Sand Dollar Beach Resort — Restaurant in New Providence

Poor customer service, coordination, communication, and instructions. False advertisement.

Boat pickup was 30-minutes late. Pissed off a few passengers boarding the boat who complained about how they wanted more time on the excursion to make up for the lost time and ruining mood.

No standing on boat while it is moving. The captain was very stern about it, consistently walking the bridge telling everyone to sit down just seconds after they got up to fix apparel, take a picture, look at a view, etc.

Once on the small island, we were told we could go anywhere. After walking through the gates toward a residential area behind the restaurant, staff scolded us for going back there. When going too far down the beach side. Same scolding for interrupting unaffiliated excursions.

2 different packages were bought and shared on the same boat, confusing all the guests. During pig show, only one group was allowed to be present which wasn’t communicated to the other group who also bought pig show package. When people from the other group walked into the area, a short staff member with long dreads ran up to everyone bumping them with his chest, telling them they didn’t belong, and needed to go away. Lost and confused, the guests asked where they were supposed to be if not at the activity that they paid for; the man just pointed behind the guests and told them to go away with no explanation other then “you will be banned”.

The excursion was called “swimming with the pigs”. Not only was the direction crappy from the staff, but the title itself was untrue. They let 3 pigs out from a pig-pen and everyone stands in a line on the beach to feed them. There was no actual “swimming” with the pigs. It should just be called “pay us to feed our pigs”.

The food was well made, typical hamburgers, hot dogs, and wraps. Food and drink were part and the purchased package. Bartender took his sweet time talking with his co-worker, pouring himself a drink, and going back to his conversation before attending to guests. Drinks with the package were only got soda out juice. Alcohol had to be purchased.

Water activities were; climbing and sitting on a floaty that was placed 20+ meter from shore. Even if you’re a strong swimmer and you manage to get to the tube, climbing on the item will flip it on your head. There was supposedly water biking which was not available. Snorkeling involved a $20 deposit. You’re allowed to drag a kayak to the beach if you wanted to do that activity.

Crew was smoking marijuana in areas where guests were present both on boat and on the island. The smell was overwhelming.

Turtle tour consisted of stopping at turtle island and watching other people snorkel and look for turtles. If you’re lucky, you may be able to see a turtle through the glare and waves of the water. The captain tried to describe what tried looked like from above the surface and got everyone pointing at rocks claiming they were turtles.

Crew brought “female friends” who were the only ones allowed to sit on the flybridge, who also participated in smoking marijuana. Other passengers were squeezed tightly together, with no secure seating.

That about sums up the excursion provided by...

SCAM ALERT*

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the excursion my family (party of three) participated in with your company. We each paid $99 for an experience that did not meet the expectations set by your marketing materials or the details provided at the time of booking.

Firstly, the boat arrived late for our pick-up, which set the tone for the entire day. As a result, we were rushed through both lunch and the pig interaction activity. We were informed that we had to leave Rose Island quickly in order to visit another island to see the sea turtles, which was one of the main activities we were excited about.

Additionally, despite booking a package that promised activities such as snorkeling and kayaking, we were told that these activities could not be offered due to time constraints. We were informed that cruise ship passengers needed to return to their ship, and as a result, our experience was shortened. It feels extremely unfair that our experience was compromised due to the needs of other guests, especially when we paid the full price for the excursion.

When booking, we were told to expect around 2.5 hours of activities plus 30 minutes of transportation. Instead, we had roughly 45 minutes for lunch and the pig interaction activity. This was a significant deviation from what was promised and left us feeling dissatisfied and frustrated.

When we reached out to the resort for assistance, we were informed that they could only offer us a gift voucher because we paid in cash. Had we paid by credit card, a partial refund would have been possible. This is simply unacceptable, as we are leaving the island today. Furthermore, after reading other reviews, it seems that even with credit card payments, refunds are not issued, which makes me feel misled.

We are deeply disappointed by the lack of transparency, communication, and the overall failure to meet expectations. There are many other companies offering similar excursions with better reviews and customer service, and we strongly recommend others to consider them instead.

Reply to their message:

We were charged $99 USD with the understanding—based on your flyer and the 11:30 AM departure time—that we would be participating in all the advertised activities.

However, once on the boat, we were informed by the staff that due to time constraints related to cruise ship guests, not all activities could be completed. This was never communicated to us in advance. Had we known that the full experience was only possible with a 9:30 AM booking, we would have made arrangements accordingly.

This lack of transparency was frustrating and misleading. We hope you take this feedback seriously and ensure future guests are given accurate information...

This was the absolute worse experience I’ve had on vacation! The manager/owner Marvin was extremely rude and unprofessional!!! I have a family of 4 so this was a very expensive tour ($400). And from the time we arrived Marvin treated us as subpar human. We paid our fee and attempted to get scuba gear and with the uptake in Covid and other world diseases, I asked how often the gear was disinfected. Marvin frown and asked, rude why would we give you unclean gear! We clean it daily. Remind you, they have several groups daily. Although Marvin is Black Bahamian, if you’re a person of color you can expect second class treatment in comparison to Europeans!!! He made us wait in line while he served white and French guest first, he also wouldn’t allow other staff to serves, while the were being served. My group was due to end and leave swim with the pig portion of the tour to go to Turtle Island at 2:30. We could not because Marvin sent our boat to pick up a group of French guests, which depleted the fuel in the boat. So about 85 guest had to stand in the deck for about a hour and a half waiting on another boat to bring fuel. Marvin, never came out to apologize or offer free refreshments. Not to mention we missed the Turtle Island tour, which was not refunded and some of us opted to let the 3:30 guest leave the island first because they arrived on a cruise ship and was going to be late getting back and possibly miss their ship! Marvin also treated the staff horribly but the kept good spirits and were very apologetic of Marvin’s behavior and...