White House, Jamaica – A Review of Sandals South Coast

Hi guys! We just came back from spending 8 NIGHTS at Sandals South Coast, and I have SO MUCH to share!!

First of all, if you have never heard of Sandals, you need to! Sandals is an all-inclusive hotel/resort chain geared towards people looking for the ultimate all-inclusive experience. All of the Sandals locations are in the Caribbean area, all are adults only, and all includes all the food, drink, water sports and gratuities. Sandals truly gives you an experience without having to open your wallet once you are on the resort!

Before we came to Sandals South Coast, we researched extensively to figure out which Sandals resort is the best for us. We are so glad we settled on South Coast, because it’s private (no peddlers), it’s large (over 2 miles of beach) and there’s a sushi restaurant! Since we haven’t visited all of the other Sandals resorts, I can’t say for sure, but after our visit to Sandals South Coast, I have a STRONG suspicion that this is the best Sandals resort there is!

The Booking Process

If this is your first trip with Sandals, I strongly recommend booking with a travel agent. A travel agent will give you the same rate as what Sandals offers, so you are not paying for their service. Look for a travel agent that’s Sandals Certified so they can answer all your questions. They can also help you in case of a plane delay etc.

The best way to get discounts on Sandals vacation is by booking on site through their Loyalty desk. If your original booking was done with a travel agent, the new booking through Loyalty desk can be transferred to your travel agent as well. (However, if your original booking that landed you in a Sandals in the first place didn’t have a travel agent attached, then your future bookings in the Loyalty office can not transfer.)

Our South Coast booking was done in the Loyalty office at Beaches Ocho Rios when we stayed there last spring break with the kids. (Note: Beaches and Sandals are the same company. Beaches are family friendly while Sandals are adults/couples only.) We were really interested in the Over Water Bungalow (OWB) rooms but the price tag made it rather unaffordable for a week. We were advised to book 4 nights in a cheaper room and 4 nights in the OWB, which seemed great in theory, but did create some logistic issues. They recommended 4 nights in each because that would give us the specials they had going on at the time – free candlelight dinner, and since we had 8 nights total, it also qualified for the 7+ night special which was $250 resort credit. However, after we returned home (from Beaches Ocho Rios), we found out that they weren’t very good at combining the two reservations and our “promo offers” were never applied. By having two reservations, it was very difficult to do anything through their online system. Check-in and check-out dates were tricky to fill out, and many people we talked to on the phone seem to see one reservation but not the other. We also had to fight tooth and nail to receive the BMW private transfer, which was promised to us at the time of booking (something that comes with the OWB booking). Then they said our promo offers weren’t applied because they claimed that our dates were in the “blackout dates”. We had to once again fight tooth and nail to get them applied (including multiple emails, twitter, escalation, etc.). Eventually, we did get what we were offered initially, but it’s not how I would like to spend my vacation or days leading up to my vacation.

During our stay at South Coast, we booked for another Sandals vacation. Between these two bookings, I can say we have learned a lot! Here’s my tips for booking on site:

1. Booking on site is a great deal if you plan on coming back to any Sandals/Beaches within 12 months. On site offers are combinable with any ongoing discount, as well as the exclusive on site discount of 10% for Standard, 11% for Club and 12% for Butler rooms. (More on this in the last section.)
2. If you are invited to the loyalty dinner, make sure you make your booking after you attend the dinner. They would usually sweeten the deal a little bit by giving you a coupon for booking on site. The one we got was for a $100 spa credit.
3. Don’t pay it in full! By paying it in full, you can no longer make changes to your reservation. If you don’t pay it in full, you lose the 5% pay-in-full discount, but you may qualify for other discounts such as the military discount of 10%, and you can change your reservation (within 6 months of your original booked dates) and still enjoy the onsite discounts (10%, 11%, 12%).
4. If you have a Citi Prestige Card, you can get 4th night free through Citi Rewards website. This will likely create a bigger discount than the Loyalty office. So in this instance, it’s better to book through Citi than Loyalty.

