Occidental Pineapple Beach Resort May 17 24th 2003 We chose Antigua as our honeymoon destination as we wanted a place where we could explore the entire island and not be stuck in one spot. What convinced me were all of the positive reviews I have read about.and the pics of the great beaches! : )Okay here we goWe arrived in the afternoon at the resort only to be greeted by a man named Shaka who handed us a complimentary fruit punch cocktail. We waited a few minutes then were taken to our room. ROOM We had room 405, which is a standard room. We had thought about asking for an upgrade but decided to see our room before we made any decisions. We were pleased with what we saw and decided that an upgrade was not needed. Quite frankly we didn't plan on spending too much time in there anyway : ) For those who are interested, located in the room is a Queen sized bed, a dresser, two side tables with lamps, a TV, a phone and a safe. No radio or clock so if you want to know the time, best to bring your own.STAFF Our experience at Pineapple Beach was a pleasant one. The staff was amazing!!! I have heard people complain a bit about the staff, but I found them to be overly attentive, kind, friendly and they always had a smile on their face. They always made an effort to say hello be it the head manager of the restaurant, the cook or the leaf blower! They were all very courteous and made an effort to make our stay there a memorable one. My one complaint: I needed an iron to iron some of my clothes. It took two phone calls and a visit to the reception to get it. I'm not sure why it took as long as it did (6 hours) as everything else was perfect....when I did go in person , they had it to me in a few minutes. Oh our second to last day we got a nice surprise of two nicely bundled up t-shirts that said: "Pineapple Beach" on the front and "Don't disturb, I'm on my honeymoon" on the back... very cute! FOOD Excellent! We found the food VERY good at the Topaz restaurant. Thiso keep in mind we had nothing to compare it to. However, the food was tasty, it was hot when it was supposed to be, cold when it was supposed to be, and the presentation was wonderful as well. The chef, Peter, came out periodically to mingle with the guests and to make sure everything was okay. Pineapple Grill I thought the food was not bad. My husband liked it better than I did. My only complaint was that I couldn't cut my steak as it was very tough. Other than that everything else was great particularly the atmosphere. While eating a man named Calypso Joe and his partner (sorry I forgot his name) played a few songs.they were very talented and very funny!! : ) The Outhouse What can I tell you about this place.such a little gem. It's a bit of a trek up a hill, but well worth it! A lady named Mary will serve you ribs and chicken (BBQ) along with any drink you want and salad etc. The view is spectacular and the chicken is AWESOME!!! And Mary.what a genuinely sweet sweet lady. Such a pleasure to have met her. GROUNDS The grounds were beautiful, well kept with lots of greenery and flowers. There was always plenty of staff blowing leaves, cleaning the lamp shades, dusting etc. etc. Not one complaint in this department at all. BEACH Not a huge beach, but a nice one. I was a bit reluctant to stay here based on the fact that it is on the Atlantic side and I thought the waves would be out of hand for my liking. This however could not be further from the truth. It is nestled in a cove and so the waves are very minimal if any. We tried our hand at snorkeling here but didn't go past the barrier that is put up (too chicken!!) We heard that snorkeling is best at the end of the beach, but we never ventured out to try it. The vendors are minimal. There are a few 'stores' set up toward the end of the beach, so if you want to peruse you may. We only had one gentleman come up to us on the beach asking us if we wanted to buy some jewellery. We said no and he left with a smile on his face. We never beaches are notorious for vendors bothering you, but this should not be a worry at Pineapple Grill. TOURS/TRIPS Shirley Heights We went to Shirley Heights on a Sunday evening. This was a nice trip. Here you could see a live steel band (very good), buy some souvenirs or get your hair braided (found them to be a bit pushy with the hair). They offer to do it for $2 a braid, but you CAN bargain with them. You can eat there and drink there too (didn't do that as we weren't hungry). Shirley Heights is up on a hill so the view of Nelson's Dockyard and the sunset is spectacular!! Don't forget to bring a camera for this trip!St. John's shopping trip The bus left Pineapple at 9:00 and returned at 12:15. This, to us, was more than enough time. We did some souvenir shopping in town and visited a casino there, but we were done about 11:00am. Mind you we didn't stop for lunch or anything as others did.Eli's Eco tour Well what can I say! This tour was amazing! The tour starts at about 10am and ends about 4:15 so you get a whole