Sandals Royal Bahamian

After 14 trips and Diamond membership, discovered they won't refund my deposit. I guess loyalty only works one way. We booked almost all of our trips through the Loyalty Desk. They've always told us it was refundable. They changed their policy but didn't tell us this on our most recent visit. Now we have to cancel our next trip. Never would have booked it had they told us that the deposit is now nonrefundable. You have to read it in the fine print. Really disappointing after spending a significant amount of money with Sandals and they're being so inflexible over this. Look at other all inclusive resorts that will value your business and treat you like a real customer. We really miss the old Sandals when they made you feel special.

We just returned from our third visit to Sandals Royal Bahamian and we had a wonderful time. The resort is beautiful, the food delicious and service excellent. That said, there were a few bumps in the road. We traveled with our adult children and their spouses, which we have done three times before. This is the first time we had separate Butler Service which led to a lot of confusion. Normally, 2/3 Butlers have taken care of us - this time there were 6! Our Butlers - Junior and Doreen were great, always checking in and taking care of whatever we needed. Our daughter and son-in-law had Walden and Samson. Samson was a gem, he took care of my husband and I like we were his clients too. Our son and daughter-in-law had CeCe and Lashano who were MIA for most of the week. Trying to coordinate restaurant reservations between them was very confusing. One other mis-step was we only had turndown service one night while we were there, a small thing but something your get used to at a Sandals resort. We didn't let this small things ruin our trip - in fact we booked Duns River for 2027. We have been to a Sandals resort 17 times and will continue to book with them.

We went for 4 nights and had a One Bedroom Butler Suite in the gardens. The grounds of the resort are wonderful and well maintained. Lots of beautiful gardens, water features and photo spots for your Instagram feed! Our room was great, well designed and comfortable. Modern bathroom, comfortable bed and mattress with a living room area and several large TV's. We had a nice balcony with large soaking tub that the butler would fill with bubble bath and flower petals for us. Nice touch. Our only issue was the WIFI that only worked around the bed. It did not work in the rest of the room nor balcony making a living room to sit and read pointless when you cannot get a signal on your device. That was frustrating. Samson was out main butler and he had a few partners during our stay as his main partner was away. He was absolutely Wonderful. Attentive, caring, helpful, and took care of everything we needed which was a tall order as the rest of the staff did not seem to care so we had to rely on him a lot to get anything. Without Samson, this whole trip would have been a disaster at best. Also want to make a quick shoutout to "Marky Mark" our driver from and back to the airport. Wonderful man, pleasant story teller, and proud Bahamian! Great guy with a great attitude. Unfortunately, the service the rest of the time was abysmal overall. Staff did not seem to want to work in the restaurants and went out of the way to avoid contact with guests. I had 12 meals in total at the resort and only 2 went off without any issues. The other 10 were at best "ok". One meal the staff left the restaurant abandoned with many guests looking around puzzled for service as their meals were wrong, or they needed refills on the drinks. There were no staff anywhere for quite a while, and when one did come out of the back, they dropped off food and ran away ignoring the multiple calls from guests for assistance. Another time our order was up at the pass in the kitchen and all 5 waiters were watching videos on a phone. I ordered a 2nd beer and asked for more water.... neither ever came. Next day at lunch, similar issue, I had to get up with my empty water and beer glass and went to the bar myself for a refill. Half my food order never arrived so I just left exasperated. My wife tried to order something from a food truck and halfway through her order the employee in the truck just walked away, left the truck and disappeared! No explanation, just vanished mid order. My wife walked away after a few minutes and never got the afternoon snack she was looking for. Overall, I only ever got a water refill once in the 12 meals, and 2 of the 13 times I asked for another mimosa at breakfast, or beer with lunch, soda at dinner etc. The rest of the time that drink never arrived. We also got the wrong order a few times and the waiters would run away before we could ask them to correct it. Given I could not even get water I just ate what I got and felt grateful I had food. Last item, music at the West pool was so loud that the bartenders could not hear most drink orders. I got the wrong drink many times and just gave up and went to the other pool but missed the ambiance as it was quite boring and too quiet there. DJs need to turn it down a touch so staff can actually do their jobs. I complained and the bartender told me they ask the DJ every day to turn it down as they struggle to serve us but DJs never listen and say their job is to make the party so they blast the music with no consideration of other needs nor circumstances. Overall, at over $1000/night I expected a level of service to match the price, but was left to serve myself most of the time, feel grateful that I had food on my plate and/or one drink, and wondering where the wait staff all went most of the time. This was sub-par and embarrassing for Sandals in my opinion. I have stayed and visited all but a few of the resorts in the chain so I know what they are capable of and Sandals Royal Bahamian restaurant service is pretty abysmal. Front desk, most of the bar staff, drivers, bellmen etc were polite and helpful, but waiters just brough the whole service level down to unacceptable.

We area Diamond level guests and have been to the Sandals Royal Bahamian many times. We were glad to see that the resort has been renovated recently. We stayed in the East Bay building in a Club level room which was totally redone since our last visit a few years ago. Our room overlooked the pool and the ocean. The resort is more compact than other Sandals resorts we have stayed in, but there is still a lot to do. A plus is that the resort is about a 10 minute ride from the airport. There are two large pools, the East pool which is more relaxed and the West pool which is the party/activity pool. Both pools have swim-up bars. Food at the resort is generally good. We both enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Kanoo and had lunch there often as well. We tried every restaurant. Our two favorites are La Plum – the French restaurant and Butches – the steak restaurant. Reservations are required at both. We liked the lamb shank at La Plumb and the lamb chops and T-Bone steak at Butches. The restaurants share an excellent bar where one of the bartenders makes a good smoky Old Fashion. The dinners at Tesoro’s - the Italian restaurant - were generally good and they also have a very good and extensive antipasto bar. On a few occasions, service was slow and the restaurant was not full. Also, during our stay, the air conditioning was not working so restaurant was very warm. The staff kept the doors open and had fans running to try and cool the restaurant. I love sushi and Soy was usually good. However, Soy has large windows, and because of the direct sunlight and no shades in the windows, the restaurant can get warm. On our last night, we were seated next to a window and Soy was so hot, I could not stay. I think Soy’s air conditioning was not working either. In prior stays, Gordon’s on the Pier was one of our favorites. Unfortunately, that was not true this time. My wife ordered the grilled pork chop. It was fatty and so tough she could hardly cut it. I ordered the Thai Curry Seafood but a surf and turf was delivered to the table. When I received my correct order, it was good. Overall we were disappointed in the experience and only ate at Gordan’s once. The resort has two food trucks on the patio. They are good for a snack or a fast lunch. A special thank you to the GM, Mr. Romel who helped us with a special request. He displayed great customer service. Overall, we enjoyed our stay and will return in the future. Tip: If you catch an early flight from the U.S. east coast, you will most likely arrive at Sandals before your room is ready. Pack a bathing suit in your carry-on so you can enjoy the resort.

We stayed during August. So many good things to say--- the view (beachfront butler suite), the food, the private island, the employees all excellent. When we booked it, we really didn't want to have a butler. But wow, did they change our mind. Both Dylan and Kimerly were so caring and took care of things without us even asking. They were amazing to say the least, and went above and beyond for us. We never thought we would enjoy the experience, but it was wonderful to have them and we're so glad that they were assigned to us. All of the employees were super friendly and work very hard. They should be proud of themselves!