My husband and I chose to go to the Sandals in Antigua. It was definitley worth it!!
Here's our review of our experience there!
The Room
My husband and I stayed here for 10 days for our honeymoon. The resort was beautiful, and the staff outstanding. We were upgraded from the Honeymoon Garden of Eden Premium to the Honeymoon Luxury Concierge. I know a lot of people complain about the Caribbean side of the resort but my husband and I thought it was great. We got a free mini bar with the room too, except we really only used it to drink bottled water. Housekeeping came twice a day, once in the morning and once at night for turn down service. They also restocked our mini bar daily and provided new beach towels.
The Food
The food was good, I am a food lover and I wouldn't say the food was outstanding. I think we had a few awesome meals, but really everything to me was just average. The upside is that you don't have to worry about bringing money or tipping anyone. It was really nice! We didn't have a problem making a reservation at any of the restaurants, but you do have to call and make it 2 days ahead of time. You can also go up and ask if there were any cancellations and see if they can seat you right away. One of our favorites was the Sushi Restaurant. I forgot our chef's name but he was from the Philippines and he was excellent! The next time we went though he wasn't there and we weren't as impressed...
Drinks/Service
All the drinks there are pretty good but have very little alcohol added to them... Our favorite bartender was at the sports pool and her name was Latoya. Best drink maker ever!! She was super friendly, and seriously, everyone that knew about her raved. Another outstanding worker was Violet at the OK Corral. We wanted to sit facing the ocean but we arrived super early to our reservation and all those seats were already taken. We had to wait awhile to be seated but she made sure to reserve a spot looking over the ocean, it was perfect!
Water Sports
The water sports are fun. We did the kayaks and hobbie cats (sailing), snorkeling and scuba diving. We went out on the little sail boat on a very windy day, we advise that you DON'T do that...we got stuck out there for a bit and we were worried about tipping over. Fortunately we didn't tip but we watched 2 other sailboats tip. Snorkeling was nice; they take you out 15 min away from Sandals to Paradise Reef. Most of the coral is bleached out but you do get to see some fish and fans.
The only thing we were very disappointed with was the scuba diving. I had gone scuba diving before the trip but my husband had never been. Neither of us were certified so we took the class for $70 per person. The class was good to help introduce scuba diving and ease my husband into it. They teach you in a pool and then after the class take you out for a dive to a shipwreck. That part was so fun and we saw a lot out there. My husband had so much fun that he wanted to go out again at some point on our vacation...so a few days later we went up to sign up for another dive. The Sandals website states "After completing the course, guests will be allowed one tank dive (of approx. 30ft) per day (subject to availability and weather conditions). " At first they told us that the boat was filled up that day and there wasn't any room. They told us to come back in the next few days and try again. We come back and see that the class for that day is small, so there was a chance for them to fit us in...however they told us since we only took the class and were not certified we couldn't sign up again. Very disappointing.
Pools
Our room was by its own pool that you share with the rooms around it. There were other pools secluded around the resort. We rarely saw more than 1 couple at any of these pools. We only went to the main pool once but went to the smaller sports pool (with swim up bar) a lot. We liked that shade at the smaller pool and there were always activities to do there. For instance I think every day at 2:30 they had pool volleyball.
Activities
They had activities everyday but we really weren't interested in doing them. We did go to the beach party on Monday at the Bayside Restaurant and it was a lot of fun. The food was great and they had steel drums playing, later on another band, and games to win a bottle of rum. We didn't participate in the games but it was great to watch!
The beach was beautiful, quiet and just perfect for us. It was extremely calm and the water temperature was perfect! Make sure to use sunscreen as much as possible!! We saw a few miserable sun burnt people...
We do suggest taking a tour off the Sandals resort. Sandals has a tour booth to sign up for different activities. We signed up for the Eco Adventure Tour and loved it. We got to snorkel, hike on Bird Island and cave at Hells Gate. There were other tours but we chose to do this one because of its great reviews!
One last tip! Bring any medication with you for headaches, allergies or anything like that. I came in with a cold and my husband had a terrible headache during our trip. It was so hard to find medication and when we did find it, it was very over priced. Also bring LOTS of sunscreen and bug spray! They spray the resort for mosquitos but I still got many bites!!