Couples Sans Souci

Couples Sans Souci is a bit more quiet and laid back than we anticipated, but we still had an excellent time. Trip was Sept 14-21, and it seemed a bit empty, but that certainly wasn't a bad thing. The food was great around the board. Carol makes a mean omelet, and was always a pleasure (beautiful voice too.) The service for all the meals was great, as was bar service. Alphonso, Andre, and Glendon kept us pretty well tipsy most of the time, and all of them make a good drink. Great conversation too. Really I can't say enough about them. The location is great, pools are very nice, hot tubs are gorgeous, and the beach was kept pristine . Cant wait to come back. Read less

I spent months planning our honeymoon, I wanted everything to be perfect. I researched different all inclusive resorts and kept coming back to Couples. I finally booked Couples San Souci. When we first arrived we were so disappointed, we wanted to leave. After going to the front desk and getting a bad attitude and an eye roll from the lady working. We were kind of stuck there and just decided to make the best of it. The first few days were fine, but we were ready to leave after that. The property is so beautiful and some of the staff were amazing but that’s all this resort has going for it. It’s extremely outdated. We stayed in the beachfront suites, the most recently updated. They weren’t that nice and not what I was expecting. I don’t really care about the room because we aren’t in it that much during the day, but at night there is nothing going on, so you are stuck in the room. Also there was a cockroach in our room and so many ants on the bathroom counter you couldn’t even set anything on it without ants getting on everything. The mini bar in our room only got restocked once. I went to the front desk about it and they said I need to fill out a card to request drinks. They hadn’t put one on our door for three days. All I wanted was some bottles of water. The lack of variety of food was also disappointing. There’s three restaurants and they all have the same food. My husband and I both got food poisoning while staying here, had the worst stomach pain of my life. My husband had to stay in our room for two days. One night we didn’t realize Bella Vista was closed so we went to Palazzina, even though we didn’t have reservations they still sat us. Some other people did the same thing. I guess we had to wait until everyone with reservations was served. We waited three hours for our food, which is fine we weren’t in a hurry but they still brought me the wrong entree. The breakfast and lunch were the same everyday. All of the bars were pretty nice. We really liked the swim up bar by our room, but they don’t serve premium liquor just bottom shelf. The veggie bar is also closed. I completely understand times are tough right and it’s hard to get supplies and being short staffed, but it seems like everything you pay for at the resort you don’t get. Overall we had a nice honeymoon and enjoyed spending time together, but I wouldn’t return to this resort. Read less

Aug 29 – September 5th Check-in was good We were the only guests arriving on the shuttle. Check-in was quick. They request a credit card imprint. Near as we can tell the whole resort is cashless. Any purchases made go on the card in US Dollars. If you have a US Dollar card, I, would recommend using it. Something to be aware of when you go to check-out is you will be asked if you will consider making a donation to the ISSA Trust Foundation. Knowing in advance will give you an opportunity to consider whether you want to support this organization and by how much. I did not see any of the ISSA Foundation Swag for sale at the resort, though. Your arrival package will contain a map, list of activities and times. However, one thing missing is mention of what days and times the various restaurants and bars are open. The map reflects a view of the resort from some point over the water in front of the resort. As a result, a significant amount of the Path system is not visible. This is unfortunate given the number of stairs on the property and amount of walking required to get around. They really need a binder in the room to explain when restaurants are open as various ones are closed on certain days. They should also use it to explain the rules regarding the mini bar bottle system. Include a more detailed map. I would also recommend the installation of “you are here" maps, which detail all paths and stairs from a full overhead point of view. I believe these could be placed in ground exit area of buildings without impacting the visual beauty of the property. Another alternative would be the use of an internal broadcast TV channel that would play an information loop on the TV. I have seen this at resorts where your TV always starts on an internal channel. This could also be available in the Couples App. Note that this resort is built on the side of a cliff. There are a lot of steps to climb to go to or come back from most places. Buildings B and A probably offer the least amount of climbing involved to get to most places in the resort. We heard about a Sunset Catamaran cruise on the Facebook page, however, did not see any information about that in the resort. We did not pursue it either. In-room mini bar When we arrived, there were no In-room mini bar order cards in our room. We called front desk to enquire about them and asked for a bottle of wine on Tuesday. We were told someone would be there in about half an hour. We were not sure whether it would be with a card or a bottle. Neither arrived until the next day (Wednesday) when we got a card. Which would get us our request the following day. We