Emergency Vacation Advice Needed!

[grkmbee]

We got a phone call from Beaches (Turks and Caicos) today to say that they overbooked and need to cancel our trip next week! Apparently they'd forgotten to enter a large group into the system or something of the sort. But anyway, it turns out that we have two options: 1. Full refund(flight and accomodations) and 9 nights free to be used within the next year or 2. Same vacation (9 nights and airfare) in Ochos Rios, Jamaica but with the highest room category and 9 nights free to be used within the next year.
So we could take the vacation in Jamaica but I am under the impression that the diving isn't as good. Also, the resort there is a Sandals rather than a Beaches so it will be more couples-oriented I presume. Although everyone in my family is an adult it may be weird to be surrounded by honeymooners. (Then again there may be some families there that were also pushed over from Turks and Caicos.) If you've been to this resort I would love to hear what you thought.
Looking at Orbitz I can see what I think are some good deals, but don't know a lot about resorts. As far as requirements go, this needs to be a family-oriented trip. My sister and I dive. She just got certified this summer and I've been diving for a little over a year. My mom perfers snorkeling. We are also looking for more of an all-inclusive hotel since we won't have time to research the destination as we would have if we'd had more than 5 days notice
So, what I'm asking is what would you do? Take Jamaica or the money and what would you do as an alternative if you were to get the refund? BTW, this "poll" closes about 12:30 EST on Friday, July 30. All advice is welcome!

 

[Natasha]

Traditionally, Sandals has only allowed heterosexual couples only. If I wanted to stay there with my sister it wasn't allowed in the past.
But, as you said with this 'over booked' problem everything could change.
Ocho Rios is not known for world class diving.
If you're looking for diving as your main attraction, I would take the refund and rebook for your original trip.

 

[bubblelogist]

I would say get a full refund and find something else... Give a call to some vacation agency in your area, I'm sure they will be able to book you on a last minute deal, and there is also many web sites where you can find last minutes deal... Good luck and good dive !

 

[Scuba_John]

Poll may be closed but I would go and take the free stuff everytime Kind of like giving up you seat on the plane for another flight and vouchers of value

 

[grkmbee]

I thought I'd give a little update. Well, we declined the trip to Jamaica and got a refund. It turned out that the place in Jamaica was not a Sandals as I had originally thought (via an unclear message on our answering machine!) and was in fact an old Beaches that they are no longer publishing under that name. But, even though we were going to have a great room, we felt the diving and other amenities were just not up to the standard we had originally booked.
So, we decided to attempt to plan a new trip with the refund we got from our vacation. Stayed up late on Friday searching for something that was family friendly, good diving for beginners, perferably all inclusive and not out of our budget. I ended up searching ScubaBoard for anything I could find and we ended up coming across a posting about Sunset Waters in Curacao. We hadn't heard anything about them before so we researched more and called our LDS for their advice. It turns out that the wholesaler they book through has been there and loved it. The comments on SB were what we were looking for.
I'll have to post when we get back to let those interested know how it went. We're leaving Wednesday and will be there 9 nights. I'm really looking forward to the shore diving and sun! And the best part about this is that not only are we really happy with our new vacation, but we spent about 2k less AND we still get 9 nights at Beaches next year!
Happy diving to all!!!