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| We review the key aspects of the resort on a scale from one to ten -- one being bad, and ten being excellent.
Rooms: 7.5 We started with a room that had a great view, but it was near a location that has some musty odor issues (inside and out). We were able to change rooms to a room with a view that almost as nice. We found out later that this room would also have some intermittent odor issues of it's own. Fortunately, we were not in the room much. The room had the usual amenities for a concierge-level room including a TV (we never turned on), CD player, a fully stocked bar and mini-fridge (re-stocked daily), plenty of drawers and storage space, comfy-firm bed, and a well appointed bath. Housekeeping did a great job of keeping the room clean and stocked (including bottled water and towels). The low score is for the odor issues that require significant attention, and not just a spritz of air freshener. Water sports/Activities: 9 Water sports kept decent hours, and they had about 7 Hobies. We only had to wait once to take out a sailboat, and that's pretty good. That being said, the boats were used pretty hard and it showed. The windsurfing equipment was fairly lame. The only board with foot straps was badly delaminating at the nose. The foam on the booms was shredded to nothing. It's too bad because it could have been good Windsurfing. There is no good snorkeling off the beach, but they have snorkeling trips every day (free). The pool music was generally a little too loud, but it was easy enough to sit away from that area. The water skiing was good! The water often had a tiny bit of wind chop, but it was still very fun skiing. Extra credit to Chung for getting a slalom ski together with a boot that didn't slip open! The WS staff was generally very pleasant and helpful (notably Chung, Jimmy, Earny, Dan and Ron). Bars: 9.5 There was decent selection of top shelf liquor, and generally friendly and helpful tenders. Notably Brutus and Kim. Real banana on hand for your favorite frozen beverages. The hours were very good at the bars. Restaurants: 9.5 Generally very good food and service. No limit on the number of times you could dine at any given restaurant, and shuttles were available to take you to restaurants at the other two Sandals resorts in the area. Pass on the reservation-required Italian restaurant Toscanini's, and go instead to Mario's at the Halcyon (no reservations) -- it's much better. La Toc at the Regency, and the Bayside were also very good. Beach/Pools/Grounds: 9.5/9.5/9 The beach is public, but you would hardly notice. Like the rest of St Lucia, the beach is beautiful and very clean. There were several pool areas, and it was great have some quiet places to relax. However, only the main pool had drink services (a bar). The main pool also had a big hot-tub next to it and the temperature in the pool and tub were very good. Pool floats were often hoarded, but that wasn't a big deal for us. The grounds were nice, although the there were bulldozers running all day at the far side of the resort were they are getting ready to expand. Reception/Concierge/Front desk: 8/9/na The staff was accommodating when we wanted to change rooms. We had some mix ups with baggage because of the room change. Overall Service: 9 Generally very good. Overall: 9.2 YMMV. A beautiful location. The resort is a little old and has some issues, but (in general) everything was very nice. | Review.jpg |
| Photographer: JM Sowle |
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