I had the pleasure to be asked to take my family on a vacation to Jamaica to visit the Frankin D. Resort in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. Over the next few days I will be talking about different aspects of our experience at this resort, today I want to talk about activities for kids on the resort.

Being a family resort, I knew there was going to be activities for kids, but I was impressed by the number and how organized the activities were. Every day when we got up we would stop by the Kids Center to see what was on the plan for the day. Each day there was a chalk itinerary placed up so people could tell what was happening. Everyday Diva-J would find a laundry list of items that she wanted to do during the day (outside of being in the pool). There were times though when it was raining when Diva-J and Diva-PJ went to the kids’ center and simply played inside for a break from the sun.

One of the fun activities that they provide free of charge is Tennis Lessons. Diva-J took three lessons and by the end she was doing a great job. All kids have the opportunity to make their own Tye-Dye T-shirt (you do need to provide a clean T-Shirt to Tye Dye. We bought ours at Michaels). The girls loved working with Elodene and Taneka with the Tye Dye, as well as all of the other projects,and activities that the kids want to do.

Some of the activities are run of the mill activities that you would guess they would have such as Tennis or coloring. Outside of this though, everyday they have Rabbit Time and a Movie Night for the kids as well as the opportunity to feed the fish.

There were activities such as allowing kids to fish in the morning or early evening. And what do they use as bait? They use sausage (and boy do the fish and crabs love it). These activities are some of your more run-o-the-mill activities. They also have activities that identify the talents of your child. For example they have a super boy contest and a miss mini FDR contest where your child can strut their stuff in front of the audience to show them what they are made of. Diva-J showed everyone her skills with the Hula Hoop. She is quite good!

Other activities are ones that I know that you will not find back in your home town. For example, on one of the days they had crab racing. Now for me, I thought we would be seeing people on their hands and feet walking like crabs…oh know, they truly did mean crabs! A gentleman from the hills (as they stated) brought live hermit crabs to have them do four races to see who could get out of the ring first.

Another such oddity was the notice that we found that stated that they would be having Goat Races on the beach. After seeing the crab races the day before, I knew that I would need to see this race to believe it! They meant what they said and they did have goats racing on the beach and we picked a color to win.

These were some of the more “out there” events. They had two birthday parties on the beach for kids celebrating their birthday on or around their stay at FDR, as well as classes such as Mixology where kids had the opportunity to mix different flavors of drinks together to see if it tasted good or not.

The staff of the kids center did an amazing job keeping the kids entertained and I have to tip my hat to them, as they were individuals that made our lives as parents much less stressful.

One of the biggest things that the kids there got to do was meet new people and make new friends. Diva-J made friends with kids from Texas, Pennsylvania, Boston and San Francisco while we were there and we did similarly (but I will talk more about that in a later post).

Our girls were never bored at any point. They were scheduled the entire day (though some/much of that time was built around the pool!)

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All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site’s Terms of Use  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions. All images were taken with The Olympus Stylus Tough Camera that was provided during the trip. Also our family received sunglasses for the trip from The Sunglass Warehouse.

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One if the best things that FDR provides its guests is a nanny. You heard me right! Starting the moment that you step foot on the property you are introduced to your own personal nanny. You even have the opportunity to have more than one Nanny if you so choose. There were some families while we were there that were paying an additional $20 per day to have a second Nanny. Your nanny stays with you from 9-4:30 each day, with an hour for lunch during that time. Many families will use the nanny after 4:30 and if you choose to do this, you simply pay them cash $6 / hour (great deal!).

Our Nanny was Elodene and I would suggest for any of you to ask for her as she was wonderful and our kids loved her. Elodene was a quiet, gentle soul, that you could tell had a very large heart and was very caring toward our children. She was firm when needed and patient and calm when necessary. There were times when she simply took Diva-PJ down to a Hammock, placed her in it and rocked her to sleep and simply stayed there with her until she awoke.

The nanny takes your children to do activities as well as will take them to eat if you like. The idea is to provide the adults some down time while on vacation as well as some guidance from someone besides mom and dad.

The hidden gem of this resort is the nannies. They make the resort as special as it is and I cannot say enough good things about them. In speaking with other guests they all agreed about their nanny as well and mentioned that they would easily ask for their nanny again in the future. There were even some return guests that stated that they could not remember the name of the nanny, but once they share the picture of the nanny with the resort they made accommodations to make sure that they had the same nanny this year.

The only thing that I would mention is to make sure if you go to FDR to tip your Nanny at the end of the week. The nannies are not making much (as I mentioned they make more working in the evenings), so do give them a nice tip as we came to find that they are not guaranteed work immediately after you leave, instead they simply wait until they get a call to come back to be a nanny for another family in the future.

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All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site’s Terms of Use  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions. All images were taken with The Olympus Stylus Tough Camera that was provided during the trip. Also our family received sunglasses for the trip from The Sunglass Warehouse.

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I had the pleasure to be asked to take my family on a vacation to Jamaica to visit the Frankin D. Resort in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. Over the next few days I will be talking about different aspects of our experience at this resort, but today I want to talk about the resort in general.

Prior to going to the resort, I had read a number of reviews as well as called a couple of travel agents to find out more about the resort in general. Almost everyone mentioned that the resort ranked in about the middle of the road in regards to all-inclusive resorts. I can say that when we arrived and started our journey to the resort, I did not know what to expect though. You see, as you leave the Montego Bay airport, I was amazed to find the amount of poverty that surrounds the country. Later in the week I came to find that the average Jamaican worker makes on average $50 US per week. Anyway, as you travel to the resort you will see many homes that look abandoned, but what is interesting is that we were told that families actually live in the homes. What happens is that families do not build homes on credit, instead they build what they can when they can, so a dream home may not be built for 10-15 years, but in the end the home will be built and they will own it completely.

Anyway, when I arrived in Runaway Bay, you see a very quaint town and the resort is set back from the main road. They have their own security and when you exit your transportation you are greeted by very kind front desk employees. The moment we arrived, we were escorted to our suite. We had a 2 bedroom suite, which was wonderful, especially with our two girls, as they were able to have their own room all to themselves.

In the first few minutes that you are there you can see that the resort is not a five star resort in regards to accommodations (my picture of our room didn’t turn out   🙁  ). I would probably give it a 3.5 out of 5. The rooms that we stayed in were very comfortable. I loved having the bedrooms upstairs so that J-Mom and I could stay downstairs at night if we chose or sit on the porch overlooking the Ocean.

I loved the King Sized bed that we had and I slept great every night. This does not always happen, instead, when I travel, I many times find that I toss and turn, but not here.

I was also able to see the one bedroom, three, bedroom and honeymoon suite and all of these other options are just as nice as the suite that we stayed in. All of the units have a refrigerator, stove and microwave (though we only really used the refrigerator). We later came to find out that this resort started as a condo complex and then the owner (who still is the same) changed the concept to what it is today.

One reason I do not give the rooms a higher ranking is that at higher star resorts you will not find any blemishes in plaster, nor cracks between doors that lead to the outside. Here you find some of these issues. Was I concerned about this, not really. The resort is very secure and the rooms are doubly so with multiple locks on doors and programmable safes in each bedroom, you and your items are very safe.

The grounds of the resort are beautiful with lush greenery and flowers everywhere. I was quite impressed with the beauty of the exterior of the resort itself. The resort sitting on the Ocean provides you ample opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the Jamaican waters and ocean breezes that surround it.

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site’s Terms of Use  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions. All images were taken with The Olympus Stylus Tough Camera that was provided during the trip. Also our family received sunglasses for the trip from The Sunglass Warehouse.

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