Todd and Debbie Royal
December 10
(Saturday)
Trip to Royal
Well, the
pre trip started badly due to thinking my passport was lost. I was sure it was
in a suitcase in a particular front flap. We both looked there a number of
times. After 8 hours of searching over a 2 day period, it was right where I
looked the first time, all packed and ready to go, but it was stuck to the
suitcase fabric and out of sight.
Also, this is a busy time for me, and I did work up until the last minute.
We went to the airport daily parking ($13 a day) and up to US Airways. It was confusing because they had two desks—one
for America West and one for US Airways, both with US Airways on them and on
opposite sides of the terminal. We
waited in line at US Air and got sent to America West. After that, everything went without a
hitch. We went to McDonalds in the
airport and got breakfast platters. They
gave only peanuts on the plane from
Neither
flight had entertainment, not even music.
We brought things to do and were happy to land 10 min early at 1:50. Our
gate was occupied, so they sent us to the new section to gate 13. We waited 20
minutes for them to get this gate ready and then had the long trek to the lobby
that we had heard about from others that have landed at the new section.. By then, customs was bad. They had extra stations on
carts, and we got out in 30 minutes.
We used the bathroom at the Sandals lounge and then went outside where the
private cars and buses are. Royal
There were some bad sections of the road and some great ones. You don't go thru
Check-in and Room
Arrival
Check in
was a matter of receiving a cool cloth and welcome drink by the beautiful Christmas tree
and giving a credit card for imprint, along with our hotel voucher. We signed a
document related to our departure information.
Dwight
took us to room 357. This is the prime minister suite. We booked governor
general. They are about the same if you don't book the two bedroom
category. That category includes 356, an
adjoining luxury room that we have also stayed in. The governor general has windows on the side
where you can see the sunset if the clouds and weather cooperate. I was displeased about not getting the room I
booked, but there was never a sunset.
The room is very nice. The entry has a couch and an umbrella stand and some
other furniture. Then there is a hall bath and the bar area and then the living
and dining area with lots of furniture and a TV and vcr. The living room has a balcony with a table and 4
chairs and a couch. The bedroom has various furniture and another TV but no vcr. It has the butler stand.
The bathroom has a large jet tub and a separate shower. The toilet area has a
bidet. There is a nice towel rack. The closet isn't large but is workable. There
is an ironing board, an iron and an electronic safe.
There are nice bath salts by the tub but a tacky sign on them that indicates
you must pay 20 dollars if you take the container and 8 dollars if you want a
refill of the bath salts.
The bedroom has a great balcony with yet a 3rd table and 2 chairs and a huge
cushy lounger for two. Both balconies have fans and night lighting and French
doors to open and enjoy the waves. They need an end table by the lounger.
The bedding is the new white that we had on the last trip. The closet had nice, thick robes waiting for
us, and we had slippers on either side of the bed.
We missed
eating lunch and
the afternoon tea, and it was disappointing to arrive and find none of our
royal club preferences even though I had written 4 people about it. I know this
has happened to other recent repeaters. This went well on our last trip, and I
thought the oversight was a terrible mistake on their part. After wasting 20
minutes at the front desk, we were assured they would correct the situation. During the time I’d planned to graze on our
welcome snacks, I walked around just waiting for dark and dinner.
First Evening’s Impressions
After a
five course dinner, we found our welcome cheese and fruit and room snacks that
would have been nice when we hadn’t eaten for 12 hours. Also, they showed up at 11:30 pm with my
extra blanket that should have been part of the original royal club setup. All of that was the worst part of the stay.
The
property looked nice all lit up for Christmas.
We saw familiar and new faces.
The beach and pool looked nice.
First Dinner
Dinner
was enchanting with the sound and view of the waves and the sparkle of the Christmas
lights. I enjoyed the 2 hours with a mix of instrumental older pop tunes from
our day and jazz. It was great to spend that time with Todd chatting about the music
and just nothing in particular while we let our stress melt and our stomachs
fill up on each course.
They have yet a new chef and new menus again.
He is an interim chef from
I am always sort of disappointed when the menu changes but then I find great
new dishes sometimes.
