Grand Velas Riviera Maya - Stay Here. You will thank me.

I spent the day doing a site inspection at this resort I had never sold before and never been to - Grand Velas. I'm very sorry about both of those things. I should have been recommending it all this time and I will now make it a point to stay here as soon as I can!

From the moment you pull in from the main road just north of Playa del Carmen you will be impressed. It is lined with perfectly manicured gardens and foliage. It felt a little like Alice in Wonderland.

There are 3 sections to this property, Zen, Ambassador and Grand Class. The first 2 are family friendly while Grand Class is reserved for adults only

ZEN

This section sits in the mangroves and is very calming. They feature rooms on the ground floor overlooking a koi pond with a small plunge pool. This section has the new sports bar called KOI. It opened in April 2014. Think upscale with a huge TV. They stay open until 3am and they are not within ear shot of the rooms so is perfect for late nights.

To travel between the sections they have 1st class vans that travel back and forth. They seemed to arrive every couple minutes. Normally a resort does a golf cart type system but this was air conditioned and when it started raining we didn't get wet!
They do not allow walking from Zen to Ambassador due to safety with the vans running back and forth and there's only 1 stretch of road. If you are a jogger they have an employee follow you on an ATV with water and cold towels - at no extra cost. Sounds like being part of the Presidential family!

AMBASSADOR
This is the family friendly section with an ocean view.
This section features many restaurants as well as a piano bar and karaoke bar for nighttime entertainment.
For an additional $150 per night, Grand Velas will guarantee adjoining rooms for your family. One room being a King and the other with 2 Queens. A maximum of 4 people (or 4 plus infant) per room with 3 of them being adults.
Traveling with an infant? Grand Velas takes it to the next level and does not only provide cribs in the room but also baby food, strollers, high chairs, bottles, teething rings all at no additional cost.

GRAND CLASS
This is the adults only section that runs along the ocean. They are the most luxurious accommodations with the large patios and some with plunge pools. There are 90 suites that are 1300+ square feet.

All the rooms come with luxury amenities including L'occitane bath products and interior Jacuzzi tubs. The bed linens are all top notch. Picky about thread count? Don't worry. You will love their beds.
They stock your in room bar with soda, juice, wine and chocolate milk for the kids. They also have a wide variety of snacks they replenish daily for you.
I loved the little details like a thatch beach bag to use during your stay and mosquito spray. This is something you don't find everywhere else.

Grand Class at Grand Velas Riviera Maya

THE FOOD
I could make an entire blog post about the food at Grand Velas. It's just wow. I am somewhat of a Foodie. I'm not sitting at home eating Duck Confeit but I like good food.
This is a restaurant where everything is fresh. Even at the buffet, they make everything fresh for that meal. You are not going to find last nights pork chops turned into a casserole for breakfast like at many of the all inclusive properties. At the buffet restaurant they also have the option of ordering off a menu so you never have to eat off a buffet if that is not your thing.
To me here's a reason to stay here: Grand Velas is the only all inclusive in the world to have a AAA 5 Diamond restaurant. This should say something about the level of food this property has. It is a Spanish with Mexican flair. You don't receive a menu. The waiter comes out and tells you about your 8 course experience. This is not for everyone but it is something everyone should try and why not? You're on vacation.
Reservations are required and I can do them for you in advance so it isn't something you have to worry about on vacation.

SPA
The Spa is huge and impressive. It was awarded Best Spa in the World in 2010 by Virtuoso. They have a wide variety of services and even have the fish feet service. I stuck my hand in the water with the fish and they came right over to me. I don't think I would enjoy this but some people might want to try it. They package it with a chair massage.

The spa also features a bridal suite which comes at no additional cost to the bride. She just pays for the cost of the services she choses.

I could go on and on about this property. They had a very fun teen club with XBOX Kinect and several game nooks. The kids camp was smaller but seemed to have some fun things.
The grounds were immaculate and the staff was friendly and helpful. The waiters are spot on and are there offering coffee after your meal and bringing chips and salsas to the table.

