Review by Alex, 7/29/2020

Thank you for everything that you and Dave have done for Derek and I. Our trip to St. Lucia was fantastic. Below I will give you a brief rundown of our travel specifics so you can help other couples traveling during this wild time! 

At MCI Airport:
-Upon check-in at the American Airline desk we were required to show proof of our negative Covid-19 test. After that, we had no troubles getting to St. Lucia!

At St. Lucia Airport:
-Upon arrival, passengers were escorted into a make-shift building for a screening process. While entering, every passenger had a temperature taken and were asked to hand-sanitize prior to standing in line to meet with a nurse. They had 3 or 4 stations set up, once it's your turn, you meet with a nurse and show the paperwork for the negative test-result and where you are staying during your trip. As I told you, they said since we had done the rapid test that we would need to be tested again. Us and 3 other couples were pulled aside and were tested and then sent to the resort. 

-What was most frustrating is that while we were making friends with other couples at the resort, many had done the rapid-test as well and were not pulled aside to test again. Another man's results were outside the 7 day window and he just kinda covered it up with his finger - haha! While the test did not hinder our stay and barely extended our time at the airport, I hope that they will streamline what tests they will accept and don't. 

Once at Sandals:

We were greeted with nothing but great customer service and happiness. Derek and I truly cannot say enough about the service and people working at the Sandals Grande. No matter what we needed help with or just our service at restaurants, WaterSports, or photos - all of it was amazing. We both plan to write reviews for a few stand-out employees on their app. 

Excursions:
Sadly, we were not able to do any off-resort excursions like the mud-pits or horseback riding etc. They did have some catamaran, snorkeling, and party cruises available. Derek and I did the Night Snorkeling with an employee name Derek at the water-sports. It was so cool! The next day us and another couple did a private snorkel with Derek and one of his co-workers. He showed us two amazing spots where the water was clear. We ended up at the second spot jumping off the boat and swimming while the sunset - talk about a memory! On Wednesday we did our couples massage which was outstanding and on Thursday we went on the Explorer Catamaran that took us over by the Pitons and had two snorkel spots - another great adventure!

Other:

Friday and Saturday, Derek and I spent most of the days just at the beach, waterskiing, trying the Hobie Cats or hitting up the pool bar. The weather was great the entire trip, when it did rain it was only for like 3-5 minutes and then it subsided. Saturday night we had our candlelight dinner on the beach which was delicious and beautiful! Our favorite restaurants were Gordon's, Kimono, and Soy. I could literally eat 80 of the scallop appetizers at Gordons! Our room and view was amazing and very clean. We were both surprised the cleaning staff comes in twice per day - again, great customer service. 

I hope this gives you some insight into our trip and the process in getting to the resort. Derek and I, again, appreciate all of the coordinating and re-booking you have done for us. Especially during this time, but in any case, we know it is not easy to do! 

Thank you,
Alex

Review by Justin, 7/5/2017

​​We loved it…would totally go again…even to the same resort.  Other people that we came in contact from the other two resorts…all said the Grande was the best one. 
 
We did the booze cruise/snorkeling/speedboat tour and it was a blast.  Would maybe even do it again.

Review by Abbie, 11/15/2016

We had an incredible time at Sandals Grande St. Lucian and are already having withdrawals!! We had a nice mix of relaxing and adventuring. We took advantage of the “play at all three” and had dinner at Halcyon (Kelly’s Dockside) and La Toc (La Toc restaurant) on a couple of nights and spent some time walking around those resorts. We are happy we ventured out because these restaurants were great! While those resorts were lovely, we are SO glad that we got to stay at the Grande. There seemed to be more “happening” at the Grande, and we loved all of the cute hideaways, restaurant options, ocean floaties/hammocks, and the vibe in general. People were very friendly everywhere we went, and St. Lucia has 

We did the speedboat tour (volcano, waterfall, Pitons, snorkeling), horseback riding, and zip lining. We were stopped by someone on the beach our first evening to book the speedboat tour and horseback riding. We thought this man was with the tour desk at the resort, and we knew we wanted to do these excursions so we signed up. We didn’t realize we had signed up with a local, but I think it worked out for the best in the end. We became friends and are still in touch with that local! We saved some money and can’t say enough good things about Ocean Angel tours. We felt very safe with the locals and the tours felt more personal since there were fewer people with us. They were great at getting pictures of Chase and me. We especially loved the sunset horseback riding. Had we booked with Island Routes, we would have been with other couples for horseback riding. Instead, it was just Chase and me and we loved that. We did zip lining through Island Routes but didn’t anticipate a 3-hour round trip or to spend 30 minutes waiting at other Sandals resorts for people to get on the bus. We weren’t overly happy about that and got back to the resort much later than the tour guide estimated. Aside from that, we had a great experience zip lining and would recommend it. 

We have many, many pictures!

Thanks,

Abbie