Sandals Resorts Reviews

After returning home, I left a review on Sandals website informing them of our complaints. They responded and told me that they would cover two nights at any Sandals for a future vacation. Quite frankly, that's unacceptable. We spent over $6,000.00 for our honeymoon and it was terrible. I've since hired an attorney to handle this matter. I will not be returning to Sandals and I am advising everyone I know not to book there.

5 days later nothing so I called and explained that I need my refund because the exchange rate keeps fluctuating. I don't want to lose money for no reason and they basically said it's not their problem. They only refund the amount in US dollar. 10 days later I receive my money back finally and I had to lose some money just because they waited so long. Terrible customer service. I told them there are people coming from all around the world to you guys with different currencies so they should have some sort of policy to compensate a customer in a situation like this. I did not expect such bad customer service from such a big company. Finally I do not recommend anyone to go with Sandals. They will take your money really quick and easy but if you want a refund be prepared to wait a long time to get a refund and possibly lose money if you're from a foreign country. And they will not compensate for any losses.

We were given 2 butlers. 1 day and 1 night, and a phone to summon them as needed. I never used or carried the phone with me and never called either butler. As a result, the butlers would scour the resort for my wife and I so that they could make any reservations we may require. Our room was cleaned and replenished daily, and twice during our week, we arrived back to our room in the evening to find a candlelit bathroom covered in rose petals, with a running bubble bath and a Bottle of champagne iced down and 2 champagne flutes.

We rented a car and driver one day that was recommended by our butlers and spent half a day being driven around Jamaica being informed and entertained by our driver. All the locals seemed genuinely happy to see us. All the food was excellent with only one exception, the linguini with clams at the International restaurant. We found the entire staff at the Royal Caribbean, Jamaica to be extremely friendly, courteous, helpful, and attentive to our needs. My wife and I are looking forward to our 43rd anniversary week in August of 2016 at another Sandals resort. I have been bragging to everyone that would listen as to how absolutely great our experience was.

Second visit. I hadn't been on the grounds at Sandals more than 10 minutes before I made it to the dive shop. That's why I go. Of course my wife and I both enjoy the total experience, but without the diving I would not go. I am the type of person that cannot set contently. Too many things on my mind. I needs to stay busy and active. I was glad to see a dive master named Yogi, they use nicknames, because I had dove with him previously and liked him. I know he remembered me. It's a joke with my wife and friends that no one ever forgets me. I'm 6 foot 4, have long, silver, curly hair, gregarious, 50 years old, and have always done things that most people would be afraid to do like doing a one and a half front flip off of a high cliff that most people would not consider jumping off of. I still race motorcycles off road endurance or desert racing. I enjoy entertaining people old and young alike - I pay equal attention to all. I'm funny and make friends everywhere I go. You'll see in a minute why I mention this.

The agreement with Sandals is if you have a current P.A.D.I. diving certificate you are offered as many dives as physics will allow by calculation. I was certified in 1979 and have dove everywhere from Alaska to the Caribbean, underwater caves and in rivers on recovery missions with zero visibility and only about two feet with a powerful light. I'm skilled and cautious. I've never been injured in an extreme activity. I have a love of people and consider myself responsible for them when in my company.

Yogi told me that my diving certificate was no longer valid. I said that could not be and suggested they check the records because it was the same certificate I dove with two years previously and requested that they call PADI for verification as they are available 24/7 around the world to make sure things like this don't happen. The next day they said they had checked and that I would need lessons to update my license, so I paid $500 for additional classes but those additional classes only took me about halfway to where I had previously been certified. My card had no limits, no restrictions. But I believed them, why wouldn't I? Divers are all part of the same brotherhood, nor did I believe that I could get swindled at a Sandals resort. I'd never had a bad experience with a dive co. in 30 years.

On board there was a man visiting there that had the second highest certification available. He was a master of a diving school. His customer was the United States Navy. I asked them to defer to this man's high rank. They would not, so I spent my trip taking classes, doing paperwork and taking lousy Training dives where there's nothing good to see and ended up spending the trip feeling abused and very depressed. Then upon returning home I called PADI. To express my disappointment that they did not inform me that my card was invalid as it turned out my card was perfectly valid. In fact the man I talked to had the same card I did from the seventies - perfectly valid, no restrictions. It's been a couple of years and life events have kept me from following up on this but every time I think about it I still get depressed, I feel angry; that's not why I spent $4000.

In addition while there we complained to every person possible and Management were unwilling to do anything other than defend their diving department, not even interested in looking into it. Since we've been home we've written complaints and all we've gotten is sorry. This is my first public complaint but it won't be my last including a lawsuit. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Sometime before this trip the original owner and founder Butch turn control of Sandals over to his I think 26 year old son.. Kinda makes you wonder?

Today is Aug. 16th and no one has shown up to fix anything up. The room wasn't cleaned properly and our bed sheets smelled so strongly of grease. The doors hinges were so rusty that each time you open and close the door, you hear a loud noise. The fan is so rusty that it makes a loud noise all night if you leave it on in the room. Without the fan, it's too hot in the room. The balcony door handle is broken but once again the lack of care is apparent in the room.

The 2nd day (Aug. 14), we woke up to no water in the hotel! The staff failed to offer other alternatives and told us it'll be 6 hours before the issue is resolved! I don't understand how guests were asked to wait to use the restrooms or not utilize the room for 6 hours in the morning. On Aug. 14th, we were at the pool outside of the Mango Grove Restaurant and we were stopped by a lady monitoring towel usage of the pool. She claimed to be the president of Sand Dune and Resort and stated that we can't use the towels! She created a hostile environment for us and the kids and we had to walk away and complained to the front desk.

Since we have been here, we have called and visited the front desk numerous times to send someone to clean our room. However, we have been here 4 days and NO ONE has shown up to clean our room. We ran out of towels and toilet papers and everyone has been ignoring our requests. Last night, we had to go pick it up ourselves from the front desk so we can at least use the bathroom. We didn't realize we need to carry our own cleaning supplies on our trip because on your website, it claimed to be an all-inclusive resort! We have stack of trash piling up and asked for a vacuum but no response. I don't understand who's running this resort if all the requests are ignored. We have seen numerous cockroaches. No parking spaces available, broken elevators (we even got stuck in the broken elevator)! The outlets don't work either! To conclude, this is one of the worst resort ever and we will never recommend it to anyone.

Eventually we got to Halcyon. Right away we could see that the entrance to the resort was nothing like the picture you have online or in the brochures you advertise. The lounge sofas were old, worn out and even the colors had faded. The first thing we saw was cats everywhere in the lobby. We were then accompanied to our room by. When the concierge opened the door of the room, right away I was dismayed. The room had to have the lights on all day as it was dark and dingy. We asked if we could use the bathroom in the room and the toilet would not even flush. After that, I said that we did not want to stay in this room. They offered another room but it was just as bad so we decided to get some lunch and think about it.

According to the front desk the only 2 restaurants open were the Bayside Restaurant and the Beach Bistro. The Buffet at the Bayside restaurant looked like it had been sitting there for hours and no one had refreshed the food. At the Beach Bistro we asked for fish of the day or a fish burger and they said they had no fish so we had to settle for chicken. Whilst we were eating there were cats everywhere waiting for food. What made it worse was that while we were eating there was a cat fight - 2 cats tried to attack a third cat. People were shouting at the two cats to stop that - it was awful.

The beach was very small and nothing like the beautiful colors you show in your brochures. Hardly any sand. There were no people swimming in the sea and very few people in the pool. We also did not see any water sports whatsoever. The only boat we saw was a single hobie boat out at sea. No one snorkeling, no one windsurfing, no one using aqua trikes or even paddle boats.

We therefore decided that the Halcyon was not for us so we went back to the front and spoke with the Front Office Manager. She called the Grand Resort and she said they were full. She then called La Toc and they said that they were able to accommodate us. By then we were so tired, we just decided to go ahead and leave the Halcyon. We had to pay for our own taxi to take us to La Toc.

When we got to La Toc, the resort looked slightly better. Nothing like the 5* Diamond like they claim to be. We were again shown to our room. Everything in the room looked worn out. The mattress must have been at least 15 years old. The pillows had nobody in them. The coffee pot did not work. There was an ice bucket lid but no ice bucket. The floor was dirty and worse of all the Air Conditioner was leaking even when it was off. We called the maintenance and ** came to fix it. According to him it was 'no problem to fix'. So he did something and left. The a/c not only continued to leak but was worse. We had to place a towel on the A/C and also on the tiled floor as it was dangerous slippery. The TV remote control and the a/c remote control were all taped at the back as they falling apart.

That evening we went to dinner at the Pavilion of La Toc. We were sitting down for our dinner to arrive for over one hour. The Pavilion was not even full and yet we waited forever. When we did eventually get our dinner, it was lukewarm. The entertainment provided was Cowboy Eddie. He was not even in the Pavilion. He was singing from the upper lobby. The music was worse on Sunday when they had the Live Reggae Band. I do not think that there were more than 8 couples listening.

The activities for the day on Sunday were Water Balloon Toss, Beach Volleyball and Bocce Ball competition. None of these activities were held because there was no one to organize them or any guest interested in taking part in this poor selection of choice. On Sunday we went to the Cricketer's Pub for tea (very British). We got our cup, we got our teabag but it took them over 20 minutes to bring us some hot water. Although we were at a typical British pub, they had no idea that anyone would even order a cup of tea.

Breakfast at La Toc was a fight to keep the birds from snatching your food. There were black birds pecking at the buffet which most of it was not covered. The pastries they had out were dry and so was the bread. The sausages and bacon were all oily. The food had again not been replenished and refreshed. We went and spoke to the General Manager letting her know that we were not happy with Sandals La Toc. She showed us a similar room as the one we were staying at but refused to refund any monies if we left early because she said the original booking was with Halcyon Beach and it was their responsibility to refund us any monies. We decided we wanted to go back home as Sandals was not the 'Garden of Eden' that was advertised.

On the last morning at La Toc we did not have any hot water to take a shower. It was only lukewarm. We had to pay for 2 other flights out of St. Lucia as we left after only 2 days. We also had to stay overnight in Georgia and therefore had to pay for a hotel there. We have contacted Sandals and send them photos of all we saw and so far the General Manager of Halcyon has only given us an apology with no word of compensation. Has anyone managed to get compensation from Sandals and if so how were you able to do so. An apology to me will not suffice.

As per the booking enclosed, we had to pay another $200 each to have our flight tickets changed. We are also attaching pictures of how Sandals advertises Halcyon and the difference we saw when we stayed at Halcyon and La Toc. We intend pursuing this matter for 'false advertising', having to pay for another set of Delta tickets as well as having our holiday which we had been looking forward to for months cut short and having to return home. I am attaching some pictures of your brochure found at the Halcyon Beach and then I am sending the pictures we took of what we saw at the Halcyon Beach as well as La Toc.

The food was fantastic. We were huge fans of everything at Barefoot and the cats were super sweet in their begging for fish all around the resort. One in particular really loved us and adopted us during our stay. We had a Beach Front Luxe Walkout room and the cat found us eating our lunch on our patio one day and she found us daily and snuggled with us constantly. The beach was wonderful and the extreme excursions was amazing! It's the one we recommend the most. They took us on a speed boat all around the island and we visited Sting Ray Island (amazing), had an amazing lunch at Green Island, snorkeled at the Pillars of Hercules, and we had a final stop at Pinching Beach (which you can only get to by sea).

Our tour guides were fantastic and it was spread being on a small speed bait and getting individual attention to make the experience even more amazing! I really can't recommend this tour enough if you can handle being jostled around as the bait zips around the island. Since we booked our trip during one of their specials we were able to pay for almost all of it with the credit we got and didn't have to shell out too much money. This was our first all inclusive resort and the first time in Antigua and I really can't wait to go back for our 20th anniversary!

Monday May 11th (Our first day at Sandals) we arrived shortly after 1 pm, our Mercedes transfer was very nice, and our driver ** was nice and gave us a short tour on our way to Sandals. We arrived at Sandals and we were greeted by our Butler **, who took us to Spices for lunch and said he would be back in about a half hour. He told us the room was not ready yet, they need more time to set up some items. (I figured they arranging the room to make it special since it was our honeymoon.) We filled out some paperwork regarding our preferences. About an hour went by and we did not see **, I started to ask some staff members if they could find him for us. They attempted to find him and said they had no luck but would keep trying. Another 20 minutes went by and we still had could not find **. We waited about an hour and twenty minutes to about an hour and half.

When he finally did arrive he said there was a problem with our room and they would upgrade us to a nicer room. I insisted I wanted the room we booked, which was a private villa with access to a private pool, which was a little bit further away from the resort. Since it was our honeymoon we wanted privacy. They took us to the room. The only problem is there was wet paint signs and wet signs indicating that would had just been stained and it smelled like chemicals in the room. I was annoyed because we wanted to the private villa. Now we headed over to the upgrade room. (Which we come to learn is not even in the newest building so it was not much of an upgrade.) In addition I wanted the room we booked for privacy. We get to the room and nothing in the room was done to signify it was our honeymoon. They did not do anything special.

Also our butler said he did not even know it was our honeymoon and why didn’t we let the resort know it was our honeymoon. To which I replied we did, we sent it on the paperwork that we filled out regarding our special requests for the room. None of the specials requests were done, even though we waited at Spices for almost 90 minutes because they need to set the room up. Now we have wasted about two and half hours of our first day being left at Spices and then another hour going between rooms. After we decided to stay in that room even though it did not seem like an upgrade at all. It was the second level and the room was slightly bigger. Now we get our Butler phone, and we are told if we need anything at all to just use it and call our butler. At about 5:30 PM our phone stops working. For some reason we could make a phone call but we could not hear our butler.

I go to the management office to ask for another phone, apparently they have no back up phones what so ever. If a phone breaks apparently they is no contingency plan in place so we’re told we would not be able to get a new phone until tomorrow morning, but one would be given to us ASAP. Our first night we could not use the butler because we had no real way of getting in contact with him. When we wandered around the resort we bumped into ** from time to time and otherwise a service we were paying for was utterly useless until the next day.

Tuesday May 12th we were told by management we would have a phone first thing in the morning, I assumed that meant 8 AM or 9 AM the latest. Around 9 AM a manager in charge of the Butler service I believe her name was ** called and asked if we had received the new phone. I told her we had not received one yet, and she should have known that since she was calling us on the room phone and not the actual butler phone. She promised we would have one within the hour, so now I go outside with my wife to sit by the pool, and hour goes by and we still had no phone. I then had to get up and waste my time and walk across the resort to the management office. I spoke with **, who said we should have received a phone and how this is completely unacceptable and she apologized.

I said fine, and she made a few phone calls and as it would turn out they had a phone but none of the backup batteries were charged. Around 11:30 they put the phone in our room and it need a good 3 or more hours to charge. That would bring us to around 3pm or 4pm and we actually got the phone from ** our butler at 3:45 pm so half a day again was wasted and we did not have access to a service we paid for. We saw other people calling and utilizing their phones to get what they wanted. Instead my wife and I had to get everything ourselves. Good thing we paid all this money for an exclusive butler service.

Wednesday May 13th. Now we have working phones, and we figure today will be a better day and we can finally start our honeymoon, up until this point I spent more time going between rooms and talking to management then I have been spending with my wife. Well I was wrong, my wife and I ate breakfast around 8 am I showered and went outside around 9:15 AM, she was getting all set to shower and apparently because of some emergency with the plumbing they had to shut off all the water in the building and my wife was unable to shower. Being clean and showered every day is very important to my wife (as I am sure it is to most guest at a resort). The only way my wife could shower was she had to pack up all her stuff and walk across the resort in her robe and flip flops to a small hospitality room and shower there.

She gets all the way over there and they have no hot water only cold water and while she was in this small room the power goes out in the room and she got scared and stubbed her toe. (I was over in management office again complaining about her not being able to shower and the power went off in the office while I was standing in there.) Needless to say my wife did not shower and wasted her whole morning trying to get a shower, as a result she was very upset and miserable all day because she felt unclean. (Thank you Sandals.) Yet another day ruined on our honeymoon.

Thursday May 14th I had no plans to watch TV on our honeymoon. I am not a big TV watcher to begin with and the resort only had a few channels. I did know however they had both ESPN and TNT which is what the NBA playoffs were being broadcast on. We had a 9 PM reservation for Thursday night dinner. My plan was to watch the Bulls playoff game while I got ready to go out to dinner. Except for one problem. The TV service went out for the whole resort that night and I was unable to even do something as simple as watch TV at this lovely resort. Apparently they were doing something with the TV service and they were able to get it back on for part of the resort, but you guessed it as luck would have it we were not part of the lucky few to get the TV back, and I was forced to miss the Bulls final playoff game.

This annoyed me because of how our week had already been going and then also because something as simple as TV cannot work and I am paying all this money and I can’t even watch TV at this resort. Needless to say I was very annoyed because nothing has gone right on our honeymoon. Management all week has been saying they will do something to make it up to us, and up until this point, no one has done a thing. Not one manager has even personally come to our room to check on us.

Friday May 15th. Our butler service is supposed to start at 7 AM every morning, I get up every morning at 6:45 AM and go to the gym. Today I wanted to surprise my wife and have our breakfast served on the balcony so when I got up I called our Butler for the day who was **, at about 7:05 AM no one picked up so I walked over to the gym. Kept calling no one picked up and now it was around 7:45 AM I kept calling and still no pick up. I also notice on my way back from the gym no pool lounges were reserved for I saw another butler outside and asked him if he knew where ** was. He did not, I was concerned because nothing at the pool was reserved for us. He was nice enough to put a sign on some lounges that said reserved for room 1205. I kept calling ** and I never did get him to pick up and the romantic breakfast I wanted to have was ruined and our breakfast which showed up every day at 8 AM was 25 minutes late.

I was now extremely mad because I again could not use the our butler service. I called management they insisted the phone was broke even though I don’t think it was this time all the calls went through (I took pictures of my phone log so see attached photos). Again management apologized that our phone was broke and gave us a new one but yet another day in paradise was ruined. Nothing special was done for our honeymoon. Now while all this is going on I find ** in her office because I am so mad and upset and proceed to help me and said they would speak to the hotel manager and they alluded to that they would be taking care of our massages because they said asked if we were getting massages and I said yes and she said let her see what she could do regarding them. Then about an hour later ** comes over to me sitting at the pool and said what is the likelihood that I would ever come back to a Sandals resort again?

I told her that was ridiculous question to ask right now because so far we have been here 5 days and our trip has been miserable and you have done nothing to fix it so why would I ever come back to a Sandals resort. She agreed and walked away without saying anything else. Now onto our massages we had a 5:45 PM for an hour massage, which to me mean that I get a massage for a full 60 minutes that does not include the time it takes to fill out paper work or time it takes for us to get undressed. Apparently at Sandals that is not the case. Our massage started around 6 PM which I can prove because I took a picture of the room at 5:52 which has a time stamp on it showing the time and if our massages were an hour long they should have gone until about 7 PM.

Instead if you look at the picture attached of our receipt it shows the time of 6:45 PM which means we started our massage at 5:45 and so how got undressed and dressed again and got an hour massage and were still able to check out by 6:45 PM. We were charged for an hour massage and got about a 38 minute massage, which by the way when I asked if ** or management put a note on our account they said no so we ended up paying for the massage ourselves.

Thank you Sandals! So I called ** when we were done and she said that it should have been a full hour. I said if that was the case I should still be getting a massage and instead I am on the phone with you and she agreed and said she would call over and ask them. She told me that they said they gave us an hour massage which is a lie because I have proof with the picture and if nothing else the time on our receipt shows us leaving in exactly an hour which is ridiculous considering before and after a massage you need to get undressed and dressed again.

Saturday May 16th our last day on the resort. Nothing has gone right. Our honeymoon is over and it was miserable, our butler ** was supposed to check us out and he did not. We walked down on our own because we could not locate him. As I was walking around I ran into a man named **, who I come to find out is the Hotel Manager and I told him how horrible our trip and I was under the impression ** and ** spoke to him on our behalf he had no prior knowledge of all our problems, I then proceed to show him the receipt for the massage and the picture. He agreed to me that the picture I took was in his resort, and that the time was 5:52 PM and then I showed him the receipt stating our check out time was 6:45 PM so I asked him to explain to me how that constitutes an hour massage?

