My husband and I stayed at the SWH from April 5-April 12. We are both 40 and well travelled as far as the Caribbean goes, having been to a dozen all inclusives including 5 Sandals and 4 Excellence resorts (another adults only “luxury” chain of resorts).

Here’s the good and the bad about SWH...including experiences that are different from others posted on this site.

Getting there:
Expecting the worst from some reviews on this board, I was pleasantly surprised with the drive. Sure, it’s not a North American highway, but it’s not nearly as bumpy as some have said. The most hair-raising part of the drive was coming extremely close to oncoming traffic. Our driver was excellent, so I always felt safe. The drive took almost 2 hours as we stopped halfway for drinks, bathroom break, etc. for the convenience of our large bus load. I don’t think vans carrying just a few people from the airport generally make this stop.

Check-in:
A low point for a few reasons. First, there was a large banner outside the hotel to welcome a corporate group. This automatically got my spider senses tingling, you’ll know why later. Cold towels were given to everyone getting off the bus. Nice touch, but what I really wanted was the champagne which was not readily available.

Rather than checking us in on a “first come first served” basis, our entire bus load was told to sit in the lobby for what seemed like a very long time while nobody looked after us. This is not an enjoyable experience after having been travelling for many hours, and just wanting to check in quickly and hit the pool.

Paperwork was eventually distributed, including questions about whether we are celebrating a wedding, honeymoon or anniversary. I repeated on the form what I’d indicated at the time of booking, which was that our wedding anniversary was during our stay, and that our wedding had taken place on another Sandals property. Given Sandals’ emphasis of the “love is all you need” theme, and the fact they ask whether we are celebrating a special occasion, I had the expectation that they would recognize that event at some point.

We were all eventually checked in, given champagne (sweet, yuk) and shown to our rooms. Unlike other resorts (e.g. Excellence) which recognize special occasions with rose petals on the bed, chilled champagne and a fruit plate waiting for you in your room, SWH provided nothing of the sort. No big deal, I thought. They’ll acknowledge our anniversary some other way later in the week. As you’ll see later, that was not the case.

Crowd:
A few people in their 30s, with the majority being in their 40s to 60s. If you are in your 20s, this is not the place for you. Many Americans, but also a good number of Canadians, Brits and Germans. Most of the Germans were with a very large (approximately 100 people) corporate group that was there the whole week.

The fact that Sandals accepted this group was one of my biggest beefs with this resort because it is very contrary to how they market themselves (e.g. couples only, love is all you need etc…). We should not expect to see any corporate groups (or kids) at any Sandals resorts – particularly a group that size, and particularly when the group is offered privileges that are off limits to the other guests as you’ll see later.

Rooms:
We were upgraded from a “Deluxe” (i.e., cheapest) room to a “Grand Deluxe” room which is slightly larger. I suspect the upgrade was because it was our 5th Sandals stay, and not because it was our wedding anniversary. While the upgrade was appreciated, it seems that virtually everyone gets one, so it’s not particularly meaningful.

Our room was on the 3rd floor on the Dutch Village. Good location, nice room, good bed (if you like it hard), good shampoo, conditioner and hairdryer. No complaints.

Pools:
Great pool choices, should please all tastes. Never felt crowded, plenty of chairs and floaties, although towels were sometimes scarce late in the day. Perfect water temperature. There is no drink menu by the swim up bars (or any other bar) so research your drinks before you get there. Also, there isn’t any bottled water available from the bars, so keeping hydrated with non-alcoholic drinks can be a challenge.

Beach:
Large beach with nice sand and plenty of chairs for everybody. Beverage service on the beach (like they have at the Excellence resorts) would sure be nice though. Depending on where you’re sitting, the walk to the nearest bar can be quite far.

Activities:
We’re not big activities people so not a lot to offer here other than noting that the water aerobics are much better than other places we’ve been to in the Caribbean. Still, I could have done without the photographer taking pictures (for purchase) the entire duration of the class.

Restaurants:
Overall, all restaurants offered very good food (with normal portion sizes), although the beverage service was often slow, particularly in the daytime. The four house wines (2 reds, 2 white from Beringer) were all decent, although the Cabernet Sauvignon was sometimes unavailable. The Café de Paris is a great concept that more resorts should have, although its breakfast selections are somewhat thin considering it’s the only place that offers food before 7:30 am (for those with early morning flights). For those going to regular breakfast buffet, don’t be surprised if you find the lineup for the omelet station confusing, particularly on crowded days.

