TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We had a butler suite & it was well worth it. Tim & CeCe were wonderful during our stay. From the time we were picked up by Keyno in the Rolls Royce, who was fun, kind, and set the tone when we arrived. We had such a wonderful time, we booked another Sandals getaway with Shrerice for next year! I have never encountered so many kind people.

Maliyah was AMAZING!!!! She was so kind to everybody and got everybody involved in activities. She was very warm and inviting and made everybody feel very welcome and happy. I would go back just because of her.

You HAVE to go see Heston at the sing along in the Balmoral! Think he’s there Sun - Tues nights but he was fantastic!!!! Super engaging with a fantastic voice and is a truly talented musician! 11/10 would recommend for sure.

This is our fourth Sandals and is the only one we will not return to. It is absolutely not the Sandals standard or experience we have found elsewhere. We had lots of small issues that added up to a terrible experience. 1. We did not receive our loyalty spa credit until we asked 4 times and on day 5 physically went to the loyalty office and stayed until they wrote it out. Their excuse? "We made you one." Not helpful when we didn't get it. 2. No info on returning guest or Club Sandals events. We had to invite ourselves to the returning guest dinner and didn't find out about anything else. No welcome packet in our room like at other Sandals. 3. Safety not a priority on the snorkel cruise. The boat captain and director of guest relations spent the whole trip standing two inches from each other and flirting and paying attention only to each other. No safety briefing, not watching snorkelers in the water. (Not to mention we entered the water over the side because of the gas leak behind the boat. We didn't want gas on our swimwear.) 4. On some occasions, the food was terrible. Don't order the t-bone at Butch's. Shoe leather is more tender (we heard this from others as well). Also the breakfast buffet at Tesoro was cold. Every time. (Kanoo is excellent, as is Kimono's.) 5. Hallways are musty, clearly the carpet needs to go. 6. We paid for an ocean view room. Got a view of the roof of the building next door. Ocean was beyond it, but still not worth the extra cost. 7. Rooms were tiny. (At least at the Club Sandals level we chose.) 8. Pickleball courts booked for a private group most of the week. That's fine, but NO communication about it. Per the schedule, there should have been open play. When we asked about it, no one had any idea what was going on. (The fitness staff said other guests asked as well, they had no idea. They have a digital schedule posted, they should have updated that at the very least.) 9. Staff not overly friendly unless in a direct interaction. At other Sandals, EVERYONE greets you with a sincere hello and a smile. Here? They look the other way. Overall, this resort has a serious communication problem. We tried to give them the chance to make it right and met with the GM. He brought the director of guest relations (See #3 above.) She took lots of notes and her response to the snorkeling issue was "I'm sorry you saw that." Seriously? How about I'm sorry for our behavior?. The GM seemed to only care about the pickleball issue and started trying to make phone calls while we were still talking. They promised they would look into it and get back to us. Here's what happened: 1. We got one more reservation at Kimono's, which we were told was sold out. It wasn't sold out, but that was nice. 2. They promised us credit on future travel. We have no idea how we will get that or how much it will be because they never followed up. 3. They called us every day to make sure we were ok, but didn't actually do anything else. We just started telling them it was fine because they were annoying and we wanted it to stop. We talked to another couple who had an issue and they got the daily phone call as well. Apparently that is the only thing they do, make a daily check in phone call when you complain. We talked to a lot of couples who said it was their first Sandals experience and would not be back. We also will not be back to this Sandals. On the way out, I happened to notice a Sandals Corporate University flag. If this is where they are training new employees, I am concerned about future Sandals trips. We have four Sandals trips booked next year - 40 nights. I sincerely hope none of the other resorts we have chosen are like this one.

This is a first world problems review for sure but its clear that service levels are definitely different if you dont pay the for a butler. The food was good and resort was beautiful. The staff we interacted with were great. The private island was cool as well. Weather was perfect. 2 of 6 days our room didnt get housekeeping after being out of the room for 9 hours. Even after calling when we got back to the room we couldn't get service or towels. When on vacation that's simply not acceptable. Both days we looked across the hall at the upgraded rooms and all rooms were miraculously serviced. Our neighbors had the same issue. When we left called for bell service twice with no response. Carrying our luggage across the resort past two pools was super fun ?? Forget about a poolside chair unless you have a butler. Waiters at the pool are few and far between. Its a crazy premium to stay here even for a standard room compared to other high end resorts like secrets. We truly believe because you cant tip the service is lacking. We treat people in terms of tips and have always received great service at other resorts. Because of that alone we would not visit another sandals. For the cost of butler service we could do 2 to 3 AIs at other high end resorts with much nicer rooms. Maybe they just had an off week but we did hear similar feedback from others that didnt pay for upgrades.