Sandals Halcyon Beach

31st august- 14th September Lovely hotel, very clean, staff very welcoming and polite. Me and my partner got married here and couldn’t off asked for a better day. A big thank you to Shandula for making it a wedding to remember and for sorting everything out for the big day. Also would like to thank 2 bar staff Chris and Kareem for been very friendly, chatty and always bringing us drinks. Also a big shout out to Dyllan the entertainment, always putting a smile on people faces and making the night to remember. I would recommend this hotel for a wedding or honeymoon.

My wife, Sylvia Gregory, and I, Winford Jackson, received exceptional service from the entire staff—from the line staff all the way up to upper management. The entire team worked seamlessly together and cared for us with relentless attention to detail, ensuring all of our needs were met. I was deeply impressed by the professionalism, dedication, and commitment to even the smallest details related to our comfort, enjoyment, and overall stay. I would like to acknowledge several individuals whose superior service and dedication helped make our stay a lifetime memory. General Manager Sharon provided the best hospitality I have experienced in all my travels. She led by example, demonstrating that no task was too small for her to personally address. Her hands-on leadership is a true model of excellence. Ava was exceptionally attentive, ensuring that all of my concerns were addressed quickly and with care. Her professionalism and responsiveness greatly enhanced our stay. Chef Mr. Singh prepared a fabulous dinner that exceeded expectations, while the waitress who served us was both courteous and highly professional. Donna, Veronica, Sharene, and Shanelle also contributed to the outstanding service we received, each playing a role in making our experience memorable. As a retired Federal Law Enforcement Officer and a wartime veteran, I was especially impressed with the organizational skills, teamwork, and proficiency demonstrated by this remarkable staff. Their coordinated efforts ensured that every aspect of our stay, from dining to room maintenance, was addressed with efficiency and genuine care. This team exemplifies the highest standard of hospitality, and I am grateful for their efforts. They are truly deserving of recognition for their exceptional service. Sincerely, Winford Jackson & Sylvia Gregory

We wanted to provide you with some feedback on how disappointed we were with our ONCE in a lifetime honeymoon experience/stay at this property in St Lucia. Having first hand family experience at Sandals properties and reading glowing reviews, we regretfully report that our experience was not even close to the standard Sandals prides itself on. THE main difference that was evident was the staff on property were NOT up to the level of service standards Sandals is known for. Not only did they not know answers to questions (different individuals gave different answers to the same question), they did not seem to be guest centered and attentive to the needs of the guests. Every request seemed to be an annoyance, and they didn’t want to be bothered, EXCEPT for the bartenders. They were great. Another significant issue was the “hard selling” of services, excursions, etc. We paid a PREMIUM cost for our once in a lifetime week on property- we investigated other potential activities like the spa or excursions- and had decided we did not want to participate in any of them. It is extremely bad form to have hard sales in our faces to the extent they were! It made us feel uncomfortable and disrupted our peace and relaxation. And joining the Club Sandals?!?! There would be NO way someone would agree to that with the experience we had. Some specific examples to provide further context: Upon arrival around 4:45 pm we were exhausted and hungry and just wanted to get room service but did not have a menu in the room. We called to ask for one but after about 20-30 minutes none had arrived. Called again- they said, did you call for water? NO- a room service menu. Then waters were delivered. After a 3rd call and over an hour of time, it was finally delivered. This led to another challenge related to getting gluten free food- the information we had read seemed to indicate this would not be a problem. Our stay at Beeches in Turks was amazing with GF food options and not a problem what so ever. But here, starting with this room service issue, both the information the employees gave and the challenge of getting GF food was quite a problem- adding to the time to get our very first meal on property at this all inclusive resort! The misinformation around getting GF was ridiculous- one person would say you have to order your GF pancakes 24 hours in advance. It felt like the rest of the customer experience- it was a BOTHER to the staff, and we could not get clear information. ALL INCLUSIVE food- making that a challenge and a bother is also BAD FORM! And a STRESS on our once in a lifetime honeymoon which we just wanted to relax and enjoy each other. 830am someone came to our door knocked and was asking if we needed anything!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! When we were asking for customer service assistance and help we couldn’t get it but then every morning someone was going to ask and WAKE us up!??!?! Not only that, they would try to let themselves in!! What a HUGE invasion of our peace, and rest and privacy!! What a BAD way to start our days!! One way we would deal with the rain and just chill was by watching a movie by mirroring our laptop. For some STRANGE reason you swapped out our TV midweek and the “new” TV would not mirror so we could not utilize. When I called to ask the answer was, yes, we switched it and there is nothing we can do to help you. Another HUGE disruption to our peace and quiet was the renovation projects going on in the rooms next to us. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!! Constant noise! People coming and going! Workers ogling my new wife. CLOSE the hole unit and get the work done! Another way we felt uncomfortable and undervalued as guests!!! Another small but illustrative example- I bought motrin. I received a call that I had only paid for one could I come back to pay for the 2nd? We were getting ready for dinner and they closed at 4- the time was now 3:45. Seriously?!?!? I have to rush and be put out because of YOUR mistake on YOUR short timeline?!?!? To further HIGHLIGHT how lacking our experience was on our property- when we went to Sandals Grande St Lucian our experience was amazing! What we expected when we paid for this week at our property. What everyone comes to expect from Sandals. The service there made us feel welcomed and valued and was amazing! Sandals responded to our complaints we emailed after our trip with a small on property credit. Based on what we paid and the ONCE in a lifetime honeymoon experience, it was a pretty lame service recovery attempt.

