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Just arrived back home here in Madison about 2:15 this
morning, so this initial report will be short and please forgive any typos or
completely incoherent statements as I'm very tired. Will post a more
comprehensive report after I wake up! Joe and I decided to try and outrun the
snowstorm that hit southern Wisconsin
& northern Illinois by
clearing our calendars and heading out on Wednesday the 30th, spending the
night at the O'Hare Hilton. Turned out to be a wise move as the weather
deteriorated quickly and we woke to what looked like a foot of snow. Didn't
know if Air Jam would cancel our flight (many other airlines were canceling
flights to everywhere), but miraculously we were delayed about an hour and
did get out. We walked over from the Hilton and were in line by about 3:45 a.m., but of course no one actually
showed up at the ticket counters until about an hour later. The line was
extremely long, so despite the wait we're glad we got there early. Once we
took off, we breathed a big sigh of relief and before we knew it, we were
landing at Sangster only about 45 minutes later
than originally scheduled. So, enough about the joys of unpredictable winter
weather and its effects on travel. It didn't matter -- we were
"home" in Jamaica!!
BTW, Dave....thanks for your offer to "do" lunch at the Glenview
facility. Glad we didn't need to take you up on it, though. ;-)
More to come --- BRP is gorgeous beyond belief, but not without a few
problems they need to address (some of which are caused by Sandals propensity
to overbook the other resorts).
Immigration lines were the longest we had seen them in a
very long time. Guess they must have had at least four or five planes land at
the same time. However, we finally made it through, went downstairs and
collected our checked luggage and were greeted warmly at the Sandals/Beaches
desk. They offered us the option to fly to Ocho Rios (the plane was to depart
within about 15 minutes), but we opted for land transport since we hadn't
been all the way to Ochie in 4 years and wanted to see what had changed in
that time period. (I'd also had enough flying for one day.) We were wisked off to our transport within five minutes.
Originally, we were taken to a car, but we were also traveling to BRP with a
wonderful young Ukrainian man named Maxim who works for Sandals International
as a translator for their foreign guests. Max was at the airport reclaiming
some lost luggage and it was quickly determined that the car's trunk could
not accommodate our luggage plus the two HUGE suitcases Max had picked up, so
we were directed to a very comfortable van (not your standard JUTA van) and
Joe & I, Max and our driver Sport (a lovely older Jamaican gentleman)
were soon on our way. Total time from checking in at the Sandals desk to
hitting the road was at most 15 minutes and we made them wait as we wanted a
couple of minutes to stretch our legs. We asked Sport to pick a good halfway
stopping point where we had a nice 20 minute break. Soon we were back on the
road and arrived at BRP around 3:00 p.m.
Check in was warm, gracious and speedy and we were taken to our
"suite" 305 in the East Wing. We had only booked a deluxe room, but
they bumped us up one category to premium (at this point the resort was
approx. 25% occupied). The room was truly beautiful as was our view of the
ocean. Since Joe & I are not in room jacuzzi
people, the premium room is perfect for us. Well laid out with the walk in
closet, step down sitting area, separate two sink vanity area apart from the
bathroom (beautiful tile work in that bathroom!) All in all a lovely
beautifully decorated room. It would have been nice to have a
"real" balcony versus the French balcony, but we spent a surprising
amount of time with that French balcony door open to let in the fresh air and
that hypnotic sound of the waves breaking onto shore. The minibar
was well stocked (they soon learned to leave us a lot of Diet Pepsi each day)
and we were just popping our bottle of champagne when the fruit and cheese
trays arrived from room service (enough to feed three or four people!). We
walked around the property to get a feel for the layout and to marvel at how
gorgeous every inch of it is. The fruit and cheese definitely took the edge
off our hunger and we were so exhausted from having been up since 3:00 a.m., we skipped dinner and crashed
around 7:00.
I'll eliminate the day to day details of what we did in subsequent reports
and just give an overview of our observations and experiences. As I mentioned
in Part I, although a breathtakingly beautiful resort, it does have some problems
that need to be addressed and resolved.
OK -- first the good stuff and there's a lot of it. Even
in my current sleep deprived state, I think I've already stressed the point
that this is one gorgeous resort from top to bottom. Every single member of
the staff is exceptionally well trained and while some are friendlier than
others all of them are pleasant and cordial. We made fast friends with a
young bartender named Hensley in the Appleton
bar. Perhaps it was a combination of his being of a somewhat quiet nature like
we are and his assessment through our initial conversations that Joe & I
have been to Jamaica many times and have a good understanding of the country
and its culture, but something between the three of us just clicked and we
had many pleasant exchanges over the week.
The food at BRP is, in a word, outstanding. Whether room service, the Royal
Cafe, or the Bayside, everything was cooked exactly as ordered and was
presented beautifully. Even the Beach Party buffet on Monday (and we're not
big buffet types) was extensive and delicious. We planned on dining at Le Papillon one evening, but enjoyed the food at the Bayside
so much we never did get around to it. (Besides the fact that every time we
checked the menu for Le Papillon, it just wasn't
all that appealing to us -- very little seafood at least the days we checked
and we are seafood lovers.) We have a gourmet French/International restaurant
here at home that is rated one of the 25 best in the entire country, so the
whole multiple course, white glove service experience is available to us
whenever we are in the mood for an evening of "fine dining
extraordinaire". We don't feel we missed out by passing on Le Papillon.
