TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Disappointing visit over the Festive week and expected a bit more from a 5 star resort compared to other similar resorts visited elsewhere in the world this year and at best I would only rate this as a higher end 3 star resort in the main, the limited butler suites may attract a higher rating but our stay was in a Club Level Oceanview room especially when considering the cost of staying here. The resort appears to have a 2 or 3 tier guest system in place, those with a butler, those on a repeat visit, and the rest. I have to say they must be doing something right as there appeared to be many at the repeat visitors evening. I expected to have some sort of itinerary in place as it was Christmas week, but nothing was really forthcoming, despite asking each day until Christmas Eve, when the Club Lounge staff found out about what was going on with meal times and what was on offer along with entertainment for the day, especially as the Island was effectively closed down for the holidays. There was nothing in the room as far as information was concerned and despite asking each day around the resort, no one seemed to know what was going on over the 2 main days itself. Food was nothing special and concerned that you had to book for Kelly's, the resorts flagship restaurant, as it appeared to be not even half full on our only visit on Christmas Eve, although not sure how long it would have taken to get our food as despite only being half full at best we were in there for over 2 hours and left directly after finishing our dessert, which was poor, despite being one of the first to order that evening. Needs to have more choice on the menu and not sure I actually saw a vegetarian option on the main course. Mario' again had a limited menu and despite being the Italian styled restaurant did not have a pizza based item on the menu (the pizza van closes before the restaurant opens) and the restaurant looks a bit like a Harvester Restaurant in the UK, only without the extensive menu and service is a lot quicker at the Harvester. Also had to ask twice for drinks that had already been ordered on 2 different occasions. Bayside has a good buffet breakfast and is open earlier than advertised, at 7AM although the lady on the egg station will not start until 7:30AM on the dot, although she seemed to make an exception for a couple of repeat guests that she knew? The best meal we had at the Bayside was probably the lunch buffet on Christmas Day, which was really good, especially the baked Ham along with some other Caribbean style foods. The evening meals in the Bayside were nothing special and to be honest I was more interested in keeping the flying insects and mosquitos away from our table so as not to give them the option of eating either us or our food. As daylight diminishes, each table is given battery operated ambient lighting, but this just acts as an attraction to the insects as the restaurant is open aired. The issue of flying insects and mosquitos needs to be addressed by management at the resort and I did speak to someone about this during our visit. It is not just the restaurant area but accommodation as well and I know from other reviews that this issue has been raised in the past. The most popular form of food seemed to be room service judging by the number of empty trays left outside rooms in the morning as we went to breakfast. Sun beds are fairly easy to come by around the pools although you need to get up early to get one under shade on the beach. Beating the butler is a game in itself as they have wooden signs indicating which beds and sunshades are taken, which they seem to do very early in the morning and other guests have to use towels to reserve their beds, however the towels do not appear to be put out till around 8AM, giving the butlers a head start. The big issue for me was that many of these butler saved beds were not even occupied till very late morning and sometimes I noted even into the afternoon, management need to put some sort of time restraint on this so that if a bed is not occupied by some means by mid morning then it become available to other guests. A tip is to keep a couple of towels back each evening for use in the morning if you are an early riser so as to reserve a bed in a position of your liking and I managed to do this on one occasion on the beach, much to the ire of the butler who was putting out his signs and really wanted the one that I had just put towels down on. Rooms are clean and functionable but again doors are left open during cleaning which allows flying insects into the room without any control and the timing of when the room cleaning had finished was a bit hit and miss with it not being completed till nearly 5PM on one day, although the lady was a very happy and cheerful person who always had a smile and a hello for you. Staff could be a bit hit or miss but in general were polite apart from the chef doing the meat barbeque on the Taste of St Lucia night (which started an hour later than advertised) who seemed a bit grumpy all night, and the menu for that themed night was not really what I would have expected. The barbequed meat was limited and meagre in portion size, and the fish barbeque was almost non existent. I do feel however due to the timing issues in various parts of the resort, that the staffing levels are too low and need to be addressed. The gardens within the resort are immaculate and a credit to all the gardeners and the beach is raked each morning ready for guests and the staff dealing in these areas should all be commended. The staff in the bar areas were a joy to speak too as well, and were all more than happy to assist with informing us about new drinks we were trying out, some of which I intend to try at home. We did not go to either of the other resorts as we felt that the transfer times were a little late on in the day with the first shuttle leaving at 11AM and as early risers we would have preferred to have had the ability to go a few hours earlier and just after breakfast. We did not have chance to use any of the facilities at the water sports centre as it was closed most of the week due to the weather and water conditions, with a red flag flying most of the time. As this was festive week, some tours were not available and other options from the Club Lounge were cancelled also, so a taxi was taken to Castries to do some local shopping and the 3 hours there were absolutely brilliant. Great interaction and banter with all the local stall holders, not just in the crafts market, but also on the vegetable and fish markets and we got to try some authentic St Lucian food while we were there, along with visiting some of the sites in Castries itself including the church. I have already written to Sandals Customer Service with and extensive review and feedback outlining potential solutions to issues we encountered, which was even more extensive than this review, but although that was nearly a week ago, I have not had any form of receipt back from them about the issues and concerns I have raised. This was our first trip to this area, and sorry to say it is unlikely we will be back as it looks like we have been spoiled by the true 5 star resorts of the Far East and Indian Ocean.

