Since this was a trip in celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary, we decided to chose Sandals. Our trip was nice but we never experienced the "Sandals Bang" that we were expecting. We usually travel twice a year, so we have many resorts that we were comparing to Sandals Grande Antigua and found that better service, food and entertainment were found at those resorts for almost 1/3 the cost. The Mediterranean Village was absolutely beautiful. That is the side we stayed in. We had a Portifino Suite. The Caribbean side is a different story. It is old and worn down and seems to need some major refurbishing. One thing that each side did have in common was this particular attitude the majority of the workers had. The service was slow, and most of the time they seemed annoyed. Only a select few did not need attitude adjustments.

Here is a list of the problems we encountered.

The service at the main bar on the Caribbean side and the pool bar on the Mediterranean Village side needs to be addressed. Service was extremely slow.
The workers seemed to ignore you. Sometimes it took over 5 minutes to get a drink. The exception with the Mediterranean Village pool bar were the students from the Netherlands that arrived on Sunday. Woulter, Rudy and the girl with the beautiful eyes. I think here name was Marta. Great people skills. Very accommodating. Jonathan was great also. The majority of the workers should take people skill lessons from them.

We had some concerns about the music that was being played. One day in particular. I think it may have been Sunday. Sandals advertised the resort as being voted the most romantic? Listening to rap, hip hop and gangster rap is not our idea of romantic. The one secluded bar on the Caribbean side had the most offensive music. Some really intense language in these songs.

Two major issues we had was reservations for dining and obtaining a chair by the pool. It seemed that if you did not have butler service, you were second class guests. I can remember two times not being able to obtain a lounge chair. I was out early and they were taken already. As far as reservations for dinner, the most desirable times were always taken by the butler service.

Kimonos was a great restaurant.
Mario's was okay. Service was very slow. Buffet was good for lunch. Workers did have bad attitudes.
OK Corral was nice one night, awful on the second.
Bayside was okay for dinner. Only went to the buffet twice. Too many birds flying around and landing on bowls and platters.
Barefoot was nice.
Did not experience Eleanor's.
Cricketers was nice. We seem to think that the bar should have been opened before 5. Unfortunately it was not and we think that there should have been a lounge area on the
Mediterranean side during the day that you could get a drink and relax other than the pool bar.

Entertainment was poor. It was almost non existent on the Mediterranean side. The advertised magic show was a joke.

We are beach people but refrained from using the beach due to the annoying vendors and the inconvenience experienced when trying to get back into the resort. They need to devise a more accommodating procedure for re-entering the resort.

The Portofino suite was beautiful. We would have liked to have used the Jacuzzi more than once but it seemed that it never worked properly. The floors in the bathroom area and toilet area should have been cleaned more often. The bar was not stocked on a daily basis. We also had worries of theft, since friends that we met had a dress stolen from their room. No concessions were made by the staff.

When checking out our luggage was taken, only to discover about 1 1/2 hours later it was out in the open lobby and not locked up in the holding room.

After reading many previous negative reviews about the resort we were informed that matters were being addressed by Sandals and decided to proceed with our scheduled vacation at the Sandals Grande Antigua. Other than the fact that we met many great couples, we regret that this was the resort we chose.

The trip was fantastic. Due to a snow strom in Chicago we missed our connection to Antigua and arrive at Sandals a day late. The staff was a great help and upgraded our room and the rest of the week was tremendous. I had heard the staff was not responsive and this could not be further from the truth. The food was very good and we had a good selection. I would definitely go back.

Just to give you an idea about who we are:

We are a newly married couple in our mid-forties. We travel as much as time and funds allow. We love diving, snorkelling, walking and photography. The trip to Sandals Antigua was for our Honeymoon and like many others we agonised over the venue having read so many adverse reviews. But we like to make up our own minds about things and having had a lovely holiday in Sandals St Lucia thought we would give it a go.

Here's what we found:

Reception

On arrival we were greeted with a lovely cold face towel and several glasses of bubbly while we were checked in. We were then walked to our room and our luggage arrived within minutes. All in all a very good start.

Rooms

We were upgraded to a Honeymoon Concierge suite complete with mini bar. Which was lovely but not always fully restocked unless explicitly asked. Nevertheless we liked our room. It was comfortable, clean and all the plumbing, fans and lights etc. were working. Not 5 star luxury but more than adequate.

Pools

The Honeymoon suite area had its own smaller pool which was much quieter and well away from the main pool and bar areas, which suited us well. As others have commented, the sun bed & umbrella reserving fiasco becomes extremely tedious when you realise that you have to partake, or miss out, as some people were reserving beds for morning and afternoon sun position, with extra beds for shade!!! The pool was vacuumed regularly early in the morning so was always fresh and clean.

