Couples Negril

We visited Jul 16-22. We chose this resort because of the positive reviews for the food, service and beach. First the good. The beach was a definite win!! Clear, calm waters! 10/10. I also want to shout out the water sports team Jerome and Alex who went out of their way to ensure a great time! We also did the snorkeling tour and the catamaran cruise...which are included. We enjoyed those and other water sports! The food however, I was NOT impressed. To note I am a foodie AND from Trinidad...my husband is from Jamaica...so when it comes to food we have a high bar. What I liked...you can get fruit smoothies at the veggie bar and coconut water (in a coconut) everyday. They had real Jamaican patties (Tastees from what I can tell) and soft serve icecream. If you like coffee, ask for a latte with rum cream 😋. I would like to suggest they offer more icecream choices at lunch and dinner. They only had 3 flavors (chocolate and vanilla)...what happened to rum and rasin or even coconut. Try adding some local flavors to the mix. Jamaica is home to Devon House icecream so we can do better with the icecream!! What I didn't like was the very LIMITED options on a daily basis. Breakfast has the standard omelet station which I enjoyed...mixed in with some local items like akee & saltfish with fry dumpling. The fruit section though was pitiful! Barely any local fruits. Six days and not one mango! The fruit bowls were small and almost empty all the time. They even had a large bowl with pear from the tin. The TIN!!! WHHHHHY would a tropical island have fruits from a tin and barely any fresh local fruit. I saw a tiny portion of sugar cane and pineapple. The one saving grace is that you can get fruit smoothies! But I do like to eat my fruits preferably. The lunch buffet had very limited choices. Think 6 or 7 items with only 2 meat choices. Eg. Fried chicken or grilled fish. Or one day they had Asian food and no other cuisine. The local food choices were also severely lacking. This is the first jamaican hotel (and we have stayed at MANY) where the local food was hard to find. And when it did present itself i was underwhelmed. And food choices limited in general. Dinner had no buffet and had to order off a menu that was basically the same everyday. They would change one main course. So pretty much we ate the same lunch and dinners about 3 times over the course of 6 days. We also visited the Asian restaurant which was excellent and the best food we had the entire week! And the "Caribbean" restaurant which was "okay." Again not alot of choices. And the flavors to me was lacking. I was most disappointed the ONE night they had the dinner buffet that was supposed to be a beach party. It was all local food. But I walked away disappointed by how bland it was. I was so shocked. How do you water down jerk pork and jerk chicken? Now if you are American I think you will think the food is great. Hence so many reviews saying that. But not if you are a foodie. The rooms are clean and most importantly the bed is comfortable. In comparison to newer hotels the rooms are understated and dated. And we did find a dead roach the first night after we came back for dinner. We also asked to move our room because we could hear the entertainment very loudly. We were moved to building 9 and that was fine. The housekeeping was inconsistent. We had to call the first 2 days at 3pm and 4pm to ask if they were coming to make our room. We also had to call for turn down service a couple times. In all I probably called 5 times to ask for our rooms to be cleaned. I didn't necessarily feel an overwhelming friendliness from the staff. It was not bad (except for the brother who took our bags to our room the first night...he had a look on his face like he drew the short straw when he found out our room was on the 3rd floor. He then walked 4 feet ahead of us and didn't talk to us or welcomed us...like the other folks do. That was a first and a very bad welcome.) So except for that outright negative experience we didn't have any negative encounters with staff. But again we didn't have any overwhelmingly stand out service either. And because Jamaica is our second home, we know exceptional service when we see it. I think this is more a reflection of the culture of the management. I believe if you treat your employees well they will also show up excited to be at work. Read less

