Sandals Resorts Reviews

We were sent the special website to put in the first responder info from Sandals and I filled it out. The next day, my husband filled it out (not knowing that I also had -ha!). So we thought by filling it out twice, we would be TOTALLY covered. We were told the ONLY remaining thing to do was to arrive at the resort and show his badge/ID to prove he is a police officer. Upon arrival, we asked our butler who we should show the badge to and he said not to worry about it. The next day we went to the front desk and they said it was taken care of. We again, confirmed upon checkout that the discount would be applied when they charged our credit card the final payment.

We came home thrilled from the most amazing 10 days in paradise (also of note - we booked ANOTHER trip while we were there - this time only $7,000 trip to Curacao next year, and used the police discount). When we arrived home and checked our credit card statement, we were charged the ORIGINAL price of $26,000+. I contacted Sandals by chat and they told me I had to call customer service. I called customer service and was on hold for over an hour.

When I finally had a conversation with someone, they had to call a manager on the back end to investigate and again I was put on hold. Their questions to me were "do you have proof that you submitted that he is a police officer BEFORE you went" and I said I submitted the information on the website link as directed. They said they did not have any proof of this. Then, they asked if I called the reservation center to confirm the discount and I said no, I was always told to show the badge/ID on site. They said there is NOTHING that anyone at the resort would have to do with the discount. I am so incredibly baffled and after speaking with Sheldon by email (now over two weeks since our honeymoon, STILL dealing with this), Sheldon said there is nothing they can do and was very rude in his/her responses to me.

I am confused why proof at the resort was not good enough, why us BOTH filling out the required first responder page was not good enough (and if it didn't go through, why is that OUR fault, or if it doesn't show on our end why is that OUR fault)? On Sandals website they talk about the first responder discount saying, "In appreciation of your services and commitment, Sandals Resorts would like to extend a great offer just for you!" We do not feel any appreciation. We actually feel like we were baited and switched because we only booked the more expensive room knowing that we could have the 10% discount and instead we were forced to pay full price and increase our credit limit. We are asking for a discount of the 10% as originally promised and as provided to all other law enforcement guests who travel to Sandals.

In addition, there is conflicting information because on their website it also says, "*10% year-round discount off any existing promotional rate for all Active and Retired U.S. and Canada police personnel. Proof of police ID will be required at check-in." We tried to provide the ID over and over while we were at the resort just to make sure and do our due diligence and we were told it would be taken care of. And it wasn't. This process has left us with a sour taste in our mouth regarding traveling to Sandals and we are reconsidering our trip next year due to this chaos.

4) Overall? If possible, I would give Minus 5 starts. There are many other "all-inclusive" resorts. Book with ANY besides Sandals. Their resorts do NOT live up to the alluring pictures and promises of luxury.

At 8:00am the following morning we received a call from the nursing station stating not to leave the room as my husband and I tested positive for COVID. We were shocked to say the least as we are fully vaccinated and had COVID PCR tests taken 48 hours prior to arrival AND had NO symptoms. I spoke to the Dr. via phone and I explained I was beyond confident we did not have COVID and if we had the slightest symptoms I would have cancelled the trip.

I am aware as a travel industry veteran of the consequences of testing positive for COVID in a country outside of the US. I requested we be retested immediately as it was a false positive result. The Dr. informed us retesting would be done in 5 days in order for the virus take its course as symptoms may not show immediately and could became worse as the days progressed. She also told me to change our flights as we were not going back to the US until we tested negative. My husband could not console me from the crying attack I had. He became very aggressive with the Dr. and demanded we be retested immediately.

A few hours later we received a call from a manager advising we had to be relocated and quarantined in a COVID room/area which was located in another area of the hotel for the remainder of our stay. I requested we stay in the suite, be retested as we were devastated at the thought of spending an indefinite amount of days/weeks in isolation when we did not have COVID. A hotel staff member showed up dressed in hazmat gear and took us to a room on the backside of the hotel where there was a guard walking the perimeter of the room 24/7. No one wanted to come near us and we were treated by the locals as lepers. I cried every day.

Finally we were retested and of course the results were NEGATIVE. I immediately called the airline and booked the next flight out of Grenada which costed an additional $1279. Plus – upon checkout we were charged an additional $1200 for our COVID room. When I asked why - Jeremy ** the Guest Experience Manager said it was protocol. He could not apply payment from the original reservation to the COVID room and Alifa ** would reach out to us to credit our full stay at a 1SKY category. I have not received any communication from her which I’m not surprised. Management was not very compassionate, communicative nor apologetic for the experience we had.

Keeping in mind the wonderful reputation Sandals has as well as my previous stays at Sandals, I perceive this type of treatment as unacceptable and We were shocked at how the ministry of Grenada and Sandals Grenada Management handled our situation. The day after our arrival back home we were re- tested (COVID PCR) as I was raddled by the false positive results. We wanted to ensure we did not have COVID. Our results were once again NEGATIVE.

Needless to say based on this experience our memories of our wedding anniversary vacation were ruined. I've reached out to the Sandals Management team and they have not stepped up to the plate to help us and I’m devastated over the way were treated. We traveled to Grenada in Sept and to this day Management has not made retribution for the 10K we lost due to this experience. If this the way Sandals handles customer issues please be aware if this happens to you. You will not be compensated.

This evening I reached (yet again) to Beaches and the staff member said they received the refund from AA and I should be expecting it in 5-7 days. When I asked the refund total, she was unable to answer the question. I was left on hold for 25 minutes. She then came back and said "the last agent I just spoke with said we did not receive the refund from AA yet." She apologized for the discrepancy and then somehow another, we got disconnected.... American Airlines has advised me to file a formal complaint at this point which I am in the process of doing, additionally, I will file with BBB. Customer Service has been terrible.

On my 2nd day I received a call from front desk stating I needed to check out of the garden room to move up to the 3rd floor. I had no option, I needed to be out of that room at 1130a and check in new room at 230p. I was to leave my bags and they will be brought to my new room at 230p. When I arrived at the new room at 630p. My bags were left outside the door and my keys did not work. I had to walk back to the front desk to get new keys. Such a horrible experience.

We was at this resort for 7 days. Housekeeping came 3 days. The three days they came was because we had to take several trips to the front desk to complain. The other days we had to ask them to send us wash cloths up and we even had to fix our own bed! One night after housekeeping did come we had grit and hair in the sheets, another night that the front desk brought linen up for us to fix the bed! We was promised a night supervisor would call us about the mini concerns that we had and that call never happened either! We’ve travel to several Sandals Resorts and have spent less money and I’ve never encountered such a bad experience from this brand prior to this trip! My next trip will not be With Sandals. I’ve complained this whole trip and it’s fallen on deaf ears so I pray someone reads the complaints and make someone else’s vacation better!

I love going to Sandals and I try to talk it up to other people so they know about the service they normally bring. This past week was nowhere close to the other Sandal resorts. Normally there are managers walking around asking how you are and is everything ok, trying to get involved. Not once did I ever see a single person from the management team walk around and mingle. I would highly recommend that you don't waste your money going to Halcyon when there are so many other beautiful facilities that Sandals has to offer.

My wife and I obtained tests and received the negative results two days prior to our departure. Out of our control, the testing laboratory documented the incorrect collection date of our test, which was outside of the 10 day window. The laboratory provided us with letters admitting to their mistake. We were denied access into Jamaica the night before our honeymoon. Now my wife is pregnant and Sandals won’t budge on refunding our money. We had no intentions to miss this trip. And it is out of our control with the current pandemic.

Sandals has a lot of our money and has been holding it. We have no idea when travel will be safe again. They advertise on their website 100% no worry refunds for new or existing trips. Wrong! When I called and ended up speaking to a manager and because the trip was booked prior to the pandemic, it was considered a no cancellation period. And if we cancelled the trip we would get $0 dollars refunded. The company expressed to me they had done us a "favor" by allowing us to reschedule. While the huge corporate company holds my $6,000, I continue to try and find a way to get a refund for a trip that was canceled and out of my control.

We have been told great things pre-COVID about Sandals. Now they are hurting families during a pandemic economy and have lost all of my respect. It is clear that their values and morals are not in line with the type of company that we spend our money with. Do not waste your money with a company that will steal from you the first chance they get. I will never spend another cent with this company.

They said they would not return the $1000 honeymoon suite deposit even though it was covid that changed everything, not us. Ask my cc for $1000 refund and was denied that too. So on my honeymoon, Sandals decided to keep my $1000 because I couldn’t afford to stay in Jamaica 2 weeks. Booked the insurance too. Gave them a month notice and will they rebook that room and still take our $1000, what a company!!! Still haven't received the $6900 refund either, been 4 weeks!

Thanks Sandals, we obviously would of loved to come for our honeymoon but covid rules made it impossible and you CHOOSE to keep my money in these circumstances. Will never ever step foot in one of your properties or anyone I know. Remember how sandals treats honeymooners when you go to book your dream vacation, they have no mercy even on your honeymoon! We will be honeymooning at Playa Largo and can’t wait! Thanks a lot sandals for keeping my money and showing your true colors! Never again! Was 3 nights for 8k, what a bargain, they are a joke. Go to Florida instead.

Sandals/Beaches has a LOT of our money and has been holding it interest free since 2019 and we have no idea when travel will be safe again. They advertise on their website 100% no worry refunds for new or existing trips, right? Wrong! When I called and ended up speaking to a representative, a supervisor, and a manager and was told that because our original April 2020 dates were considered a "blackout" aka no cancellation period that if we cancelled the trip we would get $0 dollars back - this is despite the fact that the country and resort WERE CLOSED in April 2020 during the blackout period so we could not have travelled even if we wanted to. The company expressed to me they had done us a "favor" by allowing us to reschedule and they could have just kept our money and cancelled us back in April.

We also had purchased trip insurance which I was informed did not cover this circumstance. So now our choice is to let the company continue to hold our money for another year or two while we wait to be able to travel again safely, or we lose it all. Not to mention if we choose to reschedule, our son who was 14 in April 2020 will now be 16 and so we will owe more money for him AND we will have our baby with us making our original party of 4 a party of 5 and we will be forced to upgrade to a larger room costing us even more.

We loved this company pre-COVID and had travelled to their resorts multiple times. Now it seems they have adopted predatory and opportunistic practices that are hurting families during a pandemic economy. After we take this trip - whenever that may be - we will never spend another dime with the Beaches/Sandals company. It is clear that their values and morals are not in line with the type of company that we spend our money with. Find another one of the beautiful Caribbean resort companies to travel with and do not waste your time, energy, and money with this lecherous company.

We called right after receiving the email telling us to call them about our reservation. They tried to reschedule our trip but we did not have other available times to travel. We were told we would have a refund within 60 days. 60 days passed and no refund so I started calling again. Since then I have been on the phone three times trying to get our refund of $14,866.25. It was then to be credited by January 22, 2021 (no credit) called back on the 24th, a lady said she submitted again and apologized but accounting was not open. I called back on January 25th and talked to a manager. He said it would be another 7-14 days. I instructed the supervisor that if we did not have a refund by Friday the 29th I felt that I needed to caution other travelers wanting to travel to Sandals.

Unbeknownst to us the dates we chose were "black out "dates and were non refundable. Nowhere was this made obvious when booking this vacation. We have made non-refundable bookings in the past with other companies and it's obvious what is going on and that you cannot cancel. No question at all. Not the case with Beaches. They hide it, but put their "regular" cancellation policy out there for everyone to see. We had to search hard for these black out dates. During a global pandemic this is a disgrace. Just be aware and don't make the mistake we made.

At Sandals La Toc the experience was maybe the worst I've ever experienced. The 9 hole golf course is worse than any public / municipal course I've ever seen. The beach at La Toc is dangerous! Rogue wave hit my wife and broke her arm in 3 places. Upon further investigation I found out the wave was not rogue and that type of thing happens all the time at La Toc and Sandals knows all about it and puts their guests in that dangerous situation regardless. You can't sue Sandals because they have you sign a waiver when you check in. They promised to credit our last day at the resort because we had to depart early to get to the hospital in the U.S. but.... you guessed it.... Never got the credit. Do what you want but I won't do business with this company again.

Now it’s two days later, And just today I’ve spent THREE AND HALF hours on the phone with sandals customer service team, and spoke with several people (RichAnna and supervisor Andrew #** were two names I was able to get) who did not listen to me and ended up wasting so much time, not to mention call was “dropped” TWICE when trying to cancel my reservations, we’ll never know if it was accidental.

Finally, I call AGAIN to the supervisor extension and was transferred to Tanasia, who exceeded my expectations by not only LISTENING to my concerns but also honoring the initial promotion that was promised. Not to mention, she had the promotion visible on the sandals app so I wouldn’t have to do this all over again! Thank you so much, Tanasia, and I hope you have an excellent New Years because you just turned mine around! Thank you!!! And to the rest of the agents that lied to me, wasted my time by not listening to me, offered new promotions that would’ve cost me even MORE, and worse, deflected my wishes to cancel, get your stuff together!! Because you were about to lose two reservations upwards to $12,000 USD. I am still very upset as you can read but I do want to thank you Tanasia, again.

Original Review: Dec. 25, 2020

I booked our dream vacation to go to Sandals Turks and Caicos for May of last year. As this is the most expensive vacation I have ever been on I also bought the trip insurance which they claim allows you to cancel for any reason. Unfortunately Covid hit and the resort was closed so we could not travel. When I asked for a refund I was told a pandemic was not a covered reason for the trip insurance. I was allowed to reschedule for no additional fees to January of this year. Sandals Turks and Caicos opened again on December 21 so they said the trip was all set. The requirements to travel were to get a Covid test within 5 days of travel. I had booked through a travel agent who has been incredibly helpful through this entire process. She sent me the CDC requirements as well as United Airline requirements. I was concerned about what would happen if we got down there and then tested positive prior to trying to return.

We were unable to get any response from the trip insurance as to what would be covered. They would only respond to read the insurance policy. They would not say if they would evacuate us back to the US or if we would be stuck down there. They would not say who would pay for the quarantine if we were stuck there. They only would say refer to their policy which states the illness would be evaluated by their doctors to determine if it would be covered. Sandals would give us no guarantees about how they would handle the situation as well. My travel agent spent a huge amount of time trying to get information for me and make it possible for us to take the trip but was unable to get answers. I asked her for contact numbers so I could try as well.

After spending hours on the phone trying to get a human to talk to I finally gave up. If you cancel within 14 days of the trip there is no refund. As it is now Christmas time I had one day left to cancel prior to that deadline to get any refund I chose to cancel and at least get some money back. The trip cost me $8974.75. Sandals is refunding me $3574.25. At least United airlines is allowing us a $1541.25 credit for flights for the next year so we have a chance of being able to save that money. Losing over $5000 for a vacation we could not take for no fault of our own is just plain wrong. This dream vacation has turned into more of a nightmare. I wish I had read these reviews prior to booking my trip. Now I am wondering if I will ever see the $3674.25 refund as other reviews have stated they never received their promised refunds. So much for a worry free luxury resort vacation.

I filed a Complaint with Better Business Bureau.. They tried contacting Sandals and no response form the BBB complaint. I contacted ABC Channel 6 News Consumer Complaint in Philadelphia waiting to hear back from them to speak with Media. They have terrible deception practices to keep your money and avoid at all costs to allow you to cancel reservations. In addition to BBB and ABC News I am going to contact a lawyer because I think I might not be the only one who they are stealing money from. I have spent TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars at Sandals staying six times at various resorts. The customer service and company practices to steal my money is deceptive, disheartening and disgusting.

