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| Sandals |
John ~ Lindsay, Ontario, Canada |
November 2009
Arrival: Oct.24-31, 2009
Sandals Grand Antigua Resort & Spa
We have travelled to many resorts over the past years & the Sandals Grand Antigua Resort & Spa is the very finest we have ever travelled too. The rooms a decorated very well & are all up to date. The gardens are well maintained & have some of the finest plants of any resorts. The beach is great with its slightly off white sand that is cleaned daily, nice walking distance for couples in love. One of the greatest parts of this resort is the people that work there. Right from the top management to all the hard working people, they are all friendly & glad to have you at their resort & on their island.. If you need anything or have any issues managers & staff will fix it to ensure you will have a great vacation. The food is great with many restaurants to pick from & many great bars
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Don & Brenda ~ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
May 2009
Arrival: January 29, 2009 - Feb 12
We and 4 of our closest friends went to Sandals Grande Antigua to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. My wife and I had previously been to Sandals Grande St. Lucia and had convinced our friends to come along with us, but were a little apprehensive due to some of the reviews we had read. In as few words as possible, our trip was as fantastic as we had hoped. We've tried to make the following review realistic and useful without being gushy as that would be too easy. Firstly and primarily, as for the staff at Sandals Grand Antigua and the other Antiguans that we met, in general they are some of the nicest, most pleasant people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Yes, even the security ladies at the airport tasked with rummaging thru your luggage before departure were pleasant in their own way.
How some reviewers can say these people are not friendly is beyond me?? Maybe they are the unfriendly ones??
Your Arrival
From the moment that warm air hits our lungs as we step out of the plane and down the steps to the tarmac, we just allow ourselves to be processed thru the various airport procedures, gather our luggage, with the process having as little affect as possible on our vacation as we are not here to see an airport. To those folks who get cranky at this stage, just relax for crying out loud. The Sandals folks were awaiting all those from our flight and ensured that our baggage and we were whisked away as quickly as possible to the resort; which is maybe 15 minutes away. We were warmly greeted at the resort with glasses of champagne, our room toiletries packages, keys etc... Everything went smooth, quickly and pleasantly.
Rooms:
Our room was in a Cottage (Room 213) within the Caribbean Village. A very nice spacious main-floor suite with a king-sized 4-poster bed, tile floors, clean bathroom, in-room safe, and separate vanity and sitting areas with sliding doors to a patio at the back, where a stand of palm trees and other vegetation was the home to many little birds and a variety of geckos. Great spot for relaxing with a glass of wine at night or enjoying breakfast in the morning. Note: the birds love the pastries. We did not go and see a room in the Med Village for comparison and perhaps our furnishings were not 100% pristine, but we felt safe and comfortable and all appliances (tv, radio, iron, lights, air conditioner, etc..) worked as they should.
Restaurants and Bars:
Visited every restaurant (other than the sushi bar) more than once and never had a poor tasting or inadequately prepared meal. Some reviewers say the portions may be smallish, this may be true, but nothing is stopping you from enjoying an appetizer, soup, salad, entre and dessert at the same meal; this is a great way to sample various menu items that you may normally not try. I'm 6 foot and 215 pounds with a very healthy appetite and never went hungry. As for getting reservations, yes it is a good idea to plan and book your dinners asap, and we found as long as we were flexible we didn't have any problems getting reservations and we were usually making reservations for tables of 6 or 4. Tables for 2 were never a problem. Bartenders were always more than willing to make up any concoction we could think of and never spared the use of the name-brand liquors. Yes, they do have different grades of liquor, but if you have a particular brand and they have it, there was never a problem getting them to use it. And the idea that some reviewers say of the drinks being watered down is just absurd. And so what if they are, just have another one!!
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Interesting resort with the Mediterranean side which is ultra-modern with very clean lines and exquisite lawns and a huge pool and swim-up bar, contrasted with the Caribbean side which is older and more quant with plenty of seemingly natural vegetation and many smaller private pools. The pool bar on the Caribbean side is the place to go for daily activities, from morning pool aerobics to pool-volleyball and basketball, among others. And don't forget to visit Latoya in the pool bar, her drinks are magical. Antonio may even pop around to bring his sense of comical mayhem to the scene. To those other reviewers who didn't know ALL beaches in Antigua are public, I have to ask; did you not do any reading before going to Antigua. Having been to Mexico a few times, the few retailers on Dickenson Bay were certainly more pleasant and some even entertaining in comparison. The best marketing slogan heard was. You say hello, I say alo! As for the beach itself, the sand is soft with a nice gradual slope into the crystal-blue-green calm waters, great for swimming, or for those of us non-swimmers just relaxing, frolicking and enjoying the sea waters. Good idea to grab a couple of pool towels the night before and keep them in your room for the next day. They are usually plentiful at night while sometimes scarce in the early mornings. And yes it is a good idea to go early to get a specific spot / chairs beach or pool side (say by 8:00 am) but isn't that true of any beach/pool?
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
St. John's - Jan 31st. On our first Saturday, we were lucky enough to get linked up with a local taxi driver Bill (just ask for him as he is very well known) who took our group of 6 into the St. John's Market. For those who like to mingle with the heart of the area you are visiting, this is an experience not to be missed. Also visited both Redcliffe and Heritage Quays. Heritage is more cruise ship orientated with Duty Free shops while Redcliffe has some nice local shops and galleries; great for buying those little take-home trinkets.
- Super Bowl Sunday. - Feb 1st. The staff at Sandals - Cricketers needs to be commended for the American spread they put out that day. Burgers, dogs, nachos, beer, Steelers and Cardinals cakes it was all there. Great job folks.
- Eco Boat Tour. - Feb 2nd. JayDee and his cruiser/powerboat crew provided a great amount of information about the local water ecosystem and how the reef and mangroves play a part. Interesting non-eco related sidebars about the wildlif on Long Island and some history of Antigua. The Rum Punch made with Bushy's Rum was also the smoothest rum punch I think we've ever had. Excellent views of the northwest coast of Antigua and snorkeling at Devil's Gate with a nice lunch on Bird Island home of the Racer snake which we luckily did not come across.
- Beach Lime Tour - Feb 3rd. A more relaxed adventure on a catamaran down the west and south coast to Cades Reef for snorkeling and then on to Morris Bay for lunch with a steel band and a limbo / fire-eating performance by Mr. Moves. Also managed to get our first taste of playing Cricket with the crew and some local children. The crew members again were all more than willing to share any information about their homeland.
- Wedding Vow Renewal - On Feb 4th my wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows. We had pre-booked this event with Sandals to ensure we could get that date. From one simple meeting with the event coordinator, they planned our ceremony in a beachside gazebo just before sunset complete with a local Marriage provider, photographer, champagne, cake and appetizers enough for ourselves and our four dear friends. To make this short, Sandals exceeded our expectations and made this a moment we will always remember.
- Tradewinds Hotel Bayhouse Restaurant - Feb 4th. The 6 of us went to the Bayhouse Restaurant for dinner after our vow renewal. Fantastic views of Dickenson Bay and Sandals resort. The food was superb, the best lobster my wife says she has ever had.
- Island Tour - Feb 7th. Contracted Bill for the day to take us on a tour of the island, where we visited Jolly Harbour, took a drive down Fig Tree Drive over to Nelson's Dockyard, up to Shirley Heights, across to Devil's Bridge and finally to Betty's Hope. Bill was fantastic for sharing knowledge, allowing us to take as much time as we wanted, and just stopping here and there to show us interesting points or local vegetation. Although this tour took nearly 7 hours we could have easily spent 7 more. If you like historical sights there is plenty to see at Nelson's Dockyard. The sights of English Harbour and the Antiguan Atlantic coastline from Shirley Heights are breathtaking.
- Cedar Valley Golf - Feb 10th. Played the front 9 holes on this course. Pleasant but not too difficult layout with smallish greens and plenty of elevation changes as well as some excellent views; which is really why we went, the golf was secondary. Caddies were not mandatory, but I'd advise renting a power cart, which we did.
Other Comments:
Generally our experience to both Sandals Grand Antigua and Antigua itself was absolutely wonderful to the point that we did not want to leave. Having been to other Caribbean sites (St. Lucia, Barbados) we would highly recommend both the resort and the country to those wanting a relaxing, enjoyable, memorable Caribbean vacation. Perhaps you to will want to Soon Come Back
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May 2009
Arrival:
Took forever to get through customs/immigration. Resort is beautiful - gorgeous beach and ocean. Had a butler(s). Service was fair with one and good with the other. Wasn't worth the extra price. Plunge pool was filthy and hot tub only had 1 jet working. AC was horrible. Room temp was never below 75 degrees. Had maintenance there 3 times. It never worked efficiently. room was not cleaned. Had to call housekeeping. Room decor was adequate but it was dirty. Should have been more upscale given the price of this category (the most expensive). Calling the operator for any kind of assistance was difficult - it took many rings before someone answered.
Rooms:
See above. room category was very pricey and other than the proximity to the beach, it was fair. Could not use our pool for the first 3 days we were there. We also requested the first villa on the beach (booked this over a year ago). Three weeks before we left for our trip, the travel agency was told that this particular villa was not available. They had given it to another customer. Very disappointed. Room was dirty - not cleaned before our arrival. Furnishings were adequate, at best. Cocktail table had two broken legs. There was little information in room about the island, etc. Mostly only Sandals info. AC never worked right no matter how low we set the temp. Lighting was poor. Friends of ours had an adjacent villa and their AC overflowed onto their TV and bar area and surrounding floor. It took way too long for maintenance to attend to this problem.
Restaurants and Bars:
The restaurants were very nice. Had breakfast and lunch at Bayside - best bet for a variety of food. On the whole, the food was okay - not great.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Gorgeous beach. Grounds were kept up and beautiful. Pool was also wonderful. Only our plunge pool was not maintained.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
We only went to St. John's, the capital. Honky tonk type of town. Stayed at the resort for the duration of our vacation.
Other Comments:
On the day of our departure, our butler was to have our luggage picked up at 10 AM. The bus was leaving to take us to the airport at 11:30. Luggage was not picked up until well after 11 AM. At check out, we had to wait on a very long line. other butlers were helping their clients check out but ours did little to expedite our check out and we had to have her paged. We gave her a very generous tip yet when we got into our van, she just closed the door and never even said good-bye. Our other butler, however, a young man, was wonderful when he was at our service. Outside of the beach and the beautiful grounds, ocean, etc. it did not meet our expectations given the price. Leaving Antigua was a nightmare. No xray machines and they had to go through, by hand, all of our luggage. Very disorganized. Although we loved the island, we will not return to this Sandals. It is over-rated. Anyone going to a Sandals should check out the food variety as well as the quality. All inclusive does not necessarily mean that what you pay for is what you actually get.