Room (Dutch Village)

For our first 4 nights, we booked a Beachfront 1 BR Walkout Butler Suite in the Dutch Village (1W). The room had not been renovated – we were told that it was scheduled for renovation in 2019, and would be completely renovated by the time we arrived, but instead, they pushed the renovations out to 2020. However, the room was nice and didn’t seem overly dated. The living room was spacious, with a nice TV, mini-bar, and a walkout patio that faced the beach. The bedroom had large windows with ocean view, and a very large LED TV. The bathroom was spacious with an over-sized shower. However, the toilet and shower were connected, with no doors in between. We didn’t mind that but some people might. The bath tub was a whirlpool tub across from the double vanities. Our room (2103) was only 3 rooms away from the Club Sandals Lounge. This is important because we learned quickly that if we had any issues, Club Sandals lounge was the place to go to ask for help.

We enjoyed this room very much and would stay here again. The Dutch Village is located between the French Village and the Italian Village, so it’s in the middle of everything. We have heard from other guests that French Village rooms were not as nice as Dutch Village. Italian Village seemed to have the same type of rooms as Dutch Village but they have been renovated.

The biggest issue we have had with this room was the room key. From the first day to the last, our room key failed at least once everyday. Our butler’s own key wasn’t working either. Even the room key technician couldn’t fix it. We had to wait for the resort security to show up and unlock the door. This was problematic and annoying, as it made us late for our dinner reservations multiple nights. (Not to mention we were standing outside in our bathing suits…)

Over Water Bungalow

There are 12 overwater bungalows. They are numbered 6001 to 6012. This is important to note because due to the heart shaped design of the bungalows, you will have a very different experience and ocean view based on the location of your bungalow. Numbers 6001 to 6004 are on the remote side. These bungalows will give you a good amount of privacy. The only people you’ll see are the ones hanging around the remote side of the beach, or using the watersports in that area (standup paddle boarding, hobie cat, and kayaking). However, since this is not the main area for any of these activities, most of the people that use it are bungalow guests. This also means that people ARE able to paddle board or kayak all the way to your deck. The view is very different from these 4 bungalows because you are facing the remote side of the resort. It’s a beautiful view of ocean, beach, and mountains. You are also able to see the sunset.

Numbers 6005 to 6008 make up the “top” of the heart. These are arguably the best rooms because 1. You are more “over water”. 2. Guests can’t see you from the land. 3. You can see sunset AND sunrise. However, there are some cons as well. First of all, your walk is longer. Even if you take the golf cart (provided) to go everywhere, the cart drops you off at the entrance to the bungalows, and you’ll have to walk the boardwalk all the way to the room. 4. The security boat is parked almost all day in the water closest to these bungalows. They are not so close that you can see what they are doing, but since they are there for security reasons, I suspect they have binoculars to watch what’s going on. I’m all for safety, but this does feel rather intrusive, considering all the outdoor showers and bathtubs right there. (The shower does have curtains but the curtains aren’t tied down so they blow with the wind…). Our butler told us that we can ask the security to move to the other side if we feel uncomfortable, and we tried that one day, but it took them a while to move and they are back next day… These bungalow rooms are also in direct path of the glass bottom boat. So every morning (around 8 or 9am) and every afternoon (around 2pm), the glass bottom boat will zoom by right behind your bungalow room. And undoubtedly, the guests on the boat will look.

Last but not least, room numbers 6009 to 6012 face the Latitudes over water bar. 6012 is also incredibly close to the beach and Schooner’s restaurant. For room 6012, I really don’t see how you can use the outdoor facilities (outdoor shower and bathtub) without “putting on a show”. (Like I said, the shower curtains can easily blow with the wind). Latitudes bar is very crowded in the afternoon through sunset. This means rooms 6009 to 6012 have VERY little privacy. They also don’t have much of a sunset view, but some sunrise view. I can’t recommend these rooms, unless you are someone that really want to show off the fact you are in an over water bungalow.

