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• Villa Rentals

May 2009

Arrival: May 21 - 24
Stayed at the Sheraton for 3 nights because our hotel was overbooked for a few days - we knew the hotel as we had previously stayed when it was a Radisson. Another good point was the fact that the casino is right next door at the Wyndham.

The renovations made by the Sheraton are excellent. Though the room we were given provided about the worst view from the whole hotel, being mostly a dumping ground for broken concrete, the room itself was quiet and very very nice. Modern, tasteful decor with a Bahamian flair, very comfortable bed and pillows - strangely we almost felt like we were in Europe. I would have preferred a walk- in shower in the bathroom - just because we are used to that - but the rest of the bathroom was "trendy" and clean.

Did not eat there, but did notice the prices are astronomical and slightly outside of our comfort zone. A bottle of water in the room cost $3.50 US - WOW !! Would go back when we win the lottery.

regkit@sympatico.ca

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October 2007

Sheraton Cable Beach Resort was an all around great resort. Everything about it was magnificent! My family and I booked it the Monday before we left using changes.com and everything went perfectly went we got there. The staff could not have been more friendly and helpful and even the locals were all very kind. The beaches were beautiful and had plenty of activities to keep kids busy. The snorkeling right at the beach was wonderful! The resort is under renovation, but don’t let that change your mind. It is only part of the resort and there are still three pools that are open, including the swim up bar. They have daily games at the pool which are a lot of fun to join in on. We ate at the buffet at the resort for dinner one night and the food was marvelous. The chef was more than happy to cook up the fish that we caught on our deep-sea fishing excursion and prepared it wonderfully for us. The restaurants outside of the hotels were also very good to eat at. It is a great hotel for families with kids of all ages, but also a great hotel for couples. There is something for everyone to enjoy. There is not one bad comment I could say about this resort and it is definitely one I will stay at again!

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November 2005

This was my second visit back to this resort. My last visit was in 1998 with a company function. I have been to Caribbean many times with the majority of my stays being at 5-star or premium properties. My review is as follows:

PROPERTY
The beach is excellent, the pool is large and not too cold. There is the usual beach bar with swim-up facility. Those are the good things. The property is very tired however and it is not uncommon to find tiles that have fallen off, scraped doors, chipped paint everywhere, and tired looking furniture. Our oceanview room did not have any mini-bar or fridge, there was rust in the bathtub, and the bed was plain worn out. People with back troubles will inherit more trouble when staying at this resort. The sliding door did not work correctly, nor would it lock. The lighting in the room was weak and this made it very difficult to read. The television had some satellite stations however it was very out of date. One small bottle of horrible tasting water (at room tempurature) was in our room each day. Locking safes are not included and you are charged an additional $3.00 per day - even with the all-inclusive option. The resort was recently painted "pink" and now looks "cheap". It used to be white and had a quality appearance.

RESTAURANTS/FOOD
The food at the resort is generally of high quality and I must say that other than a hamburger at the beach, all of it was prepared properly and it all tasted quite good. The buffet restaurant has a horrible smell to it and reminds me of a hospital cafeteria. The buffet restaurant is very limited in selection. The best restaurant is Avocados and it serves terrific steak and seafood. The Island serves traditional Bahamian food and sushi and was quite good also.

BARS
This was hugely disappointing and simply cannot go without comment. The attitude of the bar personnel was the worst I have ever experienced on any trip anywhere in the Caribbean - ever! The staff doesn't acknowledge that you are standing there, serve drinks in slow-motion, and then discuss daily issues with other staff members while you stand there! With twelve guests sitting at one bar I waited twenty minutes for one drink - with three people tending bar! The drinks are low quality and weak.

ALL-INCLUSIVE OPTION
Each time you order food or drink, you are presented with a bill that you must sign with the amount total noted. This slowed service at restaurants and bars tremendously. It is stupid because virtually everyone was on the all-inclusive option. Interestingly the slips even included gratuities, although you don't pay for them at checkout. Ever hear of wristbands folks?

CONCLUSION
Very expensive destination with lacklustre amenities and service - with good food. Unless you want to purchase a Rolex watch for duty-free, I truly do not see the value in the Bahamas.
dougmcd@sympatico.ca

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March 2004

I haven’t seen too many recent reviews for the Radisson Cable Beach in Bahamas and thought I would send you one.

