TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Great location, great service and great food. The Sandals team has given us the best services and we loved the private island retreat.WIll be back

Having previously stayed at Sandals Grande St. Lucia and been blown away by the experience, we had high hopes for Sandals Royal Bahamian. Unfortunately, this resort fell far short of the Sandals brand promise and left us extremely disappointed. First, I want to highlight the one true standout of our stay: Jerdavanique in the Club Sandals reception. She was consistently warm, friendly, and incredibly helpful. She went out of her way to resolve issues we encountered, such as our room telephone not working and our shower only producing scalding hot water with no way to adjust it. Her kindness and professionalism were a bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming experience. Staff and service Before arriving, we had seen very mixed reviews online about the staff and service. Given our previous overwhelmingly positive experience at Sandals Grande St Lucia, we hoped these were just overly critical travelers, but sadly, we found the concerns to be valid. The majority of the staff we interacted with seemed disinterested and unhappy to be there. Despite our politeness and real effort to engage with the staff, the majority were genuinely not interested and left us feeling like we were an inconvenience. This left us feeling completely undervalued and disheartened and had such an impact on our stay as you are interacting with the staff throughout your day and evening whilst in the restaurants, at the bars and just around the resort in general. Service at the restaurants was slow, with food taking an incredibly long time to arrive (we visited all except for Soy and The Queen’s Pearl). On top of that, Gordon’s the lovely restaurant over the water was closed for the duration of our stay and the Italian restaurant was closed for lunch 6 days in a row – frustrating inconsistencies that added to the sense that this resort is not operating at full capacity or quality. Food Overall the food at the resort was very average and definitely not the high quality you would expect for the price you have paid. The restaurants that required reservations were better. Swim up room We also paid extra for a swim-up room, which we were very excited about. Sadly, this was another letdown. The pool was so cold it was completely unusable, even though the weather during our stay was warm and beautiful. It clearly wasn’t heated or maintained at a comfortable temperature, and we weren’t able to enjoy this feature at all. For the additional cost, this was incredibly disappointing. Housekeeping During our stay, the housekeeping service was below expectations. On most days, the sink was not cleaned, and it often felt like the room had only received the bare minimum attention—just the bed being made. For two days, we were left with one towel in the room, meaning that my husband had to use the pool towels after showering. Despite raising this issue twice in person at the Club Sandals reception and also calling from our room, the situation was not resolved promptly. This lack of basic cleanliness and responsiveness was extremely disappointing. In comparison to our time at Sandals Grande St. Lucia – where every detail felt polished and staff went out of their way to make our stay special – the Royal Bahamian experience felt far from luxurious and certainly not worth the extremely high price. The value just isn’t there, and sadly, this stay has left us unwilling to book with Sandals again in the future. A few mentions for staff who did stand out in a positive way: • Static (Paul) – the entertainment manager, who brought energy and fun when around. • Bradley at Tesoro - so friendly and welcoming. • Paris at the food van – always had a smile. • The man who ran the snorkelling trips – friendly and professional. I hope that by writing this review, it will help others to make an informed decision. It would be my advice that if you are thinking about booking to stay in the Bahamas (which is an absolutely beautiful place to be!), stay somewhere else where you will hopefully receive value for your money. My husband and I are not ones to moan or complain but I simply cannot express enough just how disappointed we are with our stay here at this resort.

My wife and I just returned from a 7-day stay in the West buidling. It was our fifth Sandals trip over the past four years (Grenada, Montego Bay, Royal Barbados and Grenada again). We have had butler rooms twice and club level rooms three times. The butler service was extremely helpful on this trip because many guests complained about dinner reservations but ours were taken care exactly as requested. Thank you Garth and Jackie. We dove four days, went to the private island one day, and stayed at the main resort on the other day. The dive shop/boat staff were all very helpful and friendly, especially Wenzel and Calvin. Unfortunately the wake at the resort required taking the shuttle to the marina three of the four days. Dinners were genererally very good, but the lunches were so-so. Very disappointed that the pizza oven at Tesoro was broken for the last five days so we only enjoyed the pizza (delicious) once. The Sweet Treats food truck was a great option for coffee and pastries, especially eary in the morning. Omonique (Butch's) and Maria (Tesoro) were both exceptional wait staff. We had mixed results at the various bars. The bar outside Butch's and La Plume was by far the best. I recommend Mr B's Old Fashioned cocktail. Marcian was by far the best bartender on the property - extremely professional, hard working, and personable. Tevin was also very good at the pool by the West building. I recommend the Caribbean Mule cocktail. We stayed in a 1-bedroom penthouse room, initially 1605. It was huge but the view was not very good. The patio faced the resturant roofs. Fortunately we were able to move to 1602 after two nights which was smaller but the view was much nicer. Travel was extremely convenient, roughly a 3 1/2-hour direct flight from Boston. The Rolls Royce transfer to/from the airport was cool. Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip but this property was not as nice as many of the other Sandals resorts where we've previosuly stayed. There just seemed to be a lot of facility issues. The hot tub on the private island, and one of the two at the pool by the East building were out of service all week. From what I have read, the island hot tub has been closed for years. One of the elevators was down for two days in our building and both were out of service one day. As mentioned, Tesoro was closed for lunch most of the week and the Queen's Pearl was not a great substitute. Housekeeping was good but many days there seemed to be a shortage of bath towels. We had to call several times to get some delivered. There was a shortage of chairs at the pools in the morning and afternoon. Although we had butlers, we didn't want to reserve chairs on the days when we dove.

Ricardo chauffeured his UGA Rolls (black with black and red interior) to deliver us royally. Shanell led our butler team with Breon and Aaron to pamper us royally. This was the first of seven Sandals visits where I was well aware my preference sheet was studied and filled. Custom liquor and snack requests were in the room at arrival. My husbands special beach requests of ice cold beer, beer, beer and a straight backed chair were ready for us daily. He looked Royal on the beach in his rattan throne, with pillows. Shanell secured a Sandals float for me in our swimup. The resort has grand decor with pink pool tables, brass foot rails and the Royals history in the piano bar. The grounds are exotic full of lobster claws (helliconia), bottle brushes, plumeria, bougainvillea, orchids, hibiscus, mandevilla, shell ginger, oleander, coconut, ponytail and fishtail palms.

This is a nicely laid out resort and we enjoyed the quieter of the 2 pools. That said we were very taken with the island (Barefoot Cay) a 5 min boat ride away (complimentary). The beach here was largely a tranquil zone, with the pool by the restaurant & bar being livelier. Overall the staff were friendly and efficient, with the Loyalty team being the standout crew (going beyond their role to make sure we were happy), Chuck deserving of a shout out and the barmen in the piano bar being top notch. Food was great as was the accommodation, we’d be happy to come here again.