Sandals Royal Bahamian

We just got back from our first trip to a Sandals on Thursday. We had a lovely time at SRB. That being said, the path to a great time is having realistic expectations and setting yourself up for success so I wanted to share a couple tips for those heading there for your first time as well: 1.) Do not hold off on eating and head into meals starving. We always got sat right at our reservation time, but service was slow at almost all restaraunts. However, this probably will only bother you if you’re hangry. I made that mistake night one. Every night thereafter I snacked accordingly and had lovely experiences. *Bonus- our butlers who took us to dinner also always got us our first drink from the bar personally. At first I thought that escorting us to dinner was unnecessary, but the set up of the first drink was wonderful knowing the service times from the prior night. **Special shout out to the best butler team! JACKIE, PAULA and KENDRICK- You were exactly what we didn’t know we needed! 2.) If bugs tend to be attracted to you in general and you are going to do the candlelight dinner on the beach, WEAR PANTS! My husband was fine, but I was eaten alive by sand flies. 3.). Housekeeping was hit and miss. If something was missed that day, simply call. Don’t stew. 4.) There was a mildewy smell on the first floor of the West Bay building. But what do you expect when the resort you’re at focuses on people coming in wet from the pool or beach? Give some grace. 5.) Do yourself a favor and get a massage on the private island and hear the waves crashing on the rocks in the open breeze. Well worth the splurge! 6.) Even though there are bars open late at the resort, people are rarely at them late. People seem to party hard during the day and go to sleep early so be prepared. If you’re looking for activities at night, it is a short cab ride to the ****** at Baha Mar. Be prepared to pay $20 for a single drink there though. Yikes! 7.) Use the free water crafts. Don’t be intimidated by them and simply ask for guidance from the aqua center staff. Those people are living their best life! People don’t use them enough in my opinion and it’s one of the biggest perks as they are onsite and don’t require a huge time investment to take out. We especially enjoyed the Hobie Cat. 8.) Service is hit and miss but other honorable mentions for outstanding service go to Soney @ the aqua center, Gabriel @ the beach bar, Christopher @ Kanoo, Chardonnay (sp?) @ the private island bar and our driver to and from the airport, Keyno! I hope this was helpful. Have a great trip!

Staff are top notch and very, very friendly. Room and view were amazing as well. We spent an entire week and visited their private island three of those days. Water was very cool so did t swim much but it was truly amazing. We are definitely making plans to go back.

Held our wedding here in April 2024. The location was beautiful. Our wedding coordinator, Keri, and her team made the night perfect. Johnny, James, Valentino and Peter worked extra hard to help get our location set up. Waynette kept the wedding moving smoothly, and Shavone, Shevonette, and Azure were so attentive throughout. We would not have made any changes! Our DJ did a great job, and our photographer (Alrio) captured beautiful pictures. The weather and food were excellent. Also, servers/bartenders like Star, Chardonnay, and Static were so friendly they definitely helped to make the remainder of our stay memorable. We appreciated the friendly demeanor of nearly everyone we encountered. We have already booked our anniversary trip with Sandals!

From start to finish it was the best holiday so far!!! Shuttle service from the airport in a Rolls Royce, champagne on arrival, fresh champagne with some cheese when we got our room. Our butlers Paula and Junior made our experience even more enjoyable. From having sun beds ready in the morning with a cooler with what ever beverages we wanted for that day, booking our dinner reservations, complimentary photo shoot on the beach, booking our spa treatments on the private island . They went out of their way to make sure we had the best trip possible . I have to say our lady butler Paula is special. She really made our stay feel like we were very welcomed and spoiled us from start to finish One down side was the choice of food. I thought the standard of food would have been better as we are big foodies but I will sure be back to this hotel . 5*!!!

