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The Royalton Negril is a large, 407-room all inclusive resort located in Negril Jamaica. Sam and I just got back from a 1 week (honeymoon!) stay. Let me just say that even with a pandemic going on, Royalton Negril left nothing to be desired.
We arrived at Royalton Negril after an hour and a half car ride from Montego Bay. As we usually do, we hired a transport service (this time we used Club Mobay/Holiday Tours) which got us out of the airport quickly and provided a great ride to the resort.
When you arrive at Royalton Negril, you will be dropped off at a roundabout in front of an unassuming hotel front. After walking past the service desk, you are greeted with a panoramic view of what I can only describe as paradise. Seriously, the ocean was such a beautiful blue it immediately made me feel refreshed, even after a half day of traveling.
The open air Royalton lobby is huge. There is plenty of seating so you can start relaxing right away. One thing Sam and I noticed immediately was how clean and well maintained the resort and grounds were. We were really impressed with how they kept everything looking immaculate.
As we were staying in a Diamond Club room (more about that later), we were immediately picked up in a golf cart and driven to the Diamond Club Lounge for check in. Normally the lounge offers hors d’oeuvres, snacks and desserts for Diamond Club members, however due to the pandemic this was unfortunately not available. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long to eat because we were promptly checked in. Our Diamond Club wrist band was applied and we were ready to go. One thing nice about the wristband is that it’s also your room key! No more worrying about losing the key!
Since we booked a Diamond Club room, we had access to Butler service during our stay. Our butler, Clinton, was outstanding. He made sure we were well taken care of all week long. Clinton took us from the Diamond Club lounge and up to our room. Due to restrictions, he was unable to show us around the room but made sure we were aware of all the amenities.
There are a variety of rooms available at the Royalton Negril. Standard rooms are available in Junior and Family suites as well as 1 or 2 bedroom suites. Standard rooms feature an in-suite Jacuzzi tub, rain shower, stocked mini bar, in-room safe, balcony or terrace, seating areas and either Ocean or Garden views. They also have Swim Out room options giving you the luxury of a semi-private pool.
The Diamond Club rooms are perfect for both couples and those enjoying a trip with family. Diamond Club rooms come in standard King rooms as well as 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom suites. Diamond Club rooms are located in premium locations so you will likely be roomed close to the pool or with an awesome ocean view. On top of the standard amenities, Diamond Club upgrades include exclusive access to the Diamond Club beach and pool areas with waiter service, hydrotherapy for 1 hour per day at the spa, spa discount, in-suite liquors, preferential reservations in a la carte restaurants and an upgraded mini bar.
It’s also worth mentioning that if you’re really concerned about the location of your room, for an extra cost, they do give you the option of selecting your room.
Sam and I stayed in the ultra luxurious Diamond Club Luxury Penthouse One Bedroom Jacuzzi Suite. This suite was huge! The room offered a large living room complete with a couch, flat screen TV, dining table and bar area with liquor and a mini bar. There were two full bathrooms in the suite, a smaller (but not small) bathroom off the living room and an enormous master bath complete with jacuzzi tub, walk in shower and a full walk in closet. I loved that they seemed to think of every possible toiletry item ever in the bathrooms. The bedroom featured the most comfortable king bed ever with a large flat screen TV and second mini bar.
My favorite part of the room? It offered two balconies. The first balcony located in front of the suite offered 4 chairs and a beautiful ocean front view. It was the perfect spot for reading a book, listening to the waves. The second balcony to the side of the suite was nothing short of amazing. It had a full seating area, 2 lounge chairs and a large plunge pool. Although the suite is marketed as a jacuzzi suite, it seems that Royalton has chosen to make these jacuzzis into regular pools. We were completely fine with this and loved hanging out in our own private pool in the evenings.
Seriously, we couldn’t have been happier with our rooms.