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Ellen ~ East Brunswick, NJ |
February 2009
Arrival: Feb 15 - 22
The airport is small, only about 8 customs officers. Our plane was first to land and we were on the line with all about 150+ passengers for about 1 hour. We then boarded a van to the Mediterranean village.
Rooms
Room is awesome. We are return guests at Sandals and we booked a Venetian Suite in Mediterranean village but got upgraded to a Penthouse suite on the 6th floor. Great living room with a plasma TV, bedroom with plasma TV, a huge shower the size of my closet at home (no door don't need one the room is so huge), a great jacuzzi, 2 sinks, a terrace the covers the whole lengh of the suite with double entry from living room and bedroom. The best room we ever stayed at all Thanks to Ms. Lesley Warner. She is the reservation manager. You may get in contact with her and ask for an upgrade. If you are a Sandals return guests you are very likely to get one. Best accommodations!
Restaurants and Bars
Food was ok. The only good restaurant we ate at was Barefoot, they serve Lobster (1/2 of it) in the evenings. Very romantic. Also during lunch they erve the best Jerk chicken. All other restaurants were ok. If you are a gourmand and want best tasting food this is not the resort for you.
Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach is beautiful, wide. Water is that beautiful turquioise color but not clear. When we were there were was some seaweed in the water I guess brought up by some tropical storm. My parents stayed here 3 weeks prior to us staying here and said there was no seaweed at all. Water temperature was around 80F. Very pleasant. Water is mostly calm, however a couple of days the sea was very rough were were afraid to go in. Waves were about 3-4 feet high. The best time to visit this place is April - August, this is when you get the best weather/water. The drawback is there are no space underneath the palapas or in any shade by the beach if you are later comer like us. We came around 11 am and everything in the shade was gone. Sun was strong even though not hot. So you do want to ability to stay in the shade. The pools are great. The big one in the Med Village is great. What we found to be a true treasure are pools in the Carib Village. That whole area (even though the buildings are 20 yrs old) is magical, so tropical, especially in the night time, it is very romantic to strall through the grounds. There are hidden pools in the Carib village (go find them you will be amazed) and there is almost nobody who uses them so you are in the midst of the tropics in your own pool with a jacuzzi. Beautiful. Mediterranean village's style is very upscale, Monte Carlo like, very grand. Caribbean village got so much charm, very tropical, lush, many flowers and tucked away pools/jacuzzi's. Simply beautiful!!!
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
We didn't book any tours. We went once on a catamaran with the sports instructor. Great! But was a bit windy, water was splashing all over the place and I got scared that we would turn over and we came back in 10 minutes. However, if weather is not too windy this would definitely be a great activity, just ask one of the sports instructors to take you on their catamaran and they will gladly do this. We tipped the guy ($15US). You don't need to it's up to you.
Other Comments
We loved the resort. The things we enjoyed the most: accommodations, beautiful fairy tale like grounds, beach. What we didn't enjoy: food, sometimes attitude of the serving personnel. Also, I lost my Betsey Johnson purse worth about $300 and we went to the manager in the Med Village, someone turned it in to the Pub and I got it the next day. Thank you!
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February 2009
Arrival
Flew direct with Air Canada from Toronto to Antigua 1hr to get thru customs, get luggage and arrive at Sandals---very smooth
Rooms
Med Side-Venetian Suite 3rd floor with amazing view. Beautiful room with king bed, plasma tv, very well stocked bar and fridge. Amazing bathroom with soaker jetted tub and separate shower. Awesome balcony with great view of sunset, pool and sea.you can watch the cruise ships come in early in the morning 6ish and watch them depart nightly at sunset, CV side also beautiful just not new, more mature and island feeling each side has its on unique feel to it, it is a personal decision, but overall the whole resort is very enjoyable and you can't help but enjoy
Restaurants and Bars
we tried all restaurants except OK Corral and were very pleased with each one of them. good quality and service, beautiful view @ Barefoot and Bayside. Lots of choice for all meals. Marios excellent for breakfast
Beach/Pools/Grounds
Pool was perfect, although resort was full, never felt to busy. Beach was not to busy with the exception of Tue and Thur as cruise ship traffic was busy. still very enjoyable with white sand and beautiful water.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
shirley height and nelson dockyards were great and so were the pictures.
Eli's Eco Tour is a must, a great way to see some of the island.
Other Comments
Antigua is a incredible island and we enjoyed every minute @ Sandals. Very happy staff that would do anything you ask to make you enjoy your vacation. slow pace and very relaxing!!!
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Bonnie ~ Edmonton, Alberta |
February 2009
Arrival: January 17 - January 31
No Sandals private reception room with refreshments at the airport. Just a booth outside the airport. We did receive champagne and snack on arrival at the resort at check-in on the Meditteranean side. Check in was great on the Meditteranean side.
Rooms:
As a repeat Sandals Select guest, we were upgraded to "concierge". WOW, I've never stayed in such a BEAUTIFUL room. Balcony with ocean view, big flat screen TV, fully stocked bar, marble bathroom, double sinks, HUGE jetted tub, glass shower, decorated to the "9's".
Restaurants and Bars:
Food was excellent with a wide variety of restaurants (a la carte and buffet).
I've never eaten so many desserts, and they were all great! Compared to other Sandals Resorts we've been to in Jamaica, staff could have been a bit friendlier by smiling occasionally and maybe even saying good morning ?? In addition, there was supposed to be "dress codes" for the a la carte restaurants which was not adhered to as in other Sandals Resorts.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
The main pool and grounds were the most beautiful I've seen. However, no brochure will tell you the beach is public, not private as other Sandals Resorts. Since we prefer the beach, we were entertained by security guards chasing after "non-Sandals guests" that would try and sneak onto the resort for the free food and booze.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Definite lack of activities/entertainment compared to other Sandals where they have "play-makers" that get guests involved in the activities and fun. We were told they were in the process of hiring "play-makers" though. Also no large venue to accommodate the large number of guests for nightly entertainment, (which was not the greatest). Didn't bother paying big dollars for the tours. We did hire a cab on our own to go shopping. We also took advantage of the scuba diving, and the dive team was excellent. Was disappontment with the coral reefs. Web site said numerous dive sites 5 minutes from shore. Which shore ??
Other Comments:
Overall, the resort itself is beautiful and have nothing but praises for the "concierge staff" and "scuba dive team".
However was very disappointed with no private beach, lack of activities, and staff who were not the friendliest. Arguments, swearing and shouting between staff in front of guests was not pleasant. They have a few issues to resolve with the staff there for sure. In addition, the airport really needs to bite the bullet and purchase an xray machine for luggage rather than ran-sack EVERY suitcase to be checked-in. They only have 2 or 3 staff going through every piece of luggage for every tourist, and they un-wrap all the breakables (which you carefully wrap up so they don't break), which in turn, backs-up the tourists trying to check-in at the appropriate air line counters before their flight leaves....
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December 2008
Arrival: Nov 29-Dec 13
The airport is small and it takes about 1 hour to get through customs and get your luggage. Shuttles pick you up and take you to the resort which is about 20 minutes away. Departure is another story. They go through all of your luggage at the airport so don't lock it up until they are done! Very little seating so you could be standing for hours before you flight takes off.
Rooms:
I stayed in the Carb side. It is cheaper then the newer side and comes with a big balcony (comes in handy for putting clothes out to dry) much bigger balcony then the newer side. These are set in an area with palm trees and lots of green where the new building is not and each section has it's own pool and lawn chairs. Very glad we did not spend the extra money on the newer side! The one bad thing about the Crib side is that every night around 15:30 they spray this thick smoke/mist into the trees to kill misqutoes (they say it does not affect humans but if I grow a second head I know they were wrong *L*)
Restaurants and Bars:
Eight restaurants over all. I liked the OK Corral the best (excellent ribs). Monday night they host a beach BBQ (don't miss it!) also enjoyed the sushy bar. The only bad place was the British Pub. The food was good but service compared to the other restaurants was terrible (many complaints from the people staying and me included). I counted 12 waitress standing in a corner talking and laughing while people were waiting to get served, many just walked out and when they did finally take your order it was either somehow lost or they forgot to order it or they bring you something totally different. This was the only excepting as the rest of the restaurants were excellent both in food and service. The bar service was good never had to wait very long for a drink. With 95% of the resort being made up of Canadians, Brits and Americans no one tried to just butt in to be served first and many would say "he was here first" which is a really change from what I'm used to when you go to a resort with Europeans who tend to push their way in to bar and food lines.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
The beach is beautiful! The sand is soft (don't need water shoes in or out of the water). There are venders trying to sell you things but they do not hound you. There are a couple stores to buy things at on the beach that the locals take care of with many different things to buy. The pools are well taken care of. Most of the activity through the day takes place at the main big pool. If your not out by 9:00 AM you could have a tough time finding a lawn chair. The grounds were taken care well especially in the Crib side which has all the trees, bushes and lawns. Very clean resort overall.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Spent most of the days going SCUBA Diving as the day dives are included in the price (nights dives are $80.00 US per dive). The dive shop has older equipment you get free (you only rent a wet suit for $10.00). If you have your own I suggest to bring it. The staff at the shop are excellent! Peter, Dean, Angie, Jason, Jason _(Woff - Woff) and Chris where excellent to deal with). Sometimes the tanks on the boat were low so before you put your BCD on hook up your regulator and check first. Keep this in mind that if you answer "no" to any of the questions on the medical form that you should come down with a doctors note as they will not allow you to dive unless you have it.
Resort offers many different day trips at a cost. I suggest take a cat trip around the Island which cost $120.00 and lasted 6 hours. You go to a nice beach and have lunch and drinks on board (basically just a rum runner).
Other Comments:
I do a lot of traveling in the Caribbean (been to almost every Island) and this one is top notch compared to many I have been to. The people that say they did not like it are the type who usually complain about everything in their daily life. THIS IS A 4.5 TO 5 STAR RESORT!
Side note - still love answering questions for that hand full of Americans who ask those classic questions "do you use dog sleds in Canada", "are your doctors licensed in Canada" "can you get chocolate in Canada" Keep them coming!!!
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November 2008
This place does not measure up to the expectations created on the website.
The food was excellent however. The physical facilities of the Antigua Grande are tired and old. Hot water was warm at best. The rooms were Holiday Inn quality in size and not much better in appointments. My daughter took the wedding package and with a few exceptions, that went off okay.
The wedding photographer could have at least been dressed a little nicer. The wedding reception bartender could at least have brought a corkscrew and bottle opener with him instead of prying open fruit juice cans and beer bottles with the engraved sterling silver, engraved wedding cake knife and spatula set.
