CA Jamaica is a beautiful place with really genuine people with good hearts. It is full of life and fresh food and the most beautiful ocean waters I've ever been in...
Jamaica is NOT the huge walled compounds of the mighty resorts. Believe whatever you will, but for me you want to meet real people who are willing to help you have a good time even though they do not live the material life we have here in usa and elsewhere..that is not to say they are not happy or fullfilled.
After all, we are the ones going there to have a vacation. They are the ones smiling and enjoying the moment as best they can with us. My vacation with my wife was wonderful because we decided it was up to us to make it that way...and CA is there to help. If you want atomic water pressure and chocolate cake instead of waves and quiet and real people and real music, why go all the way to Jamaica? Much easier to stay in NYC and be a nasty demanding useless tourist. I've noticed that even when reviews are critical they usually still rate it 4 out of 5!!! Cheers to the other guests who by in large were all friendly...There is a great staff that will play games all day with you if you like, absolutely super folks.
We made friends or stayed to ourselves...had drinks and ate when we were hungry..rode bikes through town with Gary who made it real and fun. Would stay there again for twice as long..and would get out even more and do more excursions, see more of the island..but not one complaint about CA it was great.

This was a very pretty, small, personal resort. The grounds were lovely, beach areas nice. Missed not having a beach to walk, but I knew about that ahead of time, so I can't really complain. Always room in the beach chairs to lounge, plenty of shade or sun, take your pick!
We had a deluxe honeymoon room with a comfortable king size bed and a balcony overlooking the ocean, quite lovely. Unfortunately, our second day there we had to change rooms due to a celing tile below us that was leaking into a bar. Made me a bit unhappy to have to waste time packing and unpacking again! Our second room was nice also, still overlooking the ocean, but the shower was not as good; our first room had a great big movable shower head and a separate bathtub, the new one had a very temperamental shower head that sprayed everywhere and no bathtub (not that we needed one). Air conditioning worked fine and the room was kept nice and clean. Bathroom counter had some very tiny bugs that would appear now and then, someone told us they are attracted to sweets; maybe toothpaste? They weren't really a bother, just wiped them off when I spotted them.

Food was okay; breakfast the same daily, eggs, bacon, etc., lots of great fruit, cereal. Good omelets and definitely GREAT coffee! Breads are kinda dry. Only had lunch one day, we ate a burger at the grill since the buffet kinda looked like stuff left over from last nite's supper. Burger was good. Salad fixings were available at both lunch and dinner daily. Dinner was just okay for me. Chicken was tasty (love the jerk sauce), but very bony. Spareribs were fatty (some people like that, I don't), and the steak was tasty, but rather chewy. Lots of rice and beans! Desserts were not very interesting, except for the trifle, which was laced with rum! Didn't like that fact that food was not always available; but there is a fridge in the room, so if you have an opportunity to grab snacks somewhere you can have stuff on hand.
Drinks were good; loved the dirty bananas, but often when I ordered one I was told they were out of bananas for the day. Pina coladas and frozen daquiris were quite tasty. Red stripe beer is quite good, but needs to be very cold! Drink quickly or just order a new one. The bar on the pier was often lacking a bartender, even when the schedule said it should be open. They also advertised a sunset happy hour from 6-7 with snacks at the pier bar; we looked for that every nite and never found it.

Entertainment was good. During the day, the staff tried hard to get people to participate, but couldn't drum up too much interest. My husband played a horseshoe "tournament" that consisted of him and one other gentleman. At night there was a band and then a show, lots of reggae music, limbo, jugglers, dancers, etc. Very pleasant sitting under the stars to watch. After 11 the only thing available is the disco club which is indoors and very small. Only popped in there once, before midnite, not too many people in there, but I'm sure it gets more lively as the hour gets later. Since there is a brass pole in the middle of the dance floor I'm sure things can get kinda interesting!

Leaving the resort is a little intimidating. If you walk it's just a long dusty, hot road for quite a while. We attempted it, but gave up, returned and got a taxi. They call taxis or tours for you from the lobby of the hotel and it seems a little expensive; it's also scheduled. For instance we wanted to go to Ocho; the hotel provided shuttles at 10am and at 2:30, but you had to return after two hours. We wanted to stay longer, have lunch there, and shop. We ended up paying a taxi $50 for 2 people for 3 hours. I would have preferred to just go one way and then find a ride when I was ready to leave, but the woman wouldn't call for a one way taxi ride. I felt rushed being on a schedule. Probably could have asked the other staff about getting around, everyone of them seemed to have a relative of some sort who could get whatever it was you wanted, rides, tours, other enertainment...just wasn't sure who to trust!

