Sandals Royal Barbados

We enjoyed our stay at this beautiful resort. Very relaxing. Beach is beautiful, food was very good. Restaurant service was excellent. Bar service was inconsistent. [Details]

Top notch resort with top notch staff. Everything is high quality here. 6 pools plus the beach will ensure there is a spot to relax for everyone. Food is great quality - the number of restaurants and dining options at the 2 resorts will make you prioritize what you want to eat as you can't do them all in a week! All food was nicely portioned and good quality. Absolutely love the juice bar and smoothies at Heart and Sol and wish every Sandals had one! Make sure you set up dinner reservations when you arrive - butler rooms get priority on bookings which means some limited options for the rest of the folks which is frustrating. I know they pay premium, but the rest of us paid a pretty good price to be there too as its not a cheap resort to stay at.

Watersports are a bit limited as the water is generally pretty rough. Main pool bar could use a few more staff during the busy hours during the daytime as waits for drinks are a bit longer than other bars. [Details]

From beginning to end was fantastic. Small thing would be that if you didn't have a bulter or you didn't not get up at 6:30am, you were not getting a spot at the pool or at the beach umbrellas. But food and drinks were out of this world [Details]

Excellent resort and experience. Loved the food and didn't even have time to try all the restaurants . Grounds are very well kept and staff were fantastic. Rooms are spacious and housekeeping staff are top notch. Beautiful beach although a bit wavy for many water sports. [Details]

Sandal's Royal Barbados

It is new resort and still has some kinks to work out. People from Sandal's Barbados and Sandal's Barbados Royal have access to everything. The Barbados side seemed much more organized because it has been open longer.
Our room was great! Near the back of a V building shapes with view of the big pool and out to the ocean. (4th floor)
The big pool on the roof is a heated pool - the little one cooler. There is also a bar and a French restaurant up there.
The infinity pool, in the V, leads to a 2inch pool that is warm, to a hot tub that is hot (the hot tubs were all large). Another hot tub was down near the ocean end. This pool didn't have enough umbrellas, and the butlers took what there were.
The foliage hasn't grown here so there was less protection than at the other pools on property.
All of the main restaurants and stage and bowling alley were right at the end of that V. We couldn't get to all the restaurants (17) - not enough time.
Sports: tennis, bowling alley with TV & seats were couples could watch sports, tables with soft seats were you could play games, pool tables, table tennis, beanbag toss etc. There was a lot to do.
The Reunion Week Gala dinner was disappointing because it was buffet, not well organized with long waits in lines to find it wasn't what you liked or the food was gone and you had to wait longer. There was lots of good food though, but not good for me with bad legs and a wheelchair. Apparently they had 400 people so were overwhelmed.
We had a 2-man tub on our balcony and most rooms on the other side didn't and overlooked the gardens instead of the ocean. Everyone had access to everything so if the ocean view wasn't important to you why spend the extra for the new section. The older side has been open for about 3 years and was another resort that was renovated. Our side was just finished in December. The big pool on the Barbados side was lovely with another hot tub and on this side was a wonderful buffet where you could eat, overlooking the pool and out to the ocean. It had much more shade. It was the activity pool. On the other side of the pool was a seafood restaurant looking over the pool and out to the ocean. We liked the smaller pool just behind this big pool and near another restaurant and cafe. We had shade all day and the attendant, Kevin, was great. He saw me sitting on towels and got me a pillow for comfort. There was another huge pool inland a bit that we never got to.
Before we left, the ocean became quite active and we were fascinated by all the big kites they take from backpacks and then they board way out in the ocean. Boy do they go! We counted 11 at one time with more on the beach.
One bad thing, but not a spoiler, was we went before breakfast and got seats under an umbrella at Royal pool. When we came back a butler had moved our things and taken the place for butler guests. In the papers I read that if that happened you could get your belongings at the lost and found at the front desk. Well they never came. This is the first time we have ever had something taken at a resort we have stayed at. The principle of the thing upset me and to think it seemed it must have been the butler.
The weather was fantastic.
We had no problem with the wheel chair and getting around. [Details]