Sandals Emerald Bay

Both stays were great but this time the butlers and staff were on it. The water is a little cold in March so I would suggest May or June. The weather temperature was 80 and mostly sunny. Having said this Emerald Bay does have two pools, the larger party pool and the smaller “quiet” pool which is heated. Food was great also. The beach and ocean were beautiful.

This was our third trip to Emerald Bay (EB). Seven stays at Sandals. It started out badly. The taxi used to transport us from the airport was very old, beat up and dirty. Not what you would expect for what you are paying to stay there.We arrived at the hotel at 1500. The wait for our Butler was almost an hour. Room was missing robes, hair dryer, butler phone and the main bathroom had not been cleaned completely. Multiple requests for things like snacks and housekeeping went unanswered. I used the "Gina" on the Sandals app to let management know. On day three I was invited to meet with the butler manager and the customer service manager. These two individuals helped save our vacation. We were assigned a new butler team and things immediately began to improve and return to what we believed was Sandals standards. Those butlers were Waldens, Ailyn and Garth. These 3 are rock stars!! They made our vacation special and were constantly surprising us. High winds prevented us from enjoying any water activities at the resort for our entire stay. We did go on an excursion called 7 Beaches which was awesome, finally got some time on/in the water. The resort itself, especially the rooms are in need of an update. The room you get does not resemble the room they use in their pictures on the website. The food seems to be very bland. Service in the Italian restaurant was horrible. We did not go to EB for the food or the room. We went there for the beach and the golf course. Both are both amazing!! We think the beach at EB is the nicest one in the Sandals family. The gold course is a Greg Norman course that is on the resorted and included as part of your stay. The back nine runs along the ocean and has majestic views.Thanks to the awesome management team that cares enough to respond to their customers concerns I will be coming back to EB.

This Sandals location was very disappointing. Your buildings need a very needed up date. The food except for the Italian,and the French restaurants,was mediocre at best. You need more outdoor restaurants. Your entertainment starts at 9:00, this is a little late for your senior guests. Also the large rat, at the quiet pool, was a shocker. This vacation was a total disappointment. After paying such a large fee, to vacation there , we feel totally ripped off. The only nice part of our trip, was your employees. They are so accommodating,and always polite and kind. Thanks but no thanks ,we won’t be back. Donna Castello.

I am an emerald status Sandals guest and attorney. This resort is dying. I arrived home after an eight night stay. Six of those were without air conditioning. There was a black ooze in the first room coming from the AC vent before it broke down. They moved me. My new room was 85 degrees at night. The entire resort had no AC. People were passing out and sleeping in ice baths. My bath tub would not drain. The steam room at the spa was broken. The spa elevator was broken. The ice cream display was broken. There were no ice cream toppings, only crumbs in the display which were there when we arrived and there when we left. I was overlooked by my butlers and did not eat lunch until the 4th day. I am allergic to nuts. Upon arrival, my butlers served me nuts. It happened three more times and once in a restaurant. This has NEVER happened to me at Sandals, EVER! (Why ask on a preference sheet or in the restaurants what you are allergic to if you aren’t going to listen? This is life and death.) They left hot cheese and nuts in our room each day in 85 degree temps as if it was safe to eat after being out for hours. The ice cream place asked us if we minded melted ice cream. Yuk! Dangerous hot dairy again! At our candlelight dinner, the waitress asked us if we had a lighter. The laundry service was closed. The butlers flat out told us they were waiting on 11 rooms at a time. I don’t care to know that. Ergo we felt guilty even asking for food etc. The last night, people slept in the pool it was so hot. Knobs on furniture and doors would fall off in our hands. I met with a manager who was real nice but told me corporate had tied his hands and they would only give me three free nights IF I purchased four more. I want the eight nights I bought for $13,500! Because of all the broken things, we were scared to scuba. Our life was not worth the risk. Here are a few photos. I am reaching out to corporate for a fair remedy. Otherwise we will not do Sandals anymore even though we are so very close to our free week. I’d rather be at home than endure this again. They are too top heavy. They kept pointing out a multi million dollar home in which their GM lives. Sandals needs to sell that home and overhaul this property. The days of charging this sum for subpar accommodations and service is over! The employees need to be trained but I even felt sorry for them as they too were embarrassed at this money pit profit scam. They literally begged me to complain to corporate about the conditions of the property. Through social media I learned this problem has been ongoing for over five years!!!!! Fortunately all of us who were there together and endured this are keeping in touch. As of now they still have no AC. Beware!!!!

First thing I will say is that the staff here was amazing and blew away any other Sandals experience I've had. Special thanks to Richard their Golf Club Pro for his hospitality and welcoming us for a tour. With that said, this place is in major need of a renovation and more staff. Everything is makeshift and just falling apart at the seams. It is a shell of what is once was, and it's sad that guests are paying a premium for this resort. I made a request on the Gina app to have our shower cleaned of black mold the first day and it was done, but that shouldn't be something a guest has to deal with. We also had to request luggage racks and slippers that weren't in the rooms. We had two bedside lamps that kept shorting out and the lightbulbs didn't stay in them. The mirrors were so old and marked up, floors very dirty, main door didn't shut properly, and we had shower issues with the water. 5* luxury, NO. We didn't get any turn down until night 5, after asking several times we did the last two nights. The main pool has the swim-up bar, that has the left side of the bar totally broken off and one large main tile in the pool floor missing that is dangerous. The jetted pools no longer work. The quiet pool was being heated and it took four days for someone to finally take a look and realize it was 93 degrees when it was 98 degrees outside, so no one was using it. The one thing about the brand that always stands out to me is lack of service around the pool & beach in comparison to others in the same price point. It just makes such a difference on a service level. I also miss decent wine and any selection of Rose Wine-- I bought a bottle one night, but it was outrageously priced. The beach is nice, but the loungers are old, broken and extremely uncomfortable. I wish they kept up with the sand and kept it clean, it's so dirty and full of trash. Overall, the food was good. We really enjoyed the a la carte Breakfast and Lunch at the Bahama Bay bar for salads and pizza. Barefoot was the best meal of the week, followed by the Soy and Italian. The evenings are mostly chill here, it's a shame the same person who is serving you drinks at Breakfast is closing down the late-night bar - the staff was certainly overworked and unfortunate because we felt many nights they were closing down bars' way to early. The coffee shop was good but heard complaints from staff that they haven't had their working machines for over two months, so things get very backed up. Airport transfers were smooth and convenient. We met some lovely people through the stay and made some new friends on the islands that we hope to visit again one day. I do hope this resort invests some money and makes this place look like deserves. Cheers to Tonya (server) who took excellent care of us all week.