Description: We stayed here for two nights before heading to our annual Sandals vacation (this time in negril) and i have to say that I went there expecting nothing (the reviews are very very mixed and some are very bad) because I was paying less than $150US per night. But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and here's why.
We got a shuttle from the airport to the resort, which is about a 10 minute drive. The resort doesn't include a free shuttle service (that I know of), so we had to pay for a cab, which is $30US plus tip. Make sure you have lots of ones for tipping baggage handlers and shuttle drivers.
The check-in process was a bit strange. Check-in is at 3 but we got there a bit early, around 1:30. They check you in their computer system but they won't, under any circumstance, give you your room until 3 sharp, even if it's ready. But it was no big deal because they locked up our luggage and we were free to roam the resort until 3. I came back at 245 to check on the status of our room and she didn't even check in the system to see if it was ready -- she said "come back at 3." The problem with that is everybody who checked in that day comes back at 3 and then you're left standing in a lineup for up to an hour so you can get your room key.
Oh well. We couldn't complain because I had requested on my reservation that we be put in a room in the 7th building and on the ground floor. And we were given exactly that. The location was perfect. It was right next to the adult pool. The room was very clean and spacious enough for the two of us. It had an ocean view and a walk out to a patio.
The grounds were manicured and well taken care of.That's what blew me away the most. There were plenty of palm trees and lots of greenery. It was easy to take some good photos on the resort.
Because we don't have children and we had only been to adult-only all-inclusive resorts, we were a bit worried going there that I'd be stuck around children all day. However, that was not the case.We only saw children at meal time, and the children who were around then were all very well behaved. The adult-only section of the resort (which includes a great adult-only pool and swim up bar and an adult-only beach) is truly adult-only. There were never any kids around, and it seemed the adults who had kids stayed in other section of the resort near the children. So it was all people who didn't have kids, or who at least didn't have their kids with them. It was really nice.
Other than the buffet -- which was "meh" -- and the jerk chicken at the hut which was amazingI -- we can't really comment on the food because we couldn't get reservations. You have to book the a la carte restaurants 24 hours in advance, and because we were only there for two nights, I would have been able to book for only one night, and it turned out that everything was booked for that night. We heard from others on the resort that the Italian restaurant was somewhere between "ok" and "pretty good" but that the spanish restaurant was not so good (that was definitely the consensus).
We weren't blown away by the staff. There was a nice bartender at the main bar at night. There seemed to be other nice staff members but we were there for such a short time that we didn't get to mingle with any of them.
In sum, it was a great spot to spend a few nights before heading off to our 7-night annual stay at Sandals. I'm sure I'd have no problem spending a week there, although I would probably wander off the resort to try out some of the local restaurants (I think the food on this resort would get old pretty quick). I would definitely return, especially if the price is right again! Thanks!
Close