LONG Review of my 2/25/06 GIORGIO'S Wedding UPDATED 4/21/06 WITH PICS!!!! UPDATED AGAIN WITH SANDALS REVIEW ON PAGE 2

Beautiful Pics!!! Congrats

Beautiful pics!!! Congrats!!!

Congratulations! You look beautiful!

Congratulations!!!!!

Bump

I know that my DH and I have been back for five months, but I wanted to write a through honeymoon review because I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about Sandals and I wanted to share my experiences.

Getting There/Monday 2/27

I don't remember the flight numbers, but we flew Delta from Newark to Atlanta and then Atlanta to St. Lucia. We left the Monday after our wedding (2/27/06). We live on Staten Island, so an early flight from Newark wasn't horrible for us. We had the car service pick us up at 3:30am for a 6:00am flight. I wouldn't recommend this to people who have to travel farther, but I like traveling early.


The flight was fine, we arrived in Atlanta and had a short layover. We also noticed that there were an amazing amount of young (our age) newlyweds getting on the plane to St. Lucia. In fact, when you fill out your customs forms, the flight attendants make a point of telling the girls that they have to still use their maiden names. Hehe.

They fed us, we watched Walk The Line and basically just kept looking at our wedding bands and giggled. Then we arrived in St. Lucia.


You go through customs, it was fine, then they have many porters who take your bags and tell you to go to the van that will take you to Sandals. We got in one that was leaving right away, and that was nice. Now, my aunt (my ta) told me that the airport isn't that close to the resort, and she is right. It takes between an hour and an hour and a half to get to the Regency.

Arrival at Sandals/Check In

When you first get there, they take your bags and you have to go to an 'orientation'. Now, we were really tired. It was about 3:30pm and we had been awake for 12 hours. They give you punch and champagne and some food, but it is irritating if you are tired (or have no patience, like my DH). It was there that you get your 'welcome pacakge' which had shampoo and conditoner, aloe, etc., we also found out that we had been upgraded by my aunt to a nicer room. You can also schedule stuff then, but we were tired, so as soon as they said we could leave, we high tailed it out of there. Then they took us to our room.

We were in a premium room. It was in the main building of the hotel on the ground floor. It was beautiful. I think these rooms are brand new.









We hung out for a little while and got a tiny second wind. We went to go look around and find food since we were STARVING! So, we were looking around and we met another couple who was doing the same thing, so we had dinner with them at the Pavillion restaurant. This restaurant is right past the lobby, it is open air and usually a buffet. We weren't that impressed, but we were also really beat.

Tuesday 2/28

We slept late on this day and missed breakfast. We got up and went to Arizona's for lunch. We met our friends there again. We really enjoyed Arizona's. For lunch they have basic 'munchie' food and some local fare. We loved their quesdillas and DH really like a mahi mahi sandwich that they had. Arizona's was right by our room, so we would grab drinks from the bar there a lot. And at night, they had snackies.

After that we just went to the pool and relaxed.




We never had a problem getting a chair. Towels were another story. They never seemed to have them. We loved the swim up bars, they were really fun. And I loved that you could see so much from where the main pool was.

That night we went to The Pitons for dinner. This restaurant was great! DH and I really, really enjoyed it. I had a steak and DH had fish. It is more 'local' food, but is really good.



Also, this restaurant is all open air, so it is beautiful. After dinner, we took a walk on the beach, it was so pretty.



We met up with Matt and Melissa again (our friends. We actually had a really good time with them and still speak to them. DH thought for a little while that they were swingers b/c they were just so nice, like WAY too nice, but then we realized we just aren't used to nice people in NY!) and we hung out at the Pavillion where they were having reggae music. But then we just went back to our patio, since we could hear the music there and there were less people there.

Wednesday 3/1

After talking to Melissa the night before, we realized that we may be screwed in regards to getting reservations for the two restaurants that require them, LaToc and Kiminos. Her DH Matt and my DH were playing golf, so she and I were going to meet up after massage. I went to the desk to see if I could schedule dinners. I happened to get LaToc for that night and Kiminos for the next night! Now, I happened to slip in on two cancellations, I do not know if this is typical. Melissa went hte day they got there and got the same night for LaToc and the following Saturday for Kiminos. Anyway. After that I went to the pool to wait for everyone and read. It was sooo nice. The pool was deserted, so I just read my book (Marley and Me) and relaxed!!



