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  1. #1
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    Default FDR Resorts in Jamaica?

    DH and I have a 15 month old little guy, and we'll be traveling with my mother and sister, too. We're looking to go someplace warm and wonderful! All the reviews for the FDR resorts rave about the nannies, and having a nanny sounds like heaven to me, but my mother and sister don't much care about the nanny. They want a beautiful beach, good food and drink, and a relaxing, resort-like atmosphere where they can sit on the beach and read. Will they be happy at an FDR resort, and at which one? I'm really hoping this resort would work for all of us, because my little guy won't stay in a daycare, but he'll play quite happily and independently under a nanny's watchful eye so long as I'm within his sightline. What do you think? Is an FDR resort the right place for us?

  2. #2
    Minnifer is offline Platinum level (1000+ posts)
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    I went to the one in Jamaica last year in April when my DD was a week shy of 12 months, and there are pros and cons to the place - I'll just ramble some thoughts in no particular order. It is super low key and not a fancy resort in any way. The nanny is a great thing to have (although some of the nannies are better than others - I had to switch b/c DD *hated* her first nanny - she had this visceral reaction the minute she saw her and just didn't want to be anywhere near her. The second one was fine.). The beach at the resort itself is not very nice - a very small bay beach that was rocky/seaweedy when I was there. You can use the beach at the resort next door, which is very close, although you have to kind of climb over a rocky patch next to water to get to it (b/c it is fenced off), and then you're not supposed to use the lounge chairs from that resort, plus it's an adults only, so I felt a bit uncomfortable taking DD there (like, if they were trying to escape kids it wasn't fair of me to subject them to mine). The pool is ok. My room had a bug/ant problem, b/c there were no screens, just shutters that didn't close properly, but obviously that can be the case in many Caribbean locations. They have a good amount of activities but they're really more for older kids. I found that often the nannies just hang out w/the younger kids in the smallish playroom they have on site (nothing spectacular, but fine). I thought the food was pretty good overall, and the kids buffet every night is a nice idea although it's just the usual toddler fare.

    I probably won't go back b/c I think a Club Med with a kids club would work better for me, but I can understand why people like this place and keep coming back. I'm not sure it sounds like it would fit what your mom and sis are looking for though - in particular, I think they might be bummed out by the beach. I'm interested to hear what others think.

  3. #3
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    willow33 is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    Totally agree with everything Minnifer said. We went a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving week. There were 8 adults and 3 kids...ages 4, 2 and 1. I had a nice time and our particular nanny was very nice, but I wouldn't return. We basically sat at the pool the whole time. Their beach is small and not very nice IMO. Now if you ask my boys if they had fun...they would say yes, but this was their first time in the Caribbean and they loved the pool and waterslide.

    If I were you I would research other options. Feel free to send me a PM for more info
    ~H~

    Mom to 3 sweet kids
    2003 ~ 2005 ~ 2009

  4. #4
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    Thanks so much for your help!!! We definitely will need to find another location. Now that the idea of a nanny is out of the picture, we can really go anywhere, because I know I'll have the little guy with me full-time, so we don't need to look for a place with a children's program. I'm sad about the nanny but very glad not to have convinced everyone to go to a place where they would surely be unhappy.

  5. #5
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    We love FDR Pebbles! We are going back for our third visit next week. The first visit our kids were 2, second age 3, and now age 4. It is a very popular place to visit among people in our town.

    There are two FDRs - Pebbles (nice beach) and Franklyn D. Resort (I have been told not as nice of a beach). My husband and I always enjoy sitting on the beach at Pebbles - we think it is great!

    If you are not going to use the nanny, there is no reason to go here. The true luxury is the childcare, in my opinion.

    This is a review I wrote for tripadvisor.com - HTH.

    While it is very nice, this is not a luxury resort. Before you book your trip, you need to think about whether you will be comfortable using the nanny, because that is really the only reason to go to Pebbles – the nanny is the true luxury! They work from 9 am – 4:40 pm each day with an hour break for lunch (you pick the time between 12 pm – 2 pm – we always picked 1 pm, during our kids’ naptime.) They are also responsible for cleaning and stocking your room. We have twin daughters, and they had just turned two when we went to Pebbles. If you have more than two children, you are required to hire an additional nanny each day at a cost of $20 per day. I am not sure if at night you need to pay both nannies to stay on when kids are sleeping, or if you can use only one.