All he could say was that while he agrees with what I am saying that there is 3 sides to every story insinuating that my side the GUEST is not telling the truth even though clear as day I have proof of it being less than hour long, but he said he could see. I was upset so he took the charge off the bill, I told him I am upset that the our honeymoon was ruined and no one in Sandals management seemed to care. Then again we almost missed our ride to the airport because again our Butler was nowhere to be found and this was a service we paid premium money. I am stating for the record I want a full refund because our entire week was miserable. I do not want another trip in place or vacation at another Sandals property in place of a refund. I have been a manager for 12 years in retail and restaurants, and this was the worst service I have ever seen in my life, each and every day management dropped the ball.

The right thing to do would be to offer us a refund and which makes us even for the horrible week and if you ever wanted our business again you would offer us a trip some place to show us that this is not normal behavior at a Sandals resort but I do not expect this because I saw how badly we were treated on the resort. For a resort that prides itself on world class service I certainly did not see one bit of that service and you can ask ** or **. I did not shout, I did not curse, and I did not make a scene. I remained calm because I truly believed they would make it right and they did not fixed anything and as a result our honeymoon was horrible. Plus I had to waste 2 hours of my time typing this email. This trip total cost us almost 6200 dollars, which we both worked hard for to earn and pay for it and we both feel like we were robbed of our money and of an experience which is once in a lifetime and that is your honeymoon.

After the initial shock, we stumbled out of the mini-bus asking on-lookers for help. I tied the shirt I was wearing around my wife's gaping arm simply to hold it together and to stop some bleeding. After several on-lookers/island residents took some pictures of us with cellphones, one man was kind enough to stop in his car to drive us, our driver, and another badly injured couple to the near-by hospital in Black River.

The emergency room and hospital itself was open air and very unclean. Typical of a poor country such as Jamaica but jarring nonetheless since we found ourselves in the middle of it. I assisted as much as I could in the "ER" while my wife was bandaged. She was X-rayed and operated on to suture her massive wounds on her arm and hand.

Sandals was kind enough to assist me and the husband of the other woman badly injured in the crash to take care of our wives as best we could by providing linens, toilet paper, food, and driving me and the other husband back and forth from the hotel to the hospital. The hospital did not provide these items, and as we did not anticipate this part of our trip we were grateful for the resort in helping with that matter.

After a 2 day stay at the hospital, she was luckily well enough to fly out on our original commercial flight back home on the 29th. Once landing, we obviously went straight to the hospital where we stayed for 5 nights. The stay included heavy antibiotics and another surgery. She is still undergoing therapy for her hand (twice a week, every week) since we've gotten back and will have another surgery on her hand tomorrow.

The most disturbing thing about this whole ordeal is that Sandals Resorts International has completely ignored our attorney's countless attempts of contacting them, nor have they been in contact with us since we returned to the States. Now that our medical bills are piling up, we are doing whatever we can to get this issue resolved but there has been no attempt of contact on the part of SRI, Island Routes, or JUTA on any level. When we attempt to contact them we seem to get the run-around every time and ultimately nobody calls back. While Sandals has these beautiful resorts all over the world, it is now clear to me they care little about their customers even when they are in great need because of something that happened while in their care.

Our butler service was sub par and they were never around to help. They do not even bother with the bare minimum. It is not worth the money or time to visit this outdated and poorly kept resort. The food (when not giving you violent illness) is just ok. It is nothing to write home about and certainly not any better than a regular everyday restaurant.

The pools have slipper tile around the sides and my husband slipped and fell on one of the tiles. We called over and over again on our butler phone for ice and to find out options for medical care as it was our last night there and we were leaving in the morning. However, NO ONE answered our butler phone the entire day and night. We later learned no one was assigned to us that day. Horrible service and horrible planning on their part. The nurse did not answer. That was not shocking at all. My husband decided he could handle the pain and we would wait till he got home as he was disgusted at this point by the horrific vacation and care of the staff.

We got home and I immediately took him to urgent care as soon as we were off the airplane and it is where we learned his ankle was broken. He met with a surgeon a couple of days later who confirmed it was not only broken, but, the MRI showed it was also fractured in another location and a piece of cartilage was broken off. He may require surgery and is in an air cast. We have endured numerous bills due to this and he can't drive due to it being his right leg. Not to mention all of the copays and medical bills we have from this horrible incident.

We now have to pay for a lawn service as he can't walk and cut our large yard, he has missed work, we have missed social events due to his severe pain, etc. Sandals asked for all medical documents, pictures, etc. and I provided all x-rays, medical reports, MRI reports, etc and was just informed that they won't do anything since it was not "reported" to them. Funny thing is if they looked at the butler phone log they would see we called probably 20 or 30 times that day - I had to seek out a housekeeper to locate ice for his extremely swollen ankle. There were numerous witnesses to his fall at the pool (including those who we have contact info) and including the rude staff members who worked the DJ music who laughed when my husband fell and did NOT offer any assistance.

To say I am disgusted by the response of Sandals is an understatement. We will be pursuing this further legally as a member of the family who is an attorney was also disgusted by Sandals stance on this matter.

The hotel was so disappointing to look at so we were moved to the other side of the Grande in the garden area where there was too much construction going on that my white clothing was stained several times during the 7 days there. We needed a jitney to get to and from the hotel which took forever to come. The toilet in the room did not work and after complaining for three days we finally go maintenance to come and fix it. This is not what I call a relaxing vacation having to deal with so many problems that needed to be fixed. I could have stayed at work! Sandals really disappointed us this time and we talked about never going back!!!

The service here is laughable at best. They offer on their website the option to pre-book dinner reservations, spa appointments and Aqua fit activities so that your experience can be as stress-free as possible. This would be great if the staff remembered to download the reservations. We had a spa appointment booked online for 6 o' clock on our second day here. We arrived at 5:45 as we were instructed to do. We waited 20 minutes for someone to acknowledge the fact that we exist and then we were told we didn't have reservations? To which my boyfriend pulled out his cell phone and showed them they had already taken the money from his credit card so how where we not booked?

I asked the women how this was possible and why people were people not doing their jobs, after which she proceeded to argue with me that everyone was doing their jobs. I asked her to then bring me through the process of how this could happen if everyone was doing their jobs. Of course she had no answer. We finally 1 hour later got a hold of a manager who told us it would take 2 weeks for the money to be refunded for a service that we were never given. So that was fabulous.

Next we wanted to go swimming with the Sharks. We asked the person at the Aqua fit center how we would go about doing that. He told us that you need 6 people per group and when we inquired how we go about it he literally looked at us like we were speaking another language and then said it's a hit or miss and turned his back. Pardon me? The staff is so rude that it's disgusting. Would their bosses allow them to talk to them that way? I'm guessing no so why is it ok to treat guests this way who are willing to pay for a service.

We wanted to book excursions so we asked the front desk where to go to do so. The women actually brought us to a desk and we were told there that they don't book tours - they just facilitate that process by telling us where to go. He told us in the lobby of our hotel we would find a man.. We walk all the way back across the resort to find no one at the desk.. After 20 minutes of waiting we gave up.

We finally got a spa appointment, 3 days after we had originally booked it for a scents of love couples massage. A massage is supposed to relax you, so tell me then how I came out of there so upset I had tears streaming down my face, out of a legitimate anger. I spent an hour having oil rubbed into my skin. Not one muscle was massaged. My three year old niece could have done a better job.

Now we are waiting to hear back from the airport on getting a flight home from a FREE vacation early. That is how terrible this resort is. The pools are not heated, which is false advertising on Sandals' part... How have they not been sued yet. Someone needs to launch a lawsuit into this. They have people buying 125 dollar day passes thinking they are going to get a heated pool, not to mention the people actually staying at the resort. How can any corporation be run so shoddily, it is honestly beyond me.

If you are a relaxed baby boomer who goes on vacation to lay in the sun 8 hours a day this may be the place for you. The service here is not even comparable to the level of service you get in a taxi cab in either New York or toronto. It's like the Michael kors of the high fashion world... It's trying so desperately to become a Louis Vuitton but it will never happen because the quality is not there.

Sandals is just plain greedy. No compassion or understanding on their part. I was not asking for a refund. I just wanted to put the trip on hold until we were able to get through this difficult time and reschedule. But Sandals won't do anything unless I pay the $200 penalty per person. (Total of $400). We have been taken advantage of by a very greedy corporation. So......if someone is reading this....don't give your business to Sandals. My fiance and I are both hurt that Sandals would take advantage of someone who is already experiencing a health crisis with a 10-year little girl.

The butler service was a joke. Our butler messed us up constantly. We finally stopped using her. She prepared a bath with champagne for us with fresh picked, bug-filled flowers on the same evening that she knew we had an excursion booked followed by a nice dinner reservation. So, we returned after our excursion, dirty, ending to shower - in our cold, bug-filled bath tub. We had to drain it, clean it, shower, and get ready for dinner in thirty minutes.

When preparing for another excursion, we asked for towels. She said she was on the way with them. Fifteen minutes later, I called her again. This time she said she was by the pool - less than five minutes. Fifteen minutes later, we left and walked passed the pool to the main meeting area. She was there, towels in hand, chatting away with a friend. Another instance was constantly messed up dinner and breakfast reservations.

They were completely unaccommodating to large parties. We tried to book reservations for four, six, or eight on various occasions, to be constantly turned down. Of the nine days we were there, we were only able to have dinner (other than the wedding dinner) on one day, as a party of 12. We had the Prime Minister suite. The most expensive suite on the resort. The awning covering the balcony was falling apart. It collected water in spots that would begin to smell. We found ourselves constantly pushing the water out with umbrella handles to avoid the water pooling.

Three of us (that I am aware of - I have not asked) caught Scabies - for the first time in our 40+ years alive. Scabies is most commonly transferred through improperly washed sheets. It is now six weeks later, and the scabies is almost gone for me, still recurring for both of the other two folks. Several rooms (at least five rooms in our party) were moved to other rooms after being placed in their rooms due to various issues: plumbing, bugs, electrical...

The worst part is that I tried to reach out to Sandals to inform them of the issues while on site. The Managers would not come speak to us. I then tried to send a preliminary letter to a Manager via email. The response I received was dismissive to say the least. He blamed the scabies on a tropical climate and said that they have a pest control service. I responded saying that he clearly did not investigate anything as he said he did, for he would have learned that scabies is most commonly transmitted from touch or improperly cleaned sheets. He did not care, which greatly concerns me for the next guests.

He also asked why we didn't report this while on-site. I reminded him that I had already said that two of the three of us went to the nurses station while on site, and were dismissed with hydrocortisone - told it was a bug bite. It wasn't until returning home and seeing doctors did we learn what it was. All with a common first question from the physician: "Have you stayed in a hotel recently?"

We are disgusted by the lack of cleanliness, the mediocre food, the bad service, and even worse management. We even visited the Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Although they had better food, they, too, messed up our dinner reservation and were completely unwilling to accommodate. We would have expected slightly more attention given that we spent over $40,000 booking 23 rooms and having a wedding there. We did not even get reimbursed for the items that were paid for in advance as part of the wedding - that did not occur (but could have - regardless of weather). I will never go back. And am fearful for others that spend their hard-earned money and sparse vacation time at Sandals.

In addition, we were not able to use our balcony all week. This was apparently the time chosen to repaint the outside of the resort. There were painters on our balcony everyday and the fumes were obnoxious (not great for a pregnant lady). We called the concierge desk on more than one occasion to ask that the painting be postponed until after we leave, but the call went unanswered. After letting the phone ring for over a minute with no one answering, we gave up.

Lastly, we arrived on a Sunday afternoon and apparently that is too late to make reservations for the week. We were either not able to get reservations at all, or we had to wait until 930p for a table. Once we were finally able to have dinner, we were very disappointed with the quality of food. Given the cost of the vacation, I expected the rooms to be safe without having to worry about theft from the safe. The way the theft was handled was very inappropriate and disappointing. The lack of service and poor quality of food was not acceptable. Needless to say, we will never return to a Sandals again. Spend your money somewhere else!

The VIEW from room 405 was STUNNING. We paid for Balmoral club level with a balcony which gave us a view of the pool and ocean. Make sure you ask for Club Level on a floor higher than the third to get this kind of a view.

The CONCIERGE AREA was in the lobby, accessible to anyone who walked by. If you are paying for Club Level thinking that there is a dedicated area for donuts, coffee, juice, newspapers, etc. don't bother. The lobby had a coffee machine and a handful of croissants under a glass. Nothing special.

Overall the STAFF was about 50/50 good and bad. If you're used to vacationing at Disney World, you're in for a rude awakening. The Sandals staff was not very magical. The refrigerator in our room was jam packed with stuff we didn't want, and our pleas for bottled water and beer fell on deaf ears. The towels were in short supply, and although we depleted the sugar and cream supply daily, we had to lift extra condiments from Spices in order to make our morning coffee bearable.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (since you've probably read this a million times) I can confirm that making DINING RESERVATIONS was a nightmare. We were unable to score a table at Baccarat or Kimono the traditional way, so we were forced to craft a more original, albeit less honest way to get in (which worked, but I'm pleading the fifth on how). BACCARAT was a very small, formal restaurant, and we had the tremendous privilege of being served by Clayton, who entertained and doted on us for a full hour and 45 minutes. At KIMONO we had a similarly entertaining server named Tiny, who chopped food and sang happy songs, which almost drowned out the screeching and gasping that was occurring due to the sighting of a COCKROACH that was scurrying across our table. Thankfully we were sitting next to a NYC fire fighter (shout out to Brian) who gallantly captured the vermin in his napkin, gave it a firm squeeze, and escorted it outside. Now that's a true hero!

We never got to experience STEWFISH, since the island was CLOSED FOR OUR ENTIRE STAY, but we'll talk more about that later. The Crystal Room was my favorite, I highly recommend the lava cake. SPICES was a staple, although the wait staff there was generally unpleasant and unaccommodating (and all they really had to do was pour coffee and water). We didn't get to go to CASANOVA, and the ROYAL GRILL and CRICKETERS PUB weren't even worth reviewing. The BELLA NAPOLI pizzeria was pretty good and conveniently located by the pool.

WEEKENDS are hopping at Sandals Royal Bahamian, as evidenced by the LADIES OF THE NIGHT that descended upon the Windsor Pool and grabbed our attention as they frequently adjusted their bikinis, revealing their private parts to neighboring swimmers. Within a few hours one of them was straddling one of the male guests, gyrating on his lap and practically removing her bikini before his wife (another hero) stepped in and pried them apart (in his defense, he was drunk and as stunned as a deer in headlights... he didn't stand a chance). Later that night we witnessed another one at the Piano Bar unzipping a male guests pants and, well... you can write your own ending. Apparently he wrote his ending fifteen minutes later in the men's room (there were witnesses).

The highlights of my trip were the two falls that I took in one day. Apparently there are no building codes in Nassau. The place is littered with TRIPPING HAZARDS. Walk out a door to the outside and be prepared for a two inch step down, no warnings, treads or yellow paint indicate you are about to wipe out. But my first serious trip occurred on the pool deck. I slipped on a smooth red tile and went all the way down on to my knee. I gashed my thumb in two places, and blood gushed out of my wounds, dripping to the concrete below. Bandaids were nowhere to be found. A butler-in-training walked me all the way across the property to the nurses office, which was vacant. It only took a half hour to find two bandaids, which was perfect since that was just about the time the clotting process completed. I went back to the nurses office later to get more bandaids (she was there that time) and had to fill out a bunch of paperwork which took another hour out of my vacation. But the worst was yet to come...

Later that night we took in a really great show!! We scored front row seats, which seemed like a good thing until I FELL INTO THE DIMLY LIT ORCHESTRA PIT. Ker-splat, no warning, down went my right foot, my wine glass (I was completely sober at this point) and then my body, in plain sight of everyone in the theater. Thankfully I had an EMT on one side of me and a paramedic on the other, and within minutes my foot was elevated and iced. The only thing Sandals did was send a security officer to take yet another lengthy report. Weeks later I am still waiting for my courtesy call to see if the swelling went down.

The absolute worst part of the trip was the fact that because the wind blew, they closed the private island and all water sports. We NEVER GOT TO SEE THE PRIVATE ISLAND, NEVER GOT TO SNORKEL OR STAND-UP PADDLEBOARD, ETC. We paid a lot of money to sit in the hot tub all week (which was green and caution-taped by the end of the week). Half of what we paid for was closed all week all because the wind blew. The island was so close we could taste it, but the sign said closed, day after day.

Overall, Sandals was unapologetic, unsympathetic and didn't show the least bit concerned about my injuries. The wifi didn't work and the staff didn't offer help. I have written to them to tell them about my injuries and they will not acknowledge that it happened at all. Forgot to mention all of the stray cats roaming around the main restaurant begging for food, day after day. I could go on and on.

Prior to arrival, we specifically made two requests: 1) to have adjoining rooms if possible or minimally be located on the same floor and 2) have some sort of recognition of my father's birthday which was this past Tuesday, on November 25th. We arrived on Saturday and checked in with a Sandals representative at the airport. We were directed to a Majestic Tours bus which took us to our destination. By the way, the taxi driver had a sign that prominently stated in big, bold print letters "Drivers Accept Tips". I thought this all inclusive included gratuity for all services?

Checked in and then showed to our rooms, 623 and 423. When asked if we could be placed on the same floor, we were informed that no rooms were available on the same floor in the Balmoral Tower. We were walked to our room and first took my parents to their room (623) and a technician was still fixing the toilet. The seat was loose and the entire time we were there, the toilet would make loud gurgling sounds for roughly 5-10 minutes after flushing. This was never fixed.

Next, we went to room 423 which smelled terrible and had no working television. The portion of the carpet near the window was completely soaked and smelled very foul. Finally on Tuesday, they removed the wet carpet and replaced it. They only replaced it after my husband insisted that it was replaced. The room was finally tolerable (in terms of smell) by Wednesday evening. Note, I used almost an entire can of Lysol just to give you an idea of the extent of the smell. As for the television, it was fixed 6 hours later, but in the process, the maintenance repair person broke the lighting scone in the process. He left to find a replacement for the scone. That was fixed within the next two hours.

Both rooms were cleaned TWICE during our 6 day/5 night stay. Yes, TWICE. Though we repeatedly asked for our rooms to be made and were told that our rooms would be serviced in the morning, they did not arrive. I complained to multiple people - housekeeping, front desk, and finally on our last night there, I escalated some of my complaints to the managers of guest service. When I saw her later that evening, she patronizingly stroked my arm and asked "Have you calmed down yet?" Needless to say, she was not helpful in resolving my room cleaning issues.

Also, our rooms are supposed to be stocked with beverages - soda, juice, and water. Our rooms were each stocked with 3 bottles of water and not restocked during our stay. Though I repeatedly asked for more water in room 623 so that my parents could drink water with their medication, they only restocked it once. I literally called every single day and it was restocked once. The other days, I needed to go to the restaurant to get them water or get it from the lobby when it was available. Completely unacceptable.

Restaurants are not open as advertised and they were unable to give me a dinner reservation on my father's birthday. On his actual birthday, we could NOT get a dinner reservation. After complaining twice, they finally gave us a dinner reservation at Baccarat, but would only provide a 930PM reservation which I told them that it was way too late for my 82 year old father and 76 year old mother to eat their medication (which requires food). We did not take this reservation. By the way, there was no acknowledgement of his birthday and I needed to repeatedly call room service to have his room cleaned on his actual birthday.

Also, restaurants on their website are advertised as open daily for most meals which is completely false. (Have their daily itineraries which I can share showing a 50% restaurant open rate.)

•Casanova is advertised as being open daily for all three meals, it was only open for dinner and for 3 of the 5 nights there.

No wifi available in any of the common areas, dead bugs in my room never cleaned (took photos if you would like them); no room cleaning also means no fresh towels, no removal of the dirty mugs and no replenishment of toiletries; and only 2 non-reservation required restaurants were open for dinner (unlike how it is advertised). On our last night, we went to Casanova for dinner at 630 PM and were SERVED our entrees at 8:55PM.

Seeking some form of refund, I escalated my complaints through my travel agency to Sandals. Finally almost two weeks later, they respond by offering me a free night for a future stay. I have no intention of spending my hard earned money at any Sandals resort and do not intend to return.

