What can I say - we stayed for 7 days and had the time of our lives.

I read some of the reviews posted and they are all completely wrong. Yes you do get birds in the morning but it's nothing like a Alfred Hitchcock movie!!

The restaurants are all very clean and comfortable and the food is absolutely amazing.

The atmoshere of the whole place is relaxed and the staff have only one mission and thats to get you to have the best holiday ever.

One place you have to go and visit Mary at the "outhouse", combined with her friendly nature and the best ribs we have ever tasted.

I would recommend a personal dinning experience - we did this on our last night and this really topped the holiday off.

We will definetly be coming back!!!

We stayed at The Grand Pineapple just as it changed hands over to Sandals.

Like other reviews the rooms etc. are a little tired but bearing in mind this is the Carribbean and the kind of weather they have what do you expect! I think when we stayed there they were winding down a little with the handover to Sandals so yes towels etc. were in short supply and paths needed maintenance but this is a business so I doubt the management were prepared to splash out hard cash just before hand over.

The staff were all very friendly and went out of their way to help and make us very welcome.

The food was excellent and even my wife who's rather fussy never struggled to eat well every day.

The wildlife was entertaining and the birds at breakfast fantastic - they would swoop in to steal your food etc. so you learnt not to leave your table unattended - simple.

The beach was amazing and the whole place was so relaxing.

Mary's outhouse was a short walk up the hill and very rustic with fantastic ribs - not the most hygienic place but fine if your healthy!

There was limited space in the bar considering the size of the hotel but we always found somewhere to sit.

We went with First Choice and the rep was really good. She visited almost every day and had lots of tips.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back as the place had character, which I hope Sandals don't destroy!

We were looking forward to the holiday in Antigua. Got to the resort in the evening. Had breakfast the next day at the Topaz restaurant which had birds flying around over the food and even a cat appeared couple of the evenings we were having dinner. I asked for a wake up call and did not get it and when I phoned the reception, the receptionist just replied "I was not not me who was supposed to phone you" with no apologies.

Apart from the receptionist with appalling customer service and a manager who does not take any of the guests concerns on board the other staff were brilliant and a delight to interact with. they were very helpful! The location was brilliant as it was right on the beach.

My husband, my 2 and ½ year old son and I, just returned from our first visit to Antigua! We stayed at the Grand Pineapple Beach Resort for the week of August 4, 2008 to August 12, 2008. We booked with Sandals directly and used Unique Vacations. We flew with US Airways and LIAT from Buffalo, NY. Being Canadian this was our first experience with connecting flights and everything went fairly smoothly. We left Buffalo at 8:30 a.m. We stopped in Charlotte, NC and St. Maarten. We finally arrived in Antigua at around 6:40 p.m. The flights were uneventful. We didn’t have to wait a very long time in the customs lines and by the time we got our luggage and cleared customs it was close to 7:30 p.m. The ride to the Grand Pineapple was about 30 minutes. (Please note that if you book directly with Sandals you will be sent a voucher for transportation to and from the airport. The Sandals rep at the airport will not honor this. Talk to the reception people at the Grand Pineapple; they will reimburse you taxi fare and pay for the taxi to the airport).

CHECK-IN: This was fairly quick. They gave us our room keys and towel cards and told us that there would be an orientation with the concierge the following morning at 8:30 a.m., which we attended. They also required a $200 deposit by cash or credit card for any incidentals. [8 out of 10]

ROOMS: We were in room 127on the first floor. This was a beachside room, which surprised us since we had paid for a garden view room. The room was nice. Yes, they are older and need to be freshened up but as I always say, I don’t pay to stay in my room on holidays. It is used to sleep, shower and store my things. It was fine for that purpose. It consisted of a king-size bed. The room had a dresser with a television set (a few dozen-satellite channels), a sitting area with two chairs, and a luggage table. The closet was large with a safe for your use (this was included with the room). There was also a mini fridge, which was empty. The bathroom had a toilet, sink, bathtub/shower and hair dryer. The room served our purposes just nicely. [7out of 10]

FOOD/DRINKS: The food was awesome. The resort has three restaurants, and you had to reserve for dinner every night. This was done by calling or coming to see the concierge in the lobby. The restaurants were the Pineapple Grill (Tex-Mex), Chef Pietro (Italian) and the Topaz (buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner on 2 out of 7 nights. The two nights were Italian buffet and Caribbean buffet. The other 5 nights were a la carte). They also had a snack bar that served hamburgers, chicken fingers, hot dogs, pizza, etc. The food was delicious. I loved the different stews and curries. No one has anything to complain about here where food is concerned. [9.5 out of 10]

Drinks were very good. There’s no such thing as a watered down drink at the Grand Pineapple Beach. The pina coladas were excellent. They serve Crystal beer on tap at the bars. They also served champagne in the piano bar. [10 out of 10]

BEACH / POOL: The beach was beautiful. There are plenty of beach loungers on the beach. The water was that beautiful shade of turquoise. There were two pools on the resort. An adult pool and a large family pool. The adult pool was closed for the duration of our stay as they were doing construction. We really didn’t use the family pool, as the beach was spectacular. [10 out of 10]

ENTERTAINMENT: There is nightly entertainment available. They had a few musicians play throughout the week and the steel drum bands. We can’t really say much as we missed out on this most nights because of our son. [8 out of 10]

EXCURSIONS: We did the half-day shopping trip to St. John’s. It cost $15.00 per person. We were driven to St. John’s and left near the quay and picked up about 3 hours later. We also arranged a private taxi through the resort for a four-hour tour of the island. This cost $30.00 per hour. We had Mr. Alex Brown, Jr. show us around and we had a wonderful time. The tour desk at the resort was great at arranging whatever you want. [9 out of 10]

STAFF: We had heard that the staff was very unfriendly. This is not the truth. We found everyone very friendly and helpful. We have nothing bad to say. The staff at Grand Pineapple are wonderful people. [9 out of 10]

PHONE CALLS: It cost about $5.00 US to call Canada and the US for the first 3 minutes and $4.00 for every minute after that. It cost approximately $22.00 US to call Europe for the first 3 minutes. There are several pay phones throughout the resort

AIRPORT DEPARTURE: The front desk called the day before we were scheduled to check out to found out what time we would like our taxi to be available. Sure enough there was a taxi waiting for us at 5:30 a.m. to drive us to the airport. Check out was easy. We were given the remainder of our deposit back (we had booked the excursions and had some telephone calls). At the airport, they physically search your luggage before it is checked and you will need to pay the departure tax of $20.00 US dollars if you are over 12 years of age. Security was a breeze. There is some shopping available at the airport but not much. [8 out of 10]

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: We loved the Grand Pineapple Resort. We would recommend this resort to anyone who loves a beautiful beach and good food. It is important to note that this is not one of the MEGARESORTS that you find in Cuba, Dominican Republic or Mexico. It is small but very comfortable. Yes, the rooms need to be freshened up but it’s all part of the Caribbean charm.