    The rooms are like cottages on the beach. The kids have a separate sleeping area separated by a 3/4 wall, which allows adults to stay awake and read or go out on the balcony while the kids sleep. I would suggest booking an Oceanfront room (buildings 10 and 12 seemed the nicest) as opposed to Beachfront. It is a little more money, but it was so nice to be able to sit outside and watch the ocean while the kids were napping/sleeping, etc. If your kids can walk up stairs, I would also suggest a room on the second floor as opposed to the first floor – we heard our upstairs neighbors walking around quite a bit. All rooms have air conditioning and cable TV (Showtime and Cinemax). The TV is satellite, and it often goes out at night due to weather issues. It happened to us 2 out of 7 nights. I would suggest always keeping your doors locked – although we never felt unsafe, it is a third-world country and caution should always be used.

    We found the all the staff to be extremely friendly, professional and helpful. Keep in mind their version of “fast” might not be your version – everyone is on Jamaica time, especially the front desk staff. Freddie the manager seems to be very efficient, so you can always ask for him if you feel you aren’t getting anywhere with the front desk staff.

    Nanny info: The nannies are “on call” with Pebbles. The good ones get called back to work (and they want to work), so you know that the nannies working have been tested. Our nanny was Judy-Ann Peters and I thought she was great and I was always comfortable with her. You can let the nanny take the kids and do their own thing (never leave the grounds), or you can have the nanny stay with your family and be an extra set of hands – whichever you prefer.

    If you desire, your nanny is allowed to eat with your family in the dining room - you need to ask the front desk for a meal voucher for her each morning. This slip shows that you have made a request to have your nanny dine with you and your family, or eat while she is feeding your kids. The manager will also need to sign the voucher. What we didn't understand is when the nanny is feeding your children, unless she has a voucher, she is not allowed to eat. Considering how little they earn daily (see below) I think this is a nice thing to do. They don’t advertise that this option is available, so be sure to ask.

    You call the shots – give the nanny the meal and napping schedule you want your kids on, and they follow it. We also asked our nanny to bathe our kids every night. Be clear on dietary expectations – we saw nannies giving toddlers soda and huge chunks of hot dogs. The key is communication – be clear from the start and you should be very happy.

    Make sure you explain when you want sunscreen, hats and bug spray on your kids – the nannies are good about this and our kids were never sunburned at all, and only got bug bites when I was watching them!

    After 4:40 pm, the nanny is available to you for $4 an hour (at least it was that price in 2009). We had our nanny come back from 7 pm – 9 pm every night so we could have a relaxing dinner.

    At the end of the week I tipped our nanny $10 for every day she helped us. I am not sure what is expected or what other people do. They earn less than $10 a day (not including the night time babysitting) so a $10 a day tip is probably considered quite a bit to them. The average Jamaican earns about $3,400 annually.

    Food:
    We had no issues drinking the water at the hotel. It is filtered.

    Breakfast is buffet style and offered the best choices – eggs and omelet station are always available, as are fresh waffles. A waitress will take your drink order (smoothies, coffee, etc.) There are plenty of breads, fresh fruit, yogurt, and smoothies available. If your kids like a particular type of cereal, you may want to bring it – I only saw Corn Flakes and Fruit Loops. I thought the coffee was very good. If you are fussy about tea, you may want to bring your own.

    Your nanny stocks your fridge with soda, beer, milk, juices, water, cheese, fruit, etc. When you arrive, you fill out a form stating what you desire and how often you would like the fridge stocked.

    Every Saturday is Jamaican night at the buffet, and it was the best food we had. The Jerk chicken and pork is excellent! I would also suggest making reservations when you first arrive at the Jamaican and Italian specialty restaurants. The Italian restaurant isn’t fabulous, but the location right on the ocean is wonderful (bring bug spray).

    Lunch is probably the least interesting buffet, although it is quiet and nice to sit and hang out We often chose to have lunch at the bar/grill at the pool where you can order Jerk chicken, burgers, etc. rather than the buffet.

    The dinner buffet was always fine with decent choices. They offer entertainment nightly which can be loud and a little annoying, but tolerable. Again, a waitress takes your drink order.

    Be very careful of the bones in meat and fish items. They are often cooked on the bone, and the fish served are often a whole fish. Be especially careful with kids and this food. Make sure to talk to your nanny about this.

