Sandals Emerald Bay — Hotel in Exuma

While the area itself was full of beauty and grace, the resort left plenty to be offered. Still worthy of a visit, if you love to relax. Not much to speak of activities tho.

Let’s start with some of the good stuff. The resort on the outside was very clean, popped w/ lots of color, & beautiful clean beaches. The staff was also very friendly at every location you visit.

To categorize this as “all inclusive” I’m not sure is a fair categorization due in large part to the food category. The company advertises 11+ locations to get “unrivaled culinary experiences” while you’re visiting, however the hours and availability hinder the opportunity to partake to the extreme. By in large the most difficult problem is that best places to eat are the hardest to get in. In fact, we got here on a Saturday, left on a Thursday & never even got to eat at La Parisienne, a French cuisine that was “booked to capacity” every single night, even as we called each morning by 8am.

We also attempted in the middle of a day to order room service, but it was never delivered. No rhyme or reason, no call, just nothing. I’ll give a full review of restaurants below.

Customer service was always very friendly, however very absent minded. We had asked to get our golf clubs brought to the course from our room to be ready for our round that, only to find once we got there, they never arrived. So we were then advised to just take the golf cart to the room ourselves via the maintenance path, & retrieve them ourselves. We scheduled tee times the following days as well due to lack of other activity opportunities, & none of the days were we ever pre-loaded onto a cart. The driving range was also very low on balls available to get loose. Very disappointing.

The golf course itself (also pictured below) was very challenging. The course offers tighter fairways on some of the holes, but none that expect PGA Tour level accuracy. The greens do demand a bit of accuracy as they certainly sway towards the smaller size. The front nine isn’t the scenic side, as it offers a very natural landscape that isn’t as eye popping as the back. The back nine here absolutely has all the eye catching beauty with stunning views, challenging greens with beautiful ocean backdrops, and gorgeous homes/rentals throughout.

Restaurants:

Barefoot by the Sea was a very nice experience that overlooks the bay, is literally dinner in the sand. I highly recommend the crab cake here (pictured below), truly exceptional, possibly the best I’ve ever had. The serving sizes are a bit smaller than expected, but since you can order more, it allows you to try a second option with a side of guilt.

The Drunken Duck is an Irish Pub themed spot that serves alcohol aplenty with a limited menu to match, but one that does provide a quality taste.

Bahama Bay was enjoyed along with Il Cielo for breakfast. Bahama Bay is a buffet style while the other offers menu options. Both have distinct differences, while Cielo had higher quality imo, but a longer dining experience, so if you’re ready to eat, buffet is the way to go.

The Jerk Shack is a jerk flavored meat shack that offers the likes of chicken, pork, and sausage. Stationed right by the pool, it was very convenient to get to, and had some of the best food in regards to snack worthy options.

Kimonos was a traditional hibachi Japanese theme, however different in the fact you didn’t actually order what you wanted. You sat with a group around the hibachi bar, they cooked all the meats offered (steak, chicken, shrimp, and mahi), and you chose what you wanted. The only problem was they didn’t offer you more of the other options if you chose to decline say fish or chicken. You just got less. Another issue is that the cooking process was essentially a spatula full of garlic with each product. Very strong and overpowered the other flavors.

Cafe de Paris was a cute French style pastry shop where you could get small desserts, and even one of three flavors of ice cream. The offerings did change daily, and although small in sizes, they were big and...

I will start with the pro's of the resort, -the landscaping was beyond beautiful, the flower scent blowing through the air was romantic -the water was very beautiful in color and the watersports team were super helpful -every single person that worked there left a wonderful impression on me. They were all kind and genuine. This is everyone, from the bar tenders to the house keepers. All great people -I recognized that sandals really valued there team, and they could feel that. Many members were able to take part in the welcome back dinners and there was a gal on our way out that told us about a wonderful party sandals threw for team members and that really made her day. She was glowing! -my massage and pedicure at the spa was great, super enjoyable -two butlers I had were more than I could ever dream of. Samsong left quite the impression. -golf course and staff were incredible. -turn down service was superb and all the ladies working it were super helpful and sweet CONS -This is not the resorts fault, but it was windy 80% of my stay. The part that is the resorts down fall, is that the bar, the pool, the restraunts and the game room were FREEZING. Everyone had to wear a jacket, sweater or coat inside. The water in the spa shower, also ICE cold. I wrote in asking them to please heat Something. -My third butler only came to see me once when butlers switched over. Every request, every question I had either went un answered or he couldn't help me when he did respond. This is for things a simple as a spa reservation. I felt that it made my last day and a half a total waste of butler room stay. I did call and text him with little to no response several times. -Additionally, I was told I had 24 hrs room service. One night at 2 am I woke to a terrible cough. I had no water in my room. I called every single extension, and my butler to no answer. I had to put a robe on and go to the front desk to get it leaving me even more frustration about having a butler room- that gives you 24 hrs room service. -when I got room service one evening because my butler wasn't responding to me about dinner, my food didn't come. When I called and asked why? They said the butler was supposed to pick it up but didn't. Then guess what...I got the wrong food. Someone from the kitchen did bring it to me, so I was grateful to have something at least. -I had at least three people kock on my door trying to get us out of our room from 930 am. on when it was check out day. Check out was 11. I kept turning them away. I get they want to clean the room, but come on...it's mine until 11. -I was grossed out by the doors on the inside of every bathroom. This was pretty much resort wide. They all have black dirty fingerprints on the side you see sitting on the toilet. Yuck! -The bathroom by the pool had a constant puddle. Unsure if it was urine or what not, but it sure smelled like it all the time. I couldn't use it. -half and half here. entertainment was hit and miss. First few days really were a downer. Last few days I seen major improvement and we were able to see a few shows and really enjoy it. -Sandals forgot to recognize my anniversary. -We never got our day free we submitted information in for our anniversary. This is a big deal since we stayed 12 nights, 13 days. -We moved to emerald status and went to two welcome back dinners hoping to get our award and were NOT recognized. I had to go ask for my pins before we left. -During our last three days my app wouldn't work and it did not have my stay in there. They said the booking had the wrong information on it. I had to work with customer service to fix it. This left me unable to talk to someone on Gina about the issues I was having with my butler or the room service issues. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

