Sandals Regency St. Lucia

December 1-8, 2007

Here it is (finally) my review of our trip to Sandals Regency St. Lucia, December 1-8, 2007. Just a brief note: we won this trip in April during reunion week at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Jamaica at the Signature Guest Dinner. We chose St. Lucia because we had never been there and it would give me a chance as a travel agent to visit three more Sandals properties. I am 44, my husband is 51 and we were also celebrating our 6 year anniversary on this trip. Warning….this is LONG!

We drove to Minneapolis and flew down to Atlanta on Delta Friday night (Nov. 30). Luck was already on our side, since that enabled us to miss out on a 7” snow storm back home. Our flight from Atlanta to St. Lucia went smooth and surprisingly quick for a 4 ½ hour flight.

Airport arrival: We were in row 10, so we were some of the first passengers off the plane. We were the third couple in our immigrations line. Seemed to take forever, but I am sure it was just because we were anxious to get going. Picked up our bags already waiting for us and cleared customs. Easy peasy! Through the doors to the right and there was our driver, Dave, from Ben’s West Coast Taxi service.

Ride to resort: Very informative, beautiful, and smooth. Dave had a cooler of Piton beer, waters, and sodas for us. I chose the Piton (better than Red Stripe) and my husband, Phil, had water. Made only one stop for photos at Dennery. From plane landing to resort arrival was only about 1 ½ hours.

Resort arrival: The revised Sandals Signature Guest program started today. It is now the Sandals Select Club. This was supposed to get us special on-property recognition/perks, but I am not too sure that had kicked in quite yet. As this was a free trip, they could have easily just given us a Deluxe category room. We were originally booked for the Grande but were bumped to the Regency three weeks before our arrival. I wrote to the General Manager and the SSG (now SSC) liaison and requested a room with a full balcony and a refrigerator. Mr. Zellner had written back and said that would not be a problem and that he was sure we would enjoy our room. When we arrived, we were taken into the Concierge office. My husband and I thought, “cool, at least we got a concierge room”. Not two minutes later, the concierge gets us and says we are not suppose to be in there, we were to be shown to our suite and would be checked-in by our BUTLER there! WHAT??? So we were upgraded from a deluxe room to the Romeo and Juliet Sunset Oceanview l Bedroom Luxury Suite (room 876 in the Coubaril block). There are only three categories above that. Nice, very nice! Pretty darn good for a “free” trip!

Regency: Nice staff, great dinners, okay breakfast & lunches. Piton restaurant was our favorite on this property and Kimonos our least. They were doing some remodeling to the Pavillion restaurant area (adding decorative stone to the columns and hanging a chandelier) so meals were served in the conference room. This work was to be finished December 9th, but I don’t think they met that date. We left on the 8th and they were still working on it. Armando’s breakfast was the best here. We ate at the Piton, Pavillion for breakfast, Armando’s for breakfast, Arizona’s (love the singing cowboy) for lunch and dinner, Kimonos, Mario’s for dinner and the Bayside for breakfast at Halcyon, the SSC dinner, La Toc, and Bayside for breakfast and Gordon’s (butler restaurant) for dinner at the Grande. Wish we had a few more nights to try some of the others. Found the food overall better than that we got at the Sandals in Jamaica, dinners especially! Drinks were good but inconsistently made from bar to bar and resort to resort. I can’t count how many different versions of a Rum Runner I drank…probably because I drank lots of them! LOL!!!
Met lots of very nice couples here during our stay.

Our butlers had it pretty easy since we were off property for part of the day Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday and all day on Wednesday & Friday. I had them reserve chairs at the Sunset Bluff pool a few days, bring us snacks there, set up hors d’ovres and champagne in our room when I entertained clients there one night, and things like that. We did get some nice surprises in our room most evenings. When we arrived, they had already made all our dinner reservations (where required) and were there to assist us in any way we needed. We really enjoyed the butler service and would like to use it again someday. Definitely the way to go for special occasions!!

Beach is rough. Sand is deep and a light brown in color. Surf is challenging and where the waves break it is rocky, so if you fall down, it is going to hurt. Water sports department doesn’t see a lot of action here. Snorkeling trips can take about 2 ½ hours because you have to shuttle to the nearby marina, get gear, boat out to site, snorkel for ½ an hour, boat in, turn in gear, and shuttle back to resort. Too much hassle for 30 minutes of snorkeling to me! We thought we’d try to get in at the Grande…that didn’t work out either due to high occupancy over there (they were fully booked).

Spa was beautiful. Friendly staff and excellent services. Loved my Tropical Bliss massage by Renee (male masseuse). Very professional and one of my best massages. Phil had a 35 minute “Hit the Spot”. He was a bit sore for a day afterwards. Lynn really worked him over. Ha!

Grounds were beautiful…a Kodak moment everywhere you turn it seems. Rooms are either already renovated or are scheduled to be very soon. They are building 3 story villas up on the Bluffs that will have 180 degree views and are to open August of 2008 (supposedly). Sandals is really working on fixing their properties up.