    For a special occasion, ask Freddie the manager to arrange for a private dinner on the beach – the food is from the buffet restaurant (the servers wanted to get out food from the buffet and bring it to us, but we convinced her to let us get our own food) but it is very special. At the end of the evening we tipped our waitress a few dollars. (Again, bring bug spray).

    Also, if you are looking at the ocean, to your left directly outside of the resort wall is a restaurant/bar literally on the beach (the floor is sand) called Time ‘N Place – apparently it won Conde Nast Traveler’s award for best beach bar in the universe. It is not part of the resort, so you’ll have to pay for meals and drinks. They have a bonfire almost every night. We walked over once and it was empty, but I have heard that it is a really fun place with good food and drinks. I regret not trying it out!

    Shopping:
    If you want to bring home Jerk sauce or Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, take the free Historic Falmouth tour offered through the hotel (twice a week) – it stops at a grocery store and you can buy 8 oz of JBM coffee for about $12 ($16 at the hotel and $17 at the airport) which is a big savings from home where it sells for $50 a pound! Jerk sauce is around $1.50 ($4 at the hotel and airport).

    To the right of the resort beach, there is a little area called “Bamboo Village” which is a bunch of little shops (they are little shacks) that the locals sell baskets, art, dolls, beaded jewelry and wood carvings. You will also notice the owners walking up and down the beach. If they attempt to “push” their items on you, just say “no thank you.” If you get into a big conversation with them, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of them. On the Pebbles beach they are not allowed to be overly pushy – if you walk off the resort property, you are fair game! If you want to purchase anything, bring a resort employee with you (Nolan from the entertainment crew went with me.) You’ll get a better price and the owners won’t take advantage of you. Always bargain! I bought two Jamaican dolls – they started out asking $10 each, and I ended up getting two for $11. They all seem to sell illegal substances, although they never openly offered any to us. Be safe and don’t bring a large amount of money with you.

    The hotel offered a “shopping tour” of Montego Bay – I did not take the tour so I am not clear where it went.

    Other suggestions:
    I suggest bringing at least $40 (per week) in $1 for tipping, to pay the nanny at night, and for small purchases. Bringing a bunch of $5 is smart too.

    Bring more sunscreen, diapers and swim diapers (2-3 per child, per day) than you think you will need. They charge about $2 for a single swim diaper at the hotel gift shop! Also bring bug repellent for children and adults – the mosquitoes at night can be harsh.

    Bring large insulated cups if you tend to drink often – that way you can fill up a big cup and run to the bar less often.

    Bring water shoes for kids and adults – the ocean floor can be rocky.

    In addition to a beach bag, bring an extra bag for your nanny to tote around diapers, sunscreen, snacks, supplies, clothes, etc. for your kids.

    Don’t bring expensive or fancy clothes for your kids – our kids destroyed everything! T-shirts and shorts seemed to be best for us.

    Don’t wear or bring expensive jewelry or watches.

    Bring plain white, cotton t-shirts to be tie-dyed. They have a workshop every day at 2 pm. The hotel shop also sells them for $6.50 for children and $9 for adults. These also make good gifts to bring home to people.

    Bring disposable bibs and sippy cups if you need them – Pebbles doesn’t have them.

    The hotel has safety deposit boxes (each room gets their own – they are just like at a bank) at the front office. I suggest storing your money, airline tickets, and valuables in the box (24 hour access).

    The hotel has a laundry room available for $9 per load. The laundry detergent Pebbles provides is a little odd – I might suggest bringing your own. There are two washers and two dryers available. For the $9 you could certainly put two loads in (especially if you bring your own detergent.) I put a load in on my way to breakfast, switched to the dryer on my way back from breakfast, and then picked it up an hour later. It was a painless vacation laundry chore.

    As mentioned above, the nannies are not paid all that well – most have young children. Bringing small school supplies, new tooth brushes, small bars of soap, small books, and leaving things that you packed but didn’t use such as Children’s Tylenol – all these things are quite expensive and hard to come by in Jamaica - to give to your nanny is another nice thing to do. You have to write a note giving the nanny “permission” to take these items home (the front desk has stationary.)

    Pack and Plays are available for young kids to sleep in. I would suggest bringing your own Pack and Play sheet and blankets – they use regular flat sheets in these cribs.

