New Jamaica Brider

[ShannonM]

Hi all,

 

We have just decided today that Jamaica is where we are going to do this! Originally, it was Costa Rica, but a lack of choices made me think it might not be the best choice for our wedding.

 

Anyways - we are looking at the Grand Lido Negril, Sandals Negril, or Sandals Dunn's River. Our travel agent just returned from a tour of all of the Jamaican Sandals resorts and these were the 2 she thought we should go with. We don't have any children coming and the majority of our guests will be couples. Does any one have any recommendations? Am I overlooking any other resorts? We would like an adult's only resort, but other than that..we are pretty open to ideas.

 

Any help would be much appreciated! I am starting to feel the pressure and we need to finally make a firm decision asap.

 

Thanks in advance!!

[mopher]

Welcome to the site...it is a wealth of information...and you seem to get answers much quicker than relying on the Jamaican pace of things

 

We are getting married at the Riu Ocho rios. We planned on going to a Sandals resort, but had too many issues with the people that were not couples...we mostly have couples coming. Sandals only has rooms with one bed in them and they will not allow three in a room. Other people that are going there may be more helpful than me, but when we looked at it and spoke to them that is what they told us.

[MsShelley]

welcome to the forum, you will love it here!

[driftaway]

Welcome, I'm getting married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica this March. My wedding party and guests will be staying at the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios.

 

We decided to go off-site. I do have singles who are staying at the Sandals Grande as well. However, you need to get the Managers premission before they book.

[twinkletoes]

to the forum!

[geology_rocks]

We originally had our wedding booked for the Grand Lido Negril but have changed to the Riu Ocho Rios because we have had such trouble with guest services, reservations and the groups department. Our reservation deposit was lost, they have $200 of ours floating around somewhere and no one can tell me where. They said that it "went towards my room" but the invoice they sent me didn't show it. What really turned me off of SuperClubs though, was the way they treated FH's father who was organizing our group reservation. They gave him a rate quote for the category of room requested then said that the rate was a "mistake" and they wouldn't offer it. They tried to pass off a lower room category for a higher price. The groups department was snarky with with him and not pleasant whatsoever. Originally we were told there would be a 15% discount for booking 10+ rooms with every 20th guest being free, THEN, they turned around and said that the only benefit of booking a group reservation was that our group wouldnt' be bumped to another resort if the GLN was oversold. If any of my wedding guests would have been sent to Hedonism, i would have been livid. If booking our rooms was going to be that much of a hassle, it didn't bode well for the vacation or wedding so we opted to take our business and wedding guests elsewhere. Sophie, the wedding coordinator did seem really helpful though. That was just my personal experience that I thought I'd share with you. Check out tripadvisor.com for reviews on all the resorts before you make your decision!

[atjorgensen]

hi and welcome!! congrats to you and good luck with your planning. i took forever to decide on a resort. we finally decided to go with sandals dunns river for many reasons. first of all, we are not taking our kids and it will be all adults. if my kids aren't going to be there i dont want to deal with anyone else's period. not to sound mean but it is my wedding, honeymoon and vacation!!! the riu does allow kids and my ta said that when she went there that was the downfall at riu. another thing is i had personal experiences to go off of for sandals from friends and travel agents. sandals specializes in weddings and that was important for me. another reason for the resort is the dunns river is big enough but not too big. the sandals grande ocho rios is way too big to where sometimes you have to take a shuttle just to get to the front of the resort. that wasn't something i wanted to do. plus with the dunns river you can go there when you want, to eat, drink, etc. if you have any other questions i may be able to help you with let me know. i know most of the girls here are getting married at the riu. that is right next to dunns river. it is beautiful also. it just depends on what you are going for i guess. good luck!!

[Saraha]

Sorry dont know much about Jamaica, but thought I would say hi and welcome to the forum!

[ShannonM]

Thanks everyone!

Also - geology_rocks, thanks for the head's up on Grand Lido Negril. I did some extensive reading on trip advisor and was feeling iffy...you just confirmed what I was feeling...so thanks again!

 

Our TA is supposed to get back to me this week with some actual prices...so hopefully we can FINALLY pick a place this week! (Fingers crossed).

[bobbi-francis]

Welcome to the site!! All of these ladies are awesome! You will find a bunch of great tid bits here...and makes some buds in the process.