I have waited a while before writing my review, I wanted it to be fair and balanced. It really is a difficult one because I so wanted it to be good, in part it is, but it is also quite the reverse.
It is a place of contradictions, the good, the bad and the ugly!
I will work through my experience, it is an honest account of our time there.
We arrived after a long flight, taxi driver left luggage on pathway, expected help from staff with moving it, no help at all moving bags, offhand receptionist, no details of resort given but I do know all about her medical problems! We moved our bags to the buggy and off we went, info given as we went past places but quite quick so not much went in. Looked like a very beautiful place, great views and a lovely rainbow! So shrugged off the ordinary welcome!
We were shown the room, a hillside garden view bungalow. Looked very pretty, from the outside! It was not good inside. Buggy already left so could not ask questions, about the lack of view (roofs of restaurants) no water, no coffee, no robes, 1 towel and it was not very clean. See photos. Very disappointing, spent most our first day chasing things that should have been there, queueing to speak to someone so we could start our holiday. I did get very fed up in the 2 weeks we were there of being told to chill, you on Antigua time! I was aware of that as it was our 5th visit to the island, an island we love, but we did need towels, water etc, and the first day was just the beginning of the constant having to go hassle someone for the basics.
Housekeeping only comes every other day, we knew that, but 5 days without seeing a cleaner? More trips to customer service!
Dinner reservations were cancelled (note pushed into doorframe), this was so often it became normal.
Lunchtimes became a joke, the worst was a 2++ hour wait for a burger which we never did get to eat as we left. We had asked at least 6 times what was going on, we are not rude demanding people, we have manners, and were greeted with shrugs and the usual Chill response!
Some staff are wonderful but others clearly have no desire to be there.
The place is being run on minimum staff levels, there are very obvious cost cutting regimes going on. A mini bar full of cold air, nothing in it at all?
However we did have a very decent time, the drinks were nice, the food was, in the main, good. I am curious though as to how staff would bring you a plate which they warn you is very hot, it is so hot it would burn if touched, and yet the food is lukewarm warm??? How do they do that??
It is a very large resort, very attractive with nice pools and 2 beaches, Lovers Beach is much nicer for swimming but Rasta Beach is more peaceful. There are buggies to take you around, we didn't use them much as we like to walk, however we did order one to take us to reception for taxi to Shirley Heights, several phone calls later and well after we should have got the taxi we gave up and walked!
The beach party is great fun, lovely food and music, we really enjoyed it.
We also loved the Wavey Wicket pub, and Kerty is great. We usually ended our evening there. It did get a bit noisy sometimes but guess that's down to too many great cocktails.
If you are a fan of Pickle Ball then you will be very happy, lots of very enthusiastic players there.
Devils Bridge is just a walk from the resort although if you have mobility issues the road is very rough and potholed so probably you would not be able to do it, and would struggle with the resort layout as quite steep in many places with steps and slopes all over.
We had lovely weather, very windy at times but sunny and hot.
We did enjoy our time there and there was a lot of good things but there was just too much that didn't work for us, and some things that were unacceptable. Even when some of the very good staff tried their best to help us and put things right it still fell short, such a shame for such a beautiful place.
I am still so surprised reading some of the reviews on here, I think we must have been in a different place to those reviewers altogether!