We just returned yesterday March 18th – we were there for 5 days on the all inclusive plan. This was our second time staying at this hotel, the first being in 2002. We traveled with our 12 year old son. This hotel is very family oriented as well as there are weddings everyday and spring breakers. There is something for everyone! I highly recommend the all inclusive plan – I heard people who were on the EP complaining that the prices are very high if you are paying. I overheard one lady say it was $12 for 2 coffees and muffins and another saying they paid $10 for a burger and fries for their 4 year old only for him to say he wasn’t hungry!

We booked our holiday through Sunquest vacations and flew from Toronto to Nassau by Skyservice Airlines. We haven’t flown Skyservice in quite a while and were pleased with the flight and the service. We generally use Air Canada for our flights. The flight attendants were very polite and the service was good.

We arrived in Nassau at 11:15 and very promptly put on the shuttle bus and arrived at the hotel, received our room booked our dinners for the week and were in the pool by 12:30. Having been there before, we knew to make dinner reservations for our entire stay as soon as we arrived in order to receive the restaurants and times we wanted. This was completed quickly and we were off to the pools.

We ate at all the restaurants. We liked them all. The food was excellent at them all except the Islands. My husband had a very tough steak and my ribs were quite fatty. The service wasn’t that great either. Amicis was very nice – it is a dressy restaurant and food is great. The Forge is fun – you grill at your table and they put you with other guests so you get to know some other people. Avocados was very good as well. The service was very good as well. The Beach Grill is excellent for burgers and hot dogs and fries and the buffet for breakfast and lunch was great as well.

The beach is nice and kept very clean. Lots of lounge chairs both at the pool and the beach and no need to reserve. The bars were full of spring breakers but all were very pleasant and polite and we didn’t have any problems with them at all.

Our room was on the 6th floor and had a fantastic full ocean view.

We frequently took the bus to town and at $1 per person is the only way to go. We also went swimming with the stingrays. We booked this through Majestic Tours right at the hotel and it was $40 per person. We really enjoyed it – a unique experience. We also took the water taxi over to the Atlantis and toured around Paradise Island.

I can’t speak for all the housekeeping staff but the lady we had was fantastic. Our room was kept spotless.

The weather was fantastic and we hated to come home. We will definitely go back to the Radisson Cable Beach and highly recommend it to everyone.

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March 2003

My husband and I took our two children (both under 5 yrs. old) for a 4 night all-inclusive stay at the Radisson Cable Beach Resort via Conquest Tours, Skyservice from Toronto on March 16, 2003. Overall, our vacation was very enjoyable.

I was pleasantly surprised with Skyservice, especially how well they treated us while traveling with two small kids. The flight attendant was kind enough to ask a fellow passenger to move back a row so that the four of us could have the entire row of seats since the flight was not full both ways. The food was pretty decent in terms of economy class cuisine.

We landed in Nassau around 8:30 pm and we took a shuttle bus to the hotel. We highly recommend hiring a local porter to wheel your baggage as it certainly made our trek through customs and to the shuttle bus really easy and fast. When we arrived at the hotel, there was no door man and we had to carry our own bags into the lobby. It seemed that the front desk was not in a hurry to check people in as we had to wait in line for 30 minutes. Our room wasn’t posh but was quite clean and the view was great! I really liked that our room had a terrace overlooking the pools and ocean. The bathroom, however, was a bit cramped and very dimly lit. We got lucky and the Bimini Grill was still open at 9:30 pm and we were able to have a late buffet snack. Most restaurants close at 10pm but we found out that the Bimini Grill has after hours take out or late buffet.

We found the beach was ideal for small kids since the waves are calm and the sand is soft. The water is also shallow for a good distance out from the beach. We met some nice young families and my kids always found playmates. There are many pools to choose from and my kids really liked the one with a beach-like entry and water fall.

We liked The Forge restaurant the best because the filet mignon was about 3” thick and the service was great, but it can get pretty hot grilling right at your table. If you’re a Sushi connoisseur then you won’t be very impressed with The Islands restaurant. Amicci’s had pretty good Italian food and the anti-pasto table was authentic and tasty. We loved the frozen drinks and the bar staff was always friendly. It was a bit of a pain though to have to wait for and sign a bill every time you got a drink.

