We went to this resort for my son's wedding - we chose Beaches because one of our party was only 14. What a disaster. On the day my son was married (2 February 2007) there were no other weddings and yet the wedding co-ordinator forgot to book the minister. My daughter-in-law to be, waiting in her dress, was visited and told, 'Well if it doesn't happen today it will be tomorrow'She was distraught. Eventually, after much wailing and . head banging (I kid you not) they found a minister willing to come and take the ceremony - one hour late. By this time the violinist had already done his hour ($300) and wanted to go home..he was persuaded to stay. My daughter-in-law was taken across the car park in her beautiful gown, to save time - it was smeared with dirt when she arrived. the ceremony was lovely but then it all started to go wrong again. The food was terrible - we had requested no seafood as both my son and I are allergic to seafood - what did we get - you guessed it - seafood! the restaurant was closed that night so my son and his new bride had no-where to go for a romantic wedding dinner. We booked a meal on the beach which was very expensive - candlelight , waiter service and a hand-chosen menu - what did they get? Not the menu we had chosen, you guessed it, the SEAFOOD one!!!
Put this all aside, let me tell you more:

1. my husband booked a trip to snorkel and horse ride. When he turned up they did not have his name on the list, but they still took him on the boat. He NEVER got to do anything and they left him sitting alone on the beach for 2 hours and then had the cheek to say, "well just pay us $68 instead of $88 because you did have the boat ride"

2. Our rep - VIRGIN (don't book with them) was useless. She was only interested in her commission and was never at the resort or available when needed. One of our party needed a doctor and we had no idea how to contact one. We telelphoned the Rep on her office, cell phone and the emergency number, to no avail. thanks to the understanding of the staff a doctor was called and our friend was given appropriate treatment, including an injection and medication.

3. The entertainment was mind numbing. every night until at least 8.30 adults were entertained by Sesame street. My kids , at that age, would have been in bed. There were little ones running around totally unsupervised (one toddler fell in the pool and his parents didn't even notice!) and if I ever hear the names Elmo or Cookie Monster again, I will scream. While I accept this resort is a 'family' one - you can only take so much Sesame street.

Ona positive note: The manager Mr. Noel Issacs was wonderful and went out of his way to help my son and daughter-in-law once he realised what had happened. Indeed, all the staff were wonderful. Nothing was too much trouble and they were exceedingly courteous.

Like many others before, I was a bit hesitant after reading some bad reviews, but we decided to go there anyway as there were recently enought good reviews about the resort.

First let me say I'm hesitant to post this since we had a nice time and there were so few people ther Feb 2nd to Feb 9th, that I'd like to keep the place to ourselves. It was very clean, it was well staffed and it had a much more laid back vibe than it's sister resort, Beaches Negril - which we did take a bus to one day.

There was just the right number of kids at this resort to play with our kids. As mentioned in other reviews, the Kids Camp is excellent and the staff was more than accomodating. By the third day, our 5 year old daughter, wanted to be at Kids Camp all day. Our 6 year old boy had fun at the camp as well as with us lying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and playing in the pools.

This resort is really nice because there aren't other resorts right next to it. You have to walk about 300 yards to get to Sandals, where the adults have full access, and there is nothing in the other direction in the way of developed resorts for about a mile.

The Hobie 14' and sunfish sailing was great as the winds were constantly steady, but almost non-existant on the beach itself. We went out to the reef for snorkeling, and while the reef is not that alive, there were enough fish present to impress our 6 year old.

We found Beaches Negril to be really big, busy and more "American" - something we were trying to avoid. It did have a nice waterslide and lazy river and many more restaurants and things to do. Not for us at this time as we wanted a quiet flop vacation. Besides, with free access to Beaches Negril, you get can get those activities during the day, but return to the quiet Beaches Sandy Bay anytime you want.

All in all, we are going back next Feb. but we are going to try Presidents Day week so that our Teacher friends can also attend. Hopefully it won't be too crowded.

