Happy Saturday everyone - can you believe it's already December? I have so many pictures and so I wanted to break it up into several
posts to share it all! We chose to go to a Sandals Resort for our honeymoon –
the idea of everything being paid for and just being able to sit back, relax
and not have to worry about money was very appealing to Ryan and I, so that was
the choice we made. We had a spectacular time and also learned a lot about
taking advantage of Sandals promotions and locations from talking with several
different couples we met on our trip!
We left for Ochos Rios, Jamaica early on Monday the 14th and flew to Chicago, where our connecting flight took us to Montego Bay, Jamaica! Our flights went smoothly, the connections were seamless, and we arrived a little early in Jamaica. We were very quickly connected with our bags, shuttled onto a Sandals transport, and headed for our resort – although we were unaware that the drive was close to two hours, and we were a bit unprepared for that! We were so thankful we’d gotten breakfast sandwiches in Chicago because no lunch was served on our almost four-hour flight from Chicago to Montego Bay and after the ride to the resort, we arrived around 5:00 PM and we were pretty ravenous!
We were welcomed with cool towels (hello balmy Jamaican weather) and Sandals signature cocktail and check-in was seamless; I think in large part due to my doing online check-in in advance. We were ushered to our room and thankfully reunited with our bags within about fifteen minutes so we could get cleaned up and change clothes (we were dressed for Virginia’s chilly 40-degree temperatures) so we could head to dinner. We learned at check in that some of the restaurants required reservations – but thankfully Terra Sky, a two-minute walk from our room – was not one of them. We put on our warm weather clothes and I placed one of the flowers from our welcome towel creation in my hair and off we went to (finally) have some food!
This dinner was our first experience with the all-inclusive dining and let me tell you – it was a little wild to just order whatever you wanted from the menu and just… get up and leave when you were done eating, ha-ha! Ryan had the Surf & Turf for dinner, and I had Chicken Cordon Bleu, we also both had delicious appetizers and tasty desserts as well! I had a glass of wine, and we were introduced to the Bob Marley – a divine frosty cocktail creation that was the perfect Jamaican drink! It was so beautiful to sit on the balcony, watching the waves roll in and just finally take a breath after all the excitement and busyness of the wedding weekend!
Tuesday was our first full day in Jamaica, and we discovered pretty quickly that we aren’t really “sleep late” people. We woke up around 7:30 or 7:45 each morning, ha-ha! I guess when you normally get up around 5 AM – 7:30 feels like a luxury! One of the things in our arrival package was to schedule a honeymoon breakfast delivered to our room on our first day – so we did that and had breakfast on our deck! Once we were suited up and sun-screened, we popped into the concierge office to book some dining reservations and headed to the beach! The morning was a tad overcast but soon enough, the sun broke through the clouds, and we were lying beachside in the sunshine! Perfection!
We spent a good chunk of the morning lying on the beach, sipping drinks and Ryan enjoyed a cigar! We chatted with some of the Sandals employees and then decided to catch The Hop (the resort shuttle) to the Manor House side of the Ochos Rios resort to check out the main pool and enjoy lunch at the Jerk Shack! I have to say that while I loved the giant pool at the Manor House – I thought our “side” of the resort was superior because it had beach access as well as several swimming pools. The people staying at the Manor House didn’t have beach access at all – unless they took The Hop to the Riviera side of the resort! So, I was well pleased with that discovery! After enjoying our lunch, we perused the rest of the Manor House portion of the resort and then “hopped” back to our side of the resort for the afternoon!
We spent the afternoon on the water sport beach and ended up taking out an Aqua Trike and a Kayak in the surf as the afternoon passed! We also lounged on the chairs and swam in the ocean a bit and also really enjoyed people watching and making up stories about the people around us, ha-ha!
I think one thing I really enjoyed was when we wandered up to the top deck off the main Sandals resort lobby and found a stretch of couch, sheltered by sunshades, and stretched out in the warmth for about an hour to take a little snooze. It was so delightful to be warm and relaxed and hear the waves rolling onto the shore. It was essentially the perfect nap spot before we headed out later in the afternoon for the first of our two excursions: The Luminous Lagoon!
After an almost hour and fifteen-minute bus ride (goodness – we had no clue) we arrived at the Glistening Waters Hotel, situated on the banks of the Luminous Lagoon! We were piled onto a boat with some friends we’d made on the ride over and headed out across the water, into the night. And suddenly I thought to look over the side of the boat and was greeted with the most amazing sight – where the boat was cutting through the water, the water was lighting up a stunning electric blue! I poked Ryan and pointed it out and we began to notice that as waves crested in the breeze, they were capped with the same blue light. It was AMAZING!
We were told about the organisms in the water that create the bioluminescent reaction and then given the opportunity to climb into the warm water (only about five feet deep) and experience the illuminated water up close! When I splashed into the water, it lit up around me and with every swipe of my hands or feet, every stroke made through the water, every movement was lit up with the brilliant electric blue water! It was truly such an amazing experience – although I will warn you – Ryan got stung by some sort of jelly in the water (so did some other people in our boat). The sting wasn’t intense – thankfully – but it was painful enough that Ryan popped out of the water ahead of me. I ended up staying in a bit longer to get pictures taken and then climbed out because my skin was starting to tingle a bit…
We did choose to purchase the professional pictures and I’m really glad we have them – even if I do look a little goofy! We were so glad we chose to do this excursion because we feel like it was a once in a lifetime experience and we are thrilled to have gotten to experience it! I’m so glad we have the pictures and the precious memories! It was a lovely way to end our first full day in Jamaica and we were tickled to discover on the drive back that when we ruffled our swimsuits, they sparkled with the water from the luminous lagoon! What a memory to make together!
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