Sandals Royal Caribbean

Thursday

Sandals Royal Caribbean was our very first Sandals resort, back in 2000. Ron and I had been going on cruises every year and we really wanted Jenny and Jeremy to join us, but since Jeremy gets seasick, cruising was out. We decided to try an all-inclusive vacation instead. That trip with Jenny, Jeremy, Mama and Daddy was one of the best weeks of my life, and I cried when it was time to leave. Now after 21 years, we were going back to our first Sandals “home”.

We just had to get there. Traveling always seems to be a series of hurdles, and with the COVID precautions, there were a few extra hurdles thrown in. Travel authorization seven days before the trip, COVID test three days before the trip – check! We left early for Orlando to avoid the rush hour traffic, held our breath while the Jet Blue agent approved our test results, and boarded the plane where we sat on the runway for another hour because of a paperwork issue. Finally, we made it to Montego Bay! There was one last hurdle to cross. Our vacation officially began when I saw our checked bag come down the conveyor. I have a deep-seated fear of losing my luggage. :-)

It was a short ride to the resort where we checked in and were given the keys to our room in the Kensington Building, the same building where we’d stayed our first trip. Except I’d asked for an upper floor room and they’d put us in a ground floor walk-out. No problem, they were able to switch us to a room on the second floor with a beautiful view of the ocean and the Kensington pool. The room itself needed a little updating but I loved the location – it was the easternmost building on the property so it was quiet and private.

We unpacked and then walked around to re-familiarize ourselves. This didn’t take long because Royal Caribbean is one of the smaller Sandals properties. You could get from one end to the other in five minutes walking slowly, but it never felt crowded because people were spread out between the three pools, the narrow beach and the resort’s private island, Sandals Cay. We noticed that along the beach path there were new hammocks and firepits, but the biggest change was the addition of the over-the-water bungalows, built in 2016.

The restaurants had changed a bit too. The tea room where we used to meet Mama and Daddy every afternoon for snacks was still there, but the former Regency Restaurant had been divided to create Spices and the Bombay Club. The outdoor Caribbean restaurant was now called La Tavola and served Italian food. And the garden grill next to the lobby was now a French restaurant called Le Jardinier. Also new were Cricketers Pub, Bella Napoli Pizzeria, Mariner Grill and the Jerk Shack. Sadly, we were only there for four days so we wouldn’t have time to try them all. That night we had dinner at Spices, watching the sun go down behind the over-the-water bungalows. It was a spectacular sunset. Before going to bed, we sat on our balcony and listened to the sounds of the waves on the reef and the tree frogs singing in the trees. I love Jamaica!

Friday

We didn’t have any plans for the day except relaxing. Breakfast was under the bougainvillea trees in Le Jardinier where I ordered fresh fruit, an omelet and lots of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. After breakfast we thought about trying the stand-up paddleboards but ended up kayaking instead. Poor Ron did most of the paddling because I kept stopping to take pictures. :-)  Then we hung out at the main pool until it was time to get ready for dinner. On the way back to the room, I spotted a streamertail hummingbird, Jamaica’s national bird, flitting around the orchid tree next to our building. After that, we looked for him and often saw him whenever we were coming or going from the room.

Snapshots by Sandals photo

One perk of staying at Sandals Royal Caribbean is that you can eat in the restaurants at Sandals Montego Bay. That night, we had dinner at Soy Sushi Bar. We caught the 5 o’clock shuttle and walked around a bit trying to find the restaurant. Sandals had done some massive updates to the property since we stayed there in 2010 and we barely recognized it. Soy was one of the new restaurants. We sat inside next to the bar and ordered edamame, an albacore carpaccio appetizer and four different kinds of rolls. Everything was delicious.

Because of the nightly curfew, the last shuttle was at 6:45 so we didn’t stay for dessert. We got back to Royal Caribbean in time to catch the afterglow of the sunset and watch the entertainment at the Almond Terrace. There was a lively game of Name That Tune going on, with two opposing groups coming up with most of the answers and one guy who kept randomly shouting out “Kenny Rogers!” Name That Tune was followed by the funniest Couples Game Show that I’ve seen. The final task of the game was to pop balloons using three different “positions”. The four competing couples could choose whatever positions they wanted (some worked better than others) and they got very creative. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.

Soy Sushi Bar

Saturday

The next morning, we had breakfast at Spices. It was served buffet-style but due to the COVID protocols, a staff member walked through the buffet line with us and put all our food on our plates. I was happy to see they had cheese grits and Ron chose his usual banana bread. There was also an omelet station, fresh fruits and yogurt, croissants and some traditional Jamaican items. Yum!

We didn’t linger over breakfast because we had to take another COVID test at 8 o’clock for our return trip. It had been scheduled for 11 o’clock but since our tour to the Rockland’s Bird Sanctuary was at 9, we were told we could get it done before the tour. The testing site was in one of the guest rooms in the Balmoral Building. It was a quick process, but the nurses didn’t go easy with the nasal swabs. Our eyes were watering! :-)  Fortunately, they only swabbed one nostril and we had our negative test results in minutes.

