Momburd

We are planning to vacation at the RIU Ocho Rios in April 2008. We have booked a standard room, but we are trying to decide if we should up-grade to a junior suite in the West Wing area. Our reason for an upgrade is to be able to eat our dinners in all of the ala carte restaurants, not the nightly buffet area. We assume that reservations are the "typical" stand in a line, but we are hoping that an upgrade means the concierge will be able to make our reservations and we will avoid the stand in line routine. ? If we upgrade will we avoid line wait or not? Thanks for your help!

KVR

I can't say specifically for RIU Ocho Rios, but the RIU's in Negril and Mexico require reservations for the ala cart restuarants. They open the reservation line at around 11:00am for that night only. No pre-booking for another night or for your entire vacation. The line is going to be long.

Since RIU Ocho Rios has twice a many rooms as most of thier other hotels, which means way more people dining, I would hope their reservation system is a lot better. Have you checked their web-site?

need2travelasap

Hi, I stayed at this resort in April 2007 and loved it!!!! We stayed in the standard room and the Jr Suite, both rooms are identical except the Jr suites have a small sitting area (I have pics) you need reservations for all sit-down restaurants but to be truthful, our first night there we were able to eat in Sir Richards without calling ahead for a reservation.

If you stay in a Jr Suite, you have access to two Restaurants that the folks in the standard rooms don't have access to. But Sir Richards and Sir John's have the same menu.

What I really like about the Jr suite is that the rooms seem to be in a quieter area and also there is a nice pool that is quiet as well. As for Concierge: almost non-existant perhaps they have a Concierge for their exclusive suites or for the folks that get married on property but not for the standard or Jr Suite rooms.

Momburd

Thanks for the info! We still have not upgraded, as not sure that it worth $100 extra per night......especially if concierge is not available to make dinner reservations for us. Please explain the reservation system....stand in line? Is it a certain time frame daily? We plan to sightsee the island, so will not always be at the hotel which means we would miss our chance to make reservations?? So we would end up eating buffet! The quieter appeals to us, so that would be a plus. We have a 17 year, so not looking for families with kids to play.
I would appreciate hearing more about dinner reservation system! Thanks..

need2travelasap

I think you are given a "time-frame" such as from 8am to 11am to make your reservations via phone...I can't remember also there was a person in the lobby that was taking reservations as well. They will tell you that you can only go to the sit-down restaurants only once during your stay but this is not true....They really are unable to keep track, the only way is if you are talking to them on the phone and you ask for Sir John's on Thursday and Friday night they will deny your request.

Some folks complained about the Chinese Restaurant because it was buffet, but I loved the fact it was buffet, since that gave us lots of items to choose from.

I suspect that depending on how busy they are, you may have to encounter a wait.....I did not have too much trouble in that area....just remember that Jamaica is on Island Time which is generally slow time (frustrates us Americans most of the time) but I keep telling myself that I'm on vacation, and to relax and enjoy....works 99% of the time