If you've visited a Sandals resort before...

[troy mcclure]

Looking for opinions and feedback on the Sandals Resorts (any of them). My wife and I are considering a fall vacation to one, probably in the Caribbean (Sandals Royal Caribbean). We've never been to this or any all-inclusive resort before (wow, are we sheltered or what?). BTW (and I know this is complete blasphemy) this is instead of our annual pilgrimmage to WDW. (I'm thinking I need a change of pace or maybe I'm just Disney-ed out.) Any info or feedback would be greatly appreciated! TIA!

 

[PlutosFriend]

Looking for opinions and feedback on the Sandals Resorts (any of them). My wife and I are considering a fall vacation to one, probably in the Caribbean (Sandals Royal Caribbean). We've never been to this or any all-inclusive resort before (wow, are we sheltered or what?). BTW (and I know this is complete blasphemy) this is instead of our annual pilgrimmage to WDW. (I'm thinking I need a change of pace or maybe I'm just Disney-ed out.) Any info or feedback would be greatly appreciated! TIA!

My dh and I were married at a Sandals in Montego Bay Jamaica 15 years ago. While I was not all that fond of Jamaica itself, the resort was gorgeous Hopefully someone has a more recent experience. It is a couples only resort, so if you are looking for a non-kid atmosphere, this is a plus. Good luck!

 

[troy mcclure]

We are looking at the "couples only" Sandals resorts. The thought is a "get away from it all" vacation this time... one where we can have fun, but also really relax without feeling the need to be "out and about" all the time. If there's something to do, that's great, but if we want to just nap on a hammock that'd be great, too. (Unfortunately, I never feel like I can do that at Disney -- it's always go, go, go!)

 

[hydster]

We did Sandals awhile ago and were not all that impressed even at the couples only one. This last Feb we went to Riviera Maya just outside of Cozumel and stayed in a 5* adults only hotel and it was amazing! The level of service and activities were great! It is an ONLY All Inclusive which means no wristbands to wear or anything. You are given top shelf liquor. When you check in you don't stand at a traditional check in desk you are seated in comfortable chairs until they are ready for you, you are given Champagne and a cool towel upon arrival and they seat you in wingback chairs to check you in.

Each floor has it's own concierge and we used ours to book a Romantic Beach dinner. We were celebrating our Anniversary and booked the dinner for that. It was extra but well worth it. Upon leaving the beach after dinner we went to our room and opened the door to find small votive candles lit on the tile floor with red rose petals in between, 2 towel swans, a towel heart filled with rose petals, a chilled bottle of champagne, classical music playing on the cd player, a floral arrangement and a jetted tub filled with warm water, bubble bath and more floating roses! It was an experience that's for sure!

It is a gated hotel which means you have to be registered in order to go up the long drive to the hotel. There is only 1 other hotel around and if you walk the other way you can walk forever and not encounter anything.

All rooms have balconies or patios that face either the jungle or the ocean. They have 5 restaurants that you do not have to make reservations for as well as buffet breakfasts. The waiters will serve you lunch and drinks ON the beach and you don't have to get up for any of it. You can just sit on the beach under your palapa and read and listen to the ocean while eating or relaxing. They have 2 pools and tons of loungers. No fighting for chairs and they have "pool boys" that will get you an umbrella if you wish and set it up for you! They also have employees out on the beach raking up the seaweed all the time so the beach is clean and free from debris. There are no vendors there to bug you to buy beads or hammocks. Oh and they have covered hammocks by the beach you can take a nap in. It is the utmost in relaxation!

You can see the resort here
http://www.secretsresorts.com/capri/

We are already planning on going back sometime at the end of this year or the beginning of next. We flew into Cancun and it was about a 30 min drive to the resort!

I would stay there rather than any other AI's we've stayed at including Club Med and Sandals.

JMO
Heidi

 

[troy mcclure]

Thanks, Heidi. This sounds like a resort worth checking out!

 

[PlutosFriend]

We are looking at the "couples only" Sandals resorts. The thought is a "get away from it all" vacation this time... one where we can have fun, but also really relax without feeling the need to be "out and about" all the time. If there's something to do, that's great, but if we want to just nap on a hammock that'd be great, too. (Unfortunately, I never feel like I can do that at Disney -- it's always go, go, go!)

