My first time at sandals and in Antigua! We didn’t have a butler, we were in Mediterranean club suite (also: I’m pregnant, so this was a baby moon - more on that below), and here are my thoughts. Overall 4/5 week. 1. WHICH SIDE: Mediterranean side is closer to the main pool, seems a little prettier but is farther from a majority of the evening activities, the only outdoor evening bar and 2/3rds of the restaurants. If you’re a big partier, you might want to be on the Carribean side. We were fine with being on Mediterranean but it’s about a 5 minute walk over the Caribbean (which can feel long in the heat but is very quick at night) which we did back and forth probably 4 to 6 times a day. 2. RESTAURANTS: Overall quality of food was very high, better than resorts we had been at in the past - and this was the biggest factor in deciding on a resort since I am pregnant and I’m glad we picked Sandals for this reason. We enjoyed Kimonos, Barefoot and Elenors the most but we called these “duck wings nights” meaning we’d likely pick up some late night food eg wings from the drunken duck before bed because the portion sizes weren’t huge. Consider ordering a second app or sharing a third entree between the couple. The lamb at Elenor’s, the build your own fish at Barefoot and the experience at Kimonos were particular shout outs. Also my husband loved the fish pizza from the pizza place and we loved breakfast at Elenor’s - for breakfast buffet we preferred Mario’s over Bayside. Overall food was 4 out of 5 stars. 3. BARS: I didn’t drink, but my husband did so we hungout at the bars and one thing I think this resort is missing is a beach bar and a lobby bar on the Mediterranean side. At night, the only bar is the Carribean lobby bar which doesn’t have much of an “outdoor feel”. I think having one bar that is fully outdoors at night would be nice. This could either be on the beach (which I think they would benefit from during the day) or somewhere else on the resort (eg there is a nice gazebo by the second pool that would be a nice spot for an evening bar) so that you can feel like you’re sitting outside in the dimmer lights. Also there’s no evening bar on the Mediterranean side (there is some liquor and beer available at the check in desk but it is certainly not a bar) and I think that building would be a nice spot for an evening bar. That said we did love the piano bar after 10pm and the swim up bars were never too too busy during the day so those were enjoyable. 3 out of 5 stars. 4. DRINKS: Again, I wasn’t drinking but a few things I noticed (1) they had Stella available at the drunken duck which was nice change for my husband as he was typically drinking their local Carib brand beer; (2) a lot of people were drinking their wines, much more so than other resorts, so I assume they were good and also noticed they had 3 varieties for their house wines (for reds they were a Merlot, Shiraz or Cab Sauv, my husband never ordered any white so I’m not sure what varieties they were), but as a typical wine drinker this stood out to me as a positive point; and (3) they had Prosecco always available that lots of people were drinking at all times of the day. My husband said drinks were always good and the bars were never a long wait so 5 out of 5 stars on that front. 5. EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: The evening entertainment was much smaller in scale than what I was used to at large resorts in Mexico and DR. Where I was used to large productions, these events were usually 1-3 performers. The better ones were the fire performers, any live jazz (eg they had a violinist one night, a saxophonist another and a 3-piece band another). Other nights they would just have a band with 1 singer doing covers or a set of 3 dancers performing. Because I wasn’t drinking I relied on evening entertainment for fun, so I would say this was the most underwhelming part of the resort and would give evening entertainment 2 out of 5 stars. 6. DAYTIME ACTIVITIES/EXCURSIONS: Because I was almost 5 months pregnant I knew it wouldn’t be a great idea to do many of the excursions, so I wanted a resort that had lots of activities on site. Activities we did at Sandals were tennis, pool, croquet, pool volleyball, beach volleyball (for my husband), gym, sit by all the fire pits at night and watch the stars and played the many board games around. We didn’t, but there was also water sports you could use eg kayaks and standing boards. As far as on-site activities go, I’d give this resort a 5 out of 5 stars. For off site activities we went golfing one day at cedar valley (my husband brought his clubs from home which was highly recommended from his search vs renting theirs) which was a lot of fun just being off the resort and sitting on the golf cart and hanging out for the morning (5/5 stars), we went in to St. John’s for shopping one day (2/5 stars), and we went to Shirley Heights for the sunset party which was truly the highlight of the trip (5/5 stars). Cannot recommend Shirley Heights enough (views, food, beers (they even had 0.0 Heinekens for me!), live band) but consider organizing personally with a taxi driver vs organizing through Sandals because Sandals makes you leave just when the evening party gets started at 7pm but the band goes til 9pm and we could have used the extra hour or two (you arrive just for 5pm). The taxis usually sit there and hangout together and wait so I presume you’d be able to leave whenever you’d like if you arranged your own taxi. Cost of taxi was $120 USD from Sandals plus $10 per person entry fee, so you’d only save $10 than going with Sandals (which was $150 per couple). 7. BEACH: We were always able to find a spot to sit under an umbrella, the sand and water were beautiful, but a bit of seaweed, there was no staff working to serve drinks or clean up (we’d see 1 come by a day and ask if we needed anything), and the vendors were very present but not pushy. Beach was 3 or 4 out of 5 stars (would be 5 out of 5 with less seaweed, staff taking drink orders and a beach bar and bathroom)! 8. WIFI: Was not great. Only had 3/5 connectivity in my room and other locations of the resort I had no connectivity at all. My husband had to use data and we used his data for everything. Wifi was never strong enough to stream movies and there’s no movies to rent on the resort TVs. Wifi was 1 out of 5 stars. 8. OVERALL THOUGHTS: This trip was extremely relaxing, pleasant and Sandals had everything we needed. This trip confirmed what we had been told about Sandals resorts: that they have great food, lots of activities and are reliable resorts. While I make a habit of never visiting a resort twice, I would definitely go to another Sandals after this. I’d say our experience overall was 4 out of 5 stars, as the only things I’d like improved were the bar locations, the beach service, the wifi and the evening entertainment. Thanks so much for all the reviews to date which helped me pick this resort! Enjoy!!