I later learned back in the States that I had several fracture and extensive painful bone bruising. Our butler lent me his personal cane so I could hobble around. Spent the next 7 days mostly watching reruns. Did hobble to the spa and paid for a massage and facial. Was taken by our butler by golf cart once to the pool where we had to pay for a cabana. Breakfast was in the room and lunch was delivered to our room since free room service was already included. We tried to go out at night but I had to hob and never once did they offer wheelchair assistance. This was our 5th trip to Jamaica with Sandals in the past two years. We even got married there last March.

Once we signed the document that we did not want the xray Sandals ignored us. Never once asking as to my well being, no pain killers. We spent 10s of thousands of dollars at Sandals and they could not even say, "I'm sorry this happened. Is there anything we can do?" I feel betrayed by a company I loved. My advice, as long as you don't get hurt and are willing to pay for everything they will treat you like gold. Sandals is a large company and you are just a necessary pest.

From the moment we arrived until the day of departure we were treated with world class customer service. Among our inclusions we did the hobby cats, snorkeling, & other activities. We dined at many restaurants both at SRC and SMB and Le Jardiner was our favorite. The stay at 1, play at 3 was a nice bonus. It was like 3 vacations in one, expanding our choices to 19 dining options, 12 pools & 12 bars. In celebration of our honeymoon, we received complimentary breakfast in bed, bottle of champagne and turn down service with petals and chocolates at no extra cost! Once we factored what we would have paid for meals, drinks, accommodations, activities & tips, we saved approx $25 per day. Thank you Sandals for the best vacation of our lives. We are booked to return this October.

Asked for separate rooms, ok, another several thousand dollars more and they would try to oblige. We either lost a lot of money or spent a week as friends at a couples only resort. Every activity at the resort is for couples so the price we paid was FAR too much for a beach, cheap drinks, and sub-par food. While couples tend to know Sandals is a couple's resort, those that don't look for "couples only" look for the amenities of a resort and unless it's listed as a Couple's resort like other couple's resorts are, the mistake could be made by others seeking a beach trip with friends not wanting to worry about kids or food/drink.

Relaxation turned into an expensive, awkward, uncomfortable, humiliating week of huge disappointment for something we'd so been looking forward to. My suggestion is to let it be known that it is a Couple's resort prior to booking on any travel site, AAA, Am Ex, Expedia, Hotwire, Hotels, Bookit, Booking, etc... The resort should not assume that the reviews are sufficient advertisement of what it really is. Just put the words "Couples Only" next to the words "All-Inclusive" and problem solved.

And in case a group of friends mistakenly book Sandals for the location and amenities alone, offer a refund or, at minimum, appropriate accommodations to those single guests paying an equal amount as a couple would. The whispers, stares, glares, unwelcome feeling by staff and other guests is punishment enough for making an innocent mistake. No need to make it even more uncomfortable having no beds to sleep in.

To this day, I think we at least deserve what they promised. It was Wedgwood and I should have been more aggressive to the point of this subject. It was our wedding china. Plus they didn't want to help with the ant bites. They should have sent us the china I believe. Ran out? They broke my heart on my wedding day. Paying that much should have included a lot more than pictures from ant bites. We are still married and will always remember what other awful things you aren't told about sandals. Some of the services were good but for that kind of money, some help for the bites like medicine and I loved the island. To this day, I thought maybe they'll make it right. Still no china has been mailed. The ant bites have healed. My heart remains broken.

Upon arriving, we were taken up to our room, at which point I put my suitcase on the bed to begin unpacking and the first thing that I noticed was a baseball sized dried blood stain right on the middle of the white comforter. This was not an ideal way to start out our stay! We then decided to go and grab a late lunch and come back to the room to relax. Before departing I went to grab a water out of the refrigerator at which point I noticed that the refrigerator hinge was out of alignment causing the door to sag, creating a gap at the top and preventing the contents from getting cold. I informed the front desk of this on the way to lunch.

Upon returning, the bedspread thankfully was changed. Although it leaves somewhat of a disgusting imprint upon check-in. However, the fridge was still not fixed an hour and a half later. Later that evening we both took showers to get ready for the evening and noticed that the faucet handle would not stay in a fixed position, causing the shower to constantly get hotter unless you stood there to hold it in place while showering. We finished getting ready and as we were headed out for dinner, I let the concierge know about the broken fridge for the second time and informed them of the malfunctioning shower valve. We came back from dinner later that evening only to find that neither had been addressed. That was the end of day 1 and we believed these would be addressed the next day, so we rigged a way for the fridge to work for the night and not constantly run and looked forward to the next day.

Day 2, we decided to go out to the private island. We informed the concierge of the issues for the third time on the way out thinking they would now be addressed. Once out on the island, there were absolutely no towels to be found. I suppose they were all used to reserve spots by the butlers for all of the empty cabanas. My wife attempted to find towels with no success until she made friends with one of the other guests who then had her butler retrieve us a couple of towels. I believe the towels actually showed up around noon (two hours later).

We lounged about for a couple of hours and then went to get some lunch at the restaurant. The waiter came by and took our drink orders and explained the specials. When he came back to take our orders, apparently the cheeseburger on the menu that my wife was looking forward to was not an option at 12pm. We ate our lunch, which I have to say was one of the more boring tuna sandwiches I've ever had, but it doesn't even remotely compare to how awful my wife's veggie burger alternate was. After leaving lunch thoroughly unimpressed, I went to grab a beer at 2pm only to find out that the island was out of beer! How do you run out of beer at 2pm!? Especially when the only beer available is Kalik or Sands (which by the way you had a better variety when we came the previous time, but I digress).

I then retreated back to the beach with a water to enjoy the rest of the afternoon with my wife. At about 3 o'clock, we decided to catch the boat back. As we were getting ready, I happen to notice the man who had been collecting the plastic cups all during the day. The reason I noticed him was I watched him throw out a drink into the water from one of the shore cabanas, with the straw in it, right into the water. At first I thought it was a mistake, but then he blatantly just threw another straw into the water from the next glass. I didn't catch his name, as the boat was arriving and he retreated into the woods near the spa to round up additional glasses. This has no bearing on our stay, but I find it ridiculous that one of your staff members finds it acceptable to litter into such beautiful water!

Upon arriving back we lounged around the beach pool for about an hour where thankfully the beer was still available. At this point we decided to go back to the room, where to my amazement the maintenance issues had still not been addressed. At this point I was very fed up with all of the annoyances for our trip, especially given the short amount of time we had to spend together. We then went to the front desk to speak with a manager. We were told that a manager was unavailable at the moment as they were all in a meeting and we agreed to come back in 10 mins when the lady attendant said they should be out. After about 15 mins, we came back to speak with a manager only to be told by another attendant that they were meeting and that she could help.

We explained the issues that we wanted to move to another room and said we would still like to speak to a manager. She proceeded to keep telling us she couldn't guarantee us a room on the sunset side (the same direction we had), almost with the attitude that we were being inconveniencing to her or we were just there to complain. Finally, we had the opportunity to speak to the night manager Denver, who I think genuinely wanted to help us, but the resort was very full. He then put us in a walkout room 108. This seemed fine even as it was on the first floor with no view, but once we moved in, we realized that we were right next to the exit door and elevator and there is no way we could sleep with the amount of noise that was coming from the hall. By now, after being told this was the only thing available I was ready to leave as my wife was upset and almost in tears. She then went back to the front desk and miraculously another room was available on the second floor, so we were now on our third room of the trip.

Day 3 the third room. The bathroom shower faucet would not cut off, so it constantly had a steady drip. There were brown stains all over the linen shower curtain; do those not get changed for each guest? It doesn't seem very sanitary if not. The tongs for the ice bucket had what looked like months old cheese cake rotting on them. How does that get overlooked, does no one really care here? I mean honestly that is something I would expect from a Comfort Inn, not a place that presents itself as a five star resort and charges $4k for four nights stay. Oh and the power button on the remote didn't work in this room (not really convenient). Also, the entire electrical outlet in the bathroom pulled out of the wall when my wife unplugged her hair straightener (not safe). So those were the things that I would not expect about the new room right out of the gate. After lounging at the pool all day, we came back to a room that was over 80 degrees as a there was some sort of malfunction with the sensor on the balcony door. No big deal, but if I call and tell you that the room is 80 degrees I would expect that somebody would come relatively quickly, not 30 minutes later.

So after that was taken care of, we got ready and went to Cricketer's Pub before our reservations at Kimonos. Cricketer's is really a bit different since the last time we went. The last time we were there you had the most professional courteous bartender I've ever met. His name was Kendall. That's how fantastic he was. 8 years later, I can still remember his name. The new staff however is different. I couldn't help but notice that I don't remember Kendall taking shots or drinking on the job the way that I observed this group, or having to flag someone down for service when only 5 people were at the bar with two bartenders working, but I guess things change.

After Cricketer's we headed to Kimonos for our 8 o'clock reservation. We were promptly seated and then we waited an additional 40 minutes for the table to fill up before anyone even came out to start cooking. What's the point of a reservation? Oh and at this point I have to mention that I was quite displeased at sitting down and having the head of a nail poke my hand through the seat. It was quite obvious it had been that way for a while as it had pierced a nice hole through the leather padding. After leaving, I stopped by the restroom in the building that has all of these establishments. I don't know if you know this, but that overwhelming aroma that fills the men's room and wafts out into the hallway. That's clearly black mold and its toxic, just an FYI.

Day 4, pretty much resigned to just make the best of it. I wanted to highlight that Denver did arrange for us to have dinner at Gordon's on the Pier that night, which was highly enjoyable. The thing that amazes me though is that I remember this entire location had almost this same level and service. It shouldn't be something that you have to pay extra for at an all-inclusive. I do want to take the time to tell you that the service from our waiter there was excellent.

On departure day, my wife requests towels at the front desk and goes to work out. After returning to the room 45 minutes later, still no towels. She calls housekeeping for a second request. Guess what, no towels by the time we check out. At this point I think Sandals has left an indelible image in my head, but just to cap it off we went to breakfast at Spices. I sat down with my plate and noticed that there were ants crawling all over the table, lots of ants, not a few. How is this not noticed when the table is set? I watched it being set when we arrived, so it can't be that they just appeared. Rather it was the inattention to detail that I think was indicative of this trip.

As such I don't think we will be returning to Sandals again, and I can't say that I'm going to have pleasant things to say about it in the future. So many things have changed since the last time we went and not for the better. I don't enjoy spending my time being inconvenienced and annoyed. I'd rather spend it enjoying the moment with my wife. My advice to Sandals is that if you want to continue to be successful in business, you may want to take a long hard look at this location, because in no way, shape or form did we have the time of our lives.

As I was observing the driver I noticed he was drinking a sprite and opened a small can of something to eat. Even if the driver owned the bus he should not have consumed anything on the bus after he clearly spelled out the posted rules. Moreover I am a 60 years old born In Boston. If I were treated the way the driver treated me in my country we would have come to blows. I could barely restrain myself, and I realized I might very well make matter worse being in a foreign country. Suggestion: Your company needs to do a better job screening any outside vendors you use because ultimately it reflects on your company. Since my wife booked the vacation I'm writing this complaint. My name is Joseph.

They ALSO would not give any refund (surprise?) but yet, wouldn't serve us the food that had been paid for. Instead we got the worst meal of our lives. Cut hot dogs, frozen (still cold) fish sticks, fried dumplings, some kind of pork kabob and shrimp. That was our dinner. I complained to a few people and just said, we're all paying guests - like everyone else so why are we treated so poorly?

A few other notes:The front desk and upper staff are RUDE, but the workers there are their only saving grace. You THINK your room cost includes beach activities but like the other reviewer said, red flags were up every day. My roommate kept on not drinking in order to scuba dive the next day, but day after day they called her and canceled. The bartenders make the worst drinks. Blue Curacao or Banana Liquor are an ingredient in every drink, even if you don't ask for it. Oh and you know those coins you earn at the pool for doing those stupid challenges? Well when I went to cash in (I had A LOT) they had nothing large left so I got these stupid Indian statues instead...

Overall it was a huge disappointment. I think some Sandals resorts may be nice - my brother and wife have been to Antigua several times and love it, but I also think with their poor customer service and attitude will eventually let them meet their demise. Offering two-day vouchers is a gimmick to have you return so hopefully most will see through that. So after reading all these reviews, I definitely won't be contacting/using Sandals for my destination wedding... Thanks for reminding me of the awful time I had!

We had a couple tours booked through them and one was cancelled due to weather (obviously not resort's fault) but they tried to cancel the other tour by telling us the tour (which we booked/paid for well in advance) had been booked for a private tour and we should not have been allowed to book that day. How is it when we spoke to these same people earlier in the day, we were told the tour would be on as long as the weather remained good, yet in a matter of hours we get this new story about a private tour? It felt incredibly shady. We are still waiting for our money to be refunded from the tours. It's been almost 2 weeks now. We had an issue with the website stating we would receive free phone calls to US but that turned out to be incorrect and we had to pay for phone calls that were only reimbursed to us (and it ended up not being the amount it cost us) after lots of complaining.

The phone issue was major for us due to the fact that we have a 10 y/o with special needs whom we have never left for more than a long weekend. Checking on him regularly was a must for us. They have now changed the description to free calls when you download a Sandals app but I have the screen shot of what it looked like when we booked and it did not say that. We decided to rent a vehicle to get away from the resort and that was one of the best decisions we made! When we returned to shower for dinner, we had no water and this took hours to fix. Because of this fact, we decided to order room service and we received 2 hamburgers that were both almost completely raw, it was gross! We didn't use room service again after that. Our bathroom sink was clogged and while maintenance was fixing that issue, our door knob and keycard lock fell apart.

When we came back to our room from eating dinner we couldn't gain entry until maintenance used a tool to rig open the door, and once we got in we were told we needed to stay in our room until the issue was fixed. The food here is below average in most places and a lot of food is undercooked. The evening before our departure we were offered 2 free nights which we thanked them for. We were told to come to the front desk about a half hour before departure to go over everything. We showed up over an hour before departure, yet we didn't receive the paperwork regarding our 2 free nights until the departure taxi was literally loaded with our luggage and waiting for us. That didn't give us much time to read over anything and we feel this was done intentionally. We wrote a review on TripAdvisor once we got home and within hours of it posting, we received a message from Scamdals telling us we needed to remove our review if we wanted to redeem our 2 free nights.

According to the paperwork, we can't saying anything that could damage the reputation of the resort in a public forum if we want to keep our free nights. Had we been given time to read the paperwork, this is something we would've known and we wouldn't have bothered with it. If you've done your research about this place, you know that in order to fly from MN to any of their destinations is going to require a day to get there and a day to get home. So we are supposed to pay for airfare to fly out and come home a day later and on top of that, we can't inform other travelers about our unpleasant experience?! We gladly forfeited our 2 free nights in order to inform people about the shady practices of this resort. We informed them that we should get 4 free nights or 4 nights refunded as this would be fair but we got no response. What a shocker.

As you can see, the only one I got was a newsletter and many other advertisement emails. Also, I had gotten things in the mail, but they too only pertained to more advertisements for the resort. I didn't get any email until after Nicole and I had a conversation in which she tried to out talk and over talk me, which I really got very upset with. I then demanded that her supervisor call me. During this conversation, Nicole told me the penalty was paying a higher rate for the rooms and $150.00 fine. Mr. Everton ** called me back at 6:00 pm that evening to let me know that the penalty was $300.00; $150.00 each person and because I chose another date, the rooms would be $24.00 less and he was unable to waive this fee.

I explained to him that I did not understand this because I had never received any correspondence from your resort reminding me of any deadlines for payment on the account that was a year old! I didn't understand because we were still willing to come to your resort and spend our vacation and money there. Why would they charge us additional? I explained that I had a hard time understanding why a company as large as theirs would rely on only email as a form of communication? Clearly, they had the ability to call once the account went delinquent.

Mr. ** called me back today, 10/14/2013, and informed me that his supervisor would only waive the penalty fee if the price of our rooms were more expensive. I immediately cancelled our vacation with Sandals and explained that I would make sure that this incident would be recorded with everyone I know and every possible avenue I have to make it known to the public. He just said fine and have a nice day. Since it is impossible for us to stay with your resort under these circumstances, my husband and I feel that a refund of our $400.00 deposit should be granted and call it a day. We don't believe this is unreasonable considering that we had EVERY intention of spending our money with your establishment, which would have been over $3000.00+.

One of the restaurants said it closed at 9:30 p.m. but they would not seat us at 9:00 p.m. and we had to basically beg another restaurant to get a meal that was something other than pizza/junk food. The final straw was when we were literally yelled at by a staff member for moving some lounge chairs so we could watch the sunset on our last night from the hot tub. He yelled at us and violently slammed the chairs back into place. When we spoke to his manager, his behavior was validated and we missed the sunset.

The next year, we did not return to Sandals. However, we wanted to give them a chance to make it right so I emailed my issues to customer service and Sandals Select. They did respond for over a month after three emails and then did nothing but basically say, "Sorry about your luck." I was looking for any assurance or incentive to give it another try at the Antigua property without any real response. They simply could have given us a name or alerted the manager of where we were going to assist us but they would apparently rather lose our business. I wrote a TripAdvisor review regarding the issues and it was taken down.

The properties at Sandals are beautiful and they profess loyalty to returning guests which they have not shown to us. It is a shame this has occurred and my guess is that Butch Stewart would be appalled at learning how his customers have been treated after spending thousands of dollars at his resorts. We will not be returning.

We paid up to get the concierge/butler service so that we could really have a nice relaxing experience. The nonsense started as soon as we checked in at the airport. They apparently lost or mis-characterized our reservation, and so rather than having a private driver to the resort as we had paid for, they put us in a broken-down taxi with no air conditioning. On the drive from the airport, my fiancee got brutally ill as the driver was flying around the curves in order to keep the vehicle cool. We had a similar disaster on the way back to the airport, when our private car provided by Sandals Resorts broke down.

So, let's move on to the experience. Well, it was awful! The room is not at all as advertised. Yes, we had a pool in our room, but it was not functional. It was really more of a large bathtub and it was completely misrepresented by the pictures on the website and their sales personnel. The WiFi hardly worked, but that was the least of our concerns. The food in every single restaurant was very poor. My fiancee got food poisoning the third evening, which did not help at all. I was plagued with diarrhea nearly the entire time, and I have a stomach made of steel. Plus, I lived in the Caribbean for 11 years as a kid, so it was not that I was not used to the food. IF that was not enough, the toilet in our room broke down every single day (sometimes several times per day), dumping urine all over the room and partly on our clothes. So, we had a nice urine smell in our room the whole week.

But wait, it gets better. When I went to complain about the toilet, on numerous occasions nobody showed up, so I had to try to fix it myself. Then we went to Amelia, the Manager of the Resort, and she had the gall to explain to us that we did not experience all the problems we experienced with the toilet in the room because she only had two formal complaints in her database. They instructed us to go through our butlers for everything, and we followed their instructions. What is interesting is they do not monitor complaints put through the butlers, yet this is the means they instruct you to issue them. After a less-than-cordial discussion where we were accused of not telling the truth, Amelia then summoned Genevieve our butler, and she confirmed our story. With this evidence from our butler, Amelia apologized and promised to make sure everything would be taken care of within 24 hours. We never heard from Amelia!

Frankly, there are so many beautiful resorts all over the Caribbean that wasting your time at this place is a joke. Overall, the cleanliness is way below standard for a four-star hotel. It is really more equivalent to a two-star hotel. I would tell you, our experience, despite purchasing the upgrade for the most luxurious honeymoon suite, was equivalent to staying at a Motel 6. I hope this helps someone, so that their vacation experience is not a complete disaster as ours was.

Once you get shown to your room, you will realize that the pictures once again on the website lied. We reserved the Sunset Bluff suites and were severely disappointed in this so-called Luxury suite. The bed might as well have been a cardboard box with sheets because it was so hard and stiff. The window was broken, which we didn't figure out until our last day there which would explain why my wife got eaten alive by mosquitoes the entire time we're there. The TV setup was weird for the fact that one channel would be extremely quiet and the next insanely loud.

