Beaches Ocho Rios

This review is regarding management at Beaches. My husband and I got married at Beaches Ocho Rios in 2024. This is a late post because I was hoping we'd be able to come to a resolution for our issue. If you're getting married at this location, I would NOT recommend the video service. We did the Love and Lux package and the final edited video was poor quality. When Beaches asked if we approved the video, we explained what was wrong. There hadn't been any color grading which made the video look washed out, faded, and not properly white balanced. There were also multiple jump cuts which made people appear in two different places back-to-back. Beaches initially told us they would charge us for any changes. They claimed to have sent an updated video; however, it looked exactly like the first. There were no changes at all. We asked for the raw video which costs an additional fee. We received the raw video free of charge and noticed that the edited video WAS the same quality as the raw video. It showed that there was never any color-grading. There also wasn't enough b-roll footage to use between wedding shots which explains the numerous jump cuts. We tried to set up a meeting with management to see if we could get a refund on the edited video and they just charge us for the raw video. We weren't even asking for a full refund although we spent thousands on the Love and Lux package. We were initially told we could have a meeting. Then they said we couldn't after my husband mentioned that this could have been resolved in the very beginning had we not had to go back and forth about the raw video. It's a good thing we received the raw video because we were able to see that no color-grading was done to the final edit. Thus, we wasted thousands on a poor quality wedding video that a year later, we STILL haven't been able to use or show. It's embarrassing to show and a moment we can't get back. I just want to alert anyone else thinking of having their wedding and including a video package. I do NOT advise it. We have to find another videographer to pay to do ours. Here are some examples of what the picture quality looked like versus what I had to fix and edit. I screenshot the first four photos from the Beaches video. You'll be able to see it looks faded. The last two pictures are what we color-graded to show the difference. I also showed these to Beaches management, but they didn't seem to care. I hope this helps others. This was also after our reception location was double booked, and we didn't find out until the day before the wedding. We had to move to a new location. One thing I will say is that the onsite staff were very helpful and kind.

The airport in Ocho Rios had no flights for us to flight into. The room’s ac did not work properly. The cold water facet did not work at all. Requested wine, beer and it was NEVER delivered to room. The restocking of the refrigerator was poor. The food was mediocre at best. At the French restaurant, the table we were seated had small worms on table cloth. We asked for a new table but waitress just brushed them off. There were too many pushy vendors selling their merchandise. They were obnoxious. The pool staff at the slide area did nothing. They hung out under the cover joking and carrying on with other staff. No one asked if we wanted drinks. They would pick up drinks when we were not even done. Being a first timer, was not given instructions about what restaurants were open and when or where to find the information. For a 4 star resort, it was a 2 (at best) star experience. NEVER AGAIN!

Sandals Beaches Ochos Rios (May 23rd to 27th, 2025) Jamaica, was a 2 hour drive from the Montego Bay airport. Coming from a very long Las Vegas travel day (2 flights with long layovers), wasn't excited about the ride in. My son and daughter in law chose this location for their destination wedding not knowing it was shutting down the day after we left. The only restaurant worth positive mention was the italian choice. Everything else was edible or really poor quality. Big issue was the rediculous placement of a heavy metal safe in our room's closet. I personally cracked my head open on mine and other members that found out about my dramatic scenario said they too had an issue with said safe location. The resort " apologized" for my experience! They were not willing to pay for any medical help beyond their on call nurse. She was very nice and did help with the blood, ointment, ice pak and gave me my potential options under the circumstances. It was my first night there with my son's wedding venue starting the next day so my objective was too keep the worst of it quite. Very tramatic for me! Entertainment/ music quality was not impressive . Night 3 of the stay the motor was destroyed by pirate theives shooting live ammo, attempting to steal it which took away 2 boat activities for our stay. Could have been worse, but 2 important promised options were taken from guests. The actual wedding and evening venue was nice overall. This location is going down to the ground, but Sandals Beaches should care more about their reputation based on the unfortunate exposures. Over $1,000 a night there and they "apologize" for my negative experience". Not impressed. Was told management would be in touch, but nothing to date. Now 3pm ( Pacific West. coast) June 4th 2025.

