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Montego Bay review



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 31st, 2004, 01:21 AM
Mike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Montego Bay review

We were excited about going to Sandals because the idea of an all inclusive
was appealing. Let me tell you truthfully, if you have any expectations
above "below average", then you will be very dissapointed. My wife and I
have stayed in some very nice 4 star hotels and resorts and a few 5 star and
we expect some basics from any hotel. The hotel has the ability to be an
excellent resort but they are suffering from cost cutting and poor service.
First let me make perfectly aware to everyone that this resort is on the
airport. Not near the airport, but approx 50 yards from the physical runway.
The Montego Bay airport is a suprisingly busy airport with many departures
and arrivals. People say that you get used to the noise, which you start to,
however, it is difficult to get used to a noise that is so loud that you are
forced to cover your ears with each departure. Now let's talk about the
food. What a huge dissapointement. The buffets for breakfast and lunch were
not exceptable, especially for a hotel charging 400-600 bucks a night. A
cheap buffet in vegas would have more and better quality product. The food
was bland, and totally lacking creativity. The dinner menus in the
restaurants featured few choices and very small portions. We are definitely
the type of people who judge quality by portion size but when appetizers
comes out so small that it is actually humurous, there is a problem. I could
go on about the food but you get the general idea......bad. An example was
the salads whose choices in almost all of the restuarants included a
horrible caeser salad with just lettuce, dressing and croutons. The service
was another issue. It was horrible. You practically had to beg for water.
The entire staff came off as rude and lazy. They made you feel as if they
were doing you a favor by doing their jobs. They didn't know anything about
the food they were serving from ingredients to cooking style. There first
response to any question that was asked was always no, unless you pushed and
then maybe they would try and find the answer. You rarely receive a hello
when they saw you or walked by. There was a false sense of supperioirty with
the servers who acted as if they were working in the finest restaurants in
America. Everywhere you went they were out of this or out of that. The bar
is another issue. For an all you can drink place, the bar is really poorly
stocked. It focuses only on tropical drinks and frozen drinks. Those are
good and we enjoyed them but in general I thought the selection was lacking
for a supposed 4 star resort. One more thing about the food. This is not
like most cruises where you can always get something to eat. Restuarants are
only open certain hours on certain days and there is no room service. For
those of you who are active, the gym is a disgrace. It is open air, which
means tons of sweating. There is only 1 treadmill, and its incline motor is
broken at about 5%. Half of the fans in the gym do not work, and there are
holes in the roof. They provide towels for the use in the gym but on over
half of our visits there were no clean towels available. I called house
keeping everytime and they never ever delivered them during the hour and
half that I was working out. The hotel is definitely not worth what they
charging, even with the big discounts. Let me tell you, we will never do an
all inclusive again. They cut corners and the staff has no driving force to
please the guests. We could have stayed in a 4-5 star hotel in a lot of
different locations and had 4-5 star cuisine for the price that we paid for
sandals. My wife and I both dicussed that even if they were to give us a
free trip to make up for the last trip, we would give that trip to a firend
as we will never again be staying at a Sandals "resort". To summarize, if
you are outside of the 45 day cancellation window, then I hoghly recommend
that you cancel your reservation and look elsewhere. You will thank me and
your wallet will also.

  #2  
Old August 31st, 2004, 03:02 AM
wayne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I think you had a bad first example. I visited Jamaica years ago during a
cruise. The impression that I cam away with was so strong that like you I
would skip a free trip to any part of Jamaica! I would say I have stayed at
very nice all inclusive in Mexico Rivera Maya area and had excellent
experiences. The Palace resorts I think will make you think twice about
giving up on resorts.

