Interesting. Maybe I'll try a Sandals resort next time! Tipping is kind of a pain in the ass, actually... Like others have said, Trip Advisor is where it's at. I never go anywhere without checking their reviews first. Great website.
Yeah, all-inclusive. You have to pay extra for Scuba Diving and the day spa, but other that that, it's all paid for.
Yeah, I've been to tons of all-inclusives. They all say they discourage tipping, but I've always found that you get better service if you take a bunch of 1's and are generous with them. Never been to a Sandals resort, so I'm not sure if they're more strict about it.
Our honeymoon just about 10 years ago was at the Sandals in Negril. We loved it. Never even left the resort. Food was great. Drinks were better. The rooms were nice enough but it's kind of like Vegas...who cares what's in your room? If you're in there enough to complain, you're doing it wrong. Granted, we had a regular room. Had we had one of the suites overlooking the water, we might have spend more time in there. The service was fantastic. As was said before...they do not accept tips. The only drawback had nothing to do with the actual resort. Hedonism 2 was next door. I'd love to say it was a bunch of young lovely ladies walking around topless...but it wasn't. It was mostly older Euro couples and they wouldn't stay on their own damn beach. I still have the image burned in my brain of the roughly 70 year old couple walking past us...the woman was topless and the man wearing a banana hammock.
Hands down, the nicest place we have ever been. We ordered up some Bailey's and they brought an entire bottle. We were expecting a couple of glases or a couple of airplane size bottle, but they sent up a normal sized bottle. It was the same if we ordered up tequila, whiskey, whatever. They would also go out to the beach to take and bring orders. Both times we went, we upgraded our room to the 'governor's suite', which was about 1800-2000 square feet and included an 8 person hot tup on the balconey (the balconey stretched across all three of the outside walls). The cost to upgrade was about $20/day. They are also set up well for young kids with numerous activities planned daily.
El Dorado Royale in Maya Riviera. 7 different restaurants, countless different bars, beach waiters, beautiful grounds, amazing service all the way around. We never left the resort. No reason to. Maya Riviera's hottest all-inclusive is El Dorado Riviera.....
I'll be staying at a Couples resorts in Jamaica for my honeymoon and hoping we could get an upgrade like that!
Hard to say. We used RCI to pay for the room. We didn't use points, but used one of their 'extra vacation' deals. So the room cost for the week was only $199 total. The all inclusive was generally around $160 per person per day on one of the trips. A bit more or less on the other (both $125 and $180 come to mind). It depends on when you go. I think the prices they show on the web site include the room. Since our room was reserved using our RCI membership, our all inclusive was less. I liked the fact the mini-bar is included in the all-inclusive. If we were going out for the day, we'd load up on candy bars, chips, peanuts, sodas and drinks. When we returned, it was restocked. Room service was also special. On one of our trips, we were there with my wife's parents and her brother and his wife. We ordered as if we were at one of the restaurants. They brought up all the food, served us and cleaned up after. They brought up a six pack of beer on ice as well as a couple of bottles of wine. Good stuff. They picked us up and returned us to the airport as well. While they check you in, they have you sit on a couch and serve you drinks. When your paperwork is ready they come to you.
you know i'd rep you for the stefon reference if i could. yeah, partially on your advice, their Casitas resort is the one we were planning on going to this summer...until i ended up with the trial schedule from hell. hopefully next summer.
No kites, just human traffic cones. And a huge pile of stale Lunchables by the pool, guarded by the owner -- Jew Diamond Phillips.
[my 11 year old quoting stefon] and look over there!! is that mick jagger? NO...it's a fat kid on a slip and slide. his knees look like biscuits and he's ready to rock. [/my 11 year old quoting stefon]
my wife would rep this post if she had an account here. i hated to disappoint her, but had 4 lengthy trials scheduled for this summer. of course, 2 of them settled now.
Just wanted to say that Sandals was fantastic and we're already thinking about our next trip there. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone.