Jamaica 2025

 We started cruising for our 10th wedding anniversary in 2007 (not blogged), and have done a variety:

Freedom of the Seas 2008   Allure of the Seas 2011 Independence of the Seas 2014

Equinox 2017   Symphony of the Seas 2019       Resilient Lady 2024

Wait....I thought we had gone on 8 cruises. That's only 7....but I don't see any missing!

We've talked for a long time about doing an all-inclusive. Technically, we did one in September 2023 when we went to Club Med Charlevoix (not blogged for some reason....oh yeah, immediately after I unexpectedly started working full time) for our 25th wedding anniversary. Rob has had a Sandals t-shirt for a long time.  Don't know where he got it; we think it became tie-dyed when the kids were doing that one summer. But it was worn out and he really wanted a new one and he really wanted to go to a Sandals.

Before we went, I actually mended some of the holes! Spoiler--he wore it on the trip and made a massive hole I refused to mend so he left it hidden in the room.

Like most of our trips now, he spent a lot of time researching. Our early trips, YouTube was still pretty young and vlogging wasn't popular so research was more person to person. Now, we could spend hours watching resort tours and comparisons in our basement. Every year, around March, Rob would begin the hunt, and the first question was always cruise or land? Land could be camping or AI. He would get all excited about AIs, but then we just didn't pick that--prices were high, the Caribbean is hot, etc.

Last year we were really close to booking Sandals, but a last minute look at cruise offers revealed the Virgin "Resilient Lady" deal and this time when he asked if he should book it, and I said "yes" (like most of the times he asks, because I just want him to book something), and he actually immediately booked it.

We started searching again this year. Rob wasn't thrilled with the cruise options. We started watching videos on AI again, mainly by Passport Pages  and Honeymoon Always. We were both drawn to the maturity of the Sandals Negril property, it's legendary beach, that it's not a party resort, and it has a traditional Caribbean feel. We're quite aware most vloggers receive compensation of some sort (even if they're just travel agents--they're not going to get work saying a resort is bad).  We watched dozens of comparison videos, grounds walk-through videos, and random videos on the resort.  I had notes on my phone, in notebooks, in my head.

I was getting their promotional emails, we learned about their different sales.  Finally, one sale in mid-July was announced.  It included a spa credit and an excursion credit. I had read conflicting reports on if you could combine sales and it seemed you could. We called the 1-800 number a few times to get clarification on some things, and they always pushed us to book then. Finally we called with one more question--could we stack the free night for having an anniversary, with the spa and excursion credits.  To get the free night, we'd have to get concierge category, which is the mid-price one and comes with extra services and benefits. We were told we could, so we went ahead and booked a "Paradise Beachfront Grande Luxe Club Level Room-HB".  

What does all that mean? Paradise is the building. It's the long building, running parallel to the beach, roughly in the middle of the resort. It's three stories, no elevator. Most of the rooms face the beach, but there are some that face "the garden" (and the highway). 

Club Level means it's the middle level of service.  Also sometimes known as concierge level. The low level is called "Luxury" and the top is "Butler Elite".  Not the most helpful names as they use "luxury" in much of their advertising, and you can see, even in our booking, the word "luxe" is used. 

The HB might mean "honeymoon balcony".  In a Facebook group for this resort, that seems to be the consensus. It doesn't seem to indicate anything extra in regards to service, or amenities. The building has ground level beachfront walk outs, beachfront balcony, as well as the garden view rooms. 

We opted not to book our plane tickets with Sandals as they couldn't provide ANY info on the type of ticket it would be. I had also heard of people getting their flights changed multiple times and they weren't the "best" options.  We went with Westjet as we could save a few dollars with our daughter's work benefit program (like, $10 LOL). 

Interesting side note--that daughter, Lucy, was also looking at booking a trip with her boyfriend. We were both looking at options through Air Canada Vacations. She opted for Couples Tower Isle. Her flights were included (and valued at 1/3 of the price we paid), and she got a checked bag for each of them. By the time we decided on our vacation, the prices through the Air Canada sale had gone up a lot. Her trip seems to have been really, really good, and at quite a savings compared to ours.

We opted to book airport "limo" service with Mr Limo.  They are a long time local transportation company we've used before. It seemed like quite a luxury for a week's trip--it's more than parking when it's just a week vacation. However, it makes the vacation feel like it's starting the moment you leave your house. You get dropped off right at departures, and picked up at arrivals. I really didn't even need to take my coat. No looking for a parking spot, taking the terminal train, etc.

The next step was just to wait!