My (adult) family and I stayed at Breezes Runaway Bay for 7 nights in mid June 2002. The Breezes Runaway Bay Hotel is located on the beach 10 miles west of Ocho Rios. Breezes Runaway Bay has a championship 18-hole course, beautifully furnished guestrooms with modern amenities, fine dining, spa facilities, and excellent service. The Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay is 1-hour drive from the hotel. We were each given a plastic coiled band, with our keys on, that we could wear on our writst. We were also given an envelope with our room number, a layout of the grounds with schedule, and a card for each guest to trade for a yellow towel at the water sports building. The Beach Terrace offered a buffet that included a pasta bar where the sauces were cooked to order. Another restaurant option is the Starlight Grill, which is also a buffet, under the stars. The third restaurant option is Martinos, which is an a la carte restaurant that requires reservations. Activities included a trapeze (!) and goat races (!).
I did the Super
Surprise Plus last June (eliminating Montego Bay), and ended up with Breezes
Runaway Bay. It was fine, and worth the $600 that we paid (seven nights from
NY, air, hotel, AI), but Breezes was not the caliber all-inclusive that I would
recommend. I prefer Sandals, Iberostar, Riu properties. I tried every trick in
the book to get "bumped" to a better property without any luck. (My
travel agent told me that 85% of the Surprise people end up at Runaway Bay.)
You may want to pay the extra for the Super Suprise Plus Plus so you have a
better chance of getting one of the Grand Lido properties. Even one of the
Hedonisms may be better (if you can deal with that type of thing). I hope I
didn't put a damper on your trip, but I wish that I had been forewarned. On the
other hand, I have read many positive reviews of BRB, so you may love it.