Please go here. You will thank me! Call me at 405-418-4180 or contact me via my website at www.VincentVacations.com

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Posted in: adults only resort , all inclusive , beach , Mexico , weddings

Hard Rock Riviera Maya - the Good and the Bad!

I am actually typing this blog post sitting in my room at Hard Rock Riviera Maya. It's raining today so my blog might turn slightly jaded.

The resort has 2 sides. Hacienda is the family friendly side and Heaven which is adults only. You can walk from one lobby to the other using the pathways along the rooms or down by the beach. The only difference to know when you go from one building to the next is the color of the building changes. They also put up a sign that says "hey you are rocking too close to the adults side" to playfully remind kids and visa versa.


The Bad
-The food here is very middle of the line for the price you are paying to stay here. They seem to put their money in the entertainment and activities instead of in the quality of the food. It's not horrible but not one of the better food ones in the area from my experience. At breakfast and lunch you only have the option of buffet which is disappointing. I wish they had 1 or 2 options during the day ala carte. They do have cooking stations at the buffet restaurants and I did have really good fresh corn tortillas made into street tacos but I would say that was the only buffet meal I enjoyed. If I was here for 7 nights I would be getting irritated. The restaurants at night are hit and miss like most all inclusives. If they could just master steak (even at Golden Corral level) I would be happier.
-Everything is severely overpriced. When you stay at this resort you get a resort credit. They allow you to use your resort credit for gift shop items, spa, golf, tours and that sort of thing. The prices are jacked up. You still have "free" money (that you pay 20% tax on) but it's not as good of a deal (it never is though, right?) as it makes it seem. The spa prices are more inflated than other equal level properties so when you run out of resort credit the prices are a bit out there.

The Good
-The staff here is top notch. They seem to be hustling for your drinks or food and all very personable and friendly.
-There are tons of activities. There's an obstacle course and a rock climbing wall on land. They hand out snorkel equipment and kayaks for the water. There's good music by the pool.
-There's actual nightlife! Most all inclusives shut down at 9:30pm or so or they have a lame fire dancer while everyone sits around and forces themselves to watch or go to bed. Hard Rock has a full blown high end night club that opens every night at 11pm. It's huge and one section has a pool in the middle. It's very Vegas.
-The beach. I think I could put this on Good and Bad but I am choosing Good. There is a huge rock wall that blocks off the waves from coming in. It has created a calm peaceful and really pretty (in my opinion) beach. There are fish and I floated the day away on my little raft. This beach is not idea for someone who likes to play in the waves or is a beach runner (I am neither) so I thought their beach was great.

Fish swimming in the clear water at Hard Rock Riviera Maya

Adults only swim up pool bar at Hard Rockbet Riviera Maya Heaven

It is a nice resort. It's clean and fun but it's just for the right group. Give me a call and I would love to talk to you about the Hard Rock All Inclusive Resorts. I have now been to all of them.
405-418-4180 or check out my website www.VincentVacations.com

-Weddings here are gorgeous! They have palapas over looking the water and also a Catholic chapel. It is perfect for any size group. They have Collin Cowie designed wedding collections or you can choose custom. I was very impressed with the wedding locations. This is an ideal Destination Wedding location for large groups. There is something for everyone and your guests won't be bored in the evenings. Your childless friends and couples can stay on the adults side and the ones with kids on the Hacienda family side. Perfect!



Wedding palapa at Hard Rock Riviera Maya


 

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Posted in: adults only resort , all inclusive , beach , Hard Rock , Mexico

Hard Rock Vallarta

I just returned from a 3 night trip to Hard Rock Vallarta with my high school friend, Jenelle.
Here is my full review of the resort experience -

Check in process is easy. Our room wasn't quite ready yet so they took all our info and then we went and had lunch and came back. Buffet is typical above average all inclusive buffet with a wide range. They had cooking stations where they were grilling fajitas or fresh fish or steak and then of course a little bit of everything else.
Once to our room, we has an ocean view room. It was a great view of the pool and the ocean. No complaints from me. This is called "Gold" by the hard rock standard. They don't have full balconies. You have to be concierge (diamond) to have a full balcony but no big deal to me.

