Sandals Royal Caribbean, March 23-29, 2008
Reunion Week (and what a week it was!)
I will preface this review with a mention that I am a travel agent. I have been in the business for quite some time and have been to a number of resorts during my travels (both before I became and agent and since). This was our third visit to SRC. The Royal and its staff, while not for everyone, have become quite dear to my husband and me.
Here is our take on an amazing week.
We flew from Omaha to Houston, had an overnight there, and departed for Mobay early Sunday morning (3/23). We arrived at Sangster on time and made our way to the immigrations area. While this is still a jaunt, it is much improved over last year when it was still under construction. There are now approximately 25 booths, they are computerized, and there is now air conditioning! All are major pluses. We were processed and made our way to the baggage claim area. Got the bags in no time at all and onward to customs…nothing to declare…off to the Sandals lounge where we were immediately greeted, bags tagged, told we could grab a beverage, snack, and/or use the facilities and we would be called shortly. Hubby filled the travel mug with our first Red Stripe while I ran to the restroom. Barely enough time to do that, take a few photos, and they were calling us to go to our shuttle! Here we waited about 10 minutes to see if there were other couples coming but they ended up sending us on.
First stop, Sandals Montego Bay to let off what turned out to be all of the other couples on board. It took just a few minutes at SMB to unload all the passengers and their luggage and we were on our way again. SRC is about 5-10 minutes down the road and we were finally HOME!
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by no one???? Huh? Where was Rocky, Joseph, Leighton, Jeremy, Clive, someone???? I wandered through the lobby looking for someone to assist the driver in unloading our bags and checking us in when Joseph appeared and saved the day! I will say right now that this was an extremely unusual circumstance, has never happened before at any Sandals, and was THE ONLY “negative” (if you can even call it that) experience we had the entire week.
Joseph sat us in the lobby, asked for our voucher & credit card, and slipped away to process us in. I could no sooner get the words “I wonder where everyone is” out of my mouth when low and behold, there is my good friend “CC” (aka “Iriegirl”, Carleen). Hugs and squeals and laughter ensued. But that was just the beginning! Next came Leighton & Jeremy to personally greet us, “Lurker” (Lorie), and “Lovesblueh2o” (aka “BigRed1ArmMom”, Kim) and her hubby Terry. We must have caused quite the scene! There were hugs, laughs, chatter, and squeals of delight for quite some time. I asked about “LuckyMe” (Lynn & Scott) and was told by the others that they had seen them around and they were sure we would see them soon. Everyone eventually went back to fun & sun and left us to finish checking in. Leighton moved us into the concierge office, since he had so graciously upgraded us from Royal Grande Luxe to Royal Honeymoon Luxury Beachfront Concierge Room (room 321…third floor just as I had requested), complete with concierge service. That was a three category upgrade! In fact, I learned that every couple of our group (seven in all) was upgraded with the exception on one couple that had already booked the top category available and another that specifically wanted the category they had booked. These two couples, however, were given the exact room they had requested. To say that the management (Leighton Josephs in particular) took good care of us would be an understatement. We were spoiled “royally”!
So, we were off to our room after a swift check-in with concierge. Joseph showed us to our room, we scrambled to unpack, change our clothes, and headed down to the beach grill. Phil couldn’t wait to get his first taste of jerk chicken and I couldn’t wait to meet up with the gang. As fate would have it, we all ended up at the beach grill shortly after we got there. More laughter and hugs ensued. Lurker brought gifts for everyone…cute little beach bags that they had stenciled “Royal Croc” and a croc on them. Well, next thing we know, everyone had brought “gifts” to exchange with everyone else. CC gave me a similar beach bag with our royal croc logo on it, various croc mugs, and some beads, I gave everyone magnets that said “We’ll always have Jamaica” and the Jamaican flag on them, and “lovesblueh2o” gave out Texas sized shot glasses with our logo on them and cute sandals candles. We had special shirts made for the occasion and I handed those out, too. I had gift cards for everyone to sign for some of the managers were also getting the special shirts as a token of our appreciation for all that they did/would be doing for us.
And, as fate would also have it, clouds began to roll in and so did the rain! LOL!! Yep, our first afternoon in Jamaica was greeted by a nice rain shower/down pour. It was all good though. We had our friends, drinks, food, and a wonderful bartender, Ernest, to entertain ourselves. We had a BLAST and if that was any indication as to how the week was going to go, we were in for one heck of a ride!