This was a wonderful stay in paradise! We loved the paradise pool and quiet beach. We loved the entertainment and the extra details

We stayed for 10 nights and had a wonderful holiday and wedding. From the moment we booked the holiday, the wedding team got in touch to go through the different options. We didn’t go for many extras as it was just the two of us, but we did get a photography package and an hair appointment for myself. The wedding planner did try to upsell some of the options such as spa treatments, different tableware options but we did not go for any of these as we wanted to keep it simple. There was no further pressure to upgrade. Prior to arriving to Halcyon, the online wedding portal was really easy to use to upload the necessary paperwork we needed to get our marriage license (birth certificate, passport and wedding form). We had a few more emails from the wedding planner to check we were happy with everything. We could have had more phone calls if we wanted but we were very laid back with it all. So onto the holiday. We had planned to get the helicopter, our travel agent booked this through sandals so that we could get the free shuttle if the helicopter was cancelled. Well due to the weather, the helicopter did not happen (we tried to organise it for our departure but there was only us that had booked (you need to have 4 people per flight or you have to pay double). The staff member on the excursion desk was really helpful with this and we were able to get a full refund, which arrived in our bank account within a week of arriving back home. At the airport we arrived around the same time as a US flight so it was really busy, our bags took ages to come through, we were probably in the airport for around an hour. After going through security, there were some people offering to take our bags for us. I had read on here that they would expect a tip and they would literally be walking 5 meters. So we just politely said thank you and they just nodded and said have a nice day. The Sandals lounge is a bit confusing to find. You turn right past security. Up ahead of you is the main doors into the arrival lounge. Before you get to this door there is a door to your left, that does say Sandals but when I opened the door it looked like an empty room, it was only when I looked around the door did I see the welcome desk. The lounge had some rest rooms, some nibbles and drinks. We were only in there for 20 minutes before our shuttle bus arrived. They gave us some bottles of water for our journey. We travelled to the resort with another couple. Our driver gave us the WiFi code and pointed out loads of things on the way. The journey was really pleasant. Our driver knew where all the pot holes were and checked in on us throughout the journey. Arriving at Halcyon, we were welcomed with cold wet towels and the Sandals song. We were then taken to the club lounge and handed a welcome cocktail and an iPad to check in. Whilst we were doing this, one of the wedding team came to meet us and handed us some Mr and Mrs shot glasses and a letter with details of our wedding meeting the next day. Shortly after this, we were taken to our room. We were staying in the beach front room with tranquility tub. It looked out to the gazebo where we got married so was a perfect location. After settling in, we went to the main restaurant to get some dinner. It was a French menu. The food was good, not my favourite during our stay but service was really quick. We then went to the bar which is located by the main pool. We found that there was not a lot of seating around the entertainment, it was quite scattered. I think they could maybe move some of the sunbeds out of the way in the evening and put more table and chairs out to encourage more people to stay out. Lots of people just headed back to their rooms. I struggled to sleep the first night due to the noise of the wildlife but you do quickly get use to it. The next day we had our meeting with our wedding team. We did some cake tasting, drank a lot of champagne