Sandals Royal Barbados

paul sambrooks

We visited this resort in Feb 2024 We had excellent weather and the overall presentation of the resort was very good however the room décor and furniture is somewhat dated even in the newer Sandals Royal section. Whilst all staff were very friendly and helpful. The service in restaurants was barely acceptable. We were kept waiting (10mins) at the greeting point on multiple occasions and the lack of even acknowledgment comes across as rude. On a number of occasions there was long periods of no attention either for drinks or clearing tables between courses. The quality of food was hit or miss. We had excellent meals at Portofino, La Parisian, Butch's only for these to be let down by the service level. Kimonos was just about acceptable on both counts. The daytime service at the beech bar, Dinos and Mariner along with Neptunes was excellent on each occasion visited. Spices breakfast was barely acceptable for both quality of food or service. A line of 20 guests at the greeting station is unacceptable for a buffet restaurant. The maître-d should not have to take each guest to their table and keep the remainder of the line waiting. They should pass this duty to other staff. Pastries throughout the resort did not seem like they were fresh that morning. American Tavern was barely acceptable for quality of food or service. Steaks on two occasions were poor quality cuts and poorly prepared. Cafe-de-Paris is very poorly staffed and needs attention. It is not acceptable for the server taking the orders to make coffees, provide pastries and make crepes. this is bound to create delays. All restaurants need more staff. They were rarely full yet getting a reservation or good service was always a problem. Room service needs to be extended to a least midnight to offer an alternative for guests arriving late or who have had a poor dining experience. Sandals has a reputation of being a high class resort. It appears to be living off this past reputation rather than improving its brand.

Charles Brackin

The employees who are grounds keepers and house keepers are very nice and a pleasure to talk to. 90% of the restaurant servers are nice but you can tell some are very over worked and stressed. The food was just not as good as other Sandals, period. We had a couple of roaches take a stroll across the table at Bombay . Not good! The concierges are terrible and we felt like they just told us what we wanted to hear! We asked for a mattress topper when we arrived on Monday, again on Wednesday, again on Friday, and I was very nice about it. After sleeping on the couch Friday and Saturday we finally got one on Sunday, just in time to leave on Monday. Honestly you can tell the the facility as a whole, needs better maintenance. A lot of the pool tiles are worn out and missing, and just a lot of little things that could be replaced or repaired. The drink menu's at the pool bars are so worn out you can barely read them. Our friends had the butler service and it was terrible. They asked their butler to make dinner reservations and they completely blew it 3 times, then wouldn't answer the phone. Their room was also out of hot water for 2 days. It's just a lot of little things that make a big difference. St Lucia, Grenada, and South Coast are maintained much better. It's sad because this property could be so much better if management did a better job. There were always towels at the pool, and house keeping always did a great job replacing towels and things in the room. The beach at the resort is beautiful, but a little to rough to snorkel when we were there. Captain Larry's tour was nice. We swam with the turtles, fed the monkeys and saw the north end of the island. Very nice. Honestly we are not "Karens" and I very rarely complain or write reviews about any vacation, but this was our experience. Jan 20-27, 2025

