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Sandals - Grande St. Lucian Hotel & Resort Reviews

Sandals - Grande St. Lucian
Address: Rodney Bay, St. Lucia Tel: 1-888-SANDALS Fax: Email: info@sandals.com URL: Sandals - Grande St. Lucian	Type of Property: All Inclusive Beach Location: Beach Front (Directly on Beach/Water Front) Island: St. Lucia No. of Rooms/Units: 280

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Summary of All Property Reviews for: Sandals - Grande St. Lucian Ratings based on answers from a total of 5 reviews 10 is best 1 is worst
Feature	Ranking	Feature	Ranking
Cleanliness of Property	7.60	Quality of Property	6.60
Privacy & Quietness	3.40	Quality of Service	6.00
Courtesy & Hospitality of Staff	6.80	Accuracy of Website (marketing hype) VS. Actual Experience	6.00
Food and Dining Experience	6.80	Price/Value of Property	5.60
Safety Factor (Did you feel safe at property)	7.00	Quality of Beach (ranked closest beach if property is located off the beach)	7.20
Total Property Score: 6.30 out of 10 | Average Star Rating: 3.20 out of 5

• 40% (2 visitors of 5) said they would go back to Sandals - Grande St. Lucian again.
• 40% (2 visitors of 5) said they would recommend Sandals - Grande St. Lucian to friends.

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My wife and I decided to do a destination wedding in St Lucia. We went for one of the top of the line rooms, what they call a Rotundo, complete with a pool you can jump into from the living room, and a personal butler. The price was well over $1,000 per night, but was SUPPOSED to be all inclusive. But that is just the tip of the iceberg, so let me give a rundown of events from the beginning.
1. Get out of the car at the resort for the first time, expect to be greeted with professionalism. Instead, we are greeted by a man who is high as a kite, and gives me a "pound" (very casual way of shaking someone's hand) lasting for about 1 minute. Then proceeds to give my wife a "pound". Being originally from the Bronx, NY, this attitude was nothing new to me. The issue was I was expecting to be greeted by someone trained in service, obviously not the case.

2. Same gent that gave my wife and I the pound, comes to engage us in conversation while we wait for our butler. My wife is attractive being a former model, but is not overly endowed (her words, not mine). We had been traveling all day, her with a hooded sweatshirt on, zipped to the top. The high greeter proceeds to have a conversation with my wife's chest. He stared so intently that she started to look at her own chest, thinking maybe she had spilled a gallon of mustard on herself, and simply not noticed. At this point, I had words with the young man.

3. We are greeted by our butler, and taken to our room. We have a wedding in 3 days, and were told before arriving at the resort that we would be advised about the time/date of the meeting with the wedding planner once we checked in. My wife asked the butler when the meeting with the wedding planner was scheduled. The butler replied by asking my wife when the wedding was (he did not know we were getting married). My wife replied we were getting married within 3 days. The butler (supposed to be highly trained in the art of service) replied, "well, you have plenty of time then, don't worry about it". This was obviously not what you should say to a young lady with a wedding 3 days away.

4. Butler gives us a tour of the room we will be staying in for the week. Butler makes a reference that the bath tub is large enough for 3 persons, if we wanted to invite a 3rd person in the tub. Now, we are not the most prudish people on earth, but 2 people planning to get married normally do not want to hear nonsense like this, as if we are going to invite our butler into the tub...or anyone else. We didn’t immediately read too much into the comment, but both felt it was inappropriate and in bad taste if nothing else.

5. My wife heads off to find a manager. She insists on my allowing her to handle it, since she has the cooler head. She speaks with the manager and is initially happy that he individual seemed to be concerned with what she was saying, and even took some notes. We are reasonable people, we were not looking for free nights or for anyone to be fired. We just wanted to receive special treatment, but no more special than anyone else paying over $1,000 per night at a resort.

6. We meet the wedding planner. My wife continues to get upset, as the wedding planner has the eagerness and intensity of a drive-thru employee at McDonalds. I can understand she does this many times per week, and therefore whatever glimmer may have once existed in her job has long since left the building. I was very tempted to take her outside, give her $100 and ask her to act like this is the first time she ever planned a wedding for someone.