We had filled out the form and emailed it back to our butler to have it stocked with club soda and red wine for me and my wife. Did that happen? Nope! It was stocked with alcohol that neither of us drink and only one bottle of wine. Room service takes forever. So if you plan on ordering it, be prepared to wait for at least 30-45 minutes for it to show up. Oh, and also be prepared for your dishes to sit there and stare at you for half a day or until they decide to come pick them up.

The resort and staff - So one of the first things I noticed about this resort is that there are cats EVERYWHERE. I mean they are probably at least 1 cat for every 2 people you see at the resort. They will sit in front of your door, underneath your pool chair, near your table and will eat off your plate if you are not paying attention. Walking from one side of the resort is good exercise, but mind the shuttles because they will mow you down without a thought. My wife and I almost got hit by shuttles at least 4 times.

Speaking of the staff, they are rude - plain and simple. Not all of the staff, but a majority of the staff you come across is rude and acts like you are imposing on them for the simplest of things. The food is pretty much like cafeteria quality style food. One chef served us raw eggs that still had cold yolk spilling out of them. As far as the staff goes, the Red Lane Spa employees will stalk you and constantly ask you if you are interested in their overpriced spa packages. And there is the activity staff. They can be rude to the point of insulting.

The Beach - The beach is very nice, but be prepared to be harassed by locals trying to sell you all sorts of things from necklaces to shore excursions. Speaking of excursions, we had another couple tell us they went to do the snorkeling excursion and noticed that they don't even clean the equipment. Just toss it in a bucket of water.

And the cherry on top, I am more than positive that my wife's credit card info was stolen while we were here. All in all, the Island is beautiful, but the resort needs some serious work on their staff, food and rooms. If at least one person finds this helpful, then I will sleep better knowing that someone saved some money by not coming to this resort.

We learned that we could only have our intimate wedding dinner at one restaurant (which I didn't like the food at all - that was not provided on the brochure). I'm missing an expensive flat iron-Chi (I don't recall seeing it prior to leaving and after thoroughly searching my bags when I returned home, I still haven't located it). I experienced some employees with unpleasant attitudes. The food, overall, was below expectations (had to find the best restaurants to eat on other properties as some were subpar - one of the guests informed me that she got food poisoning from Neptune's). All the pre-travel arrangements were not communicated with our arrival resort. And overall, our honeymoon experience didn't meet our expectation (considering the amount invested).

We felt more stressed than relaxed upon departure from our experience. During our experience, we didn't complain very much as we had already forked out the money (found it pointless to be bitter and wanted to make the most of the experience). The photo representations and information provided wasn't an accurate description of our experience. There were some positives of our stay such as some of our butlers learned that we like fruit and would provide it for us, we found some enjoyable restaurants, we enjoyed some of the water sports, and our wedding ceremony (wedding staff was consistently awesome).

Considering everything, we will not make another trip to the Sandals properties and will discourage any one that asks us about it based on our experience.

We had a two-room suite on the fourth floor, which was the top floor in our building. We had an extra-large porch with two sets of sliding glass door looking out to the ocean. The bathroom has no Air Condition or venting. The room temp stayed at 73 to 77 degrees during our entire stay. We arrived on Sunday and complained on Monday. Maintenance came by and flushed it out but stated they really didn't know much about A/C. This didn't fix the problem. The manager on duty told us to keep our drapes shut as it was hot outside and we were on the top floor. This answer was unsuitable given the money we paid for the vacation. And I came to the Caribbean to see the ocean, not drapes.

We had a ceiling fan in the bedroom, but it didn't put out much air volume - was like it was on low, but it was up as high as it would go. Thursday, we complained again about the air temp in the room. We were told there was nothing wrong with the A/C. They also stated we should keep the blinds closed. The answer was unacceptable, so we asked for someone higher in management to address the issue. Friday, the manager of operations came by and stated air conditioning wasn't broken and others have complained about the issue as the building is not individually controlled by its own unit, and they log all complaints to try to get individual units at some point in the future.

She told us to keep the blinds shut. I mentioned this was unacceptable given the money we paid for the room and I felt Sandals had misled me in their advertisement by not disclosing the fact that these rooms are warmer, when we booked the room a year ago. We told her we had planned to rebook for next year at Exuma or Antigua, but now we’re reconsidering. She said she would make it right and to give her a chance, and we would be very surprised. That night, we had a credit for one night’s stay to be used within the next 12 months. The Exuma property is excluded from this offer. We were upset after we told her we were considering Exuma.

Saturday, we went to the front desk to see what else could be done given we had re-booked for a stay at Exuma next year. This certificate was of no good to us, so Sandals had not done anything to resolve the situation at that point. The day of our departure, Sunday, we were still working the issue and Sandals finally offered to extend the certificate from 12 months to 18 months so we had more time to use it and we could call and request another extension to 24 months. We were satisfied with this, but it did affect our vacation. I will never go back to St. Lucia Sandals properties again.

Furthermore, there are two other Sandals in St. Lucia, but what they don't tell guests staying there before their arrival is that most days, the beach at La Toc is not usable due to dangerous currents. These folks have to take a shuttle, 20 minutes to Grande, to use the beach there. Also, if you book at Halcyon or La Toc and scuba dive, they don't have dive boats on property as they do at the Grande, so guests are shuttered to the town of Castries to board the Sandals dive boat from there. Hint, ask questions before you book as their advertisements don't necessarily reflect the truth. Also, Gordon's restaurant at the Grande is decent, but don't pay extra to eat there ($140). The food is no better there than the other free restaurants on property. Also, there is no lobster served during several months, and September was one of those months, as it is illegal to catch them. Wish I had known going in to the vacation.

I informed the nurse that I had these marks on my hands and arms since several years and according to my doctor in Canada, these marks are normal age marks. She disagreed and informed us, to see a doctor immediately and she could organize a date for me. I asked her about the total cost to see a doctor, including medicaments and informed her clearly that I am not willing to pay more than $200. She informed us that the total cost would not exceed $200. The physician fee will be $150 and the medicaments between $30 and $40.

Since a qualified nurse with appropriate experience made the diagnosis and calculated the costs, we approved her proposal. But this diagnostic took our sleep. Dr. ** of the Medical Service looked at my upper arms and immediately informed us that the diagnosis of the nurse was completely wrong and we are dealing with normal age spots. Furthermore, he informed us that people from northern countries often have a sun allergy in Jamaica, and he wrote for us, illegible on a paper, the treatment and left the room.

The nurse started treatment and when the treatment was finished, I wanted to pay the amount maximum of $190. Now, the nurse informed us that she had only been working here since a few weeks and that she does not know the prices of the prescribed treatment. She verified the prices in a book and informed us that the treatment would cost $404. I told her that I do not agree to pay $404, because I clearly told her that I was not willing to pay a total amount more than $200. She informed us, that she told us on the first visit, that we should negotiate the price with the doctor by telling him, that we are not willing to pay more than $200. The doctor thus would have adjusted the treatment according to our budget. Because we had not negotiated the price with the doctor, we now have to pay the increased amount.

I told her that from our point of view that she was a trained and experienced nurse; that she was clearly informed about our price limit. Looking at the treatment, she should know how much it will cost, that she should not start with the treatment without knowing the total price; that she should inform the client about the price, before starting with the treatment, to get his approval and that it was her duty to inform the doctor accordingly. Now, my wife left the room because she was very angry with the experienced nurse. I told her that I do not take the different pills, which the doctor prescribed, and she agreed to take these pills back, which reduced the price to $354.If your nurse had made the right diagnosis, I would have paid only the cream, which cost $30.00.

After more than an hour discussion, I ended the discussion. I told her that I’ll pay the amount of $350, but that I disagreed with her approach as a qualified nurse. Now, she told me that she had made some mistakes and that she had to pay the amount of $4, not paid by me; no comment! In knowledge of the facts, we ask you to credit us at least the additional amount of $160 by check or on our credit card. Thank you!

Here is our second complaint: As a manager in international business, I inform you as follows, with the goal not to criticize but to improve the services of your great organization. We are from Switzerland and Roger Federer lives in the same area as we do. Therefore, we wanted to see the Swiss tennis finals between Roger Federer and his opponent. I personally went to the reception to be informed about the exact time when the game will start. Unfortunately, your employee told me the wrong time so we could not see this game.

Your garden tasks starts too early at 7:30am. In the room above our room, a couple screamed out at 2:00am so that we could not sleep and we had to inform the reception twice. The white curtain in our room was partly torn. It should be stated clearly that it is forbidden to smoke on the balcony. The left and right of our room, people smoked and we were very disturbed. We had to close the window and balcony door in the evening and had our drink in the room. We would like to recommend your resort to our friend. But as you see in our message, we are not satisfied with your service. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon. We wish your company continued success and thank you for your feedback.

I am 47 years old and have lots of experience with resorts. This Sandals should be re-branded. I stayed at the Negril, Jamaica Sandals and had a great time. Don't waste your money on the Sandals in the Bahamas. I could not wait to get back home to pay for a drink so I could get better service and better liquor. One more note, you stay on these properties to avoid being hassled by the locals selling **, but the security guard let the same woman onto the property each day and she would not take no for an answer until somebody got rude and loud to make her go away. The staff checking in was a nightmare. It took two hours to get our room and luggage. The only bright spot was the piano player, a local guy who was really good.

Overall service was terrible, food was really bad, security at the resort failed to keep locals out, dangerous place to walk barefooted, staff took too long getting us to our room with our luggage, restaurants were said to be booked when they were half full, snorkeling trips booked, staff was all around unfriendly. I spoke to many couples at this resort and they felt the same way. It was one couple's ninth trip to a Sandal's property and they said this was the worst experience of all nine trips and that they would not go back. I am sorry I spent so much money to be ignored. I even tried to be as kind as possible as I was being ignored but nothing worked.

I called Sandals the moment it opened. "Samuel" tried to help me and asked to call his extension back in 40 minutes so he could check to see what could be done. I even stated that we just wanted to go somewhere. We had the week off and if St. Lucia was a "no go", just get us somewhere. I called back and Samuel did not exist nor did the extension he gave. Second, Sandals’ rep listened and passed me to another person. Third, Sandals’ person started out nice but eventually started yelling at me (and I yelled back). She could not help me at all and gave me the Trip Mate information for a refund.

I called AA again and an agent worked with me for 11/2 hours, trying to find a way to St. Lucia. There’s nothing available. Again, six months of planning and lots of money, and nothing. Sandals could have made this right. We were open to go anywhere since they had our money. They literally showed no interest in trying to re-book us. They showed no interest in trying to find us a connection even though all my planning had been via Sandals entirely. I am not really angry, just sad. It’s sad that companies sell you the dream but don't work with you if something goes wrong. It’s sad that the airlines have no accountability whatsoever. It’s sad that Sandals and Unique Vacations could have had better customer service and found us a fall back trip since this one failed. Customer service is key—and this is where they dropped the ball.

We are not people that complain but there are just certain things that are expected when you spend the type of money we did. One more thing I would like to bring up is that when we were leaving we were told to leave are bags out at 10:30 at ten till 12 are bags were still sitting outside so we carried them ourselves after they were just sitting in front of our room for over an hour and I did ask the concierge when I put them out if they were coming to get them and they told me they were. I found this very disturbing because our luggage was just sitting out for anyone to take or place items in. I was actually a little offended by this. Again we did have an amazing time but if those few things wouldn't have happened we would have had an even better time.

This country is the home to thousands of attorneys specializing in slip/fall accidents, all of whom are waiting for an accident to happen. Don't become the victim. Accidents and/or fraudulent accidents will cost you thousands of dollars. This is true. Static Coefficient of Friction (SCOF) 0.60 is required by Building and Safety, and Health Department!

We offer a safe, affordable, treatment service and product for slippery floors. If an accident happens, and your floor is slip resistant (a Static Coefficient of Fraction over 0.60), then you won't be responsible for any slip/fall accident. The case in court will be dropped. Anti-Slip Floor Treatment costs less than any slip/fall accident!

My husband and I have been to several all inclusive destinations in the Caribbean. We booked, through their travel agency, an Ocean Front Terrace Suite with Concierge services. The cost of the Ocean Front Terrace suit and Concierge services were much higher than the other room costs but we both thought if we are going to Jamaica, we would pay for the best services a Sandals resort could provide. We have never experienced a Sandals Resort. We have seen the many commercials on TV and thought we would really be treated like a King and a Queen. So we decided to pay the extra money. This was a big mistake on our part. I have to say, we have been treated better at other all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean for half the price.

I can sum it up into one sentence. The Concierge services and most of the dining area and bar services were horrible! There were some bartenders and waitresses that were very accommodating but there were many that were not. One item of interest we did notice was there did not seem to be enough employees working to accommodate the guests, especially at the swim up bar and the main bar. Many times there was only one bartender working in the main bar and swim up bar, it was very difficult for him to serve the patrons that were sitting at the swim up bar and also those out of the water wanting drinks on the other side of the bar.

Here is a synopsis of the many experiences we had with the Concierge and other services that were less than par, especially with the portrayal we have seen with commercials on television with Sandals Resorts.

1. Upon arrival, I had expressed interest in booking a Catamaran cruise with the Concierge during our stay; we wanted to arrange this on Monday of our trip. The answer I received was, "they only run on Wednesdays". We could not go on a Wednesday; we were only there from Thursday to Tuesday. One of the other members of our group booked a Monday Catamaran cruise with the excursion associate at the resort. The excursion associate booked it through another contact not affiliated with the resort. Why didn't the Concierge services take the time and investigate other avenues for this excursion and accommodate us? Where were the extended Concierge services for this?

2. When we stopped into the Concierge office asking for Dramamine for one of our group members. The Concierge service stated, "We don't have any Dramamine. You will have to ask the nurse.” Why didn't he say, "Let me contact the nurse for you,” or “I will connect with the nurse".

3. Upon arrival to the resort, we all wanted to have a cocktail, at other resorts we have visited, cocktails were immediately provided! We had been traveling all day, had an hour and 45 minute van ride, we were on vacation and would have immediately enjoyed a cocktail. We were told in a minute, it never happened. We were escorted shortly after that to the Concierge office, we asked them for a cocktail, they had one cold alcoholic beverage available and that was it. We expressed to the Concierge that we would like cold alcoholic beverages in our room refrigerator every day. The Concierge said this would be provided. We did not receive these cold alcoholic beverages the first day. The second day, we called in the morning; we were told they would bring them to us. They did not. We had to phone 3 times and then were brought warm beer later in the evening. We then again expressed that we would like these provided daily, we were assured we would be accommodated. The third day, we phoned the Concierge again concerning the cold alcoholic beverages, they again assured us they would bring them to us, they did not, we again had to phone 3 times and later in the day, the beverages were brought to us once again, warm. Monday, the day before we were to depart, was the only day we were brought our requested beverages, and then again, they were still warm.

4. My husband's birthday was on Friday, February 3. The bride had order a birthday cake and balloons to be delivered to our room. The cake and balloons were never delivered until the next day after his birthday! What is the point then, his birthday was over! The bride's father's birthday was on February 7, the day we were to depart for home. The bride again orders a birthday cake and balloons to be delivered to his room. When we departed, he had never received a birthday cake or balloons.

5. We had used glassware each day in our room. The glassware was never replenished by the housekeeping staff. I had a corkscrew with a bottle opener originally in our bar area in our room. For some reason it was removed by the housekeeping staff one of the days, when we searched to find it, it was gone. We had to call Concierge services because we could not locate the corkscrew. A corkscrew was brought to us hours later.

6. The day we went on the Catamaran excursion (which was very nice and fun). We were dropped off at another Sandals Resort after the Catamaran excursion while were waiting to be picked up by the van service to return to Beaches Boscobel. While we were waiting we went to the swim up bar, we were waiting for someone to serve us, one bartender was washing glasses, I tried to get his attention but to no avail. We were told by the other bartender, "the other guests have paid to be here and they get served first". We never were served at cocktail.

7. Several times, at the afterhours BBQ Park, we were treated poorly. When we ordered food, we were treated like we were "putting them out", they did not want to serve us. There were nights when we were not treated like we were bothersome, but most nights we felt we were not welcome.

8. One morning, I stopped at the bar to ask for a cappuccino before breakfast, the bartender told me to tell our waitress that we would like a cappuccino. When I asked for a cappuccino at breakfast, the waitress looked at me with disgust. I informed her that I had asked for a cappuccino at the bar and the bartender informed me to ask our waitress, she then stomped off to arrive later with our cappuccino.

These are the highlights or if we could refer to them as "lowlights" of our experience at a Sandals resort. In closing, not only us, but several of our members of our group felt like we were bothersome to the staff and the resort had already received our monies, it was difficult to obtain food or drinks.

There were a few staff members that were very accommodating and service-oriented. Aaron at the swim up bar was quite accommodating, Ripton at the Piano Bar was also very service oriented plus a few others, they should be commended for their excellent service. But for the most part was a very disappointing experience at a "Sandals" resort. Needless to say, we will never spend the extra money to book a vacation at any Sandals. We will never go to a Sandals Resort again! It is not worth the extra money and Sandals resorts should be embarrassed with the "extra service" promotions that they portray with their television commercials, it is very deceiving! I have told many of my peers and superiors at my workplace that I would not spend the extra money to book a vacation with a Sandals Resort. I am part of a management staff at a very large Health Care Organization, my husband is part of a large insurance corporation. We are associated with many peers and superiors that can afford the extra expense of these types of vacations that Sandals has to offer.

I will also be sending this email to the Sandals Corporate office. I would appreciate your feedback on our poor service experience.

Monday came (2-06/2012) still no pending credit. Tuesday, no pending credit. Wednesday, no pending credit. I called them again on Wednesday 2-8-2012 and spoke with Lucky again. She stated she had just put in the request in that day. But she would make sure it was put through now. I had asked her to send me an email stating their was an error and she was handling it. I never received it. Thursday, 8-8-2012, still no pending credit. I called again and spoke the supervisor Clara. She was extremely rude. By this time, I had enough. I just wanted to cancel. But she said she would not return the flight tickets. They where non-refundable.

All I wanted was my credit that was owed to me in a timely fashion. I understand we are all human and mistakes can happen but the customer service I got was unacceptable. It is sad that now we have to look into other resorts for our daughter's big day. I have not been able to pay my property taxes that are due because they are holding my funds, that is resulting in late payment for me.

At check-in, we were told to speak with the spa. Arriving at the spa, we presented our confirmation of payment receipt and requested the promised spa credit. We were old that they could do nothing about that. We would have to contact Sandals. The spa ignored our paid confirmation, charged the $240 again for the massages plus a service charge of $30, subtracting the $175 spa credit and consequently charged our room $95. We purposely booked the spa experience on our last day before a long flight back to VA. We and our travel agent contacted Unique Vacations requesting the above refunds which actually add up to $424. There has been no response.

All they wanted was to get through the line of people. They really did not care what happened after we left. The gift shop which I am not sure where I have been to a place that has a sing along and when the song is over, they help every single employee in the resort that is wanting to buy something before they assist the guest that is waiting to purchase a $18 can of sunscreen.

This is after the horrible van ride to the resort where the driver stopped a few times on the side of the freeway and turned off the lights and then looked for a CD to play. It freaked me out! I am so upset about this trip because it was more that a trip, it was a honeymoon. There is more but honestly, I am trying to block it out. Now, I am out $200 and a honeymoon.

I won a vacation through a local business' promotion in December of 2010, and got engaged before booking the trip. The contract I signed stipulated that the trip had to be taken by December 3 of 2011, but my fiancé and I contacted Sandals in late July of 2011 to inquire as to whether or not we could postpone the trip and go on our honeymoon in June of 2012. I was told by a Sandals agent in July of 2011 that we could postpone the trip and take it in June of 2012 if we paid booking fees and other miscellaneous charges.

When I called to book the trip in late September, however, the agent I spoke with told me that they could not extend the contract and that there was no record of my conversation with an agent regarding the extension.

After half a dozen calls to Sandals in the following weeks, I still had no information. After filling in their online contact request forms, I was simply emailed a generic email and told to call the offices — which I had already done several times. Each time I would call, I was given the name of someone else who did not respond in a timely manner (if at all). One time I called, I was even given the email address of a woman who no longer worked at the company. After not receiving an email response, I called again and was told that the woman hadn't been with the company for some time. Talk about the run around!

