Instead of writing a review of this resort, I decided to simply attach the letter that we wrote to Sandals after our awful experience at this resort. As you can see by the letter, we were on the first flight out the morning after we arrived. This was by far the worst experience we have had given the money we spent on this vacation, and our purpose in both writing the letter to Sandals and posting this review is to discourage anyone from either wasting money on Sandals, or even visiting Jamaica for that matter. If you haven't booked your vacation yet and are considering this hotel, all I can say is don't believe all the other reviews, I don't know where these people were or they just didn't care that the food was disgusting, the rooms were filthy, and the staff was very rude and unhelpful.

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing you this letter in regards to the above referenced booking at Sandals Royal Caribbean for the specified dates. My husband and I booked this vacation after doing much research and reading numerous reviews of this property. We are experienced travelers, having traveled to many other all-inclusive resorts along with ski resorts and cruises, the best of the all-inclusive resorts being Secrets Excellence Riviera Maya and the worst being Couples Ocho Rios. Having had such a bad experience in Jamaica previously, we were a bit leery to ever return, but we had confidence that Sandals, being such a well-known and reputable company, would not let us down. I have also stayed at Beaches Turks and Caicos and felt sure, based on my experience with the accommodations, staff, and food there, that we would not be let down by the parent company, Sandals. Unfortunately, it turned into the worst experience we have had yet with an all-inclusive resort that we have vowed never to return to Jamaica, nor will we be spending the kind of money that we did on a stay at Sandals. Here is what happened during our stay, which ended after one night with us paying almost $1K to return home.
The staff at the airport lounge was very impersonal and wouldn’t even make eye contact with us when telling us ‘Welcome Back’ upon our arrival. We were quickly shoved into the lounge before we could even make sure our luggage would be properly handled, only to barely sit down with a beverage before telling us it was time to leave. Once we were in the shuttle van, we proceeded to wait 15-20min while apparently waiting on another couple to arrive. The couples that we were waiting with complained that we could have been waiting comfortably in the lounge with our beverages instead of sitting in the van, and we agreed.
Upon our arrival to the property, we stood outside while we tried to figure out if anyone was coming to greet us, get our bags, and also if and when our rooms would be ready. We were finally greeted by a bellhop who appeared tired and uninterested in assisting us. He was very short with us and simply handed us our check-in paperwork (which I had already completed online), half-heartedly asked us if we would like a drink, and then we waited another 20-30min in the open-air lobby. He finally returned with our luggage and said to follow him, then proceeded to lead us to our room and pointed out things at the resort as we quickly passed by. The building we were put in was apparently the Windsor building, although he never told us what building it was. He lead us into the rooms, dropped out bags, opened up the balcony and said ‘there’s the beach’ and left.
We booked a Royal Grand Luxe Oceanfront room and apparently, according to the paperwork that we received the following morning (no one told us this when we first arrived, nor we were escorted to the concierge lounge upon check-in), we were upgraded to a concierge level room but we have no idea which category this was. We had an idea it was an upgrade only because of the in-room mini-bar, but the room itself left much to be desired- so much so that we were on the first flight out the following morning. The room we were assigned to (#76) was filthy, as you can see by the numerous pictures we took of the dirty baseboards, mold on the window sills, dirty tile where we actually rubbed our finger on it to see what it was and it came clean, and circles from where a previous guest had left their drink and apparently no one even wiped the end table down. Not to mention that the room was small and ill-appointed, as was also the case with the bathroom. In addition, the closet smelled of a foul odor.
The air-conditioning was also a problem, as we would be sweating one minute and cold the next. It wasn’t until the following morning that we found the remote for the air conditioning unit on the floor and figured out what it was. It would have been nice if the bellhop would have told us this, but he was too busy dropping our bags and leaving.
Another major issue we had was with the food. Even though we spent less than 24hrs at your resort, both my husband and I were very sick after the bad food we ate while there. Since we arrived just after lunch on Friday, the only option for food was the beach grill, where my husband put bad mayonnaise on his sandwich that had been out in the sun too long. For dinner, our only option was the beach party buffet, most of which was sub-par at best. When we called the front desk to ask about restaurants at the other resorts, she informed us that the shuttle ran ever hour on the hour, except between 7-9pm (it was already 6:30 and we didn’t have enough time to catch the 7pm but didn’t want to wait until 9pm for dinner). In the end, it didn’t matter since all the restaurants there were also booked, along with the only other restaurant at the Royal, which was the French restaurant. We also went to Cricketeers to see if perhaps the food there was any good, but my husband got fish and chips where the fish still had the skin on it. At that point, we just went back to our room so we could hopefully get some sleep and wake up the next day to go home. Not the case unfortunately.
Since it was July 4th, this resort had a celebration that evening where there was a marching band and a loud sound system right outside our room for much of the evening. Even when the party moved around to the pool, it was still very hard not to hear the loud festivities going on. I realize that some people go on vacation to party, and that is fine, but we should be able to go back to our rooms in order to avoid this. Again, not the case.
Finally, I took the time a few weeks prior to our trip to email Joseph Leighton, the director of guest services at this property, to see if we could book a few restaurants in advance seeing as how our stay would be short and knew they booked up quickly. He was very nice and prompt in responding, and booked us for the Thai on Sat. at 8pm and the French restaurant for Sun. at 8pm. Moreover, having such a bad experience, I decided to just make sure that my reservations were made shortly after arrival on Friday, and to my expected dismay, neither reservation had been made per Mr. Leighton’s email. This was very disheartening, and the girl at the front desk tried to make an excuse about a party- at this point, I didn’t want excuses, just answers.
Probably the final straw for my husband and I was the lack of care or concern that the staff at this property had for our situation. After requesting numerous times to be moved to another room because of the issues we had and getting no response except that they were booked and maybe, just maybe, there would be a better room for us tomorrow, we told them that we wanted a full refund and that we would be checking out tomorrow. They tried to tell us that ALL other Sandals resorts in Jamaica were booked that weekend except possibly for Dunn’s River, which wasn’t a definite because the girl wouldn’t ‘promise’ us anything, and we weren’t interested in that option because it was a 2hr drive that we didn’t want to endure on a ‘possibility’ that there would be a room (and who’s to say it would have been better?). I think I at least expected someone to act like they cared instead of acting insulted that we were unhappy with our room, perhaps offer to have someone come up and clean it, but we got nothing, not even a ‘sorry’. That is poor customer service.
The bottom line is that my husband and I will NOT be returning to Jamaica, ever, and probably never return to a Sandals resort unless we are convinced otherwise. We were very close to returning to Secrets in the Riviera Maya but at the last minute decided to give Sandals a try. Secrets outdid Sandals so bad that it’s actually really sad that people are paying the kind of money that they are to stay at your resorts, when they could stay elsewhere for a lot less and much better quality. I hate to be rude but when you pay good money for a vacation, you expect to get what you pay for. We also vacation in Breckenridge, CO in the winter for skiing and our accommodations are always perfect, and we actually spend less to go there than we did for this vacation. Please understand that my purpose of this letter wasn’t to insult your company, it was actually in the hopes that you do something about this situation so that other people like us aren’t duped into spending a lot of money on something that is so over-rated. We have since been credited back for the hotel portion of our stay, although we are still out the $1,700 total in airfare (including our cost to return early). Please either improve the quality of your resorts and staff, or charge less for your resorts.