7. We find that "all-inclusive' is far from it. We are charged for additional things at every turn. In addition to paying over $1,000 per night for our room, we also had spent a couple grand to pay for the wedding (very small event). The money we paid was supposed to cover the flowers, cake, after-wedding dinner, pictures, etc. The reality is we were charged thousands of dollars in addition, for pictures (they take the pictures but then charge you nearly $20 per picture. The way they set this up deserves it's own section, but I'll throw it in here. They take the pictures during the wedding, never mentioning cost. They then plan a time for you within the next couple days following your wedding, for you to meet with the salespeople in the Photoshop. Ever buy a used car? This is the experience here. They hold your pictures hostage, requiring you to choose which prints you want, at a charge of nearly $20 per picture. They take a couple hundred pictures, and you wish you could have them all. But by the time you think about what you are paying for the room, how much you spent on the wedding, how much you have spent for all the extra costs at the supposed "all-inclusive" resort, you end up doing what we did, and only able to select 40 or 50 pictures.

8. My wife had a couple family members who made the journey down to St Lucia to be there for the wedding as well. Both family members were guests of the resort as well, which was also supposed to be all-inclusive for them as well. The resort however insisted on charging a couple hundred extra dollars if we wanted the family members to join us for dinner after the wedding. The resort wanted to charge this extra money because the menu for the dinner reception included a few extra items. We agreed to pay the additional cost. Of course on our wedding night, with family present, we are served the regular menu, not the wedding menu. In other words, we were being charged for a menu of "special items" we never received.

9. Any time we wanted to schedule something such as a beach dinner, horse-back riding, skiing, or any other activity, we were charged (a lot!). All-inclusive does not mean the same thing to all people apparently. For us, we were under the impression that all-inclusive meant that even though we were spending almost our entire savings on this trip, at least we KNEW how much we were spending. As opposed to having to spring for unexpected charges left and right, and ending up spending thousands more than you had budgeted. Even though we were at this "all-inclusive" resort, we still ended up spending thousands on all the extra fee's, none of which were ever explained or outlined to us prior to our arrival.

I could go on, but will stop here. I have been waiting to have the time to sit down and write this review thoroughly. When I selected St Lucia and Sandals, I did so after looking at some reviews, which were for the most part, positive. After having such a horrible experience there, I feel obligated to post this on as many sites as possible to spare others. If we could do it all over again, we would have rented a small house in St Lucia, and fended for ourselves. This was my first experience at a resort, so maybe this doesn’t apply for other Sandal's resorts. All I know is avoid Sandals Grande in St Lucia as if your happiness depends on it...cause in many ways it does.

Feel free to email me at harridave@gmail.com if you want further information or clarification on any point. I would be happy to spare others our miserable experience.

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We had a great time in St Lucia and enjoyed our stay at the Grande St Lucian. We chose the all inclusive package and felt we got our monies worth. It was nice to go and eat,drink and do activities without pulling out your wallet every time. The food was plentiful and filling. The choices were adequate and entertainment was fun. We stayed in the honeymoon suite which we found very beautiful and comfortable. I really liked the flower petals in the bathroom and the turndown service. My husband appreciated the plasma tv. We only stayed 5 days which wasn't quite long enough. I wish we would've stayed longer. The beach was ok but the pools were plentiful. The beachfront bars were convenient and the restaurants were accomodating. I found the service to be good and would recommend the resort to all. We enjoyed everthing. We did a couple of tours outside of the resort and can say we saw all of the island.

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We were so excited to finally go on our honeymoon. After months of planning and paying almost $7,000 for a 10 night stay at the St. Grand Lucian we were very dissapointed with our trip. The beach was very small, the local vendors constantly harassed the guests to but shells or "drugs", the rooms were run-down and very basic, and there was no night life at the resort. We thought that by going to an all-adult resort there would be lots of fun things to do. There was an option to pay extra to go outside of the hotel and do sight seeing, etc. but that became costly. Overall for the price of our trip we would have had 2 really nice vacations elsewhere. We would not recomment St. Lucia-Sandals resort because it is overrated and a rip-off.

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Stymied Staff
I would imagine Sandals management had no choice but to cap the tipping to avoid corruption. All inclusive means the local help is unable to work extra hard and earn additional monies through tips. Convenient for those that don’t want to carry a wad of singles in their shoe but straining to the local help trying to get ahead.
I heard my new boss say something like the service is 'contrived politeness with an underlying sense of desperation'.

