Sandals at Dunn's River
by Nicole
For my honeymoon last year, my new husband and I booked a 4 day vacation to Sandals Dunn’s River in Jamaica. The Sandals all-inclusive vacation package came highly recommended by my sister who had stayed at one of their other resorts the prior year. As I’ve been told by many people that have experienced Sandals, each resort offers a unique experience. Specifically, I would not return to Sandal’s Dunn’s River resort. It would take a lot for me to even consider another Sandals vacation. My experience started out by being taken to the wrong resort. My husband and I, along with other guests, arrived at the Ocho Rios resort after leaving the air port. There we were given a warm washcloth and a glass of campaign to clean up and relax. We were told that after a short period we would be taken to our Dunn’s River resort, but that all check in goes through the Ocho Rios location. We were next seated on a cart that took us to “our room.” The funny thing is that we were still at the wrong resort! We were then taken back to the original check-in desk where the staff proceeded to try to persuade us to stay at their resort. After some time, the staff finally agreed to take us to the Dunn’s River resort where our reservation was. By this time, it’s almost 5:00pm Jamaica time. We had purposely taken an early flight so we could be at our resort by 1:00pm, allowing us some beach time. Upon checking into our “view of the gardens” suite at the correct resort, we realize we have been put in the incorrect room. There was no view of a garden, and we weren’t in a suite. We paid extra for our specific room. Instead, we were stuck in a typical multi-story hotel room where you have to wait for the elevator to get to the pool. Once again, we returned to the front desk to straighten this out. At this point, the truth finally comes out. Our garden view suite room had been double booked! That’s the reason the Ocho Rios resort tried to get us to stay with them. We had to stay in our hotel-style room the first night them move our stuff to our original garden suite. We received no price adjustment on our bill. Instead, we received some chocolates and a bottle of champagne. Let me remind you that alcohol is already free at Sandals. It would take a lot of convincing for me to spend my money and vacation time there again. |
