We were at Sandals for the Grand Opening and if that week had the best service because the owner was there, I feel sorry for the people there after the owner left. Slow service at the pool bar is an understatement. One couple told us they waited 45 mins. for a drink. At times there were 4-5 people behind the bar, and if lucky, 1 was serving people. Many times they would take your drink order and then........nothing. You had to repeat it 3 times. Although I'm sure the Med. Village rooms are beautiful, the same restaurants are for everyone. Coming from NY, I've never heard of cold "pigs in a blanket" for antipasto, especially for an "Italian" restaurant. Imitation crab and lobster in salads, ran out of bananas for 3 days, no Courtyard Bistro offering snacks & burgers 24 hours a day (as their web site states). Once asked for 2 desserts and was told NO. Many times after initial service, you could not get a waiter or waitress again. Last few days observed a man (figure from hqtrs) in the restaurants observing the service. One morning he yelled at one manager that the staff had no clue what they were doing. Which was true. One bkfast had to ask 3x for water, coffee and napkins. Well, the memory retention is limited, so we only recd water. The waitress then continued to seat people and we had to ask others for the coffee and napkins. In our opinion, not worth the money, much nicer places for less money. And true- there was an infestation of mosquitos and jellyfish. Entertainment- one nite it was counting the mosquito bites on my legs- 135. I will say found the staff in general to be very nice. Just wonder if they're overworked and that's why service is so bad. The one girl who couldn't remember water, coffee, napkins- worked late the nite before and then was on bkfast duty. The best part- the weather was perfect. The "largest pool in the Carribbean" was barely deeper than your chest. Floating on a floatee with poorly made frozen drinks, if you could get service, was all the pool was good for.

We just returned from a week stay at Sandals Antigua. We have traveled to many spots in the carribean and Mexico so I will base my review on my experiences.

Location- is very good. Short drive to airport and to St. John. Cab is $10 each way.

Beach- is the best part. The water is unbelievable, warm as can be and beautiful in color. A few jellyfish around but it is probably the seasn for them. Sand is soft and we walked the lenght from end to end each day.

Room- we were upgraded at the airport from grand deluxe honeymoon to the verandah suite concierge which was nice.
The room had been recently done over and the decor was nice.
We were next to a small pool and a hot tub which was nice to use at night.

Food- overall not as I thought it would be. Breakfast is fine and so is lunch but for dinner the food was barely hot and not 5 star.
You only need reservations at Kimono's not any other place but check on what is open as they are not all open every night.

Entertainment- they did try and provide some nice entertainment but as my husband mentioned they don't provide enough seating at either side and especially at the new side you would have thought they would provide it for what you are paying for.

Service- fairly poor on the new side which is a shame because people are paying a good price to stay there- better on the CV side.

Overall I was surprised that the CV side had such a small main pool and then the smaller sectional pools- it did need a large pool like what they built on the MV side. The new part is a nice addition to the overall resort and I'm sure in 6 months it will be better . I don't think I would go back to Antigua as there are other places I would try but would give it a 3.5 star ranking.

Did do the circumnavigational tour with Wadaldi tours and it was alot of fun but were lots of sunblock as out are out all day and if you get seasick beware - use a patch for sure.

Hope this helps-

Debbie

It was a wonderful stay. The resort is beautiful and the staff was just amazing. Will definitely be returning as soon as possible. I recommend this resort to everyone.

I just returned from a week at the NEW Mediterraean Village portion of the Sandals Antigua, and was quite impressed by the huge 5-star hotel that was just putting on the finishing touches. I was lucky enough to go during media week, which ensured a free (comped) room with celebrity events, and top-notch food/parties. So the week I was there, I'm sure everything was at its highest caliber, considering that Butch Stewart, owner of Sandals, was also there. My girlfriend and I stayed in the new portion, and the room was very nice with a huge bathroom that had everything we could want in a bathroom, from hairdryers to jacuzzi tub, to mosaic tile to double sinks and all the shower products. We also liked the rain shower, separted from the jacuzzi tub. The room had a nice four-post bed with a comfortable mattress and quality sheets and tons of pillows. All the rooms had new 42-inch Panasonic plasma TVs with lots of premium movie channels, CNN, etc. The fridge was stocked with beer, soda, wine, juices, etc. and they replaced them daily. The food at the restaurants was in one word- amazing, and we were very impressed by the quality at all the restaurants, especially Mario's (the buffet breakfasts were fabulous, and they even have a smoothie bar). Since we stayed at the new part (Med. Village), we didn't venture over to the older (and in much need of renovation) Caribbean Village very much, except to go to the spa (new), and eat at the beachside grill once (again, great food). The bar there had better drinks than at the main pool bar at the Med. Village. We did hear complaints from people staying at the Caribbean Village side (the older side) that the rooms were deteriorating (rust stains, etc.). The newer side (Med.) had expansive grounds (alot of it has new plants, trees, etc., so it will take some time to become more dense). The pathways had a strange layout and we found ourselves zigzagging the property, just to go the cafeteria. The hallways were a bit narrow, so it was hard to navigate around the cleaning carts. Also the key card was right up against the wall, so it was awkward to try and key into the room. The main lobby was fine, but not as grand as some of the other 'mega' resorts in the Caribbean. The main pool was huge with a great swim-up bar (although once we waited more than 20 minutes to get a drink- the bartender was not a happy person, and one lady just washed dishes right in front of us while there were about 10 people waiting to order drinks- it's true, when you don't tip at the bar, service can be very slow! The jacuzzi hot tub at the main pool was the biggest in the Caribbean (so we were told)- and it was huge- about 25 feet in diameter. We found that we could go in the pool and jacuzzi even after midnight, which was great! The beach was very nice and clean with powder sand (but very narrow), and small lapping waves. However, there was NO outdoor rinsing shower from the beach to the pool area, so you tracked sand everywhere from the beach. Also, there were barely any beach chairs (and no umbrellas) on the sand, and we found that disappointing because we have been to many resorts on a beach, and all the other ones had plenty of them. One important comment I want to emphasize (and maybe it was a bad part of the year or something), was that we had major mosquito problems. We were biten everywhere, especially at dusk and beyond. There were mosquitoes in some of the restaurants, lobby, hospitality center, grounds, and even the room had some (probably when the maid entered, etc.). We asked to have the room sprayed, but that didn't seem to matter much. We wish that there was some kind of warning about this problem, as we would have come prepared with mosquito spray (and we also noticed many other guests who had bad bites all over their bodies). Also, right in front of our outside hotel door, there was a bright flourescent light that attracted many insects, and they would find a way into the room when the door was opened. Finally, one other thing was that there was a jellyfish infestation while we were there, not only on shore, but about a mile out (where we had a snorkeling tour). We saw many people with marks from the stings. Again, we wish there was some kind of notification, as we would have avoided the water.