Le Cabaret

Day 2 of our Sandals vacation was spent hanging out on the beach, reading a good book, taking a nap and sampling the mixed drinks from the pool bar. After some much needed rest and relaxation, we wanted to stay up a little later and sample some of the entertainment Sandals has to offer. After dinner at Giuseppe’s, we headed over to Le Cabaret to listen to Opera Rasta Man Singer Rory Frankson. Then the resident band, Legal Vibration, kept the party vibe going. Of course at Sandals there is never a bar too far away. You can order your favorite drink and sit and listen to some really good, live music. After the band, the Sandals staff put on a Newlywed/Not So Newlywed Game Show. The questions were pretty funny and the answers were even better. But our favorite part of the night was when the party moved over to the Martini Bar for Late Night Jazz around 10 pm. The Legal Vibration band backed a female singer who definitely needs to be signing a record deal. My husband and I were really impressed. We were disappointed when we learned they only do jazz on Sunday nights. We could have listened to that every night. After jazz was Lover’s Disco but we decided to call it a night.

Martini Bar

Monday night the Sandals staff put on an amazing Dinner on the Beach and Beach Party. Click Here to View Video. There was a Fire Blower, Limbo Dancers & Conga Line. Bartenders were hacking coconut tops off with machete-like knives and pouring a rum concoction into them. A magnificent buffet was spread out on the beach. My favorite dish was the jerk chicken pulled hot off the grill and placed onto my plate. I was always amazed at how friendly and helpful our servers were. They had the most beautiful smiles. After dinner the Fire Blower, Limbo Dancers & Conga Line started. After that we headed to the Martini Bar for Karaoke. My husband sang a Kenny Rogers song to me. It was an incredibly romantic evening. Sandals does such a wonderful job creating an atmosphere for couples to relax and fall in love again.

Tuesday we went on an all day excursion to Negril and missed the Wine Tasting Event, but we had a great time in Negril. That information will come in another blog post.

Eleanor's

Wednesday was our last night. We ate at Eleanor’s which provides Caribbean cuisine in an intimate tropical setting with white glove service. Men must wear dress pants, shirts with sleeves and collar and dress shoes. So we got all dressed up to celebrate our anniversary and our last night in paradise. Dinner was delicious. The portions looked small but we were stuffed when we left. I ordered the Red Snapper again because I knew it would be a while before I had this tasty fish again. My husband ordered the filet, which didn’t disappoint. After dinner, we went to the White Party at Le Cabaret. We had not packed any white clothes but there were plenty of people who weren’t dressed in white. TIP: I would definitely pack some white dress clothes for this event. Photographers were at the party snapping photos of couples dancing, and this would have made a nice photo. There was also a chocolate buffet during the White Party. There was table after table of decadent chocolate delights and a chocolate fountain as well. The entertainers, dressed in white, sang plenty of love songs for slow dancing. Once again, Sandals provided an intimate atmosphere for romance. With three kids at home and two full-time jobs, romantic evenings like this are few and far between. I relished every moment of it!

Sandals Whitehouse Beach Party

For our 20th Anniversary, my husband and I decided that we wanted to celebrate by going some place with “blue water”. That was about the only instruction we gave Mike of Southern Travel Agency in Augusta, GA. I had been searching on the internet for all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean or Mexico, but there was so much information to weed through. I found a forum on resorts in Mexico that mentioned nude sunbathing, which I did NOT want. So I asked Mike to steer us clear of those places. I told him I wanted to sit on the beach and relax. I have a stressful job so I wanted a relaxing vacation. Letting a travel agent arrange all the details of our vacation was by far the best decision I made. Mike suggested Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica because all of the rooms have an ocean view and the all inclusive resort is in a more remote part of Jamaica, compared to Sandals Negril. It is in fact within a 500-acre wilderness preserve with blue mountains, lush palm groves, pristine coastlines and shimmering turquoise waters. It sounded absolutely perfect for us!

We decided to fly out of Atlanta to save a few dollars. TIP: Mike suggested that we do a “Park and Fly” at the Country Inn & Suites near the Atlanta airport. This allowed us to spend the night in Atlanta and park our car at the hotel while we were in Jamaica. The rate was $97 for the hotel and parking. The hotel also provided a shuttle to the Atlanta airport and dropped us off at Delta’s Curbside Check In, where there was no waiting. This saved us from a long line inside the airport to check our bags.

We arrived in Jamaica after about a 2.5 hour flight. After we left immigration, we were greeted by the Sandals staff who tagged our luggage and invited us to come sit and have a drink while we waited for the Sandals shuttle to take us to the resort. Sandals Whitehouse is about an hour and a half drive from the Montego Bay airport. Jamaicans are known for their haphazard style of driving, so it was quite an adventure, but the trip allowed us to see the countryside and the rainbow-colored homes of the Jamaicans.

Sandals Whitehouse Lobby

When we arrived at Sandals Whitehouse, we were greeted with Champagne and Rum Punch as well as citrus-scented towels to refresh our hands and faces. We were escorted into the European-style lobby while our concierge checked us in. The concierge took us to our ocean-front room overlooking one of the four pools at the resort. The room had a beautiful view of the ocean, a king-sized rice bed, and a well-stocked refrigerator. TIP: Pack your bathing suits in your carry on bag and make sure to take it with you when you first meet your concierge in the lobby. Once you’re in your room, you won’t have to wait for your luggage to be delivered before you can enjoy the beach or the pools.

Ocean View from Our Room

We took a tour of the beach and the four swimming pools, two of which had swim-up bars, as well as scouted out the seven restaurants. We chose Neptune’s for our first evening because it offers outside seating with a gorgeous view of the ocean. The red snapper that I chose was delicious and my husband’s steak was cooked to perfection. The gardens of the resort were beautifully lit at night which offered us a wonderful stroll back to the room. It had been a long day of traveling and we were tired so we skipped the entertainment and went to bed. Stay tuned for more…