The help I'd rate at 50-50. For every person who was friendly and would knock themselves out for you, there was one who would be dorking off or simply clueless as to what his job was.
The general manager will not listen to complaints. Instead he sends out the 'guest services manager' who is simply a string puppet who bobs his head and says he's sorry. Then he sends a plate of cheese to your room (as if you didn't get enough to eat already).
I'm told the Medeteranian side is luxurious. The Grande side must be like East Berlin compared to West Berlin.
Do not spend a dime staying on the Grande side of this resort. It should be completely gutted and seriously upgraded or else simply razed and the grounds turned into a park.
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May 2008
My girlfriend and I stayed at the above named resort. Promises, promises. So much to look forward when looking through the brochures and the website. What a waste of good money. Below is a list of the things we went through on our trip between March 13th and 20th of this year.
Notable Events of the Week
Thursday – March 13th
- Arrive at Sandals Grande Antigua. We are greeted, checked-in, and upgraded to a Concierge Suite.
Friday – March 14th
- We attend the Concierge guest orientation and are told to fill out our Reservations form to have the Concierge team take care of booking excursions and dinners for us during our stay.
- We complete the Reservations form and hand it in at the Concierge office. Our reservation requests are as follows:
o - Three dinner reservation requests:
§ - OK Corral – Monday, March 17th
§ - Kimono's – Tuesday, March 18th
§ - Mario's – Wednesday, March 19th
We are informed that a yellow reservation confirmation card will be left in our room for each dinner.
o - Two off-resort excursions:
§ - Sandals circumnavigation tour of Antigua – Sunday, March 16th
§ - Shopping in St. John's – Monday, March 17th
We are informed that before Sunday, we are required to present ourselves at the Tour Reservations office to sign the documentation for the Sandals circumnavigation tour only.
Saturday – March 15th
- We present ourselves at the Tour Reservations office to sign the documentation for Sunday's (the following day) Sandals Circumnavigation tour, as instructed by the concierge team.
Sunday – March 16th (morning)
- We arrive early at the main lobby (8:45am) for the Sandals Circumnavigation tour, which is set to depart at 9:15am. 45 minutes later (and after confirming with two different staff members that we were in the correct place for the tour), we find ourselves still waiting with no shuttle or tour guide in sight, and eventually decide to ask a third staff member (a front desk attendant) for assistance. Leon (front desk attendant) tries to contact the tour reservations office by phone, but after not being able to reach anyone for 15 minutes, he decides to walk with us to the tour office. At this point it is 10:15am and we have been waiting around for almost two hours. Upon arriving at the tour reservations office, Leon explains the situation to the attendant who promptly informs us that the circumnavigation tour for Sunday had been cancelled early Friday morning due to lack of interest.
Not only did the Tour desk not let us know that the Sunday tour was cancelled when we tried to book it on Saturday (a day after it was supposedly cancelled), but they went ahead and booked us for the Wednesday tour without letting us know! When we explained this to the tour desk attendant, she became defensive and condescending, informing us that we must have asked for Wednesday as that's what we had been booked for. Only after escalating the point further were we presented with the option to either go ahead and take the tour on Wednesday, or if we wanted, they would cancel our reservation without penalty. If we decided to take the tour, we were told nothing further needed to be done – we just had to show up Wednesday morning at 9:15am for the shuttle.
Sunday – March 16th (afternoon)
- Not having received the level of service or courtesy we would have expected from the tour reservations attendant, we decided to speak to the concierge office. After all, if the Sunday tour had indeed been cancelled Friday morning, our concierge should have known this and passed the information on to us. Failing this, the tour reservations attendant should have informed us that it was cancelled when we were there on Saturday to sign the documentation!
We spoke to the concierge manager, who was apologetic but offered no solution and, like the tour reservations attendant, tried to convince us that we had requested the booking for Wednesday so the error was ours. After more frustration, we let the concierge manager know that we were still going to take the circumnavigation tour on Wednesday. It is interesting to note that at this point we were also told, contrary to the concierge's original instructions on Friday, that we had to sign papers at the tour reservations office for the shopping trip to St. John's, scheduled for the next day. So we ran back to the tour reservations office, only to discover that it had closed 20 minutes early that day, and we would have to wait until tomorrow morning to get our shopping trip papers in order.
- Tired, frustrated and still unhappy with the day's mishaps (and the fact that we had lost a good portion of a vacation day trying to straighten out these messes), we decided to try and get some sort of resolution over the mishandled booking and the apparent lack of ownership on the part of those we had dealt with. We spoke to the general manager on duty, Mr.Winters. After explaining our entire situation yet again, Mr. Winters assured us that he would look into it and speak to the concierge manager to see what could be done.
Sunday – March 16th (evening)
- Returning to our room later that evening, we discover a bottle of wine and a plate of cheese & crackers left for us along with a note that read "We apologize for any inconvenience caused" from the concierge team. At the risk of sounding petty, a free bottle of wine at an all-inclusive resort where our room was re-stocked daily (so that we had at least a bottle of red and white wine, champagne, four different liquors, bottles of water, cans of soda, and various fruit juices) seems like an empty gesture.
- Later, when we decided to open the wine we discovered, to our dismay, that there was no corkscrew to be found anywhere with the wine or in the room. We called the concierge desk a little before 9pm and were told by a very disinterested staff member that they would "try to find a corkscrew somewhere" and bring it to our room. After having waited over an hour, we called the concierge desk again and got no answer. Fed up, we walked from our room to the front check-in desk to get our corkscrew – which the clerk was able to find for us in a matter of moments. At no point during the rest of the night, or our entire stay did anyone from concierge show up with the corkscrew we had requested.
Monday – March 17th (morning)
- There is no hot water in the room. There is in fact not any water, hot or cold, running when the hot water tap is turned on.
Monday – March 17th (afternoon)
- We return to our room in the afternoon following a swim to find a yellow dinner reservation confirmation card for Kimono's on Tuesday. Finding it odd that we did not get a card for our requested reservation at OK Corral for Monday evening, we decide to call the dinner reservation desk. We made three attempts to reach them by phone, all within a five minute span, and no one ever answered any of our calls (it was no later than 4pm, and they are supposed to be open until 5pm each day).
Sensing that we are wasting our time trying to phone, we decide to walk over to the
dinner reservation desk only to find nobody sitting at the desk. Already skeptical due to the service we had received to date, we took a seat in the chairs in front of the desk and decided to wait for someone to return. After approximately 15 minutes, the only person that bothered to come by and speak with us was a gentleman who was cleaning and had seen us waiting there for a while. It should also be noted that we were not the only couple waiting at the desk. The gentleman who was cleaning, and decided to help us, went off to look for the reservation attendants, but came back five minutes later, alone. Sensing our growing frustrating, he graciously tried to help us himself and was attempting to locate the dinner reservation books from the desk when the ladies finally returned. After waiting 25 minutes, all we were greeted with were very non-apologetic and not very friendly responses to our queries. Finally we were able to confirm that we did have a reservation at OK Corral that evening, even though they had no explanation for why we did not receive a yellow dinner confirmation card.
Tuesday – March 18th (afternoon)
- The water pressure for the hot water taps returns, along with the hot water. This means that we spent over a day and a half without hot water in our room.
Wednesday – March 19th (morning)
- Once again, we arrive at the lobby of the hotel at 8:45am for the circumnavigation tour departing at 9:15am. The fact that the lobby was full of people looking like they were waiting for their tour was encouraging.
Just before 9am, an attendant from the tour office arrived to gather receipts for those boarding the shuttles for their tours. She announced two tours, neither of which was ours. After she had gathered information from everyone else, we asked about the circumnavigation tour and she told us that someone had called the tour reservation office and cancelled our booking a few days earlier, removing the charge for the tour. After protesting for a few moments that at no time did we request from anyone we spoke with to cancel our booking she cut us off to say that the tour itself had been cancelled anyway due to rough sea conditions. This was understandable, as the sea was rough that day. However, we wondered why no one had bothered to let us know, as we would not have woken up early and spent more of our own time waiting around the lobby had we known. She then added that if we had not cancelled the tour (which, again, we did not), someone would have called our room to let us know about the bad weather and the cancellation that morning. She continued to insist that someone from concierge had called her days earlier to cancel our tour and so she had done so.
The charge for the circumnavigation tour still showed up on our room bill when we received our check-out package later that day (the charge was not removed until Thursday morning when we checked out at the front desk). Clearly the tour was never cancelled "a few days ago" by some mysterious request from concierge and this was just another example of an indifferent employee not willing to admit fault (that no one had called our room earlier that day to let us know the tour was cancelled due to rough weather). Instead, we wasted another couple of precious hours from our vacation being given the run-around.
Wednesday – March 19th (evening)
- Knowing that we had a confirmed dinner reservation at Mario's that evening (as per the yellow card we received earlier in the week), we arrived for dinner promptly at 6:30pm. The host informed us that we were not on his reservation list, and after we told him that we had a confirmed reservation for 6:30pm, he grudgingly seated us at a table, muttering that he had some openings anyway so he could fit us in. Considering the mix-ups and poor service we had received all week, this was just another frustrating (yet sadly, not surprising) item to add to our list. Truly, it was almost laughable by this point.
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February 2008
Arrival -
We left February 6, 2008 ... just as an 18" snowstrom was coming into our area. Fortunatly we were able to get out (after a 3.5 hour wait on the run way). The delay actually helped because then we didn't have such a long layover in Puerto Rico. 10 night stay.
Rooms -
Very spacious ... very clean ... excellent view ... well stocked refrigerator at all times. We loved our room ... although when we are on vacation, we try not to spend time in our room. Too many other things to enjoy!
Restaurants -
Restaurants were ok. Thought the best was Kimonos. The returning Sandals special dinner was one of their largest they have hosted on Wednesday, February 13TH .... this shows how people love Sandals and keep coming back !!!
Bars -
There was never a lack of places to get drinks. the service was always quick and you could have anything you wanted.
Beach and Pools -
WONDERFUL ..... NOT MUCH MORE TO SAY. We spent more time on the beach than in the pools. Vendors were around, but very poite when you said 'no'.
Grounds -
Stunning .... Perfect
Activities -
You can do as much as you want ... or just lay back ... just what a vacation should be.
We renewed our wedding vows on the beach February 14th (it was our 20th anniversary). Everything was done to perfection. Flowers, photos, champagne & wedding cake. We also had a private lobster dinner set up on the beach for us that evening/ Couln't have been more romantic!!!