Deep Sea Fishing: I had chartered a half day fishing trip for as my anniversary present to my husband. I went with Chris Hackshaw’s company. Our captain was Antonius, 1st mate “Rubber”, and 2nd mate Johnny. Well, it is called “fishing” and not “catching”. We had a great time and excellent crew, but were unable to land a fish. We had three bites but were never able to get one hooked. It was a beautiful day and we had fun anyway. This was the only excursion we were able to do due to my touring the other Sandals properties and spending some time with my clients there.

Halcyon: Probably our favorite of the three Sandals properties in St. Lucia. We just loved the grounds, the staff was great, and even the guests we met were friendly, fun, and relaxed. Very similar to our Jamaica favorite Sandals Royal Caribbean. This property has a very nice beach, too. Christopher Elliot, the hotel manager, personally gave me a tour of the property. Very nice man. I had emailed him prior to my arrival to let him know I would be coming and mentioned that I had clients arriving for a stay. He made sure they were well taken care of (they received a two category upgrade from Premium to Grande Lux. Oceanview in the Gros Islet block (room 413) and the entire staff seemed to know who they were when they arrived for their stay. Nice touch! I had champagne and a refrigerator put in there room for them. ; )

The rooms here need renovation and they are working on that. The deluxe rooms will be first, shutting down a block at a time and making them larger, starting Summer 2008. They are nice enough but not up to the “ultra luxury” standard that Sandals is working on creating. They will be when all is said and done though.

We will be returning to this property! Perhaps a split stay with the Regency???

The Grande: Our original resort of choice, mainly for the beach and a guaranteed room with a balcony. We are sooooo glad were bumped. This just wouldn’t have been the place for us at all. Staff was mostly uncaring and sometimes rude. Made us feel like we were imposing upon them. Guests were unfriendly and unsociable. My husband says “hi” to everyone (employees and guests) and hardly anyone we passed would say anything back! This is an overall young crowd here. The shuttle from the Regency to the Grande has to go through Castries and when there are cruise ships in, this can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, one way.

We went over the first time on Tuesday to climb Fort Rodney/Signal Peak, get a property tour, and maybe snorkel. We hiked up to Fort Rodney pretty easily. Phil decides we should go all the way to Signal Peak. That was strenuous but worth it! Not a climb for everyone, that’s for sure. Pretty steep at times on a rocky goat path. Take water and go as early in the day as you can.

Went back to resort and used the spa to get cleaned up. Stood for 5+ minutes waiting for shower water to warm up. Gave up and took a cold shower. That was refreshing! Nice ladies working here, but I like the spa at the Regency better.

A very nice staff member from the Soon Come Back desk, Arlington, tried three times to have someone from the Sales office give me a tour of the property and no one was willing to or had the time to show me around. I finally gave up, thanked him for trying to help, and we went back to the Regency. Decided we would return on Thursday to try to get a tour and snorkel. Didn’t work out then either. Snorkel trips were full through Friday and it was pouring down rain off & on. When there was a break in the weather, I showed myself around the property. They were working on the smaller pools, so everyone was at the main pool or on the beach. This meant that by the time we were able to get there by shuttle, the chairs with any chance of shade were already taken (if not all chairs taken). There is some minor construction going on by the Barefoot By The Sea restaurant here. Not intrusive at all.

There is construction next to the Grande. A property called The Landings. It looks like it will be lovely when finished. It is far enough away that construction noise was never an issue. It is to the far left of the resort as you face the bay.

We did have to go back one more time for our dinner at Gordon’s on Friday night. This was excellent and not to be missed it you have a butler suite!!! At first I was not too impressed with the menu, but the food was outstanding and the service impeccable. The true gem of this resort. We finished dinner just in time to catch the 8 pm shuttle back to the Regency.

Overall a nice resort with some beautiful landscaping, nice beach area, and a compact grounds (not nearly as large and spread out as the Regency). However, this was just too impersonal to us, so we won’t return for a stay here.

Okay, I am sure I missed some things. We had a great time and truly enjoyed St. Lucia and the Sandals properties (for the most part). Mr. Zellner is working very hard to update and maintain the Regency. We spent quite some time speaking with him at the Sandals Select Club cocktail hour and dinner on Wednesday evening. We did receive a handwritten note from him on our arrival (part of the new SSC program). We didn’t get anything special for our anniversary recognition though. Guess since we got butlers and a suite, I didn’t think it appropriate to complain about that! That was enough right there.

Our check out was smooth and easy. Grabbed some water, said our goodbyes, and off we went. We were given a private shuttle back to the airport (another perk of butler suites) that took right around an hour. The airport is small and easy but is very limited in seating, shops, and food. Make sure you arrive early enough, eat ahead of time, and do your shopping before you get here. No bargains to be found on liquor, perfumes, or general souvenirs. Our flight was pretty close to on time and away we went. Hope this helps future travelers. Feel free to contact me with any questions:  ruth@tripguy.com

Here is a link to my photos (almost 300 of them!)

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=209804376/a=72871333_72871333/t_=72871333

Ruth  DeMuth, Agent

• Liked — Loved the food and our suite!!!
• Disliked — Sometimes waiting for a shuttle was annoying, but we were on vacation so what's the hurry!