Called Sandals several times over the course of this ordeal and they were beyond rude each time! I completely understand their delays due to events beyond their control, but when you tell customers hard dates and they pass, fault lies with the business. Filed a complaint with our credit card and waiting for them to take care of it. When we are able to travel next year, we will be using a different resort.

In July, we decided on 9/28/2020. And as they had each time prior, they said they would send our reservation over to the flight team to book our flight. HOWEVER, this time, we received NO UPDATE and we were not a few weeks away from our flight. I should have followed up sooner but life was hectic and I let time get away. Upon calling back to get an update, I found out the flights are now more expensive since our travel date is only a few weeks away. (That is usual, BUT, we should NOT have had to just now schedule our flights.) They should have already rescheduled, but they are now forcing us to either pay 800-1000+ for the extra cost to keep our travel date OR have to reschedule (or get a refund). But they have a monopoly over St. Lucia which is where we really want to go so we have to use them.

So yet again, we are having to try to change our time off from work, etc.. UGH such a pain! It was their mishap they did not reschedule sooner. We should not have to pay more to keep our time. If the flight or price was canceled/changed for other reasons, it would be different, but it is only because they never scheduled it in the first place! I'm sure it will be lovely if we ever get to go though. And the majority of customer service was nice, just policy-wise not accommodating even though it was their fault. 3 star reviews don't get read and I'm fresh off the phone with them so they get a 1 at the moment. Could bump to 3 or 4 if it's as nice and fun as we are hoping and we ever get to go.

My husband and I had a trip planned for this month, August 2020. We received a text in late July and then a voicemail regarding our upcoming stay. I phoned them back and spoke to a representative who was defensive and combative right off the bat and explained that the borders have been closed and that we could not stay at their resort because of this. I was disappointed but understood with everything going on in the world and was nice to her. Her tone was cold and abrupt, I felt like I was on a call with an IRS agent to be honest…like I had some outstanding unpaid tax bill due or something along those lines. It was quite odd, considering in the past, everyone was pleasant and wonderful.

I asked her what our options were, and she said that we could reschedule when they re-open or go to another resort but our room category was not guaranteed and there would be an extra fee. However, their other resorts are closed as well!!! I asked about certain dates in December and of course those are blacked out. She recommended next year sometime. I told the agent that I have no idea what our schedule will be next year (or if we will even be alive due to COVID) and that a refund would be preferred and then I will re-book when I can sort out our schedule and coordinate the air tickets which is always cumbersome coming from California. I was told that a refund will NOT be given because I am within the “14-0 days prior to arrival”, according to their policy. Hello, you are cancelling, not me and you notified me within the “14-0 days” time-frame!!!

She just kept reading from a script and acted like I called and cancelled at the last minute and that I am in the wrong. Bizarre…is this some sort of reverse psychology BS? Then I was told that if I wanted to reschedule, I had to do it within 3 days, otherwise I would forfeit my entire trip charge. Again, the agent was extremely rude, not apologetic, or empathetic and I felt extremely pressured.

I understand that they are trying to keep their business afloat and I can’t imagine how stressful it is with all of their employees etc., however it is stressful for the customers as well. Sandals is behaving like they are the only ones being affected by COVID and they are trying to keep as much $ as they can. They need these funds to pay for their overhead, employees and to spend millions on their NON-STOP Commercials to lure more poor souls in, newbies. They are shortsighted and it is really disgusting.

I don’t blame the poor girl on the phone, I blame upper management and those calling the shots…Butch or perhaps it is Adam now? They are putting undue pressure on their employees and their loyal customers leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Not a great business plan in my opinion! As a result, I have reached out to American Express to dispute the charge and I will no longer visit any Sandals in the future. Maybe a new business venture for them should be the Sandals Revenue Service (SRS). I will try to remember them fondly for the memories in the past. Kind of like an ex-boyfriend who you had a great relationship with but ruined it towards the end by making a stupid decision like cheating or hitting you. We had a great 20 year run but I am out! RIP Sandals!

Well I was told yes our resort wasn't opening until October, and sorry we weren't informed. AGAIN NOBODY EVER REACHED OUT TO TELL US!!!! So after I calmed down, I called to reschedule, but of course could not get through!! I finally got through the following day and rebooked at yet another resort in Jamaica. I was looking forward to going in a couple of weeks when I received a message today that we have a balance of $787!!!! Our balance has been paid since January! I called and actually got through, but the person that I spoke to couldn't figure out why there was a balance and said they would have a supervisor call me. Do you think I've heard back yet? NOPE!!! HOW THIS COMPANY IS STILL IN EXISTENCE IS BEYOND ME....

They rescheduled our room but shirked responsibility for rebooking the flights onto a fictitious company (Unique Travel Corp) which doesn't exist, judging from their lack of website, email address, & social media presence. They do have a phone number (which presumably calls someone at Sandals) which we've called numerous times. Each time nothing is resolved yet each call takes over an hour, due to the phone rep putting us on hold for long periods of time supposedly to relay our simple, straightforward question to someone more knowledgeable though our questions are never answered. (We've spent 8+ hours on the phone with them so far and STILL have no resolution.)

Each time, the Sandals phone rep has lied to us & told us they would rebook our flights & send us an email confirmation regarding refunding the flights & refunding the difference in airfare which is considerable (about $1000 US). They have yet to send us an email regarding the airfare refund &, though we finally do have flights on American Airlines (after multiple calls), we have no credit with the airline or with Sandals itself. I travel very frequently for work & I've never run across this before. In these situations, the credit is always with the airline & it only takes a few minutes for flights to be rebooked & for flights & the credit to show up in a frequent flyer account, not days as the Sandals phone rep always claims.

Sandals is obviously stalling us & hoping we will get tired of trying to get what is rightfully is ours but that won't happen. We want what is rightfully ours which is either a full refund (NOT less $600) or the difference in airfare credited back to us. Since Sandals appears to have just kept that extra $1000, they should have no problem refunding it back to us. We have been lied to every time we've spoken with anyone at Sandals about this & have been trying to deal with them politely for over 3 months now. Our patience is gone. It's very shameful & short-sighted of Sandals to train their employees to lie to customers & try to con people out of money rather than doing the right thing. This complaint has so far also been posted on yelp, tripadvisor.com, trustpilot.com, twitter and more to come. I'm going to make sure as many people as possible are warned about Sandals' shady practices.

We attempted to reschedule at another resort, but they wanted to send us somewhere completely different, no connecting flights, overnight stays between flights and a lot of other BS. We finally agreed after nearly 2 hours on the phone to accept the 50% refund and apply the other 50% to the same booking 1 year from now.... I log on tonight and they did not refund ANYTHING but instead placed our entire amount to a booking 12 months from now and on top of that they now say we owe them an additional $300.... Keep in mind none of this includes the over $3,000 we spent on flights.... We have to battle the flight refunds or vouchers tomorrow. This is absolutely wrong and completely unfair.... We honored our part of the agreement... Your resort is closed, we didn't back out... You did! On top of that you knowingly withheld this information from us and apparently a lot of other angry guest. This cannot be legal, especially under the circumstances!

The staff discriminated against my family; others noticed and it was very disturbing. Monique "the butler" was hostile, has a very nasty attitude, should be fired, and has much to learn about customer service. Management never addressed critical safety issues in the room and never took an incident report for an injury. The manager just refused to come over the course of THREE days. The room was subpar and the amenities mentioned never existed! The telephone did not work, the television did not work and nothing was rectified! If you have any issues you will get NO HELP, ASSISTANCE, OR COMPENSATION. That is completely unacceptable when you are paying thousands of dollars a night like we did for the upgraded accommodations!

I will be reporting this business to the Better Business Bureau as no one assisted while on the resort premises and will seek legal counsel as well for the injury in their room. It was that bad! After we left we were promised followup and NO ONE has called, emailed or contacted us yet for assistance! Do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else where paying customers are valued and respected!

The first agent called and let me know that the resort room has been canceled and the amount that would be refunded and all was good. The second agent called and told me “I” would have to pay a $200 cancellation fee even though they closed the resort, effectively cancelling my vacation. I said, "Whatever, just get me my money back." That was on March 24th. On April 1st I received the amount charged for the resort room back on my credit card.

The week of April 13th I noticed that the airfare had still not refunded so I started calling them. Was placed on hold for 45 minutes then hung up on. Called back and ask for a call back via automated system, never received. It took six (6) calls before speaking to a human only to be told “it is marked for processing in the system but there is a delay”. It is now May 1st and the called back last night only to be hung up on, again. Ask for call back and you guessed it, not received. Got through this morning and guess what, that refund is still in processing in their system. Nobody knows when I will receive my refund. Very poor customer service.

We've been attempting to get this issue resolved starting before COVID began and have made absolutely no progress; over 1 1/2 months of continuous calling/emailing. This message has been "sent to management for review" and is still being investigated by the wedding team to this date. The wedding supervisor is fighting us on this issue saying we should've cancelled one of the rooms and they don't see any email proving our requests. This is unacceptable customer service and business practices. We will never attend a Sandals resort/affiliation again after this is sorted out and will spread the news of our frustrations without hesitation. This is the worst organization we've ever dealt with. To be continued...

They would not provide anything in writing stating we were not getting a refund due to the resort closing. The customer service person was unprofessional and not willing to transfer us to a manager. I have probably spent more than 10 hours on the phone asking for a refund or some sort of documentation regarding the policy if the resort closes to no avail. Absolutely horrible...this is a complete scam and a rip off!!! I will never set foot on any of their properties again!!

We have tried to be very compassionate and understanding during this time, however, Sandals has been completely unprofessional and has made our experience stressful and a nightmare. I would not recommend this company to anyone - although we would have LOVED to be loyal customers we are now telling our businesses, family, and friends to never stay with this company. We have lost so much money, time and our Babymoon (which we would gladly reschedule) has become a nightmare. We are currently STILL trying to rebook our dates and have been hung up on 3 times already today.

When asked why their reservation department couldn't help us, they said because it was a different department and they couldn't access our account even though he said he could see it o this screen. This is beyond maddening. I also asked what if I can't get a hold of someone before our travel date... will I be out the $10,000+ we have spent for this vacation... He was not able to answer that question. I understand that there is a lot going on but over 60 times and not one person can call us back or answer the phone... After this trip... that is if we can reschedule, we will never be going to this resort ever again. Oh and don't waste your money on travel insurance... Pandemics aren't covered... that was waste of $300.

The United States Government has advised suspension of discretionary travel so we made plans to reschedule the vacation for later date and instead marry in the states; thus negating the need for the wedding amenities at Sandals. That said we contacted Sandals on two separate occasions to discuss our refund or receipt of credit that could be used towards the rescheduled vacation and was told that the $ paid was non-refundable. I find this absolutely unacceptable and will use every avenue at my disposal to expose Sandals for its blatant disregard to doing what is in the best interest of its customers to ensure their safety. I simply want a more reasonable response from Sandals in understanding this is a pandemic situation and therefore standard policies and procedures should not apply.

We tried repeatedly to contact customer service, but they never answered the phone. The initial message is "your wait is less than 10 minutes" but after 5 minutes a new message says something to the effect - due to high call volume please provide a number to call back and we'll call you shortly. They never call back. I tried 5 times. Then I called back but this time selected the option to make a reservation. Guess what - they answer immediately! I explained the issue to the person and asked him if he could deal with my issue. He said he had to transfer me to the cancellation department. Another black hole. I was on hold for another hour before I gave up for the day in frustration. I believe this is a deliberate strategy on their part to avoid giving a full refund. Beware!

Most restaurants were very good, except for one that was said to be one of the best, Butch’s Steakhouse and Seafood was nothing to brag about! My wife’s lobster was burned in the shell so bad that she could only salvage a couple of bites. My steak was maybe average. After leaving the restaurant, they chased after us and told us we had to come back and pay for the bottle of wine we had with the meal. How Embarrassing!! What happened to all premium drinks free! No one told us we would have to pay for it when our butler came in and served it to us.. We also could not help noticing all the large photos of the restaurant owner all over every wall, How Tacky!! We then went over to the beach grill and ate a wonderful supper of jerk chicken... way better food! This was my fourth visit to a Sandals resort and the first one that was ever disappointing.

On our last night we finally spoke with a manager that told us "we should've come sooner" instead of giving us our cab ride money back. He asked if we had a receipt from the cab (which we of course didn't have) and said he'd tell his manager and someone would follow up with us once we returned home. That was 3 weeks ago - almost a whole month - and NO ONE HAS FOLLOWED UP! Since this experience I've called the resort (876-974-5691) at least 20 times to speak with Semaj (the manager that was supposed to be helping us at extension **) and he's either avoided my calls, not in the office, or the phone continues to ring without any opportunity to leave a voice mail. What makes this experience so terrible was really the follow up.

The resort was decent - highly overpriced for a small room. The meals were decent - nothing to rave about. And the excursions included weren't anything I've enjoyed at other resorts. My very first Sandal's experience was far from "luxury" as proclaimed mostly because of the follow up I had to do with staff every single day of my vacation only to be told my problem couldn't be solved. I'm still very annoyed, agitated, irritated, and concerned that my voice has not been heard. If anyone reading this can help please reach out to me directly! I've shared this terrible story with my family and friends and will report this location to the BBB since I'm still not getting any support. Will not be going back.

Victoria **

Arrival went smoothly. My escort met me right off the plane with a sign in hand with my name on it. We got my bag from baggage claim and I was whisked through customs. The whole process took maybe 10-15 minutes and then I was at the Sandals Lounge. Upon arrival a bus was about to leave. They gave me the option of waiting at the lounge or taking the bus. I chose the bus. A red cap porter loaded our luggage and took it to the bus, where I was promptly told that I needed to tip the porter for handling my luggage. He was not shy in telling us that he only takes home the money that we tip him and is otherwise unpaid. After already paying the $80 for the travel upgrade, I was not expecting this. I had been told all of my tips and gratuities would be included the travel package, therefore didn't have cash and was I unable to tip the porter.

I arrived at the resort, where we were handed damp, fresh wash clothes to clean our hands with, and sat down in the lobby with the other guests to wait for check in. After they found out my name they told me I had been upgraded (I suppose due to the travel package) and I was brought to a separate lounge for Club Sandals. I was promptly checked in to the resort and a $400 incidental fee was requested from me. I had read the emails Sandals had sent and I was already expecting this.

I received a tour of the property and then was shown to my room, which had also been upgraded unexpectedly. I had originally booked the Caribbean Grand Luxe Poolside. I wasn't expecting to spend much time at the resort as my cousin was getting married at the resort located at Montego Bay. I was upgraded to the Crystal Lagoon Honeymoon One Bedroom Butler Suite, Poolside. I wasn't given a reason on why I was upgraded, but the room was beautiful and I was feeling like a queen.

I was working on arranging dinner with my family and decided I would do room service and then meet them for game night. I looked around the room and could not find a menu anywhere. I tried calling room service, no answer. I called the front desk and they said they would send someone over with one. This was my first time out of the country, and there is definitely no sense of urgency. In the 30 minutes it took them to get a menu delivered to my room, my cousin and I had made plans to do dinner at one of the restaurants at her resort. I got dressed and was just about to leave when the menu was delivered to me.

I arrived at the Montego Bay resort and after much deliberation, we were told that the restaurant could not acquire us as a single group and that we would all have to dine separately. This was slightly upsetting as they had tables set for two (couples' resort and all) and VERY few tables set for four or that they could put together to seat more. We ended up splitting up into groups of four. One set of us ate at the restaurant that we were all meant to dine at (Tokyo Joe's - 5 Stars on the food), and the other groups dined at other nearby restaurants.