Three aspects of the restaurant experience left me more disappointed though. First, the corporate group was given preferential over the other guests on some occasions. For example, there were instances where *all* the outside seating was reserved for the group for the *entire* meal period (whether breakfast, lunch or dinner) leaving us with no choice but to sit inside. While I generally don’t mind waiting for a table outside, in this case, no amount of waiting would have made that possible. Those tables were simply off limits to the “regular” guests. I complained about this to various individuals and got responses ranging from dismissive (restaurant maitre d’) to very apologetic and accommodating (Philip Dawson, the Food and Beverage Manager).

Second, the evening restaurants really need pagers to let you know when your table is ready. The wait for a table can be quite long, and being “forced’ to wait in the Martini bar is confining (not to mention dark and cold) unless you want to take the chance of wandering outside and hope that they’ll find you. Also, it’s quite conceivable you could be sitting in the Martini Bar and miss your table announcement because the noise of the crowd.

Third, one of the restaurants (Eleanor’s) did nothing to acknowledge our wedding anniversary on the day of the occasion. Until that time, SHW hadn’t recognized the event other mentioning it in the daily newsletter on the wrong day with both our names misspelled. I therefore felt compelled to tell the maitre d’ about our anniversary when we asked for a table at the restaurant, secretly hoping that they’d do something about it in the spirit of “love is all you need”. We ended up waiting over one hour for our table (up from the 45 minute estimate) with no acknowledgement of anything during the meal. At a minimum, I think SWH should acknowledge special occasions by allowing people to make restaurant reservations, thus saving them a long wait.

Returnees Dinner:
A good event, well attended by 100 + returning guests and staff. It takes place in the ballroom, has open seating with a set menu, and best of all, is low on speeches. Every guest is given a sandals “necklace” and a bottle of rum.

Entertainment:
Pretty bad. SWH’s best entertainment effort is offering – and aggressively promoting (e.g. reminder calls and notices in your rooms) -- an art auction almost every night. I think there is something fishy about those auctions. Most people do not go to the Caribbean to buy art, and besides, getting the art home is a problem because of shipping, customs, duties etc…

The best entertainment was probably the magic show. Unfortunately, I had to enjoy it with the corporate group’s banner hanging above the magician’s head -- yet another reminder of the clientele Sandals was aiming to please.

What is Sandals?:
Without question, this is a nice resort from an amenities perspective. However, I was disappointed that SWH didn’t deliver on its promotional lines (e.g. couples only, “love is all you need etc..), first by accepting a corporate group (especially such a large one), and second by not acknowledging the special events (e.g. wedding anniversaries) of the couples who are their core target market.

I would not take any issue with these actions if the resort in question was any other than Sandals. However, their marketing efforts build up expectations about what the resort is – and isn’t -- all about, and every effort should be made to deliver on what they advertise. Our experience was not “as advertised”, and as a result, I don’t think our next trip will be to a Sandals. More likely to an Excellence resort.

I have read a few of the recent reviews and, whilst my review is not all positive, the things we found to be negative are different to those of others - which shows that everything is a matter of opinion.

We flew into Kingston via British Airways so made our own arrangements to Sandals Whitehouse with an overnight stay at The Hilton. Our taxi driver gave us the history of Jamaica during our 3 hour trip and we felt we had 'seen the island'.

On arriving at Sandals we were greeted with champagne and cloths and were checked in very quickly. We were unable to be offered an upgrade even though they knew we were on honeymoon as they were at capacity.

The porter informed us that it was our choice whether we gave a tip, so of course we did. I understood tips were 'prohibited'. I also noticed 'sly' tipping at bars.

Our room was clean and very comfortabIe, although I was disappointed with minor things such as lack of robes and slippers but our towels were changed twice a day, beds turned down etc. We did have the need to call reception a few times as milk, coffee etc had not been replenished but, although they promised immediate attention, new stocks did not arrive until the next day. I learnt to collect sugar and milk from the Partisserie and take it back with me!

