SANDALS: Need Opinions!!

shaylg · March 2010

Hello Hello!

My FI and I are trying to decide on honeymoons. We really want to go with Sandals, but we're unsure of which location. Has anyone been to any of the Sandals Resorts and/or have any advice on choosing a destination? Also, which type of room would you recommend? And what do the prices look like for the additional cost excursions? TIA!

crushme8602 · March 2010

As far as picking which island you want to go to, we picked St. Lucia because it has 3 Sandals on the island and you can "play" at all of them (day trips) for free. So, we made our decision based upon that and not having to be stuck at one resort.

shaylg · March 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_sandals-need-opinions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:b41ae9ca-b81a-4b7b-abf1-aa842431893aPost:1020cc0e-39b5-4f1c-9438-4a60afd1c8a0">Re: SANDALS: Need Opinions!!</a>:
[QUOTE]we just decided on the Grande In St. Lucia the beachfront room. BUT I was just like you. You should see my posts for the past 2 weeks. We were torn between the Regency and the Grande and ANTIGUA! LOL. I did a ton of research but still couldn't figure out the best room. So I contacted a travel agent recommended on here by tons of knotties. Jennifer at VIP. Jennifer@travelbyvip.com She told me if there was a better sale in the next months she would lower my rate so we booked it Friday! 1 less thing to worry about!
Posted by shendydavids[/QUOTE]

<font color="#000080">If money were no option, I'd choose Antigua hands-down. The other resorts seem to have similar rooms for cheaper, so I'm trying to keep that in mind! Thanks for all the great advice! I think looking into a travel agent is a good idea, so I'm going to contact Jennifer!
</font>

Reilly626 · March 2010

My brother did Sandals Negril and does nothing but rave about it. When they got down there they made a deal at the front dest for $100, and got a private butler and the River Suites Room. They became friendly with the staff and learned its cheaper to get better rooms when you arrive or while staying so dont pay for the expensive one upfront. You definitely need a butler though according to them. Good Luck! My friends did St. Lucia and told me not to go, said it got boring and the rooms are "used" very worn and not what the pics show. My other friend just did Antigua and complained about the strictness of dinner dress (her husband wanted to wear dress shorts as it was hot and they were turned away) and she said the water is dirty in parts of the island. Good luck!

Mrs.B6302007 · March 2010

We stayed at the Sandals Grande on St. Lucia and loved it. Now,we spoiled ourselves and stayed in one of the private rondovals with butler service which made it just absolutely care-free. Keisha booked everything for us. We did resort hop for a couple of dinners and it was nice to see the other resort. The excursions we did included zipline, dolphin/whale watching, the island tour, and snorkeling. I couldn't tell you the exact prices now but I'm pretty sure most were between $50 and $75. We also did a couples massage on site which I think was $150?

[Deleted User] · March 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_sandals-need-opinions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:b41ae9ca-b81a-4b7b-abf1-aa842431893aPost:5fec93be-fe67-4983-902f-744421cf0fff">Re: SANDALS: Need Opinions!!</a>:
[QUOTE]My brother did Sandals Negril and does nothing but rave about it. When they got down there they made a deal at the front dest for $100, and got a private butler and the River Suites Room. They became friendly with the staff and learned its cheaper to get better rooms when you arrive or while staying so dont pay for the expensive one upfront. You definitely need a butler though according to them. Good Luck! My friends did St. Lucia and told me not to go, said it got boring and the rooms are "used" very worn and not what the pics show. My other friend just did Antigua and complained about the strictness of dinner dress (her husband wanted to wear dress shorts as it was hot and they were turned away) and she said the water is dirty in parts of the island. Good luck!
Posted by Reilly626[/QUOTE]
Huh? Where the dickens did they stay in St. Lucia? I can assure you, the Grande is not run down so it must not have been there.
Anyway, thus far we have stayed at Sandals Grande in St. Lucia, AMAZING and Sandals Negril in Jamaica,ho hum.
Here's the link to our website. I have a review of the Grande (the one for Negril is not up as we are in the process of revamping our site completly) also have pics from St. Lucia and Negril including room pics.
HTH
<a href="http://www.kristiandkerry.com/HTML/Index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.kristiandkerry.com/HTML/Index.html</a>

SummerBoston10 · March 2010

I will actually second what someone else has said about some of the rooms being rundown. We have had two experiences at Sandals.

Our first was at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios. We booked an Oceanfront room and were "upgraded" to a room way up in the hills across the street from the beach. We did not want this upgrade but they would not accommodate us in the room we actually booked for the first night we were there. We received a $650 refund and a free night on a future trip and were moved to our original room the next day. With that said, the little cottage thing we were in the first night was hideous. The bathroom was so outdated and there was a little kitchenette straight out of 1985. I can't believe the money people pay to stay in those rooms. The room we were moved to (and the room we booked) was just renovated and lovely.

Our second experience was Sandals Negril. We booked the same category again, Grand luxe oceanfront room. The view was nice but the room was dilapitated. Cracks in the walls, furniture falling apart and the bathroom looked like it had been tiled and painted by a 5 year old. We brought the manager to our room and she even laughed and said she had no excuse. We asked to be upgraded and ended up in a SICK room for 7 nights for a few hundred dollars. This room was bigger than my condo in Boston and was very luxiourious with a huge balcony overlooking the ocean. It was well worth the few hundred dollars extra but I would not pay the $1200/night they charge for it on their website.

So, I do think that some of the rooms at Sandals need some help and its not like Sandals is cheap in any room category so I would just be careful if you are considering any Sandals hotel.

goaliegirl · March 2010

We actually stayed in one of the Manor cottages at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios in August and I thought they were great! Not rundown at all. SGOR was great, the staff was awesome. We had the butler service and we felt it was well worth it, especially being our honeymoon.

As for the excursions, we did the zipline tour, which if I remember correctly, was around $160 for the two of us. We also did the catamaran cruise to Dunn's River Falls, and I believe that was about $180 for the two of us. There are tons of excursions to choose from, when you get there they have a tour desk that you can go to and get more information.

ShelbyDana · March 2010

My FI and I have been to two Sandals and will be getting married at Sandals Grande St. Lucia. We loved both of our experiences at Sandals and both resorts were completely different. My recommendation is to talk with a travel agent that is a Sandals expert as they can give your the best advise and also which resorts are offering the best promotions. Our travel agent is Tammy at Red Parrot Travel in Winter Park. She is great and has been to all of the Sandals resorts. She is taking care of us for our destination wedding.

She sent me this link for the Love Match Quiz to help pick which Sandals is best for you. It's fun anyway:

http://www.sandals.com/loveMatch/index.cfm?referral=110756

My best advise is to spend the money on the room. The higher room category you go the better service and more amenities you get.

You can email me if you want to chat more about it.

Shelby

lauraNkieran · March 2010

We just came back from Antigua and I have to say we were disappointed. There was major attitude from many of the staffers. I'd go to Antigua again in a heartbeat but we'll never stay at a Sandals again. Excursions are about $115 pp depending on what you do. There is a shopping trip where the taxis drop you into down for a few hours and that's $15pp You can rent jetskis on the beach - $50pp for 30m.

If anyone is interested I have the phone number for the taxi drive who took us on our own tour of the island. He WAS AWESOME! And I have to say I was so happy to put the money in the pocket of a hard working local vs Sandals. Their tour was about $130pp and you didn't see half of what we did and we were gone about 4-5 hours.

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