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully and I caught the 10:45 pm bus back to the Royal Caribbean location. I had a long day of traveling, starting at 4:00 am. I had spent 2.5 hours driving to the airport, 3 hours waiting on my flight, 3 hours on the plane, and I had been going non-stop since arriving. That garden soaking tub was looking better by the minute. I turned on the water, and kept turning. It was barely coming out of the faucet. It took over 35 minutes to fill the tub over the jets at the bottom of it (about 5 or 6 inches total). I soaked in the tub for a little bit to ease the strain in my back, but I could only soak my lower back because of how slow the tub filled. By this time it was close to midnight so I decided to go to bed.

There were doors that went over the doors to the balcony so it blocked out the majority of the light, and there were shutters between the bathroom and bedroom to block the light from the bathroom window. I was able to sleep in the next morning (around 7:30 am is sleeping in for me) and I ventured out to check out the gym. The gym was clean and seemed to be well cared for. There were two jugs of infused ice water when I arrived and they had towels to take with you. It was small, but had a variety of cardio equipment, dumbbells, and barbells. Basically, if you know your way around the gym you can get in a decent workout. My only complaint is that the mats for cardio were barely usable (the last one available was thin and falling apart. It didn't exactly provide cushion on a tile floor) and the water was taken away during my workout but they never brought it back.

I spent the remainder of the day at the other resort with family and returned around 11 at night. I had gotten sick, I believe from being in the sun all day, and I was up until 1:30 that night. The room next to me got room service in the middle of the night, and I was woken when they arrived with the meal. I had just fallen asleep when a cat began howling outside my door. Around 3 or 3:30 I finally fell back asleep only to be woken at 6:00 am by a staff member working on the pool outside my room. He was filling a bucket with water from the pool then dumping it on the concrete around the chairs and scrubbing the floors down with a broom. This continued for about 45 minutes and I had JUST fallen back to sleep when what sounded like a leaf blower started up. The staff member continued to use the machine for the next 30 minutes or so.

I gave up on trying to sleep and went down to breakfast before going to join my family for my cousin's wedding. I returned to Royal Caribbean around 11 or so that night after the wedding. It takes me awhile to decompress before falling asleep, so it was about 12:30 before I fell asleep. Lo and behold, the staff members did the same maintenance on the pool at 6:00 am AGAIN, followed by the leaf blower. At this point I was completely exhausted. Between being sick and only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before, getting ready and helping with my cousin's wedding, and then only getting 5 hours of sleep I was at my wit's end.

I HATE bothering people or complaining. I called to the front desk and asked whether they had any mandatory quiet hours where staff members and guests cannot make noise. I was promptly told no. They don't have any quiet hours and the machine I was hearing was to spray for mosquitoes on the property, and that it is done EVERY morning. I told her I was extremely frustrated as I had stayed for three nights and two of those I was unable to sleep in. Once I'm up, I'm up and can't get back to sleep. She asked when I was leaving. I told her that day, and she said "Sorry". That was it.

The overall arrival was good, everything went smoothly when we checked in but we noticed right off the bat that the staff cater to the guests that have purchased an expensive room or look a certain way. A couple that checked in at the same time as us were one of the big spenders and they were offered a tour of the grounds while we had to sit and wait for our room because no one ever showed up to give us our “tour”. I want you to keep in mind that My husband and I weren't going to let petty stuff get to us, so we took it upon ourselves to explore the property on our own. Once our room was available we retreated and spent the evening having dinner, enjoying each other's company and unwinding from a busy day of travel.

The next morning, we woke up early and went to the main commons area to eat breakfast when we were very rudely turned down because the breakfast was supposed to start at 7 but it was 7:15 and things are on "island time" so they weren't ready yet. That's fine, we made do with visiting the coffee bar and relaxing on the couch until they were ready. We had nothing planned for the day so we decided that we would go to the Dunn's River Falls tour. We arrived at the tour desk in the lobby at the exact time that it was to open so that we could book the excursion and be on our way. The tour bus was due to arrive and depart an hour after the desk opened. After waiting a while, we finally asked the front desk if we could book the trip through them. They politely declined and told us that we had to book it through the tour desk and that it shouldn't be much longer before the attendant arrives.

We wandered back to the couch to wait longer. After quite some time, the tour bus showed up. We asked the chauffeur if he could help us get a seat on the trip. He was very motivated and said he would help us as much as possible. He resorted to the front desk to ask them a few questions and came back after being declined much like us. Shortly after, a young woman came to the desk and started unloading her purse. We immediately went to the desk to see if she was the attendant. Rather than help us, she picked up the phone and started making phone calls. Feeling very neglected, we were about to throw in the towel when the chauffeur stepped in and demanded we get helped. Before long we were on our way to Dunn's River Falls which I do highly recommend and I am pleased that we did not miss out on it.

The next few days consisted of my husband and I lounging on the beach and enjoying each other's company as well as a scuba diving trip that I had planned before we arrived. My husband use to be a commercial diver and though we understand that the resort has standards on diving experiences, he provided his experienced diving card and they told him he still needed to do a diving follow up course. After paying $80, he was told to meet the instructor at the pool where he was completely deserted and told to hook up his equipment and to do everything on his own. The money we paid for him to have the “follow up” went towards the instructor asking him 2 questions and telling him that he was good to dive. While I, on the other hand, took the entire training course and had a panic attack after the instructor took us in the ocean and let us go 30 feet under after a 2 hour training season.

I don't think I should have ever passed the course but he insisted that I was good to go. After swallowing what felt like a gallon of salt water, I resorted back to the diving boat, never to dive again in my life due to the nightmares and anxiety I still receive from thinking about not being trained or instructed properly. That's neither here nor there, it could happen to anyone I suppose.

The day after diving we had an offshore fishing trip planned. Though we never caught anything, it was an absolute blast. If there is one thing I can take from this trip, it would be how much fun I had on the offshore fishing. By now you are probably thinking, wow this girl can have fun? Yes, I know how to have fun, this trip was just a series of unfortunate events and mind you, we brushed the first half of the week off and didn't let it bother us at first.

After we returned to our room following the fishing trip we found that the cleaning services had never cleaned our room. We thought that maybe they hadn't gotten to our room yet so we change our clothes and stayed out late that night only to return to a room that still had not been cleaned. We were at the resort for a week, and this happened more than once. Our room wouldn't get cleaned on multiple occasions. Normally this would not bother me but in a country like Jamaica, bugs are everywhere. The resort tries it's best to keep the bugs to a minimum but when the cleaning service hasn't shown up to your room and the sheets and garbage from the day before were never taken care of, The bugs accumulate quickly. I woke the next morning to a body cover in Painful bug bites. Due to the bed not being taken care of, a family of ants took it upon themselves to take a vacation in our bed and feast on our bodies throughout the night.

The next morning I immediately requested our room get serviced as well as stock the fridge, which at this point we were 5 days into our vacation and the fridge had only been stocked once. The website says that the fridge is always fully stocked. The front desk told us to put a note out for the cleaning staff to stock the fridge but when the cleaning staff doesn't show up, the fridge doesn't get stocked.

The final two days were the worst. This is where everything that we brushed off and thought was trivial, came crashing down on us. We decided to book another excursion to fill the time before we went home. This time the gal was actually at the desk but she made it just as clear that she did not want to help us again. We booked it for the following day so that we could wake early and set out for the trip. That evening we went to the seaside grill, which we found to be our favorite. The staff was very welcoming and cheery at this place rather than others so we came here frequently. When we returned to the room and went about our night, we both woke to a very upset stomach. This was followed by us spending the entire night in the bathroom. We expunged every ounce of fluid that we had in our body that night. What better way to spend a honeymoon together, right?

The next morning, our bodies still weren't clear to go 10 feet from the bathroom so I called the excursion desk because we had just paid for the excursion the previous day and it was a pretty penny to do so. I called solely to see what our options were to cancel. I was greeted with the same rude, condescending demeanor that we had received from this place before. The gal said the only way we could get a refund was to have a nurse evaluate us. Being very frustrated at this point, I responded with “great, Send one our way!”. She was not happy with that response so she hung up the phone. I called the front desk awhile after to see if one had been called for us. She said no and that she could arrange one to visit. We did, in fact, have food poisoning which allowed us to be refunded our money for the excursion.

At this point, I was in tears and just plain ready for us to get out of this place. So I decided I would do the last of my shopping at the resort shop. By this time in our trip we had been in the resort shop multiple times and those multiple times that we visited, I was greeted by no one, asked if I could be helped by no one, and frankly, this took away all of my ambition. I knew that I had to go to the shop before we left though because we were due to return to the states on Christmas eve and if I showed up empty-handed my name would be mud. While I was in the shop for the last time, I witnessed a sales associate offer the “early bird special” to a woman that was in line behind me. When I got to the register I asked about the special and she said it was too late and over with. After I was finished purchasing my items I lingered a few minutes before walking out the door. To my dismay, The woman behind me in line was given the special.

I just want to express that my pride, emotions, and well-being were sucked dry by this resort. I had never been out of the states before and after this trip, I don't have the desire to again. We were so excited about this trip and I don't know if we just didn't fit the bill or if it was because we didn't flaunt our wealth while we were there but I truly would not recommend this place. There are quite a few more things that I could go into detail about but if you have stuck with me this far, I will spare you the rest.

I guess if you choose to go here, don't expect great service or anything in a timely matter. The resort seems to hide behind the phrase “island time” in a lot of instances, because of this the itinerary is not accurate and you may end up spending time waiting for even the smallest events such as bar side bingo. Make sure to Demand that your room gets cleaned promptly and well. Don't do the scuba diving training, unless you want a little trauma in your life. Lastly, try to avoid getting food poisoning. Thanks for listening. Sincerely - J

*Sub-par service!

Now let's discuss the category 5 hurricane.. So clearly, the resort can't control the weather and we definitely know that but what they can control, is what they tell their future guests. The story went like this.. My anxiety was through the roof with hurricane Dorian nearing the Bahamas. The day prior to our departure, I chatted with Sandals via their website. I was told "we're not expecting much from the hurricane, we'll be in the outer-bands and will most likely just receive some rain and wind." I even called the morning of our flight when Dorian was moving at a fast pace towards the Bahamas. I asked again what they would advise and once again, was told "we're not expecting too much. We're still advising everyone to come."

Fast forward to 4 hours later when we land, it looked like the resort was preparing for a major storm. Everything was boarded up, sandbagged, caution tape up, closed restaurants, all the guests were consolidated to one building, the staff was sent home..Definitely did not seem like things were "running as normal." Basically, we were told what they thought we wanted to hear. We were sold a bill of goods to get us down there. We spent the next 3 days/nights sitting in our rundown hotel room watching TV. We even asked for a deck of cards at one point because we were so bored..that didn't even happen!

Also, the swim-up pool that we spent so much money to get, didn't get used once because it was FREEZING cold!! When I brought this to the attention of some other guests at the resort, we were told that some guests were offered to stay at another resort if they didn't want to go to the Bahamas, we were never given this option. There's no real consistency when it comes to Sandals and what they tell their guests.

Reflecting back on the trip, I feel so extremely cheated by the whole experience. We didn't have the chance to do so many of the things we went there to do. Since our trip was such a bust, we decided to stay one additional night just so we would at least have the chance to go snorkeling, which was a major reason why we went. Instead of showing some sympathy for the horrific experience we just went through, Sandals charged us full price to stay another night, $935! The room looked absolutely NOTHING like the website btw. In closing, as I sit here with ** all over my bed-bug bitten legs, I hope this story serves as a warning to anyone considering visiting Sandals. :(

Why is Sandals not honoring my original price??? Why do I lose the special price because I cancelled due to an impending disaster. That is ridiculous. Why should I have to pay almost $500 more. The airline is honoring their price, why isn't Sandals. They are charging me an additional $500 because I rescheduled the trip. No one in their right mind would travel to an area where a hurricane was coming, CAT 5. This will be my 6th and last trip to Sandals.

He verified the flight and total price and was ready to take my payment and the call dropped. Called back a 4th time, asked for a manager. The agent would not transfer to a manager, she pulled up my reservation and quoted me a price that was $2,000 more than the original quote. I asked several times to speak with a manager and she told that she has discussed it with the manager and it was nothing he could do. After several times of asking for a manager I finally spoke with he refused to honor the original price because the airline fares had increased since the other 3 calls. I cancelled my reservation. I will never use Sandals again.

In this particular case the discount doesn’t equal a lot of money but that isn’t the point of this review. I followed the instructions in applying the discount per the website which requires you to book first, then fill out the discount information. I booked and then filled out the information requested only to receive a response that because I had paid the reservation in full I couldn’t complete the form online. I then chat with someone at sandals who says to call the 800 number and it would be applied.

As I mentioned before I booked the day before I traveled so I inquired at the resort. They informed me they couldn’t do anything and that I had to call the 800 number. So when I could I called. I was first told that because I was already on the property no discount could be applied and that had I called before I left they could have applied it. Then after getting the runaround and speaking to a supervisor the story changed to the booking has to be made 30 days ahead of time. The bottom line is they need to provide correct information on their website and the customer service agents could definitely stand some training. They give the appearance of giving a discount in order to attract the business of public servants but the truth is they have no intention of honoring it and only want your money!

The bus finally left the airport and we had a white-knuckle ride to the resort. Our driver's preferred method of stopping at stop signs was to just toot the horn and fly right on through. I could see the speedometer and at one point he was going 55 kph through a residential area. We got to the resort and the staff offered us cold towels and sang us a song welcoming us to Barbados. We were then led into the Club Lounge where we found a place to sit. The staff made us all a Blue Caribbean welcome drink and asked us all our names. After that they gave all the other guests a tablet with their room information on it and asked if everyone had gotten one. We had to speak up and say no that we had not gotten one.

After we completed the iPad check in and waited about 25 minutes it was our turn to sign and agree to letting them put a $400 hold on our charge card for any charges we might make. I told the woman checking us in that this was not how a 5-star resort treated their guests and she just looked at me and didn't respond. We were not given any information about services that the concierge provided and had to ask about making our ala carte reservations. They led us to our room talking about the resort and showing us where everything was. Our bags were in the room when we got there and we went to get something to eat.

Later that night I went down the hall to the ice machine to find it not working. No ice, no sounds of ice being made or kept frozen, no nothing. I called the Club Concierge and got no answer (this happened several times during our stay). I called room service and they told me to take my ice bucket and go the bar. I finally managed to find a working ice machine on the floor above us. The next morning the top of the dresser had water all over it and there was a leak somewhere in the beam above. The drain in the bathtub fell apart after my wife tried to take a bath so I called the hotel operator (because the club concierge again wasn't answering the phone) and was put through to maintenance who to their credit did send someone right up. He had the parts to fix the bathtub drain but looked at the leak, mumbled something and left. Water was still leaking from that beam when we left. Things did get better after that.

The staff always said hello to us. Anthony at Spices was always happy and greeted everyone with a "Good morning. How are you?". When I asked him how he was his answer was always "Phenomenal". The entertainment at the Oyster bar was fantastic too. We enjoyed the younger fellow playing the piano but the real good time was with Dale at the Sing-Along. The Sky lounge was very nice and had a great view. We spent a while up there our last night and there was a real nice breeze. Nakesha at the European pool was always friendly and kept us supplied with beverages.

One major factor in my low score besides the lack of organization at the airport was the Loyalty Club. This was our first trip to Sandals and you can join the Loyalty Club while you are there and as a guest of the resort you can get an additional discount of up to 12% on a room booked while you are there. We had planned on bringing our 2 adult children and their spouses to a Sandals resort in 2020 and we were excited to see what kind of a price we could get. We had done our homework before leaving and we had a list of resorts we wanted to price. First off we learned that there are only certain room categories to choose from and the next thing was they would only give us a reduced rate on one room because you had to be on resort to get the discount. We spoke to several loyalty group agents explaining that we would be paying for all three of the rooms not the kids and they all said that you can only get a discount on one room.