In the end, the woman I spoke with, Kathy **, was by no means helpful. Her customer service skills were absolutely horrendous, and she simply told me that there was nothing she could do.

The fact of the matter is, my fiancé and I would have taken the trip in September of 2011 had we been told that we could not extend the trip — no harm, no foul. I'm not going to complain about a free trip to paradise. However, because we were told we could extend the trip, we did not book it. We waited until we had our wedding date solidified to call to book the trip, and by that time we simply couldn't take the time off of work and save the extra money we would need for expenses, etc., before the contract expired. We didn't book the trip because of the promises made by a Sandals agent.

Sandals and Unique Vacations took absolutely no responsibility for the promises made to me by one of their agents. Customer service is the lifeblood of a company, Sandals, and yours is severely lacking. I will never stay at a Sandals resort as a result of this horrible experience.

The food was beyond bad, bordering on disgusting. Nothing was fresh or the appropriate temperature. My husband was up sick our last night for what could only be the meal he ate at Baccarat (the most "upscale" restaurant at the resort). There was little to nothing resembling French cuisine or atmosphere, right down to the dated lounge music soundtrack.

Quality entertainment was absent. What entertainment there was, was so cheesy that it was embarrassing. On the positive side: the staff was nice; the water beautiful; and the off-shore island (only open one day during our stay because of choppy waters, making for hairy ferry boarding experience) provided gorgeous views and a bit more seclusion.

Overall, I would never visit a Sandals resort again and would not recommend it to anyone either. I would return to the Bahamas but stay elsewhere. They have all-inclusive package: cheesy atmosphere, horrible food and drinks, and no reason to improve, since they already have your money. If I can stop just one couple from repeating our mistake and wasting their hard-earned money, I will feel like the trip was not a total waste!

I have a deep black injury on my left leg. It still needs more surgery. But I can't take any more time off work without losing my job. I have tried several times by phone and mail to reach Mr. Brian ** at the resort to no avail. They have treated me like garbage.

My husband and I spent over ten thousand dollars in two years at SGOR, and we wanted it to be our vacation spot forever. Now, I don't think I will ever be able to travel outside the country, let alone travel anywhere. Our finances have taken a huge hit.

I am so disappointed by the way SGOR handled or mishandled this.I have spoken to a lawyer, which is not what I wanted to do. I wanted Sandals to step up, do the right thing, and make me feel like they cared about what happened to me, a valued guest. Please get back to me, so this matter can be settled in a friendly way. I appreciate your time.

We sat at airport for over two hours pleading with check in desk for Spirit airlines and his supervisor. The flight left without us. Sandals was closed so we went back home.

I called Sandals on May 25 after they opened complained about no airline reservation and was put on hold for many minutes. Lisa returned to the phone and told me airline reported we were no-show for flight. I gave names of desk agent and supervisor that we were there. She responded not our problem about the airline you just need to get to Jamaica because your vacation time started. She could not discuss room availability to let us know if we were able to stay all seven nights if we were able to give a flight out next day.

Then called Spirit airlines and was told they would give us a flight voucher and we would have to pay an additional $350 for same flight we were denied boarding on. I called American Express card services to report fraud of services and was on conference call with agent and Sandal/Spirit airlines. After listening to the situation, the American Express agent told me to hang up and she would call me back on private line. When she called me back, she stated she would file against both companies for a refund.

Since then the nightmare continued. The refund was made but now charges were put back on my card by Sandals that has come up with another made up version that the reservations were there at the airport but we booked them under the wrong name. I am still fighting for a refund and can not believe what a horrible deceitful bunch of people work for this company.

1. Frst of all we get there and the staff is handing out wet clothes and avoiding answering any questions about getting checked in to your room that should have a/c. Next, we had to fill out some more paperwork and you would think everything was covered. The front desk ask for a credit card even though everything is paid for and if you do not have a credit card they will charge your debit card for the amount and credit it back after your stay.

2. We are then escorted to what was supposed to be the room you paid fornot in our case. We paid for a ground level Handicap Room and were put on the second floor near the 24 hour main pool. I told them this was not what I paid for and would like to be put in the room that I paid for. So, they made us wait for over an hour and said they were cleaning the room. Even after it was so called "Cleaned" they tried to put us in yet another room. Eventually we get to the room about 5:45PM. The room was dirty with bugs on the floor, had an inch of black mold in the shower, the pillows/comforter had green mold on them, room smelled of mildew/musty, no coffee pot, no hair dryer, no umbrella, no menus, no stationary/pen, the toilet was detached from the wall(you could actually tip over), and everything unplugged. The refrigerator was not working and was a fire hazard because it was hot to touch and enclosed in a wooden cabinet with a door. Also we did not have the Honeymoon welcome: champagne/flower petals. We complained to Dahlia/Jason of all the things listed above because this room was suppose to be clean that's why we waited for over an hour in the Lobby.

3. Next at about 5:50 we decided since we haven't had anything to eat since 11AM we should go try out the food. We first walked around and everything seemed to be closed. So we asked Jason if he would show us what was opened. He first went by the Pub which he also said was closed but should open in 10 mins. We were shown the pizza place and Josephine's, but when we entered the staff said they were closed. Nothing else on the resort was open. We had to wait at least 20 more mins for the Pub to service us. We order spinach dip/chips, wings, ribs, and a salmon platter. The spinach dip is horrible.it was soupy cheese colored water with green specks in it; the chips were not fresh and stale. The wings (3) were fatty, very low quality, and tasted terrible. The ribs were also very fatty and gross. The salmon was edible but not very good. We also order a cheeseburger, this was worst than any school cafeteria soy burger. While at the Pub, we decided to order a drink. I ordered a Stoli vodka drink but what I got was mostly WATER. So I asked for a new unopened bottle of the same but they said they did not have anymore. I would say by far the Pub was the worst place to eat.

4. We went back to our room and the housekeeper came to spray some freshener due to the overwhelming odor. We asked her to leave it with us because we are sensitive to chemicals. She said she could not it was against policy. So we were asked to go on the patio outside our room. After she sprayed she told us it was safe to enter. Well, the floors are tile and she had covered them in a chemical of some sort, which caused them to be slippery. I entered the room and slipped causing INJURY to my hip. I called the front desk and was told someone would call me back. Dahlia did call the room and asked why I didn't call immediately.I did and was told someone would call me back. So needless to say, she received an ear full at that point. First day of your honeymoon injured in bed crying for hours and in pain. I couldn't even relieve the pain with a drink because it was water. I told her we wanted our money back and she said we would not be talking about that tonight. So I arranged a meeting with HM- Paul Simones 10AM the next morning. About 9 PM that night we received the hot champagne and two unopened bottles of liquor of our choice.

5. At 10AM the next morning we had a long list of things that had gone wrong and requested again for our money back and that we wanted to leave immediately. Paul Simones told us it was IMPOSSIBLE TO GET YOUR MONEY BACK, he would have to "make a case" and it was not going to happen. He also told us to let them make it up to us and try again. Well at this point we really don't have a choice. Unless, we spend more money to change our flight and not get a refund at all. Paul told us that because they were at full capacity they could not even give us another room. I asked Paul why the affiliate company called "Unique Vacations" received an "F" on their BBB Score, and he told me he did not know why and was not sure what the Better Business Bureau was. Even though he proceed to tell me of 20+ years of experience in the hospitality and tourism industry all over the US/WORLD. St. Lucia does not have a BBB, but the Miami based Unique Vacations the name of the company that collects the money for your trip does. I would say if Sandals did get a BBB Score it would also be an "F" for not handling/answering customer complaints.

6. The next couple of days did not get any better. The food was terrible everywhere besides Gordon's which is not included in the inclusive for most people. The food was not 5 Star anything, it was mediocre at best. My husband and I are both very fit and healthy people. The portions are SUPER SMALL; I mean 2 oz of meat per person. So every time we ordered at least 6-8 plates of food because you didn't know what you would get or if it was even edible. Also you would think at most times during the day every restaurant would be open to eat. No the times for eating are very limited as well as the options to choose from. Most food gave us heartburn and we had to buy a $9 US small bottle of Tums because we ran out of the ones we brought with us.

7. Later in the stay we were offered at Cabana for the day.not really exciting. Also a stocked refrigerator with their local beer Piton (5 of 10). When you stay at and all inclusive resort you would expect some sort of entertainment, right? No not exactlymore like volleyball in the pool, bingo in the water, Ping-Pong available, terrible karaoke, and some unheard of music at night. We thought the water sports listed on the website would be available at several times all day. No it is first come first serve at 2PM and if you are in line and everything has been checked outtoo bad. Maybe another day. Every excursion you must pay extra for ranging anywhere from ($65-300). We spoke with a lot of guests that did go on more than one excursion and they were highly disappointed.

8. If you cross the fence at the beach or leave the resort .YOU will be harassed for money and called names if you do not have any or give the locals any money. I was called a racist "B" because I did not have any money. Obvisouly they do not have a no loitering/soliciting/panhandling law/ordinace. I told the Sandals security guard and he laughed at me. Really?

9. The people at the resort are mostly nice because they know that their lives depend on tourism. But not all people are nice some are just rude and do not want to work at all. For instance the girl at the excursion reservation desk is over the top rude and explained to me that the buses are the only thing "on time" everything else is on "island time." So don't get in a hurry unless you don't want to miss the shuttle.

10. The public hot tubs are not hot.unless you have a private one. The pools are not cleaned very well either.

11. We visited the other resorts on the island and we came to the conclusion that we did in fact pick the best one but that is not saying much. We would not go back or to any other Sandals Resort. We felt like we were ripped off and taken for our money. To top it all off, they (Sandals staff or customer service number) does not care about your feedback. I called customer service when I got back to the US, and I was told to email a complaint to an address I was given. I could not talk to anyone with authority and I definitely would not get ANY MONEY BACK. But if they decided I had a claim they may give me another stay at one of their FINE RESORTS in the Caribbean.

I am writing this letter to make you aware of an unacceptable series of events which has cost my husband and I considerable aggravation, the loss of our much needed and anticipated vacation time, that our budget and jobs only offer once a year. I am requesting a refund in the amount of $8392.60, our originally budgeted vacation expenses as well as the added costs, which were the result of the actions, or lack thereof, of your management and hotel staff. I have attached a detailed breakdown of those expenses.

My husband I booked our much needed vacation trip to Sandals Regency La Toc , in St. Lucia, from 5/31/11 to 6/6/2011. We checked in and were provided keys to room 91 which is the garden view.

This room, initially, appeared somewhat tidy and we attempted to make ourselves at home. We went to dinner and when we returned we went to the bar, in our room, to make ourselves a drink. Again, there were bugs everywhere! The liquor bottles, included in the bar, in our room, were opened and half empty. They had no covers on them, but rather, pourers inserted. Aside from the ants, mites and other bugs that are might infest these bottles, other visitors to the hotel, as well as the staff, could contaminate these bottles, as well! The bugs were crawling all over the bottles, the refrigerator, the doors to the bar and covered the entire bar counter top. My husband poured himself a glass of juice, went into the bathroom and returned to find bugs all over and inside his glass. It was, to say the very least, disgusting. It took him 20 minutes to convince the butler to spray for bugs while we went to dinner and to bring us a bottle of sealed Absolute Vodka. When we returned, they assured us that they had sprayed. It was clear that they had NOT bothered to do anything of the sort!

We went to bed that night only to wake to more bugs on the counter tops in the bathroom, bedroom and bar area once again. I then noticed that the ants were crawling along the bedroom floor, as well. We did not unpack our bags for fear that these insects would enter our baggage and clothing. We, again, reported the issue and decided that we would not eat or drink in our room or on the patio of our room. This had significantly further hampered our vacation. Three times the butlers brought us champagne, wine and a cheese platter that we immediately took outside the room to avoid having our tiny visitors enjoy them before we could! Each time the staff brought these items, the bottles were again open and half empty. It was clear that we were being served leftovers from prior guests! We tried very hard to enjoy our day but for the second day in a row could not. Again, our clothes remained unpacked and we could not eat, drink or function in our hotel room.

We continued to report these events and each time the butler's response was to send housekeeping to come and wipe up the ants. On Wednesday morning, we woke up to a 6 inch long and 3 inch wide centipede, on our floor, just near our bed. My husband was forced to get up from his sleep, in fear, and swat at the centipede which would not die easily. We then noticed once again that the room was completely infested. We immediately called the butler who sent housekeeping once again, to wipe up the insects. The poor maid walked in our room and actually started to cry. She told us to stay away from the centipede as these "cold blooded amphibians" do not die and are sometimes poisonous. Our butler brought his manager, Victor Regis, who advised us he would give us a discount on our bill. We NEVER saw a discount of any kind. We demanded that they reserve us seats on the beach so once again we could make an attempt at "vacation". We returned from the beach to find an open and half drank bottle of white wine, on ice, in our room. It should be noted; we did not open it, nor do we drink white wine. We again found bugs ALL over our room.

We then noticed, in the bedroom, they staff had written "Love Always" in flowers and leaves on our bed. These also began to attract the bugs to our bed. We now had millions of black ants all over our bed. I called our butler and demanded another room change and assistance in booking a flight home. We simply could take no more.

They transferred us to room 21, where our clothes remained, in our bags, and we did not move. We had trouble calling Jet Blue. The butler actually stated that "no calls could be made off the island at night, no 800 calls could be made, the entire island shuts down at 6pm". We of course learned that these were all lies as we continued to press the butler, he, miraculously was able to obtain a phone number and code for us to make a phone call. He insisted that no one on the entire island could make a phone call, at that time. It was absurd and after much arguing and convincing, the butler returned to our room to advise us that he had made arrangements for us to phone Jet Blue and provided my husband with another phone number. We spent the remainder of our evening on the phone with Jet Blue.

The butler, Don, kept saying "you stay and my manager will make you a nice cheap deal".

We booked the flight home on June 2, 2011 and then contacted our butler to speak with the manager on getting a FULL refund. The manager advised us that he would take care of things. We could not locate him for 2 hours obviously waiting us out, in the hopes that by the time he saw us it would be too late to discuss the events and our demanded refund as we would have to leave for the airport and our trip home. Your manager advised us that he was going to refund us the cost of the upgrade for butler service of $1200, services we could not and did not use, as well as the phone calls we made from our room. This was not a favor, as again, we ONLY incurred those charges because of the conditions at your resort and the actions of your staff. We OBVIOUSLY gave this trip more of a chance than most people would have!

I demanded all of my money back! Upon his insistence, I negotiated the full 7 days and took the voucher he offered, simply as evidence that he acknowledged the unacceptable conditions we endured.

I have NO interest in returning to any of your resorts. I am, instead reiterating my previous demand for a FULL refund, inclusive of the aforementioned, additionally incurred costs!

The worst part is that after filing a formal complaint with the company they actually wrote back calling my husband the wrong name because they obviously do not care about anyone, customer service or any US business whatsoever. And then we decided to just attempt to use the voucher... 3 hotels are excluded. Then we find one we think may work because the rest have awful reviews on trip advisor and we are told that our voucher is worth $6283... the price on line is $6283 for the same type room... we think we are all set... Then they say the room actually costs $12,000 and change we can't apply the voucher with the discounted rate so the next trip will cost us $6200 out of pocket. WHAT????!!!! What a complete nightmare and disaster!

We'll be the first to admit that our trip started off on the wrong foot when we were on a plane getting ready to depart St. Louis, MO at the exact time that it was struck by a devastating tornado. Long story short, we went through an emergency evacuation of the plane, and we're told to leave all of our bags behind. We didn't let the tornado hold us back from our long-awaited honeymoon trip and we called American Airlines to have them redirect our flight. They assured us that our bags would meet us in Jamaica the next day, so we drove through the night to a nearby city with only the clothes that we packed in a small backpack. After 32 hours of no sleep, we finally landed in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and thought that we were in Sandal's capable hands now and we could finally relax. Here's where the disappointments began.

Arrival at the Montego Bay Airport: after we made our way through customs, we found the Sandal's store-front and went to the front desk there to check in. Upon not finding anyone at the front desk, we looked around for a good 10 minutes until we finally found someone around the corner from their location with a clipboard and checked in, received tags for the appropriate resort on our bag and were told to go back in, grab a beer and relax until the shuttle for our resort was called. You can only imagine our relief when we thought our vacation had finally begun! We were getting ready to sit down and relax when a young gentleman came with a Sandal's shirt came in and told us our shuttle was ready and to follow him.

We gathered our bags and turned around and he was gone! So we walked out front and talked to our friend with clip-board that we had originally checked in with and they rudely told us our shuttle was not ready and to go sit back down. Feeling confused, we walked back in to sit down and drink our beer, only to be grabbed by a third person that asked why we weren't outside yet at the shuttle. We followed him out to the shuttle (not taking our eyes off him this time) and we ended up filling the last two seats on the bus. We settled in for a long 2 hour shuttle ride.

Arrival at the Sandals Ocho Rios Resort: once we finally made it to the first Sandal Resort, the bus dropped off passengers with the blue tags first. We were relieved that this wasn't our resort as it was quite far from the beach and definitely not the location that we were going after; so, with the purple tags on our luggage, we happily stayed on the bus and waited to get dropped off at the resort directly across the busy street. Upon departing at this location, we gave our name to the front check-in host and she rudely and abrasively informed us that the employees as the airport gave us the wrong tag for our luggage, so we needed to get back on the bus and go back to the other resort. A little shell-shocked, we got back on the bus to go back to the first resort and get checked in.

Check-in at the Sandals Ocho Rios Resort: Upon check-in at our proper Resort, we informed the front desk about our luggage situation, gave them all the pertinent information and informed them that we expected it from American within the next few days. They told us, "You're in luck, you have butler service; they will take care of all of it for you." After we checked in, our butler arrived about 15 minutes later and drove us in a golf cart an additional 5-7 minutes to our Romeo and Juliet Villa at the back of the resort.

Romeo and Juliet Villa: the only nice thing about our villa was the private pool and hot tub, which was surprisingly enclosed. If you look up the room on their website, they'll show the private pool and hot tub with a beautiful mural right behind it that, in the photos, looks like an open area, not a wall. Our villa literally backed up to the 10-foot tall concrete fence at the back of the fence with barbed wire across the top and was about the furthest away from the beach that you can get. The most important thing to us was being near the beach and, according to the maps that they show on the Sandal's website, our Villa was right next to the beach. The bed was nice, but, all in all, it was not worth the high price that we paid for it. Regardless, at this moment, we were excited for a warm bed and some alone time.

On the meals: since our bags did not make the trip with us, we were unable to attend any of the nice restaurants that had a dress code for them since we didn't have slacks or close-toed shoes with us. So we did what we could to make the best of it and tried out a variety of restaurants. The food was below sub-par and tasted soggy like it was microwaved in the back. Due to the strict no-tipping policy, the majority of the waiters were rude and condescending and generally a hassle to deal with. In addition to all of this, there was an alarming amount of stray cats roaming around the restaurants at all times. We were finally able to attend one of the nicer restaurants when one of the causal restaurants that they have made a "reservation" for us was closed and we pleaded with our butler to get us into the nicer one, even thought we were wearing flip-flops. The food was slightly better, but still not what we were expecting.

On the butler service: we didn't experience much rudeness from our butlers and we assume that this was due to the fact that they knew they would get tipped on their service. They were not helpful in getting our luggage to us and we ended up having to call American Airlines to check up on it most of the time (using high-priced roaming minutes in the meantime). We ended up finally getting our luggage on evening the day before we left. One of our butlers was a hassle to deal with and it made it seem like it was going out of his way to come pick us up for meals. We tried to start fresh every morning and think that it was all going to turn around everyday.

One morning, he walked us down to breakfast, took our drink order and came back with mimosas. In doing so, he managed to spill an entire mimosa all over the front of my husband (keep in mind we only had about 2 outfits a piece at this point). He told us he would clean it up and so we went through the breakfast buffet line and came back to find a table that had been cleared of any puddles, but still had a wet tablecloth with sticky mimosa. The butler service was another one of those things that was highly overrated.

On the liquor: what liquor? I swear there was no liquor in any of our drinks! I'm not a drunk by any means, but two drinks usually have me feeling good and that never happened.