the reviews on Sandals are mixed

http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortrev.../sandmont.html

Check out the reviews here and pick a highly rated hotel
Apple tends to have good deals as well as other companies

http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortrev...mexrevind.html

Wayne

"Mike" wrote in message ...
We were excited about going to Sandals because the idea of an all
inclusive
was appealing. Let me tell you truthfully, if you have any expectations
above "below average", then you will be very dissapointed. My wife and I
have stayed in some very nice 4 star hotels and resorts and a few 5 star
and
we expect some basics from any hotel. The hotel has the ability to be an
excellent resort but they are suffering from cost cutting and poor
service.
First let me make perfectly aware to everyone that this resort is on the
airport. Not near the airport, but approx 50 yards from the physical
runway.
The Montego Bay airport is a suprisingly busy airport with many departures
and arrivals. People say that you get used to the noise, which you start
to,
however, it is difficult to get used to a noise that is so loud that you
are
forced to cover your ears with each departure. Now let's talk about the
food. What a huge dissapointement. The buffets for breakfast and lunch
were
not exceptable, especially for a hotel charging 400-600 bucks a night. A
cheap buffet in vegas would have more and better quality product. The food
was bland, and totally lacking creativity. The dinner menus in the
restaurants featured few choices and very small portions. We are
definitely
the type of people who judge quality by portion size but when appetizers
comes out so small that it is actually humurous, there is a problem. I
could
go on about the food but you get the general idea......bad. An example was
the salads whose choices in almost all of the restuarants included a
horrible caeser salad with just lettuce, dressing and croutons. The
service
was another issue. It was horrible. You practically had to beg for water.
The entire staff came off as rude and lazy. They made you feel as if they
were doing you a favor by doing their jobs. They didn't know anything
about
the food they were serving from ingredients to cooking style. There first
response to any question that was asked was always no, unless you pushed
and
then maybe they would try and find the answer. You rarely receive a hello
when they saw you or walked by. There was a false sense of supperioirty
with
the servers who acted as if they were working in the finest restaurants in
America. Everywhere you went they were out of this or out of that. The bar
is another issue. For an all you can drink place, the bar is really poorly
stocked. It focuses only on tropical drinks and frozen drinks. Those are
good and we enjoyed them but in general I thought the selection was
lacking
for a supposed 4 star resort. One more thing about the food. This is not
like most cruises where you can always get something to eat. Restuarants
are
only open certain hours on certain days and there is no room service. For
those of you who are active, the gym is a disgrace. It is open air, which
means tons of sweating. There is only 1 treadmill, and its incline motor
is
broken at about 5%. Half of the fans in the gym do not work, and there are
holes in the roof. They provide towels for the use in the gym but on over
half of our visits there were no clean towels available. I called house
keeping everytime and they never ever delivered them during the hour and
half that I was working out. The hotel is definitely not worth what they
charging, even with the big discounts. Let me tell you, we will never do
an
all inclusive again. They cut corners and the staff has no driving force
to
please the guests. We could have stayed in a 4-5 star hotel in a lot of
different locations and had 4-5 star cuisine for the price that we paid
for
sandals. My wife and I both dicussed that even if they were to give us a
free trip to make up for the last trip, we would give that trip to a
firend
as we will never again be staying at a Sandals "resort". To summarize, if
you are outside of the 45 day cancellation window, then I hoghly recommend
that you cancel your reservation and look elsewhere. You will thank me and
your wallet will also.

  #3  
Old August 31st, 2004, 03:02 AM
wayne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I think you had a bad first example. I visited Jamaica years ago during a
cruise. The impression that I cam away with was so strong that like you I
would skip a free trip to any part of Jamaica! I would say I have stayed at
very nice all inclusive in Mexico Rivera Maya area and had excellent
experiences. The Palace resorts I think will make you think twice about
giving up on resorts.

