TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Spent 2 weeks at this resort in November. The Good. Beautiful location. Large spacious resort where you never felt crowded. Lovely friendly staff. Tasty food. Excellent breakfast quality and selection. Good lunchtime snack bar. The not so good. We paid top price and expected absolute luxury. We had a Royal Suite, comfortable, wonderful view and good facilities, but with the cleaning cupboard right outside our front door we constantly had the cleaning team interrupting the peace. The room is on the cusp of being ‘tired’. Adults only pool far from luxurious. Service in the Rainbow restaurant atrocious. We only dined there once. Had to wait an hour for starters and couldn’t get any refills on the wine. Chaos and total disorganisation. Dockside’s buffet and this was good, however singer incredibly loud and if you were seated near her you couldn’t hold a conversation. Bar area could do with a revamp. Lighting there not good. Docksiders and Rainbow rotated opening nights effectively cutting down restaurant choice. Eleven Eleven OK. Service average and staff not particularly pleasant. We booked to eat at the paid restaurant and specifically asked about the dress code and reception advised that tailored shorts would be in order. When we arrived we were turned away. A complaint to the Manager was largely ignored. We ate there later in the week and the food and service were incredible, but we had to pay $37 pp. The food and service we received was what we expected to receive across the whole resort as part as our all inclusive package and not as an add on. The most worrying experience, however, was an issue of raw human sewage running into the bay. The issue was dealt with by earth being dumped on the area. This did not stop the seeping continuing and we chose not to swim in the bay for the rest of our stay. Staff didn’t seem bothered about the issue and we were aware that several guests became Ill and can’t help wondering if this is because some were swimming when this sewage was being discharged. A levy of $10 per night for enhanced cleaning made a huge mockery of the resorts attitude towards hygiene. As I stated previously, for the price we paid, this was not the luxury stay that we expected. The management really need to get to grips with the issues highlighted

We stayed from 22nd Nov to 1st Dec 2022. This was our 2nd stay at St James, having stayed in 2019 and loved it, so came again. The first week was disappointing. On arrival we were told the Atlantic facing beach was closed due to seaweed and renovation issues so we were upgraded from a beach front room to a royal suite, which was nice enough but we really love the Atlantic facing beach so a huge let down. The first half of our stay coincided with Thanksgiving which I can only assume was the cause of the poor service we got due to a higher guest count? Long waiting times for drinks (even water) to be served at meals and on one occasion waited nearly an hour having ordered our meal for it to arrive. The second half of our stay was a transformation, service was prompt and friendly just how we remembered it from 2019. The resort itself is lovely and the rooms/suites are very comfortable and well serviced. There were some exceptional staff worth of a mention, who made us feel very valued and provided excellent service, Lewis, Damyon, Judy and Latoya. Will we go again? Maybe... we will see how the reviews progress on here. It really did feel like we were in a different resort on the 2nd week, but I really did miss not having the Atlantic beach and the amazing swimming it offered previously.

Staff 90%of them Attitude (choose another job/career if you can’t figure out you are in the hospitality business) Food 2/5 cafeteria style/ breakfast bacon horrible/ breakfast sausage cold remember this is just breakfast hard to fail breakfast Lunch basic basic basic Dinner 3/5 as long as you don’t go to the buffet Rooms 2/5 dated but not the deal breaker Beaches 2/5 no snorkeling no need to fight for chairs have to walk to get drinks or you maybe lucky to catch the guy on the golf cart serving drinks twice a day Drinks 2/5 beer/wine/ basic mix drinks no typical beach vacation drinks if it’s simple they have it unfortunately no mojitos no mint on this side of the island Taxi drivers have more of a friendly personality I strongly believe a good portion that are leaving 5 star reviews are people who have timeshares there, people who have only been to Cuba just my opinion. I have been to the Royalton in Antigua and it’s a big difference between the two resorts. To end the vacation the resort presented us with a resort fee of $410US nice thought we where at an all inclusive. Staff please don’t respond to me with a generic response not needed.

This is my third visit and each time we come it gets better. We were a little concerned to see some poor reviews and that the Atlantic beach was closed. However, the beach is open and has had extensive work done to repair storm damage. There is still some work in progress but this was not a problem. The work they have done was needed and very tastefully done. Looking forward to seeing the end product next year. Rooms were large and beautifully appointed, plumbing interesting but added to the charm. Food was delicious and every single meal was fabulous. So much selection. As the resort wasn’t full some restaurants rotated opening but always plenty of variety. The staff were just so lovely. They were helpful, friendly and happy. We will be back for sure.

This is my second visit here, came last year at the same time. The resort has definitely deteriorated, in terms of service and choice of restaurants. They draw up a list for the week of which venues are open, and when, and present it to you on arrival. For me it meant the breakfast option at cocos, wasn’t available at all, and the main restaurant rainbow garden was shut 50% of the time for a la carte dinner…….then have the brass nerve to charge you a resort fee, amounting to several hundred dollars on check out! It’s a complete rip off. The service was variable…..you could wait 20 mins for a drink at meal times, as staff just seemed to ignore you. The food on the whole was average, and certainly not as good as last year. If you drink red wine, the house variety is like drain cleaning fluid….undrinkable…other drinks are fine. I did speak to the management about these issues, but all you get are platitudes….because basically they can’t do anything about them! I wouldn’t recommend this place, as there are far better venues available for the money. I certainly won’t be coming back.