Once the rains subsided enough, we all decided to head off to our rooms to get ready for dinner. Most already had plans, since we were the next to last to arrive, we planned on eating in the Regency that night. Turns out that CC and her husband were planning on eating there as well, so we made it a “date”. The four of us ate a wonderful meal and enjoyed each other’s company. After dinner we stopped in the Piano Bar for a drink, CC went and got her lap top, and we sat near the tea room together listening to the music, enjoying the night, and playing on the computer a bit. CC is a techno junkie and I am a techno flunkie! LOL!! I do okay, but I know I am behind the times when it comes to gizmos & gadgets.
Phil and I turned in relatively early…it had been a long day, and tomorrow had many surprises in store!
Monday came and we awoke to a beautiful day. We headed down to grab some beach chairs and have some breakfast. Served buffet style in the Regency, but they do have an omelet/fresh pancake station where you can order special made eggs. We saw many faces we recognized from last year’s reunion week as well as many new ones. I had made a spa appointment at check-in for 9 am. It was wonderful, as usual. The staff there is very professional and great at what they do. I had an exfoliation and massage…just the ticket my dry winter skin needed to start a week of fun in the sun! Aaaahhh…..
The SSC Easter Egg hunt was at 11am. This was not as well organized as last year’s (where Phil and I kicked butt), but it was fun just the same. They did give out better prizes, including an upper back/shoulder massage.
Then it was time for a bit of relaxation while I awaited the arrival of my friends and clients, Jim E. & Mary Lou. Their flight was delayed due to weather back home but they finally arrived just in time to unpack and head to the manager’s cocktail party. Jim had made buttons for everyone using that same logo again. Those quickly became a hot commodity on the property with guests and staff alike! We all wore them in the Pub later that night with our special group shirts to match.
This was nicely presented on the Almond Terrace with a nice variety of hors d’oeuvres and beverages. This is held every Monday and it is a nice chance to meet and mingle with all of the management and learn a bit about the resort & Jamaica. For this year’s reunion week, they decided to make it a “wear your Jamaican colors” theme instead of the traditional “black & white”. Fun but not too many people dressed for it.
I had pre-arranged with Leighton (guest services manager) for our group to have a reserved section of the Pub for our first official “croc” gathering. We all changed into our special shirts and met for dinner and a group photo. Kim had also contacted him and set up a surprise birthday party for a member of the group, Norm, who would be turning 70 very soon. There were decorations, a hat with dreads for the birthday boy, and a cake with sandal-shaped candles. To sum this night up….AWESOME! The guys in the pub were terrific. Entertained and took good care of us that night. Norm was surprised, there was a new “croc” involved, a beaver sighting (no, not that kind!), and a lot of food, fun, friendship, and laughter. Afterwards, we all headed out to the Terrace for the evening’s entertainment, Elvis.
We all wanted to sit together so I arranged a table set up along the side for our group of 14 for the show, “no problem, mon”. Before the show they played men vs. women “jeopardy”. Several members of our group participated and the girls won! Hey guys, seen any red bean shells lately??? Then it was showtime!
We had three members of the group selected as body guards for “the King”, one of us had to be restrained by those body guards (crazy Elvis fan!), Norm & his wife Anita got to be back up singers, and then Elvis personally sang happy birthday to Norm. Oh no, it doesn’t end there. After the show, six of us die hards headed to the Piano Bar for some sing along. Okay…not really what I call singing, but it was fun! Elvis even joined us for some very interesting conversation. It was now about 12:30 am and we all decided to call it a night. Tomorrow was another day….
Tuesday morning…another beautiful day in Paradise! The plans had been made for myself and the other travel agent in the group (“CC”) to take a tour of Sandals Montego Bay at noon. Five of us decided to catch the 11 am shuttle over, grab some lunch, and hang out for awhile. Oh boy…SMB! Fully booked, 19 room categories, out of clean beach towels (for 2 days according to one guest) and no cups at the beach bar so that was backed up 4 people deep unless you had your own cup (which I did). Drinks were very good (and they did get cups), food at the grill was very good (lots of choices), and we even managed to get five chairs together on the beach (no shade but we got 5 chairs). The tour was kind of a bust since we were unable to actually see in any of the rooms due to the full capacity. I didn’t even receive the facts packet that is normally given out to agents but I attribute all of this to the sales office having better things to worry about (reunion week events). The tour took about 45 minutes, we grabbed some lunch, and decided to head back to the more laid back Royal. SMB is fun and I love the beach there, but prefer it in small doses…maybe I am just mellowing with age?