We tried 3 different times to find our selected week (June 2020) at different Sandals resorts but all the lower cost rooms were "sold out". I had discovered this when looking before our trip and I believe Sandals only releases so many of the lower cost rooms at a time to force you to purchase a more expensive room. One place was sold out Saturday and Sunday but not Friday or Monday. Go figure. This isn't Las Vegas where people fly in for 2 or 3 days - most are there for a week or more. When we checked out I tried one last time talking to the Club rep and she made several phone calls and I talked to a supervisor but in the end nothing changed. I told them they were losing out on more than $16,000 in sales but they didn't seem to care. I have since booked a nice all inclusive on Antigua right on the beach for all of us for only $10,000, so thank you Sandals. The money you saved me will pay for the airfare.

This is just some of our complaints, but our biggest complaint was that we had spent a lot of money for our 35th wedding anniversary trip and we expected a once in a lifetime holiday. It was so very disappointing. During our stay I spoke to Ghislain **, Caribbean Village Manager and also Ebeia **, Resort Manager and they were not helpful. Upon returning I emailed Gebhard Rainer, CEO Sandals and was emailed back by Alicia **, Customer Relations with no apology for our disappointed experience, but were told to let her know when we book our next vacation with them and she would arrange courtesies. This was a joke because we would never waste our money again on a Sandals/Beaches vacation. We definitely do not recommend Sandals/Beaches.

Well I should have known from the start it wouldn't be so great. As soon as we were taken to the bus for our ride to the hotel, we had a bad feeling. (So did other passengers by the way.) We expected Sandals to have their own transportation/buses. You would think that people spending over 4k for a weekend would get to ride in style but not here. They used 3rd party transportation that was cramped, with our luggage piled up in the back two rows of seats! Once we arrived at the hotel things got a little better but only because of the staff. As part of our package we were brought up to a different area to check in since we were Club Level Guests. It was nice not to have to wait in line with a ton of people checking in but it seemed this was just a way to justify the price.

We were greeted by staff and given some complimentary drinks which were wonderful. The concierge and staff were just as wonderful. They got us checked in in a timely manner and were taken to our rooms and shown the grounds along the way. Great service here. Once we got to our rooms we started to notice some things. And not in a good way. Call me picky but here is what I thought about our stay and the condition of the resort. (I have pics and video of what I write below.)

1. Our very first impression in our room was as soon as we walked in along the baseboard. By the table and 2 chairs, along the the baseboards was water damage that was covered up. Not very appealing. This doesn’t look very good to someone who hasn’t been to one of your resorts before. It also leads me to believe that there could be a problem with the structural integrity of the building as water leaks are NEVER GOOD if not corrected in a timely manner. Our first thoughts when I pointed this out to my wife was, “Wow. That’s not good!”

2. Also not a good first impression was the glass top on the dresser holding the TV. The glass had a painted back to make it look frosted but it was flaking off and it looked horrible. Something you would expect from a Super 8, not a $4000.00 room! It is a very easy fix as well as all you would need to do is just replace the glass piece. This was a head scratcher.

3. Next was the shower. Although cool with the double shower heads, it was not very practical. It had no door so when you showered you had to put a towel down so the floor didn't get soaked and cause a fall. It was very slippery when wet and we almost fell a few times on the tile floor when it was wet.) It also was very uncomfortable as you would freeze when you had to put soap in your hair or wash your body because of the lack of a door. WE DID NOT LIKE THE SHOWER AT ALL.

4. THE TRANQUILITY TUB! Where do I start? I thought this would be a great addition to our trip. Boy was I wrong! Not only was it not as private as we had hoped for but for starters the water was so hot we HAD TO WAIT FOR AN HOUR FOR IT TO COOL DOWN TO USE IT. THERE WASN’T ANY COLD WATER. Just hot water no matter what we did to the valve.

Then there was the privacy issue. With a tub like this you would expect a little privacy with the curtain that was provided but it stops short by about a foot and the neighbors could see in when they walk by. This was because the way the building was set up, our stairs were shared with the Butler service room next door so when the other people in that room had to come or go, they walked right by our balcony and could see in even with the privacy curtain pulled all the way. This was disappointing because we were really looking forward to that.

Then once we got in we were startled by the water dripping in the tub from the overhead light. Yes you read that right. The overhead light in the ceiling above the tub was filled with water from the balcony above. It was pouring rain out and there was obviously a water leak in the balcony above, and it was draining into the light fixture above the tub. We are so glad we didn’t turn the light on! (I have a video of this too.)

5. The overall condition of the resort was average. I know the resort is getting up there in age compared to the other resorts but it could really use a facelift. The tiles in the pool area were falling off in areas and the wood was showing signs of rot in other areas. The walkways were very slippery when they were wet throughout the resort. The bar/wall surrounding the chefs in the Italian restaurant had tiles missing. This looked horrible. I guess this is might be acceptable if we stayed at a hotel half that price but I did not expect it from Sandals.

I am sorry to sound so petty and nitpicky but when we choose a resort like Sandals for a vacation, we expect a little more. It saddens me to even have to write this because your staff was worth every penny. From our arrival to departure, the staff was wonderful, fun and attentive. Sadly the resort doesn’t do them justice. Respectfully, Nick **

We returned the next morning to make our reservations and had our list and preferred dates. We given cards to bring to the restaurants and thinking that we were all set, went about our day. When we checked the cards the next day we found that the one restaurant we told the Concierge we did not want (as neither of us like Japanese food) we found 2 reservations for that very restaurant. We returned to the Concierge to report the error and fix the reservations for the correct restaurants. We were told, "The restaurants aren't answering phones and we would have to come back again the next morning. There are other restaurants that don't need reservations you can use." Returning once again we returned and was told, "All reservations are full but there are other restaurants that don't require reservations." No apology, no offering to try to fit us in anywhere --- nothing.

We were at Sandals to celebrate our 38th anniversary as we have on our other trips to Sandals. They were informed by phone, online, and to the Concierge at which restaurant we wanted to celebrate. We arrived dressed up and happy only to find no acknowledgment whatsoever about this milestone. Housekeeping was another issue. One night we returned to find one bath towel and 3 bath mats. We had to call housekeeping to await bath towels, washcloths, and hand towels.

Each day there was a different assortment of linens. The workers are not friendly and ignore you when you pass even with a greeting. Just plain rude. We have reservations for the Bahamas next year and will cancel and join our friends on a River Cruise instead which they have had nothing but raves about after several. The final insult is that it has been over a month since I contacted Sandals customer service about this issue and have never received a reply. Buyer beware ---- go elsewhere!

7) The quality and taste of the food at our candle light dinner was gross. Our steaks were served over cooked, even more than well done when we ordered medium... And my shrimp was raw! We didn’t even eat the food or the chocolate covered fruit.

8) We ordered room service the day of our wedding, after our reception, before our sunset hour photos... And the room service never came. We called to ask them about it 2 hours after ordering it. And they said it would be here soon. Then, they called 20 or so minutes later to say they never put the order in and asked us what we wanted. By then we had to leave the room so we didn’t have time to order.

9) We were told we could travel between resorts for free on the Sandals shuttle. We went to arrange a trip to Sandals Negril, and we were asked to pay $210 for a taxi service to take us. When we asked about the free bus ride we were promised and they said that South Coast is not included in that perk. Well, our planner knew we were staying at South Coast when they told us it was?

12) Multiple times we have ordered food, dessert and drinks at the restaurants and the server said they would have it right out but it never came. I put ***’s by 2 and 11, because those were the most important.

Last, I talked to the manager, Heidy-Ann this morning, and she was very nice and helpful. She offered us a day trip to Negril, but we felt it was too late to go since it is a far drive. She is also offering to fix the top tier of the cake we want to take home. However, no one comped the strawberries we didn’t get, no one comped the extra hour we paid for that we could have gotten free, no one offered any discounts or nice things to help make up for Sandals pretty much ruining our wedding day.

I am happy we didn’t invite anyone to the wedding with us. I would have actually been embarrassed to have guests pay thousands of dollars to experience the unorganized event, and bad food. And I am sad that this is my husband's first trip to Sandals. He will probably never want to come back. And it is my 4th trip, so I know how great the trip can be... He is convinced we overpaid for a mediocre vacation.

With all of that being said, we would like to also say that overall the customer service has been great. Everyone from Club Sandals is fantastic! Ryan, Chloe, Bernetta, Chantelle, and a couple others that I cannot remember their names have been great! Literally everyone in Club Sandals is fantastic! Lafem from candle light dinner was great as well. Our photographer, John ** was a dream come true! He captured our wedding photos in a magical way. We will be forever grateful for him, and his talent. He was absolutely perfect. Jody-Ann, in the photo shop was wonderful and patient helping us pick out the photos we wanted to purchase. Sheraton was great as a videographer for our wedding. We decided not to purchase the video, because of a couple of small details, but we loved it and she was very nice as well.

Sandals was unapologetic, unhelpful, and in general dismissive. The "all-inclusive" was ruined as I no longer felt safe eating on their property. The hospital stay cost me a day of the vacation (thankfully not my life). And the hospital bill has caused financial distress. Sandals latest response was "we are looking into it and will get back". The Bahamas are worth your visit, Sandals does not deserve your business. And if you still choose to go here and you have any dietary restrictions DO NOT trust them.

The Motel 6 room much better. The room that we stayed (I lost many nights of sleep because they put us right above the lobby and no A/C). We filed the complained with Sandals and they want to give us 25k sandals point = $250 :) (We paid $5000 for hotel/one week). Don't stay at this resort, believe me it was not worth it.

When I returned, the lady who had the lounge next to me told me someone from the dive shop had removed my personal belongings and gave my chair to another guest. When I went to the dive shop they claimed they didn't have my things and that I needed to go to lost and found. I was livid that my things had been stolen by staff members. My husband and I were paying $1000.00 a day for this kind of treatment? I was near tears because I felt violated that my things had been taken, and no staff members, even in the lost and found, would help me or showed any compassion.

My husband combed the beach and found my book and the $27 dollar bottle of sunscreen that I had purchased the day before in the Sandals gift shop, wrapped up in a Sandals towel and thrown onto a hammock. On top of that, our maid service was terrible, our room was always made up at the end of the day, the mini bar was never restocked, and coffee wasn't replenished in our room, not even when I called maid service and asked to have it replenished. The last day I was there, I slipped and fell in the bowling alley on the premises where the lanes had been recently oiled, landing my right hand.

The nurse on the premises incorrectly wrapped my wrist and wanted me to see one of their doctors in town but at that point I just wanted to get out of there and go home. Luckily one of the gal's in our group was a nurse and correctly rewrapped my wrist and put ice on it for me. When I got home, we drove immediately to Urgent Care where my hand was Xrayed and treated for a fractured radius (wrist). Since Sandals red flagged me, due to the accident, I was unable to give a review, that's why I am giving it here. Buyer beware when booking at Sandals. I personally will never book at another Sandals resort. It was a very expensive trip to be treated so horribly!

Obviously terrified, we asked for security and out came one 90 lbs woman along with an older heavy set man who did not help at all. THAT WAS THEIR IDEA OF SECURITY. At that point, I felt I had no choice but to call the police, and the woman "security" guard refused to give me the Bahamian version of 911's number because she did not want the attention. She would have rathered my husband end up in the hospital so they could just cover it up later. I ended up calling anyway in fear that my husband and other guests would be badly hurt by this man who was basically holding them hostage in the bathroom. Once the belligerent guest heard I had called the police, he let them out and went back to his room (probably because no one wants to go to jail in a foreign country).

The General Manager of the resort, Lucky, also was called. However, the police did nothing (wouldn't even file a report even though they showed up with machine guns), and once the GM finally decided the guest needed kicked out (before they were saying they couldn't because he was a "guest' too), they could not control him and were afraid of him as well. I could not believe that the resort had no security measure in place for something like this. We did not want to spend our honeymoon and $10,000 for my husband to keep others safe and be afraid for our safety.

When I brought this up to the GM, he said it was due to a "lack of talent on the island." They market the resort as safe, secure, and luxurious when in reality, if something happens law enforcement and the resort will do nothing to keep you safe. The GM told us he would make it up to us and we wanted to give him the chance to. However, he then offered us 1 free night to come back which is completely unacceptable and does not cut it. In my opinion, the GM Lucky should be paying my husband for his security work that night. Don't think that because you are on a resort that you are safe. They give you that impression but it is false.

Our butler offered to go get my wife Crete (at our cost) and had room sprayed. We had to stay out of room for 1 hour which was no big deal. After bug spraying we still noticed a few flying around, that night again bitten 10 times and up itching most of the night. We now are upset, and vacation is not enjoyable. We asked for a different room, first conversation was can’t get new room until the next night, we said, "That won’t cut it for us," waiting to see what they come up with. More to come! Sadly on our first night prior to now 40 bites, we already booked our next Sandals at a penthouse suite at Royal Bohemian. Depending on what they do, we may cancel next trip and go to the competitor which I never thought I would say.

Friday, November 16, 2018 - Upon arrival with two other couples we were escorted into the main lobby for a lengthy check-in of approximately 45 minutes. Our greeter, Lee, spent most of this time apologizing for this long wait. When we were finally issued a key and escorted to the room we discovered luggage that did not belong to us. More apologies as the staff searched for our luggage. Mind you, only three sets of luggage came off our van transport from the airport. While the staff searched for the luggage we toured our room to discover that the much anticipated "Windsor Honeymoon Oceanview Club Level Suite", room 1310, had a very limited ocean view. In fact, you can only see the ocean from the far right corner of the balcony. Very misleading and disappointing.

We immediately approached the concierge desk to request a room with an ocean view and although the reservations could clearly show who was arriving and departing, we were told we had to come back the next day to see what may be available. We were told to lightly unpack so if a room became available we could change rooms. After returning to room 1310 to situate our belongings, we relaxed before heading to Spices for dinner. When we arrived at approximately 6:15 pm, we were told that there was a 45 minute wait. This was the first of many times that we found the wait times were much longer than the hostess communicated. When we were finally seated we observed many open tables indicating that the restaurants were either understaffed through lack of available employees or by poor planning. In addition, napkins were not provided until we asked for them halfway through dinner.

Saturday, November 17, 2018 - We started the day with breakfast at Spices. We were offered Mimosas that never arrived. After finishing our breakfast, Larry had to leave his seat to track down our server to inquire about the status of the Mimosas. After breakfast we checked with the concierge regarding the availability of a new room. We were offered room 1419 which provided the advertised ocean view. We packed our luggage and brought it to the concierge desk by 11 am as instructed. We were told that room 1419 would not be available until 1:30 pm at the earliest. We were allowed to bring our luggage into room 1419 instead of leaving it at the desk.

A shame that our first observation in room 1419 was ripped carpet as we entered the living area. We would now be without private quarters for 2 and a half hours. We inquired about dinner reservations with the concierge only to find out that they were fully booked Friday and Saturday. The first available was Sunday night at either 5:30 or 9:00 pm. We did make a reservation for 5:30 on Sunday at Baccarat and one on Monday at Kimonos for 7:00 pm. We decided to make the most of our 2 and a half hour wait by heading to the beach. To our dismay, after a thorough search of the premises, we were unable to find any clean towels and had to go back to the front desk to ask for towels. Again, many apologies. Arriving at the beach we found it to be very small and crowded. There was very little space between occupied chairs.

