My husband and i visited this Sandals resort 4 years ago.
Unfortunatly there is little improvement on the standard of customer service in this hotel over those years, which is a pity.
The resort as a whole is very nice, especialy the new Med Village.
As signature guests, we took advantage of the new concept that Sandals started to reduce the time it takes to check into your room. Unfortunatly when we arrived our room was not ready and we had to sit around for over an hour. We retuned to the concierge office and sat in there for a further half hour. We were then escorted to our room. We then waited another 45 mins until i phoned reception to ask where our luggage was. 30 mins later our luggage arrived for us to unpack.
We discovered when we had showers that the tap in the bathroom was running with water (not dripping). We reported this to the reception everyday for 5 days with no resolve.
The hotel made an attempt by removing the tap, leaving all workings exposed with only the shower working and still running with water. The floor was flooding with tapwater and only after speaking to our Virgin rep we where moved to another room on our 8th day. We packed our cases and were told that a bell boy would hang clothes staight on a rail to move them. After waiting over an hour for the bell boy to turn up (tea break !) After dragging a bell boy trolley across the complex with the help,of one of the reception staff , we eventualy arrived at our new room (another afternoon wasted).
The rooms in the med village are lovley, the price is not..
If you are booking anything else, expect a sub-standard room.
They are well past there prime and not worth the money Sandals charge.
Not romantic at all, the place was full of local radio stations from usa and uk, holiday reps and corporate groups who were loud and drunk most nights .
If your a woman don't expect to get served at the bar, Antiguan women will ignore you and serve all the men!
Food good
Maid / mini bar service good
Wanted a bottle of red wine from Managers wine list on our last night. Arrived with an ice bucket ! When questioned we were told "all our red wine is kept in the fridge". We were told by the Med manager that he could warm it up over the oven in the kitchen................................................what can you say?

Thank goodness we had a sense of humor while staying in the hotel , we've never had any problems in other Sandals resorts, this was our 10th visit to Sandals.

My husband and I stayed at Sandals Antigua from 10/19-10/26 for our honeymoon. We stayed on the 6th floor of the tower on the MV side. We were very pleased with our room. It was spacious, had an extremely comfortable bed, huge bathroom, and cute balcolny. We had a great view of the resort and ocean. Overall we were pleased with our vacation. The staff on the MV side are very friendly and helpful. We loved our housekeeper, Jennifer. She was awesome! But, I will say I knew when her days off were because our room was not made up. Anyway, the pool on the MV side is great. We never had a problem getting a chair or a raft. The bar is a little slow but nothing to be upset about. The drinks are great, we loved the Miami Vices. We loved Vincent the pool waiter, he was so awesome and funny. The food exceeded our expectations. The pizza is awesome, we loved Eleanors and the OK Corral. Kimonos was the best, make sure you make a reservation early though, we heard some people had problems getting in. The beach was beautiful. They clean it every morning and there is never a problem getting a chair or a little hut to sit under. I was also impressed with the staff Sandals has on the beach telling people who are not staying at Sandals (ie from cruise ships) that the chairs and tiki huts are for Sandals guests only. There are beach vendors but they're really not a problem. If you say no thank you they will leave you alone. If you want to spend some extra money I would recommend doing the dinner on the beach. The food was awesome, the beach at night is beautiful, and they make you feel so special.

My only real disappointment is that the resort really only advertised things to do that you have to pay extra for. It would be nice to get a list or brochure when you check in of what is free and what you have to pay for. For example, my husband and I forgot that snorkeling is included and didn't find out until the end of our trip that you have to sign up a day or two in advance to go on a snorkeling trip. Our fault for not asking, but it would have been nice for the resort to let you know at check in what the rules for certin activities are.

Overall we had a wonderful trip. Antigua is a beautiful island and I felt that Sandals was a good value.

We stayed at the Sandals Caribbean village (not the Mediterranean Village, MV, side) for 8 nights. This was our honeymoon but was much less than that. We figured since this was Sandals that there would be a marked car/van at the airport to take you to the resort but that's not the case. You are put into any old taxi/van and are whizzed through the streets. I'm surprised we even made it to the resort. We had a deluxe beachfront room with concierge service. The room was nothing special at all, far from "deluxe", and definitely don't get concierge service unless you have bags of money to throw away. The ONLY thing they do (if they even do this) is book tours for you (tours where you have to shell out extra money). They will call your room daily and leave a message asking if you need anything and if you are enjoying your stay. However, if you call and ask for something the response is "sorry, we don't have that" or "sorry, you'll have to get that from the gift shop." The A/C in our room leaked the ENTIRE 8 nights we were there. The towels we put on the floor under the A/C were soaked. Front desk management was called daily but nothing was ever done. The water was literally leaking under our door into the public walk way. Simple things like the lamps and TV didn't even work properly, nor did our patio door lock. The first 2 nights it was unlocked b/c they couldn't make their way over to fix it. The water in the room worked when it wanted to. One day we couldn't even flush the toilet or turn the shower on b/c there was no water.

The service is horrible. The servers/bartenders act like they don't want to be there. You basically have to get everything yourself. If you go to a restaurant, you have to ask for another drink, because your server will never ask you if you need more water, drink from the bar, etc. If you get an appetizer they will bring you the minimal amount of food possible. Sandals markets itself as "ultra all-inclusive" yet they serve you 3 buffalo wings at the Pub or 2 pieces of tempura at the Kimonos restaurant. If you want a normal portion of something (b/c you've already paid for it) you have to ask for a double or triple order. Oh, and there is no Courtyard Bistro that is open 24 hours. If you want a late-night snack you have to walk over the MV and go to the Pub and hopefully get some service. If you ask for something they make you feel like you are an alien from another planet and how dare you ask them to get you something.

The only positive thing I can say about the Caribben village side is that it has beautiful gardens, plants, flowers but that's about it. The MV is gorgeous however we were unable to see a room but we heard they were awesome. It does lack the lush gardens since it's so new. The pool in the MV is beautiful, especially at night.

Overall, what you pay is not what you get. There is nothing "special" about this resort. They never make you feel special since it's your honeymoon or anniversary (unless you want to pay $200 for rose petals on your bed that doesn't even have a dust ruffle). So if you are looking to go somewhere truly romantic with great service and food, DO NOT CHOOSE SANDALS ANTIGUA! I don't know if training the staff would even help this place. It's a rip-off unless you're a travel agent who stays for free and receives amenities before paying guests.

We booked Sandals Antigua for our honeymoon this past October. I was slightly concerned because I had read many bad reviews of this hotel. We booked a Concierge level room and to our surprise they upgraded us to a beachfront room which had a nice view, and it was located on the end so that was nice too. Now with the Concierge service, I was extremely disappointed. Its basically run by a bunch of college kids who have no idea what customer service is. Denfinitely not worth the extra money that we spent ( even though we had a great room with a view ). The customer service as far as the waitstaff and the bartenders and maids was great. Yes service is a little slow,your on island time. The new part of the resort is awesome, the pool is amazing. The resturants were all good, and the food was actually pretty good. Its true about the mosquitos they are horrible, but I brought a can of OFF with me and never had one bite on my body. As for the jellyfish, they are there, so watch out. Although I had a great honeymoon, this resort is only what you make of it. I work for an airline and have the ability to travel to many different resorts, this is one I would not visit again.