This was our second Sandals experience in the same year (staying at St Vincent’s 11 months before), and I feel it’s important to say that if this had been our first-ever Sandals trip, I genuinely don’t think we would have returned — which is disappointing to admit because we had high expectations.
For a vacation that costs well into five figures, I expected a clean and well-maintained room as a basic standard, and unfortunately that was not our experience. Upon arrival, there were candy wrappers left in one drawer, and another drawer contained chocolate which I’d missed and it ended up staining my T-shirt. The double stool at the end of the bed had dust so thick I could literally write my name in it (no exaggeration), and the white metal safety barrier on the balcony was also covered in thick black dust.
After a long journey from the UK and a few drinks one evening, I became very frustrated with the situation and was drunkenly rude to some of the hotel staff, including a lady called Crishna. I would like to sincerely apologise for my behaviour. To their credit, staff came to the room, saw the condition for themselves, and arranged for it to be deep cleaned the following day. That said, it shouldn’t have required escalation in the first place.
Housekeeping in general was poor throughout our stay. The toilet was not properly cleaned on several days and I found myself having to clean stains myself. We even had faulty furniture and a drawer that would fully open by itself which needed 4 visits to fix. (It was at the foot of the bed and blocked the pathway to the lavatory ). This is not what I expect from a premium all-inclusive resort. Additionally, the block we stayed in only had one functioning lift for most of our two-week stay. When the second lift did occasionally work, it didn’t stop at our floor, meaning we frequently had to use the stairs.
Dining & Service Issues
Our dining experiences were unfortunately very inconsistent:
• Arriving on our first night, we opted to dine at the pub: We waited over 45 minutes for food while others who ordered after us were served first. My soup appetiser was forgotten entirely.
• Room service: We ordered vegetarian nachos but received meat nachos. On another evening, we ordered a vegetarian cheeseboard but again, meat was mixed on the plate with it.
• Sushi restaurant: We clearly ordered one vegetarian and one pescatarian option, yet everything arrived on a single plate, with vegetarian items touching fish, making the vegetarian portion unsuitable to eat where it touched.
• La Plume breakfast: First visit – toast and sides were forgotten. Third visit – toast arrived long after we had finished breakfast, eggs were undercooked, and only one round of toast was brought instead of two. My wife’s sides were also missing.
• Butch’s (second visit): The brisket was so underdone it was tough, full of congealed fat, and couldn’t be cut even with a knife.
• La Plume dinner: The Camembert dipping starter was so undercooked it could not be dipped at all. It also came with brioche instead of the advertised rustic baguette, which wouldn’t work for dipping even if the cheese had been properly cooked. The vegetarian cauliflower steak arrived as broccoli steak instead and was so tough it couldn’t be cut, even after requesting a steak knife. The lamb main was also missing the herb cracker, with no communication about the change.
• Island restaurant: Clearly understaffed with only one server. We waited 30 minutes for a table and another 30 minutes for food, only for the order to be incorrect.
• Food truck: We waited around ten minutes with no one serving before eventually leaving.
Excursions Team – A Real Highlight
One genuinely standout part of the trip was the excursions team. They booked us onto a tour to see the sharks, iguanas, Escobar’s sunken plane, and the swimming pigs. Our original day was unfortunately scuppered due to bad weather, but they proactively rearranged everything for us without any hassle. The lady who helped us was incredible — organised, kind, and genuinely invested in making sure we still had the experience. It ended up being one of the highlights of our holiday.
Facilities & Positives
We visited the private island twice and absolutely loved it — I would wholly recommend it. The gym was also excellent, with lots of equipment and beautiful views. Phil in the Colonial Bar is good fun and a great character, although we didn’t use the bars very often ( we preferred to watch the sunset and have a drink on our balcony).
As with our other Sandals experience, the butler system results in sunbeds being reserved from around 6am, leaving the rest of us with very limited options and essentially the leftovers, which was frustrating. Many of these sunbeds aren’t used until the afternoons or don’t get used at all. At St Vincent’s, it was clearly stated if beds weren’t claimed by 10am, they were available for general use.
Overall
My wife and I did enjoy many aspects of the holiday, which makes the disappointment even greater. However, between the cleanliness issues, poor housekeeping standards, lift problems, and repeated dining errors, the experience fell short of what we expect from a luxury resort.
I won’t rush to book Sandals again, which is unfortunate given how much we wanted to love this stay. As a result, we would likely look to return to Royalton in future, which we have used five times and found far more consistent.
