Sandals Ochi Review

Sandal’s Ochi is an Okay Experience

Where do I start?
My girlfriend and I arrived on my birthday at the hillside Sandal’s Ochi September 20th, 2019. We signed the paperwork saying it was my birthday, and I told the woman at the front desk it was my birthday. We also told the fellow at the desk who took our luggage to our room it was my birthday. I got a happy birthday acknowledgement and that was it. I also asked for a room upgrade after being placed In room 7114, because it was very noisy.

We never heard back about upgrading our room. As well, I never received a slice of cake, glass of champagne, nor a token birthday card brought to my room. Even worse the refrigerator which was supposed to be fully stocked was bare, and when we asked about it, the same fellow seemed exasperated.

This set the tone for the trip. Hot and cold service was what the trip became about. The pluses were the very comfy bed, the decent food at the Jerk Shack, the performances by lady Phylea, and the swim up pool with a wooden lounge chair and umbrella if you could secure one. The “Hop” bus also very convenient with great service between the hillside and the beach side.

The minuses were the mediocre food at the breakfast place, and at the restaurant hillside. We booked a reservation one night at Kelly’s Dockside for seafood and the food was terrible. We were promised grilled tiger shrimp and received defrosted cocktail shrimps that were lightly charred as if we would not know the difference. The snapper was not freshly caught and fried Jamaican “escovitch” style. It was cooked in the same manner (only broiled in foil) that you could get at the hillside restaurant.

As well, service at all the bars except at the Speakeasy could be unpleasant. The bar servers were unsmiling, unfriendly, and looked harried despite it being low season. This went for the swim up bar, the hillside hotel bar, and the Beach Club bar. The beach club bar smelled terrible and needs some kind of disinfecting.

The DJ at the Beach Club was not amenable to song requests and basically played for himself, not the scattered crowd of ten or so people on the dance floor each night. After several nights of going there and ingratiating ourselves to him, we were able to get our requests played and could eke out a good time.

Overall, having travelled to several hotels and resorts in the Caribbean , I would give Sandal’s Ochi a 5 out 10 based on the above experience.

We did manage to get off the resort and have a private excursion, with a stop over at a restaurant serving better food on our five day trip.