Bars

Service at the bars was always good and friendly with no long waits. Although we never used the main pool bar which seemed to get the majority of the complaints in other reviews.

Restaurants

We found the food to be of a generally okay standard in most restaurants. The reservation system seemed to be weighted towards butler serviced rooms. Although we had concierge facilities they rarely managed to get us a booking at the restaurant/time we requested. Purely because they, like guests, were restricted to the 2 day max. advance booking system. Like other reviews we found that the cricketers and barefoot restaurants had a better quality meal than most of the reservation only restaurants (Eleanor's being the exception). Our personal favourite was the superb, yet seemingly unknown to most guests, Sushi Bar next to Kimono's. Barefoot was our most frequented restaurant as it had the best English breakfast and did great lunch and evening meals. The Pizza Bar has a special mention as it gets the award for consistently providing the worst service in the whole resort. The pizzas are actually very good as long as you can palate the large dose of attitude from the staff that you had to drag away from the bar/service area to place your order. We are what you might describe as the typical quiet, non-demanding English couple, but even we found this totally unacceptable. Set aside at least 2 hours for lunch here but 'hey' this is the laid back Caribbean.

Staff/Service

No real complaints. We were always treated well and with respect. Our room was always cleaned well and as we are not the tidiest of people this is not an easy task. The concierge team always worked hard for us but were battling against an unfair system. When walking around the staff always greeted you with a smile as they passed and were always happy to answer any questions asked.

Sandals really should consider providing room service to all rooms as it is supposed to be an 'ultra all inclusive 5 star resort'. We have had this service at resorts costing half Sandals rates and feel that it is essential for the 'pampered experience' they market their packages as being.

Possibly the biggest gripe we have is the practice of booking huge corporate events (350+ on our visit) at a resort boasting to be the most romantic holiday experience. This completely shatters any hope of that as it really affected the mood and atmosphere of the whole resort for both staff and guests.

Grounds

The gardens around the Caribbean village were all excellently tended and gave a wonderful atmosphere of the tropics. Beautiful!!

Diving

The 'usual' Sandals experience. Large groups with 1 instructor/guide. Inaccurately briefed dives. Minimal observation by instructors. Poorly serviced/malfunctioning equipment. In other words its a 'take care of yourself and buddy' dive. Therefore make sure that you do the standard buddy equipment checks etc. BEFORE you enter the water.

Snorkelling

One of our favourite activities unfortunately ruined by:
Inadequate boat (with a loop of rope instead of a ladder for access).
Poor snorkelling sites (too exposed to strong currents, swell and close to razor sharp rocky outcrops). We are both experienced divers and were using our own equipment and still found it too choppy to get within 10ft of the rocks for fear of being injured. In our group there were complete newcomers to snorkelling who struggled terribly and got no pleasure from the experience. We feel that these conditions were not suitable for beginners and trips should either use a more sheltered location or not be attempted on those days with adverse conditions.

In Conclusion

We enjoyed our holiday in Antigua, its a really beautiful island made very special by a wonderful driver (Tony) who took us on a 2 day tour. He shared his many years of life and knowledge of the history, people and places of interest and beauty.
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Of Sandals, there is good and bad. Appreciate the good and don't dwell on the bad was our philosophy. We came home smiling but not sure we'd return to that resort.

Had a great time! Stayed in the Mediterranean Village in a Portofino Suite, loved it! But, the entertainment is definitely more in the Caribbean Grove...I think the Mediterranean Village needs to upgrade their entertainment at night. And they need to do something with the pizza place...like offer more choices and increase the staff because its right by the pool, people are hungry and are going to want food faster than an hour and a half wait time for pizza.
You can definitely tell the staff difference between the Mediterranean Village side vs the Caribbean Grove side. The Caribbean Grove staff are friendlier and more knowledgable about the grounds. The Mediterranean Village staff were sometimes rude and would ignore you. NOT GOOD! The worst service was at Barefoot by the Sea, very rude and unprofessional wait staff. AND SLOW SERVICE, it took like 30 minutes to get eggwhites!!
But overall, the accomodations wer lovely, the housekeeping staff and bar staff were great, the food was great (love Sugar in Kimono's and Marios was superb!)
Pool Bar staff were sometimes slow, like they would pretend they were cleaning the counter when you were waiting for a drink, but if you were abrupt they would acknowledge you finally...again, perhaps the upgraded Mediterranean Village is throwing them, they need to re-vamp the staff and get their butts in gear!