(DON’T TELL ANYBODY)
Since December 2018 we
have traveled to four Sandals resorts and we have now stayed with a Sandals
resort for 28 days. We are now “Sapphire” members. Why am I telling you this?
Because, THEY keep track.
If you intend to travel
more than once to a Sandals, (or shudder a Beaches) resort, make a point
of signing up for their Select Rewards Program. With each visit Loyalty Points
are earned which can be applied to future savings, among other benefits. We are
mainly interested in the “Returning Guests Appreciation Dinner,” where you get
a “free” bottle of rum to take home.
The more you stay (and
spend) the more you rise in their tier structure. We’re at Sapphire. The next is
Emerald which weighs in as 45 nights at a resort. It rises all the way to 400
nights and the “Ambassador” level. We, say “whatever” as long as we get our
bottle of rum.
FREE WEEK!
Now what makes this
little chase for nights interesting is Sandals rewards your loyalty with a free
week if you stay 70 nights. That’s right…7 days free. That’s a new wrinkle we
learned about just on our last trip. We enjoy coming to Sandals enough that
this is just an added plus for us.
Also, if you book a
future trip with Sandals while still at the resort, you get discounts on the
future trip, plus you lock in today’s prices. Once you depart though, the
discounts go away. We’ve taken advantage of this perk every time we’ve traveled
to Sandals, so we are always booking next year’s trip.
Next year we are booked
… twice!
 |
| Sapphire |
SPENDING MONEY TO SAVE
We started traveling to
Sandals in early December. The prices are cheaper between Thanksgiving and
Christmas. We went to Antigua and then the Royal Bahamian, but our third trip to
Jamaica South Coast was delayed because of COVID.
Sandals was very
helpful throughout the whole process of rebooking, for no extra fees, and
setting up testing and contingency plans. For no extra cost our December trip
was pushed to April. We’ve just completed Grenada this month of May and we
booked Curaçao for 8 days next year at the same time. The eighth day will give
us an extra day to explore / dive.
Wanting to get back into the (cheaper) December
travel schedule though we then booked another 8-day trip to Barbados. Both
Janet and I have been to Barbados, but that was a lifetime ago, before we met
each other.
DON’T TELL ANYONE
Obviously, we enjoy the
Sandals experience and I guess we’re regular customers now. We enjoy it all,
the amenities, the food, the service, the diving and, not to mention, the free
bottle of rum. As a Sapphire tier member there are all these little perks, but
we basically just like to go to the Appreciation Dinner. Sometimes these events
include live music, but it is always a great meal and a great way to meet new
friends.
The thing is you’re
supposed to “sign-in” before this dinner and mid-way through the event get
called up and accept a token of Sandals’ appreciation.
It’s that bit we don’t
like. We’d rather slip in and out the back door unnoticed with our free bottle
of rum, so don’t tell them we’re here.
But, they know!
Thanks for reading (and
keeping our secret)
Love Janet and greg
© 2022 by Gregory
Dunaj
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