Tours -
WE WENT ON THE FOLLOWING TOURS AND WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE:
ISLAND SAFARI (with Sting Rays), guide was excellent and told us much about the history of the island.
EXTREME CIRCUMNAV (speed boat around the entire island ... swam with sting rays again). This was a good way to get a feel for the size of the island.
ANTIGUA ZIPLINE CANOPY TOUR (What an adrenaline rush).
Conclusion -
WE THOUGHT THIS WAS AN EXCELLENT RESORT ... LOVED EVERY MINUTE. LIFE AND VACATION IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT. PEOPLE THAT COMPLAIN USUALLY COMPLAIN ABOUT EVERYTHING ... SO IF YOU READ NEGATIVE REVIEWS ... REMEMBER THE SOURCE AND DON'T LET THIS HOLD YOU BACK FROM GOING TO THIS EXCELLENT RESORT.
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February 2008
Arrival - We arrived on January 26th on USAIR with no problems. It was a little hectic at the airport and the lines were long at Immigration but they processed everyone quite fast for having 4 huge aircrafts arriving at the same time. Customs was a breeze. It took about 15 minutes of waiting for all the shuttles and then we were on our way. You just can't get all bent out of shape because you have to wait a little bit.
Rooms - We were upgraded from The St. Tropez suite to the Penthouse One Bedroom Suite in the New Mediterranean Village. All I can say if anyone complains about this new Village they need to stay home. It was absolutely fabulous. The grounds were immaculate. I would suggest spending the little bit extra to be in this side of the resort though because it is spectacular.
Restaurants - Eleanors fabulous, Marios equally great and Kimonos was the best of all the Sandals I've been to. I do highly suggest that you make your reservations the day you arrive for the whole week though because they do get booked up. OK Corral the ribs are awesome and Barefoot by the Sea is awesome and gorgeous at night. The small steak with shrimp was yummy and don't forget the coconut pie for desert.
Bars - The Pub is lots of fun and the bartenders in there are really entertaining. We unfortunately didn't eat in there but everyone said they had a wicked burger.
Beach and Pools - Beach is not private and yes they do have vendors constantly walking up to you but if you're polite to them and just say no thanks they will not pressure you. They are just trying to provide for their families as we are. They are actually fascinating to talk to if you give them a chance. Beware of Darrel, he'll talk your ear off but very sweet. I do agree however that there needs to be a few more chairs around the pool because people actually get out there at 6am and start saving chairs. We always just went to the beach and came back to the pool later. Easy, if you see chairs sitting there with towels longer than an hour they are free game.
Grounds - Unbelievable is an understatement. I have never seen such beauty and the gardeners never stopped working. Absolutely stunning is all I can say.
Activities - Plenty to do unless you wanted to just be a lazy bum like we were and enjoy the beach and pool.
Tours - We hired a private driver "Sammy's tours" and Sammy was fabulous. He took us all over the island and even went over 2 hours and didn't charge us. We tipped him well just because he didn't try to rip us.
In conclusion DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ. If you start out being so miserable it will ruin your trip, we met a few like that. Remember you are in the Caribbean, treat people with respect and you will get it equally in return. I will definately go back again.
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November 2007
Visited this resort on a work trip and was extremely disappointed. I had read several reviews and many of them were true....
The ONE redeeming quality the resort had was the butler service in the Meditterranean Village...they were OUTSTANDING!!!
Other than that, the food was definitely lacking, most of the employees were cordial but did not have answers to any questions.
A large handful of them were very rude and unhelpful.
A small handful were above and beyond pleasant and helpful.
The resort and the rooms were also infested with mosquitoes - who LOVE the tourists :) And there were SEVERAL power outages on the Friday night I was there. Power outages to the ENTIRE resort....which left us in the dark for several minutes....
I have traveled all over the world in all types of hotels/resorts/hostels with all types of people.
Since I didn't pay for this trip (was work related) - I suppose it was acceptable (and beyond my control). However - had I paid upwards of $2000 to travel across the nation for a wedding or honeymoon I would have been seriously disappointed.
Can't speak for any of the other Sandals resorts - but if you are looking for top of the line treatment and great food - this resort is not the place to be.
And yes - the pictures are AMAZING - but deceiving.
Check out some pictures here :
http://dream-crazy.blogspot.com/2007/11/antigua.html#links =
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| Sandals |
Karen and Tim ~ Ontario
|
November 2007
We were at the resort from Oct 27 to Nov. 3 and had a great time! We have read numerous (other negative) reviews, and can't agree with them. We had an opportunity to be up-graded to the new section and we declined due to the perfect location we had. Any problems we had were dealt with. Our biggest problem was that we had used all of our bottled water, and the front desk staff delivered it promptly with an additional bottle of wine for the inconvenience. NO PROBLEM!
The beach is awesome, and the food is great! Unlimited sailing every day!! Touring the island was amazing! Great history and incredible scenery!!
We have traveled extensively, and we have always had a great time when we relaxed, got into the local culture, and chilled. Go with the flow. This was our first trip to a Sandals, and we found that it was very relaxing, and a great adult resort.
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November 2007
I am writing this complaint as seen through our eyes. It is detailed and written with our emotions and thoughts expressed. I feel this is the best way to express our experience on our honeymoon, in hopes that you will understand where we are coming from and what we experienced. The staff at the Mediterranean Village did not understand our concerns and issues when we expressed them. In fact, they seemed a bit condescending and like they were belittling us when ever we had an issue. We are pretty laid back people and it did take a good amount to re ally u pset us, but once we were upset it was all downhill from there.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Upon our arrival we found the Sandals desk in front of the Antigua airport. We gave them our name and showed them our reservation slip. A guy with a Sandals badge grabbed our bags tagged them and quickly ran across the street and threw them into the back of an unmarked box truck. Then we were rushed into a cab and off to The Mediterranean Village. We were a little nervous that we were separated from our bags with no explanation. It was a very unorganized hectic whirlwind that we were in. You couldn’t do anything but just be herded in the direction they pushed you in.
When we arrived at The Mediterranean Village we exited the van/cab and a staff member (******) had greeted us and asked where our baggage was. We told her that it was taken by a man at the Sandals desk at the airport and thrown in the back of a box truck. The expression on her face was not a positive one. So of course I said “Are our bags OK?” She responded in a not so sure tone, “I’m sure they are fine. Yes, they will be here shortly.” Then she brought us to one of the couch areas in the lobby and said she would be with us in a moment. Another staff member came over and asked if we wanted some champagne. I asked for water and Greg asked for a beer. We sat waiting to be checked in. **** came over with an envelope and had us sign some papers, sign our membership cards and asked for my credit card for any incidentals. We were then told that our room was not ready yet and it would only be a minute or two, **** left with the envelope & my credit card. We waited a few more minutes and still had not gotten our drinks. We stopped the staff member that originally took our order and asked if we could have our drinks. At this point we had seen the people we road with in the cab receive their drinks and be taken to their room. Not to mention, people that c ame in after us had received their drinks and were brought to their room too. About 5 or 10 minutes later **** came back and said our room was ready and we could go now. Greg and I refused, we had not gotten our drinks yet and I was dying of thirst and wasn’t about to wait another half hour for some water seeing I had already waited that amount of time or more since we arrived. **** said we could get our drinks in our room. We told her that we were not moving until I received my water, we didn’t even care about Greg’s beer now, I just wanted my water. **** walked away and seconds later our drinks came over (she must have said something). She waited for me to chug down my water (that took about 3 seconds) and came over to bring us to our room.
When we got to our room she told us to put our key in the slot to activate the electricity for the room and pull it out when we leave to save on energy. She pointed to our bathroom and then showed us our patio. I mentioned that we did not request a ground level room and she said that we were upgraded because our room was not ready. OK….I asked about our bags and she said they would be delivered to our room shortly. She left and Greg and I turned on the TV and waited for our bags. 30 minutes went by and we called the front desk, they told us they were on their way. Another 20 minutes goes by and still no bags, so we call again, they assured us our bags were on their way t o our room that very second. Needless to say, 20 minutes later they still were not there. Mind you, the last time we saw them was when a stranger came, grabbed them from us and threw them in the back of a box truck that did not say Sandals on it. So both Greg and I went to the front desk to find out what was going on. Now we are nervous that our bags have been stolen by the box truck guy and the staff members are just trying to stall us.
We walked into the lobby and ran into ****, Greg had said, “I don’t know if you remember us but we checked in with you over an hour ago and we are still waiting for our bags to be delivered to our room.” (about 2 hours since we got to the hotel). **** said they had a group of 200 coming in and got a little behind (later to find out the group of 200 was actually a group, Shaw Industries. This was in addition to the couples that were coming into the resort that day and the group of returning Sandals guests. This should not be a big deal for a resort such as Sandals. I know from experience being a corporate function coordinator for 5 years and working with many hotels and resorts for our groups ranging from 100 to well over 300. I know it can be done and be done seamlessly to the group and other guests). So Greg and I said we would wait in the lobby for them to find our bags and bring them to us. About 5 minutes later **** called us over to the balcony looking down on the floor below and asked if those were our bags. We identified them and went to our room to wait for them. A minute or two went by and we received our bags.
Greg and I unpacked, changed so we could start our honeymoon. We decided to chalk it up to confusion and the staff not being ready for so many people coming in at once. Plus we were not going to think of the problems our friends Kara and Jon had two weeks previous at this resort on the 8th of October. Jayne (our honeymoon planner) had spoken with her contact at Sandals in Miami and had spoken with the GM at the Mediterranean Village and we were assured that everything would run smoothly and that they treated honeymooner very well. This was just a bump in the road and couldn’t get any worse; so we thought.
We looked at the paperwork that was in our envelope (a different envelope than we received earlier when we signed the paperwork and our membership cards) we looked at the map to get our bearings and looked at what restaurants were open. We were going to go to Barefoot by the Sea for seafood but it is closed on Tuesdays, so we decided on Italian and to go to Mario’s that night. We would go to the Barefoot Wednesday night.