the reviews on Sandals are mixed

http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortrev.../sandmont.html

Check out the reviews here and pick a highly rated hotel
Apple tends to have good deals as well as other companies

http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortrev...mexrevind.html

Wayne

"Mike" wrote in message ...
We were excited about going to Sandals because the idea of an all
inclusive
was appealing. Let me tell you truthfully, if you have any expectations
above "below average", then you will be very dissapointed. My wife and I
have stayed in some very nice 4 star hotels and resorts and a few 5 star
and
we expect some basics from any hotel. The hotel has the ability to be an
excellent resort but they are suffering from cost cutting and poor
service.
First let me make perfectly aware to everyone that this resort is on the
airport. Not near the airport, but approx 50 yards from the physical
runway.
The Montego Bay airport is a suprisingly busy airport with many departures
and arrivals. People say that you get used to the noise, which you start
to,
however, it is difficult to get used to a noise that is so loud that you
are
forced to cover your ears with each departure. Now let's talk about the
food. What a huge dissapointement. The buffets for breakfast and lunch
were
not exceptable, especially for a hotel charging 400-600 bucks a night. A
cheap buffet in vegas would have more and better quality product. The food
was bland, and totally lacking creativity. The dinner menus in the
restaurants featured few choices and very small portions. We are
definitely
the type of people who judge quality by portion size but when appetizers
comes out so small that it is actually humurous, there is a problem. I
could
go on about the food but you get the general idea......bad. An example was
the salads whose choices in almost all of the restuarants included a
horrible caeser salad with just lettuce, dressing and croutons. The
service
was another issue. It was horrible. You practically had to beg for water.
The entire staff came off as rude and lazy. They made you feel as if they
were doing you a favor by doing their jobs. They didn't know anything
about
the food they were serving from ingredients to cooking style. There first
response to any question that was asked was always no, unless you pushed
and
then maybe they would try and find the answer. You rarely receive a hello
when they saw you or walked by. There was a false sense of supperioirty
with
the servers who acted as if they were working in the finest restaurants in
America. Everywhere you went they were out of this or out of that. The bar
is another issue. For an all you can drink place, the bar is really poorly
stocked. It focuses only on tropical drinks and frozen drinks. Those are
good and we enjoyed them but in general I thought the selection was
lacking
for a supposed 4 star resort. One more thing about the food. This is not
like most cruises where you can always get something to eat. Restuarants
are
only open certain hours on certain days and there is no room service. For
those of you who are active, the gym is a disgrace. It is open air, which
means tons of sweating. There is only 1 treadmill, and its incline motor
is
broken at about 5%. Half of the fans in the gym do not work, and there are
holes in the roof. They provide towels for the use in the gym but on over
half of our visits there were no clean towels available. I called house
keeping everytime and they never ever delivered them during the hour and
half that I was working out. The hotel is definitely not worth what they
charging, even with the big discounts. Let me tell you, we will never do
an
all inclusive again. They cut corners and the staff has no driving force
to
please the guests. We could have stayed in a 4-5 star hotel in a lot of
different locations and had 4-5 star cuisine for the price that we paid
for
sandals. My wife and I both dicussed that even if they were to give us a
free trip to make up for the last trip, we would give that trip to a
firend
as we will never again be staying at a Sandals "resort". To summarize, if
you are outside of the 45 day cancellation window, then I hoghly recommend
that you cancel your reservation and look elsewhere. You will thank me and
your wallet will also.

  #4  
Old September 6th, 2004, 04:36 PM
shajak nieves-smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

thanks very much for the info you gave on the sandals resort my husband
and i have always wanted to go there but it was just so expensive.i had
no idea that it could be like this but then again i havent heard good
things about jamica either, anyway.i will defenitely re-consider
now.thanks again.
  #5  
Old September 6th, 2004, 04:36 PM
shajak nieves-smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

thanks very much for the info you gave on the sandals resort my husband
and i have always wanted to go there but it was just so expensive.i had
no idea that it could be like this but then again i havent heard good
things about jamica either, anyway.i will defenitely re-consider
now.thanks again.
  #6  
Old September 6th, 2004, 04:36 PM
shajak nieves-smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

thanks very much for the info you gave on the sandals resort my husband
and i have always wanted to go there but it was just so expensive.i had
no idea that it could be like this but then again i havent heard good
things about jamica either, anyway.i will defenitely re-consider
now.thanks again.
 




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