Needless to say, it was tempting to hide out in our room everyday instead of dealing with the rude service everywhere we turned. Unfortunately, that was not possible because our butler wouldn't allow that and would kick us out everyday at 10 AM. We would be ready to come back home after a few days of this treatment. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking that this is our honeymoon trip that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Since we had spent so much money on this trip, another trip is not anywhere in our immediate future and we withheld a few items to do to the house in hopes of a great trip. This was, hands-down, the worst vacation ever.

My only saving grace was being there with my husband. We had stars in our eyes from the great marketing that Sandals does and we found that it was not only deceptive, but, in some cases, straight lies. We had hopes for the "trip of a lifetime", but got the honeymoon from hell instead. Unless Sandals does something to restore my faith in them, there's no way I would ever recommend them to another person.

Being an amateur photographer, I jumped at the chance of going to a Brand New Resort to indulge my passion for photography and Vacation at the same time. I couldn't wait to get there and begin taking pictures! What a horrible mistake I made upon making the decision to switch Resorts from Sandals, Antigua to Sandals, Great Exuma. Our flight was perfect, the airport in Great Exuma was very small, but they checked us through quickly and we got in our Sandals Taxi within 20 minutes of landing. The Bahamian People are friendly and ready to answer any questions or help in any way.

The resort - We arrived at Sandals, Great Exuma and were greeted by the front desk personnel, informing us we needed to put our credit card on file before we would be taken to our room. After doing so, our butler, Donard (an excellent butler) showed us to our room. As we were walking to our room along the curvy sidewalk, I started to notice that this hotel sure didn't look Brand New, as the live chat agent had informed me. As soon as we entered the elevator, I knew that this may be a Brand New Sandals but it is in an Old Hotel. (I guess we were fortunate that our elevator worked, a couple that we met had to walk up and down three flights of stairs each time they left or returned to their room).

We get to our room after walking down a long (might I say dirty) hallway, with dead bugs outside our door (those bugs stayed there the entire 8 days we were there). Donard, our butler opens our door and lets us in, this is a standard room (advertised that all rooms are suites) with a bed, a table and a balcony. I went out on the balcony to enjoy the view while we waited for our luggage and sat at the table and got splinters in my arm. I am glad we were placed on the third floor, because if you were lower than that, you could not view the beautiful water that Great Exuma has to offer, due to the overgrown bushes and weeds that were overtaking this Resort. We waited for our luggage, unpacked and went to enjoy a nice ice cold beer and some food; we had been traveling all day and were hungry and thirsty.

The service was horrible in the restaurant part, the only way to get anything was to ask Sonia and she would make sure you would get your food and drinks. We were asked to leave the Bar at one time because 200 Travel Agents were coming through and they needed to accommodate them.

Barefoot By the Sea - Put your feet in the sand eat lunch and enjoy the sound of the ocean because you couldn't see it over the overgrown brush unless you stood up. This was a great fast food place to eat (even though the service was slow). Hamburgers, salads and hot dogs, oh wait they were out of hot dogs and never got any delivered while we were there.

The Drunken Duck Pub - This pub was a life saver for food but way too loud inside. Whenever the other restaurants were closed, the Drunken Duck was the place to be. Portions of food were very small so we learned to order double every time we ordered. The music inside was way too loud and when you went outside the bugs attacked you, so if you wanted to talk to anyone you were yelling at them.

We were sitting with some friends that we met and having a few drinks when my husband went up to get me a beer (their own island beer Sands Light), he was informed they ran out, they then ran out of Sands Regular and then New Castle. We went to our rooms and grabbed beer and brought it back to the Pub so we had something to drink. I spoke with Kerry (I am assuming she was the manager) and she said I don't understand why we ran out I ordered three cases for the day! Are you kidding me, three cases of beer for the whole resort? Thought this was an All Inclusive Resort.

El Cielo - This restaurant was the worst of all of them, your wait time for food was over an hour and that was for breakfast or lunch. We were there for seven days and knew the menu by heart the same things were offered for breakfast and dinner each day on a very limited menu. The service was terrible and the food was not five stars! A couple that we met, got married at the Resort, had the same horrible experiences but waited four hours for their meal to be served (and they had reservations).

The Pool Bar - Never had beer and the service was ridiculous! You would wait a good twenty minutes for someone to even look at you and then to be informed sorry were out of beer. The music that was played was the same CD that they made, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, etc. over and over and over Never was any island music played (with the exception of the Bahama Bay Bar), and just the same old CD it was horrible. We listened to that horrible music day in and day out 24 hours a day that CD played. We got to know which song was coming up next because we heard it so often. When we asked them to play Bahamian music they stated they only had one CD and that is the one we were listening too.

The Beach - The water was the prettiest I have ever seen, the colors gorgeous and the sands pure white. The drawback was the big tractor running up and down the beach trying to smooth out the sand and making more of a mess of the trash and kelp that had washed on shore. The huts had the same trash at them the entire time we were there, unless you cleaned up your own trash, it stayed right where it was. The few water sports they offered were only offered when the 200 travel agents came to view the property and that was twice in the eight days we were there. Otherwise the red flag was up so no water sports.

We really missed the vendors on the beach, sometimes they can be overwhelming but always fun to talk to them about their home island and see what they have made. According to the Taxi driver Sandals absolutely prohibits any Bahamian people on their beach, they only allow their people to come once a week to the pool deck and sell goods that are not made by the Bahamian people but bought somewhere else and resold for a ridiculous amount.

The Pools - The new Sandals Pool was not new, just redone but at least it was better than the quiet pool and spa. The big pool was always out of drinks and the quiet pool had no one there to help you. They had maybe six rafts(at the Big Pool) that we saw and they looked like they had been in a shark tank as bait and would sink if you laid on them for an extended period of time and none at the Quiet Pool.

We sat in the spa and it was so rough it tore the bottom of our feet and the back of our legs. A Pipe was leaking right next to the spa with water shooting straight out of the ground. The pool itself had dead bug skeletons stuck all around the edges. I sat in one of the recliners and went to put my chair back, the arm broke off and I almost fell out of the chair. All the furniture was old and falling apart, but if you look at their photos of the resort they only have pictures of new furniture.

Excursions - Great Exuma is a small island with a population of around 4,000 people. There was no excursions being offered through Sandals, (the water was too rough) but not rough enough for you to pay $750.00 for a day Excursion outside of Sandals. We ended up renting a car for $100.00 and driving the island to see different sites and to meet the Bahamian People (since Sandals did not employ any). We had a lovely time outside of Sandals and grew to appreciate Great Exuma through our eyes, not through Sandals.

Overall - It is very unfortunate that we had to experience this type of service at a Sandals Resort. At least we know that not all Sandals are like this, but my heart went out to the couples that experienced it for the first time. We were completely misled not only by the Live Chat Agent (telling me it was a Brand New Sandals) but also by the photos that are posted for Sandals, Great Exuma.

Sandals all inclusive resort in Great Exuma, Bahamas is only inclusive of what they have on hand if you decide to go here prepare to go hungry and have a limited supply of beer and drinks! I would not recommend this resort to anyone!

I'm writing to you because we were incredibly disappointed. The disappointment began when we arrived at the resort and were taken to our room. We walked through the lobby, past the pool and along the shore path to our room. The Concierge warned us that the porch outside our door might be wet. At the time, I assumed it was because it might just have been cleaned, based on our arrival time. It was only the next day we would realize the porch was always wet because our rusty, old air conditioner dripped onto the porch.

The next problem that became apparent was that the Concierge couldn't get our door open. It had an old-style lock and key, which is perfectly acceptable, if the door opens easily. She fiddled with the lock and key for a minute or two before leaving us standing on the porch and returning to the lobby. The bellboy she sent was able to get the door open but we struggled with the lock every time we returned to the room. It was incredibly frustrating to deal with five or more times a day.

Our room was perfectly adequate but not impressive, special or romantic. The bathroom, especially, was disappointing. The room that contained the shower and toilet was large but plain. It was decorated with simple white tile and a flowered tile border. No sense of opulence or elegance and no accessories. The grout around the tile was dark with mildew in places. My husband stayed at the Comfort Inn in Mt Pocono, Pennsylvania the night before our wedding. His room had a Jacuzzi tub. I guess that may have skewed our expectations. The counter-top and sink, off of the bedroom, had been updated more recently but still lacked any kind of real luxury. The rest of the room was nice.

The furniture appeared to be newer but the air conditioner was clearly not. It was loud and inefficient. Upon talking to other guests and walking around the property, we discovered that most, if not all, of the other guestrooms on the property had been updated new electronic locks, new efficient air conditioners, brand new deck furniture. Its unfortunate that the most expensive rooms on the property weren't renovated when everything else was. It's also unfortunate that they were still the most expensive rooms when they hadn't been updated.

We were also surprised that the mini-bar contained no free snacks. Our room was billed as all-inclusive everything and snacks weren't free. That seemed like false advertising. On the subject of food, I have to say that we enjoyed dinner very much. We took advantage of the Stay at One, Play at Three feature and booked dinner at the restaurants at the Grande and Regency, as well as Marios and the Pier on our own property. The food we had for dinner every night was enjoyable and this quickly became the highlight of the day. We found breakfast and lunch to be disappointing. The food was fine, it was more an issue of service and atmosphere. We ate breakfast at Bay side on a regular basis. The staff was friendly when we were seated but were slow to return with drinks, menus and other requested items. We realized this was part of a slower, non-American lifestyle, so we were patient.

The one issue we could not overcome was the wildlife. The bugs, birds and cats were an issue both at Bay side and the Beach Bistro. We realized that both of these venues are essentially out-of-doors but it was very unappetizing to have to guard your food from wild creatures. The bugs are understandable but disgusting. Bay side is screened to keep out the birds but the flies fit right through the large screening. Most of the food was covered but often, bread, salad, vegetables and salad dressings would not be. We tried to limit ourselves to eating only those foods which were protected but this eliminated a lot of the healthier choices. The screening at Bay side kept the birds from flying in anywhere but the doorways. This is where the slow service of the staff became an issue. The staff would stack plates on trays and leave them around the room.

The birds would fly in, grab items off the trays and fly out. The staff would make a cursory attempt to shoo them away but it seemed half-hearted at best. There was a similar issue with the cats. The cats had found (or made) holes in the screens large enough to squeeze through. The cats would roam around under the tables waiting for handouts or scraps. I never saw a guest feed them, but it didn't seem to deter them. The cat problem was much bigger at the Beach Bistro. Because the Bistro was more casual, service was even slower. Cats would actually climb on the tables and take leftover food that the staff hadn't cleared. The cats would then crouch under the chairs and gnaw on whatever they had acquired. I grew up with cats and generally enjoy having them around but this was disgusting and unsanitary. Sandals bills itself (and charges) as an upscale accommodation with an emphasis on quality. The abundance of wildlife really flies in the face of that description.

At the very least, we were expecting to spend a few relaxing days on the beach enjoying the sun and water sports. We were surprised to see security guards patrolling the fence line of the property closest to the beach. Our first morning at Halcyon, we went down to the beach after breakfast. We lasted about an hour before we got tired of the harassment by the local residents. Some of them politely asked about joining their tour groups. Some not-so-politely asked us about joining their tour groups. Some of the locals tried to guilt us in to giving them money by pointing out how rich we were. We retreated to the pool, disappointed that we couldn't relax by the ocean. Just about every time we walked past the fence line, a local resident on the beach motioned to us or yelled at us. We started taking the longer route around the pool, closer to the main building, so we didn't have to pretend to ignore them, as they yelled at us.

As I said, we booked 9 nights at the Halcyon. On the 5th day, I got an email from my mom that my grandmother had fallen and would need surgery to repair her shattered femur. My husband and I discussed whether we should return home. The injury itself was not life-threatening but the doctors were a little concerned about putting my grandmother under anesthesia, due to her advanced aging and generally weak condition. We realized that neither of us wanted to stay at Sandals. We were tired of trying to convince ourselves and each other that we were having a good time. We were disappointed in the accommodations and the service.

We were expecting something lavish and magical a true once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon vacation, and this fell far short of our expectations in so many ways. We had our travel agent change our airline tickets so we could return home on Saturday instead of Tuesday, cutting our honeymoon 3 nights short. We discussed what to say to the staff at Sandals and decided just to explain the family-emergency part, realizing that the problems we noticed couldn't be changed immediately by the staff. We didn't want to complain and cause a scene and encroach on other peoples vacations.

We are both saddened by the way the whole thing turned out. We looked forward to the honeymoon for months, anticipating an incredibly relaxing and luxurious vacation after the stress of the wedding. We thought that we had chosen a company that could provide those things. These seem to be the hallmark of the Sandals properties and advertising campaign. I'm sorry to say that we chose wrong. Were not angry, just incredibly disappointed. We have begun talking about where to go on a second honeymoon in a few years when we can save enough money to travel again.

1) Upon a long-awaited check-in, we were given room #309 which was not clean and the bathroom tub was filthy upon arrival to our room. We placed a phone call direct to housekeeping, requesting for the room to be cleaned as soon as possible. After waiting one hour with no arrival of housekeeping, we then notified the front desk representative Ron via phone and requested that he notify the supervisor on duty to know that our accommodations did not meet our exceptions for a Sandals Honeymoon experience.

2) We then headed down to the pool during at the time of room cleaning. There were no clean towels available, and we were escorted out of the pool within five minutes by security due to chlorine being added at 6pm in the evening. This is understandable. However, it was another obstacle to deal with our first evening at the resort.

3) Upon leaving the pool and heading back to the hotel room, we then headed up a very dark hallway with no lighting and a flight of stairs (where another couple almost fell on their way down). This was the only entrance back to our room, and then, we experienced that both room keys were not activated. We then headed to the front desk where Ron was fielding many calls and waited for our room keys to be reactivated and notified him of the dark stairwell being unsafe. He offered to show us another room for a $450 dollar night upgrade.

Upon arrival back to the room, the bath tub was still not cleaned which was very frustrating, as seen in the mold growing in the shower and a dirty tub and toilet. We then pulled out the information book (pictures attached) and notified the front desk that it had mold growing on the pages as seen in the pictures.

We expressed our concerns to the Director of Guest Services Victor about our experience thus far. He offered to show us room upgrades at a charge of $550/ per night which we entertained. However, we did not feel the price was worth it due to the poor customer service and lack of prompt responses from the staff at the resort. We expected to have the majority of staff to be pleasant and happy however experienced the exact opposite.

We spent the day at the St. Lucia Grande Resort. The transfer shuttle bus was overcrowded, and the system for lining up was unorganized.

Dinner at La Toc. Upon arrival for our 8:15 pm reservation, we waited another 15 minutes to be seated and were not greeted upon arrival in an understaffed half-full restaurant. Upon arrival back to the room in the evening, we notified the front desk that the air conditioning unit had not been cooling the room properly and to request maintenance to fix it.

1) We contacted the hospitality/travel desk for 2 hours in the morning upon advice from Ron the prior evening to be informed of the travel tours for the day. Ron was unaware of tours being offered and requested we have a 6:30am wake-up all to contact Nikita. We tried Nikita 4 times from 6:30am - 8am, and no answer. We also ended up leaving a message with the reception desk for Nikita to contact us asap. However, no phone calls were returned. We then tried again at 9:15am, and Nikita answered.

However by this time of the morning, no excursions were available, and they could not accommodate us for the day. This was very frustrating, as we tried every avenue to reach Nikita.

During breakfast, we had our housekeeping come, and it is now 1:30pm. There are no new towels, refrigerator is not stocked with new drinks, and the tub is still not cleaned. Our major complaint is Guest Relations Front Desk Management and Housekeeping, along with Customer service, seems to be not empowered or incented to care about their guests' experience. This is extremely discouraging, especially since we are here for a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon experience.

The only silver lining and good highlight thus far has been the superior service by two staff members at the Armandos Restaurant named Gus and Monique who were very pleasant and upbeat about being hospitable and accommodating. They deserve the best of recognition for being personable and caring about their guests.

The gentleman who showed us through the property upon arrival could not be understood. Our room was not ready at the appointed time. The room was a huge disappointment. Very run down. The water had a brutal smell of sulfur, the screen was torn going out to the patio, and the TV had no sound most of the time we were there unless I gave the audio cable a giggle or slammed the dresser drawers underneath to temporarily restore the sound. Just don't close the drawer again. The alarm clock was very difficult to figure out—the folks there before us must have needed to rise at 4:00 am to check out because the clock went off each morning at that time. We asked housekeeping to try and fix it. They didn't and it didn't shut off even when unplugged. Finally, I got it to go off at 11:00 am, which of course we didn't need because we would be busy outside saving a chair by the pool.

So many chairs were saved for the couples that had butlers that the seating was limited. If you went to breakfast late and expected to sit by the pool, you were out of luck. By the way, there are 2 pools, not 7. The very, very small pools near the villas do not count and were not for general use. The food was a huge disappointment in most restaurants and the reservation deal is crazy. After arriving finally (4:30 pm) in our room on Saturday, we were told by Kimono and Baccarat that we could not get reservations for either until Thursday. Kimono was not worth it at all. Baccarat was amazing. The Crystal Room was lovely, but the food was not and I am not picky.

Spices had a great wait staff and lovely chef, Othello. Anytime you called about anything, the tone was rushed impatient and mostly rude. You were treated like they were doing you a favor. Our honeymoon breakfast was very, very late. It finally came but not without 5-6 calls from different folks assuring us it was on its way. The server, very nice. We were led to believe that the amenities were free—not so. Jet skis, etc., were all extra and a nice young girl who showed us around told us not to do anything with those vendors, they were not to be trusted. Great. Our room was to come complete with champagne upon our arrival.

A bucket of very melted ice and the house chardonnay were waiting for us (Berringer. Yack ****... that's why it is included) and of course, no wine opener to open it with. The gent who showed us to the room said he'd be right back with it. Never saw him again. We had to ask many, many people. And when we did finally get it over an hour later, it was a flimsy plastic thing that barely worked. Can't say enough about how bad the water smelled. You took a shower and you felt like you weren't getting clean. The bathrooms left much to be desired. This was a very important vacation for us, our honeymoon. Thank goodness we can have fun no matter where we go. I expected so much more. $6,000.00 is a lot to pay for subpar service, food and amenities. I will never return to a Sandals Resort.

Upon arrival, we were greeted at the front door and our bags unloaded and dropped on the curb by a "butler". Roughly an hour later, we were taken to our room by one of the front desk clerks, not a "butler" as all other couples. The desk clerk had no idea where our bay house was and took us on a fifteen minute excursion trying to find the room before calling for help to find the room. Finally, we arrived at our bay house and were taken up the stairs, as the elevator was out of service for quiet sometime according to their employee. When we were in our room on the 2nd floor, we told the young lady that it was unacceptable for us to be expected to walk up and down the stairs multiple times a day for a week and we expected a new room. She rolled her eyes at us and sighed heavily. She told us that if we had problems to call the front desk as she could do nothing to help us.

The brochure promised certain amenities for the honeymoon package and we received none of the amenities. One such amenity we were promised was rose petals on the bed, which would have been very nice, never happened. Another amenity which is discussed in detail later is the "personal butler" service. Third, was the premium liquor in our rooms, which we requested Crown Royal before our arrival. Upon arrival to our final room, we asked where the Crown Royal could be found and were told that it would take 24 hours to get it to our room. Why would I request something weeks before arrival only to find it was going to take an additional 24 hours to arrive? Lastly, they promised breakfast in bed one morning and that never happened.

I called the front desk and was informed that the resort was at full capacity but they would see what they could do. After looking out my balcony around the resort, all I could see was about 50 visitors to the resort, a far cry from "full capacity". An hour and forty five minutes after being taken to our first Bay house, we were greeted by a gentleman who took us to our next bay house and into our room, this time with a working elevator. To this point no one had acknowledged us being on a honeymoon as it had been noted and we had seen other couples welcomed to the resort for their honeymoon.

Upon being moved to our new room, the employee who escorted us into the room asked me, "Where are your bags?" I replied to him that last time I saw my bags over 3 hours ago they were being tossed from a taxi onto the curb and no one had brought them to me or called to inform me where they were located. About an hour after this conversation, I met my "butler" and finally was given my bags. During all of this my wife and I had missed the manager's reception and introduction of all the couples. We were extremely disappointed by this but were very thankful to finally have a room and our luggage.