Monotonous Meals
Sandals resort after Sandals resort can be reached by a short bus ride. There you will be exposed to the same food stuffs marketed slightly different. For a five star resort this is the area that I was most frustrated. I doubt Sandals management have ever taken a bus ride in a customer’s shoes. Little things like the same Chilean Merlot was at every restaurant regardless of the venue. When I stop in the Italian restaurant I expect a smooth Chianti Classico. NONE COULD BE FOUND! “Bring me your best red wine”, I would say … here comes that Chilean!
The food was bountiful and there was too much. You sensed that the same pile of rolls was there yesterday, and possibly the day before. You will have to wait to be seated, then after table assignment and a long wait for a decent omelet you return to find they gave your table away!! Yet with 30 open tables and a self service cafeteria the hostess will hound you that you must “WAIT TO BE SEATED”. Confused? I waited as my eggs grew cold.

Crafty Creators
The malt liquor sipping locals will hit you up for some local island craft creations, palms fashioned into bowls or art work.

Ransacked Rooms
I was disappointed in the condition of the rooms. Desks with scratches, cigarette burns, plumbing that was not %100, lamp shades that were rotted and broken. Boarderline 2 star material with more of a Daytona Beach Spring Break feel to the room, than a posh 5 star resort. Want room service? “Sorry sir you class of room does not entitle you to room service”, the attendant retorts. Of course, we had paid for the best class in the house but they were out of that class and put me in the low rent district. Having just arrived at the resort I was hungry, tired, and not willing to fight. I went to bed hungry only wanting for a bag of potatoe chips, none to be found; no vending machines.

Lotto for Liesure
I tried repeatedly to take advantage of the “free scuba trip” only to find myself making the trek to the diving shack many times where a group of un-empowered attendees were powerless to sign me up. “you will need to return after the manager is done with his lunch to get his approval before we can sign you in”. “Oh you just missed him, try again tomorrow, Oh that’s your last day? OK Man no worries” Since I was Certified with PADI chasing this guy down was starting to wear on me so I gave up.

Gooffey Golf
The cute little 9 holes a long bus ride from the Grande has some of the nicest caddies you will ever meet. They are some of the few staff that smile and mean it. They have 36 chances to help you loosen $20 from your wallet. You will be shown every putting line to take, see around blind corners, and find every lost ball. These kids are GREAT. The club rentals are not good. Forgot your golf balls at home? get ready for a big $urprise. Mandatory gold shoes will also set you back big money and you will be the laughing stock with the large sloppy hand painted numbers on the side of the clapped out fungus ridden dappers. Only spend time on the course if you just can’t live 5 days without a fix.

Bill's Basement
We held a meeting in the 'Bill Clinton' room. I found the naming conventions quite humerous. Bill must have stopped down on 'Business' and I felt the sudden urge to hand our cigars. Anyway, there was an unbelievable odor on the entire floor. A few calls to management and they thought the carpet cleaners in their zealousness left too much moisture in the carpet creating a run-away mold culture. No relief was found so for 3 hours I didn't inhale;)

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We travelled to this resort on May 18th, 2003 and stayed for one GLORIOUS week. This resort really is paradise! I apologize in advance for this lengthy review, but I wanted everyone to know the details of this resort. I hope you find this review helpful

Flight
We travelled with Air Canada Vacations and left right on time. We departed Toronto at 8:35am and arrived in St. Lucia 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The landing was a bit hairy as you are landing right next to the Atlantic Ocean and there was a lot of wind blowing. The ride home was entirely different. We left St. Lucia on time but experienced really bad turbulence almost the entire 5.5 hour ride home. We didn't get served snacks or anything because there wasn't a lot of time that we were permitted to leave our seats. We both had to take Gravol that night because we had motion sickness from bouncing around so long. Other than that, flights were excellent.

Arrival
Our arrival went smooth, no problems at all. We found the Air Canada Vacations desk and the Sandals representative very easily. They immediately whisked us off into our bus and off we went. The ride to the resort is an hour and a half and can be scary at times!! The ride did not seem that long though. They drive like maniacs and there are a lot of windy roads with shear drops hundreds of feet down. Amazing scenery though! Pulling up to your gates makes you feel like you are in heaven!

Check-In
Again, no problems here at all. We were greeted right away with cold washcloths and glasses of champagne. We didn’t even have to stand in line. We got to sit in these nice cozy chairs and they brought everything to us. We also got an amenity kit full of little goodies…..lotion, shampoo, body wash, aloe vera gel (which came in VERY handy after our suntanning). We spent only 15 minutes getting checked in and then they were taking us up to our room. We wanted to carry our video camera and other camera bags but they would NOT allow us. He kept saying “You are on Vacation, let me do the work!” They were all soooo nice.

