Molly's Caribbean

Benefits to working with a Certified Sandals / Beaches Travel Agent

Booking your trip through a Preferred Sandals / Beaches Specialist, insures you are getting the best possible service to make your honeymoon or vacation a memorable one. Read the rest of this entry »

Is Jamaica a Safe Destination For My Caribbean Honeymoon?

Jamaica is a beautiful island with wonderful, gracious people. I send hundreds of honeymooners there every year and I visit Jamaica frequently. It’s a shame how the island can be misrepresented in the media because tourism is their economic mainstay. I have sent hundreds of honeymooners to Jamaica. If it wasn’t a safe island, I wouldn’t be able to stay in business!

Jamaica gets bad press because they have some political and economic problems that are centralized in the capital, Kingston. Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Negril, the tourism areas of Jamaica are located on the opposite side of the island, some 200-300 miles from Kingston. So the tourism areas are not really affected by what is happening on the other side of the island.

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Will Travel Insurance Protect Against Hurricanes and Severe Weather in the Caribbean?

The point of travel insurance is that you won’t probably need it, but if and when you do, you’ll be happy you have it–as long as it is appropriate for your vacation.

When my daughter-in-law planned her and my sons Jamaica honeymoon, a few Octobers ago (smack in the middle of hurricane season), they took my advice and purchased travel insurance. I was willing to suggest a couple of different options, but she was a, shall we say, a independent bride. She wanted to handle the details herself. She did a pretty good job of it too, but there was one occasion before the wedding that stands out in my memory. There was some issue with the caterer that was stressing her out. She hadn’t purchased her travel insurance yet, and called me on a Friday night, a little hysterical. One of her friends (and I think it was one of her unmarried friends, you know the ones that have no idea, the types of things running through the brain of a bride to be), had told her one of those horror stories about a friend of a friend that had bought insurance, and they didn’t read the fine print and were out $6000. Read the rest of this entry »

Will A Caribbean Hurricane Ruin My Honeymoon Or Vacation?

One of the most common questions I hear from brides, grooms, and even frequent travelers is about how a hurricane could possibly impact their Caribbean destination wedding, honeymoon or vacation. This is a valid concern especially to those of us from the Seattle and Portland areas, whose only exposure to this weather phenomenon is from what we see on the news.

The reality of hurricanes is that they are seasonal and they are possible. Although NOAA identifies “hurricane season” as June through December, hurricanes can (and do!) occur any time. In my experience, however, the hurricane activity that Caribbean vacationers should watch out for is concentrated in September and October. In fact, there’s a Caribbean saying about hurricanes: “June, too soon. July, stand by! August, look out, you must! September, remember. October, all over” (but do take that with a grain of salt–my son and daughter and law honeymooned in Jamaica in October and only saw gorgeous weather).
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What Seattle and Portland Couples Ask Me About Packing For Their Honeymoon / Vacation

Oh, yes, we get sun here in the Pacific Northwest, and Washington and Oregon have some of the most breathtaking beach vistas on the Pacific coast. But packing for your first Caribbean Sandals experience is quite different than packing for a summer weekend on Cannon Beach. In fact, Seattle and Portland couples ask me all the time what they should bring along, so I’ve prepared this short crib sheet on packing.
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Northwest Barbershop Quartet Serenades Sandals Chairman

The following is from a letter to me, detailing an interesting sandals experience from a satisfied customer.

Molly, whatever you told them about treating us like royalty (at the Royal…hahaha) worked! Our riverfront rooms were the most beautiful accommodations I’ve ever stayed in. Since we’ve been coming to Sandals, we notice such a focus on anticipating any wish a guest might have. Of course, there were the touches like towels folded into fun shapes and having a turn-down service, but other things have just turned up a notch. For example, in the past, you checked out a beach towel when you arrived and had to go to the cabana every day to turn in your soiled towel for a new one. Today, there are beach towels on every lounge chair and bins of them by the pool just waiting to be enjoyed. When we visited before, we had a refrigerator in our room, but I can’t remember if there was anything in it. This time, we had someone come to our room every day to ask what we would like in our room. We had a variety of bottled juice and water at our fingertips and cookies with our coffee every day. Even if this is part of the upgrade, it was such a wonderful touch. We were right above the rooms that had butler service. Did you know they even unpack for the guests! And their rooms have a cooler full of ice and beer or soft drinks to take to the pool. By the time we’d been there a few days, our wonderful maid was seeing to it that anything that was left over in those coolers found its way to our rooms.
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