We had the lobster and calliloo ravioli for appetizer. For soup, I had the
pumpkin. Todd ordered potato and leek. It was great, but he didn't know it was
cold so he then ordered pumpkin. He had a Caesar with grilled shrimp, while I
had the Royal Plantation greens with mango dressing (aka
market salad). For an entree, I had veal scaloppini. Todd had tenderloin and
shrimp. Our dishes were perfect. We had several interesting breads and then one
the waiter brought just for my dish with cheese, peppers and spice. For dessert, Todd
had the fruits in grand marnier, while I ordered the sorbet. The waiter warned
I might not like it since it was jackfruit. I didn't like it but was full.
When we sat down, we were given a wine list. The waitress explained things. We
tried an Italian white.
We came back to our room after 9 and watched the end of Grinch
and fell asleep to Its a Wonderful Life.
December 11
We never
made it to breakfast. I had papaya and kiwi from our fruit basket. Todd had
nuts and a banana. We lounged in the room. I lay on the couch on one of the
balconies and watched a movie. Todd watched sports in the room.
We went sailing on the catamaran. At one point Wesley came to check on us but
we were fine. We had a lot of fun with that. After that, the guys set us up for
a layout on the east beach. Next, we went to Royal Cafe. I had gazpacho and
lobster blt with no mayo and
a green salad with balsamic. Todd tried the jerk ribs and quesadillas. I
thought the ribs tasted more like regular bbq, but he
said he caught the jerk in there. It was fun, and I ate too many chips and so
did the peacock.
We moved on to the hot tub. It was 98 but went up to 101. Todd left and I
chatted down there for ages.
He was in the room waiting for the TV guy. We were both there when he came.
They had to unhook our living room TV from the VCR so we could get reception. They
were hooking up high speed internet from Total Vision in all the rooms.
I went for a spa pedicure that I selected from the new Red Lane Spa menu. This
is similar to the old spa pedicure, but they focus on local natural
ingredients. I had a pedi
colada. I had the lotion, scrub and paraffin with foot mittens in the recliner.
I saw lots of the familiar spa staff and found out Ginnie
that long timers would know and love is now at SGOR at The Manor. Elaine has
moved to Turks.
We lounged on our lounger on the balcony and watched the lights and listened to
the waves and went to dinner just before 8.
We had been going to go to Flambe but I didn't feel
like reserving and thought we would go Tues. They decided to do the repeat guest
then, so we went to that.
We were settled with Diane as our waitress. A few other couples came and then
they moved us under the cover when light rain came.
We had pumpkin soup. I had mussels, while Todd had a Caesar salad. The mussels
were way overcooked but were still good. They were having roasted snapper but I
asked to have mine grilled. It was wonderful. Todd had the surf and turf again.
Mine came with rice and his with potatoes. I had apricot sorbet.
We could hear both the Sandals and the RP entertainment but went to sleep
anyway.
Sometime during the day I used the in room jet tub with the bath salts. That
was nice.
December 12
We got up at 7 a.m.
and were at breakfast at 7:30. Todd had omelet, bacon and potatoes with milk
and juice, and I had eggs, bacon and toast with hot tea. They brought the NY
Times fax to each table and offered pastries, which we declined that day. Todd
made the 8 am golf shuttle. I decided to head off to look around elsewhere.
I tried
the pool, and they had started to heat it.
It was only starting to be warm and was OK for cooling off briefly after
the hot tub. The ocean was probably low
80s. The conditions were wonderful for
all watersports.
I noticed they had painted the lifeguard station on the west beach. Todd thought it was new, but only the colors
were.
No
worries on Todd and golf. The weather stayed nice. After seeing him off, I did
all the activities in the last paragraph while sailing around with my
Blackberry gprs and surfing the internet.
I went
over to Sandals Grande Ocho Rios for pictures. The
new pier is great. They have a wedding gazebo and a whole bunch of other
gazebos with swings, tables, chairs and loungers around.
A staircase goes to the Beach club manor side. It has been fixed up some but
otherwise looks similar to the Grande Sport days.
We had a
4 course lunch at Bayside. It was very
filling. I ordered a light broccoli
soup, lobster Greek salad (yum), fish and chips and orange sorbet. Todd had fruits, Caesar with chicken, mixed
grill skewer with salmon, tuna, mahi mahi, tuna and scallop and the orange sorbet.
