I have read all of the reviews listed for this resort. It is not that bad. You can find negative in everything if you try hard enough-not saying that is what everyone did. I just came back yesterday, and was there for a week. It is an absolutely beauitful beach! Further down, the other resorts beaches don't even come close. The smell of all the flowers were amazing! We did go All-Inclusive, and I highly recommend doing so. Several other people had and were very happy as well. The food at Arawak Terrace was really good, and we looked forward to seeing what they had every day. Breakfasts usually weren't anything to brag about though. We didn't go to Warri Pier to eat. Several other couples at the resort advised us not too. We went zip lining at the Rainforest canopy Tour-A MUST DO!!! I had so much fun. We also we snorkling with Larry-he is down at the end of the beach. Zip lining was $85 each, and snorkling was 2 hrs for $30 each, but everything else on the island was very expensive to do. My room was cleaned every day, and clean sheets on the bed. The room was dated, but you don't go to the Carribean to stay in your hotel room anyway. The entertainment was alright. Fenton really tried his best. And I also need to mention that Jacqualine at Arawak was very nice as well. We never had a problem with housekeeping, the reception desk wasn't very helpful though. People do bother on you the beach selling things. All of the beaches are open to the public, so this wasn't an isolated problem. If I do go back to Antigua, I would definitley stay there again.

I bought a two week stay at this hotel for my husbands 40th birthday. I saved for 2 years and realise I totally wasted my time, money and excitement.
On arrival all looked well, but a 45 minute wait to be taken to our room soured things. Our room was tatty, some temporary repairs had been made put poorly executed. A new basin and shower had been added, but only the tiles around the shower head had been replaced. The rest were old and chipped and the bath so warn it had holes in it. There was no hot water and the toilet didn't flush.
Our rep said the next day to 'get used to it - there had been no hot water for 4 weeks' (Thanks first choice!). Many complaints later and we had running hot water after 2 days but in the shower only - never for the basin. My handy hubby finally fixed the toilet!
Within two days my husband caught a bug so severe he was in bed for 2 days, which I then promptly caught and was in bed for 4 days. On discussion with other guests it seemed like 60% of guests had been or were ill.
Entertainment is laughable. A daily board goes out with a list of events, ranging from kayak, nature walks, quiz games, rounders, etc. However, all of these didn't materialise as the entertainments manager was cricket mad and played cricket all day every day. Fine if that's your thing but not if you can't stand cricket and got fed up with trying to be cadjolled into playing. My husband pretended he was asleep to avoid being dragged into it!!
Service at the resort was generally good, the staff are lovely and always happy and cheerful. Others have complained about service but we honestly had no problem.
The food was ok, nothing special, but plenty of it.
The food by the Carib bar at the beach is dire. Really awful burgers or hot dogs and chips. No frills and poor quality. If you're on the beach, make the effort and go to the restaurant for lunch, it's worth the walk.
We were all inclusive but ate out on several occassions. WE CAN HIGHLY RECOMMEND 'THE BEACH' restaurant just down the beach. At busy times you may need to book, just ring reception and ask them to book for you. Now this is how a restaurant should be run! Food FAB, plenty of it and service very good. It's a shame it's not the sort of service we received at the Halcyon!
We tried to go sailing on a couple of occasions, initially to be told we were too late as they closed in an hour (we only wanted to go out for half an hour or so!) another time no-one was available at the hut despite waiting for an hour and the last time we were told that although sailing was free for all inclusive, you have to pay for a training course! No-one told us about that!
A WORD OF WARNING!!! Going out of the hotel and turn left, there is a restaurant here called PARI. DO NOT GO THERE! We waited over 1 hour for our starter, I went to get our drinks from the bar fed up with waiting, 75% of the menu was not available, the meal turned up with frozen veg and frozen crinkle cut chips (something you would expect from Iceland's and not an expensive restaurant). We then waited a further hour for our meal and half an hour for our bill. We walked out in the end and asked the lady at reception for the bill. On receipt we refused to pay the service charge due to it being SO poor. She called the manager, we asked for the service charge to be removed - she just said 'NO' and walked away. We then had no choice to pay and presented our credit cards. The credit card machine was not working. We scrapped together some cash with our friends to pay the bill (not having come out with any expecting to pay by card), they only had east carribean dollars for the change. When asked that despite having a full restaurant why they had no change in us dollars - we received a shrug. This place is awful and a rip off-don't waste your time. Staff are rude and don't care!