We looked at the map that was provided to us and couldn’t find Mario’s on it or Barefoot by the Sea or the Cricketers Arms. We remembered how Kara had told us they had an old map and nothing was on it. So we decided to just explore and find it on our own. It was almost 6:30 and dinner service would be starting. We walked down towards the pool area and looked around. We saw what looked like a restaurant that was encased in glass atrium doors, but no sign telling us what it was. We saw next door was the Cricketer and we walked further around the corner and saw a boutique and a gift shop. We walked up to there and saw that the resort ended; there was a walk way to the rest of the rooms. So we turned around to see if there was something we missed. Mind you, by 6:30 it is dark there and there wasn’t much lighting on the resort. We walked past the pool and found what looked like an outside restaurant and because it appeared to be closed we came to the conclusion it must have been the Barefoot by the Sea. We walked around a bit more, but all we saw were the rondavals and the beach. So we walked back to where the Cricketer was and asked a person walking by in a uniform if they could tell us what restaurant, if it was one, the place with all the atrium doors was. They said it was Mario’s, “yay we foun d it”. (now just to find which door to go in.) So we asked the person in the uniform where to enter at.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Start of a new day….We were awoken by hammering, electric saws and drills and other construction noises at about 8:30/9:00 am. Ah, just like home, with both us and our neighbors doing major construction on our homes for the last year and a half, I thought we would be able to get away from construction noise for at least one week. I guessed wrong. With the tile flooring and the stone walls in the hallway and the general architecture of the building everything had an echo effect, so the construction noise was amplified. So we turned the TV up loud and lay in bed for a bit to try and relax before we got up to shower. We saw that t he Bar efoot opened at 10:30 so we took our time getting ready. Greg was the first to take a shower, he noticed there was no shower door; but being new to Sandals we thought maybe this is a thing they do. It is a resort for lovers. He also noticed that the exhaust fan was broken in the shower too; which made the mirrors fog up whenever we showered. After we were dressed we still had time till the Barefoot opened so we decided to explore the resort in the daylight. Again we couldn’t find the rest of the resort, we walked down to the gift shop and boutique area and I said to Greg, well we have time until the Barefoot opens, lets just go look at the grounds. So we started walkin g down the path through the cottage like rooms (looked like New Hampshire cottages just pink). We continued on the path and looked at the exterior of the rooms, found another pool w/ a swim up bar and continued on the path, then we saw a building archway and walked though that and found the rest of the resort. We looked around for signs as to what was what; we saw a sign for Eleanor’s, Crystal Lounge, Ok Coral and Bayside. Now we are feeling better that we have found more restaurants and more of the resort. We got a drink and walked the beach back to the Barefoot for something to eat. Just after 10:30 we arrived at the Barefoot gave them our room number and they sat us. The waitress came over and took our drink order and we sat looking around. About 10 minutes went by and still no drinks. We are beginning to see a pattern here. So I got up and walked over to the pool bar, figuring that maybe I could get a drink before the waitress came back with ours. While I was standing at the bar, I couldn’t even get service there. There were not many people sitting at the bar in the pool but still no one would wait on me. They just walked by. I would see someone swim up, call the bartenders name and they would go right over to them not me who had been patiently waiting. I would look back at our table and Greg was still just sitting there no drinks, no waitress. After about 10 minutes of standing at the pool bar Greg waved me to come back to the table. So I did, we sat for a couple more minutes and then finally the waitress came over with our water and bloody marys and took our order. The food came out and we ate and were off to get our bathing suits on and try out the ocean.
Later we went and played chess on the large chess board over by the Grande Antigua main area and saw a staff member in full gear with gloves and a respirator on fogging the area with chemicals for the bugs we guess. “That couldn’t be too healthy if he is wearing protective gear and a respirator.” He just did his thing not minding us and fogged us out. We held our breath and stepped closer towards the beach away from him for a minute or two and waited to the cloud of insecticide to clear and went back to our game.
That evening we went down to the Barefoot for our seafood dinner a little before 6:30. It seemed like they were decorating the restaurant for a special occasion so we asked one of the people that were directing the staff what was going on. She told us it was a private party for returning Sandals guests and that the restaurant would be closed to all other guests for the evening. “Well that was nice that no one told us.” There was no note or call to our room or anything of the such to inform us that the restaurant would be closed yet another night. Looks like Mario’s again.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Woken up again by construction going on, turned up the TV, took showers and headed to the Barefoot for something to eat. This time we got there just as it opened. There was only one other couple sitting down. “Yes, we will be sure to get served in a timely manor today.” About 20 minutes went by and no one else entered the restaurant, there are a few waitresses standing at the food prep area, one is waiting on the only other couple in the restaurant and we are still waiting for our waitress to come over to the table. I see one of the waitresses talking to the guy that sat us, then she goes back to chat with the other waitresses at the prep area. Still no one comes o ver. I finally had enough and went to the guy that sat us and said, very sternly and angered, “What do we have to do to make our waitress actually come over to our table today!” He said she would be with us in a minute. I said, “No, she will come over immediately we have been waiting for almost a half an hour!” So he went to get our waitress while I was walking back to our table. She came over and said, “Oh I’m sorry, I thought he already took care of you. Can I take your drink order?” In my head I thought well he’s not the waiter so why would he have. So we gave her our drink order and our food order.& nbsp; The food came out quickly, and we were to soon find out why…..I had ordered a hotdog and the chicken quesadea and Greg had ordered a hotdog and a burger. We at our hotdogs; no problem. I started on my chicken quesadea and Greg took a bite of his hamburger. I noticed that Greg was not eating his burger and looked like he was hiding something in his expression; he had only taken a bite. I figured there was an onion on it and he was waiting for the waitress to come back and order another one or something minor like that. So I kept eating. Then Greg looked at me, smiled, slightly shook his head, picked up his plate, and brought it over to show me. It was raw ; they didn’t even cook the burger. They just put raw meat on the bun and put cheese and lettuce on top of it and served it to him. “Lovely! How’s your e-coli burger!” We’re not in the USA; that is not USDA prime beef sitting there on his plate. Who knows if it was properly refrigerated; or how many flies may have landed on it previously to it being put on the bun. So Greg brought it to the guy that sat us and showed it to him. He took it back to the kitchen; the waitress came over and offered Greg something else to eat. But Greg said no, he did not want anything el se. Which is understandable, he was just served raw meat, that kind of turns your stomach and makes you loose your appetite. He bit into it and swallowed it, so he’s now nervous if he has e-coli or some kind of food poisoning. Mind you, Greg’s bites are not your average bite size; his bites are like 3 or 4 of mine. So that was quite a lot of raw burger he ingested. The restaurant manager came out and offered Greg something else, he again said no and told her that the raw beef had ruined his appetite. This was the straw that broke the camels back you could say.
We went directly to the front desk to speak with the manager. They had us sit down at one of the tables in the lobby to wait for the manager. **** came over to take our complaint. We told her that everything that had happened had just built up and the raw burger was what set us over the edge and we had to complain about the service. It was now the beginning of our third day there and it just seamed to be getting worse, not better. We told her that Greg received a raw burger at the Barefoot by the Sea restaurant and expressed our concern about that. Telling her that people could really get sick over that and we couldn’t ignore it.&nb sp; She asked if they offered us something else and we said yes, but that is not the point; any other place that you were paying for a service that they were working for the payment and the tip, if you were served a raw burger or had to wait a half hour before your waitress came over to your table to introduce herself you would not have to pay for your meal. But seeing that we already paid prior to our arrival the impression they gave was, oh well, we got your money, you have to deal with it, you are at our mercy and we will take care of you when we get around to it; we don’t care, you already paid in full. We are not used to this type of service, especially from a so called 5 Star resort and find it unacceptable. She said she’d talk to the Barefoot’s manager. We told her we already spoke to the Ba refoot ’s manger and it’s great that she is going to speak to her again to make sure this does not happen to anyone else. But our other issue is that we are not receiving the service we were told we would receive for our money. We are very dissatisfied in what we have experienced and were at the point that we wanted to leave the resort. **** just didn’t seam to get our point. She again mentioned that they had a group of 200 that came in the same day as we did. We then proceeded to tell her all of our complaints hoping that she would understand our experience and understand how dissatisfied and disappointed we were with Sandals. We told her about the shower door, the nonfunctioning shower exhaust fan, the missing ligh t fixt ures in the room, not knowing where to go, missing signage. This was not the resort that we were told we would be at by the website, CD, commercials on Coast FM, the Sandals Honeymoon presentation we went to at the Sheraton Braintree or our Honeymoon Planner. There was no quality control, no organization, the resort was not finished, we were woken up every morning by construction going on in the rooms around to us and across the hall in what we think may have been a utility room (not too sure, we got a glimpse in there and there was a ton of wire, pipe and construction stuff in there). Still we don’t think that she really understood. She said she’d talk to the Barefoot’s manager and have our room checked for the shower door and such. So we tried to make h er und erstand that it wasn’t just one thing that had happened that made us upset and displeased it was a plethora of things and that we were to the point we wanted to leave. She again said she would look into our concerns and compensate us for our troubles. At that we ended our meeting and Greg and I went to the room for a bit to relax because Greg was not feeling well. We did not know if it was nerves or the burger.
After we relaxed in the room for a bit and Greg started feeling better we decided we had done all we could, Greg was not showing any food poisoning symptoms and would just try to make the best out of our honeymoon, on our own. So we went down to the pool for some drinks, sun and cool water. We enjoyed ourselves while there and things seemed to be looking up. I was getting a little water logged in the pool so I went to lie down in the lounge chair and get some sun. Greg was still in the pool floating around. As I was laying there one of the pool boys/water sport boys (he was wearing one of the red and white water sport uniforms) came over to me while picking up the towels and said, “Nice tattoo.” I said thanks and went on sunning myself. Thought nothing of it, he was just being friendly, couldn’t have been more than 20 years old. He came by again and made a comment on how he liked my tattoo and then proceeded to ask me if “it was a press on tattoo.” I kind of looked at him perplexed and he said, “Yes, is it a press on tattoo. If I pressed myself against you would it come off on me?” I just dismissed his comment and he walked away. He came by again a moment or two later and asked again if he pressed himself against me if the tattoo would come off on him. This time I did not dismiss it and told him to leave me alone. Thank God Greg was not there to hear this or he may be in an Antiguan jail right now. I told Greg what happened when he got out of the pool and we decided to let it go. We had already complained about our experience and were not taken seriously and the gravity of our complaint was not seen. Not to mention, we don’t know who he is and who he knows. For all we know if we complained about it, they would have spoken with him, slapped him on the wrist and then he’d have a vendetta on us. Not hard to hide the tattoo on my leg when I’m wearing shorts and a bathing suit all week. People talk, friends are tight. We have documentation saying not to trust t he loc als on the beach, you know the ones that come up to you on the beach and try to sell you conch shells and jewelry and then marijuana; the shady characters. The majority of the staff are all locals from the island. They know each other and seeing that he was just a kid and VERY unprofessional I wouldn’t put it past him to do something to get back at a guest that complained about his actions.
When we got back to our room we had a message from **** saying to call the concierge desk she has a message for us. So we did and they knew nothing about our message. So I called the front desk and asked for ****, she was not in her office. So we changed and went to the front desk hoping to speak with **** in person when she got back. The front desk said she was away for the moment and would be back soon. So Greg had already sat down at the checkers board in the lobby because we were going to play after I spoke with ****. I told them that when she got back please send her over there so we can speak.
