Sandals Royal Caribbean Reviews

If you are going to this resort in the next few months, get your tour operator to check the stage of the substantial building work that is being done here! Also if you have booked a room upgrade insist that the room you get is one of the newly upgraded rooms or you will be sorely dissapointed. Staff are great and try their best but this resort has seen better days, hence the building work going on.

Sandals would lead you to believe that this is a five star resort, it is not so don't expect it.

One of the biggest let downs we have experienced in our lives and we have been to a lot of places, can't say any more we just urge you to check everything out before you go, and don't go to Montego Bay it is a dive.

Before we visited this resort (just before xmas 05)i looked through the reviews and had mixed views on what to expect on this first trip to Jamaica.Having now visited this Sandals resort i'm amazed at how picky and negative some people can be.
If you go anywhere in the world you can find faults but to complain about some of the points (can't find lightswitches)is just sad.
This resort is FABULOUS.

RESORT: Really well presented and extremely clean.Beautiful gardens all around you and peacocks freely roaming about,all giving you a feeling of paradise and relaxation.

Rooms: Wonderful large four-poster bed,shower and bath,kettle with tea/coffee.
Big tv and the rooms cleaned very well each day.

Food/Drinks: Amazing amount of local and imported drinks,(think of a tipple:the've got it!) Cocktails are excellent.
The choice of food i thought was great,everything from beef in cognac sauce to octopus paella.At breakfast the choice is vast,either cooked or cereal,fruit or porridge.Lunch can be anything from four-course to hotdogs on the beach.
Evening meals can be thai or bbq, lobster or fish. I think you get the jist!

Service: Again i can't understand how anybody could complain on some reviews.(probably the staff avoided the moaners)
The service for the full two weeks was great from everybody.Extremely friendly and they couldn't do enough for you.

Entertainment: Well i met Elvis when he came off the stage so it dosn't get better than that! Simply if you want to be entertained then it's there for you,if your not in the mood then you can find a quiet corner.

Beach/pool: We found the beach had been cleaned and raked every morning.Enough sun-loungers and a great bar/snacks closeby.
The sea was clear,calm,shallow and warm.
The pool had a great swim-up bar for those well earned cocktails.The ";playmakers"; are around the pool much of the day and boy do the americans like to play loud.So if like me you've gone their to chill and not to see who can do the most press-ups,then use the pool every nowandagain.The beach is much quieter!

OVERALL: BRILLIANT! The weather was glorious,the food was fabulous,the drinks flow forever and the staff were so friendly.
We upgraded our flights and i would highly recommend this because 10 hours is a long time.
Ignore the petty complaints you may read as some people will never be satisfied.
Do as i did and take plenty of cigars,chill,drink and eat like kings.

p.s You must go to the thai off-shore restaurant,for me the highlight of the holiday.

this is a beautiful hotel and the rooms are all spotlesly clean and maintained well. The staff are excellent nothing is to much trouble and all they ask is a please and thankyou. A lot of americans holiday there and sometimes are rather loud and boisterous, they do not obey the dreess code which is very sad because all the english tourists do. The food is amazing and so varied that any body can enjoy a hearty meal, the drinks are all premium brands and cocktails are a speciality. The staff work so hard it is hard not to tip them but it is forbidden to do this and the staff are sacked if they accept any money.

A truly wonderful and memorable holiday and I will return next year.

We were in Royal Carribean for our Honeymoon and it was fantastic. It was all we hoped for and then some. We were upgraded to a beachfront room which was always spotless and had everything you needed.

From the moment we arrived at Sandals (after a long flight with Air Jamaica who i dont recomend)it was brilliant. We were seated and greeted with cold towels and Champagne. The staff were unbelievably friendly and polite, they really couldn't do enough for for you. This service continued throughout the holiday. Which is amazing to say your not allowed to tip!!!

The Breakfast is served as a buffet with every conceivable choice of food, including eggs and ommlettes cooked to your taste, in front of you, which you can eat on a patio over the sea or inside the restaurant while the waiter/waitress constantly tops up your coffee and water and fruit juice.

For lunch you can eat at the beach bar or in 1 restaurant - both have a great choice. The restaurant is a buffet but not in the normal sense, after choosing your food, your plates are taken and you are shown to a table. It is not like eating dinner at school.

On an evening, the restaurants were great. Sometimes the service was a little slow but who cares when your in paradise! The food was always very good, presented very well and served with a smile. There is a lot of fish which we both dont really eat but what does anyone expect when your on an island, the alternatives were very good anyway.

There are 4 beaches to use. The private island which is a nude beach if you choose, 2 quiet beaches and a beach area close to one of the pools which has music and games etc. The sea is 85 degrees and as clear as glass. The beach is white and cleaned every morning and late aftenoon.

The gardens are immaculate. There are lots of crabs scuttling around and a family of peacocks.

The watersports are excellent. The staff were very helpful and were a great laugh. My wife had never scuba dived before and they really put her at ease, she was scared to death!!

You can catch a shuttle bus to Sandals Motaego Bay and Sandals Inn for even more watersports and different restaurants.

The service and attitude from 99% of the staff was fantastic. Our honeymoon was just what we wanted and would definately recomend this resort to any young couples who want to treat themselves. I could go on forever about what a great time we had.

Not quite the holiday we were expecting. The guests staying at the Royal were mainly Americans (approx. 90%)whom we found to be loud at all times of day and night.

The hotel itself was of a very high standard and our room - Grande Luxe Beachfront, was superb. From the maintenance staff to the lifeguards and hotel manager all were very polite and falling over themselves to ensure you were having a great time.

The food in the restaurants was out of this world - including a huge selection for vegetarians, but some nights service was rather slow and getting to eat in the restaurants between 19.30 and 21.00 hours was almost impossible (most nights a wait of between 30 minutes and 1 hour and no bookings taken except in the Thai restaurant).

The hotel is made up of small beaches - apart from the main beach which was very busy and close to the main pool, which had music booming out during the day - not quite what we expected at a Sandals Hotel and sunbeds were sparse after 10am.

The excursions that we booked through the hotel were very reasonably priced and anyone who holidays in Jamaica should take a trip to Dunn's River Falls - it was worth the long flight alone. The evening entertainment was ok but not fantastic but they appeared to be trying their best.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Royal, however I doubt we would return to this hotel as it seems to attract the lower end of the American market and was not quite the holiday we were looking for.

Sandals was not what was expected.
The marketing leads you to believe that it is extra special but it is not. There are some nice touches BUT it is like an up market Butlins that caters mainly for the American Market.

If you want a quiet relaxing holiday then this is not for you as they have ";playmakers"; who will organise all sorts of games around the main pool area and around the resort with the Americans taking part who are not quiet and will shout and cheer at anything the noise can be oppressive. This in contrast to Afternoon tea with white glove service and a violinist taking place only 15 yards and competing with the noise from the pool.

Food was good in all the restaurants but the dress code is stated as Casually Elegant etc on the web pages for Sandals and the resort with photos to match. However it is not like this as to the Americans casually elegact means not putting on a vest top or swimwear and a collared shirt is a round neck T shirt.

Staff were great but did want to keep you in the resort - if you wanted to walk to the nearby shopping centre you had to give name and room number and expected time of return.

The beach was not big and you could not go for any walks along it and there were not narly enough sunbeds at the beach or around the pool areas.

It was still a nice holday but not what was expected and we would not use Sandals again.
We would go back to Jamaica as what little we did manage to see outside the resort on the trips etc did look OK.