First time staying at Couples Sans Souci...

[Charley28]

My fiancee and I will be staying at Couples Sans Souci in July for our honeymoon and while most of our questions have been answered already on this board, we had a few more things we were curious about...
-Approximately how long after we land in Jamiaca will it take us to get to the resort? (A recent post mentioned having to wait for a van, how long is the actual drive from the airport to CSS?)
-Is the private dinner on the beach worth the extra $$?
-How long do the Dunns River Falls trips take?
-Is getting a reservation at the nicer restaurant hard or is it generally available?

We chose a Beachfront Suite to stay in, any feedback on the room would be great also!

Any other advise/comments would be appreciated, thanks for all your help!

[SusanL0412]

I can help you with some of your questions:
It takes about an hour and a half to two hours depending on if your driver stops on the way or not. We try to encourage them to keep going if possible - we want to get to the resort!!!

The private dinner is worth it! I loved it the last trip - we did it on the beach at CSS and it was wonderful! Romantic and our waiter was amazing as was the food! We plan to do it again in April on our next trip!

I can't help you here, we never did DRF - it was just not something we wanted to do.

We have never had any problems getting reservations - even the same day.

As for the room, you'll be very close to the beach and I've heard they are nice. We always stay in ocean view/verandah suites because we like the bigger balconies/tables. That's just personal choice as it puts us farther from everything as well. We figure the walk will even out the calories we're taking in with all the great food!

[cakes]

-Plan on about 2 hours for the ride. I like the ride. A good way to see the countryside.
-That's really up to you. For us it isn't, not really any better food but very romantic. We find that the regular restaurants are also romantic.
-About 1/2 day for Dunn's River Falls. Definitely a must-do at least once.
-You will want to book your reservation a couple of days ahead but as long as you do that, you won't have any problems.

[Jed]

Charley
Congrats on the upcoming wedding
Don't forget to check on the Meet Up July 2013 thread
You will find that there are several new friends coming to CSS in July

as to your questions:
1) Time to resort
Time through customs and PPcontrol varies by the time of day and what other flights have just arrived
Most of the time it is about an hour from landing, unloading, getting luggage and going through customs. Sometimes less sometimes more

Once in the Couples lounge at the airport the relaxation begins. It usually is a short wait (less than 15 mins) and there is cold Red Stripe on tap.
The drive from MoBay to CSS takes 1 hour 15 mins to 1 hour 45 mins depending on traffic and how crazy your driver is.

2) Private dinner
for us not worth the money. We often eat out on the terrace at Casanova which feels like a private romantic dinner. But several of our friends have done the dinners on the beach and in the gazebo and have loved it.

3) Dunns
If you haven't done this it is definitely worth it. Very fun experience. It takes about 3-4 hours from what I remember. It is less crowded the days that there are no cruise ships which makes it better.

4) Reservations
We have never had any trouble getting a reservation. But you do have to plan ahead a bit and be flexible on the times. We like the later seating times (8 or 8:30) because we try to get in a nap before dinner after working hard lying on the beach all day. We usually plan out 3 or 4 days and make reservations for all of them at once. They give you a reservation card for each day so you can keep the times straight.

5) BFJS
We stay in the Penthouses, but most of our friends stay in Block A and B in the BF suites. They really like them. We like the view from higher up the hill in D and E block. Honestly, we don't spend much time in the rooms and generally feel like the rooms are much bigger than we really need. The balconies for the BFJS all look right out over the main beach which is nice, but if you are on the first floor the view of the ocean may be a bit limited.

Other advice
Try the au naturel beach at SSB. It is a great and relaxing part of the CSS experience for us.

Meet people while you are at the resort. I never thought that we would meet and get to know people on vacation, but I was wrong. Many people are there for honeymoon, birthday, anniversary, and other special occasions so they tend to come back at the same time each year. Our best couple friends are people we met at the resort and now we all go the same time each year. We look forward to seeing them each year in July.

Start saving for the next trip. I know you will have a great time and you will want to go back home in 2014 so you might as well start saving up for the next trip now!

We will be there from July 3rd to 14th. Hope to see you then.
John

[Orbspiders]

Hey there - My wife and I just spent a few days at Sans Souci, our first time at Couples. We also stayed at a Beachfront suite. We found the room to be perfectly adequate, but we hardly spent any time there. Most of the time we were in the room we were either sleeping, showering, or sitting out on the balcony. We honestly never even turned on the television, but we came back to the room while the cleaning crew was in there and they had it on. Seemed to have good reception, audio, etc.

When we got to the airport there was a shuttle almost ready to go. We waited maybe 10 minutes and were quickly on our way. Oh - and during those 10 minutes there was a bar in the Couples area where you could get free Red Stripe or Red Stripe Lite. If you have some, use the restroom because the drive is about an hour and forty-five minutes.

One thing we didn't expect was that our room wasn't ready when we arrived. We sort of let that bum us out a bit because we weren't prepared for it. Prepare for it and expect to possible stow your luggage and start your day before the room is available. Just a suggestion.

The private dinner on the beach was well worth the extra money, if you can spare it. They spent the whole day preparing (we had the dinner on Sunset Beach) and it was incredibly intimate, romantic, and magical. We had a private chef and waiter, a photographer, and a wish lantern. I was skeptical at first, but this was one of the best moments of the vacation. They also sent a complimentary bottle of champagne and a whole spread of fruit for our anniversary, which was a nice touch. I believe if you can prove you were just married, you get something extra special as well. Don't quote me on that.

We didn't make the trip to Dunn's River, so I can't comment on that. As for reservations, we found that whatever we requested was available. At the time we were there I believe the resort was operating at about 60% capacity, so I can imagine that might be different depending on occupancy.

We had so much fun, we are already planning our trip back before the end of the year!

If you have any other specific questions before you leave, feel free to ask.

[racegrrl]

Most of your questions are answered perfectly above, no need to eleborate. We were at Sans Souci for the first time this past November for our delayed honeymoon. I did a review on Tripadvisor (my handle there is the same as here, "racegrrl") with pictures a few weeks ago if you want to look for it.

Regarding room selection, we had a beachfront suite ground floor in Block B. We LOVED the location, and the ability to walk out the "front" door rather than having to enter and leave from the back and walk around. Granted, we were technically leaving the door unlocked as there is no way to lock the room from the front balcony doors, but we had nothing of any value with us that wasn't in the safe, and we just felt like we didn't have to be concerned there. The view was more than adequate as you will see in my pics on Tripadvisor, and I got to enjoy the company of the resorts kitties every morning as I sat and read and relaxed (and drank mimosas :-) ) on the patio while my hubby got some well deserved catch up sleep.

We loved our honeymoon there so much we are already booked for November 2013 - hoping to make this an annual trip now!

[Charley28]

Thanks everyone! This was very helpful, now we are even more eager to get there!