Sandals – Montego Bay,
Jamaica Date of trip April, 2012.
Overall Notes:
The sandals is old and is showing signs of age. The ground crew and maintenance crews seem
busy trying to keep everything looking good.
Just don’t look too closely. We
found maids sitting on the seawalls and a maintenance guy sleeping in an
electrical room of our villa (we were looking for the breaker box to try to get
hot water…more below).
If you purchase a room with a butler, despite the fact that
the website says “dedicated butler”, our butler had 10 other guest rooms that they
serviced as well. However, you do
receive a phone to call them and ask your request. As long as you don’t mind waiting a while for
service, you will be happy with the butler.
Be prepared for LOUD – the resort is in the takeoff path of
the airport. The sound is unreal, and is
from early in the morning until late in the evening. The staff is loud and yell to each other
across the resort. They play music
starting at 10am and the entertainment staff can be heard loudly on the
speakers attempting to get the vacationers to join in on misc. games played
throughout the day.
Pool Area:
The main pool is small, and is used for multiple activities,
including diving lessons, and pool volleyball.
The chairs and love seats around the pool have cushions with what looked
to be sheets on them. I wasn’t excited
about lying down in someone else’s sweaty sheets.
Bars:
Open bar and the bartenders will make just about anything
you ask. The mood of the bartenders
swings greatly. Some look like they
would like to be anywhere but there, serving drinks; however, we met one that
we consistently amazing. When at the
beach bar ask for Shilton, he always has a smile! Note: the beach bar does close for a few
hours at 4pm each day.
Restaurants:
All restaurants are closing for dinner on Monday. Monday is the beach party. Food is buffet style. Tokyo Joe's and The Oleandor restaurant
require reservations and have a dress code.
Be sure to take long pants and a shirt with a collar for the guys. Women need long pants and closed toed shoes. When we vacation in a tropical location, the
last thing we are going to do is pack or dress like that, so I can’t say how
the food was at those restaurants.
The best food we found was the pizza at the beach and just
about anything you ordered at the Cricketer’s Pint. Bring a jacket for the Cricketer’s it can be
really chilly in there; however, there is a great atmosphere, and sports are
always on the TV.
Beach Area:
The water is incredible blue and the sand is silky and white. The beach area is very small. There are white plastic beach loungers with
blue material spread out wall to wall along the beach. Watch out for the broken ones. Also watch for the ones that have just had
the material replaced, they were done so tightly, that the lounger will not go
down all the way.
Rooms:
Do not go thinking you are going to have a 5 star room. No matter how much you pay, be prepared for a
room that in its time was most likely wonderful. In our room, which was called Honeymoon
Beachfront Extraordinaire, we did not have hot water to take showers two days
in a row. Maintenance did fix the
problems after a few hours of waiting each day. We called at 6:30 one night and we were told
at 8:30 we could use the shower in 10 minutes.
So much for dinner reservations!
Diving:
If you take any kinds of medicine or have had any surgeries
and you plan to dive. You must bring
with you a note from your Doctor stating that you are clear to dive. Even if you are PADI certified, and have a
record of diving, you must have a note to present or they will not allow you to
dive. This is not mentioned anywhere on
the website and can be difficult to obtain, once you are at the resort. Their fax machine was broke the week we were
there. You can always email; however,
you will have to follow up each day. We
recommend double checking the email address, as our butler misspelled the email
address.
Entertainment:
If you go to the shows, just go for the fun of it. These are not Las Vegas acts. All of the acts we saw that did things with
fire, dropped things multiple times while performing. The entertainment group is par to sub par at
best; however, I will tell you it doesn’t help that they work 16 to 21 hours a
day, six days a week. They are all
exhausted. They put on big smiles, and
try to keep everything like and entertaining, but you can tell it takes all of
their effort just to make it through.
Activities are planned each day. Volleyball at 10:30, contests, Jenga tournaments, etc. A full day of activities, each day. Sandals points are given for each activity
that you participate in. It’s all pretty
gimmicky. Bottles of rum were also given out as prizes –
just remember you have to drink it while you are there, as you will not be able
to bring it through security at the airport.
Shopping:
There is one store located on the property. We received a note on our door stating that
the next morning from 8am to 10am they were having a 70% off sale. We were excited! OK, jokes on us – we bought three hats, two
t-shirts, some jewelry, sunscreen and lip balm all full price. When we asked about the 70% off, one sales
associate looked at us kind of funny.
Another sales person said there were a few things on a clearance table. The next day when we received the 50% off
note on our door – we at least had a good laugh!
What the other guest
said:
Many of the other guest were return visitors – it was
Sandals reunion week when we were there, and the people who returned said they
received deeper discounts and extended stays.
Two couple had been there 30+ times.
So you can fall in love with this place.
For others, it was a bit of a yawn and a
real disappointment. So they enjoyed the open bar until they couldn’t
walk any more – then called it a night.
There are other Sandals on the island;
however, each couple I spoke to said they took the bus intending on spending
the day, and came back within an hour or so.
One couple said it was sad to say but the Sandals we were at looked
really nice after visiting the others.
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