I thought it was very relaxing. There were things to do if you wanted to, but no pressure of course. Not sure they still do this, but it used to be the more you particpated in ie: beach volleyball, beer drinking contest etc, you would earn points. If you got up to a certain number of points, you would be awarded with a cool leather sandals necklace

 

[Jennifer S]

We stayed at Montego Bay for our honeymoon (13 years ago). We loved it. Dunns River Falls was awesome. I thought the food was good.

We are going to an AI in Mexico- Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar in June. I'll let you know when we get back. I've heard wonderful things about it.

Check out www.tripadvisor.com They have message boards like this that are for tons of different travel destinations. Have fun.

 

[kelleigh1]

Hubby and I were married at Sandals Ocho Rios (Jamaica) just two short years ago. (Actually, it will be 2 years in June.) We loved it and would do it all over again.

The resort however, went through quite a change right after our wedding. They merged with the Beaches resort next door to create a super resort. Beaches is the sister resort of Sandals and where Sandals is Couples (Adult) only, Beaches is for families and kids. But...the newly designed resort in Ocho Rios is still under the Sandals name and is still Couples (adults) only.

We know that we would never return to Jamaica unless it was all-inclusive. That is the way to go. We had a great time on the resort doing various activities, but you are never pressured into doing the activities either. The food was fantastic too. Every employee was friendly and willing to help at anytime.

I have absolutely no regrets about my wedding and honeymoon at Sandals. (C'mon, ask for pics!)

Also, if you want to read other reports on Sandals and other resorts in the Caribbean, visit www.tropictravelonline.com. You'll find a ton of info there.

Oh, and one more thing...keep an eye out for specials through the Sandals website. They are always having them.

 

[Madaboutthemouse]

DH and I spent our honeymoon at the middle level Sandals in St. Lucia 3 years ago. It was amazing. The only thing was that it was a far drive from the airport we flew into (really close to the other one) so that was a negative, but we did get to see a lot of the countryside on our commute. Lots of activities and no pressure to participate in any. I liked the stay at one, play at 3 plan and we did visit the Halcyon for dinner one night. Shuttle service was really easy to use between the resorts in the evenings. The one thing that we really wanted to do was scuba dive and we were able to be trained at the resort and dived twice during our week stay. Granted, it wasn't extremely deep diving, but we did see some awesome stuff and we wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise since there is nowhere around us that trains (and there isn't anywhere around here to dive anyway). So, to sum it all up, it was awesome and I hope we get to go back sometime soon.

 

[hydster]

Troy...it was really an awesome hotel! We've been to Sandals in Antigua and it was ok and until we hit Capri we thought pretty much all AI's were the same! We were truly blown away by Capri! We have stayed in Cancun a lot at different AI's and they were ok but we hated the public beach and the vendors. Capri isn't a public beach and the only other people are the poor saps who stay next door (don't know the name of the hotel) but it was not adults only so they had to wear wristbands for All Inclusive, Euro plan or kids under the drinking age. Capri was a really relaxing vacation for us. We had planned on going Diving a few days but it was so nice just hanging on the beach and it rained in the afternoons so we'd get complimentary room service, sit on our balcony and read while it rained. We've cruised and done other AI's but we've never come back feeling as relaxed as we did with Capri. We did a few spa treatments and since we were celebrating our anniversary we got 25 percent off evey spa treatment. Also Delta didn't load dh's bag on the way down but they said they'd bring us his bag the following day and so we asked our Concierge about it and he took it upon himself to find it, get it delivered in a timely manner and got us a discount in the gift shop at Secrets for dh to get a swim suit and some flip flops.

I have a ton of pics on webshots. I don't know if this link will work and if not you can pm me and I can send you the link but you are welcome to try

http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=548338606&security=XEmwWj

We can't wait to go back that's for sure! We have decided that this is the place for us. You get great value for your $$$$ in Mexico and it's a 10 min cab ride at the most into Playa and you can take the ferry into Cozumel though we didn't.

Heidi

ETA that we booked the hotel through a 3rd party website that we book most all of our Mexico all inclusives through and got the room for 7 nights for $2800 total for the both of us. We had FF miles through Delta so it only cost us the $2800 and it was awesome! Anyway you can look at
www.travel-center.com to see what the rates are. I do agree that you CAN find cheaper places to stay especially in Cancun but this was in our opinion worth the extra few dollars. We stayed at Club Med 2 years ago in Cancun which is also Adults Only and hated it. If you go to that website click on Riviera Maya and then scroll til you see Secrets CAPRI not Excellence.