The hotel in general was a severe disappointment. Antigua too was a disappointment, lots of abandoned cars, rubbish lying around and shanty towns littered over the island. The hotel was just simply shabby, tatty and dirty. A cabinet outside the restaurant had filthy dirty mark all over it - obviously never cleaned. The toilets smelt of damp and someone had just painted over the scored in graffitti in the toilet doors. These are just a few examples. The whole place just felt like it was held together with a few nails and tissue paper. Our room had a balcony which was small and to think I paid extra for a garden view-well I shouldn't have bothered. We didn't get our tea/coffee refreshed every day and had to take it from the restaurant each evening to ensure we had what we needed in the morning. DO NOT buy water from the bar - you will be charged $10. Go to the shop if you can where it is a few dollars, then keep the container and get it filled with water at the bar and put in the fridge over night. keep your empty containers out of site if you want to keep them to refill otherwise the cleaners take them as they get money for the empty bottles.

I thought this was going to be a dream for my husbands birthday and I have never felt so let down by a hotel, management and travel agent. On booking with first choice it was 4 star. By the time we went out it had been downgraded to a three star. Quite honestly this hotel was no better than a two star. Don't waste your money. If you are honeymooning or going there for a special occassion then I seriously suggest you take the hit, lose the deposit and go somewhere else. I wrote to the management and to the owners of Rex results for a response to my complaints and two months later no-one has got back to me.
I also found out that at least 3 other couples had paid over £800 less than me as when I booked it it was classified as 4 star, but received no refund from First Choice when it was down graded.

Go to Greece - you'll have a better time!

we stayed here on our honeymoon and really wish we hadnt. the room was dirty with peeling wall paper, no hot water and the dirtiest bed i have ever slept in. the hotel staff were very rude, they didnt seem to care at all. we had one meal here and it was disgusting, thank god we didnt go all inclusive. the beach on dickenson bay is ok but i have seen a lot better. the only saving grace was that we hired a car so could see the rest of the island and sample the local restaurants (all very high quality but expensive). antigua is ok but nowhere near as nice as i expected, thailand, pacific islands and maldives are all in a different league. we stayed in pure luxury at kuramathi in maldives for same price. my advice, do not stay here and believe these reviews. you can really get better elsewhere.

This was the worst hotel experiance i have ever had.
The reception staff were very very rude and constantly ignored all my requests. After changing rooms because the first room was very dark with lights and safe not working, I was put in a room with curtains hanging off the rail bathroom taps not fixed, very tired decor and very loud and poor air-conditioning. The next morning I tried to open the pattio doors the wouldn't open so I mentioned this to reception and nothink was done about it. One day I didn't get any fresh towels so rang reception at 1pm and waited for 2hours before ringing again. The maid brought up what look like used towels and when i asked her if they were clean she said yes. Atfer getting out of the shower pick up the towel she had given me and found they had poo marks on them. rang down to reception and informed them but they were uninterested and didn't even say sorry, just that they would send some other towels up. I went out for the evening and stopped at reception on my way to ask for my clean towels to be sent up to my room and was told they would be there asap, when i returned to my room at 11.30pm the towels were still where i had left them, so i took them down to reception myself and said to the guy behind the desk would he be happy with waiting this long and want to use some esle's dirty towels, to which he replied he would sent them straight up to me, all in all it took over 8 hrs to get the clean towels.
The evening entertainment was ok but always outside as none of the other bars was open through out my stay and the staff was rude and kept you waiting even when ther was no one esle at the bar. This could be a very nice hotel as the location was great, the meals were good and resturant staff very helpful, but it is in need of a total refit and reception staff sent on a customer relations course.
we were a party of 11 adults and i dont think any of us had a hot shower every day it was very hit and miss as to whether you would get hot water, so as for the management saying in earlier reviews the boiler problem had been fix ed, it clearly has not.
Very very disapionted with this complex and would have welcomed managements comments at the time i was there and not after i have posted this review.