Our first week was everything we had hoped. Quiet, romantic, friendly...perfect. During the second week, however, two large wedding parties turned up (approx 30 - 50 people in each party). One party was staying at our village with some of their guests next door. These people were noisy and rowdy and tarnished our visit. They completely took over the pool with their agressive volleyball - the net should have been removed but was left up all day. They did not change their dress in the evening so were wandering around in shorts with no shirts (men obviously) and trying to get into the restaurants when we were trying to have a 'romantic' meal. They were loud and obnoxious and people were trying to avoid walking through the middle of them. When we mentioned the problem to staff we were told that 'they are on holiday too so can do what they want'. I was very disappointed with this reponse as Sandals is sold mainly as a wedding/ honeymoon/ anniversay vacation and we specifically wanted somewhere romantic. The 5 star restaurant Eleanors actually made them a takeaway!

There were also those (and I have read this on another review) who felt that the whole pool/restaurant needed to hear their conversation and you did actually get sick of their voices. You may think much of this is beyond the control of Sandals but we felt that more security should have been in evidence in the evenings to remind people how to behave (especially when one of the party were being sick below our balcony or people were afraid to go in the French pool for fear of being hit with a ball!).

We loved the French pool during the first week but moved to the larger pool for the second, and we did have lots of reggae music.

The majority of staff were lovely: Christopher, Roary, Avril, Dian, Headley to name some. The worst I found were in the shops or the Red Lane Spa.

We found the food to be very good. The 'Tex Mex' was mainly french fries so we only went here once. Portion sizes we found ample and I never once finished a complete meal. We had to have a very small lunch in order to ensure we could finish dinner, so I guess this depends on the size of your appetite, but my husband is 13 stone so likes his food. The Jamaican restaurant at the French Village was lovely.

They had all the spirits as far as I could see except Bacardi - which is my drink - but nevermind, there were lots to choose from.

Did we have a great honeymoon? - yes, just about. Would we go here again? probably not, although had you asked during our first week we would have said definitely yes. But this is often the case when you go anywhere for 2 weeks. I think I would choose next time to do one week at one resort and then move to another for the 2nd week.

I really really loved this hotel. I thought it was gorgeous! I went there with my husband for our honeymoon and we were thrilled!! We stayed in the honeymoon concierge suite and it was really nice. We were greeted with drinks when we got to the hotel, which I loved! The room had an awesome view. We were on the 4th floor in the Italian village. The ride from the airport to the hotel was a little scary, but not too bad. The ride back was a lot better.

There were plenty of activities to do daily, but you didn't have to if you just want to chill out. The restaurants were great! I had a hard time getting used to the fact that I didn't have to pay for anything! We hung out in the main pool the whole time, but youhad a bunch of them to choose from. We really loved the martini bar and the Arizona bar had the best bartenders at night!

The night life wasn't too too great. We found that we were the only ones wandering around late nite, but that's OK with me because we didn't want to be around that type of crowd anyway for our honeymoon!

We did the candle light dinner on the beach and that was really nice too. Overall, I loved Sandals Whitehouse and really really want to go back there!!! The staff was awesome and super nice and really helped us out with any little issues that we had. Totally recommend this place!!!

We spent three days at the sandals whitehouse resort, believe me, it was not long enough! so while we were still there we booked another vacation for this december, which we might just move up a bit. next time will be longer. the service was excellent! the food was great! the whitehouse is one beautiful place, very romantic too. so much to do in so little time. everything was so wonderful! the staff at the sandals whitehouse were so eager to help everyone with anything, always there for you with a smile, asking always if we needed anything, very happy people and spiritual too. we absolutely have no complaints and can't wait to go back. i've never experienced anything like it. beautiful, beautiful place to be. the shops were fantastic, i couldn't imagine staying anywhere else, when you want romance, there were about 12 weddings performed while we were there. candle lit dinners on the white sand, the gorgeous flowers and trees, we went to the spa and did a couples massage, scuba dived, we went for a sailboat ride, took walks, shopped. but certainly not enough time to do every thing we wanted. we thought we might experience another sandals resort, but couldn't possibly think that anything could be better than the whitehouse, so we will return to that particular luxurious, exquisite, romantic, beautiful resort. we can't wait!