My husband and I spent a week at Sandals Royal Bahamian at the end of January and had THE BEST TIME EVER! Everything about our trip was fabulous but one of the reasons why we really loved the experience we had at Sandals was the people who work there were wonderful, really the best. This was our first all-inclusive vacation. He is sixty and I am fifty years-old. The entertainment coordinator Genie was so fun and friendly and was the last person we spoke with before heading on our shuttle to head back to the airport. She gave us hugs like old friends and said sweet kind goodbyes while teaching me some last-minute dance moves. Genie was one of the highlights of our trip, especially for entertainment at the east bay pool and at the honeymoon gathering. Giovanni and James (ketchup and mustard or maybe I have it backwards) managed the nighttime entertainment, were our DJs and organized couples games. Again, very fun and entertaining. We are the kind of people who like to take part and we highly enjoyed the silly couple's games and hanging out with Giovanni and James. Coconut Grove is relaxing with all of the couches and comfy places to sit. We listened to the singer Angel who has a fantastic voice, and while sitting out in the evening with very high cool winds they handed out blankets to everyone. It's little extras like this that stick with people and make an impact. Angel got my (slightly tipsy!) husband Dave to sing "Sweet Caroline" with her and for the rest of the trip people kept coming up to him and saying, "Hey you're Dave!" Food and drink were tasty and abundant. We never waited long for our drinks, and when we did wait the bartenders would chat with us, offer advice, ask us questions and were in general very friendly and sociable. On our first night Chardonay and Andrew were exceptionally friendly and conversational. Part of our trip the days were very windy and somewhat cool, so at times not many people were in the pool and everyone who made our drinks would talk with us. Natalie, Melvin and Noel especially, although everyone we met was very kind. It made us feel special and like we want to come back (soon!) Noel gave me plenty of tips about were to go at Fish Fry and how to get there. We were very blessed that for some reason Sandals upgraded our room to a swim up suite which we loved. It was sheltered from the wind and the water was pretty warm so we were able to hang in the water outside of our room, away from the wind. A big thank you to Sandals for that free upgrade. Our room had towel animals, rose petals, chilled champagne, robes, liquor, beer, wine, mixers and water. Towels, toiletries and fridge was kept well stocked all week. If our privacy was not on we received a room service daily, and a nightly turn down (which I've never experienced before.) We felt very spoiled. Oh, and VERY comfy mattresses, pillows and blankets. The food was great. We are sushi-lovers and Soy nailed it. Our dinner at

Sandals is truly the gold standard. This location is so convenient. Short flight from Toronto, short ride from the airport, right into paradise. All of the restaurants were amazing. The bar service was great. We spent most of our time on the private island relaxing. The silent dance party was surprisingly fun. The Balmoral Club with all of the historical photos of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, and of the Beatles staying at the hotel, was cool. The performers in the piano bar were amazing and the bartender in that area was a seasoned pro. We will be back!

This trip was one of my favorites so far. It was my first stay at a Sandals resort and it exceeded my expectations. The views were amazing, the food was good, and the staff was great. Those beautiful blue waters are not exaggerated, fyi. We stayed for 3 days but it was not long enough for me. I also have to make a shoutout to the amazing beautiful Kimberly for her assistance in planning another trip and to the multitalented handsome Giovanni for making the experience so lively. I would love to come back again!

This review is all about the scuba diving so read on as appropriate. We choose Sandals because of their great dive programs and dive teams. The team at this Sandals was up to the usual great standard but their boat and equipment were not. The boat was down to one motor and power steering was shot. The captain jumped through hoops to get the boat in motion and stay in motion but we were unable to reach dive sites quickly. The condition of the boat was not explained prior to the dive so instead of being back at 1:00 we were back after 2:30. Second day of diving we did not depart until after 10:30 due to boat problems. The crew made every effort to get us diving but it was a lot of wasted time. Next dive issue was the equipment - we saw 2 catastrophic equipment failures in 2 days. The first happened at about 35 feet where the hose from the pressure gauge blew apart. It was quite scary but the dive master, Tarj, handled it like a pro. The second happened the next day while we were on the boat and again the pressure gauge hose blew while we were on the water. It sounds like a gunshot and the female diver was definitely bruised in the chest. The dive groups over the 3 days we dove ranged from 12 to 22 with a single dive master. This, in my opinion, is unsafe. At all the other Sandals we have dived at the maximum ratio of Dive master to guest is 8 and usually the group size is 6. Again, this is not a reflection on the current staff but on the lack of investment in equipment and staffing at a level appropriate for the groups being taken out. The staff are all apologetic and are aware of the situation. The diving itself was amazing; lots of sharks and a very friendly turtle but make sure you are comfortable with big groups and a slow boat!

My husband and I did our first Sandals trip in June 2024. The highlight was undoubtedly the SCUBA experience. We have never scuba dived before, so we took the Discover SCUBA class with Sam at the dive shop. Sam’s competence, calm, and excellent instruction gave us the confidence to go on our first open water dive the next day. Sam was with us the entire time and guided us through an incredible dive over coral reefs with Caribbean sharks and tons of tropical fish. Before our dive experience, we weren’t sold on coming back to Sandals. Now, we are looking into booking our next trip solely to dive!