Sandals Ocho Rios

[bhunter]

We are planning on taking cab to Dunn's River Falls 1st thing in am and then doing Day Pass at Sandals Ocho Rios. Has anybody done this before and might know what the taxi charges might be. Also trying to decide whether to change and clean up for Sandals at Dunns River Falls or wait till we get to Sandals.

 

Any input would be really appreciated.

[popoki321]

bhunter-

Just wondering if you did this yet ? We were thinking of doing the same thing and would like to know how it worked out. We are cruising in late Jan/Feb.

 

If anyone has done this, could you please supply info?

 

Thanks

[chili19]

Hi there,

 

I have stayed at several Sandals in the past and am planning on doing a "day pass" when my cruise stops in Ocho Rios next week. However, I am going to visit "Sandals Dunns River" which is 10 minutes or so from Sandals Ocho Rios. I've stayed at both and enjoyed the Sandals Dunns River more, personally.

 

I have called the resort and verified that they do indeed have day passes at $80 per day. You get full use of the facilities (as if you were a regular guest there). All food and drinks are included.

 

Any questions, feel free to ask.

[3brothersboston]

Hi

 

Scroll down a bit to the ocho rios sandals day pass thread. We too went there in 2003 for the day and it was AWESOME. Dunns River is supposed to be the best of all the sandals. I've never been to any others but this was fab. No need to "freshen up" before you get there..its pretty mellow :) Be prepared to pay your cabby between 30 and 40 to get there from the cruise ship if you are going just the 2 of u. Use a JUTA cab and you'll be ok. The 40 is the round trip fare, he will meet you at the gate at a set time and pick you up. We didnt feel comfortable about paying up front but lo an behold he was there at 4:00 to pick us up just like he said he would. The beach is fabulous, the swim up bar a blast and the food amazing. Worth every penny. Have fun! We'll be there again this april on the centur/celebrity.

[NYCchic]

Hi,

 

I've read a lot of threads on this Sandals Day Pass thing. Is it really worth the $80 per person??? It sounds it to me - just wanted some opinions of people who have done it. I'm ultra lazy when I go on vacation and love nice resorts. The thought of lying around the Sandals pool all day sounds fabulous. But is Dunns Rivers Falls a must? I was thinking I should do that at our stop in Ochos Rios but the more I think about it - I think I'd much rather lie on the beach all day!!!

 

Do I need to do anything before hand or can I just show up at Sandals that day and say I want to do the day pass?

 

THANKS!

[NYCchic]

Just called Sandals and got the Day Pass prices at both Ochos Rios and Dunns River:

 

10am - 2am = $130 per person

10am - 6pm = $85 per person

6am - 2pm = $80 per person

 

So I'd probably do the 10am - 6pm for $85. Does everyone think this is worth it? For beautiful beach resort with all food and drinks for the day included?

 

Thanks!

[popoki321]

I don't know if it's true or not but I've heard sometimes when you show up at Sandals the rate is lower than the one provided when you call. It would be nice if that were true! :)

 

NYCchic- I'm still torn between going to Sandals for the whole day (and really getting my moneys worth) or going to Dunns Rivers Falls and then Sandals. I almost feel a little guilty about not seeing anything besides Sandals. But then again, I have heard some not so great stories about Jamaica. I think I'm looking for the sanitized version.

 

Chili19- Have you gone to Dunns Rivers Falls as well as Sandals or did you just go to Sandals? We're in Jamaica from 8-5. I'm thinking we can get to the falls very early, then go straight to sandals for ther remainder of the day.

[chili19]

popoki321 - yes, i have been to the falls. we stayed at sandals dunns river for a week, and did a trip to the falls from there. it was only 10-15 minutes to the falls from the resort, so your plan should work out just fine. just beware of the vendors the force you to visit when exiting the falls....they are relentless!

[NYCchic]

Oh I hadn't really thought about doing both the Falls and spending time at Sandals. I guess I really could do both since the ship gets in at 8am. How long does it take to climb the falls? I guess I can just get a cab from the Falls to Sandals. Sounds like a nice day. And if I do this - I guess I don't need a guide to take me to the falls - just cab it there ourselves and then another cab to Sandals when we're done???

 

THANKS!

[sgrissom]

Is one of the 2 Sandals properties significantly closer to the pier where the ships dock? About how long is the trip and how much does it cost?

[3brothersboston]

10am - 2am = $130 per person

10am - 6pm = $85 per person

6am - 2pm = $80 per person

 

NYC.

Id check again if I were you but I believe it is $80, $85 and $130 PER COUPLE not per person. I'd double check that :) We paid $40 per person and it was worth every penny.