When she got back she came over and told us that she had spoken with the manager at the Barefoot, she had spoken to someone about our room and said that we had a high level room and those rooms do not have shower doors, the pictures we saw and the people we talked to must have had a lower level room (that I found comical, but that was a minor detail and wasn’t something that in and of itself was ruining our honeymoon, it was just something we had noticed and brought to ****’s attention after she said she “Was happy we complained, because they wouldn’t know if anything was wrong if no one brought it to their attention”.) She told us she was going to compensate us with a free spa treatment. I thanked her and told her that we already had a $250.00 spa credit that we didn’t think we were going to use anyways.&nbs p; She again, did not understand what I was trying to tell her (or was just ignoring me) and said, “We give you a free spa treatment for your troubles.” That when we realized all we have is each other, there is no point in trying to make them understand us. They don’t care, they had our money and have no intention of compensating us in any real way or making our Sandals experience anywhere close to our expectations which are based on Sandals literature and what the Sandals representatives had told us. Oh and again she brought up the point that they had a party of 200 people that came in the day we did. That was clearly stating to me that they cared more about their party of 200 than they did about their couples, specifically their honeymooners. It is adv ertised as a couples only resort; but in reality they cater more where the money is and during our stay it was with the party of 200 not the couples that had worked very hard to save up for their vacation or honeymoon.
Friday, October 26, 2007
When we were woken up this morning by the construction we immediately got up and went to breakfast at Mario’s. We were avoiding the Barefoot like the plague. After breakfast we went over to the Grande Antigua lobby area for the concierge orientation. We had seen on the chalkboard the night before that it was at 11:00 am in the Piano Bar. We told the girl that we were able to find most of the stuff on our own, but we couldn’t seem to find the fitness center or the spa and had some questions as to how the whole concierge thing worked. Well she told us that our concierge will call us to see how our stay has been and give us all of the information we needed for our stay.< SPAN s tyle="mso-spacerun: yes"> We told her that we have not heard from our concierge at all and it was our 4th day there. She couldn’t believe it and said we should speak to the manager at the Mediterranean Village. She showed us the fitness center which was more a hut with some exercise machinery, I myself wouldn’t call that a fitness center. Oh well just another amenity of the resort I won’t be using. Then she brought us to the spa in which we were told was booked through Sunday. “Great! Even if we were to use the comp’ed spa treatment **** had given us for the raw burger or our $250.00 spa credit we could n’t; w e’re leaving Monday.”
After we left the spa area Greg and I walked over to the lobby of the Med Village to speak to **** about not hearing from our concierge. We spoke with **** and she said she was going to find out who our concierge was and have them contact us. We also told her that the spa was booked through Sunday, so if we wanted to use the spa treatment we couldn’t. **** again said, “We have a party of 200 that came in and they all had spa treatments.” I swear that time I almost went through the roof; that excuse was getting real old. She said she would contact the spa manager to see if she could fit us in. ; At this point, I felt that if **** could get us an appointment I’d go.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
The pool was closed. Now we just lost any hope of salvaging this vacation. Still hadn’t heard from our concierge.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Pool still closed. Counting the seconds till we can check out and go home. No call from our concierge.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Yay! We are going home today. Still no call from our concierge. “Our room may have been “upgraded” but our service was defiantly downgraded.” When we checked out we spoke with the front desk to clear up an unauthorized charge on our room from the gift shop. Then they told me there was a charge on our room for the spa and some lotion from there. I did get a little loud in the lobby at that moment. It was the last straw, I couldn’t hold my composure anymore. I told the girl loudly that “The spa visit was comp’ed because we were served a raw hamburger at the Barefoot and we had a $250.00 spa credit that we were told we could use on anything at the resort. So they had to correct our account immediately to reflect that and no charges better show up on my credit card.” If we did not have the unauthorized charge on our room receipt I would have had the spa charge, the lotion and a gift shop charge all on my credit card and they would have just ignored the $250.00 spa credit that we had. Good thing I caught it before we left. I couldn’t imagine trying to make them understand their error over the phone; it is difficult making them understand in person.
Sidebar - The staff at Sandal’s Antigua couldn’t grasp the fact that we had a legitimate issues and an apology just was not good enough. We have been to a lot of 5 star restaurants and hotels (and 3 star establishments too) and when we make a complaint (which we have never had so many as on this trip, if any at all) they listen because we haven’t paid yet; they work for the payment, they work for the tip – good service is rewarded with a good tip. At Sandal’s Antigua it was blatantly shown to us they didn’t care about us and were not interested if we enjoyed our stay because we already paid; they were not motivated to give good service because they were already paid for their service a month prior to our arriva l, the y weren’t working for payment or tips. Through out our trip we got the impression they were thinking, “We will get to you if we feel like it. Oh you ordered a drink, well we don’t feel like serving you that drink right now, who cares, you aren’t paying for it.” “Well we already paid for it, in September, we prepaid for our room, our food, our drinks, a 5 star service.” We aren’t paying post the service so we get the shit end of the stick. And they know this so “Oh well suckers!!!” And they laugh all the way to the bank. This, in both of our opinions, is not a 5 Star hotel as advertised. I don’t know who gave them the 5 Stars. It may have something to do with the exchange rate. You know, “5 Stars Antiguan is equal to 1 Star American.”
The excuse was that they had a party of 200 that checked in. Obviously they couldn’t handle that type of volume of guests. The Sandals advertisement said they had two staff members per guest. Well I don’t think the Med Village had 1 staff member for every room.
They are not ready to have guests at the hotel yet. Their staff isn’t trained properly. They don’t even know not to complain about their jobs in front of the guests. While waiting to give my pizza order at the Bella Napoli Pizzaria I had to listen to the cooks bitch to the waiter how there are too many orders for the restaurant, room service and take out. That is not something a guest should be hearing.
The hotel is not finished yet. Friday they started drilling the holes for the railings on the main entrance to the courtyard which is tile. Most likely because it rained heavily the day before and many, including myself, fell down the stairs because there was nothing to hold on to as you walked down the slippery stairs. Putting a sign up saying it is slippery does not help you from actually slipping even when you are being real careful. Well they didn’t have the railings to put in the holes they drilled so they just left the wholes there, right in the direct path of traffic. We knew the holes were there cause we saw them drilling so we avoided them but if you didn’t know they were there it could be very dange rous.< SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Saturday late afternoon, they filled in the holes with cement (someone must have caught the heal of their shoe in one of the holes). Monday before we left we saw them putting one of the rails up.
We saw exposed wires hanging out of pillars and walls throughout the Med Village. They must have been live because the other sconces around them were working or the light on the pillars around them were on.
It eased our pain when we heard others complaining about the service and the miserable time they were having. At least we knew that we weren’t the only ones this was happening too. On Friday we were walking back to our room and overheard one of the guest speaking to who we think was the grounds manager and heard him say to her, “Well that is just a minor problem.” Her response was, “Minor problem. It’s a major problem when you paid to have a room with a pool and you can’t use it!” There was a major storm on one of the nights and everything got flooded and they had to pump out all of the rondaval pools or something. So we think that she was complaining about t hat ca use it was about to or three days after the pools were drained and they still couldn’t use them.
On the way home, I sat next to a girl coming back from Sandals St. Lucia, she had a great time. She also met a couple on their honeymoon that had a horrible experience at The Mediterranean Village and they refunded their honeymoon and sent them to Sandals St. Lucia. I guess we didn't speak to the right person.
All in all, this was the worst vacation ever. The sad thing is it was our honeymoon, we had concerns prior to leaving and we still received problems throughout our honeymoon. We were assured that we wouldn’t have any problems because the GM was contacted and told of our concerns we had because of the report we received from our friends that had arrived at the Med Village on the 8th of October and checked out the following day. By Thursday we were ready to go home, but couldn’t afford to spend the extra $200.00+ to change our airline tickets or loose the money we spent on the honeymoon at the Med Village.
I hope after reading this, someone will understand the horrible experience we had on our honeymoon. A honeymoon is a once in a lifetime event and is suppose to be something we will remember for the rest of our lives; unfortunately it is something we will regret for the rest of our lives.
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October 2007
This is a chronological recollection of our stay in Sandals Antigua from Sept 25 through Oct 3, 2007. Hopefully others find it useful and keep as far away from this resort as possible.
9/25 - Safe in room doesn't function. We requested to have it fixed, no one ever showed up.
9/26 - We schedule dinner for 4 with the concierge at Kimonos for the evening of the 26th, which is confirmed.
9/26 – My wive’s spa appointments aren't there. When they reschedule, they refuse to do her trial makeup. The beautician that does her hair has a very, very bad attitude, painfully tearing at her hair the entire time. When she confronts the spa receptionist regarding her trial makeup, the receptionist literally puts her hand in her face and tells her "if it's not in the computer, there is nothing I can do for you". When I arrived to pick her up from the spa, she was in tears.
9/26 - The concierge leaves a message stating that there was a mistake and we do not have dinner reservations at Kimonos, however they reschedule it for the evening of the 28th. We expressed that this was not acceptable as our family was leaving the morning of the 28th. They indicated there was nothing they could do.
9/26 - An international long distance call is made on our phone for approximately $150 worth of charges. The call was made at 7:37pm, while we were at the OK Corral eating dinner with my parents.
9/27 - While exchanging rings we notice the diamond from my wedding band has gone missing. It was accounted for first thing in the morning (8:30am approximately), and was never taken out of the box prior to the presentation of rings during the wedding ceremony. Unfortunately our surprise is clearly visible in the wedding video, as is the missing stone when they zoom in on our hands.
9/27 - During our first dance after the wedding the music skips multiple times. This isn't the end of the world... but it certainly adds to our frustration.
9/27 - Late evening we notice our "member cards" are not on our keychain anymore. That said, our swipe card to enter the room still works, so we assume the cards fell off or something similar.
9/28 - When my parents check out on the "old" side they are charged $4+ per minute for room to room calls. The person working the front desk says this is a typical charge, and my parents pay over $100 in room to room fees. They checked out at 10:46am, verified by their credit card charge.
9/28 - We check with the concierge on the new side, whom tells us the key we have is not the room key. He says the key we have is "902", then says he cancelled any other key access to our room and reissues us a key. This was at approximately 12-12:30pm. We assume, but are definitely not certain, that we accidentally left our room key with housekeeping and accidentally took theirs in passing as they were cleaning our room on the 27th. We didn't notice until the morning of the 28th, when we tried to make a purchase at the gift shop. We still don't know what the 902 means.