Tuesday night I had made arrangements for our group to have dinner at the Royal Thai (6 pm seating). This dinner was attended by all but one couple and was a fantastic meal. Wow! Some of that food is SPICY HOT! OMG…Served “family style”, they bring you your selected appetizer and soup but the rest is brought by the plateful to share amongst your table. If you run out, they bring you more. Then you select your dessert (if you still have room). Since we chose the early seating we had plenty of night left and organized an impromptu hot tub party (or what I like to call a “croc boil”). We met up at the main hot tub (central location) and could here the nightly entertainment from here. This was a nice relaxing way to end another perfect day….champagne, a hot tub, and great friends.
Wednesday…the renewal of vows for the Signature Guests that chose to participate (two from our group) and the “island party” I organized for our group. Little did they know what was in store for them today! The day started out a bit windy and overcast but that was nice compared to last year’s weather of dead calm and hot for the renewal. The couples looked lovely and the Reverend Gordon did a great job (as usual). Some of our group watched the ceremony & took photos for those participating. Afterwards, the watchers headed to the island to save a location while the participators attended the reception, changed, and joined us a bit later.
We managed to get the pool deck for our group and most of us attended. Lynn’s husband, Scott, had come down with a “bug” so they were MIA after Monday night. Lorie & Scott were utilizing their butlers, and Lorie was coming down with Bronchitis, so they were not around as often as we would have liked to seen them. But the show must go on and go on it did! We had a nice relaxing day of playing with some pool toys, flying kites, and making new friends. Our group expanded by two when Joyce and Arnie joined in on our fun. Hey, the more the merrier, I always say. We also met a wonderful couple spending the day at the resort to get away from their cruise ship. They were experiencing some really rough seas on their voyage and she was pretty miserable about it.
Again, I had conspired with my good friend Leighton to surprise the group with a lunch. While I knew we would have food, Leighton wouldn’t tell me what we would be having. Since Leighton and I had planned for 14 people and only five couples of our group were able to make it to the island party, I invited our new friends Joyce & Arnie and the cruise ship couple to join us. Well chef put together a wonderful meal for us, complete with two servers and special menus printed up for us. The menu: The appetizer was a seafood moussline with Indian curry and mango chutney with coconut cream accompanied by a green salad. Our entrée was a swordfish with saffron lemon butter sauce. And dessert….chocolate cake. A delicious meal once again shared with great company. Leighton did not let us down!
We finished the meal, headed back to the pool to digest our feast for awhile, and then made our way back to the main land to get ready for the night’s big events of the Sandals Select Club cocktail party and dinner. A few couples in our group received recognition at the cocktail party for earning their gold sandals (56 paid nights with Sandals/Beaches) or gold crowns (84th night with Sandals/Beaches spent AT the Royal Caribbean). The Royal is the only resort that offers the extra perk of the gold crowns! Just one more thing that puts it a notch above the others.
Dinner was around the main pool. We had the pleasure of Leighton’s company at one of our group’s tables. The meal was very good: same type of appetizer we had for our luncheon on the island, a nice salad, filet and lobster tail for entrée, and a trio of miniature French pastries for dessert. This is where the “surprise” was hidden for the free week give-a-way. Unfortunately, none of the gang won it this time. They also handed out small Sandals beach bags with embroidered hand towels, “love” mints, and a rose for each of the ladies.
After dinner was the manager’s & staff talent show, the highlight of which was Jeremy Mutton (GM) himself playing the steel drums with a couple of the kids from a local steel drum band. He was so good the audience requested an encore! As the show was winding down some rains moved in and it was time to call it a night. Another long and glorious day was coming to an end….
Thursday was the SSC (Sandals Select Club) off property excursion to Cranbrook Flower Forest. The buses left at 9 am and we had a great day filled with volleyball, nature walks, fishing (I caught two of the biggest!), Frisbee, music, dancing, relay races, and topped off with a delicious Jamaican buffet lunch. They also do zip lining here, but they were not offering that to our group on this adventure. The ride there was a bit rowdier that the ride home; we were all pretty wiped out. A day filled with our friends, great food, good times, and beautiful surroundings. We were back by late afternoon to give everyone time to rest and get cleaned up for dinner.
