We Loved the Royal Plantation!

My husband and I have finally found the perfect vacation spot that we can return to again and again – the Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We visited the RP from October 10-16, and are already planning our return trip next year. This will be a long review, but given the many reviews I have read on this site, I hope you will find it as helpful as I’ve found yours!

To let you know something about our travel experience, we have been to Jamaica 3 times (Grand Lido Braco, Sandals Royal Caribbean, and the RP), the Bahamas 3 times (Radisson Cable Beach 2x and Breezes), and St. John 1x (Westin). We also do a good deal of travel on the east coast, and stay at casino resorts in NJ and CT or chains like Hilton and Marriott. We have on a few occasions stayed at really nice spots like the Four Seasons in Philadelphia and NY.

We like to eat very well – we are great fans of chef’s tasting menus, and we dine out a lot in Philadelphia and nicer casino restaurants. We prefer child-free all-inclusive resorts for the quiet and ease, but up until our stay at the Royal Plantation we had never found one that could meet our food and beverage standards. The Grand Lido was probably the runner-up in the food category, but they are very regimented in how many nights you can eat at their nice restaurants, and had a lot of “beach buffets” where that was your only dining option. Royal Plantation is truly the best Caribbean resort we have every stayed in, and we WILL be returning there on a regular basis. I am an insane travel planner – I read every possible review I could find on the upscale all-inclusives in our price range (if I win the lottery I WILL get to Peter Island!), and finding a spot like the Royal Plantation made all of that research pay off.

I’m going to divide this review into sections to make it easier to follow – AirJamaica, Trip to Hotel, Room, Food, Service, Facilities, Beach, Visits to Sandals, and Final Thoughts.

Air Jamaica

We flew direct from Philadelphia to Montego Bay via Air Jamaica. I used the Web Check-in before we left home, but it didn’t give us any priority in Philly. HOWEVER – I strongly recommend that you do the Web Check-in for your AJ flight home. There was a separate line for Web Check-in folks – instead of waiting in line behind 40 people, we were behind just 1 person. This saved us at least 20-30 minutes of time waiting in line, so I strongly recommend it. Our flight was on time, and we had free mimosas and a hot breakfast served to us on the plane.

Trip to Hotel

We had a fine trip to the hotel. There was no one waiting for us at the Sandals guest area, however – they made a call and our driver arrived in just a few minutes. “Baby Lion” was our driver (hey, that’s what he told us!), and he gave us lots of interesting information about Jamaica during the drive, which was quite comfortable. Since my husband and I had been to Jamaica twice before, he said that we could now consider ourselves “Jamericans,” and I think he appreciated how much we knew about Jamaica as we talked during the drive. Baby Lion had our envelope that explained the Royal Plan, and what was included – it was exactly what I had expected, so I was quite pleased. On the trip back we had a different driver, Omar (?), who was TERRIBLE! He scared the hell out of us with his reckless driving, and we will be letting the RP know about our problem with him.

Check-in

Check-in was not quite as fast as I expected. We did quite a bit of waiting after Shawn set us up with champagne and cool towels. I mentioned to Shawn that we were quite hungry when we arrived at the property, so I think that we didn’t get quite as much information about the hotel layout, etc. as we could have because he wanted to make sure we got some lunch!

Room

We stayed in Room 156, which was a Luxury Oceanfront Junior Suite on the resort’s West Wing. It was in a good location, not a far distance from the beach or the restaurants and lounge areas. The room was a good size, and the furnishings were nice. There were two comfortable chairs for hanging out, plus a desk and chair. The bed was comfortable, and everything was very clean. Our view was the ocean and half of a very large tree through which you could see the ocean. I almost asked to change rooms, but my husband is a very fast unpacker and so I was overruled by him. The bathroom was fine, but not as luxurious as the bathroom we had at the Sandals Royal Caribbean. Only one sink, a walk-in shower that wasn’t quite big enough for two, and a large Jacuzzi tub. The bathroom could also get quite warm, as there was no way for the AC in the room to circulate into it. The room was very quiet, and the AC and ceiling fan worked great. The TV got lots of US channels, and everything else worked fine too.

