Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505120055
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN FAGIN/NEWSDAY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Indeed it was. And on this spring week in Jamaica, we were perhaps the only vacationing crowd on the island that would have noticed. We were at the Franklyn D. Resort, otherwise known as FDR, the family resort at Runaway Bay that assigns kids their own nanny for the week and tells the parents to get lost, if they choose.
Happily, as our family discovered, the FDR nickname is the only incongruous thing about this cleverly conceived and caringly executed place. The resort consists of 76 one-, two- and three-bedroom suites, in several three-story pink stucco buildings surrounding an array of pool, beachfront, tennis court and restaurant terrace. Because FDR was built for families, everything is close together - virtually within a child's shouting distance.
The air-conditioned suites all have kitchenettes that the resort commissary will stock with milk, juice, snacks and whatever other staples you request, all at no extra cost. There are two playgrounds, and a ``kiddie center'' where little kids can hang around in a toy-filled room and bigger kids gather for videos and Nintendo games as well as arts and crafts.
FDR's cleverest feature, however is what the resort calls its ``Girl Friday'' program. Every family is assigned a Girl Friday upon arrival; she spends the week with you and your children, serving as a housekeeper, baby sitter and all-around facilitator.
Our baby sitter, Marjorie Austin, told us she had been working at FDR since the resort opened five years ago, and it was clear she had some well-established ideas, based on long experience, of what most children and parents like to do on vacation. As it turned out, we liked to spend more time with the kids than most vacationers in Marjorie's experience, which made for some occasionally awkward moments when we had to go searching for Marjorie and the girls and felt uncomfortable about pulling them away from her. Within a day or two, however, we had established a comfortable rhythm.
Anna, almost 4, quickly fell in with a gang of 4- and 5-year olds and spent hardly a minute unattached to at least one of them for the duration of the week, in a flurry of art projects and excursions, swimming and sandcastle building. In activities sponsored by the kiddie center, Anna assembled a flower collection, learned Jamaican folk dances, tie-dyed a T-shirt, clowned around in the pool with her new friends and took a glass-bottomed boat ride to a deserted beach for a shell hunt.
Anna tried some things that we didn't expect from her, like eating Jamaican fried rice, running a relay race and swimming in the ocean. She was even the first member of our family to volunteer for the goat race, in which the object was to pull (or be pulled by) a goat across the finish line. She was shoved out of bounds by an errant goat and finished last in her heat.
Our younger daughter, Lily, took everything in stride, in a 1-year-old way. She played at the beach for hours each day, ingesting what must have been a quart of sand. Marjorie spent a lot of time with her at the playground, and we introduced her to baby-boat floats in the pool. This safely designed resort turned out to be a terrific place for our exploration-minded Lil, whose efforts to walk unassisted kept the resort's inhabitants amused all week.
As for me and my wife, we were having such a good time doing practically nothing that we did hardly any of the things that had sounded so good in the brochure - sailing, snorkeling, scuba, tennis, windsurfing, bicycling, aerobics, weight training and various excursions away from the resort. Mostly we spent our time simply enjoying the freedom to be or not to be with our kids.
by CNB