Sandals
Royal Caribbean - All inclusive resort
located at Montego Bay, Jamaica
We
recently had our wedding at Sandals Royal Caribbean and our experiences are
below.
The
reason we selected this resort was because we had moved to Arizona a little
less than a year ago for my husband's job after we were already engaged. And
having our family and friends located all on the East Coast, it did not make
any sense for us to have our family and friends fly over to Arizona for our
wedding when it would have cost the same for them to have a vacation at an all-inclusive
resort.
Why we selected this
particular Sandal?
We
selected this Sandal because there are 2 other Sandals in 5-10 minutes
proximity with various pricings, allowing our guests more financial flexibility.
Additionally, these 3 Sandals are 5-10 minutes from the Montego Bay airport.
We
were engaged at a Couples resort in Ocho Rios but after flying all day and
arriving at the airport then having to ride on a bus for 2.5 hours to get to
the resort, we didn't want to put ourselves or our guests through that so we
selected the one closest to the airport.
We
also looked at other Sandals, however, flights are more difficult and prices
are higher, allowing less flexibility.
Wedding Planning:
We
were assigned a wedding planner over the phone to start planning our wedding by
selecting all the details prior to arriving at the resort which is also
available on the Sandals website.
Pros: Having a wedding planner
helps us think about things that we wouldn’t have thought about, like music
selection for walking up and down the aisle, the type of ceremony, writing our
own vows or using theirs, just little things like that.
Cons: Information sharing from the
wedding planner over the phone to the wedding planner on site, some of the
things we had discussed with the wedding over the phone did not translate to
the wedding planner on site. Upon
arriving, we were told we did not have a reception dinner. So we had to scramble to to get that
situated. The wedding planner on the
phone did not know the resort as well as she should even though she is
exclusively assigned to that resort as her home based. The wedding planner on site was extremely helpful
although steer us away from where we wanted to be on location for our wedding.
Our wedding was delayed by 40 minutes which really impacted our pictures as we
paid for the twilight time ($600 at 5pm), due to the delay, we did not get
pictures with our family and friends like we wanted and the one picture we did
get with the entire group was in the dark.
Our first dance was so late that large bugs were out and we were covered
in them during our dance.
1.
Wedding
itinerary: We couldn’t even get the wedding planner to arrange an itinerary
for our guests, what she did was left them a voicemail of what the plan was for
our wedding day! Really??? I was shocked, I thought they would get their act
together having been in business for so long and promoting these destination
weddings all over.
2.
Shuttles
between resorts: Even getting a shuttle to bring our guests over from the
other resort was something they did not even anticipate….as their shuttle that
holds 20 people runs every hour on the hour!!
3.
Dinner reservations: Arranging dinner
reservations for our guests and us for each day that we were at the resort,
this arrangement was made in July and upon arriving in October for our wedding,
we all met up at a restaurant to find out that our reservation was not made or
confirmed with the restaurant per the wedding planner, showing them the email
confirmation did not change anything and for the entire time all our other
reservations were not honored!
4.
Picture package, I am obsessed with pictures
and capturing every detail to our wedding however our photographer from the
wedding package we got were HORRIBLE, he did not the right setting for his
camera and the only reason we know this was because my sister in a law is a professional
photographer, who also took pictures of our wedding as a gift to us and was a
complete surprise as we didn’t want to burden her so we had paid for a
photography package. The pictures were
got from our paid photographer came out dark and blurry (as I am pretty sure he
is not used to taking pictures in the dark as most weddings are not delayed
like ours).
5.
Food (reception dinner) After we finally had our
reception dinner set up, the appetizer and salad came upon us all sitting down,
however our entrée came almost an hour later with our plates being burning hot
as it appeared that these plates have been sitting under the lamp for quite a
long time waiting for someone to pick them up and serve them. And the only reason we even got our food was
because 3 of our guests went up to the wait staff inquiring and insisting that
they go handle the situation as it should not be something we had to concern
ourselves about on our wedding day.
6.
Pricing:
Too expensive for the experience we had, not worth it and it was not all
inclusive! For having a big wedding
party, I was expecting Sandals to go the extra mile for us and do extra things
like putting our nice flowers, making it more memorable in a good way rather
than in a bad way, yet all they did was try to nickel and dime us for
everything even though we had so many people come to their resorts
7.
Excursions/Amenities
(Internet, in room mini bar): All extra unlike Couples resorts where these
are included in the pricing. Dunes river
falls – included, ($100+ with Sandals), Catamaran Cruise with Snorkeling –
included ($109 per person with Sandals), shopping shuttles – included (extra
with Sandals)…mini bar in room/internet – included in all rooms at Couples,
only available with Concierge level or higher, same with free internet,
otherwise $14.99 per day.
Overall – I would not recommend having a large wedding at any Sandals, 10 or less people may be ok but overall, pricing and what is included, is not worth it. I would suggest Couples resorts.
