Sandals Grande St. Lucian

5 couples went to Sandals St Lucia Grande. My thoughts are the quality of the food and service has gone down since 2019 (our previous trip). The food was really unremarkable except for the Italian & Soy Restaurant. There are not enough rest rooms close by the pools. Breakfast at the Bay was poor. At the Italian restaurant the sit down breakfast was good. The people at the buffet breakfast are not as nice as they use to be. I think it would kill the chefs (both of them) if they actually smiled. The loyalty desk was extremely unpleasant. My problem with the loyalty desk is that one of my adult children wanted to book but was so busy there that he couldn't find the time and when he left I told him I would book it for him since he was a guest there. I guess they have a rule saying with you don't book before you leave then you don't get the discount. I feel this is wrong since he was there in the first place. It would be different if he was never a guest. I didn't book either because it seems they don't care to work with the guests and solve that problem. Now mind you - we have been going there for 25+years. They use to respect the returning guest but at St. Lucia Sandals Grande I think they forgot how to treat their guests. A couple of good things too. The employee (named Theresa) who cleaned our rooms was great. She was kind, caring and an excellent employee. The second person (I wish I could remember his name) but it was the night manager. He was extremely helpful. My husband fell in the bathroom and hurt himself and was ill and the night manager did everything he could to help my husband off the floor and take him to the nurses station. I thank him to this day for all he did. Now mind you we arrived at 11:00 pm and my husband fell at 12:00 a.m. only one hour there. They did call every day to see if my husband was doing ok which he was a little better each day and in our 5 th day there he was able to go out and enjoy the resort. Now at the nurses station she help my husband and bandage his arm which was bleeding. She thought she should call the doctor so we agreed cause we were not sure so we took her at her word that he needed a doctor. The doctor came and examined my husband (did exactly the same as the nurse) and I heard her say to the nurse that it was not an emergency .....(cost was $395) for the nurse, doctor and paperwork. It was after midnight. People please remember to get medical insurance because most health insurance does not include outside the USA especially Medicare.

We recently enjoyed two weeks at Sandals Grande St Lucian. The resort is great, with many varied good dining options and excellent entertainment (the fire and water show alone made the trip worthwhile). Any accommodation glitches were quickly addressed by the staff and the management team went out of their way to ensure we were satisfied. One note of caution: if peace and quiet is important to you avoid the St Lucia Independence Day weekend in late February as it gets very noisy with motorcycle groups from the island and neighbouring ones racing up and down the nearest road all day. While it is not difficult to stay clear of the "party central" main pool you can't excape the near-constant motorycle noise over that weekend. Any other time should not be a problem.

After a year of reading reviews on the Grande here’s my take on Sandals. Take the helicopter transfer one way & a private transfer back to the airport. The helicopter doesn’t save you a lot of time but take the additional cost as an excursion as it shortens the 2 hour transfer time. We asked ahead (& got) a newly refurbished room- we couldn’t have been happier with the allocated room. We paid for a Club Beachview Room and in our opinion it was well worth it. We had a fantastic view from our balcony & were minutes from the quiet pool & the beach. The bed was super comfortable & and American Kingsize so huge. Air conditioning was great & there was also a ceiling fan. Housekeeping was promptly done (by Rebecca) every day. The bedside lights had 2 charging points each & all plug sockets were UK compatible. Mini bar well stocked & once we gave our preference to Club Sandals it was restocked on a daily basis with water,beer & tonic water or your preferred mixers. Room was a big tick- we were more than pleased. Club levels rooms are worth it-you can access Club Sandals lounge 24/7 for additional alcoholic drinks,water,snacks, towels. It’s manned 8am-10pm so you can book restaurants,trips etc. You can order room service on Club FoC and we used this several times. Deliveries were efficient & trays promptly cleared from hallways. Butlers-we didn’t have one but unless you are incapable of walking for a drink, getting a sunbed or getting your own lunch I just don’t see that you need one. Food-in general better than we expected. The restaurants that you need to book were good. Best food IMO was in Bombay, closely followed by Gordon’s. However over the sea tables at Gordon’s won location wise. Service was of a very good standard at these two restaurants, probably as a smaller number of guests to serve. Bayside did a very good breakfast & lunch buffet with plenty of choice & a lunchtime hot food menu that changed daily. Liked the idea you could get tea/coffee and a cookie any hour of the day from Bayside. Liked Dino’s pizzas & crepes & ice cream from next door. All available as takeaways if required. Barefoot by the Beach was literally on the beach. I wished the menu could have changed in the 2 weeks we were there! Got the feeling it never changed. Service was variable & when it was slow it was painful. In the end we started taking our own drinks with us so we weren’t just left at the table. Maybe more lighting needed as some tables extremely dark. Pools-we by default ended up at the ‘quiet pool’ on the beach as the entertainment at the main pool started at 11am every day. The entertainment team need to turn the volume down on the microphone down as I didn’t go to the Caribbean to hear a trivia quiz or listed to someone counting to 100 as people did arm curls in the strong man competition. The ‘entertainment’ therefore became very annoying and was the main topic of conversation at the ‘quiet’ pool. Maybe limit the time the entertainment goes on? Beach-a good beach to walk down, water very clear & water hammocks were fun. Loads of sun beds available. Cabanas ($130/day) aren’t essential and are one row behind the free sun beds. Take plenty of SPF30 with you as $30 in gift shop. Trips-book Israel King Water Taxi for a private Charter-pickup/drop off from the dock. You choose what you want to do but we went down to The Pitons, Sugar Beach, saw dolphins & turtles & snorkelled by Jade Mountain. Well worth it but book before you fly. Stick to trips by sea as the roads can get very congested and the 2 hour car transfer allows you to see enough of the interior of the island. Sandals do a great deal if you book again before you depart so we are going back next year. Our only bug bear was the noise! Even Diamond members were complaining about the noise so really Sandals Management should really take note.

My wife and I stayed at the Grande St.Lucian and simply loved it. Beautiful beach, great room, excellent food and they were very gluten free aware as well. Only complaint would be the time it takes to get to the resort from the airport, but it was definitely worth the long drive. Out seasoned butlers (Bailey, Kenwin, and Zanius) treated us so very well in every respect. We also need to call out some other staff members for their amazing service as well. - Dabriel - pool bartender - Amanda - - Nicketta - server @ Italian restaurant - Otis - Bombay bartender - Anaiah - lovely curator of all the food bombay - Simeon -- amazing bartender Highly recommend this resort and venue.

Amazing experience. Great beach and pool areas, food and entertainment.