Do your research before booking
Dec 15, 2025 Matt B
So, we got to the resort at roughly 6 pm. It had just gotten dark out so really couldn’t see much from the grounds. As we told you we booked what we thought was an Oceanview suite but were a bit surprised when we took the elevator to go down from reception to get to our room. When we did the room walk through, he took us to our balcony which was a…
Read more
So, we got to the resort at roughly 6 pm. It had just gotten dark out so really couldn’t see much from the grounds. As we told you we booked what we thought was an Oceanview suite but were a bit surprised when we took the elevator to go down from reception to get to our room. When we did the room walk through, he took us to our balcony which was a walk out to the garden area. We couldn’t see much so we didn’t think anything of it. The first night we kind of just took it easy so grabbed dinner at the Pub and played a little pool. Issue numbers one and two popped up that night. Prior to heading to bed, we wanted to check out a bar. We went to the Caribbean side to grab a drink. When I went to the bar no drink menu was present. We had just arrived, so I wasn’t sure what kind of cocktails they had. The bar tender looked at me and said “what do you want?” I kind of froze because I didn’t know what all they served. He then asked, “are you having a drink?” so I just ordered something generic it wasn’t busy so I’m not sure why it was so pressing. It almost seemed as if it was an inconvenience, which was a standard theme with food and beverage service throughout. Issue number 2 came up after we went to bed. When the people above us went to bed it was around 1 am. We could hear them dragging chairs across the floor etc. and it just echoed through the room. Thankfully, it only lasted for about 20 min.
We woke up the next morning to see how bad the view was and it was pretty much a view of some trees and some buildings. In addition to that shortly after that we got our first of 5 “wrong room” calls which occurred before 9 am throughout the stay. It was later that day when we realized just how poor the design of the hotel was. Our porch jutted out from the building and just had a pergola covering it. So, when the rooms above us would knock sand off their shoes etc, it just rained down on our chairs. Additionally, when it rained, we had no cover unlike every floor above us did. It was literally the worst of the worst set up for that building.
The first morning was also the morning that I tried to book the restaurants that required reservations. I tried to book these when we first got in but was told to wait till the morning. When I went to the desk at 830 to book, I was told the only thing available was 830-9 pm any night. I asked how someone is supposed to book reservations if they are booked up within 14 hours of arriving. I later started a complaint on their app chat feature which was when we got a call. They had offered us a 7 pm time slot as well as a 530 for another which we took.
That day lunch was our first sign that the food service and food quality would not be what we expected. We ate at Barefoot and ordered lunch. We were sat and 3-4 couples were sat after us. After about 30-35 minutes of waiting all the tables around us got their food. Ours took another 10 min and when it came out it was a bit underwhelming. I got the seafood pasta which was 3 pieces of shrimp and about ½ to a cup of cooked pasta with sauce, no exaggeration. Taste was ok, qty was just super small.
We arrived to our 7 pm dinner reservation at OK Corral. When we arrived, we noticed that it was maybe at 50% occupancy. While we were there it never went above that number. We were seated next to 3 other couples and had 7 empty tables around us. This was perplexing as we could not book this time slot ourselves as it said it was already reserved. Our waitress was completely disengaged. We ordered our drinks through a separate waitress and food times again were super long. Even with only being at 50% occupancy, apps took 35 minutes and main course took an additional 30. The nachos appetizer was served with soft stale chips. My dinner was supposed to come with vegetables. After my food was brought out, I told the waitress that it was supposed to come with vegetables. She rolled her eyes and walked to the bar. She returned shortly with a full-size dinner plate containing 2 pieces of broccoli and a carrot sliver. I was honestly laughable. We finally left around 9 pm. When we got to our room we had no internet whatsoever. We called the desk to ask about it and they said there was nothing they could do till the next morning.
One constant theme throughout was the lack of events or miscommunication of times. Neither the app nor the printed schedule provided by the hotel synched with events occurring. Most nights we ended up playing pool and going to bed.
Day 2 morning came and the IT guy showed up around 9. He realized that the issue was on their end and not ours. So, he worked on the modem in our room for about an hour while we went to the pool. Whatever he did worked for about 2 days until the power blipped shortly at which time we lost internet again and had to wait a day to get the entire modem in the room replaced.
This evening, we ate at Marios and for all accounts it was probably the best place to eat. The only issue this time was my wife ordered a desert. After waiting 15 min I asked the waitress if she could check on it. When the lava cake came out, the cake was still warm, but the ice cream was completely melted into a soup. She still served it and just walked away. We were just like whatever and moved on.
We were gone most of the next day. But when we got back, I ordered a pizza and waited on it. I watched 4 pizzas get ordered after ours. I also watched those people wait at that tables with me and one by one get called up to grab theirs. After all were gone I went up and asked what was going on as I had ordered a simple pepperoni pizza. She said it was coming up next etc. etc. As I was walking off because I was just annoyed, she called my name and said it was ready if I wanted it. I grabbed it and went to the room.
Can’t even remember dinner from this night.
I guess cliff notes from here on.
We ate lunch at the courtyard. Took 45 min for a cheeseburger without cheese, which they scrapped off not sure why, and a cheesesteak. More of the same watching tables get food who sat after us. It was the oddest experience because it was a common occurrence that we started to watch and just laugh about.
The icing on the cake was when we got our bill for check out that evening. We opened it up and had a charge to our room for a cabana on the day that we were gone on an excursion. The charge did occur after I had talked to you early on and you said to say something to the staff which I did. Anyways, when I went up to dispute it the guy opened the book where they mark those things. I could clearly see our room number and then next to it the name (Name). I was like, I am pretty sure my name isn’t (Name). When I looked the name up I found a person who lived in Antigua and more than likely worked at the resort. We got the charge nixed, but it was just dumb to deal with.
To summarize:
- Room was not what we thought we were getting. It was a ground floor with no ocean view and an uncovered porch with no working internet half the time.
- Food and beverage service and quality were both extremely lacking and borderline poor, major major disappointment.
- Could not book reservations for normal dinner times on our own and even then we never saw those restaurants close to capacity.
- The beech was nice along with the pool. With the exception of having someone stop by once every 30 minutes asking if you want your picture taken or if you want to rent a jet ski or book an excursion.
- We stumbled on to one fun evening event. This was by pure luck. The event was similar to something we experienced every night in St Lucia but only occurred once here. The schedules never matched up making it impossible to plan to attend events.
- Hands down, our worst vacation experience. We have no interest in ever visiting a Sandals or Antigua again. They even offered points for the inconvenience, but I declined them.
Hindsight 20/20. We should have done more research. When these issues started to pop up we did some googling and found many recent reviews echoing our experience. Even found one that stated that this Sandals ranked in the bottom 3 for food quality and service. It is what it is and I am glad its over. We had our best meal at the Miami airport at the Corona Beach Bar and Grill. Would definitely recommend checking that out haha.
Read less