requested a bottle of red wine, rum, and orange juice. The next day (Thursday) we got the red wine and orange juice. That day (Thursday) we filled in another card for red wine and the missing bottle of rum. The next day (Friday) we got the rum and another bottle of juice, but no red wine. At that point we just kind of gave up. There is no indication of a limit to ordering on the card, and no one contacted us to explain what if anything the issue was. We were told that Order Card had to be hung on our door by 1 AM. Ours always were hung on the door handle by about 6 PM. Our Thursday card was still on our door when we went for breakfast Friday morning. I don’t know if there is a broken process, no process at all or even what the rules are. Room D25 Our room was a decent size. Air conditioning worked well. Water pressure was acceptable; however, water temperature only got a little above warm. It was fine for a week. The shower had dispensers for body wash and shampoo. There was also a dispenser for skin cream. I know that some renovations happened and where planned, however, our room looked a little worn. Some paint was pealing, probably from humidity. There is lots of storage in the room. One of the things that I thought was a good add and have not seen at any other resort was the in-room safe had a light built into the door that illuminated the safe interior for a few seconds when the safe was opened. It was not enough to make us change our recommendation about bringing a flashlight and using that to double check you have everything out of the safe, but it was very helpful if you open the safe to grab an item. The room has a flat screen tv, with Canadian and American news channels. There was a nice sized balcony on our room with some view of the ocean. It was not completely private, however reasonably so. Our shower had a few missing tiles. It was a great sized shower. It had a window in the shower, with a blind. But on the second floor the blind was not necessary. While the housekeeping staff did a great job keeping our room clean, they didn't remove the loose tiles all week. Washrooms are placed strangely here, in our opinion On the main beach the washroom is down by the dive shop/water sports. Not at the main beach bar and grill, which is an evening restaurant. Or the main stage. In fairness the distance is not terribly far, however, it is not a straight walk either on the paths. It is a further walk from Palazzina. Up at Casanova and Martini Bar you go to the Games room or the Balloon Bar. No restaurant that we are aware of, has an internal washroom. The only washroom that seems logically placed is the sunset beach one which is near the grill and bar and pool. There is a speed bump and curb near the entrance to the washrooms near the Dive office. Both cross the walking path to and from the washrooms and would seem to serve no purpose. However, increase the risk of tripping someone in the evening. Particularly if you might be wearing High heels. Meals If you don't like runny scrambled eggs make sure you go to the omlete station. There is only one station and at sometimes it can get busy. Casanova served 3 out of 4 great dishes. I had BBQed Boubon chicken that was very over cooked. The beef tenderloin there was very good, very tender and cooked to perfection. They did a catch of the day well too. Palazzina, I had a striploin that probably started out an uneven ¾ inch thick. It was nicely chard, but cooked a couple minutes past well, when the request was medium rare. On our last evening we had the chicken cordon bleu. It was very nicely done, tender and juicy. We had lunch here a couple times and it was ok. Breakfast was a challenge to get coffee. Even with few guests there seemed to be a disconnect with staff. Some were very good, many seemed in slow motion. Bella Vista Grill, lobster dinner was good, however, there was only one small lobster tail. Grill lunch service was uneven. One day there seemed to be a lot of confusion between the three servers out front and the two-line cooks behind the counter. Many plates would line up for service but not go out as they kept looking back at the order sheet and debate whether things were correct. Even though the bar was right there, often lunch beverages took a while. One evening we sat at this bar and watched the lone bartender spend more time answering texts than serving customers. He saw that we were watching him at one point and said his 13 year son was always texting him. Ristorante Casanova, we had the Beef Tenderloin here one night and the cook was perfect. Beef was very tender. I think we had the best service overall at Casanova. They seem to have a lot of In-Room dining. We did not have any meals in our room, so can’t comment on the service. However, it seems that they have no process to reasonably quickly pick up or “hide away" used dishes. Which can sit out in hallways for hours. I don’t know who is tasked with the pick up run for dirty dishes, they would eventually disappear. I know they would sit out while housekeeping was working in the building. Glasses from the bar too. There was a Fruit plate which sat in the same spot in building D from mid-day to sometime around mid-day the next day. I was surprised that critters did not seem to get into it as it was only covered with clear wrap. A simple solution would be to have an enclosure to place dirty dishes and glasses into on the ground floor of each building. Have the housekeeping staff put the dishes in it, out of sight, and do a sweep at 10 AM, 2 PM and maybe 10 PM. The 10 PM sweep would have to be door to door, given that Housekeeping would be done for the day. On our first evening we enquired about which dishes on the