The following day at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon, we decided to go have a drink before dinner at The Drunk Duck Pub. We went in and were greeted by Rashaun the bartender at the time. After two drinks, my wife decided to visit the restroom. Upon her leaving the bar, Rashaun, exited the bar and headed towards the restroom as well. Shortly thereafter, I left as well. When I returned to the bar, my wife informed me that RaShaun had tried to enter restroom with her and was outside the ladies room leaning on the wall waiting for her. This infuriated me and my wife and we tried to call Brandon ** at the resort with guest services and he told us he was busy and would call back. We never heard back from him that evening.

Later that same afternoon, we went back to our room and went to sleep. Between 1:45 am and 6:45 am that night, a person used a room key to open the door our room and the only thing that kept them out was the fact that we had latched the door, therefore they could not enter the room with us. The person who did this each time exited the door nearest our room and went in the service entrance near the door. I got up each time and had to close the door fully. We reported this to Brandon L. the following morning and he never had a response for anything and was finally contacted by the general manager, whom we gave a statement to over the phone and were promised that security would look into the matter and we would be contacted. We were never contacted. The general manager also told us that we would be contacted on Saturday, July 31, 2010 before we left on Sunday for a statement and some more information and were never contacted.

On Sunday, August 1, 2010, we went to the desk and were told that the general manager was not on the premises but they got Mr. Florian S., the assistant manager. The general manager who had promised us a meeting had actually gone to Miami on Friday for a trip he had planned. We sat down with Mr. S. and gave him all of the details and he was the first person to request an incident report from us as Brandon and the general manager never informed us of this or offered it to us. Mr. S. was very cordial, helpful and apologetic. He told us he would investigate the matter and get back to us. We gave him all of the information he requested from us and promised us that he would get back with us.

I was and still remain very disappointed with the Sandals Resort. I will not be returning and will inform everyone I know and speak to for as long as I can that the resort is unacceptable and that the literature they distribute pertaining to their properties is very misleading. A personal butler does not work for 10 other couples and is more accessible than our butler. We called him numerous times and our calls were not returned. The website states that the butler will unpack your bags and press your outfits, none of which ever happened or was ever offered.

I guess we shouldn't expect very much from a place that doesn't trust their employees enough to let them handle any kind of monetary exchange. That is why everything has to be charged to the room and put on a credit card. You, as a major corporation, don't trust your employees enough to let them handle cash but you expect me to trust them with my credit card information.

I could not believe an employee was telling a patron this information. The employees of this resort have no sense of urgency when a request is made by a customer. If we treated customers that way at our job, we would be unemployed. I understand that most island people are not in a hurry to do much of anything but when they are working in a customer service industry, they should at least make it appear as though they give a damn. My main issue relates to the way our complaints with the bartender and security of our room was handled. Brandon L. blew us off on two occasions and took his time in getting back to us on what I consider very serious incidents.

The food at best was mediocre. There was no "local" flair to the food as we expected and the Il Cielo restaurant was a huge disappointment as the fish was cold and undercooked. We had a candlelight dinner on the beach and were given a menu two days before our dinner was scheduled. My wife ordered the lobster, which we were told 4 hours before the dinner was not available. She was offered crab legs as a substitute. They were brought out with the rest of our dinner and everything was cold. Our food from room service was half-served. We ordered two sandwiches and got one about forty-five minutes later without the chips, then thirty minutes after that we got the other sandwich that was missing the seasoned fries.

Both sandwiches were horrible in taste and appearance. The Club sandwich had mayonnaise on it and felt like it had been under the heat lamp for a long period of time. The best food on the beach was pizza of all things. I found the Sandals Resort to be very disappointing. There is no mention on your website that the restaurants on the beach are very limited in their serving times or the attire you must wear. At Il Cielo, you are expected to dress up as if you are going to a 4 star restaurant. Who in their right mind brings such clothing to a beach resort?

My wife and I got on a Sandals Sailboat with a Sandals employee since neither of us had ever operated a sailboat. The mast cracked at the base and hit me in jaw. We were stranded about 250 yards from the shore straight out from the office on the beach and rescue boat and it still took 30 minutes for someone to notice that we were stranded. The Sandals Resort Great Exhuma location was a horrible experience, and I hope to never repeat it for as long as I should live. I could have expected some of the things we experienced had I booked a room at a cheaper than dirt hotel but this was far from what I expected at what I was told to be a top-notch four star resort. Thank you for your time.

On 07/01/2010, when I went online to pay the remaining balance due, I was informed prices had decreased as their was a promotion for a 60% savings and therefore only required to pay a remaining balance of $2292.40, which a full payment was made at that time. I received hotel booking and air travel information along with a confirmation number and airline PNR, as well as a print out receipt which clearly stated the "reservation has already been paid in full." On the date of when we were to depart, three hours prior to the departure time, my husband and I were informed by an American Airlines agent that no airline tickets were reserved but instead had been cancelled by the travel agency (Unique Vacations at Sandals).

When I contacted the Sandals.com customer service to inquire about this error and spoke with the Reservation agent, Crystal ***, she informed me that the flight reservations had been cancelled due to lack of payment. When I informed her that payments were made and confirmation print outs of receipts had been obtained, including confirmation numbers and Airfare PNR, which clearly stated that reservation was paid in full, she stated that airfare was never paid for.

I informed her that at no time had Sandals notified me of any pending balance due nor of any flight reservations having been cancelled. She stated that because the package was purchased online, they did not deal with it and so we were responsible for any changes. I informed her that I had checked my reservation via their website on several occasions, including the night before 07/6/2010, just to ensure all was fine and still no information related to a such cancellation had been reported. When I tried to access my reservation online while on the phone with the Sandals Customer Representative, my reservation was no longer accessible and unable to be located.

Upon further discussion and seeing that I was getting nowhere I asked to speak to a higher up, a supervisor who I was hoping would be able to better serve me. I was told to contact the online number as the reservation was done online as they did not deal with online reservations. When I inquired if the Sandals.com was not one and the same as the Sandals resort, I was informed that they were not. I again repeated the question and asked it they had any affiliation with the Sandals Resort and again was told that I had to contact Sandals via online to address my concerns. Since I refused to believe this, I informed the agent that I would be submitting a complaint to Consumer Affairs, write a letter to the President of the company and if need be take them to litigation, which she quickly changed her tune and transferred me to the Reservation Supervisor, Lauren ***.

Ms. *** stated it was not unusual that this type of error occurred as this was not the first time she had dealt with this. Since it had occurred before, I asked how was this resolved, at which time she quickly changed what she previously stated, informing me that it was an error on our part and that we should look more closely at our paperwork. Upon informing her that I had the paperwork in front of me, along with the print out of my reservation and the payments made and that nowhere on the paperwork did it state that the payments made were only for the hotel room and not inclusive of airfare, how are people to know of any cancellations made by their travel agency.

She once again stated it was our responsibility and should have received the notification at the time we made the payment. She also stated Sandals would not compensate us for any additional travel costs and therefore we would have to be responsible for obtaining our own air travel reservations to keep the package and hotel room for the dates of 07/27 -- 08/04/2010.

She also, suggested we purchase additional tickets and write to the company to see if we would be reimbursed but did not provide any time of assurance that this would occur. Upon informing her that it was too late for us to reserve a last minute flight from Los Angeles, CA (USA) to St. Lucia (Caribbean) this same evening, we would have to move our hotel room reservation dates by one day out (07/28 - 08/05/2010) as we would have to travel the next day as there were no longer any flights available to get us from Los Angeles to St. Lucia, LC. Ms. *** then proceeded to informed me that that would not be possible as they did not have the original room or a similar one available on the last day of our vacation, 08/05/2010. What they did have available instead, was another room at a higher price, which required a minimum two-night stay to be purchased.

Due to the fact that both my husband and I had already requested time off from work and had made arrangements to be on our honeymoon, as well as our frustrations were running high, we had no other choice but to pay the additional costs $168 to reserve the hotel room, in addition to the airline costs of $1318.80 which should have been part of the initial package purchased. In total we ended up paying $461.08 more than expected and had spent 3 hrs online researching and making our own roundtrip travel arrangements which would somewhat fit into the itinerary initially planned so as not to loose more days of our vacation.

The food was horrible in that Pub restaurant then the host which was management in the Barefoot was so rude to me. When I had gotten back to the room, I called and complained to the property manager. I don't think anything was done. Then I called room service to our room. We had a butler. But you didn't get your food until hours literally hours later. One evening, I had to send my husband because it was raining out to get me some food. Butler never showed until after he was back which took two hours. It was a mess and not worth the money at all. There was so much more to tell. It was crazy. Then when I called front desk about the butler, he argued with me. I was very surprised.

The tour desk said it was booked by a 3rd party co. that does the registries, so they could not issue the credits back to us. ($150 was "more fun on your Honeymoon credits, and $8 on my visa. They told us and our Butler repeatedly that they would issue a credit back to my Visa for the full amount, and to book a cruise we wanted to take (that left right from the resort) with our Visa, there was no other way, so they said. This was on 05/12, we were told this. I phoned the person that had called and booked all our registry trips for Sandals (Jerry) on 5/19 and he said he would call the resort and call back as a courtesy to me. They keep pointing the finger at each other saying the other one has to issue the credit, but no credit gets issued! He called back and said they told him it had been issued? I called my Visa co. on 5/26, still no credit!

This was our 1st trip with Sandals and we had planned on returning but if this credit is not given to us, we will not, and will be forced to go on all the Wedding web sites and inform and warn potential Honeymooners to not go to Sandals. They would not issue a credit to us while we were there on account, even though that is where $150 of the $158 came from, forced us to charge more on our Credit card for the replacement trip ($170) and then never fulfilled their word by posting the credit we are owed back to us. Is this how Sandals treats their customers? I assure you we will not let this issue drop until we are issued this credit.

Obvious economic hardship, lots of time spent pursuing our refund owed, stress!

When we arrived at Beaches Turks and Caicos: Three Couples in front of us received room upgrades. when it was our turn we did not. when questions, the staff said sorry you are not eligible. Our room was not cleaned three to four nights that we where at the resort. Things where stolen from our room, clothing, shoes.

Club Liquid served alcohol to three girls that were underage. No cards where requested for age. They were directed to say nothing. We spent four nights searching for our kids till 4:00 a.m. since they were given drinks at Club Liquid at Beaches Turks and Caicos. It was awful. We found them with a group of kids that were served and their was no security on the resort.

When I addressed these issues, we were called a liar. We where given bogus e-mail addresses. Do you realize it took me 5 months to get a valid e-mail to address these problems. When I did address the problems, they told me I didn't address them when I was at the resort. That is an outright lie. I did address these problems and told they would be taken care of. We went through 4 hellish nights on our vacation and that is not acceptable for a resort that advertises they are a family resort.

I have requested a 4 night free stay or a full refund. They came back with a one night free stay with a free dinner since everything is free, where do they take responsibility. This is not acceptable for a business who says they are a family resort. I have been told that everything has been addressed but where does that leave us? A miserable vacation and nothing else.

I want this situation addressed. I want them to take responsibility for our vacation. I want a 4 night free stay or a full refund. It doesn't matter how big the company is. They need to take responsibility. Give me the four nights, so I can post that they are a "Family Resort". Please let me know that you have received this e-mail that you can help me.

Meanwhile, we had to chase down the maid to get the room made up three times during our stay. When the second day arrived, we looked at the new room and it was better so we definitely took the room. It took a half hour to get the key to the new room and three hours to get our bags out from the old room to the new room--a total of three and a half hours wasted time on our vacation. When we went to breakfast, people were standing with plates in their hands waiting for a waitress to get off their cell phones to clean the messy table that were no longer in use.

One night, we went to dinner. When we got our plates, my husband had to get up after waiting for 15 minutes to get some silverware while three waitresses stood there talking together. The service was terrible all week long. Most workers did not even crack a smile that we did not feel welcome. During the day and night throughout the resort, we would see old cups from other guests. We did not know if the tables or beach chairs were taken because of all the cups that were left there and dirty towels that no one bothered to pick up. It was by far the worst experience we ever had on vacation. It is criminal to call it a five star resort. It was a big waste of money.

My husband and I recently returned from a vacation at the Royal Bahamian resort in Nassau, Bahamas. Notwithstanding the weather conditions which clearly cannot be attributable to Sandals, we encountered the absolute worst service and vacation experience of our adult lives. It was incredibly disappointing as we are Sandals Select members who have vacationed twice at Sandals St. Lucia (which were awesome) and had the intent of trying to hit all Sandals and Beaches facilities over the next 15 years. We no longer desire to achieve that goal.

The specific nature of our discontent is as follows. The service was terrible. No doubt about it, the weather was cold. That disappointed the vacationers. The staff at the Royal Bahamian, however, was absolutely miserable because of the cold. The pool bar bartenders were rude, barely spoke and would not walk two feet to get you a drink. It took me 25 minutes to get drinks at the Crikateers Club on the day of our arrival because the bartenders ignored me while watching the Miami Dolphins-Pittsburgh Steelers game. When we arrived in our room (which we paid to upgrade), there was hair and scum in the bath tub and no robes were in the room. We question whether the sheets were new and the refrigerator was unplugged so all the items stocked in it were warm.

Then, for our entire stay, workers were repairing both the roof and the rooms on our floor (the top floor of the Windsor building). If we sat on our balcony to look at the water, we were hit in the head with sander and debris from the roof. Plus, the furniture on our balcony was constantly filthy (no matter how many times we wiped it up) due to the debris falling off the roof. The workers who were doing maintenance work in the rooms on the 6th floor were extremely loud starting around 7:30 or 8:00 every morning (yelling to each other, laughing, etc.). This is our vacation--we wanted to sleep in a bit. If this type of activity was going to occur, you should have placed your guests in other rooms while the work was being performed. These events, coupled with the fact the maids did not clean our room most days until late afternoon (on one occasion it was 5 o'clock), made us question the level of service at the resort.

Other than Baccarat (where the service was lovely for dinner) and Kimonos (where the food and service was wonderful), all other service was beyond sub-par. The staff was rude, unfriendly and lazy. Quite the contrary $300 for incomplete job from our experiences at other Sandals locations.

Most disturbing, however, was the Concierge desk. Whenever we called, they did not answer. In fact, we had to carry our own bags down to the airport shuttle on the day of departure because the bell hop did not show up at the designated time (we waited 20 minutes) and then neither the concierge nor the bell hop would answer their phones.

Even more incredulous was the fact that, on day 2. We decided we wanted to be transferred to Jamaica because the weather was 20 degrees warmer there. The Concierge desk originally told us there were plenty of rooms in Jamaica and they could transfer us, no problem, we would just have to arrange our own air. My husband spent three hours locating suitable air transportation. Then, right before he was ready to book the air, the Concierge called to book our room in Jamaica and told us "they were full" in all Montego Bay. We went back to the room and called the Sandals 1-800 number only to find that yes, Sandals Montego Bay was booked, but the White House and other Sandals facilities in the same general vicinity had availability. By that point, my husband had spent almost the entire afternoon working on the project and was so livid at the lack of assistance by the Concierge people, that he just said forget it--we'll stay here and make the best of it. Unbeknownst to us, we would encounter all these other issues.

In closing, I am taking my precious time to write this email because I too am involved in running a large Company and would want to know about these service issues. If you truly want to retain your reputation, you need to work on these problems. It isn't wasting all this money that is sole reason for our discontent, it is also the time. I have very little time to get away on vacation and very little opportunity to have sitters watch my children while I can go to a couples only resort. To have the only 5 days of the year I take to get away be like this, it is beyond disappointing.

Until you fix the staff and service at this resort, you are going to lose repeat customers such as my husband and I. Also, people like I, with ties to the business world and Conde Neste Traveler, will share our negative experience by word of mouth and publication. Something that any Company in this economic environment cannot afford. I hope you take our complaints seriously and endeavor to fix them for the good of your Company.

The result is that we will never go back to this resort and everyone that we know will know about this horrible experience that we had to endure! We vacation several times a year and have always recommended places that we have been. Unfortunately, this will not make our list. I hope I do not have to begin recommending places not to go!

After about 15 email exchanges and as many phone calls with Orbitz, I finally got Sandals to refund the hotel portion of the booking. But they were washing their hands of the responsibility to pay the airline cancellation penalty. The airline was not refunding the money, but it would allow me to book some other tickets with the funds. But they are also charging a penalty of $150 per head, which Sandals should compensate. Given that they are accepting responsibility for the disruption of my trip, I don't understand how they are justifying this stance. I am cancelling the trip, because Sandals has willfully decided to shut down its resort during my intended stay. So Sandals needs to compensate for the airline cancellation penalty of $150 per head.

We were promised via email in early May that we would receive a partial day credit. The resort claims that they have credited the card that was used to settle our charges at the end of our stay. They claim the credit was applied to a MasterCard ending in 0472. Unfortunately, neither of us own a MasterCard and neither of our credit cards end in 0472. We explained this to the resort via email. They have been unresponsive to my most requests to double check their records.

I also requested additional funds to be credited due to the amount of time, energy, and effort that I continue to put into resolving their mistake as well as the fact that this credit should have been applied almost two months ago. Their unresponsiveness and inability to follow-up is what frustrated us while we were at the resort and the frustration continues to grow after every communication. They need to be held accountable for what they promised. They need to be held accountable for what they have yet to deliver to me. We originally only asked for a 1/2 day credit at the resort, which amounted to a minimal $350. Due to the experience at the resort in St. Lucia after the wedding, their inability to handle their mistakes appropriately while we were there, and their inability to deliver the refund as they promised, and their overall inability to handle concerns appropriately, I am interested in pursuing additional funds/credits from the resort.

Unfortunately, what should have been a amazing trip to Sandals St. Lucia turned into a motel 6-type nightmare at Sandals Ocho Rios. We were originally scheduled on an AA flight from Philadelphia to St. Lucia, with a connection in Miami. Due to mechanical problems with AA in Philadelphia, we missed our connecting flight to St. Lucia by about an hour. According to AA, there was no way for us to get to St. Lucia for two more days. My husband and I were completely distraught. We were stranded at the Miami airport.

I called my travel agent at Liberty Travel practically in tears. How could we lose two days of our honeymoon? My travel agent stated that the only availability for an even trade ($3700) was the Sandals Grande in Ocho Rios Jamaica. We were told these were the exact same accommodations and that this property was just as beautiful. We felt we had few choices at this point so we trusted our travel agent and agreed to change our honeymoon. Once we arrived at the Sandals Resort, we explained our situation to the gentleman that greeted us and gave him our original voucher for the St. Lucia Sandals Resort. This voucher specifically stated that we were celebrating our honeymoon.

Once we were given our introduction to the resort and then given our room key (#**), we made our way to our room. When we arrived at our room, we discovered we were given the wrong key. The cleaning lady was in the next room and heard us having trouble with our key and opened the door to the room for us. Everything about the room was substandard. When we walked into the room, it felt like a sauna. It seemed the air conditioner had been turned off. There was nothing special done for our honeymoon other than a towel on the bed in a heart shape. What a disgrace! I opened the refrigerator only to find that it had been unplugged and there was water all over the floor. To top it all off, there was a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator but it was as hot as the room.

We then walked down to the front desk lobby to return the key and get the correct one. I also asked for a lock for the safety deposit box, which was originally never given to us. I was given the correct key and a lock for the box. When I returned to the room, I realized that there was a lock already in the box and the key that I was given did not fit. So once again, I had to walk down to the lobby and tell the person at the desk the situation. I was told that she would immediately send someone up to our room to fix it. We patiently waited over an hour only for no one to show up so we decided to venture out to the resort to attempt to enjoy our honeymoon.

During our stay we attended the Reggae beach bash and went to the restaurants on the Riviera side. First of all, there were very limited varieties of food and everything had a completely bland taste. I found the majority of the food to be chicken or pork, when I was expecting various types of seafood or something that I would not normally eat at home. While at the Reggae beach bash, I went up to the bar to get two beers, asked the bartender for two beers, and then said, "Can I also have two shots?" The bartender looks at me and simply said no, then walked away. I stood their dumbfounded, thought to myself, isn't this an all-inclusive resort? And I then took my two beers and walked away. I told my husband about the situation and he was far from happy about it. We finished our beers and left the beach bash.