So, this was our second visit to Jamaica. Our first trip was to Runaway Bay about 10 yrs ago. This trip we wanted beautiful beaches and a more intimate, smaller resort. After much studying numerous different resorts, we settled on Cpuples Negril. It is a truly lovely property and one of the smallest we have ever stayed at anywhere. A few of the positives I would like to mention is the staff is super, over the top, attentive and we truly wanted for very little. Most everything is conveniently centered around the main pool which is also very nice. Premium drinks with top shelf liquors were offered all day, every day. Fully stocked mini bar, replenished everyday with selections you pick yourself. I asked for Vodka and Rum, expecting those tiny little bottles you get on the plane and instead was completely shocked upon returning to our room and having a 1.75 mL bottle of each. There was only my husband and myself. No way to finish those off. These were all included. We also had a complimentary bottle of champagne as well as 2 bottles of wine. The entertainment at night was lovely and several activities such as beach bonfire, fire show, crafts at night, music at every turn. Music provided during dinner at the buffet each night as well as later entertainment at the piano bar. Restaurant selection was minus the Asian Fusion restaurant due to hurricane Beryl. We still found plenty of delicious choices in the other restaurants. A special treat was the coffee bar offering expresso and cappuccino's each morning. Our room was a Deluxe Beachfront. Spotless clean, mattresses good, spacious and nice bathroom. I would have enjoyed a pillow spray or room spray at night as I like aromatherapy at turn down. Pillows were comfortable as well. Upon arrival, no worries Mon! We were immediately treated to warm hospitality wash clothes after our hour long journey from the airport, and then also a glass of bubbly champagne. We never touched our luggage coming to resort or going. It was handled. The beaches at this resort are impeccable and chairs, floats, pools, etc., everything is cleaned and sanitized each morning. This resort is truly spotless. Your room key is actually a bracelet that looks like you picked it up at the gift shop. Super cute and great idea as opposed to a traditional key card. Most water sport activities included as well as a catamaran trip. The resort overall requests NO TIPPING. My husband and I both really appreciated this. We did schedule a couples massage, which I highly recommend and we did tip our massage therapist. It was one of the best massages I have ever experienced. Air conditioning in rooms was spot on and in the piano bar at night, you actually need a light sweater. The mosquitos were bad at first due to hurricane Beryl. The resort fogged the entire property at least 3 times during our 6 day stay. We did purchase bug spray bc mosquitoes love me. Worked beautifully. We also enjoyed the au natural beach several days. Nice area with fully staffed bar and food tent each day. We took advantage of the the hot tubs at the property each afternoon. We would absolutely book this property again. Great value for your money. We have traveled to several locations, all inclusive in Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize and the Carribiean. Read less

We were here from June 22 to July 5 — we were to fly out July 1 but because of the WestJet strike (a Canadian airline) and hurricane Beryl, we had no choice but to extend our stay. This was our first time in Jamaica and we loved our stay at CN. First and foremost, a sincere THANK YOU to all the staff at CN. They did an amazing job preparing for the hurricane. Ms. Caroline Cousins —the GM: I love you! Thank you for being so kind, especially to us who were stuck there for several days. With your leadership and compassion, each and every one of us at the resort, including yourself, were safe and comfortable before and after the storm. Tips: join the Facebook Group; you will learn so much about the do’s—there is really no don’ts. Staff are friendly and attentive. Shout out to Dane, Darlone, Oshin! The menu at the main restaurant alternate between buffet and ala carte. The coffee shop is a gem. The deep fried banana at Lychee Garden is so delicious. The freshly squeezed juices at breakfast, OMG, delicious! I really don’t have anything negative to say about this resort. If you are looking for a place to party at night, this would not be it; however, if you are like us who just want to chill, this is where you want to be. Sand fleas —or whatever insects are in the sand—is real; had plenty of bites around my ankle/foot. Read less

