We woke up bright and early, partially thanks to the time difference. The weather was definitely not bright. Second day with rain. People often freak when the weather forecast at this time of year in places like Jamaica, shows rain every day. It's usually short lived. I found in Florida, there was always a thunderstorm at 4pm, but here, it was much more random.
We still hadn't experienced the breakfast entertainment. I assume because of the rain, and because there were vinyl and canvas walls. There was a wait for the breakfast buffet, even though some sections of seats were totally empty. We were told to get our food and come back to the hostess stand. So then we're all waiting there with a plate of food that's getting cold. Doesn't make sense. Then the hostess seats you, turns over your water glass, but doesn't get the water. You have to wait for another person. It just takes too long. The food was okay, though some foods are strangely labelled..."boiled provisions"? They looked like potatoes. Fish wasn't always labelled as to what kind. There is a custom made omelet and egg stand, which is always good, and a custom smoothie maker which we didn't try. Lots of breakfast pastries and breads too. I don't normally eat breakfast, so I try to limit myself to just some proteins. The bacon was very overdone. The sausages were different every time we went up. The little round patties were good!
We went and hung out at the beach for awhile, since it wasn't too hot and sunny.
These people were finding starfish and other little creatures. I had read that the sea grass was an issue in the swimming areas, and it was. This isn't sea weed, it's small plants that make the bottom squishy, and things like starfish, sea urchins (we heard many horror stories), crabs, etc like to hide. One day we found two starfish and a good size conch in the swimming area. Water shoes are recommended, and I'm so glad we took some.
For lunch, we went to Sundowner.
We had house salads, and Rob got the Burger 2.0 (he says it was really good). I had the ackee & callaloo pasta (picture above). It was my first time trying ackee and callaloo (which is mainly sautéed peppers I think). There was ackee items in the buffet, but I wanted to try it in a restaurant so it would be fresh and intentional. It was good. The texture is like a firm banana but the taste is quite mild.
Not sure why Rob got room service. It's included with the Concierge (Club) Level. It's not like we were starving ever.
At some point, we went to Club Sandals to enquire about the spa and excursion credits that were part of the sale we booked. It didn't show up on the app, so we weren't sure what to do. They couldn't find anything in their file, but would look into it. I made another request for robes.
We went back later, and they still couldn't figure it out. We had booked over the phone because we had questions--including if we got the free night for our anniversary, would we still get these credits. They assured us on the phone that we would. We had the booking confirmation but it didn't have anything on it about the credits. We found the actual Sandals sale email that showed what the bonuses were, and our booking date was the next day. They kept passing us off to another staff member. And then they do that thing where they're talking to you but then they're talking to someone else and you're just standing there like, are we done? One staff told Rob they could offer "some" credits, but not what was in the initial sale offer. He said no way. Eventually, Romaine, "The Fixer" got involved. He's head of hospitality or something like that. He said it's showing on his computer we have the credits, but it might take until the next day to show on the excursions and spa's computers. Okay.
Looking from the beach side, our room is on the top floor, second from the right (of the rooms that are fully in the picture). We had neighbours some of the time, but not every night.
For dinner, we went to Brava. I'm pretty sure I got the 7 Mile cocktail which was quite nice. This was the Enselada de Manzana--Apple salad. I got it partly because it was to have fennel in it, which Rob doesn't care for, so I don't cook with it at home. There was also supposed to be walnuts on it. Well, you can see in the picture--there's no fennel. They used cucumber, and the nuts were pine nuts. Still tasty, but would have preferred fennel.
These are the Croquetas de Pollo (chicken logs), and Patatas Bravas, something we hadn't gotten to try in Spain. They were just roasted potatoes with some sauces. The chicken croquetas were described as "Chicken and bechamel fritters". I thought the bechamel would be a sauce over top. No, it's in with the chicken. This made the interior very soft and mushy, which I was fine with but Rob said no way. We were going to get the asparagus but they were out of it. This seemed to happen frequently (being out of an ingredient or food. Even at one bar, they couldn't make the drink of the day because they hadn't been given the special ingredients).
We also got the Gambas al Ajillo-- Garlic shrimp with parsley, Scotch Bonnet and Brandy which were good, though a bit spicy, and the Calamares Fritos, crispy calamari with pickled onions and alioli (that's how it's spelled on the menu). Rob had one and said it was chewy. I had one and it was really good. Tried another, and it was chewy. Flavour was nice. The Carne a la Parilla--grilled flank steak, red pepper confit and green olive chimichurri was delicious (though there were some grisly bits).
This is a dessert, the Ensaimada Mallorquina-- Mallorcan spiral pastry with Jamaican chocolate. While quite good, it was very rich and I couldn't finish it. I'm not sure if Rob got anything. I don't think so.
After dinner, we would walk along the beach and the pathways. We'd talk to the security guards at either end too. It's a great resort for being able to take walks. It's not huge, but you have three options pretty much. The beach itself, the pathway between the beach and the buildings, and the pathway between the buildings and the fence. This one was used mostly by staff, or people going to the smoking area at the back of the Paradise building. You could also walk through each building, which is nice when it's raining. The buildings did not need key access.
We were starting to notice some maintenance issues. A lot of things were just looking a little rundown. Bathroom doors would have the locks replaced and they didn't try to make it look good. The pedestal sinks in this bathroom, the legs were all angled differently. Little details that most people don't notice, but they were starting to add up. We also didn't get our room cleaned and have a night turn down most nights. They just either never came, or came when we were there and getting ready to go out but then their shift would end so they couldn't come back. We asked again about the robes, and they still hadn't come. We even encountered a woman wrapped in a towel who opened her door and asked us if we had seen the maintenance people because she was mid-shower and the water stopped. When we were intially in the Club Sandals lounge to report about our water issue, another couple were in and were unhappy because their phone hadn't been working for 2 days so they couldn't order room service.
The evening's entertainment was to start with a movie on the beach. Great! We were the only ones there to start, and then another couple came. It was "One Love" the Bob Marley movie. It was slated to run 7:30 to 8:30 and then there was a show in the buffet dining room stage at 9, so perfect timing, right?
Shortly after 8, wind gusts came and blew over the screen. We tried to upright it but couldn't. Rob was in the bathroom and missed it LOL. There was also lightning, which wasn't uncommon, so they opted to stop the movie. We asked if it'd was going to be shown again and they said no, there was a different one scheduled for later in the week. We asked how much longer was this movie, and the guy said there was about an hour left. Well! That would have interfered with the show!
The show was about Jamaica's history and culture. It started with a live, small band. They were good, but loud. It was actually a bit of a challenge to find seats that weren't an obstructed view with the big posts. As well, people were still eating dinner, so that felt weird.
Then the actual show started. The dancers and singers were really good, but the problem was, it was SO LOUD that it was actually hard to understand what was being sung or said. I plugged my ears, and that helped, but man. It did not need to be that loud. We noticed a lot of people moved, so eventually we did too. We went back to the bar, and it was still so loud it was hard to order at the bar. We went outside, to the pool deck, and that was a bit too quiet, but it made nice background music. I don't understand why stage techs think louder is better. They need to step out of their booths and go where the audience is.
We were a little hungry, so we popped by Perla. It had been storming pretty fierce since about 8:30, and the app said they opened at 10pm but they were totally shut down. We thought it was because of the rain, but they never seemed to be open late night when we'd check.
And that was day 2, Monday Oct 13.
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