The rooms all have huge 2 person Jacuzzi tubs. This hotel use to be Vallarta Palace and this is standard with the Palace Resorts. I don't think Hard Rock would have had these if they built the hotel from the ground up because it's kind of weird when it's not a super couple-y type hotel. Oh well!
Rooms are standard hotel room size. Bathrooms are kind of small. There is a nice full length mirror in the closet and light. The rooms have a mini fridge stocked with cokes, beer and juice. There is also a liquor dispenser (does anyone actually use these?) if you just didn't get enough booze throughout the day. ha!

The hotel is easy to navigate. Some restaurants down by the ocean and some more off the lobby. We ate at the Japanese restaurant and the Brazilian. I thought the Brazilian could use some work. They had a small buffet set up with salads and sides. The mashed potatoes tasted instant which makes me crazy. They had the big skewers of meat that came around. It was ok. It wasn't Texas de Brazil by any means.  Japanese was good. A wide selection. I had grilled curry mahi mahi which was excellent. The restaurant doesn't have the hibachi grills which everyone seems to have these days so that was a little disappointing. All the restaurants had excellence service.

The pool area at the hotel is great. A good size swim up bar and some activities going on. They had some silly games as well as water aerobics. There are a few slides for kids (one more just for toddlers) and the kids (as well as me) had a fun time with that. There were waterfalls and rocks and it was a pretty pool area. Great service by the pool. They had a wood fired pizza that was open 11am - 6pm with plenty of topping options (but go get ranch at the buffet if you need it!) and there was a snack bar with guac and pico and all the other junk food things you can think of that you need to be eating in your swimsuit.

At night they had different things going on. Each night was different whether they had a live band or karaoke. They had a DJ most nights in the sports bar. The resort was not full by any means so some of these things were a tad on the boring side but would have been more fun if they hotel had more guests.

The resort has a nice salon with spa treatment rooms. I opted out of doing a spa treatment here. I prefer to do them when I can do the whole spa experience. I want to be waited on with cucumber water and sit in the sauna and steam room before while listening soothing music and smelling aromatherapy type stuff. They don't have that. They have a sauna and a steam room at the gym so you can use it everyday if you want so if you like to work out on vacation and use the sauna, you are in luck! Me, not so much.
But (and this is a huge but) if you stay here and have to pay (mine always seems to be free) they give you a resort credit you can use at the spa. If I had a free massage with my room I would still be all over that. I just don't want to pay fancy resort prices for a massage if I don't get the whole spa experience if that makes sense.

The resort is located in Nuevo Vallarta or Vallarta Nayarit. People call it both. It's located right next door to Paradise Village which is the marina where tours leave out of with Vallarta Adventures (my favorite tour company!) so it's a good location if you want to be up there (about 20 minutes from downtown). It's across the street from a pharmacy and a casino. I didn't visit the casino but I know some of the wedding groups at the hotel were doing that. It's literally across the street but it looked small. It was in a strip mall.

So basically it's a nice resort. It's perfect for weddings because it's not too romantic but not too much of a party. It has something for everyone. Good service, pretty good food and pretty beach!

Call me if you want to go! I would love to send you! 405-418-4180

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Posted in: all inclusive , Hard Rock , Puerto Vallarta

Love Disney Cruises even with a toddler!

