I would like to start by saying that this is a honest review from us, a couple (age 43 & 36) who had the most amazing wedding day at Sandals Royal but parts of the holiday were extremely disappointing.
Having never visited the Caribbean before, we took advice from friends and our absolutely amazing Independent Travel Agent and Barbados came highly recommended, especially this resort from their personal experiences.
The room: We stayed in a ground floor, South Seas Club Level Junior Palm Suite with Outdoor Tranquility Soaking Tub on our terrace. The room (9132) was close to the Club Lounge but not on the main walkway so it was quiet. We had nice views of the gardens. It was lovely and modern, spacious with plenty of storage (hanging space, drawers & cupboards). Mini fridge was re-stocked daily (beer, wine, brut, soft drinks, juices & water) there is also a kettle, coffee machine with replenished supplies plus a selection of spirits. The bathroom, in particularly the shower was huge!! Nice toiletries are supplied (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, moisturiser & hand soap), plenty of towels plus robes but unfortunately no slippers. Have seen negative reviews about the air con but personally, this wasn’t an issue for us.
The resort: It is massive! You can use the facilities across both the Royal Barbados and Sandals Barbados regardless of which side you book to sleep in. All pools & restaurants are available to all guests. The grounds are really well kept with pretty gardens. The hotels are situated on the beach but the sea is not always accessible due to the conditions but regardless, it looks stunning. We were lucky enough to watch turtles from the beach. Despite the number of restaurants, only 4 of these require a restaurant for dinner. The rest are available as walk-ins. There are two buffet restaurants across the whole resort, one is open for breakfast only and the other the other offers breakfast & lunch. There are also a selection of al la carte restaurants available for both breakfast & lunch.
Service: We unfortunately experienced some poor service in a number of restaurants & bars. Our worst experience was in Portofinos (Italian). We were informed there would be approximately an hour wait so advised to go and have a drink at the bar and they’ll come and collect us once the table is ready, which we were more than happy with. After an hour and 15 minutes, we’d heard nothing so we headed back to the restaurant to where there were a number of empty tables and it soon became clear that they were never going to come and collect us. We were quickly seated and provided with menus, table water and a glass of wine each. After this, it went downhill. After finishing our starters, we were left with our plates meaning we had to clear them ourselves when the mains were brought to us. We asked for more wine which we never got. This left us having to share one glass of water, between us whilst eating our mains. We promptly left the restaurant out of frustration after finishing our food. The positive was, the food was really good. What we found extremely frustrating was that despite this restaurant being a walk in those with butlers still got preferential treatment and were able to queue jump. On a number of occasions, the bars that we used in the evening also offered poor service. Taking a long time to be served, being ignored and allowing queue jumping on a regular basis. But again like the food, never an issue with the quality or variety of drinks and you can ask for anything you want and the staff will make it.
The sunbed situation: Quite frankly, horrendous. Sunbed saving begins at 7am and if you don’t join in with this absolute madness, you cannot get a sunbed around any of the pools, and one particular day we couldn’t even get one on the beach! This issue really does need addressing. On the odd day during our 10 day stay, the pool staff would remove towels from reserved sunbeds from approx 10am. This then caused frustration for those people who eventually arrived to their sunbed after lunch, putting the ‘new’ occupiers in a difficult situation when being confronted. We really didn’t want to join in the ludicrous activity but when we have spent this amount of money on a holiday, we should be able to find somewhere to relax during the days we are on resort.
Activities: We took advantage of the free snorkelling trip offered by Sandals. This does get booked up quickly so I recommend booking when we you arrive to avoid disappointment. We were picked up from the resort and transported to the port (approx 15/20 mins traffic depending) to board the boat. There were approximately 20 people on this trip. A short boat ride to Carlisle Beach (where the shipwrecks are) for a guided snorkelling trip. We were then in the sea for approximately 40/45 minutes. Equipment including life jackets are provided. Whilst there, we went on a paid trip with ‘Captain Larry’ who can be found on the beach. This was $400 USD and we were able to pay by card. The tour was private with a very knowledgeable guide. We were picked up at 9.30am and returned to the hotel about 3.30pm, we did go on a Sunday so didn’t experience traffic but were informed if it was any other day of the week, it can take much longer. We travelled North via the west coast passing through Sandy Lane to the Animal Flower Cave and down the east side of the island with various stop offs to admire the views. We also visited Oistens on Friday evening, this was $40 BBD each way in a taxi, we ate at the famous Pat’s Place and was not disappointed. Although cash is preferred, you can pay card. There is a cash machine situated in the Petrol/Gas station just over the road.
Wedding: We had the most amazing experience at Sandals for our wedding. We chose a beach ceremony followed by our cocktail hour, cake cutting and first dance in the garden. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.
Overall, we won’t return to this particular Sandals but I would like to experience a Sandals hotel on a different island. From talking to other people whilst there, everyone was experiencing what we did with the service and the sunbed frustrations. This made us feel better and confirm that we were not being picky. To us, this was an expensive holiday (appreciate to some people it might not be) but we have experienced much better service elsewhere for a fraction of the cost.
This hasn’t changed my opinion on Barbados and we would return in a heartbeat but now we have been, we would do things differently and probably wouldn’t choose an all inclusive. Barbados is full of amazing beaches that are further up the east coast with calmer water and lots of restaurants, bars and beach clubs.
