vestanpance-
Thought I'd follow-up on this thread. We ended up booking Couples Tower Isle instead of Sans Souci, for the simple reason that it was recently renovated. We went down for 7 days and got back about 2 weeks ago. In a nutshell, we were up in the air on which chain to go with and now we won't even try anyone else in Jamaica but Couples, it was that good.
I'll just say that we were absolutely impressed with everything Couples had to offer. We met on couple who had been there 14 previous times and several more that had been there over 5. When you arrive, the employees introduce themselves to you, then the rest of the trip they address you by name. They also have these floating "social directors" that interact with the guests more than I've ever seen. Couples includes several outside activities in their packages, make sure to take advantage of them.
Overall, I took down about $300 in ones, fives and tens to cover tips. The resort doesn't allow tipping, but I did give a few tens out in 'handshake tips' to some people who took extra care of us. You tip on the excursions, which is a few bucks a person.
Some tips:
- Don't convert any money to Jamaican dollars, everything is in USD
- Lots of high SPF sunscreen - you're in the tropics - lather up a lot
- Unless you want to tip someone off the resort, don't interact with any local that approaches you.
- Buy your duty-free liquor at the airport, it's much cheaper there (2 liters per person of hard liquor, more of the lower proof)
- Don't buy American brand duty-free, it's not any cheaper.
- Buy rum cream to bring back, it's a lot like Baileys, but a little different.
- If you are an early riser like me, grab an apple or some fruit to eat in the morning before the buffet opens. They are an hour behind us, so even after a day of drinking, I was up at 4:15.
- Call your brands, they have most of the premium drinks, but will serve you house brand if you don't ask. The bars have different choices, so if you don't see what you like, ask. They'll tell you if/where they have it.