  6. #6
    willow33's Avatar
    willow33 is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    We went to the Franklyn D. Resort, not Pebbles. I didn't realize there was two!! Glad to know that Pebbles has a better beach.
    ~H~

    Mom to 3 sweet kids
    2003 ~ 2005 ~ 2009

  7. #7
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    Thanks, Hollybloom, for that great review! I definitely think that when my husband and I consider a warm weather vacation spot just for us and the little guy, FDR Pebbles will be high on the list. I'm surprised it has the better beach, because they seem to indicate on the FDR website that Pebbles is the less luxurious of the two resorts, so that information is good to know! Thanks again.

  8. #8
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    I just got back from FDR Pebbles yesterday. Some things have changed since my tripadvisor review, but I'll post the new one as soon as I write it. The basic concepts are the same though!

  9. #9
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    This is my most recent review that I posted on tripadvisor.com:

    This was our third time staying at Pebbles. We stayed in Block 10 again, rooms 238 and 239, the two middle rooms (four rooms on each floor). Rooms on the second floor have carpeting as opposed to tile flooring. I found the carpeting much easier to deal with that the tile. In the past my kids have slipped and fallen on the tile floors when their feet have been wet. The corner rooms have TVs in both the living area and mounted in the corners of the master bedroom area, the middle rooms only have TVs in the living area (which are not that comfy for hanging out and watching TV). We asked to have a TV put into the master bedroom area, and they were able to move the TV for us. Rooms have hair dryers and irons.

    Some updates since our last trip in 2007 – after 4:40 pm the rate for the nanny to baby-sit was $4. Now it is $6 per hour. Still a bargain. Water activities like the glass bottom boat and the snorkel trip used to be free – now they are $7 per adult and $4 per child. The Falmouth tour also used to be free, now I believe it is now $5 per person. At Pebbles they no longer stock your fridge with snacks and drinks. We asked for a few bottles of the soda we liked at the main bar each day and stocked our own fridge which worked.

    I thought the food for the most part was decent – the Jamaican buffet on Saturdays is the best! Breakfast is always very good. This year we always had to ask for yogurt (which sometimes they had.) The cups for coffee are tiny, so if you like lots of coffee bring your own travel mug. In the past Pebbles had two “specialty adult” restaurants, an Italian and Jamaican restaurant. Both are now closed*, and there is a “family” Italian restaurant that serves pastas and pizzas that are pretty good. It was a good option when the dining room didn’t have foods on the buffet our kids were interested in. You can also place “take out” orders at the Italian restaurant and have them bring the food to you in the main dining room. There was also a beach barbeque one night that was very fun.

    * Since the adult restaurants are now closed, we didn’t have much of an opportunity to utilize the babysitting services at night since there were literally no adult-only activities, unless we left the resort.

    Tie-dying – in the past you brought plain t-shirts and the nannies and kids tie dyed them for you. This year I was told you were allowed one shirt per family member, and any extra were $1 each. That’s fine – certainly a bargain to pay for a fun souvenir.

    Vacation Nanny: I always believed the nanny made the trip and it is true. They work from 9 am to 4:40 pm with an hour for lunch and clean the room. This year I gave Pebbles several names of nannies that people raved about on tripadvisor.com and originally was told I would get one of them. Unfortunately at the last minute I was assigned a different nanny and she was mediocre at best and it certainly impacted my vacation. She was a very nice person and told me she worked at Pebbles for 10 years, but after day one of vacation she was 15-20 minutes late every morning (this really only mattered when we wanted to go on a snorkeling trip that was departing at 9:30 am, although we started to find the pattern annoying), and took 1.5 hour lunches. Nannies are also responsible for cleaning your room – my husband happened to go up to our room (after the nanny had taken a 1.5 hour lunch) and found our kids in the room watching TV while the nanny cleaned the room (I had assumed she had been cleaning the room when she was gone for over an hour for lunch.) When she was watching the children, if my husband and I appeared, the nanny would disappear, sometimes for 20 minutes without telling us. I also found each of my children (4 years old) on separate ends of the pool, with the nanny sitting on the side of the pool. My kids had life jackets on, but still can’t swim much at all. The kids each were sunburned a few times (this NEVER happened in past years). We had to specifically tell her to put hats on the children or to put another coating of sunscreen on after lunch, for example. I saw plenty of nannies sitting on the beach building sandcastles with the kids they were watching – our nanny sat in a chair with a towel over her head rather than play with the kids. I asked her to get our kids to interact with other children so they’d make friends, but this never seemed to happen, even though there appeared to be plenty of kids around the same at staying at Pebbles. My husband thought she was just plain old lazy and taking advantage of us. The nanny really didn’t go out of her way much at all until the last day of the trip when she went overboard being helpful (just in time for tip time.) To top it off, ½ way through our trip she asked me “what day would you like me to take off?” Huh? I have stayed seven days each of our other trips and never has the nanny asked for a day off! (In the end, she didn’t take a day off.) I should have requested another nanny, but feared she would loose her job if I complained. Having a mediocre nanny interfered with my relaxation factor more than I realized. We tipped her, but not as well as we would have if she had been great. I have not seen our nanny mentioned as one that people have really liked, so if you go to Pebbles, request one of the names of the nannies mentioned on tripadvisor.com. I am afraid if I mention her name in this review, she will not be called back to work. You can PM me for her name if you have concerns.

