Fairytale Wedding

• September 5, 2009
• Rated 4 of 5 by YessieB from New York, New York

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Awsome Trip, Great food, Lovely Entertainment!!

• September 4, 2009
• Rated 5 of 5 by gsxrsrad1000 from Upper Marlboro, Maryland

The views and expressions of my honeymoon to St. Lucia are solely my opinions and the information contained in this summary come from my personal experiences and the information I obtained from several staff members on the island.

First, be sure to ask for a honeymoon upgrade to your room, otherwise you may not get an ocean view but a view of the pool or even worse. With that said, I will begin with arriving at the St. Lucia International Air port (Hanwerah (sp) airport). Sandals, nor anyone else fail to mention the long line you have to wait in after arriving at St. Lucia international airport. So be prepared, after the long plane ride, you may be in line anywhere from 15min to 45min in a hot room. Once you pass through customs and your bags are checked. There will be people waiting to take your bags. CARRY YOUR OWN BAGS because the people trying to take your bags will be looking for a tip to roll your bags 20-50ft through a set of double doors. You may just want to carry your bags to the desk outside of the double doors and check in there. The check in person will give you some bag tags so you can label your bags so they do not get lost during transit. Once you put your tags on, locate the van that is going to your Sandals resort and grab a seat. At this point, everything has been paid for so you do not have to feel obligated to tip even though people may try to solicit tips from you.

The ride to Sandals

The ride to Sandals is all but grand, be prepared for pot holes, vehicles passing to the right (Vehicals are right hand drive), and some times vehicles splitting traffic. In addition, you will be traveling through the real St. Lucia which is somewhat rural so please do not expect breath taking views because you will be greeted with shacks, run-down looking houses, and many rural type views.

St. Lucia Regency La Toc Golf Resort

Upon arrival, things move pretty quickly unless you have a millionaire suite or some special package where you and a group of people are given a tour or you have a personal butler. If you have a standard honeymoon package, you will be greeted by a Sandals rep. They will sit you down and offer you a nice cool smelling towel and some Rum Punch  That was cool, but stay focused because they will have you fill out a small form validating your stay dates and assigning a credit card to a bar-coded card that is attached to your room. At this point, NO CASH OR CREDIT CARD IS REQURIED TO DO ANYTHING. EVERYTHING is attached to your room and most likely when you want to purchase something you will be asked for your room number or the bar-coded card. Once you have filled out the forms and swiped your credit card that is to be attached to your bar-coded room card, a Sandals rep will greet you to your room.

The Room

I can only speak from Room 158 Ground Floor , "Ocean View." The room is cool, just like any other room at a moderately priced Hilton, Renissance or 3-5 star hotel. However, being on the ground floor you will be greeted with a stale smell from years of moisture build-up. My first thought was, I didn’t like the room, but after opening the blinds, the exact words out of my mouth were "OK we are paying for the view." The view is literally breath taking!!! You are literally 20ft from the beach, and footsteps away from the pool and the main pavilion. The view of the carribean goes as far as the eyes can see, it is truly the reason why you come for sure.

The Experience:

First, when you get situated, sit down with your spouse and or group and make reservations to all of the restaurants that require reservations – these places fill up fast so make sure you book early. Second, remember, you can visit all 3 Sandals resorts and have the same privileges as the one you are staying at, which means, food, swimming and resort activities are included. At the Regency, the Sandals staff makes it a point to provide activities to the guests. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS, THE SCHEDULE THEY PRINT OFF DAILY HAS TO BE CHECKED BECAUSE WE FOUND THAT SOME ACTIVITIES WERE NOT SCHEDULED AS SHOWN ON THE DAILY PRINT OUTS. On the other hand, the "PLAY MAKERS" aka the Sandals guest staff, really go out of their way to make all activities fun. Some of these activities consist of Yoga, step aerobics, resort tour, golf clinic, pool aerobics, poker, dance class, beach volley ball, pool volley ball, live bands, karaoke, and many more. Be sure to look at the "daily activity list" because some activities actually cost money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Regency did an excellent job, providing nightly entertainment, such as; Karaoke, fire eating, steal drum bands, dancing and other entertainment. The weather was beautiful with occasional rain showers that lasted no more than 30 minutes. Sandals offers security 24x7 so if you leave your room door unlocked by accident or your patio door unlocked, most likely your stuff will still be there. When your on the beach, remember it’s a public beach so you will have occasional locals trying to sell you shells or other smoke related things  The kids usually sell the shells and the older guys usually sell ya know…….