menu would be gluten free. For us, eating a gluten reduced diet is a preference. We were informed by our server that there really were not any gluten free options. Certainly, none were indicated on any of the menus. There are some dishes and options that you could reasonably assume would not have high levels of gluten. Beaches Main Beach is the best for getting in the water. It is not a long beach, you could walk it’s length in 5 minutes. In low season, there are lots of chairs and quite a bit of shade. Chairs were also separated into clusters of two to maintain physical spacing. The Main Beach bar is centrally located. The closest washroom is down near the Dive Office. Inside the marked off area it probably only gets about 3 feet deep. Sunset Beach water is very rocky. If you prefer swimming in the ocean water shoes are strongly recommended. However, the combination of rocky bottom and shallow depth, really limits this beach. Again, my guess is that it would be no more than 3 feet deep. Many use the float mats provided to float. The beach itself is nice. The Sunset Beach pool is the best place to get wet and has a swim up bar. The lunch at the Sunset Beach snack bar is our preferred lunch. It has generally been better than the Grill. Dive Team The boat is a Newton dive boat. Dive boat entry requires some upper body strength at shore. There is a small boarding platform on the right rear. The boat is tied in about 2 feet of water. There is a railing on the right side, however little to grab on to on the left. If you are reasonably fit, it is no problem, and I did see the crew helping some folks get on. The ladder cannot be used in shore due to the water depth. The ladder also only has a grab rail on one side of the boarding ladder at the end of the dive. The captain of the day helps you up by hauling on the tank valve. Dive sites are nice, lots of fish and new growth. Dive team very good. The Dive operation is PADI affiliated, however accept several recognized certifications. They also offer instruction and while I did not take a course, I dove with a couple people who were, and they indicated that they were very happy with the instruction. General Observations The Couples app did not work when we attempted to book dinner reservations. The person we spoke to at the Front Desk seemed to acknowledge there was a problem and while waiting for our PCR test other guests mentioned that they could not get it to work. We loaded it, however found it useless. Full disclosure, on vacation we don't carry our phones around a lot. We were told that there was 55% occupancy, I believe that it was somewhere between 33% And 50%. The resort has 150 rooms, so my estimate is between 100 and 150 guests, and I am leaning toward the number being closer to 100, based on observations around the beaches, pools, restaurants, and evening entertainment. The consequence of that is they probably have fewer staff in. It seemed to be that the further you got away from the front lobby, the less dedicated staff were about wearing their mask properly, or ensuring guests did. On the plus side, while all restaurants had signage to say masks were mandatory, most were open air. The exception being part of Casanova, part of Palazzina and the Balloon Bar. Management should, in my opinion, re-enforce the importance of making sure the rules are followed so another shut down does not happen. Also, it should be mentioned that there was decent separation between tables and seats in restaurants and bars. There are lots of stairs and at night the lighting on them seems to be spaced too far apart and dim for safety. Even some reflective tape at the top of the riser would be helpful. Our Housekeeper requested that the toilet seat be tightened and informed us someone be there that day. It was not fixed 4 days later when we left. However, one day we had an issue with the in-room safe not opening and someone was there in 15 minutes. The Couples Lounge at Mo Bay Airport only had Beer and Water to offer. The concept is nice, however in my opinion expanding the options to include at least a white and red wine and some basic liquor options should be considered. Particularly when the transfer is at least an hour and a half. Couples handles the need to be tested for Covid prior to returning to Canada, USA and UK, very well. When you check-in the set up your appointment. We received our results via email within about 30 hours. The test was done on-site and was very organized. A real plus for traveling at this time. We have decided that we would like to return in a while, after things normalize more after Covid. We were using Sandals and Excellence as our point of comparison and feel that this soon after the industry reopened may be too soon. Read less

My wife and I just spent a week at Couples San Souci. I’ll break it out into the good and bad. Good: Room - this was outstanding (Jamaica outstanding they still fail to compare to some of the ones in the Yucatán) . We were in B19 with a very large room and a great view. Initially we wanted to be on the cliffs and expressed that. They allowed us to view both rooms and choose the one we liked more as they were offering us a free upgrade. Activities - we only partook in scuba diving, shopping excursion, and trading places with tower isle. . Scuba was awesome, and checking out tower isle was nice. I’ll elaborate more on the shopping under the bad. They have enough stuff to do to keep you busy if you’d like. Subs, snorkeling, sailing, etc. All included. Pools - perfect temperature and all of them were nice. The beaches were beautiful, but a little rocky. We checked out SSB and this is the place of you want to dip your toes into natural