Spices

We met our driver, Garfield, at the Island Routes Desk for the ride to the bird sanctuary. Garfield seemed like a very nice man but he was kind of a scary driver. He stayed right on the bumpers of the cars in front of us the whole way. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the driving in Jamaica. After leaving Montego Bay, we turned onto the steep, winding road that leads to the south coast (called Long Hill), where we got stuck behind a construction truck carrying rebar. I could tell that Garfield wanted to pass the truck, and I was trying to decide if it was better to die from a head-on collision on a blind curve or from having a load of rebar fall on top of us. :-)

Eventually we left Long Hill for an even steeper road and arrived at the sanctuary. Our guide Kimani handed us small bottles of nectar and showed us how to hold the bottles to attract the hummingbirds. Kimani told us Jamaica had four different species of hummingbirds and three of them could be seen at the sanctuary – the streamertail hummingbird, the vervain hummingbird and the Jamaican mango. Before long, the hummingbirds noticed our bottles and were flying around. I could hear them before I could see them and asked Kimani if the sound was their call or if it came from their wings. He said it was from the hummingbirds’ long tails. Besides hummingbirds, the sanctuary was home to orioles, doves and tiny yellow-faced grassquits. Kimani gave us each a little bit of bird seed to feed the grassquits. After we’d finished feeding the birds, we went out onto the overlook where we could see Montego Bay in the distance. Wow, what a view and what a great experience!

Rockland's Bird Sanctuary

When we got back to the resort, we decided to take the dragon boat over to Sandal’s Cay for lunch at the Jerk Shack and ended up staying for the rest of the afternoon. Ron made himself at home at the swim-up pool bar while I found a swing chair in the shade. The private island had been one of Daddy’s favorite places and now I could see why. It was very peaceful. We hadn’t spent much time there on our first trip because we’d been so busy participating in all the resort activities. This trip, we moved at a slower pace.

the dragon boat

Before going to dinner that night, we met with one of the resort photographers for a photo session. She took a bunch of pictures in the gardens and then we headed down to the beach. I’d been hoping to recreate a picture that Daddy had taken of me and Ron kissing in one of the gazebos, but unfortunately all the gazebos were being used for candlelight dinners. We had to settle for a picture on the beach with the gazebo in the background.

Snapshots by Sandals photo

Snapshots by Sandals photo

Snapshots by Sandals photo

our first trip in 2000

We had a cozy and romantic dinner under the canopy of pink blossoms at Le Jardinier. A couple of resident kitty cats were weaving around the restaurant, hoping for a handout. The cats must have known I was a sucker because they sat next to our table looking up at me with Puss in Boots eyes. They were very hard to resist. I guess not everyone appreciates cats as much as I do because suddenly a lady at another table gave a shriek, and got up and left saying, “They did NOT say anything about cats in the brochure!” :-)

Sunday

Jamaica doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time, so it was light before 6. I made myself a cup of coffee and drank it on the balcony while I waited for Ron to wake up. I love how Sandals has Blue Mountain coffee in the rooms. There’s no better coffee.

view from our balcony

We had breakfast at Le Jardinier and then went to the water sports hut for the 10 o’clock snorkel tour. The snorkel boat had a glass bottom, and on the way out to the reef we saw a ray and a big school of fish. Most of the fish at the snorkel site were tiny but the water was crystal clear and there were lots of interesting rock formations and crevices. One of the couples on the boat with us was trying out SNUBA and we could see them swimming below us.

That night we had dinner reservations at the Royal Thai on Sandals Cay. The island was magical in the light of the sunset and tiki torches. Most of the entrees on the menu were curry dishes (green, red, yellow) and I wished Mary and Jenny were there so they could explain the differences. I ended up going the safe route and ordered Pad Thai, although afterwards I was sorry I hadn’t been more adventurous. All-inclusives are the best places to try new things.

Almond Terrace and Cricketers Pub

Royal Thai

Monday

We had one last breakfast at Spices where I discovered the smoothie bar that I’d missed the first time around. That’s the problem with a short trip. You’re just starting to figure everything out when it’s time to go home. Not that I’m complaining! After the last year, it was wonderful to go on vacation again, even if it was a short one.

Before the trip, I’d been a little worried that Sandals Royal Caribbean wouldn’t live up to my memories. Part of what made that first visit so special was spending it with Jenny, Jeremy, Mama and Daddy. A lot of things had changed since 2000 but some things, like the intimate feel of the resort and the friendly staff, were just as I’d remembered them. Some things we’d forgotten. I’d forgotten how close the reef was to shore and beauty of it all – the gardens and the sunsets and the color of the water. This trip reminded me why we fell in love with Sandals.