Grande ROACH Motel with \"LUXURY\" included
So the first night we got there, there actually was a lot of roaches in our room. We called down and let them know, so they sent a housekeeping person up to basically just spray bug killer all over our room. We left to go eat dinner and when we came back, turned on the lights, they seemed to be more of them and actually bigger ones too. We called down and insisted that we be moved, so at 11:30pm, we got switched to another room. (same layout, worse view) But hey, this time there was no roaches so we were much happier. HOWEVER, we get a call the next day from the manager who tells us we have to move again even after we had already unpacked. I told them this was extremely inconvenient and they eventually got back to us and upgraded us to a "swim up room". It was nice, but to be honest I'm glad we didn't spend an extra 2K on it. There are pools everywhere and all the rooms are the same anyways.
Now for the food - nothing spectacular and actually a big let down because we are such foodies. Not changing the menus, a lack of options & flavors, and generic chain restaurant type quality really spoiled it for us. After about the third day, we had already eaten at all the restaurants and were in shock that there was no local cuisine there! It was like italian, american, etc. Worst part about this was one night I had ordered a dozen oysters, ended up getting food poisoning and throwing up all night. I let them know but they seemed more concerned if I was going to infect other guests rather than finding out what I actually ate or what the cause was.
So what about the resort itself - Daisy and I both agree, it was OK. It was equivalent to a 2 star resort in our opinion. Seriously difficult coming from the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in (The Tides in Miami, overlooking the ocean, with a complimentary martini waiting for us in our amazing room) to a resort where trash bags were left in hallways, the elevators smelled like mold, and the overall feel was just dirty.
How about the beaches - They were OK, the water was decently clear and beach area was clean, but again in Miami it was more more enjoyable. The funny thing is that we just aren't the kind of people who lay out for 8 hours a day. We would much rather be doing things, But there really were a ton of people who just sat at the beach and pool all day long. The more we got to know them, the more they were from middle America and I imagine beaches are something much more unique to them than for us. The last piece about this was that on the last two days we were staying there, Sandals sent out a notice club wide to everyone, saying they were going to be having a large ariel photo shoot and would be "closing" the beaches & pools ALL DAY. To offset people getting outraged, they offered some tours complimentary (like zip lining and treetop adventure one day and catamaran another) We took advantage of one of the trips but the silly thing is that it was raining hard both those days so we ended up getting soaked and they couldn't even do their photoshoot.
So now that I've gotten through all that, you're probably wondering.. what was good right?? Well, first let me just say the St. Lucian people are some of the nicest and sweetest people in the world. Everywhere you go, they are polite and their motto is "no pressure, no problem". We had some great employees take care of us at Sandals and also our tour guides were awesome. If it wasn't for their smiles and positive attitudes, it really would have ruined the trip! Another positive was the SPA.Top of the line, no complaints here, it was really extravagant and wonderful.
how we actually ended up having a great time, we just kept ourselves busy! We went to the local market in Castries, hiked through the rainforest, went swimming in some lagoons, zippliing, climbing through the trees, and offroading through the backcountry. Everyday was a new adventure of things to do so it was always fun and we were so glad we added those extra things on