Right before Christmas my little family decided to take a Disney Cruise. Most people probably said behind our back "Her son is only 1, he won't remember it." or "Her son is not old enough to even participate in the activities". Well, both of these things are CORRECT but WE LOVED IT.
And here's why.......
I have been on many cruises. This was actually Jack's second cruise at the ripe old age of 16 months. We sailed on Carnival when he was 8 months. Carnival does do a good job. I have no problems with Carnival but Disney just does it better, as we all would expect right?
From the moment we arrive there are people there to help. Me, the travel agent didn't have my bags tagged or even my paperwork with me (this is par for the course) and did that matter? Nope! They found us on their list and tagged our bags for us. There were 2 check in lines. One line for regular joes and one for Disney Club members. The lady says "just go to the shorter one since you have him". Sweet.

Disney Cruise ship



Disney Cruise cabin. You can't sit on the couch with a pack n play in the room!

Pluto got down on the floor with the kids.

They had a Pack N Play in our cabin. It did make it tight. I don't think 2 infants/toddlers requiring Pack N Plays would be able to do a standard size cabin. The cabin steward knew our names and esp Jack's name. Little things like "Hi Jack!" when we came out of our cabin each day made us feel special (that sounded a lot sappier than I am normally). Another great thing is the cabins have 2 bathrooms. One is a toilet and sink and the other is a mini bathtub and sink. Normally cruise ships have 1 tiny bathroom that I joke you can sit on the toilet and wash your hands in the sink while leaning over to wash your hair in the shower. This made it possible to give Jack a bath instead of trying to hold him in the shower like on Carnival. Awesome!
Another cool thing they do is wave phones. There are 2 in your cabin. If you drop your kids off at camp they will text you with anything. Like "They want to be picked up" or "can they eat lunch early?" or whatever. You can bring it with you and call your room from wherever. It's pretty sweet. All cruises should have this.

Great waitstaff on the ship!

For dinner each night Disney has you move from dining room to dining room. Each one has a different theme so you get to experience them all. The cool part (and this is different from every other cruise line) is your waitstaff comes with you. We got to know our waitstaff, where they were from, one had a 5 year old daughter at home in the Philippines and they got to know us. They would have stuff out for Jack. His high chair all ready with crayons and bring him chocolate milk which was a big treat for him. Some people say they don't want an assigned dining time and I understand it but the experience and memories of making friends with the waitstaff totally outweighed any of that for me. We did go to Palo (the adults only fine dining which was soooo good. Imported balsamic from Italy and oh I could go on and on) one night and the next night they were like "We missed you!" and I felt bad. I wish we could go back and have the same staff!

They had Mickey ice cream bars for dessert for kids.

Disney had a show each night in the main theatre. They did a whole production of Toy Story which was really well done. I was a tad on the bored side and I heard other people say the same thing. Not Disney's fault but maybe Toy Story just wasn't suppose to be on the stage? They also had a magician which was great, very entertaining. They had a show at the end of the week called "Disney Magic" and it had little scenes from tons of different Disney movies. Cinderella, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin.....the list goes on and on. It was great. Jack loved it. They even made it snow.

One night and they do this on every cruise, was pirate night. Everyone dresses up. Adults, kids, the characters - everyone. Well except for us because I am horrible at my own vacations and did not read up on it before I left. People were having so much fun with it. At the end of the night they had a big dance party on the top deck with a little show and Mickey rides a zipline across the top of the ship and then fireworks went off. Pretty impressive. It wasn't until 10pm so Jack was falling asleep.

They had different fun stuff throughout the week at night. One night I made Jack stay up for the Donald Duck Salsa Dance Party. He wore a sombrero and danced with all the kids in one of the smaller theatre. Adorable. Jack was dancing and was so tired he was falling over so we didn't stay long.

Selfie with Mickey. Everyone has one, right?

There were adult comedy nights so always something to do. I didn't attend one due to lack of babysitter but I'm going to guess they were awesome. They had the comedian do family friendly during the day and I can only imagine.

One of my favorite parts was stopping at Castaway Cay. This is Disney's private island. They pull right up. Everything is right there. They even have a kid camp on the island for kids starting at age 3.
They served BBQ and burgers and had ice cream and fruit stands. Everything included. The beach was beautiful. They had specific places to snorkel and renting the equipment was $15 if you did it in advance or $25 day of. This was for all day. There were little shops with beach toys and t-shirts. If you do a Disney Cruise, make sure this port is on the list!