Tips to have the best over water bungalow experience:

1. Ask for a room between 6005 and 6008. These rooms have arguably the best view (sunset, beach, mountain, ocean) and best privacy. Room 6005 and 6006 have a little more privacy (away from Latitudes Bar) but less sun rise view. 
2. Let your butler know what your plans are for the day and what you like. So they can serve you better. It’s always a good idea to let him know where you plan to eat, for example, so he can have your table ready, walk you over (or cart you over) and take and serve your drink orders.
3. Many people think the walk is very long to the other side (where most of the restaurants are). It seems that majority of over water bungalow guests want to be golf carted for this reason. We found that we rather walked because the grounds were BEAUTIFUL. 
4. You have 24 hour room service and the room service menu is quite impressive. What’s not written on the room service menu is… lobster. BUT you can order it anyway! At dinner time, you can also order dinner from any restaurant that is open, except for Sushi on the Sand.

Butler Service

The bungalows give you a different level of butler service than the other butler rooms. We were given 1 to 2 butlers during the day, and 1 butler at night. The day time butlers only had 2 to 3 rooms to keep up with. The butlers also help each other – if all the rooms for one butler want breakfast at the same time, another butler will step up and deliver. We are given much better phone as well – an android smart phone with a charger. You can call or text your butler, although there’s no autocorrect so we learned real quick how much we depend on autocorrect everyday… Our butlers were Kevin W. and Romaine. Both were great and made sure all our needs were met. In the Dutch room, the butlers work 6 to 10 rooms depending on the resort’s capacity, so you can imagine your service won’t be as personalized. Our butlers were Camille and Joy. Both were wonderful as well. While we did enjoy butler service and took advantage of it, we weren’t exactly used to it, and not sure if we would ever get used to it. We will still book Butler rooms in the future because of the room service and they are bigger, better rooms, but I’m not sure if the other aspects of “Butler Service” are that big of a deal to us. (Although I must say, Teddy has definitely learned a thing or two from the butlers and have been servicing me better around the house since we came back!)

What we used our butlers for:

1. Confirmed all of our appointments with the wedding team, spa, excursion, etc. (Which turned out to be a good thing because our private dinner was NOT booked and we didn’t know until the butler looked into it, which was still too late and had to be rescheduled. Then the butler raised hell with the wedding team, and the wedding team gave us a discount of $149 for our wedding package.)
2. 24 hour room service. This was great when we wanted a midnight bite and didn’t feel like leaving the room.
3. Every morning our butler reserved a palapa for us on the beach in a central location (right next to the Dutch bar), with our favorite beverages, towels, and bottle opener. Over water bungalow butler did the same but in our private cabana as every bungalow has its own cabana.
4. Butler helped me unpack all my clothes. Butler also helped us move our suitcases when we had to change rooms.
5. Over water bungalow butler picked us up and dropped us off a few times with the golf cart. This was good when I was in a wedding dress…
6. Butler always made our dinner reservations and walked us to the restaurant, took our drink orders, and served us the drinks. Our table was always decorated with fresh flower petals as well.
7. Pressed one set of clothes for us for free.
8. We were given private cellphone to stay in touch with the butler. In the Dutch room, the cellphone was an old non-smart phone. In the over water bungalow the phone was an android phone with texting abilities. I usually texted the butler instead of calling.
9. Deliver and pickup the groom’s wedding suit for pressing.
10. Our butler actually went into town to buy Teddy some new boxers because the ones he packed would show through his light colored pants!!
11. Every night our butler actually put fresh bottled waters on each side of the bed, and indoor slippers next to the bed on each side as well.

WiFi

There’s complimentary WiFi in all rooms and common areas. I’ve seen several people complaining about WiFi in the overwater bungalows. After staying both in the Dutch Village and the Over Water Bungalows (in one of the top of the heart rooms, so furthest from wherever the WiFi spot may be), I can safely say that the WiFi isn’t significantly worse in an over water bungalow than any other part of the resort. It seems that the WiFi only allows a maximum number of guests to be signed on at once, because at times, I would be on the WiFi, working great, while my better half couldn’t get on at all. Then there were other times that his was working fine and mine wasn’t working. This problem was more prominent in the evenings, presumably when everyone was trying to use their phone. I do have a job that requires me to be “connected” at all times, but since one of our phones was almost always working, this didn’t become an issue during our trip.