Accommodations
We had a Deluxe Room (Standard). We were in one of the quieter buildings on the left of the resort. We were on the 3rd floor room 6305. This room was amazing as it was facing right between the two buildings across from us and we had an awesome view of the mountains! The rooms are more than big enough for 2 people. The bathrooms are VERY nice. Marble counter with two sinks. Lots of lights so the bathroom was very bright. And EXTREMELY clean. The cleaning ladies were very nice, did a wonderful job and were always done our rooms fairly early in the day. The rooms are all air-conditioned. Since we only had a deluxe room, we had a mini-fridge stocked with various soft drinks and bottled water, but no alcohol. This was fine with us as we are not heavy drinkers and there were so many bars that were only minutes from our room anyhow. The room décor was very bright and cheery. The room always smelled fresh.

Food
The food, by our standards, was definitely gourmet! Breakfast was either buffet at Bayside or a la carte at Toscanini’s. Lunch was buffet at Bayside or a la carte at Josephine’s. You HAVE to try the chocolate crepes at Josephine’s as they were delicious. The crepe St. Jacques was also yummy…..lots of scallops! Dinner was a la carte at several restaurants. Toscanini’s dinner is VERY nice with white glove service. We didn’t try Barefoot by the Sea’s dinner until our very last night and we were sorry we did. You HAVE to have the Surf and Turf! The steak was very tender and cooked to perfection and the garlic shrimp were to die for. Several nights throughout the week they had special meals. Once was a huge BBQ on the beach. Mondays and Fridays were buffet dinner at Bayside and it was very nice. The prime rib was so tender and it was the biggest piece of meat I have ever seen! LOL. Everynight each restaurant had a “Special of the day” so there was definitely a lot of variety to the food. Overall food was excellent. We never had to wait more than 3 minutes to get a table and we didn’t wait long for food either. Staff was amazing! Always bringing us more drinks and refilling our wine glasses! Neither my fiance or any people that we met had any problems with food. No one was sick AT ALL and the best part is that the tap water is completely safe to drink! I drank it all week and no problems!

Activities
There was LOTS to do at this resort. Definitely something for everyone! And the best thing is that it is alllll included in your package price. That’s the best thing; you can do it all or do nothing at all !

Pools
This resort had soooo many pools! You could always find a quite pool to relax in. All of the pools were immaculately cleaned. There was a tonne of Sandals floaties everywhere. We could always find one. Chairs were also never a problem. The only thing to be cautious about is that there are not many loungers in the shade. If you really really want shade, you need to get up a bit early and put some towels on your chair. Although I did see two staff members walk across the ENTIRE resort carrying an umbrella with a huge concrete base for this lady that didn’t have any shade!! Another thing is be careful when walking with wet feet around the main pool. The tiles are very slippery and I saw many people almost fall !

The Grounds
The grounds were soooo beautiful. I went for an early morning walk (6am) and saw the entire staff out in full force scrubbing the pool tiles, trimming bushes, watering flowers and ensure that everything was in top notch shape. The flowers all smelled lovely throughout the resort.

The Beach
The beach was quite long and they had several areas roped off for swimming. The beach area where you sit is nice powdery sand, but if you go in the water it is a bit rocky. Bring water shoes if you plan on going in the Sea. Plenty of loungers on the beach too. Some even have umbrellas attached to the chairs for shade.

Safety
I always felt extremely safe at this resort. I saw many security guards patrolling the grounds at all hours and one day they hired a local construction company to build a bridge over the pool. It took them two days to complete and for two days the security guards stood right beside them to ensure that they stayed right where they were supposed to be. We never had a problem at all. All rooms come with safes which we always used but we could leave bags on the beach or by the pool all day and no one touched them. I even left my makeup bag just a certain way and the cleaning lady didn’t even look inside! I think their jobs are highly valued there, so they would never to anything to jeopardize them.

Overall
Overall I would highly recommend this resort to anyone. I have read a few semi-bad reviews on this site and I have to ask…..are you SURE you stayed at the Grande??? I couldn’t see anyone complaining about this resort! DO NOT let any bad reviews deter you. This truly is an AMAZING resort! We are already planning our next vacation. I got a big surprise on my trip…..I got engaged! We are planning our wedding for next year and were so happy with the Sandals Grande that we are considering getting married there next year. Go to this resort! You will be VERY glad that you did!

If anyone has any questions or would like me to send some pictures of the resort, please e-mail me at sundrimsims2@hotmail.com

HAVE FUN!!

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