Great vacation but room for improvement.
Dec 17, 2024 MorganC1468
My wife and I finally made the leap and booked a Sandals trip for her 40th birthday. Neither of us had ever been to a sandals, as it can be quite pricey, and neither of us had ever been to Jamaica - so we were very excited as we had always heard great things.
We stayed at the Sandals in Negril and although we had a great time, there are some…
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My wife and I finally made the leap and booked a Sandals trip for her 40th birthday. Neither of us had ever been to a sandals, as it can be quite pricey, and neither of us had ever been to Jamaica - so we were very excited as we had always heard great things.
We stayed at the Sandals in Negril and although we had a great time, there are some things that should be noted that Sandals could work on (things that could have been better).
- we arrived at the Sangster Airport around 4pm (EST) due to a delay where we left, which happens. So when we finally left on the shuttle bus to head to the resort (which is 1.5 hours from the airport), we were basically leaving during their, what I gathered, was their rush hour. There is only one lane for much of the way and what should have only lasted 1.5 took us just over 2.5 hours which was brutal. When we finally got there, everything was beautiful however my wife and I hadn’t eaten since about 7:30am and the airport lounge had a few small snacks. So all we wanted to do was site and eat. The staff told us we had to complete their check-in process even after I asked if I could just go grab something to eat quickly. This was a no-go - we had to be taken to separate rooms and given the whole intro which I could care less about. We are the ones spending all this money and I feel as though our check-in could have waited 30min while we ate because we were starving.
- my wife and I LOVE the nightly entertainment put on by staff at resorts and were really looking forward to it. The nightly entertainment at this resort was very subpar. There was no production value put into it. It felt as though it was kind of just put together a week or so ago. To say the least, we walked out of each one after about 15-30 minutes.
- whether you believe it or not, the attitude of staff plays a role on how well you are enjoying your vacation. We would say roughly 1/4 of all the staff looked/acted as though they didn’t want to be there. A much acted as though ET were annoying them when asking for something.
- this one is NOT any fault of the resorts - Hurricane Beryl destroyed many of the Jamaican crops so there was no tropical fruit, aside from some unripe pineapple. No plantains either so this was a huge bummer.
- we called for room service two times - the first time they didn’t even come so we were left very hungry that night and me annoyed.
- bar service was quite slow many times. It’s no big problem as we are on vacation and have no where to be however we have never seen a resort bar with only one server which was often. So the lineup gets long and you end up waiting quite long. My wife and I spent alot of time on the beach, and a good portion poolside, and as per the beach - in 5 days, we were only approached ONE time by a server asking us if we wanted a drink. That’s unreal. We also weren’t approached at all when by the pool. Sure, we were close to the bar but it’s small things like that that make a difference and being at a sandals, that shouldn’t be a question as to whether servers are going to attend to you.
- departure time on our last day to the airport was unfortunate so to speak. Apparently their policy is to leave 5 hours before the departure time of your flight - which, even factoring in 1.5 hours for driving, is still way too early. They wanted us to leave in earlier because of some marathon race they had that day so as to compensate for more traffic. I battled with them several times, especially after finding out the marathon was early that morning and our flight was departing at 8:30pm, and they finally moved it back however it was t 3pm - so we had way too much time at the airport and lost some much needed rest at the resort.
- and for the BIGGEST issue I had on this trip:
I will state that this wasn’t so much sandals per-say. I coordinated a drive from the resort to Rick’s Cafe (just for myself as my wife stayed at the resort cuz I was literally just going there for Jerk Chicken and then bringing it back). The front desk staff told me $25 for a round trip - I confirmed with them twice that it was $25 for JUST ME and to go there and back with no stops - they assured me that was the price and that it would be handled. I got in the van, which they arranged, with two other couples who were to be dropped off at the nearby beaches resort which was on the way to Rick’s. Once the other people were dropped off and it was just me and the driver left, the driver turned to me and said “so how much are you gonna pay me?”. I told him $25 as per the staff and he relentlessly tried to make me pay double the amount saying that it was $50 minimum. It immediately became uncomfortable. He literally told me “what’s to prevent me from leaving you there?” Which was infuriating and also scary as I was obviously not from the country and I was now worried of being stranded in Jamaica away from my wife. I didn’t have any cell reception so it’s not I could call wife and let her know how I was. Anyways, we Got to Rick’s and the driver immediately followed me in and instantly began pressuring me to order right away and bringing me to a server to hurry things up. He said I had to be quick. He then was talking to staff to get them to hurry up everything. He even spoke to the server when I moved to the side and went back to the kitchen area, as I found out after confronting a server. I now had the paranoia that he was going to do something or have something done to my food as some sort of retribution. It was extremely uncomfortable and worrisome and when he came back and started pressuring me again, I started raising my voice at him cuz it was getting infuriating. (There was much more to the convo but I’ll keep it short). When we got back to the resort, I told staff about it - it ABSOLUTELY RUINED my whole experience for that. Staff apologized but that’s their job. I didn’t tell my wife cuz I didn’t want to ruin any part of her day. Fast forward a couple hours when I went to our room to grab something and found a bottle of champagne on ice and some flower pedals on our table with a note saying congrats on our anniversary (which it wasn’t) - I’m sure this was the hotel’s way of saying sorry however this fell extremely flat - the bottle of champagne was the exact one we had in our fridge already - because I checked. So this felt as a very empty apology and a complete stain on my memory of this resort.
We still had a great time at Sandals however they did, to a degree, fall short of my expectations and overall view.
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