Grounds

Sandals South Coast is a large resort. The Dutch village is centrally located – between the Italian and French Villages. So for that reason I do believe our room is in one of the best locations on this resort. The beach is over 2 miles long. We ran into many people that complained about how spread out this resort is. This was surprising to me because we actually LOVE how spread out everything is. The furthest walk in the resort is from the overwater bungalow area to the Venetian Piazza, where Neptunes restaurant is. This is a 0.6 mile walk and can be done entirely along the beach. The weather here is beautiful (most of the time) and a beach walk of 0.6 mile is pure luxury to me. Sandals South Coast has tons of beautiful flowers, a humongous main pool that is one of the biggest in Jamaica, and all ocean view rooms. The fitness center is next to one of the ping pong tables and tennis courts. There’s a basketball court nearby and squash ball court as well. Overall I think the grounds can’t be beat.

Restaurants

Eleanor’s:

Eleanor’s is open for breakfast and dinner. For dinner, dress code is strongly enforced. Eleanor’s is a pan carribean restaurant and the food is very good. The portions are a little bit small but not too bad. The curried mutton and snapfish were wonderful. 

Schooner’s

Schooner’s is open for lunch and dinner. For lunch, the menu is rather small and not many seafood options. For dinner, the seafood options are aplenty, including lobster, which is VERY good. The clams are wonderful here too. The seafood bisque and the mussels are a little underwhelming. 

Neptune’s

For lunch, Neptune’s options are very limiting. 

Jerk Shack

We had their jerk chicken and jerk pork for lunch. The jerk chicken was so good we ordered seconds. The hellfire sauce was amazing too. This was our favorite lunch restaurant.

Bayside

Excellent breakfast and lunch buffet with different themes on a daily basis. Dinner is an a-la-carte restaurant with French influences.

Sushi on the Sand

Sushi on the sand is only open during dinner time. The sushi is surprisingly fresh. Please note that the rolls are 4 pieces each. The lobster roll tasted very clean. The dragon roll had good eel in it, but a little too heavy on the eel sauce. The salmon and yellowtail sashimi were incredibly juicy and fresh. The miso soup was heavy in seaweed and tofu. This was one of our favorite restaurants because sushi is my favorite type of cuisine.

Private candlelight dinner:

Private candlelight dinner is a separate menu from all other restaurants. The menu is wonderful. You have a choice of 6pm or 8pm. We chose 6pm because it is pitch black by 8pm. The menu options include filet mignon and lobster. If you are here for a special occasion, this is a great dinner to book because the resort will send a photographer without you asking. The sun sets around 5:45pm so if you arrive a little early, you’ll be able to get some beautiful sunset pictures. You can also order some add-on’s for the dinner. My date surprised me with a rose! The Candlelight dinner typically costs $199 but is often offered as a free promotion with bookings. The service during the candlelight dinner is SLOW because you are usually sat at a table for 2 on the beach, far away from any restaurant or kitchen. My best advice is, be mentally prepared for the slow moving courses and know that your dinner will be done within 2 hours because they book them in 2 hour intervals, enjoy the sunset, the ocean breeze, and each other, sip on the champagne, and eat slow.

White Glove dinner:

Sometimes you are offered a white glove dinner for special occasions such as wedding, honeymoon, etc. The white glove dinner is pretty much the same menu as Eleanor’s but you order in advance. Your meal is served in courses and the service we had was quicker and better than our neighboring tables (at Eleanor’s).

Entertainment

Since we were there for Christmas and New Year’s, we saw lots of celebrations at Sandals. Sandals really go all out for these two holidays with decorations, champagne, music, etc. Aside from that, there’s also entertainment day and night, in the pool during the day and in the Cabaret theater and martini bar at night. Unfortunately, we were usually so wiped out tired by the time the shows are on that we didn’t really attend any of them.

Things to Know!!

Last but not least, when booking with Sandals, you should look into the differences between the Standard rooms (called Luxury rooms, Deluxe rooms or Premium rooms) vs Club Level rooms vs Butler Level rooms. Each level provides you different amenities and inclusions. The biggest difference being, the entry level rooms DO NOT have room service. I’ve seen many people booking the entry level rooms and then they are surprised that such a highly rated luxury resort doesn’t even have any room service for them, so it’s best to read up on the differences and have less surprises!