow the children to use the water slides (I do understand that, it's for liability reasons). Some of the other activities listed on the website were nonexistent. There was no petting zoo. There was no water trampoline. The water trikes were broken. The glass bottom boat was lame, since it was the snorkeling boat with some glass panels on the bottom.
The adult activities were really sparse. We did enjoy the snorkeling trip, but it only lasted one hour and it’s difficult to get on the list. You have to sign up exactly one day in advance, and if you don’t sign up first thing in the morning, the list for the next day is already full (they schedule only 2 snorkeling trips per day). We did play one game of adult water volleyball, the only one during the week. The water aerobics was terrible. I am always a regular at resort water aerobics, but after one day, I never did this one again…….the music and moves were too fast and repetitive. There were a few resort activities during the week, such as scavenger hunts and pool games, but these were occupied by the teens, and we didn’t want to be dorks as the only adults participating. We tried to play ping pong one day, but could never locate the ping pong balls. We opted not to hire the babysitting service to spend an evening at the disco, because we heard through word-of-mouth that the disco is always empty.

Overall, our stay at Beaches Boscobel was “ok”, but we didn't come home with the feeling we'd had a blast. It was more like a week of parents watching their kids in the pool at a nice resort. Perhaps a family that lives in a cold-weather area might find sun, water, and a kid-friendly resort is all they need to have a good vacation. But for us, it wasn’t worth the 12-hour journey to get there (between the airport and the very long bus ride) and the major dent to our pocketbook.

There is a 0% chance that we will return to this resort, as there is no compelling reason for us to do so. I wouldn’t rule out that we will ever try a different Beaches resort, some day. But we will more likely go to another Club Med, they seem to have found the key to making a vacation into an adventure. (sidenote: I do want to say that Jamaica is one of my favorite destinations. I’ve been twice before. But that was to all-adult resorts. I will keep Jamaica at the top of my list, but for adult fun only).

If you have already decided on this resort, here are a few tips I can offer:

1. Bring insulated mugs or cups. The bar drinks and self-serve soda come in small plastic flimsy disposable cups.
2. If you want a poolside chair, be sure to save it before breakfast. The towels are usually available early. We also brought two old T-shirts as personal items to mark claim to our spots.
3. We were very pleased with our Luxury Family Suite. Our room was spacious and had a private balcony. The view from the balcony included a partial ocean view, and even though our balcony faced those in the East Wing across the courtyard, we were separated by tall palm trees. We especially liked that our mini fridge was restocked with juice, bottled water, and soda each morning. Bottom line – I don’t see that the oceanview rooms are worth the extra cost, plus there you have to share your balcony as part of the walkway.
4. Take the excursion to Dunn’s River Falls. It is excellent and well worth the modest cost. It’s not good for very small children, though. You will need water shoes, or you can rent them for $5. Avoid the shops that they route you through upon return to the bus, they are into very high pressure selling.
5. Be prepared to climb a lot of stairs, stairs, stairs. ( a plus: after one week, my legs are really toned!)
6. Don’t buy cigarettes at the resort, as they are $10 USD per pack.
7. No need to try to dress to impress. This is a family resort filled with Moms, Dads, and their kids. Dress during the day is swimwear and coverups, and/or shorts. For evening, it is resort casual.