All in all I thought this was a good value, not fancy, but clean, fun, and safe.

We booked this trip on cheapcaribbean.com - it was a great deal, with the exception of pricy airfare, but...On the shuttle to CA, we stopped twice for beer at some local outdoor bars, which was fun. Some people complained, but it is part of the experience. You can basically buy ANYTHING you want at these beer stops. We were the first to get dropped off of the shuttle at our resort - CA Some people on the shuttle were saying "what a dump, etc." but after reading reviews, we knew that this was just superficial. Once we got in and walked to the back, we feel in love with CA, grab a float and get in the ocan, you can float for hours without worry of going out to sea or sharks. The burgers are great at teh grill and the food is wonderful. We stayed in room 53 on the second floor overlooking the pool. It was a great 2-bed room with clean everything. Make sure you get a safe, as it is a wise investment. Despite what people say about food not being available, we were prepared and took foood from the buffet to our room and stored it in the fridge and ate it later - no worries. If the chance presents I will stay here again. It is not a romantic resort or where I would go on a honeymoon, but since I was with my friend, we found it to perfect for us.

We stayed at CA from June 21-26 and had a blast! It definitly doesn't look like the 5 star resorts when you pull up to the front, but it is perfect for what you pay for. The rooms are spacious and nicely decorated. I emailed CA and asked that we have a king bed rather than two double beds and upon arrival they upgraded us for free to a honeymoon suite, which was very nice and had an awesome view! (room 30). Our air conditioner worked the whole time and we had great water pressure/never lost hot water.

The beaches are small but there are plenty of seats and tables to choose from out on the beach. A lot of people have complained about the ocean... it is blocked off by rocks but it is still perfectly fine to play in or get a mat and float around. One thing we didn't like was the specific eating times. Breakfast is 7:30-10:30, lunch 12:00-2:30, lunch snacks (hamburgers) 12-5:00, dinner 7-9;30. There was also a late night snack from 11-12 but we never went to it. They really need to have like a snack bar for a small snack between lunch and dinner, because otherwise you're stuck eatinga hamburger (which are delicious though).

The entertainment staff does a great job. They try to get everyone to participate in activities but if you tell them you don't want too then its fine, they won't badger you to participate.

As far as drinks go...the cups are small but there is a bar within 20 feet of wherever you are in the resort so its not a big deal to just run up to the bar and get a refill...and theres never a line at the bar so theres really no reason to complain about having to get up to get your own drinks during the day. At dinner your waiter will bring you drinks.

You might feel a little restricted at CA because it is small but there are plenty of excursions you can do... we went into Ocho Rios and did Margaritaville, Dunn's River, and the Wilderness ATV tour to Murphy's Hill (I highly reccomend each of these). Also, they do say its safe to walk around Runaway Bay but 1)there's nothing there and 2)it really didn't seem safe to us. We wanted to go get some good seafood one night so the cab driver took us to Flavours...but, he wouldn't leave us until he had checked things out to make sure it was safe. This was a red flag for us so we asked to be taken somewhere else (one look around at Flavours and we were sure we would have been jumped and robbed when the cab driver left). So, he took us to Runaways Sports Bar and Grill. The food there is awesome but we were the only tourists there and got totally ripped off. We were scared to be out there when it got dark so as soon as we ate we hightailed it back to CA. If you're in Runaway Bay the best thing to do is just stay at your resort. We felt totally safe in Ocho Rios.

As most other people have said, the staff at CA is very nice; most notably the front desk workers, neil, winston, and the maids. A few of the bartenders acted like it was a pain for them to have to fill up a cup of red stripe for you, but if you give them a $1 tip every few drinks they will remember you and be nicer.

We really did love Club Ambiance, it was an awesome place to stay for our first visit to Jamaica. We probably won't stay there again only because we like to try out new places when we travel... but otherwise I would def reccommend it to anyone who isn't looking for 5 star but wants a good time and a really great little resort!