My husband and I used RCI for a timeshare week and were really looking forward to our week in Antigua. Our trip was great as we LOVED the island of Antigua and all of the glorious beaches and the rainforest, but our stay at Antigua Village was less than okay. First, realize that Dickensen's Bay is a nice place but overcrowded by the Sandals crowd (and this was LOW season!) who take over the entire beach with their chairs and activities. Sandals is just an atrocity in the beautiful island like Antigua. It is SO out of place and you look a the faces of the people staying there and they do not appear to be having a good time after they dropped a good $5K to stay there. The blaring music and activities from this complex really took away the feeling of relaxation that should be felt on a vacation. My recommendation is to stay elsewhere on the island - Jolly Beach was absolutely gorgeous as were SO many of the other natural, uncommercialized beaches in Antigua.
Back to Antigua Village - we checked in on a Saturday afternoon and were given a nice studio overlooking the pool area. We turned on the A/C and left to take a walk. Upon returning, we knew something was wrong with the A/C as it was only blowing out hot air and it was cooler outside than in the room. We called the front desk and asked for maintenance. They came to our unit twice within an hour and just shrugged saying, 'yep, it doesn't work'. We then had to ask for another room. The front desk fought us with that saying they needed to ask the timeshare office if it was okay. We learned that only a portion of the Village has assigned timeshare units and the remaining units are owner occupied. After a while, we were told it was okay to move, and we should come by and get a new set of keys. We were given a much smaller unit on the other side of the resort that did not even have a table to eat at. As the A/C worked there, we decided to make the best of it.
Note that ALL units have a king size bed which is actually two twins placed together - very uncomfortable.
The next day we decided to have dinner at the unit and discovered the stove did not work. We called the front desk and the response was, 'I will call to see if maintenance FEELS like coming by to fix it'. About an hour later, maintenance came and replaced the propane tank for the stove. We have never cooked on a propane stove before and did not like lighting it with a match everytime.....okay, we got over that issue after a day or so. Then my husband wanted to grill steaks one night and we asked the front desk about the availability of a gas grill (there were many outside around the units). Once again, the front desk was snotty to us and told us we have to wait until the next day and ask the timeshare office if it was okay for us.
Also note that in these units, the only table to eat on was outside on the patio with the lizards and birds.
Each and every time we dealt with the front office for a quick question or issue, we were treated very poorly and sometimes just ignored. When we went there to check out, the clerk made us wait while she returned phone calls and then told us we could not check out until we turned in our beach towels! My husband had to run back and get the towels and take them to housekeeping for a voucher before she would even close out our bill.
We have travelled to many Caribbean islands and stayed at many resorts and RCI exchanges, but this was by far one of our most unpleasant experiences. If we were to stay in Antigua again, we would not go to Dickensen Bay or Antigua Village. There are some peaceful wonderful spots on this island with little resorts that would certainly be much more enjoyable.
On a side note, a few previous reviews talked about a bar across the street that was noisy - there was only a chinese restaurant across the street with a mini golf course. I don't know what they were referring to. The noise from Sandals blaring microphones was what we heard from our unit.
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