Our twelfth trip to the Royal Plantation but first since it became Sandals Royal Plantation. Noticed a couple of small differences almost immediately.  No snacks in the car and Carib beer.(OK but not Red Stripe). In the room, 257, no cheese and crackers upon arrival and nothing as we had specified on the form was in the bar.  Although what we verbally requested from our butler had appeared when we returned from lunch. Not a big deal, just different than we were used to.

We noticed some differences in the quality and quantity of the meals, they were better than ever.  In fact we had some of the best meals there in both places in the evening that we ever have had.  The Paella in the Terrace on Latin night is absolutely wonderful. The lobster tail was so big, we had trouble eating it all but we managed. The new menu in the Wobbly Peacock is also very, very good.  In fact we dined there twice and tried to at least sample most everything.  It’s certainly not your usual bar food.   According to Mr. Fraser, they are in the process of changing and upgrading the beach grill menu for lunch.  We always seem to miss these improvements by a week or so but I guess that gives us a reason to come back. LOL.

We were there for Jane’s birthday and on our final evening Mr. Fraser arranged a private dinner for us on the terrace of the drawing room. It was the best meal we have had anywhere.  Mr. Fraser even remembered that I love Dover Sole and included that in one of the courses.  We were totally blown away with the meal, our private butler and the chef for our meal that came out to meet us. (I would have liked to tip him but I didn’t want to get him in trouble but he certainly deserved it.  All we could offer was our heartfelt thanks for a job well done).  While we are on that subject, we left an envelope at the front desk for the employees’ tip fund which other than the butlers is all you can do.  I hope everyone will do this as they certainly deserve it, they are the ones making your vacation what it is.

We did our annual trip to the school (Mansfield Basic). If you have never done you need to. It’s always the highlight of our trip.  Although this year Jane had picked out a fairy tale to read the kids and was about half way done with it when she started coughing and had to get a drink so I finished the story.  As I approached the end of the story I realized what was going to happen.  The story was about a little girl on her way home in the middle of winter and yes at the end, she died.  I’m thinking Oh my gosh, she died, I’m reading a story to a bunch of kids, about a little kid who dies.  How embarrassing but it didn’t seem to bother anyone.  Of course there weren’t many questions you could ask about the story.

We have rented a villa (Scotch on the Rocks, Thanks Debbie) that is just a couple of houses down from the Royal Plantation for a family vacation next July.  We would have loved to take them all to the Royal Plantation but our granddaughter will only be twelve.   I guess we will have to gaze over at the Royal Plantation and sign alot.LOL.