My husband tried the golf course and his only complaint was the mandatory cart rental of 35 USD per person, which is pretty pricey converted into CAD and he prefers to walk. The free shuttle bus was quick and air conditioned. The course was not very busy and if he wanted to play another round the pro-shop would have accommodated. Overall, he’s proud that he shot a 75.

On our departure, there was a lot of confusion with the shuttle buses to the airport because some of the guests weren’t aware of having to get transfer tickets issued at the piano lounge. Also, there weren’t enough buses so we kept getting moved aside amongst the bus fumes. Getting through the airport was much easier, especially considering we left the day the war started. Just have your passport ready to flash periodically.

In summary, we picked a good resort for our family vacation as we really had a great time and would definitely return.

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March 2003

My wife & I took a 4 night all-inclusive package to Bahamas, Nassau, Radisson Cable Beach Resort via Conquest Tours, Skyservice from Toronto March 9-13, 2003, which is right at March Break, I know.

Summary: good food, bad attitude, disorganized, too expensive @$3,000 Cnd (for less $ we could have had a 5 star in DR for 7 nights). The all-inclusive wasn't worth it. Nassau has a lot of gasoline fumes. Nice temperature. Nice sky. Nice beach.

We booked via SellOffVacations.com, which has very good rates, comparatively. Departure went well at Pearson Airport other than the indifferent attitude at the Conquest desk. Flight on Skyservice was good. It was a mistake booking a 5:15pm departure - it was dark when we landed at 8:45. We passed through Customs in Nassau quickly, then things got a bit crazy. There was no Conquest rep as we left Customs. We ended up asking a different tour operator where to find them and they directed us outside where we became part of a baggage laden crowd milling behind 6 or 7 noisy busses all with engines on, spewing exhaust on the crowd. We found the rep and told her our hotel destination and she just motioned us towards the other end of the row of busses. We clambered around other visitors and their baggage and got to the end and as there were no signs (just bus noise and bus drivers shouting unintelligibly), we asked a bus driver which bus, and he pointed to an empty bay. Eventually we were motioned on to a bus. We got to the hotel. No one there directed us, but eventually we just carried our bags in and stood in line until 10:30 to check in. We were hungry, hot & thirsty and we were indifferently told the restaurants were closed. (Last year we went to Puerto Plata and the Hacienda Tropicale greeted the arrivals with trays of drinks and snacks and they got about 150 of us checked in within 30 minutes.) We managed to sneak in the back door of the buffet and get some food as they were winding down.

The room as only marginally better than the 3 star in Puerto Plata, but they had CBC on cable. We had breakfast and lunch at the Bimini buffet and the food was always great, even though the service was burly. You could also get lunch at the Dolphin Grill by the beach. If Conquest had an orientation, we were not informed of it, so we never found out how the restaurants worked - for dinner you had to book ahead, except that they were letting people book 3 days in advance, so the 4 night arrivals like us were stuck with 9 or 10 PM bookings for the whole stay. We figured we'd just use the buffet, but we found out the hard way that the buffet did not run every night for dinner.

To use the all-inclusive you have to show your card and then sign a chit every time. So there was always a wait for meals or for getting drinks at the bars. Weird thing - the Bahamian men all gave cheerful (if slow) service, but the women were slow and indifferent.

The beach was quite nice, but not much shade, so we sat by the nice pools mostly. It's about 200m of beach then broken by rocks and other hotels, but there's a beautiful long stretch of beach to the east along the other hotels (Marriott, Breezes and some others), but you have to walk across the other hotels areas to get there.

The bus into Nassau was frequent and only $1 US each way, if you don't mind the car fumes at the stops. We saw the famous straw market - t-shirts, woodcarvings, hats, bags, pot pipes and other tourist junk all of which you can find easily in Toronto. We asked directions to the Botanical Gardens and no one thought to tell us it was closed due to cleanup from last fall's hurricanes.

We enjoyed ourselves anyway, but my wife says Mayan Riviera (2 years ago) was much nicer. I won't go back to Nassau. Coffee lovers: bring your own.
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Last updated: May 27, 2009