Three Years Later - Still Heartbroken Over Our Wedding at Beaches Ocho Rios In July 2022, my husband and I got married at Beaches Ocho Rios with 50 guests by our side, friends and family who traveled great distances to celebrate with us. We estimate we brought over $150,000 in revenue to the resort. And yet, three years later, I’m still struggling to come to terms with how poorly things were handled. The most devastating issue was with the resort-provided photographer, whom we paid $2,500 through the Beaches wedding team. He showed up intoxicated, fell during the ceremony, and then left the event without saying a word during the reception. Because of this, we have almost no candid photos from our wedding. The only formal group shot we received, the one image of our entire wedding party and family, has my nephew’s face cut off by a decorative lantern sconce placed along the beach aisle. That is the picture we were left with, and had to pay for! (Since the images and prints are a separate purchase and a steep one at that!) Then there was the issue with our ceremony itself. Moments before I was supposed to walk down the aisle, the wedding planner approached me in a panic and asked, “Where’s the person marrying you?” She had somehow assumed we were bringing our own officiant, which we were never told was necessary. She scrambled to grab someone to officiate, and that person repeatedly mispronounced our last name (“Cardona”) as “Cardoza”, even after I corrected her during the ceremony. I also brought all of my own centerpieces after being quoted over $2,000 for just seven tables. The planner later asked if she could have them, and I kindly said she could take one. I was told the rest would be delivered to our room before departure, but they never were. What followed was months of emails trying to recover them. When they were eventually shipped to me, nearly all the vases were broken. I even sent a video of the damage and received no response or apology. Outside of the wedding itself, basic resort operations failed. The water would frequently stop running, and many guests were unable to shower for long stretches. For a luxury destination resort, that is completely unacceptable, especially when hosting a large wedding group paying top-tier prices. We’ve waited nearly three years to write this because I didn’t want it to be fueled by emotion. But what lingers isn’t just disappointment, it’s the feeling of being ignored, disrespected, and let down by a company that markets itself as a wedding destination specialist. No one ever made it right. If you’re considering getting married here, I urge you to ask every question twice, put everything in writing, and prepare for miscommunication and lack of support, even on your wedding day. I would never wish this experience on another couple.

Overall we had an excellent stay. The resort was well staffed and everyone was friendly and helpful. The rooms were kept very clean. The finishes are a little dated, but we expected that as it’s an older resort. Our boys really enjoyed the pirates island water park. It has many pools for babies up to older children and even the adults enjoyed the larger water slides. The beach was sandy and the water was so warm.The food was quite good, especially if you stick to local specialties like the jerk chicken/pork and local fresh fruits. The cocktails and wine were superior to many resorts we’ve stayed at and the blue mountain coffee was excellent. Our only disappointment was the staff at the kids club for 0-24 months age. We tried to leave our son there for two short visits but they seemed almost annoyed when we dropped him off both times and didn’t make much effort to distract or comfort him so he didn’t have a good experience. Our older children on the other hand did have a good experience in the kids club and Xbox lounge with the staff there. And the nanny service we used one evening was excellent. She was friendly and engaged and asked the right questions. Overall we thought this was a great family resort and good value for the money.

Hi, I stayed with my son with allergies. The resort restaurants respected his allergies which was amazing. The resort is smaller than there other resorts of beaches which I wanted. The shows and the staff are just amazing. The rooms and the resort are very clean. The rooms need to be renovated but it didn't bother me.The beach is small but very nice. I love this resort and I recommend it.

This location is closing May 31, 2025, and I was worried when I found out. When we arrived on May 5th you could see that the resort did need an update, but that did not prevent the staff from putting 110% in caring and providing a great time for the guest there! Seriously, best customer service experience EVER! From food and beverage, housekeeping, entertainment, water sports, spa and more, everyone was wonderful. Special thanks to Kamisha in RedRiver Spa for one of the best massages and her warm personality! Ian in photography for wonderful photos and the fun game of Jamaican Dominos. And Shanice for getting our past trip to Sandals posted to our Sandals Selecte membership, inviting us to the welcome back dinner, ensuring our military discount was added to our account, and helping us book our next vacation! And finally Nicola for consistently try to get our teenage daughter to break our of her shell and trying something different! This experience help solidify that we are a Sandals and Beaches Resort kind of vacation family!

the room had a minor drip from the AC unit even though we kept the door closed and the room cooled. Overall it was amazing my kids didn't want to come home. And the staff was very helpful and friendly. Definitely was comfortable letting my kids just do there thing around the resort while I had a moment to chill. It was definitely fun when me and my kids were playing volleyball with the locals and having fresh coconut water by the beach. I would definitely come back. As far as the food it was good just wish there was more selection of authentic food :)