Sunday, November 18, 2018 - Breakfast at Baccarat also included a very long wait. Upon seating we were once again offered Mimosas that never arrived. After we ordered our food, two other tables were seated. These tables were able to order, eat their breakfast and depart before we were even served our breakfast. When our open-face omelette and French toast came to the table, the omelette was room temperature and the French toast was cold. We did not send the food back because we already found ourself spending too much time waiting in lines and for food instead of having fun or relaxing on the beach.

At one point we bumped into Lee who asked about our stay so far and when we expressed our disappointment he summoned his manager. She only offered apologies and asked that we give her "opportunity". She also stated that we would get a call from food service because these poor restaurant experiences "should never happen." We never received a call throughout our entire stay. On Sunday, Larry found out by accident while speaking to Jade at the main lobby that she was our personal concierge which we didn't even know we had. Also, he overheard from another desk clerk that there were many tours available of which we were not informed.

The island boat provided to the "private island" does not have enough departures and arrivals nor did the crew adhere to the schedule as posted on the board at the dock. The crew seemed to come and go at their leisure. Example, one boat was leaving the pier at 9:30 am. The first posting is 10:00 am. There was a mass of people waiting for the boat with no semblance of order. There should have been an attendant to organize a line and inform passengers of wait time. In addition, we heard that there were non-Sandals guests who were vying for seats on the boat who had come from cruise ships or other resorts. As we approached the island on the boat we were told that the private island was in reality, shared with some other entity and that we must stay to the right of the concrete wall.

While on the island we decided to have lunch at Schooners at 1:40 pm. The hostess said the wait time would be 45 minutes but gave us the option of take-out which she stated should be only 15 minutes. We decided on the take-out since we wanted to make the 2:50 boat ride back to Sandals for our complimentary photo shoot at 4 pm. After waiting 42 minutes, we were told that the rum cake was the hold up. After another 8 minutes we were finally given our lunch and the rum cake and told NOW that our appetizer was not ready. We took the food we had to a nearby bench seat and I waited to eat as Larry went back to check on the appetizer.

When he returned with the appetizer we opened our take-out containers to eat. Within two minutes we noticed that the boat crew had approached the dock earlier than scheduled. We quickly inhaled our meal so that we would be able to get a seat on the boat. As we approached the dock we realized that the line was too long and we would not get a seat. We had no option other than to wait for the next boat. We realized that we were not going to make our 4:00 photo shoot because the next possible departure from the island was 3:50 pm. As a side note, If we had been initially told that the food would take an hour we would have relaxed on the beach (as vacations should be) and came back instead of waiting around the restaurant area in the hot sun.

Sunday night we attempted to go to Gordons, a non-reservation restaurant, only to be told that the wait was an hour and 15 minutes. There again we cited that there were many open tables only to be told by the hostess that those were reserved for couples with a butler. Instead of waiting more than an hour we settled on the Crystal Room.

All of these disappointments were within 24 hours of our arrival. We have been to many islands that included stays in Sandals Montego Bay and Dunns River, Beaches at Turks and Caicos, Rosewood Resorts on Virgin Gorda and St. Johns as well as many resorts that were not all inclusive. We had experienced more disappointment in the Sandals Royal Bahamian in two days than we had in all of our other travels combined and there was more to come. In addition, throughout our stay we overheard many conversations of other disgruntled guests.

Monday, November 19, 2018 - A second chance at the island with experience under our belt we approached the hostess for lunch at an earlier time closer to 1 pm and was told the wait would be approximately 15-20 minutes. Again this was unnecessary because there were many open tables. During our lunch we noticed that there were about ten couples experiencing the same situation that we had encountered the previous day waiting more than an hour although eight table were open.

Monday evening at 5:30 pm we called room service to order a cheese plate. The phone rang 20 times with no answer, we called the concierge desk and was told the room service number we dialed was correct and they transferred our call only to have it ring 20 times again. Larry reluctantly took the elevator down four floors and walked the entire length of the building to the front desk and spoke with Johnny, the concierge. Johnny remembered transferring Larry's call and said he would try the call himself. When Johnny dialed the number and it rang for the first time, he handed Larry the phone. On the 15th ring, Larry turned the phone toward Johnny and let it ring five more times and asked when HIS patience would be exhausted. Johnny agreed, hung up, and tried some other number and reached a person who was finally able to accept the room service order.

Later that evening at Kimonos the hostess was unable to locate another couples reservation even though they had confirmed the reservation three times. This delayed our seating because they were one of the six couples that each hibachi grill accommodates. The lady was absolutely livid and at her breaking point about her entire stay. We were all finally seated but none of us should have to experience the lack of service and frustration we all endured at a so-called "5" star resort. Tuesday, November 20, 2018 - Our expectations diminished and our patience exhausted we decided to just lay on the beach and drink. If we did nothing then nothing could go wrong. The only service we hoped to request was from housekeeping, however, they never answered the phone.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018 - On our final day at Sandals, based on our experience with the resorts prior mishandling of our luggage, we walked our luggage out to the curb and we watched it get loaded onto the bus. As the bus pulled away, one of the passengers thought he noticed one of his bags still on the sidewalk and informed the driver. The driver reluctantly turned the bus around while arguing that many suitcases look similar and questioned whether the guest had identified his luggage prior to departure. The gentleman confirmed that he had identified his luggage and when the bus returned to where the baggage had been loaded it was in fact still there on the curb along with another couple's luggage. Thus making this vacation a debacle from the first minute to the last.

Other notes - The billiard room contained two billiard tables. One of the tables was off level and allowed all shots to veer to the right and the billiard balls themselves were chipped; had divots. An easy fix. Level the table and purchase two new sets of billiard balls. The billiard room was uncomfortable and not properly ventilated. The ceiling fan provided no relief. Each guest that spent time in the room had the same complaint.

Sandals Royal Bahamian website advertises robes in every room, none were provided in either room 1310 or 1419. A bathroom door should separate the sleeping quarters so that the entire area is not lit up in the middle of the night when someone is sleeping. Staff should resolve issues and accommodate guests instead of the guest continually having to approach the staff at the lobby desk. Service was exceptionally slow (not just island time) and very lackluster, almost disinterested. We spent hours and hours of our vacation waiting in lines and for service, while getting frustrated time and time again. We experienced more stress on vacation at Sandals Royal Bahamian than we would in a typical work week. Highlights - Mercedes and Darius were excellent servers.

This was a surprise birthday gift to Larry. Imagine my frustration and disappointment when I watched all of my expectations fall apart. Larry had to be the one to resolve what he could because I was beside myself. We will never recommend Sandals Royal Bahamian to anyone, instead we will discourage anyone from going on a Sandals resort vacation through Yelp, my travel agent, word of mouth and other various social media. We intentionally took no pictures advertising Sandals or purchased any merchandise promoting Sandals.

If the snorkels and the snorkel tubes were not the cause of the infections then there must have been a problem with an unsanitary environment in the kitchen, the staff not washing their hands or maybe eating utensils and drinking glasses were to blame. Nevertheless we were extremely sick and required over a month on various antibiotics before we were healthy again.

We were lying at the pool one day and noticed that the pool water which had been clear when we arrived had become very murky. You no longer could see the bottom. We told the pool staff and they did nothing to rectify the problem. We never saw anyone test the pool water or add chlorine. It looked like a cesspool at the end of the day. The bacteria count must have been over any acceptable health dept. standards. If they have any??? Sandals is not a resort that cares about its guests' health.

On December 21st I asked my husband to call medical since my pain and sickness was not improving. The nurse did not come, she told my husband to buy $61 worth of medication (which he did) and told me that it would cost ME $200 to get a Dr (I told her I had food poisoning). December 22nd, my husband's birthday. Stayed in bed. No food, barely could keep water in.

December 23rd, still sick. Ate crackers and water. I Contact the manager in afternoon. 5 p.m an assistant office manager contacts me and tells me I need to prove I have food poisoning on my own dime for the hotel to believe I have poisoning (I then made him aware of the 2 others in the dinner group) and he told me there is nothing he can do. After that conversation I had enough adrenaline to take a shower for the first time in days and after I am dressed he happens to stop by. I answer the door, grab his card and told him I want to meet with Matthew, the manager tomorrow morning before leaving.

I am coming from a career of 20 years in 5 star hospitality hotels and four diamond restaurants. I have never treated my customers like this and being in the customer's shoes for the first time in this scenario, it is saddening. I have not experienced five star quality service and this is my first bad review. In addition to this disaster and not getting our money's worth and husband's birthday ruined: 1) Will be going to hospital on "my dime" on Christmas Eve/day back in the States after our 16 hour flight since still in discomfort and pain. 2) Found someone else's dirty socks under bed in room. 3) Need to have your luggage and stuff out of room by 10 a.m. (even though checkout is 11).

After two days of this nonsense, I finally emailed UK customer service and they have changed the music, but it took a lot of my effort and discomfort. Music, however, wasn't the only downside of our stay in Sandals. This place is rather expensive and it doesn't really seem like you are getting the kind of experience you would hope for. Yes, the beach is nice and clean, but the food, except for the sushi place is rather bland and mediocre. All the drinks are just full of sugar, the juices they use come from tap water mixed with colored flavoring and frankly they are not juice!

The housekeeping and bar staff spends most time chatting to one another, rather than doing any work. Usually, there are five people behind the bar and one is actually doing any work. On many occasions, I have been waiting for them to finish their chats feeling like an intruder. In the evenings the restaurant stuff practically kicks you out from the restaurants. We went to the Japanese place, where we were set down with a bunch of strangers and neither the waitress nor chef made this experience pleasant. I and my husband left as soon as the food was finished, but the rest of the guests stayed for a drink and they were kicked out and had to walk out of the dark restaurant because staff switched off all the lights. They were people in their 60! They had to use flashlights to walk down the stairs in order to not break their legs. I thought it was outrages and rude.

We wanted to start a diving license for my husband, but after watching the PADI video he got a bit scared and decided to cancel it, for that experience we were told we have to pay 20% cancellation fee, but in the end, we paid $200. I went and complained about the fact that this is not what we signed the receipt for, and was told that this situation will be investigated as I was never even-handed in the receipt I signed (for 20%) not for $200, the manager took my email address and was meant to email me back, but I never got any response. Also, the lady at the front desk of water sports was really rude. This was also mentioned to the manager, but again no response.

The staff, in general, wasn't very friendly, this is something that most of the guests, who have been to other Sandals kept saying. They said this was the least friendly experience with that company, that they had so far! We were constantly harassed by things that they tried to sell to us. Spa appointments, next trips, memberships. We have been getting phone calls, letters to our room as well as staff members coming over to us and asking as if we want to use any of their promotions at least couple of times per day! One of the ladies we met signed up for a seaweed treatment and was informed after she changed, filled in all the paperwork and was just about to receive the treatment, that they will give her a coffee one instead, which wasn't what she booked herself for.

I did send my feedback to the customer service after I returned from the holidays. I was told that they will investigate all the departments and will respond to me in 28 days. The General Manager emailed me back, but he didn't seem to bother to review anything I mentioned. I think he just waited a few weeks to tell me that he is sorry but didn't even say if he spoke to any people I mentioned in my email. And basically just said that this is my opinion. In all honesty, this is just a huge disappointment and waste of money! The entertainment in the hotel is tacky and boring, the food and service are mediocre and I would rather stay somewhere and have a car so I could see different beaches and enjoy the nature and try some local food. I will never travel with Sandals again!

I can get room service at Holiday Inn, for gosh sakes, and coffee in lobby maybe at 9:15 if lucky. The room we stayed at was in the Balmoral Village. There was a service desk on the main floor but was told they couldn't help us because we didn't rate their service!!! They are Sandals club?? Where are we?? Had to go to front lobby. Oh yes did I mention that my partners is a loyal member 6th trip to Sandals. They lost points, found points and so on. No one knows what the other is doing. One last thing servers wear "no tipping" buttons. It was very evident, being that our $5500 room didn't rate service, which room number is asked for at every restaurant, who was taken care of and who wasn't. Seen many dollar bills being passed to servers, bartenders.

We reported the lamps being out but they were never fixed other than one bulb being replaced. The lamps rattled around. The description of the room was Caribbean Oceanside. There was no ocean view. We were eventually told that we could have a different room but could not be moved until the day of the wedding at 3pm. The wedding was at 5pm. There was no time to spend moving. The wedding itself was on the beach and quite lovely. However, Sandals photographer did a horrible, unprofessional job. My daughter was in tears after seeing the photo shoot that cost $1600.00! No pictures of her with her father or myself. No photo of the rings.

The guy wandered around aimlessly. Sandals has yet to make that right. They don’t care! They were paid in advance and their solution was to tell my daughter that she keep more pictures! The Sandals DJ played the wrong playlist. Water went out in a bridesmaid’s room and some of the guests' rooms before wedding. People were scrambling around to get showered in friends’s rooms. Other than that it’s a beautiful beach with lots of food and drinks to enjoy. I’ve since been told that there are much better all-inclusive resorts at far better prices in Jamaica. Chalk it up to live and learn.

We arrived at the airport, my husband and I were treated horribly by customs staff, we did not receive VIP Mobay Service... That We Paid For! We waited in line instead... our family waited an extra hour on us at the airport. It took two hours to get from the airport to our Ochi Resort, we were told at the most it would be an hour and a half by online rep! We arrived, and the appetizers waiting on our room were all meat and I’m a vegetarian... it was on my preference sheet!!! It was 3 pm and we hadn’t eaten since 6 am! I had to ask for club soda in my fridge... it was on my preference sheet! We were all in separate villas!!! My brother and sister-in-law didn’t have water in their villa! We went to dinner at the restaurant in the main lobby of the resort, and sat for two hours to get our food, that wasn’t top quality as advertised! There was one vegetarian item on the menu! So far it’s not looking promising.

However, the Southern Comfort restaurant was great (at least something was). Took a couple of days for Management get involved. Compensation that was offered - 1. a massage for my wife and 2. a 5,000 point equivalent to $150 if we signed a document promising not to post or voice in social media our terrible stay experienced at Sandals Ocho Rios. I have never heard of such a practice. We booked our vacations because of the amazing experience at Montego Bay in 2015. We were offered all the amenities of Montego Bay at Ocho Rios. The salesperson most had been a politician. Nothing like Montego Bay. NOTHING. Resort night life after 11 PM was almost non-existent. I enjoy spending time with my wife but we also wanted to dance and celebrate. Bingo at the local VFW would had been a lot more exciting.

Most of the staff were friendly and welcoming. However, some of the photographers made you feel uncomfortable. Some made comments such as "don't get a ** now" while taking our pictures. These type of comments are not welcoming and humiliating. Coming from a representative of a luxury resort is unacceptable. We spend a lot of money at this resort to be treated like if we were an inconvenience. Don't think we will be coming back to this resort or any other Sandals resorts.

I had hundreds of dollars in medical bills and a scar on my leg where my pigment has been burned off permanently. They were not willing to compensate my other guests that came home with hookworms and Scabies. I do not recommend this resort to anyone now. Coming home from my honeymoon pregnant with a worm has been so traumatizing and incredibly embarrassing after finding out many of my guests had the same thing. Please do your research and do not book at Sandals South Coast Jamaica!

For water activities I would definitely recommend sailing, the guy who took us out was fun and very kind. Snorkeling was a different story, I’ve never done snorkeling before and I made it clear that I had no clue what I was doing. No real instructions besides, "Here’s your life vest and goggles." I was the last one to jump in because I didn’t want to hold the group up but I wished they actually made sure for the first timers/beginners they explained everything. Needless to say I literally jumped in and got back out. Wished I could have enjoyed it as much as others. Like I said all in all a decent trip but I definitely had higher expectations for a resort like this. Hope this review helps!