Phil and I ate at Cucina Romana over at SMB. The resort was lively, the meal was okay (nothing compared to Mario’s at the Halcyon in St. Lucia!), the service was fine, the atmosphere was nice, and the company was perfect. We ate plenty because we took our desert “to go”. We ended up having to kill a little time before the next shuttle back (or hire a taxi) and spent it leisurely strolling the property and chatting with other guests.
Upon our arrival at SRC, we noticed that there were wet spots. It had rained during dinner there but not at SMB. That just goes to show you how localized the rains can be and not to pay any attention to weather forecasts when you are going on vacation. You just never know….We did seem to have late afternoon cloudiness (perfect time to take a “nap” and get ready for dinner) and the occasional evening showers on this trip.
We headed back to our room for the evening. Needed some more “alone time” and decided to get a head start on the packing. Tomorrow would be our last full day in Jamaica. : (
Friday was to be our day of “leisure”, or so we thought. A beautiful sunny day, so we headed down early to save our chairs, and head to breakfast. Today was “beach vendor” day where the resort allows certain local vendors to set up their wares on the beach for sale, so there was shopping to do. This was also SSC triple points day where you could book your return to next year’s reunion week to SRC (which all but one couple was able to take advantage of), I needed to get some specific photos (construction, Pub, etc…) and I had one last “surprise” in mind for my “sister” that needed some finalizing.
We found some adorable little green hand carved crocs. The group purchased these and signed each one to present to Leighton, Jeremy, & Clive for all they had done for us throughout the week. Kim & Terry surprised me and Phil with a carved croc of our own personalized by them. How very thoughtful of them! They were as full of surprises as I was. ; P
We did manage to grab a bite to eat from the grill, jerk chicken of course, a few drinks from Ernest at the beach bar, and found my way to my beach chair a few times. The day went quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go on the SSC boat cruise around Mobay. I had done this on a previous stay but I knew there was another surprise in store and I was glad to go. This is yet another perk given to return guests only at the Royal. Jeremy, Leighton, and several other managers/staff take the SSC guests for a cruise of Montego Bay on the Sandals dive boat, complete with beverages and finger sandwiches. They stop the boat from time to time to tell a bit about the area and show points of interest. On this trip, they awarded Kim & Terry their gold sandals (they were accidentally over looked at the SSC dinner on Wednesday). We were in perfect position to have a huge German airliner fly directly overhead and land on the runway beside us, and we had a pod of 4+ porpoise swimming along side the boat. Upon our return, they had more staff & managers greeting the boat, music playing, leis, and a guy on stilts making balloon hats for some of us coming off the boat. Nice touch.
By now it was time to scramble to get ready for beach party night on the island. We all decided to wear our special group shirts and pins and sit together. Food was okay, entertainment was fun…acrobatic dancers, fire dancer, give-a-ways, music…the usuals. It was fun but I was wiped out from such a long week that we headed back about 8:30 pm to pack the last of our things, write some notes, and enjoy our last night in Jamaica.
Saturday morning…beautiful weather (again). We finished the last minute packing, called for our bag pick up at 9 am, and headed to breakfast. We ran into three of the other couples and decided to all sit together one last time. We ordered mimosas and toasted to friendship, safe travels, and a week that none of us would soon forget. I finalized our bill, we selected some photos from the photo shop, and made our way to the lobby for our 10:30 am shuttle. Low & behold, the entire gang was there to say their good byes! Jeremy, Clive, Leighton, Sadiki, Francis, many other staff and management, and our “crocs” were there. Hugs, kisses, and “until next year’s” followed by tears and an emptiness that is with me still to this moment. We have truly found our “home” at the Royal and can’t wait to see our family again next year.
I do want to add that the construction of the additional River Suites is on schedule and not an issue to enjoying the resort at all. They have put up a beautiful wall to hide the view and keep some of the noise down. They are taking great care not to be too disturbing to the guests.
The monstrous RIU being built next door is behind schedule but also a non-issue when it comes to construction noise. The Carnervon block is closest to this and I can see how this might be an issue if they start very early morning. Two of our group members were staying in those rooms and never mentioned it as an issue, so I guess it is fine.
So there you have it. I am certain I have left some details out that may be important to someone. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them for you.
Photos can be seen at the following links:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219094750/a=72871333_72871333/t_=72871333
and
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219095982/a=72871333_72871333/t_=72871333
Ruth DeMuth, Agent
TripGuy Travel, LLC
Platinum Sandals Agency
ruth@tripguy.com