Sandals Montego Bay Resort

Our experience was very bad from the first day of arrival at the resort and did not get any better the longer we stayed. We felt very mislead with many of the details about the resort and certain amenities that were supposed to have been included and feel as though the website and other advertising materials are very misleading or inaccurately stated. We tried to resolve some of the more major and urgent issues with the Hotel Manager but had very little success. Our contact with the manager and other concierges people were blatantly rude. The quality of the food was a MAJOR disappointment. Also the availability of the food was very limited in time and location. Food was another subject that we felt was misleading in Sandals Information. Sample Menus that were available online (via www.sandals.com) sound very delicious and offer great variety - however the real menus offered little variety or choice in food selection, with no seafood other than shrimp available throughout the resort. Also did not find one restaurant that was serving steak. For breakfast your only choice is a buffet with nearly identical items everyday with the exception of one dish. Lunch you could eat burgers and fries or chose the same buffet location with nearly the same dishes everyday as well with maybe one exception. Dinner was the only time that the other restaurants were open. We were also very disappointed that during certain hours of the day the only food available was hamburger and french fries - we did not expect to be eating a hamburger considering the price we paid for our vacation. The quality of food at the dinner restaurants was also a huge disappointment. I had great expectations to eat fresh sushi every night, only to find out that it was on the menu as an appetizer at one restaurant and it came as 3 pieces - not rolls and it was very poor quality. Kroger has better sushi in the middle of Tennessee than they had here.

Service was terrible everywhere. Bars were inadequately staffed causing very long waits to simply get a beer. Our waitress at one restaurant ignored our table throughout our dinner and we repeatedly had to leave the restaurant and go to the nearest bar to retrieve our own beverage. We were leery about the no tipping policy going into our stay and during our stay all of our concerns came true.

When we arrived on the first day there were only 2 bottles of water in our refrigerator that were quickly consumed. We found it nearly impossible to get additional water. We talked to the front desk staff, concierge, assistant managers, managers, etc. It wasn't until the 3 day after repeated discussions with our travel agent that the resort finally decided that we were allowed to have 4 bottles a day.

We traveled from the Eastern Time Zone and have normal jobs with normal hours (8-5). During our stay Jamaica was an hour behind us. Their 7:30 am was our 8:30 am. Breakfast did not open until 7:30 am! This was 8:30 am our time. We are used to getting up and eating breakfast at 6 am. I know we are on suppose to be on vacation and should sleep in - we tried and hoped to have been able to sleep in. But the sunrise was very early there and often could hear music and other loud noises from our room. Needless to say we found ourselves waiting every morning outside of the one breakfast location along with a large crowd of other people like us waiting for them to allow to eat.

I could continue with this list of grievances for quite a while. And would be happy to discuss more details of any of these experiences (or others not listed) with anyone that is interested.

Overall we were very disappointed. We were disappointed in the result that we received for the amount of money that we spent. And the staff didn't seem to care - after all they already had our money and our tips before we received any services or food - so what do they care.

We do not plan on returning.