The next morning, my husband and I went to the pool area after breakfast and were relaxing. I wanted to have a hummingbird drink as it was already getting hot out. The bartender was behind the bar and had been for the past half hour. When I asked for the drink, she replied to me in a nasty tone, "The bar doesn't open until 10:00." Now, if I remember correctly once again I was told that I could not have a drink at an all inclusive resort! What if I wanted a Bloody Mary or Mimosa with my breakfast? I think that is ridiculous that this was the second time that I was told that I could not have a drink. Again, not what I paid for or expected. This was by far the worst service I have ever received anywhere.

The resort in itself was average but to be honest, I would not recommend this resort to anyone after the stay that we had. And after speaking with other couples, it seems that what we paid was simple highway robbery. One couple told me that they spent $3200 and got their own pool, which they shared with the couple who stayed in the next room. They also stated that they had a couch and a mini kitchen included in their room. Obviously, we did not receive the vacation that we paid for. At the very least, I expected good service and to be able to drink whenever I wanted to. We also found it hard to find places to hang out. We were never given any type of itinerary to let you know what was going on in the resort and where. We had to constantly ask other people what they were doing for that evening. The past resorts that I have stayed at have always slipped some type of paper under our door to tell us what was going on and what time different events were happening. The entire trip, we had no clue what was happening and had to rely on other guests. It wasn't until the last day that we realized that near the photo shop that there was a billboard with everything posted on it. It would have been nice if someone from the staff had shared that information with us.

Speaking of the photo shop, while looking at our photos taken from the paparazzi, we narrowed it down to about five photos that we really liked. I wanted one 8x10 and four 5x7. They all looked like I printed them out on my computer at home. Each 5x7 was $16. Ridiculous. I gave them back to the girl and told her that I was not paying for the quality of those pictures. I asked her to put the pictures on a disk and that I would print them out at home if that was the quality I was going to receive. Our honeymoon with Sandals was flat out terrible. I am not sure what was worse, the room, the service or the food. They were all unacceptable. I am requesting a representative contact me immediately regarding my Sandals experience.

i asked sandals can we get free room service all i keep hearing is We can't do that. I ask can you offer us something because now the rest of our honeymoon( 3 days) is destroyed we have a 9k room with a pool we can no longer use. On top of that we had to keep calling to get our in room bar refilled and we only had 2 rolls of toliet paper i ask many time to get toliet paper but the bathroom had none we used nose tissue.

Another thing we pre-paid for two spa treatments at sandals we did one on 6/2/2008 that was fine, we had one more on 6/6/2008 but my wife got bit by the horse 6/5/2008 so i called the spa around 7 - 8am 6/6/2008 telling them we have a pre-paid spa treatment we can no longer go to my wife got bit by a horse, they told us you can't get a refund only store credit. We told them we don't need store products we got some on 6/2/2008 they said you have to take the store credit or lose it. So we took the 5 items and they total came out to be $222.50 i asked were is the other $17.50 they said we don't carry anything under $20 you would have to pay $2.50 to get the rest of your credit.

The entire time i keep asking who has the power to do something to help us (refunds) they keep saying the samething we can't do that. I even told them how my wife was doing ( she keeps crying becuase our honeymoon was messed up and sandals was making it worst).

Now for the horseback tour guide the online sandals tours said the 4hour horseback with BBQ cost $80 per person when we got to sandals it cost $180 per person, ok we still booked the tour in the middle of the tour the horse bit my wifes leg i told the tour group can we get a discount or half off because after my wife got bit we took the car back to the ranch. She said came back tomorrow before you check out (check out is 11am, tours office open at 7am) and i'll see what i can do, check out day i waited at the tour desk from 7:15am - 10:45am no one showed up.

Final bill time the spa charged us $222.50 on our final bill even though we had paid $240 for a couples spa treatment but since my wife got hurt we told them we can't do it anymore they said you can't get a refund only spa store credit, and we had to fight with them to get the extra $222.50 removed from our bill (the resort will not let you check out till you pay your bill in full) and this charge was not getting removed from our bill.

Now we are back in NYC and our doctor and insureance will not cover the cost for the horse bite (no x-rays, treating the wound or any surgery she may need). I would like to know what sandals is going to do to help us, before we start talking to legal council and news stations. Because we did have fun from 6/1/2008 - 6/4/2008.

We are back in NYC and my wife still has major pain and can't walk. We have a picture of the horse biting my wifes leg if you would like a copy i can e-mail it to you. We got a e-mail 6/20/2008 from sandals telling us it was our fault and we were instructed not to bring a camera on the horse (we were not our digial camera was on my wrist) and that I was taking photos on the horse in the water that is why the horse bit my wife's leg, we were in the water alone and our horses just stop moving the horse guide was with two other guest in the water(Which is a lie we have a digital camera which makes no sound,only one photo was taken when my horse turned left to bite my wife's leg) and that they will do nothing about it.

We contacted Sandals to ask for some money back from our $9k honeymoon hell or at least some Sandals credit if we want to go back to sandals. Sandals turned us down and blamed us for my wife's injury. 6/23/2008 my wife still can barely move her leg, it's till black and blue with horse teeth marks. She still has leg pain. We would not be so mad if Sandals just e-mail or called us to say you can't get your money back from the horse bite because we can't control the horse, that would be fine but we had to keep calling and e-mailing them just to get someone to contact us.

And then they blame us for the horse bite and lie about the $240 we paid. This honeymoon cost over nine thousand dollars and Sandals would not even give us back $240 and forced us to get $242 (yes they made us pay a extra $2.00 in cash) for products we did not want. We would have been happy with 3 days of sandals credit or refund (that is when my wife got hurt) and the $240 refund.

My wife left leg is all black and blue, she has a limp and 24 hour pain. She still cries about the horse bite and the ruined honeymoon.

Thirty minutes went by with her doing nothing other than checking in other Sandals guests. I asked her to help and she told me to wait. I went to another Sandals employee who agreed to call Sandals. After 45 minutes she informed us that our travel agent had cancelled our reservation! I was already talking to the agent who insisted that of course they had not cancelled anything. We said no problem just get us to the resort and we will take a different room. We were told the hotel was completely booked along with the 2 other Sandals properties in Montego Bay.

At this point my wife began to cry. We wasted over 2 1/2 hours to find out that Sandals had screwed up and was willing to do absolutely nothing about it. I started going from hospitality desk to desk to find another resort who would accommodate us. A very nice lady at the Half Moon told us they were booked but she called and found us a room at the Rose Hall Resort & Country Club. This woman even walked us outside and put us in a taxi. Meanwhile the Sandals reps just continued to check arriving passengers in and never offered any assistance. I have been told by a few people in the travel business that Sandals has a reputation for this kind of thing. If they overbook, they simply drop people.

Since arriving back home I have been completely unable to get anyone at Sandals or Unique Vacations to give me a straight answer or to even apologize. I will never choose a Sandals trip. For what it's worth, The Rose Hall was really nice!!

Since returning home I have been told by each person at Unique Vacations that this type of thing is handled by another department. They claim that a computer error caused our reservation to be cancelled. We had to pay $1,600 more to stay at a different resort due mostly to the fact that we were booking same day. I expected Sandals to reimburse us or at the very least offer a new 4 night trip at their expense. They have done nothing other than hope I will go away.

When we returned to our room at 9 pm and realized our luggage was not there, it felt like a cruel joke. The night staff said there was a mistake, that customs did not clear any luggage. The next day, we met with Mr. Dupal. He was unsympathetic, and when we expressed our frustrations, he kicked us out! He said to me and my husband, Get out of my office, leave the resort!! We felt stranded, helpless, mistreated, and still without our luggage. He insisted it was in the property, but it was nowhere to be found.

It finally came at 2 pm, but who could continue with this vacation? We left the next day as there were no flights until then. Mr. Dupal treated us very badly, and ruined our vacation. This was our wedding anniversary!

We were unable to use 2 days of the vacation package. We had to find another place to stay, and transportation to get there. We lost vacation days that were wasted on this disaster.

When I complained to the Sandals headquarters, I received a reply from the General Manager of the Regency Resort saying maybe I enjoyed some of their ammenities and they would be happy to have us back at one of their properties. I don't think so. I would be stupid to return to any Sandals, based on our experience.

We paid $1265.00 per day, not including air fare. We wanted the vacation to be exceptional, and to be truthful, it was not even close to below average. I would not recommend Sandals to anyone expecting a quality experience. They, Sandals, over state the qualiy of their operations and the promotional material they publish is simply not what you get at their resorts.

The airport transfer van did not have working air conditioning and the couple that shared our ride were from South Carolina -- the heat in the van was too much for the husband and he just passed out . We finally arrived at the resort and were seated in the lobby and presented with a release form with our name on it to sign stating that as you have previously informed by your agent that the property is not finished, we will give you 2 free days to be used now or at a later date. We did not sign, we had not been informed,and when we asked what was not finished we were told you will see.

The list is long -- no lights on any outside buildings just bare electrical wires hanging down, not a cuishion on any seat in any restaurant on the property, no chairs in the piano bar for the first 2 days then cheap white plastic after that.Hot tub would not hold water passed 18 inches , the fountains were not running but full of green mould smelly water, no sinks in the public bathroom, the nightclub was still being mudded drywall stage, no xbox gamesroom just wires in a room , only one of the shops were open and that was sparse.

No fish in the restaurants -- they ran out of fish on an island.

The shrimp appetizer was supposed to be warm, it was a blackened dish, it was cold. The food did not appear to be cooked there, it was sitting under heat lamps. At that point we decided to choose our entrée on a meat that had to be cooked there to our liking.

Our room also seemed to have fleas in it, every morning we awoke with more bites. There was mold in the bathtub. Crown molding was not intact in the bathroom and bedroom. Just simple maintenance. The toilet overflowed for no reason, just flushed. After they fixed the toilet, I don't think housekeeping mopped the floor. We were in a deluxe suite and it was far from deluxe. None of the fruit was fresh. From pineapple in the drinks to breakfast strawberries, mangoes, tomatoes in the salad.

I sent back multiple glasses of water. Each time they were poured there were things floating in it. I requested bottled water but they said there was none available. The food in Spices (buffet) the hot food was cold and the cold food was warm--- honey mustard chicken was cold, the fruit when I tried was warm, the salads were warm, french toast was cold. So we again got things made to order -- pancakes for breakfast. We even left our lunch after preparing our plates and went to the poolside grill to have a made to order lunch.

The presentation however at every meal was just beautiful. The employees were very pleasant. The food and service at the poolside grill was really good and the meals we had at Kimono's and The Crystal Room were fabulous. The equipment for sailing was old and was not maintained. We had a flight scheduled out yesterday (3/20) at 9 am. We called to inquire about transfer on 3/19 about 4 pm, my husband was told we would have instructions under our door after 9 pm. We happened to go back by the room at 8 after dinner and the information was there--stating we had to be down in the lobby by 6 am for our transfer. We called to try and get a later time for transfer, but that was not an option. We then called the concierge regarding room service because our room service menu stated breakfast served only between 8 & 10.

Concierge stated we needed to go down to the pub and have them round us up some fruit and/or cereal. We did this and the server at the pub said no you need to do it through room service. So back to the room to place the order--my husband had to talk to numerous people on the phone to get room service at that time of the morning. The last thing stated to him was they would try to make it happen. To our surprise they showed up at 5:15 am. Then we were waiting at the airport and spoke with other guest of Sandals that were on the same flight. They did not have to leave the hotel until 7. Needless to say we are very unhappy with Sandals and our time there, this was our first all inclusive vacation.

Loss of 5 days of work, doctor bills, thought I was going to die.

As a matter of fact AA vacations and Sandals assured me, and I quote, that “Antigua Sandals Resort has been voted one of the most modern and romantic resorts in the Caribbean”. After having visited the web site of Sandals Antigua, I noticed pictures of their restaurants, bars, and buffet of fresh tropical and exotic fruits. After all the promises and representations made my husband and I decided to TRUST AA vacation / Sandals and booked the trip for which we paid over $3000.00 only for the hotel and used about 100,000 of our advantage miles that we had accumulated over the past 10 years with our hard earned money.

From the minute we arrived at Antigua airport one disappointment, and disgust, followed another. We have NEVER been this disappointed with a vacation. We had worked double jobs all year round to earn enough money to take a vacation that was promised to be absolute paradise with the best food and freshest fruits ever. Well our experience of Sandals was 100% opposite what we expected it to be:

1. As we arrived in the airport there were no representatives from AA or Sandals to greet us. We had to wait till we exited the airport, only to be approached, not greeted, by a rode obnoxious lady that was not even willing to say a simple thing as “Hello”. She told us to wait by the curb till she tells us what to do next. At that moment my disgust and hatred for American Airlines and Sandals began. How dare do they assign rode and obnoxious people to be around me while I am in the midst of beginning my supposed “paradise vacation”

2. We wait, wait, and wait for a cab to take us to the resort. Finally after 20 minutes in the heat a van comes to pick us up. This van was too dirty, disgusting that I can’t even find the words to describe it. First, the car didn’t contain AC system. The windows were broken, and the car was unmarked and unidentified. Second, the car was in such a bad condition that at every curb my husband and I feared for our lives of us being drooped from a cliff due to the fact that the car was in such bad conditions. It looked like someone had just picked it up from the dumpster and brought it to us for pick up.

3. Finally, after that nightmare ride we arrive at the resort. No one came to assist us with our bags. We had to remove the bag ourselves from the van. Finally after 5 minutes one person came to us and asked what we needed. What we needed? Are you blind? Didn’t you just see us arrive! They tell us to have a seat and that they would be with us soon. At that point it was 3 pm. We sit for about 30 minutes. No one comes to approach us, or ask us anything. I get up to approach someone and ask of when we can get to our room. Then they tell us that our room is not ready.

We have traveled for hours in this heat. Check out is at 11 why would it take them 4 hours to clean a room? They told us to relax and get a bite to eat. He points us to where we can get something to eat. You would think he would walk us there or let us know what time we can expect to check in or anything within that nature. But nothing was done. We go to this dive, disgusting looking bistro in which we had a choice of Hamburger, Chicken burger, fries and nachos, since they are out of everything else. This place was so disgusting to say the least. There were flies all over us, and our food. It was enough to make you want to vomit whatever was in your stomach. The drinks tasted horrible. They tasted like poison. They only had one local beer that one could have and their soda tasted like paint that you purchase in a store. My husband and I were so disgusted, to say the least, that we couldn’t even eat anything.

4. At around 4:30, and after me asking them about 10 times, they tell us that our room is ready. As they walk us to out room we can see that we have been placed in the worst area of the resort, besides the promises that were made by AA. My disgust grew bigger and bigger. As we are walking toward our room, the path way smelled like dead cats. To which it was not surprising after noticing that they had wild unclean cats running around the resort constantly. Frankly the last thing my husband and I wanted was to be bitten by a sick animal.

5. We were given room number 518, which was located in the back end of the resort. We were located on the second floor, walk up, that faced a back alley and the back of the fenced tennis court. It was disgusting. As we walked into our room we immediately realized that it was deadly hot and humid. Everything in that room was 20 years old. The floors were disgusting and the bathroom and the sinks were crawling with armies of red and black ants. We were scared to even use the toilet not knowing what would crawl up in us. The bathrooms and the room had no windows that one could close. They were shutters instead of windows. The room was VERY dark with no light coming in. The lucks on the door and the patio were not working. We felt extremely unsafe and scared without any sort of protections.

I immediately contacted front desk only to be told that there is nothing they could do for us that night. And that we would have to wait to the next morning to call the front desk at 8 am, even though no rooms would be available for check in till 11. I frankly didn’t understand why I would have to get up so early to switch to a room that would not even be ready till noon. That night was the worst night my husband and I ever experienced. The AC was not working. Even after placing a call regarding the problem with the AC nothing was solved. That night we could not even sleep for a minute. As we would lie on the bed suffering in heat the lights went out. No call was made to our room to let us know why this happened. We were left without any electricity for hours at a time.

The next day, only after asking them, they tell us this is something very common that occurs in Antigua. Frankly that is information that should have been provided with from AA vacations.

6. The next morning we wake up at 8 am only to be told that they couldn’t do anything for us till noon. We were furious. All this time I wanted to call AA vacation to put my husband and me back on a flight to NY, but AA vacation failed to let us know that we can’t use any phone cards in Antigua and all calls regardless of destination will cost us $14.50. This is absolutely absurd and unacceptable. I am disgusted by AA vacations.

7. At 10 am we approach the front desk to inquire about our room change. We go to the front desk only to find out that there were no managers on site till 1 pm and that no one could help up. Yet again another problem, another misrepresentation. Only by standing at the front desk for 20 minutes and raising my voice they finally decide to send us to a supervisor. Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of the gentleman. He took us to his office to give us some additional bad news. The better rooms were not available and he really couldn’t move us to another room any better than what we were in.

We became very outraged and no longer experienced gratification as portrayed on the web page. Nothing was as shown except the nature.

1. When we checked in, the room was not cleaned, we were initially checked into room 2222 in the Dutch village. We were then checked into room 3232 in the French side and our bed linens were never changed, there was a full hand print on the mirror in our room when we checked in that was still there when we checked out, the room was only swept, the towels were changed and the bed was made. Staff entered our room even when we would put the do not disturb sign on the door, including the wedding coordinator. We know this because they would leave stuff there, turn on the radio to a high volume and turn up the thermostat to 80.

2. Whenever we tried to eat dinner it would take us 3 to 4 hours to finish with 70% of the time just waiting for someone to serve us

3. My wedding started late, starting at about 3:30pm, we were just waiting around for the coordinator

4. We selected a song to walk down the aisle (Spend My Life With You by Tamia and Eric Benet) and it skipped several times throughout the beginning and end of the ceremony

5. The pictures that were taken were not very polished/professional quality and in fact are exactly the same as what my guests took with their digital cameras

6. My sister had an accident immediately following our wedding waiting for them to setup for our reception due to the rain and it was clear there was no emergency plans in place, thus the reception was cancelled

7. We had to depart at 6am and went to get breakfast from the grill that was listed on our brochures to close at 6am but they were closed at 5:30am thus we could not get a full breakfast before our trip to St Lucia which took us an entire day due to delays and cancellations from Air Jamaica to St Lucia

8. We have not received the video of our wedding and when I called to speak with the wedding coordinator she informed me that our tape got damaged and they are trying to fix it and she would get back to me and I still haven't heard anything and I can't get in touch with her.

15 hours prior to departure we were again contacted by our agent and asked if we would divert to Ocho Rios instead. We declined. When we arrived at the airport in Jamaica we were taken to the Sandals Ocho Rios resort (not as desireable a location) without choice, even though we protested and debated. Sandals reps here told us that no one was staying at the Whitehouse facility since it was not complete. (There were a total of 12 in our group)

This was booked through Apple vacations who were no help at all. Apple representatives told us they were dealing with all types of Sandals complaints in this time period. They could not make arrangements to move us. Sandals management at the hotel could not do anything for us either. We requested to be flown back home and given a refund; they could do nothing.

We were housed in villas far from the ocean and the main resort when in fact we had booked oceanfront rooms. We asked and called every day of the week to no avail. On arrival back at the Jamaica airport we met many couples who had indeed stayed at the Whitehouse resort, hence, we were told untruths. During our stay we wrote surveys and letters to Sandals; upon arrival back home we wrote to Sandals and Apple through our travel agent and have not had as much as a personal acknowledgement or apology. We consider this to be a bait and switch type of arrangement. Sandals has no right to send you wherever they want when you have paid, in advance for something else. Apple Vacations must be held responsible also as they represent and book Sandals Resorts.

A week later my card was charged for the trip, noticing this I called Sandals who, after repeatedly putting me on hold, informed me that I was in the penalty phase and if I cancelled now I wouldn't get ANY money back. I explained the circumstances around my reservation and how I shouldn't have been charged in the first place and I was told your credit card information got to us somehow in a rather sarcastic tone. I will never consider Sandals as a vacation spot again.

I am currently fighting with my credit card company and Sandals to get my $4,000 returned to me. They are checking the taped phone call to see if i'm telling the truth. Ridiculous!!