After a few days I asked Shawn to show us around the Honeymoon Grande Luxe Suites on both the West and East wings, and that’s when my husband realized how wrong he was for not letting me see if we could upgrade our room. And that’s where I also saw how correct Debbie was about the suites being totally different on the West and East sides, and truly a matter of personal preference. The West Wing suite had a HUMONGOUS bathroom with a separate air conditioner. The room had a very big balcony that was “set in,” so I don’t know how much sun it would actually get, and the room wasn’t much bigger than ours to accommodate the balcony. The East Wing suite had a small balcony that seemed to get full sun because of its location. It had a very nice bathroom (not as large as the West Wing’s), but the room itself was much larger, and had several sitting areas with cushy chairs. Some folks say they don’t care much about the room size, but my husband and I normally spend quite a bit of time in our room, and the next time we stay we are going to do our best to reserve this room category and location.

Food (my obsession, as you will see)

This is where the Royal Plantation had it ALL OVER any all-inclusive resort I have every stayed at. If you are the kind of person who can barely finish an entrée at a normal restaurant you might not have the same experience that we did, but we found the food quality and value at the RP to be excellent. Breakfast was served at La Terrace every morning, and just about everything we had there was delicious. Starting off the day with Jamaican coffee and a mangosa really put us in a fabulous mood. Highlights were the eggs and bacon, the delicious homemade breads, and the “Ital Home Fries” which were breakfast potatoes served with onions and peppers. After I had these one day I made sure to ask for them in that style every morning. There was NO PROBLEM in ordering whatever you liked on the Royal Plan – no special menu, or making you feel funny if you wanted to add an order of pancakes to your meal. The waffles were not traditional US-style, but they were tasty. All of the other breakfast food was just as you would find in a nice US restaurant.

I understand that in the high season there is a breakfast buffet – I am glad that we went in the off season, because the to-order breakfast was great, and we like being catered to on vacation.

Lunches were also delicious. We had lunch every day at the Royal Café on the beach – I couldn’t imagine having to get dressed and walk all the way up to La Terrace when I could go just a few steps from my palapa wearing a cover-up and have such delicious food. Everything we had here was great – I highly recommend the fish of the day served on its own (not like a sandwich) – it was usually seasoned red snapper, served with roasted potato wedges and tomatoes. We also greatly enjoyed the conch fritters, the Caesar salads plain or with grilled shrimp, and the coconut shrimp. I was quite dismayed that the Lobster BLT I had heard so much about was not on the menu, but after I mentioned to the waitress how much I was looking forward to one, she was able to get it for me the next day. It was good, but not as fabulous as I was expecting. Fortunately the grilled fish was just SO delicious I had that the rest of the time. They also had very nice desserts, and we had ice cream sundaes served to us on the beach a few times since we didn’t have room for them right after lunch!

Ah, the dinners! Another key reason that we chose the RP is because they had air-conditioned fine dining. There was no “nice” air conditioned restaurant at the Sandals RC, and I just can’t help it – I can’t enjoy a five-course dinner in 90 degree heat with 90 percent humidity. Our first night we did eat outside at La Terrace, and I was disappointed with the very limited menu options. I think they only had three or four entrée items, none of which seemed that appealing to me. I ended up begging them for a steak, which they were able to provide. It was okay, but nothing great. Things GREATLY improved during our dinners at Le Papillon. Outside of the one “beach party” dinner, this is where we had all of our evening meals at the RP.

Every single thing we ate at Le Papillon was delicious, and what you would expect to be served at a 4 star restaurant in the US. We enjoyed the salads, appetizers (the shrimp and escargot appetizers were VERY good), and ate surf-and-turf almost every night (even though it wasn’t on the menu). The filet mignon was delicious and cooked perfectly, and the lobster was prepared with a very tasty sauce accompanying it. I also had the rack of lamb one night, but the portion was just too small for this carnivore, so I stuck with surf-and-turf the remaining nights. The service here was not stuffy at all – although lots of people came by to check on us all the time. The waiters were very friendly, and we talked with the new food and beverage manager Yannis almost every night we were there. He was very interested in our opinions on the menu, and took our feedback very well. The desserts were also delicious, and on nights we didn’t have room for dessert we were offered delicious pieces of candy to take with us.