Castaway Cay had calm water which was perfect for kids!

 



Castaway Cay character photos



My husband said his favorite part (which I hope is partly a joke) is they didn't have someone in the dining room rationing out the bacon like on Carnival. They let you serve it up yourself and have as much as you want.


Here are my tips -
1. Bring pirate stuff for the family
2. There's not a casino so no worries about having a huge onboard account!
3. If you want to decorate your cabin door, bring magnetic stuff. People did this and it was way cute.
4. Any kids in diapers can only play on the splash pad - no baby pool
5. Bring an umbrella stroller to go around the ship in if you have a little, they don't provide these.
6. There are washing machines and dryers onboard if you need to wash clothes. Bring your own soap if you like the hypoallergenic kind like I do.
7. No babysitting in the cabins, you take them to the nursery which was a disaster cry fest for mine so maybe bring a babysitter :) It's now about $9/hr.
8. If you want a cabana at Castaway Cay - reserve as early as possible. They were full so we didn't get to have one. (about $500 for the day I think)
9. Wait until the end of the week to do pictures with the characters. The line was next to nothing by then.
10. Soda is included in the dining room and at the buffet but not if you order at a bar or at the theatre.
11. Eat as much bacon as you can!

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Posted in: Castaway Cay , Cruising with a toddler , Disney Cruises

Beaches Turks and Caicos - Ultimate Family Vacation

Beaches Turks is nothing short of amazing. There is something for everyone and that's just scratching the surface. Let me start by explaining each section of the resort.

First of the all the resort sits on an amazing beach of white sand and clear water. There are 4 villages which make up the resort:

Caribbean Village
This is the oldest but still kept up part of the resort. It has a fun bar a night called Turtles, a nice large gift shop, some really good restaurants and this is also the least expensive section to stay in.

Italian Village
This part is gorgeous. Huge pool area with sections for toddlers and a great swim up bar. It is surrounded by cabanas for Butler service room categories. This is where the rooms that you see with the triple bunk for kids in the family suites that are perfect for families of 5. Great restaurants in this section including a British Pub open pretty much all night with karaoke and random fun for adults.

Key West Village
This is the "new" section. It was a different resort separated by a fence and now it runs seamlessly into the Italian Village. I was kind of nervous thinking it would seem "so far away" but not at all. This is where they have concierge rooms all the way to huge 4 bedroom villas . A couple of restaurants and a mini spa where there are basically just treatment rooms. There are little pools throughout so people who seemed to want to be away from the crowds would love it in Key West.

French Village
I was so skeptical of this one because it sits back from the beach but I really liked it! The beach is not that far of a walk at all. The pool area was huge and not super busy like the Italian pool. There were lots of little restaurants and it looked like Europe. There was even a little pastry shop open at night, all ready with to-go boxes so you could indulge in private (ha!). This is where the stage for the Sesame Street show was and it's right next to the water park. This would be an ideal place to stay for a family.

Other points of interest -

WATERPARK

The water park was really nice. They had 4 main slides that fed into the lazy river which is ideal. Tons of inner tubes to use and lots of chairs all over. They had a toddler area with a splash pad, a swim up smoothie bar and a 50s style café with burgers and Caesar salads and amazing onion rings. If you have ever been to Atlantis,  I'm not talking water park like that. Beaches Water Park is big enough to entertain but not huge enough that you can't find your friends or kids for that matter.

FOOD

The food was pretty good. Of course it's semi hit and miss since it is a Caribbean island but overall I was very impressed. Coming from the state of Oklahoma, I wasn't too impressed with the steak or Mexican food but that goes for every restaurant out of the Oklahoma/Texas area.  The seafood was awesome, the teppanyaki restaurant was awesome, the Caribbean jerk and curry and pizza was well, awesome. You get the idea.
The drinks were good. The bartenders very helpful and eager but not overly eager like sometimes I've experienced in Mexico where every time you walk by they are insisting on a tequila shot. It's not like that here. It's very family oriented. The drinking age (18) is posted at all the bars hopefully making kids think twice about trying to order an alcoholic beverage. They had great non-alcoholic drink options posted. I would feel comfortable sending non-drinking family groups here no problem.

