Resort is average
+We didn’t really love the Sandals Royal Barbados vibe. There was so much work being done around the resort during our stay.
Breakfast at Bombay was blah, and Cornelia never seemed to be in a good mood 😁. Lunch at American Tavern was okay, nothing amazing. Spices, where breakfast is served, was still being worked on. The pool by Portofino’s, the Italian restaurant, always looked like it was never really clean. I even tried to clean it myself, but the pool skimmer didn’t have a net on it. They really need to show more love to that area. There also weren’t any deep pools to swim in, which was unfortunate.
We stayed Club Level Ocean View, room 1408, and we loved the view of the ocean. There weren’t any towel hangers on the balcony, and the room felt a little rushed in terms of the finishing touches. There was still spackle on our bathroom door, and one of our drawers was a little messed up. We also had to hold the toilet handle down every time for it to flush properly. Our cleaning lady, Krystal, was amazing. She really kept our room clean every day.
The sargassum was really bad while we were there, although I will give them credit because they tried to clean it up every day. Luckily, we came to Barbados a few days before our Sandals stay and stayed in St. James, where the water was beautiful.
We also found out that you could take a bus from the resort at 10 in the morning and get dropped off at a nearby beach, then get picked back up around 3. It was interesting because once you got about a 10-minute drive away from the resort, the beaches started to look a lot nicer.
There were definitely some good things. The donut shop was amazing! On our last day, August 16th, the lady working at the donut shop that morning, whose name started with a K, had such a great vibe. I wish I could remember her name because she really stood out to us.
Butch’s by Bombay was really good, and Bombay was also good for dinner. Jessica, Molisa, Sagine, Roshawan, Raheem, Rosen, Samir, Damanique, and Samon made my birthday special, and we really appreciated them.
The pizza by the beach was amazing. The bartenders kept the drinks coming, and I really loved how some of them made our mojitos.
Unfortunately, Raheem and another gentleman at the Sky Rooftop on August 10th around 8:30 had some bad attitudes. One gentleman slammed an ice tray on the ground, and it made things very awkward. We left immediately. Some people were friendly, but a lot of others weren’t. That was just my observation during our stay.
Cool Runnings catamaran was awesome. I really liked how they treated us. Harrison’s Cave, the rum tour and cooking class were all fun, but they definitely need to coordinate the pickup times better. Flower Cave was just dangerous in my opinion and honestly nothing great about it 😩.
And the welcome dinner for Emerald, Sapphire, etc.? Disrespectful 😂. We were actually mad that we missed the opportunity to try another restaurant because we went to it. It felt like no thought went into the dinner at all. And then we got another bottle of Jamaican rum again 🤷🏾♂️.
This was our sixth Sandals, and unfortunately, it will be our last. I think we’re just done with the franchise. There were some good moments and some great staff members, but overall this Sandals just didn’t do it for us.
Even though it was my birthday month and I had the opportunity to lock in a deal for another Sandals with a $250 down payment, I decided not to. I know that meant missing out on getting another vacation at a cheaper price, but that’s okay. At this point, we’re ready to try something different.
I’d give Sandals Royal Barbados a 7 out of 10.
Highly Recommended
+Accommodations, dining, atmosphere, entertainment and, most of all, the staff all received my 5 star rating… having been my first experience at a Sandals resort and based on my stay at Sandals Royal Barbados, I will be booking another stay at a Sandals resort…