Kaylee

This was our first time in Barbados but not our first time with Sandals. There were a few trade offs with this resort that I noticed that isn’t consistent with other Sandals locations. For example, the food was great but wait times would often be a few hours to receive the food or be incorrect. The only restaurant that did not have this problem was Soy. Soy consistently had fast and friendly service with amazing food! There were a few facilities issues on our trip as well. For example, some of the fixtures in the room didnt fit correctly and so there was a visible hole in the wall as pictured. Also, our room was across from a service closet but workers would consistently leave bags of trash in the hallway and even let it sit all day and overnight so the smell was not pleasant. The service was hit or miss. We had a few very happy, kind, and helpful workers but also there were times when it was difficult to get any assistance. One person in our party went to the help desk 4 separate times for the same issue because it had not been resolved and she was told that the worker who had been assigned that task was out for the next few days but that they would do it when the worker was back. It did not make sense to me that they wouldnt just reassign this to another person since it wasnt a specialized task. Next, we booked fishing through the resort and we were up at 5 in the morning for our taxi that Sandals arranged. After waiting 20 minutes past the arranged time, our taxi driver found us and stated that Sandals told him to arrive at the Sandals Barbados entrance, not the Sandals Royal Barbados entrance, which was frustrating. We also booked snorkeling through Sandals, which is included. The snorkeling team was very kind and knowledgeable and made that experience awesome! I highly recommend booking the included snorkeling ahead of time. The views of the resort were fantastic and we were very excited about the private beach because that was supposed to mean that no one would be trying to sell us things. This was not the case. The first time we stepped on the beach there were a group of men who asked us if we wanted to buy weed/edibles. This was an uncomfortable experience and the only other time we went to the beach after was to watch the sunset. We also visited the spa and that was quite relaxing. The spa was clean and had a calm atmosphere. The surrounding area of the resort felt safe and we went to the fish market one night per a recommendation from someone at the resort. The fish market had long lines so if you plan to go make sure you go early. We spent most of our time at the infinity pool, which seemed to have the most activities. We went to a quieter pool a different day and the pool had algae around the perimeter so we did not go back to that one after. When we were a day out from leaving, our flight information had been updated/changed 2 days prior. No one at the desk let us know and its a good thing that we took it upon ourselves to check because our flight got moved up! Sandals is supposed to have the flight information and taxis arranged and have them be accurate. If we did not bring this up to them, we would have missed our flight by a few hours. Lastly, we had a few issues with our rooms. We had 8 people total so we had 4 rooms. In some of the rooms the shades were broken or missing. My room had both the blackout shades and the white gauzy shades but other people in my party only had 1 type. It felt a little deceptive because if we didnt have those multiple rooms we wouldnt have noticed this so there are guests who are paying for the same room as someone else but not receiving the same things as other guests in the same room type. Two people in our party stayed on the lowest level and their room had many problems. The room smelled musty/moldy the entire stay, one of the doors didnt open (it was stuck and warped from moisture i think), and the battery on the door needed to be replaced. Overall, this vacation was enjoyable based on location but perhaps did not meet Sandals resort expectations in my opinion.

Candace Gauthier

We just got back from our honey moon and this was our first sandals experience and stayed at royal. We are already planing our trip to our next sandals and back to Barbados ! The staff was beyond friendly and so were the guests ! Next time we Want to explore Barbados more off the resort with some activities . I highly suggest doing the candle light dinner and sunset photos with their photo team ! Also suggest a swim up pool room , it was the best !! Now I said 4 as we had issues with American airline canceling our flight before out early morning flight last minute , so we called the resort and they rebooked us on a better flight same time frame with Delta . This was at about midnight and we had to leave for the airport at 2am. I go to do the mobile check in and it won’t let us so we tried calling the resort back as we found out the resort did not ticket delta so they couldn’t get the boarding pass. So I tried to call back the resort and they close all lines at midnight and there is no emergency contact which is a big isssue Sandals needs to add as an option . We went to the airport anyways 4 hours early and still nothing and delta then said because of sandals mistake we either had to pay an additional 2800 dollars or miss our honeymoon essentially . Last minute I after nonstop trying I got the check in and we by a few minutes made our flight . After speaking to sandals when we arrived they did mess up and didn’t ticket the correction flight properly causing us much stress . So I would suggest this process be fixed and a emergency line added. I was told though they would issue me some refund in the flight side so I will be watching for this and appreciated them owning and resolving the problem ! On a side note I will NEVER fly with American Airlines again lol! Overall though 4/5 we will be back!

Jodie Harden

We enjoyed a week at Sandals Barbados but not without a few issues. The resort is lovely, the location is great and there are plenty of restaurants and pools to enjoy. We had a butter service, which was OK, but not really that necessary for us. With all the good, we had 2 major issues! First, our room was not cleaned for 2 consecutive days!!! We had to make someone solve the issue the second day! Nobody took the initiative to correct it the first day! This was VERY inconvenient!!! The positive on this was that once they sent someone to clean it the second day, they sent 2 OUTSTANDING individuals, Amanda & Joseph!!!!!! They should win “Employees of the Month”, in my book!!! They worked hard, quickly and were VERY pleasant!!! Second, it took me 2 hours, over 2 days, to get a false $60 taxi charge off my bill before we could checkout! They wouldn’t accept my word that we never used a taxi but finally got another room’s butler to admit he charged it to the wrong room! Again, we loved the actual resort and most all of the staff but I would not spent that amount of money to go there again, after what we experienced.