Sandals Royal Barbados

The butlers were really nice but nothing special. Sure, they got us a drink or 2 at the the pool but no baths were drawn, no cute towel animals, nothing that showed they were try8ng to anticipate our needs. But, if you want a seat at a pool or a dinner reservation, a butler is the only way to go. Bumped into a few butlerless couples that complained about the same.

On a positive note, Matt at the monkey tavern works his butt off and tries to put a smile on everyone who visits. Also, property is in great shape, doing the Covid shots went smooth, checkin wasn’t bad given that there was so many people checking in at once, food was up to par except for the issue I raised above and the room was amazing. Loved the walk in pool. One tip, take a taxi from the airport. They wait for the buses to fill before leaving.

This was our first (and last) time at a sandals. We have been to numerous resorts but got so many nice reviews from friends to go to a Sandals because they said it’s the best of the best. This was the worst resort experience we’ve ever had. Got to the resort and were told we wouldn’t be able to use the Royal side pool or beach for a couple days because they were shooting a photo shoot and we’d have to go to the other sandal side to use the pool or beach to stay out of the models way. So everyone was crammed to the other side scrambling to find spots to sit. Payed extra for “ocean view” - attached a picture of our room with no ocean view in sight when we told them this shouldn’t count as ocean view they agreed and said they should probably update the website but did not offer to give us our money back for a basic room price. Payed extra for club sandals guest services and the staff members were in terrible moods due to their AC not working and were overall not helpful or nice. They would give vague answers, act like you’re bothering them and act uninterested in problems. It was extremely hard to book things such as massages, reservations for dinner, etc and they would say they’d get back to you to see if they could get one eventually but time slots were usually full. A lot of the better restaurants you had to make reservations at and time slots were hard to get but when you did get a table there would be barely anyone there eating? Food was the WORST part of the trip. Horrible food. Cheap ingredients and long wait times. Not sure if they were just short staffed due to the pandemic but worst resort food I’ve ever had. No lunch buffet and wait times in restaurants or lunch options were at hour at the minimum so getting lunch was the most difficult. I’ve attached pictures of food that was offered to us at lunch which I sent back and then proceeded not to have lunch. “Panini” on stale pita bread with one slice of prosciutto. “Bruschetta” on stale HOT DOG bun with soggy lettuce, tomatoes, and shrimp … how in the world does that classify as bruschetta. Disgusting. Dinner spots also had poor tasting food. Only decent restaurant was the sushi place. We paid 7,000 for this vacation more than we’ve ever spent on a vacation. Spent thousands less to go to the RIU in Jamaica and the food was excellent the staff was so nice and the resort was still very beautiful. Will never make the mistake of spending money for a sandals again. We spent a majority of our wedding guest money on this place only to be majorly disappointed. Public bathrooms not clean at all toilet paper all over the floor, smelled horrible and toilet paper roll holders falling off the wall. Last comment was the biggest problem we encountered and that was with room safety and privacy - staff members let themselves into our room without knocking on THREE different occasions and we complained to them that this was not ok each time with unapologetic answers each time saying they’d speak to housekeeping. One night I’m pretty sure it was someone coming to check to steal our belongings because it was 8:30 at night (housekeeping had left hours earlier already). Luckily we had the door bolt attached but heard someone swipe to get in and hit the door bolt and swiftly close the door. We went to open the door expecting someone needing something and the person had booked it down the hallway. If we hadn’t been in there I’m scared what we would’ve ended up missing due to our safe’s battery being dead and them not offering to fix or replace the safe when we brought it up earlier in the trip. So to summarize please don’t waste your money and book elsewhere. You will regret coming to this resort.