We then all had lunch (Arizona's again) Now. Just the Pavillion and Artuto's have breakfast and since Artuto's is in the other section, we really only had the option of the Pavillion and since we didn't love it there, we'd skip breakfast, or I'd go and pilfer food for us and we'd eat it in our room. Anyway, only the Pavillion and Arizonas have lunch, so that is why we kept going back to Arizonas! Actually, I think a restaurant up in the other section did lunch too but we didn't go there that much...we didn't even know we 'could' til the end of the week.

We then went to the room and took a nap.

We had dinner at LaToc. Now, to be honest, I didn't like this place that much. The food is french, and it just wasn't that great. We enjoyed the ambiance and the wine. But they do the sittings weird, you go and line up and wait on line til you can sit. It is a little dressier too.



I think we just hung out again that night. We never really did much at night. We are boring like that

Thursday 3/2

We didn't do much this day. We went to the beach, but it was a little cloudy, so DH and I really just relaxed. We loved it.









That night we went to dinner at Kiminos. I freakin LOVE this place!!! It was sooooo good!!! I had never been to a place like this and the food was good and the atmosphere was a lot of fun as well. Some dorky people would ask the chefs where in Japan they were from (when they were clearly NOT Japanese) but they handled it well, saying they were 'blackense'. Hehe. Anyway, we also had a lot of sake with this meal, but we really, really enjoyed it, and DH usually doesn't like Japanese food.







We went to the Piano bar after this. Met up with Matt and Melissa again and got very drunk! At least it was early b/c we actually had plans for the next morning.

Friday 3/3

We had scheduled a shopping trip to Castries. They take you to an open air market and to duty free shops. It costs $16 per person. Matt and Melissa went too. It was a lot of fun. You are supposed to 'barter' with the locals. We got some cute gifts and a bag I love!



Then we went to the duty free shops. This is near where the cruise ships dock, so there are a lot of people here. We got Coach bags (fake, but GOOD fakes!) and Movado watches. DH and I hadn't bought each other wedding gifts, so it was nice to buy something here.



When we got back, we went to the pool. We had had early dinner reservations the other nights, so it was nice to not have to rush to get ready.





We met Matt and Melissa up at their room. They were staying in the original hotel, in a 'regular' room. It was very cute!! They had an amazing view b/c they were on the seventh floor.



We all walked up to the 'fancy' section to have dinner at Arturtos. It was italian food and pretty good. I am picky picky picky when it comes to italian food!! We had a lot of fun. We also discovered that there was pool and computers up here and another pool! This was where the butler service rooms and villas were. The guys played some pool and we were talking with some other people we had met on the shopping trip.

Saturday 3/4

Our last day

DH and I had wanted to go sailing since we go there. We took the sailfishes out on Saturday morning. This is included (snorkeling is too) and they will give you a quick lesson if you need it. I know how to sail, so we just hit the road. It was one of the best times on the trip. I have pictures from this, but they aren't scanned since they are from my underwater camara.

We took a really long nap on Saturday too. Then we crashed Matt and Melissa's reservation at Kiminos. They made their reservation four instead of two and it was a lot of fun. We hung out with them til late and drank champagne. It was the perfect end to the week.



Sunday 3/5

We left on Sunday. This is also like a cruise that you leave your luggage outside your room. They ship you out based on your flight. I like this since you know you will make your flight! Once we got to the Castries airport, we just waited. There was no place to sit, so that stunk. We got home at 1am on the 6th and had to go to work 5 hours later.

Tips

1. I would have gone for 10 days....or at least 8. The trip is long and we were tired, it would have been nice to have a couple of extra days.

2. Don't forget things!! They have a store, but it is REALLY REALLY expensive!! We had to get sunblock for us and flip flops for DH (I couldn't find his before we left) Reefs cost $50! ANd you can't really leave, so if you forget something, you have to get it there.

3. Sandals is really a cruise on land. You have to pay for excersions and you charge things to your room.

4. You don't need a ton of cash. We didn't bring that much.

Hope this review helps people who want to go to St Lucia or a Sandals in general! A couple more pictures!

BUMP