(1) Poor accommodations; (2) lousy food; (3) employees who speak a native Jamaican language you can't understand, but whose faces and tone of speech when they speak to each other shows only contempt for Resort guests; (4) drug dealers selling ** no paddling by on paddle boards no more than a yard away for the resort preventing you from enjoying the beach without drug dealer harassment; (5) loud, disgusting, dehumanizing, deplorable, and disrespectful comedians, entertainers, and rap musicians keeping you awake until the wee hours of the morning every night; and (6) bars that play nothing but "Fifty (sp) Cent" filthy rap song "Shake Your **, Girl" all night.

The old Caribbean where we vacationed many times was a luxurious, quiet, peaceful place where you could sit under palm trees, sip pineapple and rum drinks out of coconuts, and listen to classical reggae music or a tropical steel drum band. At Sandals Royal Caribbean, it is obvious that the business model has rejected the Caribbean vacation Americans long for, in favor of a descent into a world of disgust and debauchery.

If you are under 30 years of age, if you have no brain but only the wild uncontrolled testosterone of a single college frat boy during hazing weekend, if you go alone without a sensitive female who will cry herself to sleep each night and be offended at nothing, if you want to revel in the local street drug dealers, if you want to stay up all night, if you love filthy comedy, if you want to watch young women debase themselves shaking their ** around the resort bars, then Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort is the place for you. This apparently is their business model.

Unfortunately, they have abandoned the thoughtful and decent people who made their business a success. My wife and I couldn't be PAID to return to Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort. Caveat Emptor. We spent $8000 for 7 nights and 8 days. We only made it 3 nights and four days, and had to pay an additional $1,200 to fly home early to escape the horrors of Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort.

We advised our butler we weren’t happy with the room, as it was directly across from the main lobby. It's also next to a smoking area. If traffic, chatter and smoke aren’t for you, this room isn’t either. They eventually accommodated the request for another Rondoval, which took a number of inquiries despite the alternate Rondoval being vacant. We a lost vacation day between our inquiring and having to unpack, repack and move our belongings. We found the food at this Sandals location disappointing. The beach was swamped with seaweed. This made getting seating at the pool a challenge for some. Pool chaises may have also been in short supply due to “staycations”.

After explaining why we would be leaving two days early to multiple staff on multiple days, they failed to issue the credit they promised for the two days we left early. Between the follow-up associated with switching rooms and meeting with Sandals staff to re-explain our dissatisfaction, we felt we hadn’t had a vacation. The morning of checkout, our bell rang at 2:00 AM, an hour EARLIER than scheduled. Once called the bellmen never arrived. We hauled our own bags in the pouring rain. Upon checkout we found unauthorized charges on our bill for Wi-Fi. They agreed to the credit but couldn’t print out the invoice due to a printer error. We never did hear form anyone regarding the credit and sent a communication to Sandals Corporate. We received an acknowledgment that they were looking into it. Following that, we never heard from anyone period. Shame on you Sandals.

On one occasion, a couple was turned away saying they were full and didn't couldn't find their reservation yet there was room for them. As we unpacked and got ready to go out and enjoy our first day, the immediate thing we wanted to enjoy was to go to the beach, enjoy the crystal clear water, and do water sports at the resort but we could not even walk up to the water due amount of seaweed piled up along the beach. Also, you could not see through the water itself because it was brown due the seaweed. The one time I went to lay out on the beach a local man tried to sell me drugs, hit on me and got mad at me when I said no.

In the images shared on their website, it shows a pristine beach with couples enjoying cocktails yet there was no servers on the beaches and no couples due to the beaches. In fact, you couldn't find a server anywhere and when went to get a drink at the bar you needed to wait at least 10 minutes to be served when it wasn't even busy. There needed to be a financial compensation for being mislead to spending your life savings on a Caribbean vacation that was far from the worth of the trip. When we choose to snorkel off of the resort, once again we had to wait one hour after the departure time only to get there to continue to wait. This made each trip hours longer than it was supposed to be and was frustrating to everyone.

As far as customer service it was terrible. Every time we ordered food or drinks the staff was annoyed they had to do their job. We would wait at least 10 minutes for our drinks and the food wasn't that good either. This exponentially made our trip more frustrating as we had dealt with all the other inconveniences and now the basic level of service has become a problem. Next, because we could not enjoy the beach our only option was to go to the pools. While we were at the pools we noticed that only one pool per day would have music or activities despite having it listed on the activity schedule.

We spoke to the music coordinator about not having enough music playing and he said he had asked for permission to play music at all the pools but was told he could not do that due to the older population. We said at least 2 of the pools needed music for most of the day. Instead, if it was playing it was being turned off earlier than scheduled. This is our second trip to Sandals. We were told that our issues would be resolved by the manager at the resort (Brandon?) but they never were. We called Sandals and were told the only way it would be resolved is by sending an email even though we addressed these issues with the manager at the resort. We sent 2 emails within the past 4 weeks and still had no response.

The FAQ’s state you don’t need a power converter so we didn’t bring one and we used the “American” two prong outlet for our items. The outlet fried the hair straightener on day one which they refused to reimburse, sent my electric shaver to operate at double the speed and couldn’t use it all week. The butler consistently told us all week she was working with the manager to rectify the situation and upon checkout told us sorry nothing they can do. The outlet also fried the butler phone charger the first time we used it.

I gave them one of my brand new $70 dress shirts to press and iron before our romantic dinner in the gazebo. Upon receiving it back, they had burned a black line into the shirt with the iron and then tried telling me it was already there. Again, said nothing they can do and would not take any responsibility for ruining my brand new shirt because he talked to butler Jamie who said the line was already there. I can tell you now that an iron burn mark was not on my brand new shirt prior to giving it to them to iron. Laughable. At the end of the day, the place is nice, but the customer service you receive here is sub par at best. Most of the staff is nice, however, the few who are supposed to “take care of everything” ended up making our honeymoon worse.

I wrote to the management team to try and get our vacation back on track, which eventually happened but it was only because I had to complain to management a SECOND time on my birthday, after that on the 4th (which left us with 3 days left on our vacation) did it improve. Essentially Sandals stole the first 4 days of our vacation from us with some atrocious service (the Butler service was a bad joke) and the candlelight dinner on the beach we had would have been better served if I had picked us up some takeout and we sat on the beach with a bottle of wine.

Let me set the stage for you: My wife and I are both professionals and work very hard so we can take a great vacation every year. Both our birthdays and our anniversary happens in the first week of June. So as you can imagine, I do my best to make this week amazing for my wife. This is not our first Sandals experience, but it was by far and away the worst of ALL vacation experiences we had. How bad? Well another couple who arrived when we did literally checked out of the hotel one day after the “butler” experience here. For us, on June 3rd I spoke with the butler manager and told her that if our experience did not take a 180 degree turn we would be leaving the resort.

On May 31st we arrived at the Sandal’s Resort shortly after 12PM and the ride from the airport in the Rolls Royce was very nice. At the resort we were introduced to our first (of three butlers) Lashondra. She was cordial and took us to the butler reception area where we did some initial paperwork and were given a phone to contact our butler anytime between 7AM and 10PM. No problem.

Our butler asked if we were hungry and we were we since it was lunchtime and we had been traveling most of the morning. She took us over to the Royal Café and told us to call her when we were finished. This was our first lackluster meal. The Steak Baguette is a depressing sandwich and the calamari was fairly flavorless. The one stand out of this place is the nacho bar, and even that is not half as good as any decent stateside Nacho bar experience…I will even say that Golden Coral has a better Nacho bar.

So we finished our poor meal and figured whatever let’s get the butler a call so they can get us to our room and we can enjoy some of this Bahamian weather. So we called and Lashondra and she said no problem. She would be right with us. So we waited… and waited some more… and drank some more water… and waited some more. 20 minutes later she arrived. So our first experience with our butler… after being at the resort less than an hour was a 20 minute wait to be shown our room. To give you my perspective at the time: our butler, who is there to make our experience smooth, hassle-free and seamless just made us wait for 20 minutes to show us to our rooms… As far as first experiences go this was very, very poor.

I wish I could tell you that this was the only issue but sadly that is not the case. Our Butler team was Damion, Lashondra and Shavanti. Damion put forth some effort to get us some good service but he was absolutely crippled by his team and what I feel is the poor support infrastructure around the property itself. After our experience with Lashondra I asked her straight up if she was a trained butler and she was honest and told me that no she was not and she had just started the position from working in entertainment. The final butler Shavanti… made it like she was doing us a favor when we asked for something and in literally every instance it was either incorrect, messed up, or took ages to get.

Here is a small breakdown of the various issues: May 31st. Had to repeat EVERYTHING that I covered with Lashondra to Shavanti and AGAIN to Damion regarding the tours we wanted to take, the restaurant reservations we wanted, the spa treatments we wanted, the timing of our candlelight dinner. Pass down amongst our team was horrible.

My wife and I put in a standing order for breakfast: Fruit, coffee, Ham and cheese omelet, 3 eggs over easy, breakfast potatoes, glass of orange juice and hot sauce to be delivered at 7am every morning. Our first morning, the breakfast came at 8am… and was the wrong items. For the entirety of our stay our breakfast was never right. There was always something wrong with it. Hashbrowns instead of breakfast potatoes, no hot sauce, 2 eggs over easy instead of 3, etc. Our breakfast was the perfect embodiment of the lack of attention to detail that we experienced with the entire resort.

The tub. My wife enjoys a jetted soak in the morning before our breakfast. I asked specifically on multiple occasions when I was making this reservation with the Sandals booking agent if the room had a Jacuzzi tub. Was told yes for sure it does. Guess what? No it does not. It is a standard tub with a standard “rain” type shower head. Overall not a big deal just another punch on the list as you will see.

I asked for some sliced limes for our room for some gin and tonics that I enjoy. They brought me lemons. I told the butler I asked for limes. And was told: There are no limes to give you. Which is funny because at EVERY bar we went to that night on the resort they had limes. Served with the fish my wife had for dinner was a sliced lime. I asked for a couple sliced limes and my butler informed me there were no limes to be had on the island… Unreal.

Called Shavanti for some drinks at the pool, a pair of mojitos. She brought them out to us: 23 minutes later. What in the world do I have a butler for if I need to wait nearly 30 minutes for a pair of drinks? I literally could have left the pool, walked across the street to a liquor store, brought the alcohol back and made my own drink in 23 minutes. Once again, service was terrible.

Made reservations for Gordon’s on the pier, Shavanti (our butler) met us there and got us seated. She did not take a drink order from us (which is standard practice for your butler to get you situated before handing you over to the restaurant). Also, here was another long wait. The wife and I sipped on water here for 21 minutes before someone even came up and talked to us for a drink or food order. Luxury is not a 21 minute wait for table service.

June 1st. As stated before we had a penthouse ocean facing room in the Balamora tower. The elevator was broken most of the day here. I don’t know about anyone else, but my definition of luxury is for sure going up six flights of stairs to get to my penthouse room. Absolute lap of luxury. I asked for a bottle of Maker’s Mark to be placed in our room as it is my preferred nightcap. Was told that there was no Maker’s Mark to be had at the resort. Literally every bar that we visited that night had Maker’s Mark. Piano Bar, Royal Theatre, both pool bars, Cricketer’s Pub… all had Maker’s Mark but I was told they needed to order it and it would be in tomorrow… so give me a sifter with some in there or something. I eventually got some Maker’s Mark after they “reordered” it two days later.

We called up Damion and asked for a couple of pizzas from the Bella Napoli near the pool. Was told it will take 45 minutes. These are small personal pizzas… 45 minutes. The cook on these literally takes 8-11 minutes. The wife and I walked past the pizza place to get a drink at the Royal Theater about 30 minutes after calling the butler… And both of our pizzas were there waiting for us. We grabbed them, called Damion to tell him we had them, and then proceeded to eat them… And they were already cold. So who knows how long they were ready for pick up. Like I said butler service was a for sure joke.

This evening I wrote a letter to the butler manager Tamara, with the hope that if I outlined my perception of the problems they would get resolved and I spoke with her after I brought the letter down. We discussed the issues and she agreed that all of them were unacceptable. I asked that I needed our service elevated and she agreed. Having thought I addressed the issue I went back to my wife and tried to look forward to the rest of our vacation. Keep in mind this is just day 1.5 at this time.

June 2nd. We spent most of our time on the private island this day. So, for those of you that do not know while you are on the island (which is one of the best things about this resort) you are 100% without your butler. Butler cannot even go on the ferry to the island. So, to enjoy the best amenity of this resort you have to trade away your high-dollar value butler service. This is something that would have been nice to know on the booking.

Candlelight dinner: I reserved our candlelight dinner about a month prior to our arrival. For our anniversary dinner, it is fairly important to me. Arranged for the private pier on our first day at the resort. Extra $85, but it is an exceptional area and the night is special for me and my wife so for sure I am all about it. Guess what? Around 1PM on this day I was told by our butler that they will not be able to get us the pier. Pretty awesome right? Come to find out a couple that got married that day wanted dinner there and the resort set them up. How do I know? I asked them the next day about the dinner and how did they get on the pier? Asked for it that day they said. You don’t say? So instead of asking us, and my wife and I would have given up our table 100% to them, they took it from us. Our conciliation prize? Read on…

When the server was confirming our order the ONLY thing that was correct were the salads we selected. Nearly everything else was wrong. Here we are with that attention to detail thing. Our appetizers were pan seared scallops. Which came out literally colder than the air temperature outside. Have you ever eaten a cold scallop? The whole melt in your mouth buttery sensation you are looking for is IMPOSSIBLE to achieve. However, the scallops were not over or undercooked and for that I was thankful. No worries I thought the dinner must be better.

Our server was hardly present as in not even on the beach… So we had to get up, go get our champagne and refill our own glasses. 100% luxury there. Our dinner was a piece of over-cooked… random cut of steak that was about as well done as a piece of meat can possibly be and not be burnt and inedible. Both our steaks were terrible. For the record we ordered them medium and medium-well. The vegetables on the plate were grossly undercooked, to the point of being essentially raw. Our lobster tails… so overcooked that they had to be sawed at with a steak knife. And the coup de’etat was the INSTANT MASHED POTATOES. Clearly the conversation I had with the manager hit home on the 1st. Not really.

June 3. Wife and I ate our third consecutive messed up breakfast order. Beautiful start for the day. We are largely creatures of habit. We wanted some chairs reserved for us on the far side of the beach near the water sport area and Windsor pool. Our chairs that were held were on the wrong side… again for the 3rd consecutive day. Also, other butler guests had some nice towel art on the chairs, our towels were just the rolls from the towel area. My wife likes to have some mimosas so we asked for champagne and a couple of cans of orange juice. We were brought a couple glasses of pulp filled orange juice. So, not only was it difficult to pour, but who wants a pulp filled mimosa? The carafe of coffee I ordered did not function. No amount of manipulation of the cap would allow it to pour. See the recurring theme of a significant lack of attention to detail?

As you can imagine after the dinner we had the night before, this to me was just outrageous. I called Shavanti and asked her if she was trying to sabotage my vacation. I then went back to the butler suite to complain for the second time. I advised the manager that if we did not see a dramatic increase in our level of service we would be leaving and I would be seeking a full refund.