We arrived on 7/6/24 just a few days after hurricane Beryl and we left the next day 7/7/24. Before we decided to keep our 7 day reservation, we contacted representatives for Couples through their website both by phone and via email. We were told “the resort had NO damage to any of the buildings, but they were still working to clear debris. The resort is fully operational.” My wife and I were pleasantly surprised by this news because we had been looking forward to this repeat stay for months. We honeymooned here in 2007 and fell in love with this resort and its staff. We have been back twice since then. This would have been our fourth time. Simply put, the resort is not ready to receive guests. Contrary to what you may be hearing from anyone on their website (either by phone calls or email) or otherwise, they just aren't ready. The resort is not properly staffed because many of the people that live and work at any of the resorts in Jamaica, still don’t have electricity, running water and other typical accommodations at THEIR homes, not to mention transportation disruptions from secondary roads that have not yet been cleared of storm debris. Subsequently, most staff members that CAN get to work are not in the best of moods, understandably so. With the exception of a few, most were aloof and as inattentive as you can imagine, especially if you’ve been here before and have experienced the 5-star service Couples is known for. Think about it, if your home life was affected like this, how would you feel about going to work and performing as if everything was peachy? It’s a tough ask! In talking to some of the staff members, they were appreciative that we inquired about their families wellbeing and homes. Some shared how when they were at home, it was tough to get any rest because they had to sleep with the windows open. This meant the mosquitos were relentless and the heat and humidity kept them sweating all night. We decided to end our vacation less than 24 hours after arriving because we had an expectation for our stay based on our previous experiences and what we were led to believe about the rebounded condition of the resort. It was very evident that this was not going to come anywhere close to meeting our expectations. The condition of the resort was not "fully operational" and was so far from what was described. The spa WAS damaged although they were offering massages in a couple of guest rooms. ☹ The walkways were cleared of debris but the downed trees, tree limbs and other debris were moved into the foliage areas of the resort. It was not as picturesque as before, but we knew this before we arrived and were not expecting it to be pristine. The water in the pools was dirty and the tile near the ledges needed scrubbing. One of the two jacuzzies at the main pool was under repair and roped off. The power outages caused a disruption with the linen servicing which meant there were no towels available poolside for hours at a time, and this was also causing delays in getting the rooms ready for check-in. When we did get checked in, our bedspread had an obvious stain on it and hair. There were only two restaurants open, and one of them was only open for dinner with a reservation. We attribute this to staffing constraints, however, it was never made clear why. The food we did have was bland and basic, not what they’re known for. As my wife and I discussed our experience on the way home, we realized our oversight. We (subconsciously) gave more credence to Jamaica’s ability to recover from such a storm but, more importantly, we did not consider the impact on the beautiful people that live and work at the resorts. Had we just done the latter of these, we would have rescheduled our stay until we were 100% sure things had returned to normal. We want to extend our sincerest thanks to Caroline (the GM), Daina and Leshelle (front desk hostesses). Read less

We went to Couples Negril as it looked like it should be a smaller resort than the neighbouring resorts, however had all of the amenities that we wanted and we weren't let down. We stayed in a first floor, beach front room, which had an amazing balcony that overlooked the beach, watersport centre and was away from the main restaurant area which meant it was chilled and relaxed almost all the time. The room was spotless and kept that way by a very attentive housekeeper, nice touches were the "mini fridge" which got restocked daily with full size drinks, the snacks that were left for us each day by the evening staff performing the turndown service and the beautiful towel animals that our housekeeper left for us ever day (pictures really don't do justice) The staff were all friendly and walked around with smiles on their faces whenever you saw them, the atmosphere amongst the staff was obviously one of happiness and the want to be there which always adds to the pleasantness of the stay. The restaurants were busy however you never waited long to be seated or served (in the main restaurant it was occasionally self-service/ buffet style which was amazing, it gave you the opportunity to try food you never would have otherwise! Breakfast was buffet style with a huge amount of choice along with certain options being cooked for you. We ate at the OTAHEITE restaurant twice both times we had an amazing experience with good wine and service, we ate at Lychee once however found it a little bland in flovour for our palates albeit this was on our first night after a long time travelling. We had a fun evening on the beach with food served on the beach and a show including fire play which we both love and attempt regulary at home followed by a disco. Altogether, the food was good, flavoursome and gave you an insigh in to true caribbean food, even the after hours bar that served the late night snacks served some fantastic jerk chicken to help soak up the alcohol. Entertainment was ok, we had some good nights and some where we stayed away from the main shows, the bar staff were always welcoming and happy to make whatever drinks you wanted to try and always served with a big smile. A worthwhile trip is to Rik's Cafe for some music, dancing, one of the best sunsets you'll see and cliff diving so take your trunks! The watersports crew were amazing, patient and supportive I can't give them enough praise to be honest and they helped me tick a PADI licence off of my bucket list. We also spent a fantastic trip on a glass bottom boat which we had to ourselves as noone else booked on the cruise yet they still took us out, and a catamaran cruise round to the cliffs so we could go for a swim and play on the boat slide. Probably the only negative was that we wanted to do an excursion to one of the local waterfalls however the tour desk couldn't arrange this for us as there wasn't enough uptake on the days we had available. Read less