sunbathing. It’s quiet and calm and if you didn’t want to be bothered you could easily seclude yourself. Martini bar - best bar experience we had here as the bartender was amazing each night. The ambiance of the resort is unparalleled to anywhere I’ve ever been. You feel like you’re immersed in nature. Add in feeding crackers, turtles, and the ducks it really sets a mood. There’s views on every turn and really creates an intimate place. This is probably the sole reason we’d return. Bad: Food choices: due to low occupancy there was only one dining option for us each night. We had Casanova 3 times, Palazina 3 times, the beach grill, and the Jamaica night. While the food was amazing in taste the options we so limited with repeating menus. At lunch there was only one option to eat and you can only handle so much jerk chicken or burgers (I personally don’t like the meat used in the burgers but that’s consistent with all of the Caribbean.). Also every meal at dinner took a min of 1.5 to 2 hours with service being painfully slow. All service seemed to be really slow. Considering the low occupancy you’d think it would a lot faster, but some nights I’d have to ask 3-4 times to get what I wanted. It also really sucked you couldn’t just get snacks like chips etc when ever you want. Every all inclusive we’ve been to has offered this. The minibar in the room was a complete joke. Every day we filled out the minibar request only to have it unfulfilled or not picked up. Only one day did they leave extra Diet Coke like we asked. They never left any liquor we chose. There also were no snacks in the room. Late night food is non existent. Room service closes at 10 and so did the restaurants. There was not any food at Bella vista after 10 either. Employees were overly pushy with “selling goods” to the point they claimed they came by our room to see if we wanted to purchase things. This to me creates a security issue and made us feel a little unsafe. Shopping was horrible. Hire a private driver and go somewhere else. We were stuck 2 hours waiting with less than a few shops. Not sure if we will return as I feel if you’re going to advertise one way and deliver another you should offer some compensation. No where near the amount of bars listed (only one on the entire clothed side during the day). When I think they touted six and only one dining option per night vs multiple. No top shelf at most of the bars, and the mini bar issue. Meaning if you know occupancy and the pandemic are creating these issues either note that to the travelers or offer some spa credit or something to make up for it. Overall it’s a truly beautiful place Read less

This is our second time at a Couples resort. We previously stayed at Swept Away in Negril and enjoyed it so we thought we'd give this location a try. We were originally booked for April 2020 which got pushed to November 2020 when we finally decided to push it out almost another year. We were a bit hesitant to travel with the delta variant being spread so much but we are both vaccinated and the resort assured me that they had strict protocols in place. I will say that I felt safer in Jamaica than in most places in the states. Since tourism is so important to them, they really do take their protocols seriously. There is hand sanitizer everywhere, masks are required when entering the restaurants and in the buffet line and we saw people cleaning all the time. At the beach grill I witnessed an employee wiping down everything on the table - from the placemat to the ketchup bottles - as soon as the table was empty. Yes, the rooms are dated but they are clean. We had a deluxe ocean verandah in building D and the view was magnificent. We used the Couples app to order a continental breakfast of coffee, tropical fruit and pastries every morning. We put some rum cream in the coffee, sat on the deck and enjoyed the ocean view. Besides room service, there was only one restaurant open for breakfast and one open for lunch. We never had an issue with breakfast and while lunch was good, the menu didn't change at all during the week. The only exception to that was a daily special. I did get the coconut steamed snapper one day and it was fantastic! For dinner, in addition to room service, there were 2 restaurants open on any given night. We had dinner at all 3 and the food was great at each one. The service was outstanding and we never waited too long for any of our food or drinks. Now on to the drinks. One of the previous reviewers is correct.....there was no premium liquor. And on some days they would not have certain mixers. This is not something that bothered me. I really wanted to try a lychee martini but every time I was at the martini bar, there was no lychee. Again, not a huge deal to me. This is definitely not a nightlife resort. If you are looking for modern decor, marble, gilt, partying.....this is not the resort for you. If you are looking for a private, romantic, laid back and chill vibe then you'll be happy. Even with the limited variety of food and drinks, we still had a great week. We swam in the ocean, snorkeled, went scuba diving, met new friends and just enjoyed ourselves. We'll be booking again for a trip in May to renew our vows on our 10 year anniversary. I had to come back to edit this because I can't believe I forgot the most important part! I want to give the staff that went above and beyond some recognition. Almost every staff member that we came into contact with was so wonderful but there are always those that you remember long after you've left. So thank you to Nadeisha, Gerade, Alphonso, Javan, Ricardo, Dane, Kadene, Sanya, Andre at the bar, Andre at scuba, Shelton and Lashauna. You all are amazing! Read less