This was the worst vacation I have ever been on. I went with my boyfriend and we were able to salvage as much fun as possible on this trip. Fortunately it wasn't my honeymoon, but I felt so sad for all the couples who were there on their honeymoons. The service was consistently HORRIBLE! The servers at every one of their restaurants were rude and slow (slower than just being on Jamaica time). Not to mention, the food was often inedible. We ended up having to eat at the casual restaurant because it was literally the only edible food. So while we expected a wide variety of cuisine as advertised, we were stuck eating hamburgers and fries all week. Also, the drinks were watered down and disgusting, the beer was usually flat and warm. The watersports people were very rude and not accomodating at all. We kept getting bad vibes from the hotel staff, as if they were plotting something bad (this sounds paranoid, but I've never felt this way in another country, and I've been to about 10 foriegn countries--I even lived in Mexico). Also, the hotel is very close to the Montego Bay airport and so you are constantly hearing jets land and take off. The only good thing about this resort was the rooms which are large, clean, and beautiful. So if you plan on losing weight, spending your time in a hotel room, and listening to planes take off, this is the place for you.

Fabulous. Spectacular. Truly everything they advertised. Staff -- who will not take a tip -- bent over backwards. Seems too good to be true, but it really is all inclusive. They get it. They really do get it.

My husband and I traveled to Jamaica with 10 friends to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We loved all of the people at the Royal Carribean, everyone was so friendly and eager to please. Our room in the Kensington building was in a great location and we were all a few rooms away from eachother. The best meal was at the Thai Restaraunt on the island and the jerk chicken at the beach grill was always good for lunch. The pool was right outside our room as was the beach, which we did not have to fight for a lounge any day of our trip. We pretty much had the pool to ourselves everyday. We wish we could go back today but will have to wait until next year. I know for a fact this will not be our only trip to the Sandals Royal Carribean.