Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa

Let me start this review with the disclaimer that I fully understand that covid has changed things and some lacking is to be expected. With that said we booked Hilton Rose Hall pre-covid and we were lucky enough to get to go on our planned date. Arrival into Jamaica was fairly smooth. We used club Mobay and that helped speed us along some. The only thing they couldn’t speed up was the covid questions and we are a family of 5 so it took some time. Once done with the questions it was fast. We booked the hotel through Costco travel and it included round trip transfers and the club mobay on departure. We purchased Mobay for arrival separate. Would I purchase Club Mobay again? Probably not while travel is down is significantly due to covid. Once it picks back up, I would definitely purchase it as I feel it would be useful again. So once at the resort we were asked to sanitize hands and everyone’s temperature was checked again. A side note I had everyone in our crew take some ibuprofen shortly before we landed so there was not a chance of anyone having a fever. I did not want to be stuck in quarantine in another country. No one ever felt sick but better safe than sorry. So, after temperature checks we checked into the hotel. It was fairly easy and straight forward. We requested connecting rooms and they got them for us. We stayed oceanfront in room 300 and 301. This is the west wing on the building and close to the golf course. I much preferred this side since most of the noise came from the east side of resort. The rooms are like many reviews have stated before. Nothing fancy. They are definitely more like standard hotel rooms. They were clean though. The kids room AC worked very well. Ours left some to be desired. We asked for them to check it and I assume they did. We weren’t in the rooms much anyways. It was cool just not cold. We like it very cold at night. If you don’t like it super cold, then it was certainly just fine. We had some ants in our room as well. They came and sprayed for them and for the most part they were gone. Not a big deal. We arrived on Saturday Oct 3rd and it was not very crowded. We were told it was around 20% occupancy for the weekend and then during the week for the rest of our stay it was around 12%. Not sure how accurate that was but it definitely looked like it was accurate. There were pros and cons to this. The kids basically had the pools to themselves but there was just not that vibe and atmosphere if you know what I mean. So, for the rest ill break down the areas individually Beach- We had red flags every day. There were only a few hours out the trip that it went yellow. We were told it was because the water was choppy and was bringing in sea urchins and we could not see them. They did not want people stepping on them. Understandable. This was a big disappointment but that’s mother nature and nothing the resort can control. With that said like many other reviews have stated, the beach area is small right beside the water park. Once on the other side it is much more open, but you do have to walk a little bit more to get there. They did not have many chairs at all out while we were there either. Overall, for us the beach was disappointing, but I fully understand that is was a combination of mother nature and the area the resort had to work with. Pools- The main pool in between the wings on the resort was nice and clean. It ranged from 3ft to 5ft deep I believe. Not many people at all were ever in it and very few even sat in the chairs around it. We were able to throw football with the kids in it every day. The waterpark- It was very nice. It was clean and well kept. The lazy river was nice and moved fast. There are really only 2 slides. One big slide to take a tube down and then one small slide for kids mainly but adults could too. It was broken into 3 sections though. Slide down the top to a small pool and then down the next to another small pool and then down one more into the main pool area. The catch is you cannot enter each section separately, you must start at the top. A complaint I had for these was with my 6 year old. The lifeguards changed frequently and so did the rules. One time he could go by himself, the next he had to go down with someone bigger and then the next he just couldn’t go. It was like that all week. He loved the lazy river though, so it didn’t bother him much. The swim up bar was in the water park area. You can see your kids come down the slides and around the lazy river so that was nice. Bars- The swim up bar was the main bar we were at mostly. Service was hit or miss here. For the most part it was quick but there were times where the bartender was having to work the pool side and the non-pool side and you would have to wait. For there only being like 10 people max at the swim up bar area at any given time that was disappointing. Once again, I understood that staff had been cut due to such low occupancy. Only one section of the bar area was ever open. There were like 4 areas total but only one small section stayed open. Also, you could not actually sit at the bar. You could only order and then go to a table further away in the pool. This was due to covid a sign said. The main pool bar was fine also but we didn’t use it much. The patio bar was good too and then there was the cricket club bar. It was only open a few nights while we were there. It was a nice area but for some reason the beer always tasted off there, so we avoided it and got beer at the patio bar instead and brought it into the cricket club. They did karaoke in there a couple of nights and there are two pools tables in there. No AC in there. At least it was never turned on. The bars carried Red Stripe and Red Stripe light in cans and on tap. The cricket bar did have Heineken in bottles. But Red stripe Light was actually much harder to come by. It seemed they had plenty the first two days there and then for the next 5 it