We stayed at Starfish Trelawny overlapping 2 weekends. The occupancy rate was high. It was quite windy at the beach everyday, therefore most people crowded around the pool area. It was so crowded that reminded me the pool deck on a cruise ship. There are 2 pools, 2 water slides, 3 or 4 portable hot tubs that looked very familiar. These hot tubs could be the left over from Hedonism II when its nude hot tub was under renovation and SuperClubs installed the similar portable hot tubs there. Our room was OK. We are not fussy about hotel rooms. It had a king bed and a single bed. The bathroom was recently renovated. There was a mini-fridge which stocked a few bottles of pops. There was a wall-mount self-serve bar with 4 bottles of liquor. Every room in the high rise building has partial ocean view.<br><br>We arrived on Saturday before Mother Day. We noticed there were quite a few local families at the resort. At the beginning, we thought the local families might spend a vacation for the Mother Day weekend. Most local families stayed for the whole week. On the second weekend, some new local families showed up. The resort is popular for locals. Some locals could be on a day pass because I saw a family changed clothes in the washroom. The local children were polite and well disciplined. <br><br>The lounge chairs at the pool areas are blue mesh type and the chairs at the beach are the hard plastic type without pads, ouch. The nude section was a joke. The resort built an U-shape, ocean facing, bamboo fence, about 50 feet wide by 15 feet deep at the end of the property. Several local guys hanged around the fence all the time that could be intimidating. Once a while, only a few guests went to the nude section. Vendors also strode along the beach often. They would talk to the guests when security wasn’t looking.<br><br>There were 4 restaurants and a beach grill. The beach grill served hamburgers, sandwiches, French fries, nachos, and chicken. We did not try the Japanese restaurant. We tried the Italian restaurant once which imposed $10 surcharge per person. The food was OK but not good enough for a return. We tried the European restaurant, Casablanca, a few times. Some food items had a surcharge such as shrimps, steaks, etc. Food was OK too; however, the dessert chef should be sent back to school. For example, the crème Brule was over cooked on all occasions and the crepe was thick and doughy. We went back a couple more times because it was air conditioned and no smoking. Reservation was not a problem as not many people booked these restaurants. The main restaurant served buffet only.<br><br>Breakfast was one of the best we had in Jamaica, equal or better than Sandals and Grand Lidos. There was a cereal section with 3-4 type of cereals, yogurts, 6-8 kinds of nuts and dry fruits, and 3-4 kinds of canned fruits. There was a fresh fruit section. In addition to the industry standard: water melon, honeydew, cantaloupe, banana, orange and pineapple, they also have papaya, mango, and strawberry. One day, they even have small supply of star apples and jack fruit. There was a hot cereal section with oatmeal, buns, breads, toasts, muffins, etc. There was a waffle section that served fresh waffles and fruit punch. There were 2 omelet sections. There was an American style section with bacon, sausages, eggs, pancakes and French toasts. There was a Jamaican style section with ackee, callaloo, boil plantains, and a hot dish, such as liver, ox tail, or kidney. There were so many items to choose from that we could not possibly try them all in 9 days.<br><br>Lunch and dinner was OK. Once again, there were a few sections to choose. Salad section, fruit section, bread and soup section, pasta section, sandwich section, 2 hot dish sections and a dessert section. One hot dish section always had pan fried fish and roast chicken with condiment. The other hot section had 3-4 hot dishes that could be deep fried chicken, jerk chicken and pork, goat stew, beef stew, steaks and more fish. The salad section had a dozen items, but everyday was the same. If we loaded a few items per meal, we could have a lot of combination. As human nature, we loaded everything we liked, so after a while, our salad plate became boring. Staff/guest ratio were low, therefore could not provide immediate service. Staff worked very hard. Unfortunately there were too much to do. There were 2 self-serve drink stations at each end of the restaurant that provided pop, juice, water and coffee. We simply helped our self.<br><br>We are light drinkers. We didn’t visit the bars often. Wine was from Jamaica Oak Hill that was not my kind. If you prefer wine with your lunch, you should get the wine from the bar and bring it to the main restaurant because the restaurant was short staff. Other restaurants were fine because they had stewards. The main bar, restaurant bar and the beach grill bar had drink stations and slush machines. The beach grill bar had an ice cream machine. The beach grill is actually by the main pool. If we stay at the beach or island, it could be a long walk to get drinks.<br><br>We didn’t watch too many activities. They often included children participation. Evening entertainment was much lighter than other SuperClubs. The resort sprayed insecticide every evening; however, we were still bitten by mosquitoes. From then on, we applied Deepwood every evening.<br><br>We walked along the beach outside of the resort everyday. One afternoon we decided to walk to FDR Pebbles. I knew this week Pebbles was booked by Go Classy Tour for the nude week. We wanted to check out the resort facility. We walked through the beach fence. The guard was sleeping. We walked along the water. There was no beach at all. Big boulders and seaweed were everywhere. I had a feeling there was once a man-made beach and the sand had been washed away, because some buildings were only a few feet by the water. No lounge chairs were set along the water and nobody was in the ocean. The ocean was calm due to the wave breakers but it also full of seaweed. The swimming pool was rather small. Only a few nude people were sitting around the pool. When we reached the other end of the resort, two guards were there. One guard saw our wrist band and asked if we were from Starfish. We said yes. The guard said that the beach is private property and told us to leave. I told him this beach was public. He said the resort “deemed” this beach to be private. Holy cow! Frank Rance could overrule the Jamaica laws. We didn’t argue with him and walked back. We had seen enough.<br><br>Overall, Starfish is a good budget resort especially for a family. We are not sure if we want to go back. We have been spoiled by Sandals and Grand Lidos. On the other hand, for the price of a week at GL we could stay more than two weeks at Starfish. It certainly provides the best value for the money.<br>