As I mentioned before, it was awesome having butler service. Clinton brought us lunch and drinks at the pool and made us dinner reservations each night. He created a flower arrangement for our honeymoon and booked us a romantic dinner on the pier. I loved that we were able to text him with any needs.
Sam and I aren’t normally “beach people”. We both get a little annoyed with sand (seriously why does it end up everywhere??). That being said, we actually spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach this trip. Negril is known for the prettiest beaches in Jamaica and the Royalton Beach is no exception. The beach is very clean. There is barely any seaweed and is well maintained.
I loved that there were plenty of lounge chairs on the beach. Most chairs also had an umbrella as well. For extra cost you could also rent a beach cabana. The cabanas have a couch, chair and tables under the cabana roof, lounge chairs and a fun hanging chair. You could also pay extra to get a bottle of wine, cigars or a hookah.
As expected, the water was crystal clear. It was so calm the first two days that people were floating around on rafts. Even though a hurricane was passing by the water never got too rough.
Just a heads up, there were quite a few locals walking the beach selling their goods. If you are polite and tell them “no thanks” they will leave you be.
The Royalton section of the hotel has two large swimming pools. Sam and I spent most of our time at the Diamond Club pool but I would say both pools are equally as nice. Both are infinity style pools and have swim up bars. There are plenty of beach chairs around the pool and several covered Bali beds.
If you’re traveling with kids, there is a large splash pad area by the main pool. There are plenty of beach chairs and Bali beds in this area so you can keep an eye on the kiddos while getting some sun.
Dinner at Royalton Negril was great. The resort offers one buffet. This is typically open for all three meals but due to pandemic restrictions it was only open for breakfast. This was fine for us and we had wonderful breakfasts every morning.
There are five ala cart restaurants to choose from at the Royalton Negril. Each restaurant has its own theme: Tex Mex, West Indies, Italian, Steakhouse and Asian. Some of our favorite meals were the Coconut Crust Snapper at Calypso, shrimp fettuccine at Grazie and hibachi at Zen. I’m not sure if the menus were scaled back due to the pandemic but regardless we found our meals each night to be great.
Other restaurants included SCORE, a sports bar and Scoops for gelato and coffee.
For lunch we had several meal options. There is a food truck located next to the main pool. The food truck offered wraps, salads, quesadillas, hamburgers and hotdogs.
Sam’s favorite was the lunch stand located beside the main pool. It offered your choice of jerk chicken, pork or sausage complete with rice and peas and bread.
Pizza was also a lunch option from the take away window at Grazie.
As a Diamond Club member, we also had access to the Diamond Club bar which offered wings, hamburgers and salads. Needless to say we did not starve on this trip.
For our last night, Sam and I booked a romantic dinner on the pier. To his credit, Clinton suggested the pier over the beach because of the view. He definitely wasn’t wrong. It does cost extra for this special dinner but it was totally worth the romantic end to our honeymoon.
COVID RESPONSE
I’ve had a lot of questions about how Royalton Negril has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. As a medical professional and travel enthusiast I can honestly say that I was very impressed. I felt very safe the whole trip. Some of the ways the resort (and Jamaica!) have been keeping guests safe are:
- Mandatory hand sanitizing before entering any building
- Strict mask use in public areas
- Temperature checks throughout the day and prior to dining
- No staff in guest rooms other than cleaning once daily
- Strict temperature checks/COVID testing for staff members
- Reduced dining capacity at the restaurants along with paper menus
In my experience, resort staff were always wearing their face masks- most had shields as well. They also strictly enforced the mask policy while indoors. Outside on the grounds and at the pool and beach, as long as you were socially distanced, masks were not mandatory.
It’s important to remember that Jamaica is a country that depends heavily on tourism. As many locals mentioned to us, they are committed to remaining safe because Jamaica would likely not recover from a pandemic shut down.
Sam and I had a great stay at the Royalton Negril and would highly recommend it! Anyone else stay at this resort? What was your favorite part?