[dkort]

hi. i've stayed at those sandals. the food is handled buffet style and okay. personally, i don't think for the money, that it is really worth it unless you're going to do a lot of drinking. yes, the resorts are very beautiful, but you still have to handle taxi fare, etc., and for the amt of time that you're there? i'd really think twice about this one.

[queen_kathy1]

We went to this resort on a day pass back in Dec 2002. At that time the cost was $45pp.

 

My husband and I were travelling with our friends (all 4 of us are in our 30s) so we shared a cab over to the resort.

 

This is what happened to us:

1. I think the taxi ride cost us $20 each way. When we first got to the resort, they tried to turn us away at the security gate because they said they were at full occupancy. Thankfully I had a printout of my reservation that I had e-mailed with the hotel in advance, so they had to let us in.

 

2. Once there, we noted that the resort is beautiful - it looks just like those fancy brochures at your travel agent.

 

3. Problem #1 - Laying on your towel at the Beach. "Hey Honey! I want to braid your hair!" A variation of this is "Hey Blondie - come here, let me braid your hair!" Imagine having a woman **shrieking** this at you and other hotel guests - all day long. She was incessant!! I don't know how her throat could handle this all day long. A couple had a beach wedding that day, and during the ceremony, the woman still had the audacity to shriek at people to come to her for hair braiding. The woman was located with the stalls at the edge of the Sandals beach, just off the Sandals property. She was within earshot of anywhere you tried to put your towel down on the beach.

 

4. Problem #2 - Swimming at the Beach. The beach itself was pristine with warm and clear water with a roped off swimming area. However the day we were there, there was at least 5 locals on jetskis surrounding the swimming area. When we would go out to swim, these guys kept needling us to buy (I'll let you guess what) from them. We told them we weren't interested, but the sheer fact they were lingering around so close to where we were swimming was disconcerting. At one point while we were swimming, one of them had jumped off his jetski and swam underwater right up to me and surprised me. He started talking to me and telling me I should buy... from him. Again, we said we were not interested and as the 4 of us started to promptly exit the water, the final thing this guy said to me is that his "sister" would like to braid my hair. Wow!!

 

5. Problem #3 - The swimming pool was COLD!! To get away from the braiding lady and the jetski boys, we picked up our stuff and moved to the pool, out of sight of these people. But the pool was so very cold!! We stacked 3 airmattresses one on top of the next so we could be in the pool and not touch the water. It was that bad. I was thinking maybe it's just me - but all 4 of us did the same thing. None of us could tolerate sitting at the swim-up bar. We had our drinks on our air mattresses.

 

6. Problem #4 - Water bicycles (with the big yellow wheels). We were looking forward to taking these out, but we were so intimidated by the jetski guys, we were afraid they would come after us and we didn't want to be stuck far away from shore with them. We did not feel safe. We stayed on the bicycles for a very short period of time and did not venture out far.

 

7. The buffet was ok. Nothing to write home about.

 

8. The beach area and pool area was not full of people. We spent at least 4 hours there in the middle of the day and if we saw 20 guests either by the pool or the beach throughout that time - that would be guessing high. At one point they started blaring music by the pool and called on everyone to come out and dance and they tried to hold a limbo competition. Only a few people showed up - I'm not sure where the rest of their hotel guests were hiding. **Remember they told us at security that they were at full capacity. We should have taken the hint to go somewhere else.

 

A boat marked "Police" did show up at the resort at one point in the day. Faster than you could blink your eyes, the jetskis were gone. We quickly enjoyed about a 1/2 hour of swimming at the beach. The police however did not intimidate shrieking braiding lady - so we still had to put up with her... As soon as the boat left about an hour later, those jetskis were back in a heartbeat.

 

Did we get our $45pp worth? Absolutely. It taught us never to go back to Sandals again. We asked Sandals for compensation for our misery and were outright denied. They acknowledged all the problems we detailed and basically said yes we know we have issues, but we will not compensate you.

 

Maybe it's just Ocho Rios, but I'd rather learn these lessons on a day pass rather then be stuck in a place like this for a full week. This experience left us with a negative impression of Jamaica and it taught us about Sandal's customer service.

 

I see now that Sandals has doubled it's day pass rates - I'm so glad we didn't pay that much to have this kind of experience.

 

By the way, this was our second time to Jamaica on a cruise ship. The first time we took a ship excursion to Dunns River Falls and that was very nice except for being harrassed by vendors. On this second trip to Ocho Rios, it was unbelievable how much we were harrassed while we were at Sandals. Our idea going to Sandals was to enjoy swimming at their beach and in their pools - and to do so in peace. Our experience was far from that.

 

We have been to many Caribbean islands and we would be thrilled to visit any one of the others again. However if we ever return to Jamaica via a cruise ship, we will stay on the boat.