day's worth here. Eli and Francis take you around some of the island with a verbal commentary from Eli about the important and interesting points that you see along the way. This is one of the things I like the most about Elihe really REALLY knows his stuff. While anyone can memorize and give a 'tour speech' and know nothing else, this is not the case with Eli. You can ask him anything and he is able to answer you. He is like a walking encyclopedia!! It's amazing. As well, he is super friendly and laid back. While there are many things to do on this tour (some more adventurous than others) he never makes you feel like a chicken or inferior because you want to relax on the boat as opposed to going for a hike etc. He does everything he can to accommodate you and your needs. Okay more of the tour: You make a few stops, one of them at Bird Island, to have a little hike (worth every minute of it!) and then back down to eat a yummy lunch! Then , the highlight , not only of the trip (for me) but of my ler done anything like this before. For me it was an event just to be in water where I couldn't touch the ground!! There was a point where I didn't think I could do it, I was a bit scared quite frankly. But Eli's 'it's not a big deal' attitude helped me though it, not to mention him holding me by the arm so I wouldn't drown, while I put my mask on : ) )Okay , I don't think He thought I would drown, but I thought I would! Anyway, when I put my face into the ocean, I almost lost my breath (and not because I was breathing through a small tube my snorkel) but because of the spectacular view below me. To this day I still can't explain how I felt when I saw all of those fish swimming in their own little community, in their own little (or rather big) world. I was scared but exhilarated at the same time. What an experience that was.something I will never EVER forget. Thanks Eli and Francis!! : )The Excellence Barbuda trip This was a great trip! This was a whole day trip and every minute was enjoyable. We made the trip in a power Catamaran in about an hour and a half. I was blown away at the colour of the water!!! It was a beautiful translucent green colour I had only seen in magazines! We stopped at one part of the island only to be met by some local Barbudans (?) who wisk you away in a small motor boat. From here they take you to the Frigate Bird Sanctuary where you get a close up glimpse of these grand and spectacular birds. We were brought back, boarded the boat and treated to a tasty lunch of your choice of chicken, fish or steak. Yummie! After, we were taken to another part of the island where we had the choice of 'chilling' on the island or snorkeling. We were brought back to where we were picked up (Dickenson Bay) at about 4:00pm Small review of JOLLY BEACH RESORT: Just a quick note on Jolly Beach Resort. When we were to leave Antigua (May 24th) we were told that the plane was overbooked, but like 20 or so people! ( I have found out since then that this is 'normal' in the airline world go figurnada). Anyway, because of this , we stayed over in Antigua one more night (not a big loss mind you!). We were put up in the Jolly Beach resort. My husband fell in love with the beach there!! It is much larger than the PBR , but I can't tell you much else as we did not have the pleasure of swimming in it.ROOMS of Jolly Beach The room we had, I'm assuming was a standard one. It was nice. It had a King sized bed, two side tables, TV with remote and a nicely lit bathroom, with a noisy but fairly efficient air conditioner. Oh, and we had a balcony! Overall, very nice!GROUNDS of JB The grounds were well kept. The building was a much 'grander' scale than PBR. For me, personally I liked the look of the PBR grounds better. But not to say that Jolly Beach was bad at all. I didn't get to see much of the resort as we arrived in the evening and left early the next morning.SERVICE at JB The service at PBR was MUCH MUCH better. Not to say of course that any of the staff at JB were rude by any means, but to me they were just doing their job and didn't much go out of their way for you as they did at PBR. Some were quite nice and friendly though.FOOD Neither I nor my husband liked the food here. The selection was minimal and the quality wasn't that great. Now, had I gone to JB first and not tasted PBR , I might have a different opinion (okay maybe not), but we were certainly spoiled by the quality of the food at PBR. Also, at PBR they were very aware of when you finished your meal (when eating buffet style) and cleaned up your table before you returned with your next helping. Whereas at JB, each time we went up (keep in mind we only had two meals there) and returned to the table, they were full of our old plates. It wasn't until a minute or so later, that they came to clean up our old dishes.Well I think that's it. I'm sure I've left out some things, but as always if you have any questions please feel free to email me at pbear8@yahoo.com and I'll try my best to answer them.