Honeymoon Discussions

Sandals Ocho Rios

I booked my honeymoon for the Sandals in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and I am just throwing this out there to see if anyone has any feedback on it. It looks gorgeous and the price is right so I'm really excited but I'm still interested to hear any personal experience feedback. Thanks!

Re: Sandals Ocho Rios

  • I wish you had read my review a few posts down before booking.  We just went a month ago for our honeymoon.  We had a pretty terrible experience with the butlers.  Since you've already booked, I strongly recommend NOT having butler service and staying on the Riviera side.  Please click the vendor reviews link below and scroll to the bottom for my extensive review of Sandals.  
  • I didn't book a butler and I'm staying in the Riviera Building.
  • We went on our HM at Sandals Ocho Rios last year and had quite the opposite experience as the previous poster.  We loved it, we had the butler service and our butlers were awesome.     Be sure to do the Catamaran Cruise to Dunn's River Falls, it is so much fun and well worth the money.  We also did ziplining, which was awesome as well.

    We loved all the restuarants and just everything in general.  
  • Goaliegirl -- glad to hear you had a good experience! Where did you go to book the Catamaran Cruise? That's something I definitely want to do plus parasailing and horseback riding and I am wondering if you could recommend an agency to do this through. Thanks!
  • I've been there and we had an OK experience and it was only as good as it was because we stayed in an oceanfront room in the Riviera building with a balcony. 

    Our trip started off bad because they "upgraded" us to a suite on the manor side.  I'm sorry...that was not an upgrade and not the room we booked.  The oceanfront rooms on the Riviera side were direct oceanfront views and had JUST been renovated (this was three years ago).  We booked the room for that reason.  What we got was a suite in a four room building with a shared, dirty pool out back and a kitchenette that had last been renovated in 1982.  Awful.  We were IRATE.  I had read about them doing this to people so we called first to confirm that it was not possible for them to force this "upgrade" on us but lo and behold it happened.  We raised this issue to the GM and ended up getting one night comped, another free night if we went to another sandals within a year and all kinds of other free "stuff" like spa services, candlelit dinner, etc.  Fine whatever but we were still a little pissed.

    We got to move to the room we actually booked the second day so then we were happy with the room.  The restaurants are OK and better than average for an AI but definitely not gourmet or 5 star restaurants.  The beach is REALLY small.  We ended up going to Sandals Dunns River almost every day because the beach was better there. 

    Other than the room situation, I would give it an above average rating for an AI but a lower than average rating for a Sandals resort. 

    We stayed at Sandals Negril the next week and the beach there was amazing.  The food was a little better but still just average but the staff in Negril were sooo friendly and nice and the resort is much smaller which we liked. 
  • We had the butler service and we booked our excursions through them a few weeks before we went.    It was super easy.     I think you can call sandals and book through them or you can wait and book them when you get there.   

    We also stayed on the Manor side in one of the villas and loved it, we felt that it was very clean and loved having the little pool out back.    It seemed last year that they had done some updating and the place was looking great.
  • Just so you know, Sandals Dunn's River is officially closed so you cannot go over there for the beach anymore.  Also, if you book excursions through the excursions desk and then it rains and they cancel it, they won't give you a refund, they'll just try to reschedule it for you even if you're leaving the next day.  If you book it through the resort, they can at least give you resort credit if this happens.  

    There are two catamaran cruises.  We did the Lover's Rock one which is romantic and relaxing.  The other one, you climb a waterfall and drink a lot so it's a booze cruise and adventurous.  Do the one that suits you best.  Also, wear flip flops because they have you take your shoes off and they put them in bins and also wear a swimsuit underneath a sundress of some sort. If you want to sit on the front of the catamaran, it's super fun but you get really wet so it's good to have a swimsuit.  
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