Sandals Royal Plantation.
It’s a 1h 30m drive, about 55 miles across the mountains spine of the Island on Highway 2000. But first it’s round the Harbour, through down-town Kingston towards Spanish Town before joining Highway 2000 to the north coast at St Ann’s Bay and finally through Ocho Rios to the Resort. A huge $91m engineering project, that has very little traffic and an 80kph (50mph) speed limit!
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Anyway, enough of that … it’s really quite boring! We arrived at 2300 to be greeted by our Butler and escorted to our room where, after a quick shower, we crashed into bed and slept like logs for a few hours, surfacing as the sun came up.
We quite like the RP, as it’s generally known. It has a lot of positives from our POV … small [74 suites], quiet [no blaring Disco scene], AI and
a la carte at 3 restaurants [no buffet meals] and 2 nice little beaches [one smoking, one No Smoking]. The Staff are universally delightful, smiley and helpful. The guests are, predictably, mainly Americans as it’s fairly easy [and cheap] for them to fly in to Montego Bay (MBJ) and transfer along the north coast. The grounds are lovely and well maintained, and the beaches are clean. The food is generally very good [especially when Lobster is in season, which it was!]. But, overall, the rooms are getting rather tired … nothing has really changed since our first visit in 2012, although they are finally renovating some of the bathrooms!
Our biggest downside is Sandals Corporate itself, and the way over the decade or so since they bought the property that they have dragged it down-market. It used to have a charming ‘country house’ feel about it … but no more. The main website pictures still show it as it was. Now it’s Sandals banners and illuminated signs and advertising all over the place, with constant ‘music’ playing in the [empty] public area all day. Do they really need to remind guests they’re staying at a Sandals resort all the time? And up-selling everywhere, including the super-expensive Spa! A lovely hotel has been
“Sandalised” in the only way America-focussed Corporates know how … noisily and tastelessly. Oh, and pretentious to the n-th degree, of course, to try to look stylish and special. The ‘Butlers’ are an unnecessary confection, and as for the meaningless room categories … e.g our “
Royal Monarch Oceanfront Butler Suite, Situated in the stately West Wing on levels 1, 2 or 3, and featuring a broad, ornamental French balcony, this airy and alluring suite offers every imaginable indulgence.” Oh, for Heaven’s sake, it’s a decent hotel room with a view! But I guess they know their main [and gullible] audience. We managed to persuade our Butlers to forgo the endless towel animals and petals all over the bed!
Yours for only $200, if you need dinner in the middle of nowhere … and probably cold by the time it arrives!
Just in case you didn’t realise where you are.
OK, I’ve got that off my chest! We did actually have a lovely week, with unseasonably very fine weather [just an hour of rain one morning] and dined very happily at all 3 Restaurants. Sadly a supply issue denied us Scallops, but plentiful Lobster compensated! It really was a very nice week, which sadly had to come to an end … but we’ll give them 4 stars.