This was our first holiday in the Caribbean. We had originally booked for 2 weeks at Hawksbill but on reading some of the bad reviews decided to spend only 1 week there and a week at GPB. In fact, Hawksbill was perfect and we only lasted 1 night at GPB before transferring back to Hawksbill. The reason for our transfer back was mainly due to the incessant noise at GPB - from the snack bar from 7am to the karaokee in the evening and the waft of hamburgers at 1130 pm. We had chosen GPB as it appeared to offer more for our 12 year old. Fortunately he was happy to trasfer back to Hawksbill, particularly for the easily accessible watersports and friendly staff. I have to say that the staff were very accomodationg about our transfer back and also that the waves were great.

We arrived at grand pineapple April 1st to 15th 2006 for a second year because we enjoyed it so the previous year , but last year I was constantly annoyed by staff in the resturant telling me I must wear a collared shirt, I personally wear grandad type shirts in summer and bought all new ones for my visit all very smart ( no addvertising type) but they didn,t like that and after a week I complained to the general manager Guillermo who accepted I was smart and was not complained at after this. So for our return I e mailed the manager who is very pollite and said I should bring collared shirts to meet their dress code so I bought a new wardrobe and went on holliday. Hell the dress code didn,t appear to exist this year at dinner, shorts, appallind Tee Shirts seems like anything went this year even swimm shorts one night. To say I was annoyed after spending my money on new shirts and the manager telling me to do so to meet their standards. The hotel, well some of the staff were far from being friendly one night we sat at our dinning table and waited over an hour for any service however the food is excellent and varied, well done chef,s.
one day we had no towells at all despite telling maid, reception, 2 managers and no one ever answered the phone we still got no towells and dried ourselves with a face cloth each. Location is great a fab beach very swim friendly and good snorkelling with the occassional drug pusher on the beach notably 3 of them so watch your children. All in all though I still enjoyed antigua, no wheres perfect

We visited the island on March 19 for the week. Our first episode was with our rooms we paid for beachfront and they were pathetic we asked the attendant to see the rooms first and after some humming and hawwing she moved us and the other couple (sister and husband) into rooms in the 700 area up on the hill. They were newer but ours had no smoke alarm it must have been stolen only the frame of it there, no safe to store any valuables the lock was busted out of it so we used my sister's safe instead. The room was not the cleanest. Found the service to be lousy by nearly all of the staff great to lure the tourists food was not all inclusive some of the time we could not get any food the area was closed in between meals etc not like the all inclusive we are used to this 4 star hotel is more like a 2 star hotel thank heavens we only stayed for a week the weather was excellent and the water was wonderful pretty expensive trip for what we got don't recommend this one to anybody so much for my air canada vacation it was the pitts!! Grimsby Ontario Canada

Stay: 17th March-31st March 2006.

Initial reaction to Hotel. Very nice foyer but unfriendly reception staff. Shaka the porter was very nice. We were taken to a Beachfront room when we had booked Garden View. The Beachfront rooms are appalling. My initial reaction was to fly home. There seems to be some scam going on where they over book the Garden View rooms and try to tell you that they are upgrading you to a better class of room when actually they are placing you in the worst room in the hotel. We asked for a Garden View and they said this was not available. Our Rep managed to sort this out the next day but they made us wait all day to change rooms which lost us a day of holiday.

Still the new Garden View room was nice and looked over the wedding gazebo.


Rooms: avoid standard and beach front rooms until they refurbish. We were told that the standard rooms had cockroaches and you could not sleep for disco noise. The Beach front room we saw was very poor and we had no sleep after a long flight from bar noise.

Book Garden View or Ocean view which are both nice.


Maintenance: we had no cold water in the shower for four days and reception kept on promising someone would fix it. No one ever did and this caused major upset at the end of the holiday.

Hotel: Gardens were very nice and the hotel office/restaurants look very pretty.

Amenities: very little for kids to do except the pool. Did see a guy attempting some sort of kids club but not as good as other hotels I have seen. There is a games room and Internet access for $10 an hour. Nice little shop on site but shopping cheaper in St. John’s.

Gym is in a nice location but lacking in equipment. One treadmill and one of the bikes were out of action for the whole fortnight we were there.

Night time entertainment is ok if you like amateur night or extremely loud music. They try but compare them to the two bands who play at Shirley Heights on a Sunday night.

Restaurants: You have to book the day before for your chosen restaurant. Mainly because the Pineapple Grill is so popular.

Pineapple Grill: temperature is freezing as they have the air conditioning blasting. Take a jumper with you. Its tex/mex really with a few steaks. We went three times and every time they got the order wrong. Still the food does taste nice and the entertainment is ok while you are eating.

Chef Pietro’s: Italian but not as you know it. Having travelled in Italy it was very odd to eat Caribbean Italian. Tries hard but not up to scratch. Freezing if you get near a window as the sea breeze blows in.

Topaz: Their Italian night was ok. The Caribbean night was dreadful. Main menu was ok as it changes every night.

Food generally: I thought breakfast was fine. Lunch was quite nice with lots of salads. Evening meals they seem to do ok with starter and sweet but the main course is pretty bad. Always consists of tasteless rice and rock hard vegetables [I mean so hard you cannot cut them – I think they were supposed to be steamed].

Mary’s Outhouse: I heard rave reviews about this place from fellow guests but did not eat here as it looked a bit unhygienic. Mary herself is lovely and gives you a hug every time you see her.

Poolside snacks: Burgers, fish, fries, sandwiches and ice cream. Did not have a meal here but can really recommend the gorgeous ice cream.

Bars: bar staff and restaurant staff very pleasant.

Beach: white sand and lovely ocean view. Possibly one of the best beaches on Antigua. Having circumnavigated the island and seen them all I was quite happy where our hotel was located.



Trips/tours: St John’s is $10 return in a minibus and you just turn up at the reception. Nice capital with nice shops. Go across the road to the other shopping centre and you will find some very pretty shops.

Shirley Heights [$16]: do not miss this Sunday evening trip. Great fun, nice food, great atmosphere. Family night out. The Steele Band were terrific. Would advise families to go for the early session [4.00-8.00]. The Reggie band we saw sang some lyrics that were a bit expressive shall we say.

Nelson’s Dockyard: do not miss seeing the English Harbour and Nelson’s dockyard. Absolutely beautiful – best place on the island.

Catamaran circumnavigation with Caribbean queen: very disappointed in this trip. Felt like they were churning out the same old Caribbean trip and lunch menu. They did not warn us about a sand bank as we got on and everyone was soaking wet. The catamaran was at times so far off shore that you could not tell what you were supposed to be seeing. Ok if you want to see all the coastline.



Overall opinion: Hotel was a 3* trying to be 4* and failing. Saying that a fairly typical caribbean hotel. May appear to be negative review but I would return to the Pineapple for another holiday. Do not expect first class service. May be better when Occidental refurbish.