This was our 10th trip to a Sandals resort, and our third to Jamaica within the past year.
We booked the Beachfront Butler Suite with Private Pool – BSUP for a 9-night stay from June 14-23, 2025.
Arrival:
We had initially booked Club Mobay through Sandals for arrival and departure, flying on JetBlue direct from Orlando. JB canceled our return flight and put us on an earlier flight, so we opted to change our arrival flight to an earlier arrival. We arrived in Jamaica at 7:05AM and based on it being this early we were told that Club Mobay was not operating, and we were issued a refund for the arrival portion. We arrived with no issues, got through security and customs with ease, and were ready for our shuttle just before 7:30AM. Due to it being so early, the shuttles were not even running yet, so we were lucky enough to get a private transfer from the airport to resort. We arrived on the resort at 7:38AM. Upon arrival at the resort, we were met by Club Sandals to get checked in. Since it was so early, they asked us if we wanted to eat, and once we were done eating, they’d find our butler so he could get us acquainted with the resort. We went to the buffet (Spices), and as soon as we came back our butler greeted us, took us on a tour, and then showed us our spot on the beach he reserved for us. By around 10:15AM, we were informed our room was ready (WE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT WAS THAT EARLY)!!!!
Room:
We were in room 5104 (middle of the Balmoral building). The rooms were wonderful, good overall layout, updated Sandals 2.0 style amenities, and the views of the beach were amazing. The butler phones don’t work at all inside the building, so you must go outside the building or on your patio/balcony to make calls or send texts (the resort is aware of the phone service issues). The Wi-Fi service inside the building is spotty as well, so if you want to connect to Wi-Fi, you’re better off being on the patio, or if you really need a good connection, go to the open areas (we did let Rayo know about the spotty Wi-Fi, and he said he would let management know it was not working great). For the best connection, we found going to the lobby and connecting to the lobby Wi-Fi was best.
Many people are always concerned about pool temperatures being too cold. I can tell you that the BSUP pools don’t have that issue at all! The coldest my watch registered our entire visit in the pool was 88º. During the afternoon, it was usually 93-95º, so it was almost like a hot tub most afternoons and evenings. If you want a warm pool, these rooms seem to be perfect for that, but if you’re looking for cooler temperatures in the pool, then I’d recommend trying another room.
Food:
All days but two, we chose to do the buffet at Spices for breakfast. We did also try room service for breakfast and Bombay. Bombay was good and room service breakfast was just okay, but we preferred the buffet for breakfast as it gave us many more options. Prior to arrival, we were able to make our one reservation, we chose Thai and had that the first night of arrival. We asked our butlers to go ahead and book any restaurants they wanted for the 9 nights but did request a night at Soy and Butch’s at SMB. We ate at every restaurant on site, as well as Soy and Butch’s at SMB. We enjoyed all our evening meals, and if we had to pick a favorite it would have been the French Restaurant that we opted to enjoy on our patio Saturday night. Thai, Bombay, Spices, La Tavola, and Soy were all very good meals. Butch’s was just okay, and Le Jardinier was the best meal we enjoyed our entire stay. We almost went back Sunday night to Soy before we left on Monday, but we opted to go to Cricketers Pub to get a lighter meal the last night.
Lunches usually consisted of pizza from Bella Napoli, burgers from The Mariner, or the sampler from Jerk Shack. Almost every day we had a snack of Coconut Shrimp and Beef Kebabs, and that was usually our favorite every day. The seafood pizza was probably our favorite option, but the meat pizza was a solid option as well. If you have butlers, be sure to ask for coconut shrimp and beef kebabs, as they’re a great afternoon snack/lunch (if you order enough of them).
Beach:
We spent every day at the beach, as the main part of the beach is much more clear than other parts. The beach in front of the Balmoral building is a little rockier and the water is not nearly as clear. The beaches are rather small, but the water was a good temperature (between 85-88º every day), but the main beach in front of the Windsor building seems to be the best part. We did spend part of one day at the private island to just get away from the wind some (If you get chairs that face the OWV/OWB there is way less wind). This area is very small and shallow, but the water is even more clear than the main beach at the resort. The step going into that portion of the beach is a bit steep and you need to be careful. I would also recommend water shoes in that area as we found several sea urchins on the bottom and just avoided them. My wife preferred this beach over other trips, only Emerald Bay had a better beach based on her opinion.
Pool(s):
The main pool is probably the smallest main pool we’ve seen at any of the resorts we’ve been too, but the temperature was good, and it was times of quiet, but also times it was lively. We only spent a few hours there before venturing back to the beach. The island pool was closed for renovation since they’re also doing renovations on all OW suites. As noted above, the BSUP pool was very warm, especially in the afternoon, but cooler in the morning hours. We did not venture into any of the swim ups and did not go to the quiet pool past the lobby. Our specific room pool had sun in the morning and after 12:30-1PM it was mostly shade.
Tours:
We did not do any tours, excursions, or venture off property at all. We did visit Sandals Montego Bay for dinner, as noted above. Shuttle was easy enough to get on and off, but the 5PM shuttle is PACKED (so be ready to get there early and be sure you’re near the front of the line, or you risk having to take the second trip if they come back for everyone).
Service:
EVERY single employee at SRC was very personable, very welcoming, and always took the time to say hello! This was the typical Jamaican friendliness that keeps so many people going back to Jamaica! There was not a single interaction with any of the staff at the resort that wasn’t excellent. Prior to arrival, we had requested the butler team of Rayo and Cooper based on other’s recommendations. We were assigned this butler team, and we both can see why they’re so highly recommended. There was not a single request they missed, and they were always on top of anything we needed and always went above and beyond each day! We did end up with Keno and Devroy as butlers for full days when Rayo and Cooper were off. We heard from the team that rotations were more common right now with the OW suites being closed, so it allowed them to cycle between teams with some time off, but we had Rayo for 9 shifts, Cooper for 6 shifts, Keno and Devroy for 2 shifts each. Each one of them was very attentive during our stay, and Devroy absolutely nailed our French dinner on our patio Saturday night!
Rayo and Cooper absolutely stole the show on customer service during our stay though! Getting to know them during our stay made them so personable, and we even ended up getting KFC delivered to our room one evening (we paid for the meal, but the butler delivered it for us)!
Departure:
Our flight was scheduled for 1:10PM departure, so we had to have bags ready by 9:30AM, check out was 9:45AM, and the shuttle was leaving at 10AM. We had no issues at all during checkout; Rayo handled the last shift and made it all easy. Shuttle from resort to airport was about 10 minutes, arrival to the airport had no issues, and once we got checked in at the airport, we checked into Club Mobay and were expedited through security. We arrived at the airport around 10:20AM, and we were sitting in the Mobay lounge before 11AM.
Overall, our stay was excellent, and it was hard not to book coming back to SRC (we like to travel to different resorts on each trip and have only repeated a resort once so far). While on property, we did book with loyalty for our 2027 trips (2025 second trip and 2026 were already booked last year), and we chose another new resort and will be returning to La Toc due to a great 777 sale. Rolando at L&T travel was excellent and easy to deal with for both of our 2027 bookings, as we knew mostly what we wanted, and we were in and out within 30 minutes. This is a resort we will travel back to once we have knocked off the other resorts on our list to stay at! Big shoutouts to Cooper, Devroy, Rayo, and Rolando for making our trip an EXCELLENT stay!
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