At this point in time I literally lowered my expectations to just about the lowest I could and I was hesitant to even call a butler because why bother when I can do it quicker, better, and not have to deal with garbage service? That afternoon we were assigned a new butler team at this time: Zhaly, Denver and Sean. For the first time we were walked to dinner that evening. Our excursions got all squared away. We were given our weekly schedule with all our reservations and excursions planned in it that evening. We never had to repeat a request from here on out. Super special shout out to Zhaly as she is amazing and should be managing butler staff somewhere. Also special shout out to Sean who to me looked and acted like a formally trained English butler. Even Denver elevated the service we got, even though he had a few slips here and there.

In closing, I tipped all 6 butlers $50.00 each at the beginning of their service with us. The last three butlers earned it and I would have been happy to give the second team an additional $50.00 but I wasted it on the original 3. As far as I am concerned Sandals stole from us 4 days of luxury experience and we only got 3 days of anything that I would consider close to a luxury experience. The food at this resort was ok but only Baccarat and Kimono’s was anything approaching a solid culinary experience.

Also how the butlers work. Each team of butlers has 6-8 guests assigned to them. So they have a very difficult job getting everyone taken care of exceptionally… and when I say difficult I mean impossible. If you come here with a very low expectation of service, quality and luxury you will be delighted. If you do not want to lower your expectations go somewhere else.

Sandals seems to be geared to selling us more services like trips, better wine and photography which I found a little annoying after spending over $6000 and not getting all that was promised. Didn't even get the Sandals gift bracelet was promised. Was advised there was no one in customer service or administration in the Bahamas that was allowed to make customer service decisions when I asked for an extra service worth about $50 as a substitute for services they were not able to provide. All future vacations will be to Hawaii using VRBO. 2 weeks in paradise for the same price as 1 week in the Bahamas. Live and learn.

We have been nonstop trying to voice our complaints but their customer support is terrible. We have asked for the documents that support. They gave us all the information we needed and they have refused. So it cost us about $2600 to get new flights with different airline to get to the resort and the extra $600 so they would not cancel our return flights home. Horrible experience and because of that along with not having towels etc. in our room when we finally got there... highly recommend doing your research. Not worth the headache or money but wedding was great.

The planner knew that we wrote our own vows, and my husband was breaking the glass. Yet, she never got that ready. I had to stop the ceremony to get those out of the bag!! The magistrate was annoyed at the time that she kept touching her watch and looking at planner, That she had to go!!! Once my sister gave her a mean look she stopped!! What would happen if it was raining? After my complaining to Sandals they gave me 2 nights FREE to any resort, but yet you have to be on property for 3 so how is that FREE? We never took it, I was also told that if I sign that agreement I can't write negative things about them. At the time we were married they gave us $200 for a future stay, but we had to add the $200 more in order to hold the room.

So we chose 2 years ahead in St Lucia, hoping we could make it. The flights alone will be between $1500-2000 so I decided not to go. I have now asked for my $200 back, which they claim you can always get. I guess I signed a paper that says NON-REFUNDABLE because I made it at the LOYALTY Desk, so how do they treat their "LOYAL" customers, lol. So I am sure if they read this, I will be offered "hush" money. I would rather lose my $200 and pay other resorts my money.

Another incident (there's a security woman at the door at all times). We were on property, waiting for a shuttle to go to one of their nicer hotels for the day and a homeless man walked on the property right next to us. I hid behind my fiancé. He then pulled out of his pillowcase people's old Sandals paperwork and started looking at it. He then proceeded to pull out his junk and pee in front of all the guests waiting for the shuttle. This was the last straw and we complained. The manager on duty said she would make some phone calls and try to get us moved to another location.

She came to us at dinner that night and told us that we could transfer to Sandals South Coast and pay $301 for the remaining 4 days. That they would pay to transport us on Sunday. We said that was great. When my fiancé went to the desk on Friday to make sure our Transport would be ready. He was told, "Oh, we heard about you guys." Then we were told there was some error and that they had known the entire day that South Coast would only take us as $301 a night. We asked why we weren't informed right away and couldn't get an answer. We then got irate and demanded to speak with the GM **. ** could not explain where the other manager got her prices. He finally found us a room in Ochi for $328. They got us a private bus and sent us to Ochi.

We were on the 4th floor and had no water pressure and no hot water most of the stay and we're told they were working on it and that we should write a letter to Sandals and we would get 2 free comped nights. The second evening, we discovered the hard way that we no longer have room service and my fiancé ended up eating 2 apples from the lobby for his dinner because he couldn't wait until 10:30 pm for dinner. There was an incident with a hateful bartender on the 2nd day and my fiancé had words with him. I also attempted to use the restroom by Neptune's and discovered they were all full of toilet paper and bloody paper and wouldn't flush. I did alert the staff nearby.

Based on all these experiences Sandals should give us 4 complimentary nights and a $300 refund for our military discount. We would also like our $250 deposit back if they aren't going to allow us the comped nights on the next trip.

You have to basically beg for anything you need like body wash, body lotion, and extra towels."TRUE 5 STAR!" REALLY! Water bottles available only in the room or front desk. Beach chairs were always unavailable unless you're waking up at 6:30 am to put your personal stuff on them or pay the beach security guy the night before. The world class chefs that they promised in the commercials you'll never get to taste that food. The food at best is 3 stars! If you're looking for a friendly and happy staff you're definitely in a wrong place.

For the money they charge you would expect what you see on the commercials ultra exclusive and luxurious experience BUT what you find is a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! Don't waste your money on Sandals. There are many all-inclusive luxurious resorts out there that we will be going back to again and again. We are NEVER coming back to Sandals again! The place is a TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT!!! New City, New York. Location 3 stars. Rooms 1 star. Service 1 star.

Emailed the manager and after a few emails back and forth they shut me down by saying, "I talked with Paul, the bellman, and he denies any tampering with your luggage". Seriously... like he's going to own up to it! We are 100% sure this happened in the 1 hour the bellman had our luggage. Don't go to this resort. If you do, keep your luggage in sight at all times! The manager of this resort doesn't care about you or your experience. VERY DISAPPOINTING!

Sandals Resorts was absolutely horrific to deal with and not only refused to refund our money (while the other resort refunded our money quite easily) they would not provide us the necessary documentation to receive compensation from travel insurance provided on my credit card! First, Sandals offered to delay the trip by a week until after the hurricane passed. This is not how vacations work, however, and as I couldn't take off a second week from work, this did not work as a solution. After politely explaining this, Sandals simply said that there was nothing else they could do.

In order to receive compensation from my credit card company, I needed to have a letter from Sandals, on their letterhead, saying that I wasn't able to stay at their resort because of the hurricane and confirm that they wouldn't reimburse me (this record is important for the credit card claim so people do not get compensated twice for a travel disruption). It took MULTIPLE emails to get Sandals to finally respond to this request and they wrote "This is to confirm that ** did not check in. This was due to Hurricane Irma. We did offer them credits and hope to be able to serve them soon."

The credit card claim cannot be filed if there are outstanding credits so I wrote back asking for a revised letter with the expiration date on the credits. Again, after multiple days (perhaps weeks) and reminder emails, they wrote back that the credits expire after a year. This was NOT what they communicated to me initially; they said that we could shift our trip by one week. With the expiration date of a year, I would need to wait until the credits expired to receive compensation from my travel insurance through my credit card company. They suggested I ask Sandals to provide me a letter indicating that I had forfeited the credits. I wrote back to Sandals and after weeks, I received an email stating that they could not fulfill this request. I explained that I was not asking for compensation from them but just to forfeit my credits so I could avail myself of the travel insurance but they said that they still could not.

After months of emailing and calling, I finally was put in contact with a kind soul who let me know that despite the fact that they wrote the letter regarding the credits, there was no record of the credits in their system. He gave me an email to reach out to and I ultimately was able to get an email saying that my trip was cancelled so I could provide this to my credit card. This ordeal took six months and dozens of emails and calls. I always explained the situation respectfully and politely, often in tears, stating clearly that I was not asking Sandals for compensation, but that I only wanted them to provide a simple letter so I could receive my travel insurance coverage.

This went on a couple of minutes so I reached in to get my towel and the woman PUNCHED me in the arm. Then I went and got security Officer ** witnessed their language and behavior. Security officer ** explained they were my chaise. That is the policy. If there is a towel then it is reserved. Then the man said they would leave. I was standing 3' away from him with my arm holding the umbrella and next to the Security Officer ** and the man 6'1" tall 200 lbs stood up and BODY CHECKED ME. I fell over a chaise on to the ground. The Security Officer said, "Now that is ASSAULT". There were 2 people I do not know that witnessed the incident and the man tried to help me and they verbally attacked him.

Finally the man & woman leave. The police come and file a report for Criminal Assault on 2/2/18. The man was arrested and released. The onsite GM and MGR NEVER came to me and asked if I was ok. The man and woman that ASSAULTED ME were allowed to stay at the resort. They were not asked to leave in spite of the assault. I have made several calls to the resort to the GM GARY ** AND AS OF THIS WRITING 2/5/18 HAS NOT CALLED ME BACK. Gary ** will not allow the Director of Security Prince ** to release the statements of the independent witnesses (the **), The Security OFFICER ** or the names of the Man & Woman that assaulted me.

I cannot believe they were allowed to stay on property with no ramifications of their PHYSICAL AND VERBAL ASSAULT ON ME (A DISABLED WOMAN) AND to date no contact from Sandals to see how I am. This is disgusting and disgraceful to see a guest assaulted and do nothing. Gary ** the general manager is a disgrace. He has ignored several calls and my husband's in person request for the statements. Our friends stayed 2 extra days. They tried to get the incident report and they were told it was none of their business. #BOYCOTTSANDALS

We complained about the high price with no service the first day, no one follows up with us so we went back 24 hours later to complain again, The management could really care less since they had our money. Manager Mathew promised us a private cabana for the last 4 days of our stay only to be told later that day, by him, that they were all booked. We witnessed several empty from sunup to sundown. It would have cost this man nothing extra to follow through with his promise. The resort really was not that full. We complained twice after returning home with no response.

We had to claim our beach chairs by 7am each morning or there was no chance of sitting in a shaded lounge chair. The same people walk the beach all day long trying to sell you beads, weed, cigars, parasailing, shells, music, etc. They start by 8 and go through sunset. Security does follow them constantly which was a plus.

Food was on par with cruise food. Nothing great but mostly edible. Some pretty bad. The included wines are cheap Robert Mondave. Yuk! We are savvy wine drinkers and thought the wines were horrible. The pina coladas were good though! My massage experience was a joke. Was told the delivery truck for the spa robes didn't arrive that day so I wasn't provided a robe. Later I saw others in robes. My massage person was clearly not properly trained to perform a deep tissue massage. Maid service was skipped a day. Room service took 2 hours. Photographers constantly hounded us. Pool table condition was terrible. Rules of beach chairs was not enforced. Smoking rules were not enforced. Dress codes was not enforced. Onsite craft vendors set prices at ** levels. We won't be returning to a Sandals resort ever!

We paid thousands for this once in a lifetime suite but were then told they would downgrade us to a cheaper/non-butler room due to lack of availability. We were not pleased but wanted a dry room to finally sit down/sleep for the night. Another hour and our bags were taken to our new, cheaper, non-butler room. It was time to sleep then. The next morning, we called our butler for breakfast, made the order and waited 1 hour and 15 mins before calling him back asking where our food was. He was very short and said he'll bring it right away, 20 mins later, our STONE COLD breakfast arrived, cold toast and cold tea and all not what we expected. The front desk said they had fixed our room, claiming it was a faulty air conditioner. We were happy to hear this at least so we said we will walk to our butler oceanfront suite.

We walked in, felt that the bed was indeed dry to the touch but we were choking on the overspray of air freshener!! They had only tried to cover up the musty, mildew smell and they said the room had been "fogged". They said they would "Fog" it every day? This doesn't seem appropriate for the price one has to pay for such a suite. The butlers hardly ever picked up so we gave up on the butler phone as it was useless.

On our wedding day, which was re-scheduled a day early due to Hurricane Irma, I got a call from our butler saying she was going home early (at 2 pm) and the manager will have the butler phone if we need anything?!? I was in the middle of getting ready to get married in an hour! My fiancée had to ask the stranger next door (SHE NEVER MET) to zip her dress up, as I was in a separate location as you do before seeing your fiancée at your wedding! SHE WAS CRYING THAT THE BUTLER (BOTH!) LEFT RIGHT WHEN SHE NEEDED THEM BOTH! Getting ready to get married!!! Sandals ruined our wedding (before-during-after!!).

Next, The butler came by the morning (10 am) of the 7th of SEP and I asked if the island would evacuate. Our butler said "No Mon, no need to worry". 1 hour later she called and frantically told us we had 30 mins to go to the lobby PACKED AND READY TO BE EVACUATED! She did not help us pack, or even offer!! We made it to the lobby and it was chaos! All the Americans had flights arranged to mainland USA, same for all of the Canadians. BUT WE FLEW BRITISH AIRWAYS AND WEREN'T GIVEN ANY ANSWERS! Eventually some other British guests there told us we would be sent to NASSAU then it's up to us from there!

We had 15 mins to make it to the airport! We barely made the flight to NASSAU, then argued until Sandals put us into a 4th floor apartment style room (No BUTLER) at Royal Caribbean. Still in the path of a hurricane and everyone we talked to at Sandals said that we need to voice our issues VIA this Sandals website. Even being one of the first to bring our bags to wait for the shuttle bus transfer to the airport to head back to the UK, they somehow didn't pack them on board the shuttle and we had to bring them onto the shuttle next to us. We later found that butler guests had private Rolls Royce transfers!? WE PAID FOR 7-NIGHTS of BUTLER SERVICE!! I am demanding that Sandals compensates us!!!

After I had contacted them, they confirmed the closure. So, then we were advised that we could change to one of their other resorts. However, they are all booked for this time. So, I agreed to postpone my trip for Antigua to 2018. Well even with me agreeing to the change, now they want to charge me more money for the room than was quoted for my original reservation. With this said, if Sandals want to keep a long-time customer happy they will do something to correct this issue. If not, then I will make it known to all my friends, and family to go somewhere else on vacation because Sandals does not care about them, all they care about is their money!

The other Butler GWayne. He always seemed to try and put one over us. Like he was doing us the favor. When it was simply his job to serve and help us. He lied to me three times and argued with me a few times. He made it seem so hard to get a reservation for dinner. But always seemed like he worked it out and he worked so hard getting us what we needed. (would like everyone to know there was hardly anyone in the restaurants so how hard can it be to reserve and make a reservation). I also believe that they should have informed us about events going on at the resort. To allow us to make the choice if we would like to observe or participate. We Missed certain shows and events (we should've been told about).

While on the beach, we were constantly bombarded by locals offering to sell us drugs & along the lines of **, special brownies, cigars and went as far as asking us if we would like ** or **. On the first day at the beach, we sitting amongst many people extremely close is where the Butler place us. There was a couple right in front of us smoking cigarettes being extremely loud and rude. My husband and I do not smoke and he also has asthma; So we got up and went back to our room. And felt very confined to our patio. Not enough Reggae music. I expected to be inundated with Bob Marley. Before we got to the resort, we paid to have the private beach dinner. We were not on the beach. He was stuck in the garden under Gazebo. It wasn't as private as we would have liked. The mosquitoes were plentiful (but of course the resort can't control that). We left the dinner early because of the stray cats and mosquitoes.

The Wi-Fi wasn't the best, but it was serviceable for posting pics or browsing the internet, but if you want to stream, the free Wi-Fi is not the way to go.The last day Internet was down. So disappointed on my last day that I decided to book an appointment for a massage and they ended up never showing. Then when they called and canceled on me, (45 minutes later) saying they could not accommodate me.