    FYI, the only reason I didn’t request our previous nanny who did an amazing job and who we really liked is because we gave her our home address and telephone number after our last vacation, and she started calling us asking us for money which we were uncomfortable with. My husband met another Pebbles repeat family who live in our town and the same thing happened to them with a different nanny, so be cautious when giving nannies your home contact information. However in hindsight, we still should have requested the previous nanny who probably would have been eager for a god tip and done a great job!

    If you desire, your nanny is allowed to eat with your family in the dining room - you need to ask the front desk for a meal voucher for her each morning. This slip shows that you have made a request to have your nanny dine with you and your family, or eat while she is feeding your kids. The manager will also need to sign the voucher. What we didn't understand on our first trip is that if the nanny is feeding your children, unless she has a voucher, she is not allowed to eat. They don’t advertise that this option is available, so be sure to ask.

    Other items:

    Transportation to and from the airport was easy and just fine on Jamaica Tours Limited.

    There is free wifi throughout the resort, although often the signal was very weak.

    We thought we packed plenty of sunscreen, but came close to running out. The prices in the gift shop are crazy! $16.99 for four ounces of 50 SPF! The nanny did come through, bringing a bottle ½ used that a family had left behind and housekeeping had picked up. BRING MORE SUNSCREEN THAN YOU IMAGINE YOU’LL NEED!!!

    One of our kids started complaining of an earache, and we brought her to the Pebbles nurse – my husband is a pediatrician and was able to diagnose an ear infection using the nurse’s otoscope, and we started her on antibiotics that we had brought with us. This was our first experience with the nurse and it was just fine. People were stopping by for band aids and anti-itch cream – things like that.

    Other suggestions:
    I suggest bringing at least $50-60 (per week) in $1 and $5 for tipping, to pay the nanny for extra hours, and for small purchases.

    Bring large insulated cups if you tend to drink often – that way you can fill up a big cup and run to the bar less often.

    Bring water shoes for kids and adults – the ocean floor is rocky and HURTS!

    Bring bug spray.

    Bring your own shampoo, conditioner and body lotion – what the hotel supplies is just awful!

    Get your orange beach towels from the pool area first thing in the morning, around 9 am. Otherwise you might never get a towel!

    If your children are old enough for life jackets, bring them and make sure they wear them at all times they are near the water with the nanny (and not you.) Many of the nannies do not know how to swim.

    If you have a first floor room, don’t leave things on your balcony overnight. Two years ago a pair of my water shoes were stolen, and this year I overheard someone saying their shoes were stolen off their balcony.

    In addition to a beach bag, bring an extra bag for your nanny to tote around diapers, sunscreen, snacks, supplies, clothes, etc. for your kids.

    Don’t bring expensive or fancy clothes for your kids! T-shirts and shorts seemed to be best for us. Our kids ruined a $40 shirt during their “tie-dying” lesson – it was my fault for putting them in such a shirt, but the nanny could have been more careful (and communicated to me that she was taking the kids to tie dye).

    Don’t wear or bring expensive jewelry or watches.

    The hotel has safety deposit boxes at the front office. I suggest storing your passports, money, airline tickets, and valuables in the box (24 hour access).

    Look at reviews from people who loved their nannies and request one of them before your trip – give the management several names, if possible. (I did this and was told I would have Sheryl who many had praised about on the tripadvisor.com website, but in the end we didn’t get her.)

    I will summarize that there is no need to go to Pebbles if you are not interested in the nanny – it isn’t a couples resort at all and this is not a luxury resort – if you need 600 thread count cotton sheets, all the towels you can imagine, Aveda bath products and Starbucks coffee, you will probably not do well at Pebbles – the true luxury is the nanny (assuming you get a good one!)

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