I have been getting a bunch of PM's about my post a few weeks ago on excursions in the HM board and feel really bad that I never did a full review. So, here goes:
We stayed in a beachfront room (I think it was called the penthouse beachfront). We made our reservations about 6 months prior with Jennifer at VIP Vacations. During the course of the 6 months our rate didn't go down, but she did find a special for $250 of spa credit that she added. That was super awesome. We flew from Boston, and arrived at 3ish. It was already a long day and we were very glad we had done the helicopter. This reduced the trip by at least an hour and it was a really cool tour of the island. IF you are a nervous flyer, you won't like this. Now for Sandals. The room was everything I expected. We did get champagne 1 night and a turn down with rose petals. If you go with concierge you get room service for breakfast which we loved! There is something really special about having coffee in your rob looking out over that gorgeous water! We loved the brick oven pizza there and did go over to Sandals Regency to have the Japanese--it was good too. The weather was a little iffy and we were so happy that we did the piton catamaran tour the first day it was offered because we had sunshine that entire time. Note, this is a full day tour and they serve lunch and drinks and if you don't like boats, DON'T do this, otherwise this gets you to view the pitons, snorkel, go to the rain forest and see the volcano (which was a little disappointing as I pictured it to be like in the volcano's that ooze lava and it was just a hole in the ground that smelled like sulfur) but this was a great tour. We made friends with tons of couples and we met a couple from RI that we are going to visit over the holidays! The pub there is wonderful and air conditioned and the snacks are really fun at like 10pm when the guys are shooting pool or playing darts.
I would not reserve the oceanview room as our new friends had that and it looked over a street then onto the ocean. The ocean is darker than the bay where our beachfront room was. Also, make sure you bring sneakers to go to the small park next store and hike a little (not really hard) to the peak and watch the sunset. We did that 2 nights in a row and it was really breathtaking!
Sandals offers some good deals to come back to another Sandals when you are about to leave. And our new friends told me they booked an anniversary trip to the new Sandals in the Bahamas. (which looks gorgeous) and they got something like $400 extra credit. All in all it was fabulous! I highly recommend Sandals Grande and would definitely go there again. I was sad to leave! If you have any questions, just PM me or page me ...I feel bad leaving this board and hitting the nest, but I keep getting shifted there as soon as I log on and figure the Knot Gods are telling me something! YOU all have been such help! Thank you!