We recently returned from our weddingmoon at this property. This is the first time we've ever been to a Sandals resort. It will always be a vacation to remember - we were married and had our honeymoon. The weather was beautiful, we were in the Carribean - I can't complain about these things! We were married at 4 p.m. in the afternoon in the midst of a beautiful sea backdrop, on a perfect sunshine day, and relaxed for the rest of our trip. I'm not sure we will try a Sandals again though. If we opt for another Sandals, it will definitely need to be more upscale than this resort and and I doubt we would stay for a whole week - we decided about five days would be our maximum. I read a lot of reviews prior to booking a Sandals, as well as this specific property. With the amount of money spent on renovations, we expected it to be much nicer than it actually was. Also, I do a lot of traveling both within the US and have been to a variety of different countries as well. I do not consider this to be a four star+ resort as reviewed. I would definitely say it is average - a three. For our wedding or honeymoon, we definitely wanted a 4 or 5 star resort. So this was disappointing.
TRAVEL
The travel time there and home did basically take about a day. Customs in Jamaica moved quickly. The bus ride was over two hours to get to Ocho Rios and about an hour and a half to get to the airport the morning we checked out. The buses were comfortable, clean and air conditioned. The drivers were pleasant - our driver on the way to the resort was very amicable and told us about each town through which we passed. I felt safe with the drivers from Juta Tours (although everyone there drives crazy!)
ACCOMMODATIONS
We stayed in a honeymoon concierge room with private pool on the Villa side. I loved the Villa side - it was quiet, clean and we liked the large pool on that side of the resort the best. Concierge service was little more than regular service for about $500 more. We wish that we would have purchased the butler service. We had a nicely stocked fridge but all liquor in the room on the concierge level is well, you can receive the premium brands for an upcharge. Our fridge was only restocked when we asked for it to be done, but it was always done the day that we asked. There is NO room service with concierge level! You can only get food delivered to you with butler service. Again, highly recommend that you spend the extra for butler service. If you don't, don't bother with concierge, it was honestly a non-perk. The women that worked in the concierge lounge were SUPER friendly and polite, though, and again, anything we asked for in our room was done. We did have to ask three times (our housekeeper once and concierge twice) for strings for our bathrobe ties.
Our room was beautiful and clean, the linens were excellent, the bathroom was excellent and large (except the lighting is way to dark, it's difficult to put on makeup at night), and the bed was super comfortable.
GROUNDS
When I originally booked this trip, the map shown on the Sandals website leads one to believe that you can walk from one resort to the next. Distance-wise, yes, you could. But I already knew from the online reviews that the highway (and crazy driving thereupon!) between the two resorts made that impossible. Still glad we chose the hillside. You can ride jitneys between the hillside and the main lodge, and then buses between the two resorts. We never waited more than 2 or 3 minutes, they run constantly until a certain point at night. The drivers were always friendly. All of the pools were nice. The largest pool on the manor/hillside was excellent; however the swim up bar was always dirty, always smelled bad and had flies behind it. As long as you didn't stay there long, it could be ignored.The pool near the beach was a little dirty and the water was warm. The pool above the watersports area was cool as well. The pool at our villa was small but perfect and clean. All lounge chairs were excellent. There were a few days we had problems getting beach towels (we waited more than half an hour one day) but for the most part, we were able to get towels without a wait. The beach was small and a disappointment.
FOOD
Dinners - all excellent. We loved Kelly's, Neptunes, Manor, and the Riviera Terrace.
Breakfast and lunches - Terribly underwhelming. They were all buffet and we were basically just "done" with the food by the end of the week. I was very shocked that there were not many fresh vegetables provided. No salad bar to speak of (every so often there would be a "caesar salad" offered on the buffet that was little wimpy shreds of lettuce). The fresh fruit was always the same (papaya, mango, pineapple, watermelon) and the smoked salmon was excellent.
On July Fourth there was an excellent beach BBQ/cookout that was the only buffet that was good the entire week. Again, very disappointed that there was no room service. There are very limited snacks in the gift shop - we spent $11 on two bags of Chex Mix one day!
