First I would like to justify our critique. Both my wife and myself are seasoned travelers and frequent the Caribbean. We have just returned from a week at Sandals St. Lucia Halcyon. 11/03/2012-11/10/12.
First, if you are a serious beach/water person you might not want to pick this resort. It is not what you see in the pictures. It was too rough to enjoy the ocean and the water was stirred up and murky. Not the crystal blue you see in pictures. Have to settle for the pool.

The food at Mario's and Pier Restaurant are pushing 4 star with service to match. However, the food at the Bayside is hotel grade at the best. Service is spotty and there are times when no service is around. JUST FOR A HEADS UP, BOTH MYSELF AND MY WIFE GOT SEVERELY SICK ONE NIGHT AFTER EATING AT BAYSIDE. WE ALSO RAN INTO SEVERAL OTHER COUPLES WHO DID ALSO THE SAME EVENING. SO I QUESTION THEIR SANITATION.

Transportation buses are available to travel between Sandals resorts, however there appears to be a problem with there being enough buses. We had dinner reservations at another resort for 6:00 and attempted to use the 5:15 bus. It arrived at the our resort already full from another resort. We finally arrived for dinner at 6:45. Just to add a footnote, it is apparent that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing at this resort.

The property is nicely kept however is becoming very worn out and needs to be updated for it to be the quality Sandals advertises.

Housekeeping was superb. Our little St Luciana gal, Shermina, could not do enough for us. Its such a shame the rest of the resort doesn't share her passion!

In summery, we would say that if you were to compare Halcyon with other Sandals resorts, Couples resorts in Jamaica and several other Caribbean resorts; Chose elsewhere, this is a poor bang for your buck!

I visited Halcyon for the first time in 2007 with my now husband… it was a first time at an all inclusive and at Sandals and we really enjoyed ourselves. Back then there were some other guests our age and there was a little night life. This past time was very different…. We also got the feeling of really not being welcomed by the staff because of our age… this time they were very rude especially about the “dress code” that they enforce when they want to. The worst experience was going to the pier restaurant. We were told “Leather Sandals” were appropriate so my husband had leather sandals on. The hostess was so rude and said we couldn’t come in… fine.. so he went and put full shoes on. We came back and were seated the whole time she is rolling her eyes at us. When we were sitting we look behind us and there is a man (Probably in his 60’s) wearing shorts and flip flops… also another women who was in her 50’s looking a mess… braids in her hair (which was wet) and a sun dress wrap. We were both dressed very nicely…I just feel we were treated differently because we were in our late 20’s. We didn’t even eat our dinner and I left in tears because I was so angry…We complained to the manager on duty and she did nothing just said that we should follow the dress code. We ended up spending all the rest of our days at Sandals Grande where there was fun music… better food… and a more laid back vibe. Food is good at Mario’s but other then that the food is just average. Service is just OK there is no real urgency and there were some rude staff. The only exception is the Hostess and the servers at Mario’s… they were all fantastic! It was a sad disappointing experience to think the place we loved years ago we are no longer welcomed at…maybe we will give them another chance but it isn’t likely.

Everything about our honeymoon was perfect!! We stayed at Halycon Beach Sept 30th-October 8th, 2012 for our honeymoon. We loved the small, quaint feel of this resort. (We visited the Grande one day and felt we were "just a number") The staff was amazing (Nikki, the 'playmaker' had us laughing at the pool and got everyone involved) The gardens/beaches were spectacular and the view from our room was right out of a movie. (We were in room 110, overlooking the beach) Everyone from the GM to the housekeeper was pleasant, smiling, and eager to serve. You can really tell they take pride in their resort, and country. Although other reviews commented on the poor quality of the food, we LOVED the food! (Great fruit and local cuisine) If we didn't have to return to work, we would have extended our trip a day or two. We will DEFINITELY be back (Hopefully for our 5 year anniversary!!) Erin and Andrew Quarino

WE STAYED AT SANDALS HALCYON ON OCT 11th though the 17th. We had two and a half day of Tropical storm Ralph. But the other days were nice. We were in room 716 (the Laborie Building, # 8 on their resort map). Nice room, kept clean, nothing really special about it. The room entrance was adjacent to city road, but you did not hear any road noise. The balcony side over looked the quiet pool if there was not a large tree in the way…. Oh well. The staff had all been very friendly. The beach was not appealing at all. But in all fairness we did have a lot of rain. This resort needs to be looked at by Butch and his son Adam quick. I had seen several issues of maintenance that I had seen at 3 star resorts, which I would feel that Sandals would and should be on top of!!! A few of the issues were the tile and grout, in and around the pool and swim-up bar at the main pool!!
The food was ok for the most part. The Bayside restaurant was redundant. The Pier restaurant was good. Mario’s restaurant was the best. They do try to push whole bottles of wine on you for an additional charge. The house reds were just fine.
The other resorts were as nice. Their beaches were not great either. The better of the three was the Grand. La Toc had a 9 hole golf course… don’t go for the golf! It’s included but, club, cart and shoe rental, with caddy tip, still cost 125usd for two. Not so all included! So, now we’ve been the seven Sandals/Beaches/Grand Pineapple resort properties, the three on St Lucia are at the bottom of the list over all. But with that said, we would go back if the price was right.