Great resort with gourmet food every night especially lobster night in the French restaurant. Nude island allows couples only, great swim in the morning and super place to meet new friends from all over the world. Never felt uncomfortable and had lots of relating fun while there. Lots of freebies like horse back riding, scuba diving and fun.

This was our honey moon trip. We stayed at Sandals Royal Caribbean for 3 nights (also visited Sandals Montego Bay as Sandals has free shuttles running between the 2 properties) and Couples Ocho Rios for 4 nights. These 2 hotels were not our first choice. We were planning on Sandals Whitehouse in May. (that's when the price at SWH is more reasonable) However, we booked these 2 hotels through each hotel chain's website since Sandals was having last minute special ($947 for 3 nights), and we didn't want to risk the rain in May.

Flight: Flying out of Los Angeles with Continental, we had a connected flight with connection in Houston. Continental served cereal on one leg, and heated frozen pizzas on our 2 return legs. One thing that I learned was that you should allow 2 hours of connection time when you return to the US because in Houston, we had to go through immigration, pick up our checked luggage, go through customs, drop off the luggage, and go through security and take a tram to another terminal. Therefore one hour may not be enough. In our case, our flight out of montego bay was delayed for one hour, therefore, we missed our 6pm connection in Houston. Continental had our boarding pass ready at the baggage claims area for the 7pm flight. We barely made it on, but our luggage did not. They had to be delivered to my house the next morning.

Room: At COR, we booked superior ocean category for US389/n and got a room on the 5th floor with small side view of the ocean because the view was blocked by a big palm tree. The room was nice because it has a balcony, was bright and it didn't look as old as the hotel. Compared to our lowest category room at SRC, which was old, dark, no balcony and no view. I would say the room at COR can be compared to one of the older 3* Marriott hotel rooms and the room at SRC be compared to a 2-3* motel rooms in the states.

Facilities: COR has only one pool (not counting the small pool on the nude island) and 4 hot tubs. Non of these were availabe during our entire stay because they were doing some sort of treatment work. It was a big disappointment because one of the days, the weather was windy and the ocean was rough and the beached was washed up with seaweeds, it would have been nice if the pool and jacuzzis were available. It ended up that we had nothing to do on that day.

Beach: COR Beach was decent size, about the length of 1/2 football field. It was larger than the beach at SRC. The sand was brown. The sand at SRC and SMB were white. The water was clear, clearer than SRC. I would say beach lounger availability at both resorts are not a problem. There were seaweed on the beach at COR even on a clear and calm day. There were no seawead on the beach at both SRC/SMB.

Restaurants: The Food at both at both COR and SRC/SMB were fantastic. However, I would say that COR is one notch above the Sandals. COR had flame broiled lobster at the buffet one night and also had lobster at the Italian. Lobster was not available at Sandals. COR had smoked salmon at breakfast and lunch buffets. Sandals didn't. Wine was included with every meal at COR, where at Sandals, wine was extra charge at most of the restaurants. The restaurant service at COR and Sandals were both great. Be sure to make reservation for the restaurants as soon as you arrive.

Watersports: The main purpose of this trip for me was for the watersports. This is the biggest disappointment at COR. At Sandals, the Hobie Cats had the sails up and ready to go. Sandals watersports people gave me lessons on both Hobie Cat sailing and Windsurfing and I really enjoyed Hobie Cat sailing. When I was at COR, the Hobie cats were unavailable during my entire stay. They would always ask me if I knew how to sail it. I said yes, then I was either told no wind, or too much wind and turned me away. I asked at least 5 different times and always asked me to check back at a later time. The sails were rolled up during my entire stay. It makes me wonder if they even let people use the cats. There was only 2 snorkling trips per day compared to 4 per day at Sandals. Many times, snorkling trips were cancelled due to wind, but I never experienced cancelled snorkling trip during the Sandals stay. Same for glass bottom boat rides. There was one trip per day (9:30am) compared to 2 trips at Sandals. The 2 mornings that I was able to go, they cancelled the trips. The reason they told me was "water is murky". Again, not a problem at Sandals.

Atmosphere: There was no music played during the day on the beach/pool at COR where at Sandals there was always music being played and games going on at the pool. COR feels more romantic than Sandals as they had piano player at French restaurant and live singing/saxophone player all doing romantic songs at the buffet. No such live music at Sandals restaurants.

Included Excursions: This was the main reason that I chose COR over Sandals Grande Ocho Rios for second part of my trip. The horse back riding (with Chukka tours), Sunset Catamaran Cruise and Dunns river falls tour were all fantastic considering that they were included. I'd wonder if these tours were worth the money if I were staying at other resorts.

Overall, my vacation started out great at the 2 Sandals resorts in Montego Bay, then came the disppointment of closed pools/hot tubs and watersports at COR. One last note, the weather at Montego bay was sunny everyday. At Ocho Rios, it was more cloudy, one day was windy, and another day was both windy and rained for entire day. I don't know if it was luck or the weather is alway not as nice at Ocho Rios.

I must preface this review by saying the overwhelming majority of problems with COR was out of their control, but I felt like an honest review was in order nonetheless.

We had booked 7 days/6 nights at COR for Feb 28th-Mar 5th. We had been to Ocho Rios before and were prepared for the bus ride. The ride was fine and I actually think this is part of the experience, you get a good feeling for the Island; the roads have improved drastically since last being in OR 3 years ago.

We arrived to find all the pools/hot tubs had been drained and that the prior night a European woman had been "sick" with Norovirus, meaning sick as in all over the stairs, the pool, etc. All the pools/hot tubs were drained, buffets were now manned by staff who gave you your portions, and we received flyers (slid under our hotel door) with all the information re: Norovirus, the symptoms, etc. Well the next day they filled 1 of the hot tubs (which we went into), so we thought things had returned to normal. However, we woke up the next morning to find that same hot tub drained again?! Panicked, we went to mgt to find out why it was drained again. Apparently they were told my medical personnel to leave all of them drained as a precaution. With this we immediately requested a transfer. We were told there was nothing they could do, so I requested a manager about a refund. Then all of a sudden the reservations staff began calling around to neighboring resorts (all other Couples resorts were booked). We were able to spend our last 4 days at Breezes Runaway Bay which was a 10x better experience. If only we had spent the full 7 days there, better late than never though. I would avoid this resort until they have time to fully renovate it. I felt truly sorry for the staff, you could tell they were embarrassed and were trying hard (this was really not their fault), but after saving for a year, you can understand our dismay of being walked to our room w/ the bell hop past the drained pool w/ yellow caution tape around it, it looked like a murder scene!! I hope the resort gets the face lift it needs, the people are great and Tower Island looks like a blast (we never made it over).

My wife and eI just returned from COR and the first 3 days were great but then the pool and hot tubs were drained and not refilled due to the noro virus so the only swimming was the ocean. The hotel is dated and is closing for much needed renovations. The staff was great and friendly and they handled the "virus problem" professionally.

If you're looking for a long beach for walks this is't it although you aren't bothered by locals selling things.
Our room was clean and basic however missing a bar fridge we're used to, it's not available in Deluxe Garden/Ocean view rooms...maybe this will change when renovated.

This was our first visit to Jamaica and will definitly return once renovations are completed.