WEDDING
Ceremony itself was absolutely perfect! I will always cherish the memory. It was a gorgeous day and backdrop and we were both amazingly happy. The minister was pleasant and friendly, the ceremony was short and nondenominational. It was perfect. The onsite wedding planners - Latoya and AnnKay were lovely and pleasant to work with. The over the phone "pre" wedding planner, Diedre, was an absolute disaster. I was stood up for two telephone conferences with her, had emails unreturned, and it was a huge waste of my time (and I was extremely stressed beforehand - once I got to the resort and met with AnnaKay, it was a breeze). The on site session asked me exactly the same questions that I'd already gone over with the first wedding planner in April three months before my wedding, and the resort had NONE of his information. The pre wedding planner is a different company other than Sandals, it is called Unique Vacations. The wedding planner basically told me if I didn't prepay and book my wedding hair and makeup and photographs prior to our trip, I'd be out of luck and wouldn't be able to have it done on my special day. She also only tried to upsell me.She also told me I couldn't use the spa credit that we received with our honeymoon package on my hair and makeup, and I most certainly could and did when I arrived at the resort! After she missed two scheduled conference calls with me, I called and asked to speak to a manager. I talked to a gentleman who transferred me to another woman. I told her about my frustrations and that I felt that Sandals wasn't making the time to make my wedding a priority, and she was very rude with me and basically defended her coworker, then I learn she's not even a manager and she tells me there is no manager I can speak with. I do plan to write to a manager within the wedding department to tell my story. I was afraid that if I did it beforehand that my special day would be sabatoged (the old spit on your food theory) so I decided to wait until after we returned from our vacation.
They drove us in a private airconditioned van to and from the beach ceremony and to and from dinner and the driver and butler were both friendly and hospitable.
The reception and cake were completely underwhelming. The food was terrible and welaughed about it and hurried through that part to go to dinner, which we had at Kelly's and was fabulous.
The photographs turned out horrible, not a great quality at all and the photographer was pushy, but we expected that based on the picture samples we saw on the website, so we are thankful that we are doing it over again now that we are home so that we will have high quality professional photos. Do NOT spend very much money on the photos that Sandals takes if you have a wedding there. Also, what they won't tell you - they try to push you to buy an expensive package (they smallest was 18 photos for $355 for low quality pics) and we only wanted 10 or so. They will tell you over the phone that you can't do that, but you can prepay for the smallest package, then pick the number that you want at $20 a picture, they put them on a CD for you to take home, and then you can have a real photographer at home edit them to your satisfaction!
Also, not a big deal, but they brought the wrong song for our "first dance" which was not what we picked - that would probably send some brides over the edge, but we actually thought it was pretty funny and just went with it!
EXCURSIONS
We did the Dunns River Falls tour, it was excellent and reasonable and I highly recommend it. We were only gone a few hours and it was a 10 min bus ride from the resort. Do not rent $7 watershoes, either spend $2 on a pair from walmart at home and pack them with you, or wear tennis shoes! We didn't want to kill a whole day with an 8 hour excursion, but there is a biking tour through the mountains/coffee plantations that looked amazing and was very reasonable! If you don't mind spending a whole day on an excursion, I would definitely say go for it!
FITNESS
I work out almost daily and the gym can get you by in a pinch, but was pretty underwhelming. I've stayed in 3-4 star hotels in the US with better fitness setups. There is one room with treadmills/elipticals and one room with stationary machines. I ran on the villa side but it's very hilly and also you will have to do constant loops up and down or hill repeaters. The fitness classes are held in the mornings almost daily and are taught by American trainers who come for a week and stay at the resort - Yoga and Zumba were very low impact, but hey, at least I burned enough calories for at least one drink or so!!! Obviously, people don't go to an all-inclusive resort or on their honeymoon to exercise, but for those of us who do, this fitness center definitely got me by, but I did expect it to be nicer.
SPA
Unless you are using your free spa credit like I was, skip it. Very overpriced. I didn't like my hair at all but I rolled with it because it was hot and windy and I knew it would be a mess anyway once I got to the beach. My makeup looked surprisingly great but the brushes she used on me were dirty and she put them right back in the containers without leaving them out to be sanitized. I was convinced I would break out within a few days (I also used my own mascara - she was using a wand and going to use it on me and put it right back in the tube - hello eye infections, nasty!) but so far, so good.
We would not return to this resort, but would be willing to try another Sandals again, we just wouldn't stay for a whole week, and it would have to be a more upscale property. I wish we would have known about the Royal Plantation right next door - now that I've read the recent reviews, it seems that would have been more the caliber of what I was expecting, not what I got at Grande Riviera. In a way, Grande Riviera reminded me of an "upscale" Carnival Cruise. I must add that all of the employees were incredibly polite, kind, and made you feel first-class, and that really was wonderful.