Sandals Resorts and other All inclusives

[Belmont]

You lucky son of a gun!!!

Don't scare off all the fishes. I'll be at Hedonism II June 8-16 (that's the noisey resort next door where all the crazy fun is!).

[-][/-]

Ya Mon| No problem, I'll leave all the fishies where they belong, except the ones I find in my plate. :fro:

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Turk & Caicos.

I second that!

 

[Strima77]

I've been to both the ClubMed in Turks and the Sandals Grande in St. Lucia - both lots of fun and pretty. The Grande is definately the nicest Sandals in St. Lucia. Diving was good too.

 

[av8er23]

how was the food steve?

 

[JodiBB]

I just got back from Couples Negril and did 10 successful dives while I was there. The Dive Staff is wonderful and their equipment is well kept, in case you decide NOT to bring yours. I brought my reg set-up and when gearing up the first time, my first-stage blew and I was stuck using their gear for the whole trip. Didn't have any negative experiences with their gear. Their BCs are NOT weight-integrated, so be prepared to use a weight belt. I wore a bathing suit with a t-shirt over it and it kept me warm for the entire trip.

Craig, Dwayne and Richard were the main DMs with Lee or Richard as Captain. They have a NICE dive boat....too bad there's no compressor on board, but they really don't need one. The boat has a sun deck, bathroom and during 2-tank dive days, they bring fruit, pastries and juice in addition to their stocked water.

The dives were, on average, 70 feet at depth for 30 minutes. They do this as you'll have all levels of divers on the trip and they don't want anyone to be in an OOA situation. The tanks are AL-80s and are usually filled to 3100-3200psi. I have less than 50 dives under my belt and I was surfacing usually with 1800+ psi at the end of the dive. However, there were others with 1100psi at the end of the dive. They do a 3-minute safety stop for every dive that goes deeper than 30 feet.

On 2-tank days, the first dive was about 70 feet on average with the 2nd dive at about 50-60 feet. Our vis was about 65-100+ feet with almost no current or surge.

There's also an AWESOME night dive for an extra $50pp, but they need 3 people at a minimum to make the dive happen. They'll provide the lights and it's a 35-foot dive.

Signing up is easy...you will have to complete their medical questionnaire (PADI version) before diving. Download it off of their website...cuz if you answer YES to ANY of the questions, you'll have to get it signed off by a MD...do it in the states before your trip or you'll be paying $100 to their resort MD...I never had to sign up early for a dive. Many times I'd go to the 9:00am dive and upon returning, go to the hut to sign up for the 1:30pm dive. We usually had about 3-5 divers on average + the DM...one day we had 7 and had 2 DMs....the are GREAT at spotting turtles and rays, so expect to see many.

This was our 3rd time to Couples Negril, so if you have any questions, please feel free to email me directly: res0ggc7@verizon.net

Have a great honeymoon!

 

[mike_s]

I'm glad to see that the dive group at Couples Negril still has a positive review.

I hope to make it back there sometime.

Can I ask what type of room you stayed in and how it was? (garden view, ocean view, ocean front?) The reason I ask is that next time we go, we think that with all the divi type trees and that it was hard to see the beach from our oceanfront room, that we won't even bother with the 'ocean view' rooms that are further back and just go with the garden view for a much discounted price.

 

[Willar]

Jodi,
Great report! Isn't Negril diving easy and wonderful?! Could you give a list of sites you dove? I'd be interested to know if they go anywhere different than the other local dive boats.
Thanks!
Dean

 

[mike_s]

Willar, when I was there, we were often diving the same sites as the Sandals, Grand Lido, Hedonism, etc boats. We'd pass them, they'd passs us, etc..

 

[RV]

I got married at Sandals St. Lucia (grand I think, there are three now). I don't recall how the room was decorated.. I'm a man..The room was plenty big and we had a basic room. Anyway, they bent over backward to accommodate our wedding request. They don't do Sunday weddings, but they did for us. They food was great as was the diving. We'll be going to the new one in St Lucia for our tenth.

I've stayed at many all-inclusive and Sandals has been the best so far.

That said, you can get all-inclusive in Cozumel and pay for diving for half the price of a Sandals. And you know the diving will be excellent....

PS... I locked my wallet away the day we got there and didn't take it out until we were checking out.. ABSOLUTELY NO TIPPING ALLOWED at Sandals.

 

[JodiBB]

We always get the Deluxe Gardenview Room. It has beautiful views of the gardens and koi ponds. We find that if we have a choice between an oceanfront or gardenview, we'll go for the "cheaper" room and stay longer in paradise.

I can't remember all the names of the dive sites, but we went to the Hunt, the Valley, the Fantasy (night dive), and the Fisherman's Reef (I believe that was the name of it). We also went to one area not yet explored real well...immediately upon submersion, we came across 3 large turtle and a 6-foot wide Stingray sleeping in the sand! It was one of the highlights....if you go to CN, ask Craig to take you to the "Mystery" or "Secret" Reef and tell him Jodi sent you!!!

We didn't pass the other dive boats all that often....most of the time, we were all by ourselves. Occasionally, we did run into divers at depth, but I only recall that happening once.

Hope that helps!

RV...I do agree that if you stay anywhere else than Jamaica, then Sandals is the way to go! But in Jamaica, we've found better resorts than Sandals (Couples being our favorite!).