May 29th – June 5th, 2005 – we did not know that the start of hurricane season commenced during our honeymoon. To note, it was more overcast during our stay, and it rained for a bit on two days, while we were at the resort. No hurricanes though!
Flight:
We booked through Sunquest. Our flight was with Canjet and left Toronto to Nassau direct. It was a short flight, approximately 3 hours. Arrived at 1:30pm. Should have brought a book though, as there were no t.v.’s or the like on the plane. The one flight attendant was a funny guy though, and helped to make it not so tedious. We had a bus pick us up at the airport, along with other people going to Sandals, as well as other resorts. It took about 15 minutes to get to the hotel. If you expect a limo or swanky car to come and get you, than you had better book a third tier room or something better to get this, as this is the only way you will ride in one as we learned.
Check-In:
This was fairly smooth. We, along with five other couples were brought to the piano lounge to sit while they prepared things for us. We were given champagne in flute glasses to sip on. Nice touch. We completed the paperwork at this time and then were directed outside and told to look around and grab something to eat and then come back in 15 minutes to complete check in. At that time we were given bags with some supplies (ie. shampoo, lotion, conditioner, aloe) and given the cards to our rooms. Orientation was offered the next morning at 10am.
Room: #503 – Manor Building:
This was a nice room with a king size four poster bed. The view was great, as it overlooked the ocean, sunset, pier, beach and pool. The only thing with this room was that it did not have a balcony, like other rooms. It had an in-room safe (no extra charge), a CD player, vcr, and other ammenities in it, but no room fridge. The hotel has a library of movies to choose from, but they all seem a bit dated. Bring your own. The water pressure in the shower was great. The manor building seemed to be on the quiet side of the resort. Activities in the day, and night time events tended to occur by the Windsor building.
Resort: Sandals is a very nice resort. Maybe not as chi chi as it looks on the webpages we saw, but still quite good. There are two main pool areas, located beside the Manor and Windsor buildings. Other smaller ones are located at the back part of the resort by the smaller villas. It is fairly well-kept. The water is very blue, the sand is quite soft, and the temperature averaged about 30c. Staff was very courteous and was ready to please us. You can’t go anywhere without someone asking you how you are doing. The private island isn’t so private, given that half of it is owned and operated for cruise ship guests who dock at Paradise Island. They have a lot more out there for them (sea does, volleyball courts, activity people who appear quite enthusiastic about getting people involved in activities), than what Sandals offers on it’s side (pool, restaurant, hottub, bar and hammocks). There were activities at the resort, and every day we were given a "Royal Horn", which outlines the days events and what is going on for the day, so we could plan what we wanted to do for the day. They mainly had volleyball (pool & beach), bingo, tournaments for pool & ping pong, and other games. All of these activities were located by the Windsor pool area. In the evenings, they had things like the Honeymooners Game Show, a magic show, comedy show, burlesque type show, limbo/fire dancing show, and salsa night. We did not go to all of these though. The mosquitos get bad at night for some people. Even with bus spray, I counted 17 bug bites on one leg at one point during our vacation. You have access to the gym (located in the Manor building on the top floor), kayakes,a water bike, sail boats, snorkeling, and scuba diving through Sahdals. Sea dos are offered but are not operated through Sandals. There is also a spa, that has many different packages to cater to people. We saw quite a few people out getting dual massages on the far pier. According to the price list, this treatment was over $400.
Destination weddings were big at the resort. We saw over 40 weddings at the resort in a one week period. It was almost like an assembly line (one day we saw 5 weddings going on), and we are glad we did not go this route. The services seemed nice though from what we saw, but we felt that such an experience for us would be less special. The majority of the people at the resort were honeymooners, so we could all pretty much identify with one another.
Restaurants: There were a number of restaurants to choose from. Three required reservations. We were able to book dinner in all three. We did so right after we checked in. People who waited to do so until the next day, were not able to get into a couple of the restaurants and had to be put on a waiting list. – Spices – we had breakfast at this restaurant for the entire week. It was good. Buffet style with all the traditional fixings. It’s located closest to the Manor Building. – Cafe Grill – we ate here a lot for lunch, and once for dinner. Burgers, crack conch, jerk chicken quasedilla and the three cheese dip were good. It overlooks the Manor pool. -Kimonos – we had dinner here and the food was great. If you want a romantic dinner, don’t go here though, as it is more of a social place. You are matched up with 10 people at a table where you get your own chef who makes the food in front of you. The food station is in the middle of the table. You start of with appetizers, then the chef arrives and prepares the seafood, then vegetables, chicken and beef. It is quite filling and we enjoyed it. – The Cricketer – this is an English style pub setting and it was fairly hopeless for us and a few other couples who went there. The service was not very good and the food was mediocer. – Goombay Cafe – had lunch there. It is located on the private island. We cancelled our dinner reservations there, as we were afraid of the mosquitos and being eaten alive out there. Lunch consisted of burgers and fries. – Crystal Ballroom – very nice place. You have to dress up for this place. We booked two nights here. The food was great and service was amazing. The filet mignon was great.
– Baccarat – This was the most difficult place to get reservations for. It was nice setting and the food was very good. You have to dress up for this place too.
Tour: Paradise Island Resort: We took the tour for $30. This provided a bus drive to and back from the resort. It was good to see this place and all the marine life in it. We took an entire roll of film there. It was good to see it in one day. We and others felt that we would rather stay at our own resort which is all-inclusive, rather than stay at this resort. The food was way too much money.
Overall, it was a good honeymoon for us and we are glad that we went.