was hit or miss. One bar may have a can or two and the others would have none. It was never on tap after the first few days. This was disappointing as we like the light better. They also had Carib beer in cans in the mini fridge in the rooms along with sprite, coke, bottled water and some juice. They would restock it anytime you just had to call down to get them to bring it up. Food- This was the biggest disappointment for us. Not all the restaurants were open all the time. The buffet (Fresh) was open every night, and so was Luna. Luna was very good the first night and from there it stayed average. The burger bar (Mangoes) was open each night also but that just gets old after a week. There were not many selections on the buffet any night and the food on it was just average. It was not bad but nothing rave about. Since not all restaurants were open it would have been nice if you could order food at the buffet area. That said they actually did do that two nights and let you order off of a very small Asian menu. It was good but once again not great. The food at the swim up bar (Mangoes) was really good bar food. No complaints about the food there but once again its not really a true dinner meal. It was bar food. The pizza shack (Moonstone) was good but it’s in the very back of the resort and you almost forget about it. Also, it was never open at night. They opened the seaside restaurant 2 nights while we were there. If you don’t like seafood don’t go there because there is nothing on menu for you. The food there was good though. Now for the jerk hut we kept hearing about. Apparently, it was shut down and they moved the grills into Seaside bar area. We were told by locals there that the grills moved but the cook was no longer working there, at least for right now, so they said the food was not quite as good as it was before. With that said, we thought it was very good jerk chicken and pork. So I can only imagine how good it used to be. Me and the Wife did a couple’s dinner one night by the ocean. This was an extra charge $75 per person. It was fantastic. You could choose your courses and two meats for your main course. We choose Steak and chicken and steak and lobster. It was all very very good. I wish all the resort food was that good. We never tried room service so I cannot speak on it. Activities- During the daytime basically nonexistent lol. At night they did put on a show each night for about an hour. They were ok but we have seen much much better shows at other resorts. Also, once again there were never many people at the shows so it was understandable to an extent. They did have shuffleboard and bag toss near the pool if you wanted to play them. Once it got past 10pm the place was a ghost town for the most part. Very few people out near any of the bars. Staff- The staff was good. No one was ever rude or ugly. They took care of us and have no real complaints about them. You could tell though that they were probably short staffed. Overall, the resort was nice and we had a great time. The shortcomings we seen I do believe were due to covid. The only thing covid wouldn’t change would be the small beach area. So we understood this. We were happy to just get to go on vacation. Also, we decided to take a trip to Montego to go to Margaritaville to let the kids use the water toys and wanted to do some shopping. Well we asked for a ride from the Hotel and they wanted $200.00. 25 a person for our group. After some research we located TCJ Tours. They quoted $100 total for the day. We decided on them and that was a fantastic choice. They picked us up around 12 and took us to a shopping center and the guides stayed with us the entire time and showed us different stores and helped us with suggestions. During this time, our girls decided they wanted to get some braids in their hair. There were no shops open at this center to get them done. The tour guide called around and found a lady to do them and gave us the price. Many of the shops were closed due to no tourists unfortunately. They then took us to get the girls hair braided. We passed by Margaritaville on the way and noticed that it was closed. Unfortunately, the sea was very rough there and the waves were coming over the road! It had actually closed for the day due to this. So we continued on to get the kids their braids. They stay with us the whole time and we were actually able to visit a few more shops (really huts) that were still open. Super friendly people here and the items were more Authentic than at the shopping center we went to. From here we decided we wanted to go eat Scotchies. We have heard its amazing food. We drove down there and they were closed! We were told they were closed for remodeling and it was supposed to be done a week prior but it was still going on. So we asked the tour guide for her opinion on somewhere good to eat. She recommended Jerky’s. It was in the newer part of Montego Bay and about 15 mins away from Scotchies. Once there the tour guide looked after us and they also grabbed a bite to eat. The food here was superb. The jerk pork was the best I have ever had. So if Scotchies is supposed to be one of the best in Jamaica I can only imagine how good that is cause Jerky’s was outstanding. We finished eating and they took us back to the resort. It was about a 4hr outing. Still it was just the $100 for the 8 of us. A great deal I feel for the time and travel. Also, they were super friendly and very fun to be with. I highly recommend them. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them.

Although Covid presented some challenges, this resort was stellar in a variety of ways. From the friendliness of the staff to the amazing food (all you can eat as well, which was something I did a fair amount of), even to the wonderful golf course and the ease of changing reservations when travel problems delayed my entry, this is a hotel that went above and beyond to make travel as pleasant as possible in these stressful times.