Dhananjay Suresh

Review of Sandals Royal Caribbean

Our stay at Royal Caribbean for 5 nights in the ov...

Our stay at Royal Caribbean for 5 nights in the over-water bungalow was amazing. We came here for our honeymoon since Royal Barbados extended its closure.

Overall the resort was extremely welcoming and friendly. All of the staff no matter what their position was extremely friendly and always made sure to greet us and have small conversation. The resort was clean with hand sanitizer everywhere for COVID. Because of COVID the resort was not crowded at all.

Food:
In our experience the best food we had (not including our in-room dining) was at the Jerk Shack, the Grill, the pizza spot, Bombay Club and Spices. The food at all restaurants was cooked perfectly. The Jamaican cuisine was hands down the best.

Jerk Shack, Pizza, Grill, and Spices had amazing food. Highly recommend the Jerk Pizza and Jerk Chicken.

Bombay Club really surprised us. We were expecting mediocre food like the restaurants below... but this food was AMAZING. Honestly some of the best Indian food we had (given we live in NYC). The apps were cooked perfectly and were so flavorful. The entrees were extremely tasty and cooked perfectly. This is hard to say about Indian restaurants. The desserts were really good as well.

The Thai place on the island was extremely nice in terms of setting. The apps were amazing but the food, even though cooked well was just bland. Nowhere close to authentic. Desserts were good.

However the French restaurant disappointed us. Their desserts were good but their food just did not taste good (even though cooked perfectly). Both the app and entree me and my wife got were almost inedible in how they tasted. We wanted to try Italian but another couple had a similar experience so we decided to skip it. Also the ambiance was dark and mediocre.

Candlelight Dinner was a $200 add-on. It was really romantic having dinner by the water, watching the sunset. The food choices are different than what you get at the restaurant and was cooked well by the chef of that day. He was nice enough to come out and make sure everything was going well and if there was anything he could do to make our dinner better. Our waitress was extremely nice to leave us alone and check in when needed. She even escorted us and our desserts back to the room to finish there.

The Spa staff were extremely nice. The first couples massage (Scents of Love) treatment was mediocre which set our hopes low for the second one we got (Night Blooming Jasmine). However the Night Blooming Jasmine was AMAZING. We had the same set of masseuses and this treatment left us feelings so good. We guess the first treatment was just not a good one. Also would recommend getting the services done outside (extra money but worth it). The room makes you feel stuffy and cold but outside you are by the water, it feels more open, you hear the waves and just feels more romantic.

Bulter Suite Specific:
The over-water bungalows and villas are so nice. If you can you have to experience it. I would suggest it to those who want to spend more time in their room rather than go out because once you have one of these rooms you don't want to leave them. Everything can be brought to your room with dining on the deck. It is a wonderful experience.

Shoutout to our butters Leon and Tiffany who took such good care of us during our stay! They both always left us little surprises in our rooms such as personalized decorations, sweets, treats and was constantly aware of our preferences (water, drink choices). They helped us get accustomed to the resort and made suggestions on activities and let us know how they could help us (reservations, in-room breakfast, dispatching boat transfer). They both also showed up promptly to escort us to our reservations and spa sessions. It was an amazing experience thanks to both of them.

Also something we didn't know was that the butler suites have access to a specific in-room dining menu with 24/7 service. This included breakfast w/ drinks, regular food and desserts. The quality of this food was amazing. We had breakfast everyday in our room which tasted amazing.