9/28 - We speak to the concierge and reserve a hobie cat sailboat for 2pm, which they confirm.
9/28 - The spa manager gives us a free "Island Bath" due to the spa issues. It is a far cry from trial makeup, certainly doesn't account for the attitude issues previously, and is nothing more than a drawn bath and champagne, both of which we could have easily had in our room. It was still unpleasant, as they checked in every few minutes, and the receptionist still had a bit of an attitude.
9/28 - We arrive at water sports to take out the sailboat, and they tell us that they cannot be reserved, contrary to what the concierge told us. We have to wait ~45 minutes for one to become available - they even let multiple people go before us even though we were their first, simply because they didn't even take names or make a waiting list... they just took the person that butted to the front of the line and forced their way in.
9/28 - We return to our room at approximately 4:30pm to find all my cash, my cell phone, and my cell phone charger are missing. It was $82 cash, a Cingular/AT&T 8525 cell phone, and the associated charger. The police come and spend maybe 2-3 minutes looking over the room and requests us to meet with them in our room at 2:30pm the next afternoon. Hotel security also arrives and takes our information.
9/28 - The concierge tells me I will not be charged for calling internationally to cancel credit cards. They were not stolen, however if they took the cash out of my wallet and went through all of our belongings, who knows if they wrote down the credit card numbers.
9/28 - Someone finally arrives to fix our safe.
9/28 - We go to the 'internet cafe' to look up phone numbers so we can cancel my phone service. We are told the internet is down, yet there are people in the cafe actively on the internet. This is all after a long conversation regarding getting the internet charges covered by the hotel due to the robbery.
9/29 - We arrive back at our room at 2pm to meet with the police. By 3:30 they have still not arrived.
9/29 - We meet with Mr. Stuedmann (hotel manager) and Mr. Martin (hotel security manager). During the 5 minute meeting Mr. Stuedmann repeatedly asks us to hold as he takes phone calls. It is very apparent that his priority during this meeting is not with us. They indicate they are investigating the robbery and ask us some cursory questions regarding what times we came and went into the room. During this meeting Mr. Martin questions us on a room entry at 10:43am. I assure him it is not possible we were the ones that entered the room, as we were with my parents on the other side of the resort at 10:46am. Mr. Stuedmann also points out that he has authorized a $250 credit due to the construction noise.
9/29 - At dinner we meet 2 couples that came together. We warn them of the room to room charges. After dinner they check in at the front desk, and are told there are no such charges. I confront the front desk worker - whom is the same person that told my parents there was a room to room charge, and he says there is no such thing, that there was a computer glitch earlier. This is the EXACT SAME PERSON that apparently lied to myself and my family not 1 day earlier!
9/30 - While walking through the resort my wife falls due to excessively slippery walkways. It was not raining.
10/1 - We have a meeting with the video team to review our wedding DVD. It is scheduled for 3pm. We show up at the TV room in the crystal lounge, as told, at 2:45. By 3:30 no one has shown up, so we go to the front desk and ask. They call the video team and tell us we need to come back tomorrow at 1pm.
10/2 - Mr. Martin calls us at approximately 9am to schedule a meeting with us, Mr. Stuedmann, and the general manager. I request a time of 11:30am, which is confirmed. He calls me later that morning to indicate the GM is still in a meeting and we'll have to meet later. He assures me that even though we have plans for the day, he can track us down anywhere on the resort, that all of us will sit down and get this resolved.
10/2 - We show up at 12:45 in the crystal lounge again to wait for the video team. By 1:10 they have not shown up, so I check with the front desk. They call, and tell us someone is on the way. At 1:25 we were still waiting, so I check in again. They call, and about 5-10 minutes later they show up. When we arrive to view the video they still haven't finished it, so we wait another 5-10 minutes for them to finish before we review the video.
10/2 - We check with the concierge to see if Barefoot by the Sea is still serving food, they confirm with us that they are not open. We go to the main pool to relax, only to see people dining at Barefoot. We walk over to barefoot, get a table, and eat.
10/2 - We go to the front desk, as nothing has been conveyed to us regarding the meeting with Mr. Stuedmann, Mr. Martin, and the GM. We meet with Mr. Stuedmann, who indicates that Mr. Martin was confused and my wife and I weren't to be included in that meeting. He believes that Mr. Martin had myself and the GM confused and was calling me thinking I was the GM. I convey our overall dissatisfaction with the resort and their responsiveness, using the issues we recently had with the video team. He tells me he will work on getting us a credit to cover the costs of the video (approx $250). He also tells me that the video team conveyed to him that they waited from 3-4:30pm for us the original day, which simply is not true. The phone records should verify this, as the front desk called them at about 3:30pm that day.
10/2 - While returning to the room my wife falls again. This time, unfortunately, she hits her arm and chin abruptly on the ground. Luckily nothing serious, just some bumps and bruises. Once again, it was not raining.
10/2 - We return to the room to find the checkout invoice. Noted in it are numerous long distance charges, which we were told would be covered. I confront the concierge desk, whom tells me that is not the case, only the internet would be (mind you we never used the internet). I express this is not acceptable, and she says she will speak with management.
10/3 - We check out, and are told our balance is $0. I question this, as we had a $250 credit due us. She says it was to cover any charges on the room, at which time I point out we had no charges to the room. She checks, and 5 minutes later comes back to tell me that it isn't a credit, but a service credit, and is only valid against room charges. This is contrary to what was expressed to me by Mr. Stuedmann previously. Additionally there is no credit for the video.
10/3 - While waiting for the taxi to pick us up Mr. Stuedmann passes. He apologizes to us regarding our stay, and assures us that all will be resolved - he will continue to be in touch and he will continue to internally escalate our issues. Oddly enough, this is the first time anyone apologizes.
In general, we have absolutely no faith in anything anyone at Sandals says. As you can see, we were repeatedly lied to, given misinformation, and easily spent 1-3 hours EVERY DAY waiting for people to show up for meetings, which they scheduled. Not a single person was willing to work around our schedule, all times were given to us without opportunity to negotiate. This caused us to miss a multitude of events, anything from snorkeling to group events at the resort. During our entire stay there was heavy construction immediately outside our door. I do mean immediately - within 5-10ft of our door. Everything from jackhammers to landscaping equipment was in use starting at approximately 8am, every morning.
We additionally met multiple couples that had similar issues - a couple which had their passports and $1600 stolen, another couple that had their cell phone stolen, another couple had an extremely nice camera stolen, and a massive amount of people that had been continually misled or lied to by the resort staff. A couple we flew back to the US with had long distance charges placed on their room as well - incidentally they were staying on the same floor of the hotel as us.
I would also recommend anyone that doesn't plan to drink in their room to avoid the additional charges of the concierge level room. Only Kimonos requires reservations, all other restaurants are walk in. The walkway from the new Mediterranean hotel to any pools/bars/dining is extremely dangerous due to how slick it is... we would have been much better off staying on the old side with a non-concierge room. Not only would we have saved money, it would have been quicker to get to activities and, more importantly, it would have been safer.
The service we received doesn't even compare to a $40 a night motel, and we paid substantially more. Antigua is beautiful, and we will happily return - with anyone but Sandals. A tent and kerosene stove would be better.
This was my wedding and honeymoon. We will carry these memories with us for our entire lives. When friends and family ask us how our trip was, what are we to say to them? Nothing will ever make this right.
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August 2007
My husband and I went to the Antigua Sandals for 8 days in the beginning of July 07. We were very excited because Antigua was advertised as the best honeymoon spot, and our travel agent just raved about this location. We had booked our room in the new addition to the resort, which was to be ready in February of 07. Due to some foundation complications, this part of the resort was not ready. We were compensated very nicely by being upgraded to a butlered room with a plunge pool, $250 toward the spa, and 7 free nights at any Sandals resort to be used within the year. We were greeted very warmly when we arrived, and we enjoyed the nightly entertainment. These are the only positive things I can say about this resort. Our room was nice, but very old. The lock on the door was close to falling out completely. The idea of a plunge pool was wonderful, but it was always dirty and COLD. The plunge pool was cleaned twice out of the 8 days, and we had to request that someone come out and clean it. We were told that it would be cleaned every day. This brings me to customer service. Our rooms were cleaned at 11 some days and at 5 on others. The bartenders often seemed bothered to help you, rarely smiled, and were completely uninterested in holding a conversation. They also, surprisingly, couldn’t make many drinks. The water sports area was the only place you could get beach towels, and they ran out of towels 3 times. They had no sense of urgency to get more towels, but had at least 15 people waiting. The food was just okay, which really surprised me. The only great service was found at Kimonos. Now, my husband and I are not picky vacationers. We can adjust to most environments, which we did. We were surprised by the overwhelming amount of complaining heard by most guests. Most guests did not know the new resort wasn’t ready until they showed up that day. This was something we did not expect. I can say the butlers were outstanding, but were surprised that we had to tip them. We were upgraded to this room because Sandals did not have an entire resort area ready. We found it very annoying that they would upgrade us to a room that had an additional cost. The beach was a very interesting event. We would find our chairs, lay out our towels, and lay down to relax. We would then have numerous vendors walking by trying to sell us items. If you told the vendors no, they were very good about leaving you alone. The problem was that we had to constantly tell vendors no. My one question about this resort is, what makes it the top honeymooning place? We will be returning to Sandals, but there is no way we will be going to Antigua. We heard the employees at Dunn’s River are very nice and helpful. We will be using our 7 nights there.
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May 2007
My wife and I just returned from our honeymoon at Sandals “Grande” Antigua (April 2007) and, believe me, there is nothing grand about it. I will not go on and on but please DO NOT book your vacation here. The way I describe this resort is “veiled mediocrity”. Their grounds and their website are terrific (the veils) but the service and overall experience was much less than we expected. The website had us so excited before our trip but when I look at it now it’s just a joke. It is criminal for them to use words like 5-star. We know 5-star and this was average at best. The service is simply bad. I mean almost mean. We did not get one smile all week. To get a drink from a bartender was like asking for a miracle. They even ran out of towels at the beach. How does that happen? I think the staff must be trained to always say hello to guests in the hallways and along the paths, so what you get is a mumbled sarcastic greeting from someone wearing a scowl on their face as they quickly pass you by. Just one more thing, we even paid for concierge service and we still did not get one single dinner reservation that we requested. We would call as early as possible (8am of the day before) and we were still given 9:15 reservations. Not good. For this kind of money you can do much much better. Good luck on your future vacations!
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August 2006
Just returned, July 29th 2006, from our honeymoon and all I have to say is "NOTHING "GRANDE" ABOUT THIS RESORT!!"
