Jamaica, Sandals Whitehouse Review

Overall Rating

Bayside and Eleanor's are great for dinner.
Bayside and Eleanor's are also great for breakfast.
Volleyball in the French Pool was fun.
Candlelight dinner on the beach is a must-do.
The "Mayfield River Walk" excursion was fun.
Friendly staff.

Standard size tub in a "Grand Luxe Honeymoon Room" - expected bigger.
No mini-bar.
No room service for anything below concierge level.
Ants appear if something is left sitting for 10 minutes. (That's on the 4th floor too.)
The "points" you accumulate for playing the games are a joke. I didn't have "enough" on my last day there to get a cheap necklace. I played volleyball everyday.

The ride from the Montego Bay airport was approximately 1.5 hours. We were picked up in a Toyota van. The ride wasn't too bad, but the roads are awful. Potholes everywhere. We checked into Sandals Whitehouse June 25, 2007 for our Honeymoon. That day also happened to be my birthday, but no one there noticed. When we first arrived, we were greeted outside with cool towels. We went inside and were given champagne followed by a form to fill out. I figured all paperwork had already been taken care of and was anxious to get to my room because I was tired from a 3 hour plane ride and a 1.5 hour van ride. I did not want to fill out paperwork. They also requested a credit card to keep on file so they could issue purchase cards. No cash is accepted on the resort (only at the front desk). All purchases had to be made using the purchase card. After filling out paperwork and giving a credit card, my wife asked the front desk clerk where she could find out about a candlelight dinner she had scheduled for my birthday. The woman at the desk was very short with her and impatiently told her that she has to check with the people in the sales office across the room. (Like we were supposed to know that.)

We were then taken to our rooms. The head bellman took us and two other couples up to our rooms. We were in the French Village which was near the French Pool and Bluefield's, but a good 5-minute walk to everything else. He exited at the second floor with one couple and told us and another couple that our rooms were on the fourth floor and he would be up to familiarize us with our rooms. He also mentioned that our bags would be brought up. We found the room on our own and let ourselves in. By the way, the head bellman never showed.

The rooms were nice, but nothing spectacular. With a name like the "Grande Lux Honeymoon Room," we expected to be blown away. The room had a king size bed, loveseat, armoire that held the TV and mini fridge, a nightstand and a desk. The bath had a standard sized tub (we were hoping for something a bit larger.) Our travel agent had told us that the room was oceanfront, but it was more like poolfront/oceanview. The balcony was very small with a small table, two chairs and a bar to hang your swimsuits.

After about 5 minutes, one of the bellboys brought our bags up and asked us if the bellman had shown us the room. He had not (and never came) so the bellboy gave us a quick once-over. We unpacked our things, a bit disappointed with the room. For spending over $5,000 US, we feel that we could have got a better room elsewhere for much less.

After unpacking, we went looking for something to eat. It was about 5:00 and the only thing open was "Caf de Paris." Being unfamiliar with the resort, it would have been nice to be pointed in the right direction because pastries were the last things that I wanted. We got some anyway and returned to our room.

That night, we enjoyed our candlelight dinner on the beach. We selected the menu with the lobster tail and changed the desert to a chocolate cake. This meal, by far, was the best we had on the resort. It was the best lobster I ever had and it was nice having a personal waitress to take care of you. The cost for this dinner was $120 and we tipped the waitress $20. There is no tipping at the resort, but this being something, "extra," I felt that a tip was acceptable.

The next morning, we were able to peruse over the pamphlet and guide and felt a little bit better about knowing where to go and eat. We saw that "Orientation" was scheduled for 5PM and planned to attend. We ate breakfast at the Bayside buffet which was delicious and spent most of the day walking around and hanging out by the French Pool. At 4PM, we came inside and changed and walked 5 minutes to the front desk for out orientation. We arrived on time and I inquired about orientation. The clerk said that someone would be with us shortly. I waited 10 minutes, inquired again, and received the same response, this time with him making a phone call. We waited another 20 minutes, and figured no one was coming. We never received an orientation and wasted 30 minutes sitting in the lobby.

Below, I will outline each restaurant:

Jasmine's: We ate dinner at Jasmine's the second night which was somewhat of a disappointment. You could defiantly tell that a Jamaican was making the Asian cuisine. Other than the sushi, the meal was not very good. The miso soup tasted like it was instant from a box and the entrees were sub-par.

Eleanor's: Good meal overall. My steak was a bit charred, but everything else was satisfactory for our friends and my wife. Great a-la-carte breakfast.

Bayside: Buffet is great. Dinner was a hit or miss. The first time we ate dinner there it was incredible. The lobster bisque was excellent and the fish was great. The second time we ate, the lobster in the bisque was hard. I mentioned this to the waitress and she acknowledged that the soup had been burned/overcooked when reheating it. (Why serve it then?)

Guiseppie's: Great meal. The antipasti bar is OK, I wish they had more appetizer choices, but the roast beef short rib was amazing. For lunch, however, the service was extremely slow. I waited over a half hour for a pizza. My wife thought I stopped at the bar and got drunk because it took so long.

Caf de Paris: Good pastries and ice cream. Good coffee selection as well.

Arizona's: We went here twice. Once for a late-night snack and once for the "Pirate's Dinner." The Pirate's Dinner was a lot of fun and was served family-style. The waiters/waitresses served you from skewers and they had a steel drum band playing. The late-night snack was OK, the cheese is defiantly not cheez whiz!

Bluefield's: We went here for lunch the most. Friendly staff and nice lunch selection. There's these little black birds that are annoying, but no where near annoying as a sea gull.

Other interesting points:

The Mayfield River Walk was a lot of fun. They offer you pictures and video at the end for $65. Seems like a great idea at the time, but I'll never watch it again. The guy filming makes you say, "Yeah Mon, No Problem, and Yo-Yo" way too much. I would defiantly go again. Bring your aqua socks!

Try to stay in the Italian Village. That is the closest to all the action. I felt like I was walking a mile every time I had to go out. Our friends stayed there and said it was very convenient.

The smoke-alarm malfunctioned and went off at 3AM jolting us from our sleep. Maintenance did fix it the next day.

We stayed toward the end of June into July. It rained around 4PM almost everyday for about an hour which wasn't bad at all.

Water skiing is a joke. They make you swim out to the middle of the ocean and then ask you to hang on and try to stand.

Snorkeling is fun, although most of the people got seasick and one not-so-smart lady decided to get stuck on the reef and held everyone up.

Bottom Line:
Nice resort that looked awesome on paper and pictures. After arriving we were extremely disappointed with our room, especially it being our honeymoon and after spending $5,000. The restaurants overall were good and offered you different choices. The staff was always nice and accommodating with the exception of the lady we met at the front desk when we first arrived. The activities/games offered all occurred at the main pool, which was a hike from the French Village. That's why volleyball was the game I played the entire time. If spending $5,000 again, I would not stay here. The money could defiantly be spent somewhere comparable and you'd get a lot more bang for your buck.