We
lounged all day from lunch to dinner, mostly at the hot tub and pool and in the
room.
We
visited the gym and also hi tennis balls.
We had
planned to just go to the manager’s cocktail party and then take pics of the Bayside BBQ and dine in the room. However, we
chatted with Peter, the general manager, a long time and then decided to just go
eat at the buffet. I am sure we would have enjoyed the room service more, but
we were tired.
Peter told us that Chef Dennis left last Monday and that the chef there now is
the same interim chef they had last time after Hugo left. He is from
I had grilled sirloin and grilled lobster and salad for dinner. Todd had steak,
lobster and lamb. They bring out the soup to the table. It was pepperpot. I
tried a vanilla dessert and ate some of it. The fruits were so ripe, and I had
watermelon and papaya.
December 13
Todd went off for
golf again on the 8 a.m. shuttle.
We had
room service breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and fruit on our living room
balcony. Even though I checked for 2
people, they brought everything for one.
We shared it all, and it was enough.
The
weather clouded up, but it did not rain.
It seems it rained almost every day in October and a lot of
November. We could not believe how lush
everything was everywhere we went.
I had a
facial—scheduled what is now the Fountain of Youth, but they gave me Sea to
Shining C. It was just divine. I had steam and shoulder massage and the hand
mittens, in addition to the facial things.
Todd had Robert
as a caddie and loved him. He also had a golf lesson.
We had lunch at Royal Cafe. I had conch soup and had them make market salad
with lobster and feta. Todd had chicken fingers and garlic bread.
Raymond took me to
Later, we
laid on the balcony lounger for a while and then laid
on the west beach and then went sailing. After that, we went to the hot tub and
the pool, which was now beautifully heated.
We
scheduled the repeat guest evening. Terry Anne, the assistant sales manager
called us at 6:25 to tell us the 6:30 cocktail party was moved to
We had lobster spring rolls, quail, pumpkin soup, strawberry sorbet, and they
ate swordfish. I asked for veal, and Andre ordered lobster. The dessert was
called chocolate pyramid. It was sort of a mousse. They poured 3 different
champagnes, and Vincenzo opened two of them with a
sword or something.
The usual insider stories flowed, along with tons of laughter. We were inside
at Le Papillon, and hopefully the outside guests were
not disturbed. They looked happy when they left, so hopefully not.
December 14
The ocean was rough that morning. I woke to it.
We had a
nice day. I had papaya and fried eggs, bacon and toast while Todd slept. Then we went to the pool and hot tub for a
long time.
We packed, and I got in the tub one last time, needing to prove if those bath
salts would last 6 times. They would if you were prudent.
We set our bags out at 12:15 except our laptop and went to the beach for lunch.
Todd had a burger with cheddar and bacon. I had snapper. We both had pepperpot
soup. I could only hold half the snapper. It was really good, though.
We went up to the room to get our laptop bag, but our keys had been
deactivated. We had lots of stuff in that bag. I finally found a maid, and we
called to say we would be at the desk within 10 minutes. We had Vincenzo waiting for us for a quick goodbye, and we were
off at about 1:20.
We were transported in a Mercedes limo similar to the one the resort has. We
had brought some soda and water for the ride. We made one bathroom stop and got
to Half Moon right at 3 pm.
Comments
The
resort has great awards like 5 Star Diamond AAHS and Elegant Resorts and
Leading Small Hotels. They are richly
deserved. We’ve stayed 8 times and been
a 9th on a day pass. I can’t
wait to go back again and again. That
being said, they still should make sure they do everything they offer—like the
Royal Club benefits without struggle.
Repeaters are a little raw from the severing from the Sandals SSG
program, and they need to have everything waiting in style for the guest
according to their preference card when they are repeaters that took the
trouble to fill it out. Also, each
repeat guest gift is to be better than the last, but ours have been fairly similar
item on all stays since they converted.
The beds
are just great. We both just love
them. We sleep so well there. The memory
foam pillows are great, and the mattress is wonderful. The menus vary, but the meals are always so
yummy. All meals feels
so special that it is hard to skip.
The spa
is always a treat. I enjoy it.
The whole
property causes us to relax better than we do anywhere I can think of, and that
is why we go back again and again.