Accommodations were absolutely terrible. The private rondoval with plunge pool was not so private. The pool was dirty upon arrival and I wouldn't allow a homeless person lay on the lounge chairs around the pool because the cushions were so disgusting. The pillows on the bed (there were only three) were, no kidding, about two inches thick (no worries though, they did bring us eight extra pillows that together equaled the four pillows we have at home). There was a dirty square thing (still don't know what it was) that ran the width of the mattress, two inches lower than the mattress level, that was tucked between the mattress and the headboard to "take-up" the extra space due to the mattress not fitting the bed frame (I threw it on the floor so they would take it away). There wasn't enough water pressure in the shower to whisk away the sand and NO HOT WATER! The bathroom (at least in our Rondoval, #308) had no air conditioning so, to keep the other rooms cool we had to keep the bathroom door closed. Well, as you can imagine, that made the bathroom feel like a sauna. To top things off, upon returning to our room after dinner and wanting to spend a couple relaxing, romantic evenings in bed...we found lizard droppings on top of our sheets on two separate occasions. I also killed two roaches, two crickets, and caught (and released) a frog that had found its way into our bathroom....no kidding.
Dining experience left a lot to be desired. On their website they advertise, "At Sandals, dining is a symbolic fusion of culinary art and warm, personal service that makes every meal an unforgettable experience.".....art?....NO! warm?....NOT the service but the white wine, champagne, beverages, and all meals (supposed to be served cold or hot)....ALL WARM! personal?.....only remember one person smiling....that's a big HELL NO! unforgettable?....absolutely, I'll never forget it!! They also advertise, "Lunch is a sumptuous selection that is as endless and varied as your imagination."....okay, here's reality, at the grill, they serve chicken sandwiches (paper thin chicken); chicken wraps; chicken pitas; cheeseburgers; turkey sandwiches; week old, stale nachos; stale soft pretzels; greasy pizza; spoiled condiments; and stale desert cakes and cookies. We watched them prepare a couple's order in front of us as we prepared to order and we saw they use tongs to put raw chicken on the grill and used the same tongs for the wrap and the buns...then they put the tongs in a tub of water with the other utensils they were using. My wife snarled, grabbed her stomach as we walked out. When we arrived at the resort, 10:30pm on Monday night, we were both starving and wanting a light snack so we decided to share a plate of fresh fruit. We called room service (our personal butler that was going to lavish us with unparallel service had gone home for the evening so we were on our own) and found out we couldn't get fruit...we had to order off of the room service menu and could only order from the grill (you can see where I'm going with this). My wife decided she would eat a chicken sandwich and a couple of fries so we ordered. Promptly, our food was delivered....paper thin chicken breast, two shreds of lettuce, a cucumber (it was supposed to come with tomato), and a bottle of spoiled (curled) ketchup. Again, she snarled, grabbed her stomach and went without. Restaurant service (the decent ones) is not around the clock and on your timetable as they advertise and lead you to believe. THEY WILL ACTUALLY CLOSE DOWN A RESTAURANT OR TWO IF THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OCCUPANCY AT THE RESORT TO SUPPORT ALL FIVE RESTAURANTS...IF YOU HAVE A RESERVATION AND THEY WANT TO CLOSE THE RESTAURANT....TOUGH LUCK. WE FORGOT TO MAKE RESERVATIONS ONE DAY AND WANTED TO EAT AT THE ITALIAN PLACE (can't think of the name) BUT WAS TOLD THEY WERE FULL FOR THE EVENING...HALF OF THE DINING ROOM WAS EMPTY AND LATER, A COUPLE WE HAD BEFRIENDED SAID THEY HAD DINNER THERE AND IT WAS ONLY HALF FULL. NOTHING THERE WAS ON OUR TIMETABLE OR AT OUR SERVICE!!!!! Breakfast was served in only one place every morning....same food every morning.....an outdoor buffet. All they food was exposed to the outdoors and it tasted like it too. Oh yeah, almost forgot about the seagulls....they will attack your plate once you stand up to leave or make another run to the buffet....my wife was attacked by hovering birds after I got up to get some fruit. The staff "shoos" them away by clapping their hands then promptly throws them some scraps out onto the beach.....of course, this only encourages the birds to increase their numbers and aggressiveness. Don't go for the "private dinner for two on the beach with your own, personal wait staff for $200"......we counted four couples camped, 15 feet apart and 20 feet from the deck of the Bayside restaurant, under sticks with palm leaves tied with ribbon and one candle that wouldn't stay lit under a gentle breeze. They all shared the same waiter as well......not so elegant, romantic, or personal, huh. We didn't think so either.
Kudos though to the chef at Kumodos on the evening of July 26th. He had a wonderful personality, very entertaining, great presentation, and a concern for cleanliness.
BEACH was okay but if this beach, Dickenson Bay, is the best beach on the island and one of the best beaches in the world as they advertise, then beaches around the world are in serious trouble. This is a public beach so vendors are all over the place and they don't let you forget it either. Forget about peace and quiet here unless you lay out within the Sandals borders and even then the vendors will come over and solicit you...not only to peddle there goods but to beg for something to eat or drink. I can tolerate all of that because the resort has very little or no control over that but what I was very disappointed in was they did not have any service on the beach....no one refreshing your drinks.
BARS were nothing special......and forget about getting a nice tropical drink served in a tall hurricane glass with an umbrella. They had two sizes for drinks.....small and smaller. One served in a glass if you were on resort grounds and one served in a 10oz plastic cup for the beach...you know the cup....the ones you find in every small family owned diner across the country....yeah, those cheap cups. Bartenders were very unpardonable, unfriendly, and sloppy. Don't expect them to put the straw in the cup or offer you a napkin either....you are on your own. Beach activities were okay but were designed more for family activities than couple activities...beach volleyball wasn't played on the beach. T
POOLS....The swim-up bar was very small....I think it had 5 stools. The main pool was very small....only accommodating about 20 to 25 people before it became extremely crowded. The other pools were very, very small.
Entertainment was very boring unless you are into talent shows, mock game shows, and karaoke. The local entertainment was nice but you get tired of it after about two nights of the same rhythm. Most of the "Daily Activities" advertised on the website were not offered.
WEATHER was not that great for us and you can't control that but, the point I want to make is this.......if the weather is bad there is NOTHING to do. The more adult oriented activities (excursions, boat tours, etc.) were canceled because of the inclement weather so we were stuck with nothing to do (not a bad thing on a honeymoon).
Overall, I was very disappointed with Sandals - Antigua.....way over-priced!!!!! After experiencing, I would price this 5 day value at no more than $2k. Good news is we will re-do our honeymoon next year although this one was great....because we made it great.....just highly suggest you look elsewhere for your honeymoon destination.
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March 2005
Our honeymoon was a disaster. When we arrived at Sandals Antigua, they lost my luggage. My husband had his luggage. We could not do anything about it the first night we arrived because we got to the resort at 11pm. We asked the representative for the general hygiene supplies and he stated that he would coordinate it and have it sent to our room. Someone brought us room service and stated that we would have to talk to the front desk in the morning in order to get the personal hygiene products that we requested.
The next morning, my hubby had to go to the gift shop to purchase some clothes, underwear and other products for me. We then contacted customer relations to get some resolution on my lost luggage. We were basically given the run around and couldn't get a definitely answer all that day on where my luggage was. The manager found us late that afternoon to discuss the issue with us. His excuse was that the hotel could not be blamed for my lost luggage and that it happens all the time. He stated that it happens several times a week.
What kind of excuse is "it happens several times a week". I guess he felt that would justify their operations. As far as we are concerned, Sandals Antigua does not have it together and they always put the blame on other people. I made the reservations through their website for everything. Therefore in our eyes, they are responsible.
My husband and I decided to come back to the US and complete our honeymoon in Raleigh, NC. We had more fun in Raleigh than we did in Antigua. The hotel was a huge disappointment. We would not recommend Sandals Antigua to anyone.
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February 2005
Sandals – DON’T GO THERE – MOST DISAPPOINTING
In Nov/04 we spent one week at Sandals Antigua for our 36th anniversary. Having heard much about Sandals being 5+ star resorts, (although in the last few years we have heard and read an increasing number of negative comments), we decided to try the Sandals experience.
We were most disappointed!! During the week, we talked to several other guests all of whom were also most disappointed.
Based on our other 14 trips to the Caribbean, the rooms, other facilities, service, food, booze, and many employees were, being generous, of about 3 star quality. The beach, although public, is very good although not the best in the Caribbean. This makes our generous overall rating 31/2 stars. The cost is 5+ stars.
On leaving we took the time to leave with the Manager an extensive comment card. Since then we sent to Sandals several e-mails with our comments and seeking responses. We telephoned and left messages asking for calls back. Our only purpose in doing this was to get from Sandals why the resort was so disappointing and what improvements are they making to deliver the advertised quality in the future. Almost 3 months later we still have had no response, other than acknowledgment of receipt, to any of our e-mails or calls. Obviously Sandals don’t care!! We continue to read and hear about the slipping Sandals quality.
Bottom line – Sandals do not deliver 5 star value, but charge 5+ star prices. If you are thinking of a trip to the Caribbean, there are many other resorts that deliver the promised value and then some. They are living off their past reputation.Of our 15 trips over several years to the Caribbean, this is the first time we have been disappointed in the overall quality relative to promised quality.
PS: Today Feb.7/05 just heard from a friend who was at Sandals in Cuba – He too was disappointed.
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April 2003
I am an avid Sandals supporter, but I must advise that the property in Antigua leaves a lot to be desired. My wife & I visited Antigua 3/14-3/22/03. The property is beginning to show signs of wear. Had NO water pressure from Friday pm until they finally agreed to move us on Sunday afternoon (no shower for 1 1/2 days). GM, Franklin, was off property and the assistants just had NO CLUE. Food was just OK. Service was not the usual Sandals variety. The beach was unkept. The seaweed was raked into piles and left for the day. Water sports wrapped-up at 3pm. The snack bar never had half of its menu available and no effort to accomodate. All rooms that I saw (5) were run down and needed work badly. The sprinklers in the lawns were broken and all they did was flood the walkways and lawns. Glasses and dirty plates littered the beach and adjoining areas. The staff stepped over the mess rather than picking it up. The guests were hassled more by the security guards than were the beach vendors. Many were allowed to "hang" over the property rail and beg for drinks & food. The best meal was the returning guests dinner with the GM. Several staff members drank too much at the dinner and were acting very unprofessional. The staff basically didn't care about the guests or their jobs. It was a great disappointment. If you want a TOP resort...spend the $$$$$ and go see Mario (GM) at Beaches Royal Plantation. He will not disappoint you.
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Last updated: May 27, 2009
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