Beach service was outstanding. Not only did the waitresses (and occasionally
a waiter) promptly fill drink orders, but they also came around with plates
of fresh fruit (very refreshing and good!) and from time to time, cold
(actually icy) face cloths. Lounge chairs were always available as were beach
towels, but the beaches in Ocho Rios are all small and are one of the reasons
it has never been a favorite destination of ours.
As promised, here’s a look at the not so good stuff we encountered this past
week. The resort was running between 25 to 30% occupancy the first few days.
Good for us, but understandably not so good from a business standpoint. We
noticed starting late Saturday and Sunday an influx of very young (and I
really mean young!) guests who showed up for dinner in completely
inappropriate attire. Shorts with a golf type shirt while not technically
meeting the dinner dress code is not really that big a deal (although it does
raise the point that if you are going to have a dress code either enforce it
or do away with it). But suddenly we were seeing Harley Davidson tee shirts,
ragged jeans, bare feet, pierced everything and we were wondering "why
would people like this choose this resort in the first place?" At the
managers cocktail party Monday night we found out what was going on and why
the dramatic increase in occupancy. We were speaking with Aram
Zerunian the GM (and WHAT a charming man he is!! A
real gentleman...) Apparently, Sandals had overbooked just about all the
other resorts and they were bumping people to BRP. Clearly these people were
unhappy being there and quite frankly; this is very bad policy if Sandals
wants BRP to stand apart as their crown jewel resort. As Aram said, "Well,
they're not my guests, but what are you going to do when corporate places
them here?" Some of these couples wound up in very high categories of
suites, and many behaved quite badly in voicing their displeasure at being
"dumped" at BRP. Is it fair to those guests who have specifically
chosen (and paid) to stay at BRP to be invaded by couples who haven't? A few
of them figured out they were handed the deal of a lifetime and shelled out
the extra money to stay on. These few did "behave" after a time,
but they really didn't fit the guest market that BRP is going after.
The daily Special menu at the Bayside was not being rotated daily. Only the
"Roast of the Day" and the dessert special changed, the rest of it
remained the same for 5 straight days, finally changing completely on our 6th
day. Thankfully, there's enough really good food on the menu (both Special
and regular) that for us it wasn't a problem. (A bit off topic, but their
escargot are some of the best we've ever had anywhere in the world --- I know
a lot of people think "yuck, snails..., but they really are
delicious.)There are signs that the resort may be struggling a bit
financially. Thursday, the 7th (gee, I guess that was only yesterday) was the
resort's one year anniversary. After only one year, why are they forever
running out of glassware, napkins, silverware, etc...? They are now stocking
the rooms with Gordon's gin rather than Tanqueray
(and although our booze drinking days are mostly behind us, as an ex gin drinker
I can assure you there is quite a quality and cost difference between
Gordon's and Tanqueray). The drinks offered at the
Beach bar are very light on alcohol --- I know my limits very well and the
rum punches, in my opinion, had little to no rum in them.
Finally, the nightly entertainment (or lack thereof). We weren't expecting
loud, rowdy entertainment that lasted for hours, but something, anything
worth getting up and dancing to would have been great. Their house band, Body
and Soul, is (how do I put this kindly?) pretty lame -- no, make that
completely lame. Other than one or two elderly guests that would occasionally
take a short spin around the area that would be perfect for dancing, no one
was dancing because, very frankly, there was nothing to dance to. No nightly
one hour acts that are the norm at Jamaican all-inclusives except for a jazz
trio one evening and a not-so-good young woman singing one night. If their
profit margin is such that its too expensive to book
nightly entertainment, then why not hire a DJ for an hour or two once or
twice a week? (Like they did at the Beach Party.) I realize they are going
for a more sedate atmosphere (which is one of the reasons we chose BRP), but
there is such a thing as too sedate and currently, BRP is too sedate. Not all
of us want to go off property to the other Sandals resorts to seek
entertainment at night --- we just would like to be able to dance once or
twice while we're there. This is a very weak point for them.
Finally, the school project is not well run. After trying to make contact
with Sandy McKoy several times without success, we
finally just knocked on the door of the business office one morning, told
them we had a backpack full of school supplies for the Mansfield Basic School
that we wished to drop off and they looked at us like a) they had no idea
what we were talking about or b) we appeared to be three headed Martians.
Seriously, its such a worthy charitable activity so
hopefully they will find a more efficient way of coordinating it.
Despite these glitches, we did enjoy our week at BRP very much. It was
incredibly relaxing and the surroundings and service were truly gracious
living. We hope they can solve the glitches and maintain the many, many
things that are excellent about the resort.
--Gale
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