I would like to say I would be back, but I won't be. To many issues towards the end of my stay and I don't feel valued after spending over 25 days with sandals- 13 alone on this final trip, spending substantial money for poor service. We are looking at other resorts for future...

We should have read the online Google reviews before we booked, since our experience was pretty much like everyone else: facility and grounds are very nice; but room and service was not, and food was average at most of the restaurants.

Facility/Grounds:  the lobby, pools, and beach are really nice. They are well maintained and picturesque. Plenty of available seating at the pools and beach, and generally enough towels to go around. The beach is stunning, and views are spectacular.

Golf/Activities: there certainly is plenty to do if you don't just want to sit by the pool. We were definitely pleased with the Greg Norman Golf course. The layout is fantastic, it is well maintained, and the views along the ocean are spectacular. Though while we were there, none of the water sports/Activities were available because of wind/red flag conditions.

Room:  rooms were adequate but VERY outdated. Need refurbishing. Plus there was a definite odor and musty-ness of the room. Tile throughout the room and especially the bathroom need a deep cleaning; they looked and felt extremely dirty. TV was old and reception was poor, but since we weren't in the room that long, it wasn't a big factor;  but for the prices that Sandals charges, they should provide quality equipment and reception.

Housekeeping: after the first full day, our room wasn't cleaned until mid-afternoon.  I notified Housekeeping management that I wanted the room cleaned in the mornings. While it worked for 1 day, after that they came in mid-to-late afternoon every other day.  After being out of the room since 8 am, we returned to the room at 3pm only to find it still not done! We waited another 30 minutes for someone to finish the cleaning before we could get back to our room after a long day. Very frustrating and irritating!

Restaurant/Food: the Italian and French restaurant dinner were good, but certainly not 5 Star. Breakfasts were another story! The hot items in buffet at Bahama Bay were constantly cold; if you did order the eggs off the menu, it would take at least 20 minutes to arrive, even if we were one of the first diners to be seated in the morning. At Cielo where you order everything off the menu, our order was CONSTANTLY wrong. They would forget the hash browns; not bring the correct toast; not come by to provide a second cup of coffee; and believe it or not, they even brought my English Muffin un-toasted! One day, the waitress accidently spilled a customers maple syrup on the floor. Though she did provide the customer with other syrup, she never wiped up the floor. Another customer came in and walked in the syrup and was very upset. But what did they do? They only put a CAUTION sign on the floor; no one attempted to clean the spill while we were there. Though I did speak with a manager at the restaurant on 2 different occasions,  it was apparent that nothing was really communicated to the staff because the problems kept occurring day after day.

Since we booked dinners at the other restaurants during our stay, on our last full day we wanted to try their Sushi restaurant Soy, which don't take reservations. However, when we showed up, they told us the restaurant wasn't open on Sundays. But no one ever told us, and their online app which provides specifics on all restaurants ( e.g., menus, dress code, times they are open) stated the restaurant was open 6-9 pm! But obviously that was not true since it never said they were closed on Sundays! This was a huge disappointment since we really wanted to try the sushi. After speaking with the concierge, they were not able to get us a reservation at Cielo which is one of their higher quality restaurants. So needless to say, we were not happy, again!

Bright Spot:  the bartenders at the pools are very talented, attentive, and friendly.

Conclusion:  there are so many better options in the Caribbean. Until Sandals does a massive upgrade of the rooms, changes management, and provides better training and oversight of the staff, which can be verified by much better customer reviews, I would stay away from...