Main Trip Report - Day 4 (Tuesday)
Today we planned to join Jacquie and George for a visit to Regency and Halcyon, the neighbouring Sandals resorts, take some photos and enjoy a bit of each resort... which we certainly did!
Tuesday Morning:
Once again we had breakfast at Bayside, this time asking for a seat closer to the pool for a nicer view. Yum! Champagne and OJ.... again!
The shuttle leaves every few hours so it was necessary to plan our day. We left on the second shuttle which was at 10am. The first shuttle left at 6:30am which was a bit too early for us. The ride was a bit slow as we were in morning 'rush hour' going through Castries, but we arrived at Halcyon to let people off at Halcyon in about 20 minutes. The shuttle continued on to Regency which took an additional 15 minutes.
Once at Regency we were all eyes wide open, taking in the layout, and Kate and I were recalling our trip there back in 2001. We noticed it was looking a bit older, but still well maintained. It was now just before 11am, and the main pool area was already very busy and lots of people were at the swimup bar. There was only one bartender on duty initially so many folk were waiting to be served, and I joined the land lubbers in line on the opposite side of the bar, but gave up after about 5 minutes. This pool is always very active, and I recalled all the fun we had there 4 years ago. We decided to head through the resort and check things out... maybe find another place to get a drink?
We headed south, passing the waterfalls and the beach front room that we had in 2001. Now THAT was a location. We had a ground floor room in the Choiseul building close to the Arizona restaurant. We just loved listening to the ocean waves on that trip. Oops! Back to real time...
We passed through the Arizona and on up to the Pitons pool which is the quiet pool. It has a great view overlooking the ocean too and is right next to the piano bar (a popular place at night). They were replacing the cedar shingle roofs on the adjacent Pitons Restaurant so part of that area was roped off. Nothing was open yet, so we headed back to reception and decided it was time to head up to the complex up on the bluffs.
The walk up to the bluffs really isn't too far... might be about a 10 minute walk. When its hot though, that walk up does seem longer. The road follows behind Arizonas, the Pitons Pool, Piano bar, Kimono's and on up to the complex up on the bluffs. On the opposite side of the roadway are the honeymoon oceanfront 1 bedroom suites which have a great ocean view but are set back and up quite far from the water. I took photos along the way while Kate flagged down an air conditioned shuttle that runs people up to/down from the bluffs. We were 90% of the way, but what the heck.
30 seconds later we were at the top, and immediately started snoopying around the plunge pool rooms. Some guests had come to the end of their stay and the staff were busy cleaning the rooms for the next arrivals. This was a great opportunity to check out the plunge pools and of course the view. WOW! Talk about a view! These rooms have a bedroom and large sitting area with balcony, plunge pool and million dollar view. They are up on the bluff about 150 feet above the ocean. You could see all of the main Regency resort below to the right as well as an endless horizon of ocean to the left. Still, that view and the small retangular plunge pool come at a HUGE upgrade price.
Steps away, we checked out the Sunset Pool which has a pair of cascading waterfalls at one end as well as another on the other side with a swimup bar in the middle. This pool is quieter than the main pool, and much smaller but does have the swimup bar and accompanying hot tub. And of course the pool up here provides a spectacular view of the ocean below. This is probably one of the best pools at any Sandals, although the pool and lounging area is not overly large. The hot tub was looking pretty murky though so we mainly dipped in the pool and tested drinks at the swim up bar. We met several other people that had also come by shuttle from the Grande, as well as another couple staying at the Regency sporting more bling bling than I have seen in some time!
Well it was approaching 1:30pm, and we had to make the 2:00pm shuttle for our next adventure at Halcyon, so we headed back down the road exiting left behind the piano bar, passing by the Pitons pool and stopping at Arizonas for some meat patties at the self serve kiosk. Yum! Too bad the bar there wasn't opened yet. I was thirsty!
We made the 2:00pm shuttle to Halcyon and arrived 15 minutes later, immediately heading to the main (Sunset) pool. It was pretty quiet, much like our previous day-visit in 2001. Not too many people about. The playmakers were running dance lessons with only one couple participating. There was one bartender at the swimup bar and there were just the four of us and one or two other people there. Hey! Did they shorten the pier? Both Kate and I had memories of the pier being quite far out on the water. Oh well it still looks like a great place to eat! And I remember the excellent sunsets to be seen from the end of the pier.
The local vendors at Halcyon were pretty bold, and were just out of sight below the raised walkway near the beach bar. Jacquie was greeted by one guy who had some beaded jewellery to sell her. She said "maybe later" walked another 20 feet and was greeted by a second vendor who offered something similar but more appealling. Suddenly Jacquie was caught in a vendor war and they made her feel quite uneasy. She finished her purchase while the first guy glared at her and made jestures... not fun for poor Jacquie.
Well next the playmaker announced that it was time for "Pool Olympics", so we quickly jumped in, formed our team Kick Back Mon and prepared to take some more points back to the Grande (Kate and I were doing well point wise with all the activities, and we were aiming for enough to win a t-shirt or certificate). We had one other player on our team who was from Halcyon. He didn't mind being on our team since we were pretty silly. I noticed some rings on the bottom of the pool and quickly slipped one over to Jacquie very descreetly... anticipating we might have to collect these later. We did a swim relay and won. Next was a contest to get all your team sitting on the floats horsey style. I cheated by crouching on a shallow ledge in the pool, and was caught and scolded by the playmaker.. we lost that contest. Next was the 'find rings and horshoes' contest. Jacquie and I already had a ring each hiding around our ankles. We won this one and celebrated with lots of hoots and hollers. PS. I normally don't cheat like that!
We made the 4:15pm shuttle back to the Grande and prepared for an excellent dinner at the elegant Toscani's restaurant. We arrived with Jacquie and George and we joined by Lisa and her hustband. I had broiled chicken and Kate enjoyed lamb loin chops. As was often the case on this trip, we enjoyed a few glasses of champagne with our meal. Unfortunately this was the only dinner we had at Toscani's. Next time...
Todays theme was "Lovers Day" or something like that. This nights entertainment was thus "Honeymooners Night" so we headed to the Palladium for the last half of the honeymooners contest which required men and women to answer the same questions to see if their answers matched. Of course several questions were fairly personal adding some embarassment and laughs from the crowd.
Well off to bed a bit early, big day at sea tommorrow!
Next Up: Day 5 - Sea Sick, Marigot Bay and Returnees Dinner (Wednesday)
Back to Yesterday: Day 3 - Managers Party and Soggy Beach Party (Monday)
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