Very dissatisfied . The service from staff excellent. The surrounding were dirty and not convenient with someone having a disability

stayed at sandals halcyon! had the best experience playing the photo scavenger hunt with cookie/destiny and even won a prize!!

Had a great experience, from the food, the room and the service. Big shout out to Dong at Kimino/Soy, Ryan and Princess at the bar and Arielle at the gift shop for their exceptional service. Will definitely go back in the future.

It's been several weeks since we arrived home from our first all inclusive experience, and to be brutally honest, the experience at Sandals Halcyon Resort left such a poor taste in our mouths. What was supposed to be a 9 day trip turned into a 7 day trip because we left 2 days early and went home...and we never have left early on vacation!!! We arrived late to the resort and were greeted and taken to our room by a very nice bellman who throughout the stay when he saw us always greeted us with a smile and a friendly hello. Once we settled in to our room, we headed to the Beach Bistro, as it was the only thing open for a late night bite to eat (it was around 9pm). When we got there, the lights were on in the outdoor dining area and the hostess was standing there by the bar area. She proceeded to turn off the lights and walked away without acknowledging us or providing any direction as to how to order food. There was no signage in regards to the dining area. If it had not been for the other guest who was sitting at the bar where the chef was, we would have had no clue that you were to order with the chef. A small blip for the first day, but we let it go. The second day at lunch time, we went back to the Bistro Bar for a burger, and proceeded to go up to the bar to order from the chef (as that is what we had done the night before), and the hostess sternly yelled at us that were not supposed to order from there and that we had to order from her!! We said we did not know this as once again there was no signage as to where to order. On the second night, the air conditioning in our room stopped working, and after several calls down to the front desk and maintenance coming back and forth to flip breakers and the maintenance worker being downright accusatory that we had things plugged in that we were not supposed to that was causing the AC breaker to flip, he finally believed us after sitting in our room for 10 minutes that there was something wrong. After 45 minutes, we were temporarily moved to another room for the night while they worked on the room. The following day, after maintenance was in the room working on the AC, it was still not working, and we were told that they were going to have to move us to another room all together. In regards to the overall service and staff, it felt like no one wanted to be there and that we were an inconvenience. You got more hellos and smiles from the groundskeepers and bellman's then the front house staff (i.e. bar staff, servers etc.). For the money and time that we spent to come on this trip to experience a "luxury resort" like Sandals that apparently holds themselves to a high standard, was mediocre at best. When we decided to cut our vacation short and go home, I went to the front desk to let them know that we would be checking out and they immediately wanted me to speak to a general manager to explain what happened, to which I did. The GM said that she was going to take our concerns to her meeting that she was heading to and would meet us at dinner later that evening (between 5:30-6:00pm). At 6:30pm, a totally different manager showed up and said that she had spoken to her colleague and said that she understood that there was an issue and asked what the problems were?!? When we asked if she had been filled in, she explained that she had not, to which we replied, don't bother. In our opinion, if your not even willing to take customers concerns and displeasure of the resort and not show up yourself, but then send someone else on your behalf and not fill them in on the issue, then don't bother talking to us. The next day, I spoke to yet another GM who offered us a private car to take us to the airport on the departure day. She wanted to meet with us on departure day to go over somethings before we left. On the day we left, she sat with us and offered us a 3-day credit to any Sandals Resort. We kindly declined, as we had already decided that we would not be coming back to another Sandals Resort. She then went away and came back with an offer saying that because we had a poor experience and were leaving 2 days early, they would give us a 2-day refund for the days were were leaving. She then proceeded to provide paperwork regarding the refund. When looking over the paperwork, there was a non-disclosure agreement within the paperwork. It felt like a slap in the face and a total disappointment that we were given this paperwork thinking that possibly out of good faith they were doing the right thing and restoring a bit of customer loyalty. However, once again because of this, we politely declined, saying that we would like to be able to provide a review. It was also not about money at this point, because the money was already long gone. She understood and we packed up to leave for the airport. She did explain that she would be sending our information to a specific customer service agent to have them reach out to me directly in regards to this situation. I did get a follow-up email from the GM with her letting me know that she did pass on my email, but to no surprise, I have never heard from the customer service agent that she said would contact me. Overall, even though we tried to make the best of it for the time we were there, our experience at Sandals Halcyon would not be one that I would ever choose again, as the lack of customer service, mediocre food and food choices, the lackluster atmosphere and activities and just overall a vacation experience that ended up being disappointing and sad.