If anyone is thinking that Le Papillon is too fussy for them to enjoy – DON’T! Most men wore Docker-type pants and a collared shirt, and most women wore upscale sundresses, and the people there were very nice. It was NEVER crowded the entire time we were there, and I felt bad for those folks eating at La Terrace when they could have enjoyed much nicer food!

Service

This is where the RP TRULY stands out from any other Caribbean resort I have stayed at. I have been at properties with beach service before, but I have NEVER experienced anything like the RP. I read all of the reviews about the service at the RP, but I guess I didn’t really think it could be so great – but I was wrong!!!

Mangosas and fresh fruit served on the beach? Check! Getting spritzed with rosemary water and receiving cool cucumber slices to put on my eyes? Check! Beach chairs, towels, and umbrellas set up wherever you want? Check! Everything I had read about the RP’s service was absolutely true during my visit. The Royal Plantation simply has the best service!!! No one was working on “island time” while we were there – the service was fast, friendly, and the servers and staff all over the property regularly exceeded our expectations. I rarely, if ever, had to raise my beach flag for service, because Cleon made regular rounds of the beach throughout the day checking on our needs. It was simply fabulous!

Facilities

The Royal Plantation was a beautiful property. The main areas of the hotel were elegant, and the pool (which was rarely used during our stay) was small but nice. I just wish that the pool chairs faced toward the ocean so that you could enjoy the view while hanging out there.

I also had a spa treatment, and the facilities there were very nice. I have seen one or two reviews in which people complained that the spa folks would come over to them at the beach to market their services. This took all of 20 seconds once a day, so I can’t imagine how uptight you’d have to be to find it a problem! Since we were then in the off season, I actually got a reduced rate on my massage, which was very nice and relaxing.

Every day there was a local craftsperson set up on the beach selling his/her wares, and one day there was a person with a beautiful selection of jewelry set up by Le Terrace.

The Beach

The beach was wonderful. It was not gigantic, but how big do you expect a beach resort with only 75 rooms to be? Because there were two beach sides (East and West), there was plenty of room to spread out. Almost no one hung out at the East beach during our stay. The water was warm and very clear and calm – it was so relaxing just hanging out in the ocean every day. My husband is an avid sailor, and took out the Hobie Cats at least twice a day. He told me to mention how nice the sailboats were – he sails wherever we go on vacation, and he said the equipment was in the best shape he’s seen at any resort.

But THE BEST part of the beach at the Royal Plantation is the fact that there are NO roaming “bead and weed” vendors trying to sell you stuff. This was very annoying to me on previous vacations, particularly at the Royal Caribbean. Several times a day you’d see vendors cruising on kayaks or surfboards right along the beach calling out to folks to sell things. This is NOT the case at the Royal Plantation, and it really allowed you to just chill on the beach without having to listen to “Bob Marley’s sister” (one of the regular RC “visitors” singing her funky songs every day!) I didn’t like the vendors on the beach in the Bahamas either, and I am glad that the RP does not have this issue.

Visits to Sandals Ocho Rios and Dunns River

My husband tends to like a little more liveliness on vacation than I do, and both of us were curious to check out the other Sandals in the area to see how they compared both to the RP and to Sandals Royal Caribbean, where we stayed in May of this year.

Although the Sandals Ocho Rios is very close by, I would not recommend walking over there alone at night. We watched some of their entertainment, which was okay. The crowd there was very spring-breakish, and the facilities did not seem very nice. Two days later we took a car down to Dunns River to check it out. Once we arrived and spent a few minutes checking the place out we realized that we were nuts, and needed to get back to the Royal Plantation ASAP! We took the first available Sandals bus back from Dunns River to the Royal Plantation and stayed put for the rest of the trip!!! Dunns River was big and bold and showy and loud. Coming from our little jewel of a resort to DR was a culture shock that we would not want to repeat!

Final Thoughts

I have been looking for many years to find a resort that met or surpassed all of my expectations on my budget. The Royal Plantation is that exact resort. My husband and I plan to return to the RP as frequently as our budget will allow --- and I will be playing the lottery regularly in the hopes that we will be able to move there permanently some day!!! If you like a big, flamboyant resort with big crowds of boisterous drinking folks playing games – DON’T go to the Royal Plantation. If you want a relaxed, elegant, pampering vacation, however, the Royal Plantation is the place to go! We can’t wait to return.