and filled in all of the forms. We chose our wedding food, breakfast in bed menu and the drinks for our reception. We also gave the wedding team our song choices and they downloaded them whilst we were there so we could check they were the correct versions. I thought we would have to get a taxi to Castries to get our wedding license, but they organised the Justice of the Peace to come to us, so it was so so easy! The photographer also popped by during this meeting so we could explain what photos we wanted. We were in the wedding office for about 2 hours in total. We then went to the club lounge to book in our restaurant choices and also to the excursion desk to book the waterfall, mud baths and snorkeling trip (which was so much fun and a definitely must). We spent the rest of the day in the party pool where we played water volleyball and took part in the quizzes. The spa team did come over but once we said we were not interested they did not come over to us again for the rest of the holiday. That evening we went to Kamono’s. The food was delicious, it was very entertaining and we really enjoyed the meal, so we made sure to we went back again during our stay. We also tried all the other restaurants at Halcyon. Our favourite meal during our holiday was at La Toc and was a new restaurant called Buccan which was a family style restaurant serving a set menu of local dishes. The food was delicious and I would highly recommend this restaurant. It was such a shame it was not located at Halcyon, as we would have gone back again to it. We spent the next day at the other pool. This was a lot quieter and there were plenty of beds available. The staff in the swim up bar were really attentive. They also came around the pool throughout the day to see if we wanted more drinks. Later on we went to the piano sing along entertainment in Kelly’s. It was really good. There wasn’t a lot of people there but it meant we got to ask for some of our favourite songs that we could all sing along to. The day of our wedding I had my hair appointment at 11.00am, where one of the wedding team came to meet me with a bottle of champagne. I then went back our room to get ready. From our room we could see everything being set up. About half an hour before the wedding, my partner went to the wedding office to meet the registrar whilst I finished off getting ready. About 10 minutes before our wedding, Techla came to my room to help me get into my dress. The ceremony was magical, the wedding team guided us through everything and took some photos on our phones so we had some photos straight away. After the ceremony we went with the photographer to take some pictures around the gardens and when we arrived back the gazebo was set up with a table with some canapés, champagne and a cocktail each. Our wedding cake was also set up on a separate table. We did our first dance and then they left us alone to eat and drink. We then cut the cake and went with the photograph to the beach for some more pictures. Afterwards we headed back to our room which was decorated with rose petals and a happily ever after neon sign. It was so beautiful. Our wedding cake was also in our room. The top tier of our cake was frozen and we collected it on the day of departure and brought it home with us. Later on we had dinner at Kelly’s which had been decorated for us and champagne was in a bucket waiting for us. Our room manager also popped by to say congratulations and gave us a little gift. We then went to the main bar for some cocktails and then spent a few hours in the hidden whirlpool by the beach on our own under the stars. The rest of the honeymoon went in a blur, lots more drinking, eating, laying by the pool, going into the sea etc. We didn’t get a chance to go to the Grand and we were wanting to go kayaking but we never got round to it. We had the best holiday, wedding and honeymoon and were gutted to leave. We will definitely be coming back on one of our anniversary’s. Saint Lucia and Sandals Halcyon will always be a really special place to us.