SERVICE

The service was great. They seem to understand the wow factor needed to really get a repeat guest. Just an example, I was escorted to my room by one of the employees. As we walked by the kids club I mentioned that I had a 1 year old at home. Later that day she came by my room and dropped off a stuffed Elmo and a beach towel to bring home to him and said she hopes he gets to return with me.
It was stuff like this all the time. We ordered pizza one day and it was going to be about 20 minutes. The waiter said "Why don't you guys go sit in the hot tub and I'll bring it to you when it's ready."
I was way impressed we didn't have to tip to get this kind of service. Most employees had no idea we were travel agents checking the place out. We just had great service every time we turned around.


A beautiful, safe island. There are currently non stop flights on American Airlines from Dallas so fairly easy to get to. You don't have a long ride from the airport to the resort (maybe 15 minutes?). There's great food, service, your kids can hang out with Elmo and Big Bird, a spa, golf nearby, 19 restaurants.......I could keep going.
So if you get my message on this blog you will be calling me by the time you are reading this sentence to book your family to this awesome resort. It's worth every penny and you will be glad you did!

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Posted in: all inclusive , Caribbean , family vacation

Ever heard of Huatulco?

I just returned from a 4 night trip to the beach town of Huatulco. Ever heard of it?

It's on the Pacific side pretty much as far south in Mexico that you can get. They said "well we are almost Guatemala".

 

We stayed at Dreams. It's an all inclusive resort, part of the AM Resort chain which are one of my favorites.

 

We had 35 total in our group. Everyone was game for somewhere new and a great deal.

We arrived on a Saturday and there was this amazing Mexican wedding that night. Probably 200 people at the wedding and this gorgeous supermodel looking bride and a  shorter, less attractive groom with a entourage of runway looking guests. We were all in awe.

Most of the wedding group left on Sunday and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Summer thru fall is their off season. They have charter flights that leave from Canada all winter and those were starting right as we were packing up to leave.

 

Here are some pictures of my room. We had a preferred club oceanfront jr. suite with Jacuzzi. We come upon a steal of a deal and I don't think this room would be worth paying regular price but we were glad to have it.



Preferred club Jr. Suite ocean front with Jacuzzi at Dreams Huatluco

 

These rooms have Jacuzzis out on their balcony which aren't exactly private, esp. if you have your light on your balcony. Some people in our group said they could also see the Jacuzzi of the next room so unless you are an exhibitionist- beware!

One couple told me the jets were full of ants and one couple said black muck came flowing out of there's. I did not partake in the Jacuzzi experience. Another reason this room might be a waste of your moola.

Balcony on our jr. suite oceanfront room at Dreams Huatulco
 

 Mini-bar is included with the all inclusive plan. I love the bottled cokes and sprites in Mexico. Something I don't normally buy in the US so it's always fun.

Mini bar. Preferred club comes with mini liquor bottles and snacks

The beach at the resort was pretty spectacular. Lots of rock and it was on a bay so there was nothing that washed up on the beach. I have been to way too many that have constant seaweed and junk washing up but this one - seriously nothing. I kept watching for it too. The rocks on the side had crabs crawling all over them and we could see blow fish swimming just from standing on the beach.

 

 

The food was pretty good at the resort. I wonder if it would have been better if the occupancy would have been higher. They only had 2 restaurants (1 being a buffet) open during the week. I did like the Mexican restaurant. The refried beans were so amazing. Wow. I wish I could find some like that in the US. ( I don't even normally like them!) They even served them on the breakfast room service menu.  (Oh and just an FYI, over easy eggs or fried eggs, this is still sunny side up to them)

On the authentic plate at the Mexican restaurant they served grasshoppers. That was a little too authentic for me.

