Sandals Dunn's River Golf Resort and Spa, Ocho Rios

...this is where i felt Sandals really let us down. Dont get me wrong the buffet was FANTASTIC- the choice was out of this world but the italian and "gourmet silver service" was useless. the pizza and spag bol we ordered could have been from the freezer section in Tescos and the gourmet silver service was laughable. The pork medallions i ordered were pork chops! The oriental restaruant which you had to book for was ok but this really was only ...
...beach holiday where you dont have to tip, food and alcohol is in plentiful supply and the beach is beautiful then go for it! we dont regret it as we did want to do the sandals experience but i think it perhaps didnt quite live up to our expectations  ... more

We went here for our honeymoon in July 2003, it is a couples only resort. We chose it as it was one of the few places of that destination that wasnt hurricane season. When we arrived at the airport it was late evening and we were driven in a van/coach to the resort which took approx 45mins if i recall. When we got there they instantly took our bags up to our room for us and we had to sit down for a brief introduction.
Well our room was air conditioned, had a bath shower and overlooked the gardens. The bed was a superking which was great!
It was quite an immense complex and downstairs there was a long corridor where you could book excursions. As for the restaurants there was a buffet area where you had breakfast and/or lunch, an italian, oriental, silver service and a snack bar and this is where i felt Sandals really let us down. Dont get me wrong the buffet was FANTASTIC- the choice was out of this world but the italian and "gourmet silver service" was useless. the pizza and spag bol we ordered could have been from the freezer section in Tescos and the gourmet silver service was laughable. The pork medallions i ordered were pork chops! The oriental restaruant which you had to book for was ok but this really was only because you got it all cooked in front of you so it was a bit of a show. The actual food- well i could probably get better from my local chinese......
The buffect section was also lovely as you had a direct view along the bach front as this resort is on the beach and there are many activities you can do whilst there such as pedalo. water skiing etc, although if you sit to near the fence where the resort ends you will hear constant shouts from jamaicans trying to sell you stuff!
It had two pools, a loud one with "enforced fun" as we callef it- largely used by americans ;-) and a slightly smaller quieter one mainly used by the brits where you didnt get hassled to join in on water aerobics etc!
There were a fair few excursions you could go on but we ended up not going on any as much to our disgust there was again more enforced fun where if you went to Dunns rivers falls for example you then had to have a race down them for example.All the excursions that were of any interest to us were like this. We didnt go into the main town due to all the information on muggings, raping and shootings! we also felt very un-nerved on our way back to the airport as we were in a van with no seat belts and a driver who was just scary, i was literally flying out of my seat at some points! Also we got quite a few nasty looks from jamaicans when driving through the poorer type areas.
Ok so what was our main opinion on this holiday then? Well if you want an all inclusive beach holiday where you dont have to tip, food and alcohol is in plentiful supply and the beach is beautiful then go for it! we dont regret it as we did want to do the sandals experience but i think it perhaps didnt quite live up to our expectations 

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