Overall, I was truly disappointed in the lack of inattentiveness and the lying from our butler. The resort was beautiful & the view was spectacular. It rained every day (which they have no control) but it did rain in our room! Right before the entrance of the bathroom and the floor would get slippery so we left a towel down on the floor against the wall throughout the week, to be careful not to slip.The staff at the resort would ignore my questions and give me a blank stare as if I were from a different planet.

In addition, The staff appeared to have preferential treatment for ** guests, as they were not attentive to others. Worst customer service I have experienced. Needless to say, I will never go back. This resort was average or below average at a premium price. Bars ran out of stuff daily (crown, mint, limes, lemons etc;) and some of our friends actually saw them dilute the liquor bottles with water after the bars had closed down, which explains why I was able to drink so much and still function. All I wanted was some Kahlua for coffee but they refused to give me any until the bar opened even though they were in the bar stocking it. Several bars had espresso machines but they didn't use them and were not open until like 10:30 am and then would always say it was being cleaned or was out of coffee. Basically they were just lazy and didn't want to deal with it.

The pool was not kept clean in my opinion. They require you to be ready in the lobby to go to the airport like 5 hours or more before your departure flight only to sit in the airport forever. I was highly disappointed and would not visit again. Also, this resort is too close to the main road and you can hear road noise from inside the resort. I can only state, I had a good time. Absolutely amazing husband and friends, but I do not plan on visiting another Sandals resort as it was not a good one. We will definitely not return to Sandals Negril.

The restaurants were fabulous and the service was outstanding, if we ordered something and didn't like it they just brought us something else. We met two of the restaurant managers RJ and Roberto. They were great and made sure that we were always happy. We never had to wait for anything (which could have been due to the timing of our trip, the resort was only 75% full) which was just perfect for me as I really don't like crowds. They were doing construction on the new over the water bungalows but the noise did not bother me at all, and if you didn't like it then just go to the other end of the resort where the main pool is and you didn't hear a thing.

The walkways and pool areas were pretty slippery when wet and they did have signs stating such, the only thing I would suggest is to maybe put some non slip pads in. My boyfriend got his PADI certification from Andre at the dive shop and it was an amazing experience for him as well. All in all the vacation was amazing and we have already booked our next trip to South Coast and looking forward to another great vacation. We are actually staying 11 days next time.

We got engaged in Sandals Grenada. My fiancé PRE-PAID for an engagement package of photos that included 40 photos and a love block (a collage of photos on a block to hang on the wall). We did not like or even have 40 quality photos from our engagement photo shoots to pick from. We requested - to be able to successfully meet the required amount of photos that we PRE-PAID for - that we be able to pick from other photos that were taken on resort of us that we were pleased with. We were told that that was not possible, but we could purchase them at an additional cost!!!

We were not looking for a refund rather looking to get a product that we LIKED with the money we already paid. We were told by the resort staff who relayed the message of the Sandals Grenada manager there was "NO WAY we could pick from photo of us taken on property from different photographer utilizing the money we PRE-PAID for, because there was no way to allocate commissions correctly."

THIRD: If a product a consumer purchases does not meet or exceed their expectation then there should be some alternative option or refund offer - NO EXCUSES.

We were left no choice but to walk away with a series of photos and a love block (that was to be made and shipped to our house) that did not meet our expectations. The incompetence did not stop there. After we arrive home we called Sandals to address our dissatisfaction with the product the inability of SANDALS Grenada to offer a fair solution:

May 22, 2017: We spoke with Jasmine who open a ticket on behalf of our concerns and forwarded the concern to Rayne. May 23, 2017: Rayne stated via email he cannot offer us the photos we wanted and that he would relayed our concerns to the resort manager (who was the individual who slighted us in the first place and is the reason why we are in this situation.) May 26, 2017: Rayne stated he forwarded our concerns to SnapsShots manager whose team would like to speak with us.

June 2, 2017: We received an email stating our LOVE BLOCK has been shipped (from YAZMIN). June 3, 2017: We follow-up via email with Rayne in regards to no one reaching out as promised. June 4, 2017: The FIRST incorrect LOVE BLOCK (not us in the photos) arrives at our house and we email YAZMIN and Sandals Management.

June 5, 2017: Standard apology email from Ana also asking us to provide me with snapshots of the received package in order to further investigate. We reply that no one has called us at our request as of yet. Received an email stating our NEW love block has been shipped. Missed call from Margie whom unfortunately called during working business hours and call was unable to be addressed.

June 8, 2017: A SECOND incorrect (not us the photos) love block arrives at our house along with a email being sent to SANDALS management and MARGIE to notify. We receive a file transfer via email of the other photos that we have been requesting from the beginning, but once again the photos were NOT US!!! (email from Yazmin)

June 9, 2017: Margie emails lettings us know she tried to reach out and our love block is being printed and should be received soon. We still DO NOT have the product that we PRE-PAID for (despite the fact we didn't like it from the beginning) and don't get me started on whose hands OUR personal engagement photos ended up in given we have 3 separate couples photos! The thought turns my stomach!

My level of frustration has officially exceeded my patience for this situation. Sandals SNAPSHOT has proven unable to resolve ANY issue that SANDALS SNAPSHOTS single-handedly created and fueled with ignorance, incompetence and negligence. This was our third time in 3 years to a Sandals resort and one of the most meaningful because of our engagement. Thank you Sandals SNAPSHOT for taking the time to ruin that experience for us!!

My complaint also included a dissatisfaction of their so called "standard" room category which I was accidentally booked in at Sandals Barbados. I enjoyed three of my visits to Sandals Resorts BUT AM SO DISSATISFIED WITH THE MOST RECENT SANDALS BARBADOS STAY IN THE MONTH OF May 2017 and the lack of understanding from customer support that I will reconsider ever vacationing at the Sandals Resorts. I guess I will have to limit myself to EXCELLENCE RESORTS which have always provided excellent service and accommodation while I research new resorts to vacation at.

From the moment we arrived until the moment we left the staff was very accommodating and my husband and I both said that the employees worked their tails off yet they all really seemed to enjoy working there. We had great food. Gordon's on the pier was our favorite but we also enjoyed, and ate more than one time the burgers and fish at Cricketers Pub. The one and only complaint I have is that I felt the cleanliness of our room upon arrival could have been better. There was a contact lens on the bathroom counter, which led me to believe the counter hadn't been wiped and the bathroom wasn't cleaned properly, and the rug under the bed appeared as though it hadn't been vacuumed in a while. Overall I'd still give the resort 5 stars and I would recommend it to anyone who asked.

We pay a bit more for Sandals, but understand all the value add services that money pays for. Theft, I forgot my Bose Bluetooth speaker at the beach and several Sandals employees, the pool boy, bartender, butler and manager all worked together to figure out who owned the device and returned it to me the next day. If you want a worry free premium vacation in the Caribbean then Sandals is a great option. My wife is very high maintenance and we have never had a bad day at Sandals. They have a great team.

A lot of the complaints I read on here are not really reasonable, though some are, and many are exaggerated, which is typical for any complaints. Nothing is perfect in this life, but Sandals does and damn good job overall. Often people fail to read terms and conditions and complain when they don't like the outcome or feel they are entitled to special treatment. TAKE OUT INSURANCE!!! It's cheap. Some - even "verified" on here - are so obviously the competition that is a joke. Some even blatantly advertise competitors. Complaints like food poisoning etc. can happen anywhere and maybe you did not wash your hands, who knows. I have never seen dirty rooms or bad food (maybe not to everyone's taste, but certainly not "bad").

Security is as good as it gets, again nothing is perfect, but never leave valuables unattended out of the safe wherever you are. There has been an occasional housekeeping issue, but a polite, firm notification to appropriate management has always fixed it for us and quickly. Over consumption of alcohol and emotions don't help with this of course. No resort of their size can have a beach lounger for every guest - just not economically or practically feasible. Customer service is a bit of a variable feast, but from our experiences (true, some frustrating) it is more due to being poorly organized and coordinated across departments and the company and lack of training. Also note the booking arm is a separate unit based in Panama (and Miami?).

Staff is great, but often after getting training and experience from Sandals, leave to go elsewhere (usually overseas) - or get promoted and relocated. Sandals does NOT get rid of them en-mass! They actually have low employee turnover for that industry. We had some poor experiences a Royal Caribbean last year, much of which due to construction and some unfortunate management decisions (which were reversed after many complaints). After 10 consecutive years we are not going back there in the foreseeable future, in part due to the aforementioned and because it has gradually become so tightly crowded due to additions of more and more buildings, lack of beach, and demise of their CO beach etc...

My main complaint is their ridiculous marketing practices. The AG went after the My Pillow guy for his advertising and rightly so, but I do think he was rather unfairly singled out. Sandals marketing has been predatory and fraudulent from day one. Their "original" prices are pure fiction and have never been charged to anyone. Their constant unbroken series of "sales" are virtually if not actually identical. When called on this they claim that's the price if you book for less than 3 days. However it is not possible to book for less than 3 days. The website does not allow it. And they advertise these "original" prices per week!!!

They have other similarly pathetic transparent excuses too. This came to a head recently when they opened their over water suites at SRC. The prices were IMMEDIATELY stated as "originally" $60,000 per week (laughable, but not a misprint). Yet the actual price after the "sale" and "discounts" was $22,500 (on the US website - and also not a misprint). They have therefore NEVER been advertised or sold at $60,000!!! So that is unquestionably fraudulent advertising. It is time for Sandals to abandon this stupid fake marketing scheme which no one in their right mind believes.

Note also that these suites were immediately shown as virtually sold out - but a close inspection showed the few available dates were in blocks of 6 days only and in a regular pattern. Pure fiction to make them look desirable and popular. (Didn't VW get caught doing something like that when the "new" Beetle came out?) I'm sure anyone actually phoning in would get a miraculous "cancellation" slot. The other all inclusives have caught up to them these days and they don't go through these stupid acts. So there is no legitimate comparison at Sandals so called "original" prices. They are just lies and fiction. It is time for the appropriate authorities to put a stop to it and Sandals to be honest with their marketing. You are better than that, Sandals, get real.

Also note that if you compare prices on their US and UK websites you get very (often VERY) different prices. Sandals.com and Sandals.co.uk. The difference is not always one way (and yes, I know all about exchange rates). In some cases (over water suites, Rondelo rooms at Grenada for example) the difference can be as must as 25%. That's HUGE money. There actually seems to be nothing preventing anyone from using either site and changing the "country of residence" tab makes no difference to the prices on either site. So there's a tip for y'all!!! Beat them at their own game!

I think the My Pillow guy should complain of unfair treatment. After all, his little pillow case full of crumbled up foam rubber is small potatoes (VERY small) compared to Sandals vacations. All that being said we have continued to go to Sandals and overall enjoyed our stays (obviously) for 11 years straight and played their stupid pathetic price games. However we may now be starting to look elsewhere in future.

However, my personal experience once at a Sandals Resorts was as follows. Was walking towards my suite when I noticed from far away someone exiting my suite walking the opposite away getting into a door a few steps away from my room with a bag. Run towards my suite, door was open and a maid service was inside cleaning my toilet. Looking around my room my large video camera was missing from my table. I walked over a couple doors down where this man had walked in knocking on his door. Upon answering door I pushed him into his room asking where is my video camera which I could see was on his bed.

Needless to say that in this case I would have blamed the maid service of "Stealing" instead of another guest... Similar incident happened on a cruise too. So, guests LOCK your valuables and request maids to LOCK your door while cleaning your rooms/cabins OR do not leave valuables in rooms/cabins. Thank you Sandals for taking care of thousands of our clients, your guests, and for running a professional first class operation. And regarding Travel Agents complaint mentioned above. Get a life. Reason you complaining is because you didn't receive sufficient travel agent discount from Sandals.

But in particular, Sandals is a disgrace. They rip off customers with high prices, poor service, lies and deception, and everything that the commenters say is absolutely true. I cannot emphasize that enough.

If you want carefree vacations go with American Airlines Vacations, Hawaiian Airlines Vacations, GoGo Vacations, or if you are a Costco member use their travel benefits. The Caribbean is a destination of frustration, and yes, dangerous, especially Jamaica. You are entering third world countries where poverty is rampant, and therefore there are a lot of thieves. Remember Americans are fair targets, and there is no honor among thieves. Thank you, and better travels.

Needless to say I was charged $570.00 for 3 shots and a week of painkillers and a dispensing fee of $20.00 and $60.00 for Medical Procedure/Disposables. The complete total was $865.00. I was given a wheelchair and granted room service at no extra charge. Disappointed that I was no longer to get around unless my husband pushed me. I didn't want to be on the sidelines. We spent most of our time in the pool which was good therapy for my injury. I tried my best to have whatever good time I could have and always had a smile on but crying inside.

Upon leaving I was asked if I enjoyed myself I told them I had enjoyed whatever I was able to enjoy and tried not to let my injury stop me from having an upbeat attitude. Let's face it sulking would have made other guests uncomfortable and away from us, instead of including us in whatever we were able to join in. I don't have to tell you how painful this injury was and I couldn't even sit without causing more discomfort. After this accident we were more aware of other people losing their footing due to the slippery floor.

Upon coming home I contacted Customer Service asking them to reimburse me for the medical bill due to my accident was a result of their negligence that their pool area was not protected with nonskid floors. I also mentioned to them I knew that at one of the other pools on the grounds someone had to go to the hospital with a broken wrist after falling coming out to the pool.

Their response and lack of responsibility I was offered 6,000 bonus points to my rewards card. Are they for real? I was also informed that because I stayed and tried to enjoy my time they felt the points justify my injury. I wrote back telling them it was my anniversary celebration and the first time we had ever done a vacation together by ourselves I wasn't about to ruin my long awaited time. I am the type of person who makes lemonade when handed lemons. I let them know how insulted, hurt and angry that this was what they thought was acceptable. They responded that they reviewed the case again and their offer stands. I still refuse to accept the points and I am considering to contact legal assistance.

Long Story: We booked a vacation over six months before our travel date. We got a call TWO WEEKS before our trip telling us the resort we were supposed to travel to (Royal Bahamian) was closing for unexpected maintenance issues. This spiraled into spending hours of our time re-planning our vacation, on the phone with Sandals, and on the phone with airlines. They offered us three things:

3. 2 free nights to use for a future sandals vacation (to be used within 18 months). There is NO WAY we are able to do another vacation like this within 18 months so their offer was completely useless. They refused to give us an extension!

#1 and #2 were what sandals HAD to do in lieu of having to give us a complete refund. They in no way compensated for our trouble. #3 is where the AWFUL customer service starts. We did not want compensation on a future vacation, we wanted them to make it up to us on this vacation (the one that ended up sending us to a completely different country than we intended on going to).

We had at least three phone conversations with customer service BEFORE our vacation, they told us it was up to the resort itself to offer us extras and that they would LEAVE A NOTE ON OUR FILE for the resort when we checked in. When we got to the resort there was NO NOTE. We were bounced back and forth. Concierge called the manager who was supposed to get back to us. We had to track her down after a day and a half of NO RESPONSE. When we finally met with her she (MAXINE FROM OCHI) didn't even apologize. She just offered absolutely nothing and told us to call customer service. I have had a few phone calls and emails with Sandals AFTER our trip with no luck.

They told me I should have taken care of it before the vacation. I TRIED THAT!!! At this point the LEAST SANDALS COULD DO IS TAKE OFF THE DAMN TIME LIMIT, but they should do much more for all the time and frustration this had caused. The ENTIRE thing was SANDALS FAULT TO BEGIN WITH! We will never travel to a Sandals or Beaches resort again. If you have no issues then you will have a great vacation. If anything happens whether major or minor, Sandals does not care about you at all.