Chicken enchiladas at Mexican Restaurant at Dreams Huatulco

Tortilla bowl of grasshoppers

 

We went into town one morning just to check it out. There really wasn't anything to check out. There are a few local souvenir shops with people that harass you to buy their stuff. There's some overpriced silver stores where you feel like you never know if it's even real silver and some restaurants that would probably guarantee the plague if you ate at them. I did feel safe though. Everyone was very nice. I didn't see any army guys with machine guns like in Cancun. It was a little town but really a waste of time. They said the whole city of Huatulco is 17,000 people.

 

 

Some of our group did a snorkel trip and I was kicking myself for not going with. Huatulco has 9 bays. The guy that took them was a local guy from the beach. He took them to pristine beaches where there was no one. They dove down and snorkeled in caves and they said the water was so clear. Sounds like pretty amazing snorkeling for the Pacific Ocean.

 

The road to the airport was a tad scary. They are working on building a road and it was this dirt stretch with a severe drop off. I was planning my escape route from the bus in my head because I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it but we did!

 

All in all, it was great seeing a new place. Will I go back? Probably not but the people were very nice, the fishing was quite impressive (so deep sea fishing people must go here!) and the scenery will be hard to beat.

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Posted in: all inclusive , Mexico

Sandals Royal Bahamian for the day

We spent the day at Sandals Royal Bahamian - one of the perks of my job so my review is just based on about 7 hours there.

The resort is located kind of off my itself on cable beach. There are some random local places right outside the gate but nothing to make an effort to go to. It was a $20 cab ride each way from Paradise Island.
The breakfast buffet is simple but nice. They had real orange juice! This is not common at all inclusives so it was a nice suprise (usually it's a kool-aid orange juice mix). There was an omlet station and lots of fruit and french toat. They had really good oatmeal with brown sugar and sliced almonds for the top. Yum! Service was decent. Nothing impressive.

 

The first boat out to their private island fills up. The line was super long and started at like 930. The boat leaves at 10 and if you are not on the first boat over you will not get one of the prime locations. They have limited beach beds and chairs around the pool. If you are willing to camp out and get on the boat first (sit in the back so you can be first off) then there are some really neat beach beds with amazing views.

One thing that I think is kind of lame about their "private" island. It's only kind of private. They have about 60% of the island and the other part is owned by cruise ships so they can do their shore excursions to a "private" island. It was still under construction when I was there so I dont know how many people they are going to bring there or how many screaming kids or what but seems kind of misleading. I wonder how much $ Sandals got for that part.
There is a restaurant on the private island that does like sandwiches and wraps during the day. It was decent. They do curly fries instead of chips. I am just so use to Mexico with the chips and guacamole by the pool that curly fries really throws me off. The waitress was pretty indifferent. She had a blank stare on her face the entire time and would speak the absolute bare minimum to me like te 1 word answers type thing. I thought Sandals was suppose to be the wow factor on their service? Maybe she was just having a bad day.
The back of the island has amazing snorkeling. There's lots of rocks and it's calm enough to snorkel right there but bring your own equipement! They will not let you use the snorkel equipement from the free snorkel trips they offer. Someone even said they saw a lobster back there.
The loud pool as they referred to it was fun during the day. They had an entertainment team that hassled everyone into playing silly games. I was talked into a beer drinking competition and a competition called "Super Wife" which ended with Chris having to give me a lap dance. It was hilarious and we won 1st place. I wish we had it on video. I have my prize snow globe in my room displayed proudly.

Overall, Sandals was a really nice resort. I don't like how they nickel and dime for things like wifi ($14.99 a day??!) and the mini bar if you don't book a high enough room category. Their nice resorts and good food outweigh these annoyances for me though.

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Posted in: adults only resort , all inclusive , Bahamas , Sandals