We just returned from a great week at BSB. We actually were there the same week as the other family who rated the resort as quite low. This just indicates that it really is all about what you are expecting and what you want from a holiday.
For our family of 6 (kids 9,7,3,1) this resort was really about all we could ask for.
Yes, it is older and smaller than the newer Negril resort. However, we never worried where the kids were. We really got to know the staff and loved them (except 1rude front desk lady when we were checking out). Our room was very large (2 bedroom) and so close to the beach we could send the kids to the bathroom when needed and see them from our chairs (pretty important and helpful with 4 kids!). The kids programs were O.K., but the staff was great (Tina, Toya, Kimesha, Sharlene etc...They are all awesome). There were sometimes not enough kids to run all the programs, but they were busy with crafts and activities most of the time. (take white t-shirts for the tie-dye) They want the kids to have fun and want to come to camp. The Sesame stuff was really fun. They danced with Zoe, baked cookies with Cookie monster etc. There is lots to do for young kids.
When we were planning I found the lists people made helpful so I'll try to make one too. I have to say I am a very easy going person, but my husband is not and we both loved our week.
Anyway, here are some things to know.
1) The rooms are older. They are painting them and freshening them up, but you might get an older room. The ants were fine for us. We just couldn't leave food or juice on the counter for any length of time (I brought Clorox wipes that helped a lot). They were only on the kitchen counter. We kept everything edible in the fridge.
2) The bugs weren't that bad. We sprayed bug spray on us before going to dinner and the kids had one or two bites for the whole week. The flies do come around the open air restaurant at breakfast and lunch, but no more than anywhere else.
3) We were in the Begonia court. It was a great location by the watersports, kids' camp, and kids' pool. We would go down in the morning around 8-8:30 to get a site for the day. It was not a problem and we always found shade even later than that. The restaurants and bars were further away but not too far.
4) The busy street is closer than we thought it would be. After the Punta Cana where the resort was located far from the main road we found this surprising. The kids slept fine, but they definately didn't sleep in. The staff entrance was right behind our bedroom windows. I don't know if the noise is better further from the staff entrance area.
5) The evening entertainment was good overall (talent show, karaoke, house band, visiting entertainment, Sesame shows, magic show, clown, etc.) The problem would be if your room was right by the stage. I don't know how kids could sleep, but I can't be sure how loud it would be there.
6) I took some granola bars, fishy crackers etc. for snacks and was glad I did. The snack bar had nachos and popcorn but little else for snacking (people would also take some extra boxes of cereal and apples from breakfast for their kids during the day).
7)The walk-on sellers are few and far between no worries there ("No thank you" works everytime).
8) Older kids will love Beaches Negril! The waterslides are great and even the young ones loved the lazy river. It is fun there and there is icecream on demand and a pizza bar etc.. But it is very busy. It was nice to visit a couple times, but we liked returning to our quieter Sandy Bay. They do have better food I heard (e.g., lobster at the beach party). The shuttle runs hourly.
9) The two sit-down restaurants are really good. The Italian lets in all ages of children. There are no reservations and we had no problems getting seated right away (we did go at 6:30). The lamb dishes were all very good. The jerk dishes were delicious.
10) The character breakfast was extra, but it was worth it for us with a 3 year old who was in awe!
11) The photographers are good. They will constantly take pictures and give you papers to take to the photo lab. They work on commission so they do take a lot. Tenesha was the photographer we got to know. We bought more than we planned (they are expensive), but the sunset shots were too gorgeous to pass up! You don't have to buy any and you can just throw out the papers if you don't want to see them. But it is fun to go and look at the ones they took!

OOps! Sorry too long!
Have fun and really, go for fun and you will have it!

We stayed there for a week in early Feb with my Wife, our 3 year old and our 16 month old. Sandy Bay was very disappointing for the price. We researched all the Jamaican Beaches resorts. They all looked similarly lavish online, promised the same level of service, and cost a similar amount. We ended up choosing Sandy Bay due to room availability for our late booking. When we arrived, first impressions were not great (see below), and after visiting Beaches Negril for dinner one evening, we felt like we had been conned.

Sandy Bay is basically a 1980s resort that has never been updated. The AC is wall mounted, the bathrooms and kitchens are falling apart, and there are ants everywhere. It is a 3 story hotel stretched along a 50m wide strip of land between the noisy main road (that you can hear everywhere) and the beach. In the middle there is a tiny pool, flanked by two small restaurants a buffet, stage and nightclub. The 'Red Lane' spa is a shack stuck at the back of the resort. To its credit, the beach is absolutely fantastic, and the kids club was good. However there is no-where to hide in this resort, hide from the other guests, the road noise or noise from the nightclub. Its all a bit cramped. Sandy Bay also does not offer all the 'Beaches' amenities on campus. I cant speak for the other resorts, but about half the spa treatments were not available, and they had to use the neighboring Sandals resort for all Diving activities.

Beaches Negril is clearly a much larger and more modern resort. The grounds are very beautiful and spacious. It has a similar stretch of amazing beach, which is wider, and has more shade. There are more restaurants. It is much quieter at night due to the massive grounds and being further away from the noisy road. It has much bigger and better gym and a bigger kids club. There is a choice of pools, which are all much larger. Despite being bigger, the layout lends itself to a much more intimate atmosphere. You can hear the bar and club all night everywhere in Sandy Bay, whereas you don’t have to walk far to get silence at Beaches Negril. Beaches Negril also has its own Dive shop.
While we were at Beaches Negril we met a newly-wed couple who had just spent a week at Beaches Boscobel. They were disappointed with Beaches Negril by comparison. They said Boscobel was much more elegant. Take from that what you like, but we were embarrassed to say we were staying at Sandy Bay, and told them not to go there.

Based on what we saw, we would have happily paid what we did to stay at Beaches Negril, or happily paid HALF to stay at Sandy Bay. These resorts should not be marketed together, and certainly should not be priced so similarly.