The restaurants: (remember these are restaurants portions so ORDER AS MUCH AS YOU WANT!!! JUST DON’T OVER DO IT AND BECOME WASTEFUL)

Cricketers pub – You will spend time here when the restaurants are not serving meals. They have potato wedges, chicken wraps, fish wraps, curry chicken and hamburgers. They are the goto people when food is scarce and the food is good.
Pavillion – The food here is restaurant quality and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday – buffet style and made to order omelets and pan cakes.
Pitons – Carribean – Great beer battered shrimp, and carribean style food.
Armondoes (Italian) – lovely risotto and make sure you hit the salad bar, sometimes they fail to mention that. For lunch the lasagna is wonderful and for dinner get the Beef Tenderloin Whewwww. In addition, the shrimp scampi is also great.
La Toc (French) – A MUST, A MUST, A MUST you have to go here, they are one of the best places to eat hands down! The BEEF tenderloin is amazing and filling.
Kimonos (Japanese) – First, it’s somewhat warm in this restaurant due to the grills. Also be prepared to sit and have dinner with 8 other people. Here you will try pretty much all main entrees including, salmon steak, chicken, beef, fried rice, shrimp and vegetables. The cook will make the dinner so hopefully you luck up on a cook that has a good personality or is experienced.
Barefoot By The Beach – Seafood (Sandals Grand) – Lovely setting on the beach, great seafood and good crab cakes (Order plenty)

Scuba Diving:

Just as the literature states, scuba diving is 70 bucks for the class and immediate following the class, you are taking a 20 min snorkel tour right off the beach where you took the class. After this, you can sign up to dive everyday up to the second to last day before you leave. One great thing is, you can dive at a different site and take a mini ride through the city and a boat ride everyday! Use this up, it’s pretty expensive to do this on your own. They also offer snorkeling away from the beach as well and it’s a great experience with your significant other.


Local feedback

-The last week of each month, Red beach flags rise telling people to stay off the beach. The waves will hit barrier walls and make beach walks and swimming difficult.
-Only purchase must-haves at the gift shop, if you scuba dive/snorkel you can grab the same stuff at the gift shop located at the dive site for 50% less and if you go on a tour to purchase local merchandise you can get this stuff cheaper. The local tour is $20.
-When traveling home, you can only take 750ml of liquid back. You can purchase jerk marinade, and various other liquid based items but they will have to go under the plane when you get into the United States.

IF YOU GOTO A ST.LUCIA SANDALS RESORT, THIS IS PLACE TO BE FOR THE YOUNGER CROWD. THEY HAD ACTIVITIES FOR DAYS, THE MOST RESTARUNTS AND EVERYONE FROM THE OTHER TWO EITHER VISTITED EVERYDAY OR MOVED TO THE REGENCY FOR THE REST OF THEIR STAY.

Pictures:

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~pbrown/honeymoon2009/

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~pbrown/scubapics/

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The Best Time Ever!

• July 9, 2009
• Rated 5 of 5 by rabarnett1 from tuscaloosa, Alabama

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Sandals St. Lucia Regency La Toc

• June 23, 2009
• Rated 4 of 5 by KTDukes06 from Chantilly, Virginia

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Sandals Regency

• January 23, 2006
• Rated 3 of 5 by emonfette from Portsmouth, New Hampshire

From journal St. Lucia Getaway

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