Resort: Sandals Grande St. Lucian
Room type: Honeymoon 1 BR luxury suite w/ Bulter service (pool view)
Stayed: 7 nights in mid September
Things I loved!
· St. Lucia! Is a GORGEOUS island – the mountains make for such amazing views, the water is clear, calm and a very pleasant temperature (this is coming from someone who does not enjoy the ocean….it takes everything in me to go swimming at the beach)
· All-Inclusive for our honeymoon – it was so nice not to have to have to carry anything except our room key and my camera, we could eat/drink when we wanted to and didn’t have to worry about a bill, there was a “no tipping” policy on the resort so there were never any uncomfortable moments like “should we tip? How much?” etc… Bottled water, sodas, beer, wine and liquors were all provided for us in our room everyday also which was very convenient.
· The service was great! Whether someone was making our bed, seating us for dinner or answering a question – everyone was very pleasant and spoke very good English – the native language is Creole which is a dialect of French, so their accents were very easy to understand.
· Dinners – we had some really good dinners – especially at Gordon’s on the Pier which is the 5-start restaurant included for guests with Butler service and is an additional charge if you do not have the Butler service – it was the most perfect atmosphere – only about 10-12 tables literally on the water, with an open kitchen and AMAZING food!
· How close the beach/pool were – I am not a huge fan of sand and salt water although I love looking and listening to the ocean – the pool was practically right next to the beach so it was the best of both worlds for me! I could be lounging by the pool but looking at the ocean!
Things I didn’t love….
· It was honeymooner central. We expected that there were going to be a lot of honeymooners at the resort since sandals primarily markets to honeymooners/is an adult only resort but I didn’t expect that about 97% of the guests would have been honeymooners and all married on the same day as us. Usually I am all about making new friends and can small talk with a wall, but after the wedding and coming down with bronchitis all I wanted to do was sit and relax with my husband – I didn’t really want to talk to anyone else or make friends and exchange wedding stories….call it selfish, but I was still basking in remembering my own wedding, I didn’t really want to talk about anyone else’s wedding. Since you could tell that everyone was on their honeymoon when you were at the pool or at the bar naturally you would start small talking with other couples…which is fine, but then you would run into them over and over again and it felt like you had made friends with them so you were obligated to stop and chat for a little bit. That got a little annoying to me because by the end of the week it felt like we were on vacation with ourselves and 6 other couple friends which wasn’t exactly what I wanted
o We did figure out that there were some more private pools we could go to that were very peaceful and still had the great view – the only thing they didn’t have was a swim up bar, which was fine because our butler packed a cooler for us everyday anyways
o The other place that is not as crowded is the beach – but that’s because there is no such thing as a private beach in St. Lucia – so there would be a few natives on the beach trying to hustle you to buy necklaces or conch shells or what have you….so we would typically lay our stuff at the pool and if we wanted to go to the beach we would go right into the water to avoid being hustled to buy anything
· Some of the food – our dinners were great as I mentioned above, and breakfast was good – we ordered breakfast in our room the first two mornings which was nice to be able to eat on our balcony but we soon realized that the breakfast buffet was much better because it was much more fresh – but lunches got a little boring after a while – and a lot of the food that was offered for lunch felt mass produced – it reminded me of a cruise ship – the first day you get there the food is great, by the end of the week you body is screaming for grilled chicken and a salad. I also have a mental thing about buffets, that no matter if I like the taste of the food or not, I just sort of get grossed out about the mass production (except breakfast buffets because you typically can get fresh made stuff at breakfast buffets). There were a few other options for lunch – it was either on the beach which was nice, but sometimes it was just too hot to eat outside or pizza which just gets old after a few times, which is why we opted for the buffet most of the days.
· The wine L The wine brand they serve on the resort is Beringer – after the first two days I was really sick of drinking just blah wine - the white wine started tasting like sugar water and the red wine was just gross….so I ended up buying bottles off the managers list and spent probably $150 on 2 bottles of wine….so, that was something we spent money on that we weren’t expecting but it was worth it to me because I love enjoying wine – especially with dinner. All inclusive is great for some reasons and bad for reasons like this…your ability to have variety is little limited.
If we did it again….
· First of all, I probably wouldn’t go to a Sandals again when we weren’t on our honeymoon….it was great for our honeymoon and I would recommend it if you want a relaxing, tropical vacation where you don’t have to think about anything, but as I mentioned above it was about 97% honeymooners (which colud also have been a result of the time of year we got married….and that our wedding date was 9.10.11)
· I would have traded the Butler service for an ocean view room – the sunsets were beautiful, but they set so early that they happened while we were in our room getting ready for dinners – if we had an ocean view room it would have been so nice to sit on the balcony for cocktail hour.
o The Butler service was nice to have – but it didn’t make or break our vacation
o If we didn’t have the Butler service I would however splurge and pay for dinner at Gordon’s…it was my favorite dinner/ atmosphere
· I would have stayed a little longer – we stayed for 7 nights and I definitely could have done 10 days….It was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever had!!
· Definitely would have gone on the same boat tour – we booked the tour through a guy on the beach (sketchy….we know but he spoke the truth!) – which goes to all the same places as the tour you can book through the resort (they call it the “Simone Says” tour), but you go with half the amount of people – we only had 6 couples on our boat vs. 15 couples on a boat that the resort takes you on and the guides are super nice/knowledgeable about the island AND they know how to work ANY camera….and will take pictures for you – which was especially helpful to capture the mud bath moments since I would not have brought my camera with me into the sulfur springs!
Overall review:
· It is an amazing place to honeymoon if you want a no-brainer vacation…we literally booked the room and the flights – we didn’t have to plan anything else to do while we were there and still had an amazing time. It was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever had which is exactly what I needed after the excitement of the wedding and the go-go-go of a month we had before the wedding with buying our house, moving and getting ready for the wedding.
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