I took my son to Beaches Sandy Bay for his birthday. We had a fantastic time. The hotel really made a big deal out of his special occasion. I definitely suggest that if you have a special occasion even a birhday that you advise them ahead of time. They made him feel very special. The staff are very, very gracious. I have travelled a lot and always note the friendliness of the hotel staff and this resort exceeded my expectations. The beach is great for little ones. You don't have to worry about big waves or undertow.
The Sesame Street chartacters and entertainment were a big hit. When the kids see them coming they get so excited. A great benefit is also the shuttle going back and forth to Beaches Negril just a short distance away. It offers more dining options and water park fun that you didn't have to pay for with your room! ....As Beaches Negril is definitely more expensive. You are getting the best of both worlds really. We look forward to returning as soon as possible!!!!!!!!!!

The Beach is what you will love about this place. Let me say that our party of four persons were upgraded from Negril Gardens (Grand Pineapple). We truly got more for our dollar, i.e. three to four places to eat, bar open till 3am. etc. But we love the small places with a great beach and awsome vibe. We did find both here, but on a larger scale. Food was good. Go to the Sundowner. Bartenders and drinks rocked!!!! Okay entertainment. We had no small children in our party, worried the other kids would be a trip...not at all....room for all!!! Rooms okay...but the beach...front desk okay, our room not ready, but others in our party was??? Had to insist on something now!!
But the beach.......no air-conditioned public places...but the beach....get the point???!!!??? Go enjoy...slow down...enjoy the BEACH!!!!

This is a letter I wrote to the head of beaches:

My family and I arrived at the Beaches Sandy Bay resort on July 2, 2008. All of our accommodations were booked through Liberty Travel. We were taken to room 5209. First, the room was very, very dirty. I walked across it barefoot and my feet were black. We had to wear our shoes all the time. The refrigerator was empty. We informed the man who brought us to our room and he said it will be stocked, they didn't get a chance yet. Then after it was stocked we found out that the fridge wasn't even working. They had to change the fridge and my husband had to help them do that because there was not enough space in the room to get the fridge in and out. We also requested a crib in the room ahead of time and we had to ask 3 different times to get the crib which didn't arrive until after 8:30 PM. The crib was not even sleep able. It was a pack and play that had a flimsy mattress with no cushion and it was dirty. I was not putting my 8 month old in that. The room itself was so tight between the bed and the dresser that my husband, who is an average size guy, kept hitting his arms on the dresser every time he had to pass. How can you make a room that you can't move around in? What if it were larger people? They wouldn't be able to get to both sides of the room. Poor planning on their part. The comforter on the bed had a blood stain on it. The bathtub was so dirty that you felt more dirty getting out of the shower than getting in. There was also no hot water to take a shower in. The toilet was broken and wouldn't flush. It kept running so we had to fix it at 2 am because it was driving us crazy. We spent a lot of money to go to this resort and after the first few hours we just wanted to go home. Thursday we called our travel agent in the US (which cost us $7 for a 4 minute call) to inform them about our room situation. A manager from the resort was sent to our room to hear our complaints. This was at 9:30 am. We were told we were going to be taken care of, so just give them a little while to see what they could do. We got at call back by 10 am. They informed us to pack and we were getting a new room (7205)
. We wanted to enjoy the day at the beach and they said the new room wasn't ready so check back at the desk at 2 PM and the room would be ready. We went to the desk at 2 PM and we were told its still not ready and to come back in another hour. It was hot and we needed to put our son down for a nap and we had no where to go. We came back at 3 PM and the manager told us that she had been looking for us and that our room had been ready for a long time. We informed her that they told us it wasn't ready and to come back. She apologized again and walked us to our room. Almost a whole day of our vacation wasted. The new room was better, cleaner. But the comforter was moldy and we were unable to use it. The sheets were not changed everyday. We know this because we had gotten baby food on them and it was the same one when we came back and the bed was remade. There was a big ant problem. Tons of baby ants infested the room especially the bathroom. I had to kill them using my hairspray. How can I make a bottle for my son in a bathroom that was full of ants? Very unsanitary. On the day before we were leaving our housekeeper was hinting to us to leave her a tip. I thought no tipping at these resorts. That was very tacky.

Secondly, the food. We were very disappointed in the food. The main dining area food was terrible. The only meal that was good was breakfast. How can you mess up breakfast? You should not lose weight on your vacation to an all inclusive resort. We did try the two other restaurants. The one Caribbean restaurant was very good and the service was excellent. The Italian one didn't even have enough menus to go around. We were seated and had to wait for menus. We were completely ignored by the staff. When we needed a server they said they would be right over and instead of coming right over they would clean a dirty table and walk over to our table to see what we wanted with dirty dishes in there hands. At the grill I had to inform the girl behind the counter that when I went to open the popcorn machine I got an electric shock from the doors. She just said ok and I saw her do nothing about it. That is extremely dangerous. What if I was a young child getting popcorn?

Third, the pool. You could only go into the pool from 9-4. People love to swim at a resort and the pool should be open until late a night. If chemical treatments have to be done (which is what the sign said) they should be done late at night or early in the morning. We did not get to go into the pool at all. After enjoying the beach, people like to go swimming in the pool. Especially at night.

Main desk: not informative at all. Scale was broken. They never had change. They could not really answer any questions. When you are checking out someone should be checking your flight status at the airport before departing the resort. We were delayed 8 hours in the airport with a 8 month old. 1 1/2 hour trip on a bus and then 8 hours in an airport does not make for a fun trip with an infant.

The comeback deal desk. It was pushed upon us to go to the comeback desk to book our next vacation with beaches. We spent our last hour of our trip at this desk. And no we did not want to book a trip to come back. It was pushed on us because your staff gets incentives for getting guests to book another trip. Suggest it, don't push it.

My family and I do not get to take vacations very often. This was our first in 4 years. The only one since our honeymoon. We spent a lot of money. We were very disappointed. I believe we didn't even get close to what we paid for. You really need to get it together. After speaking to several guests at the resort it was a joint consensus of how disappointing this resort was and nobody we met will be coming back. All the guests had issues. Please use this letter as a guide to make that resort better for future guests if you want them to comeback again.

My sister and I just returned from a 5 night stay at BSB and it was a HUGE disappointment. I, like many others, read the reviews - good and bad - but still decided to book this vacation because I know every resort may have a SMALL issue here and there and because I trust the Sandals product. My husband and I have been to Sandals Dunn's River twice, Sandals Whitehouse twice and Sandals Regency St. Lucia once. I wanted to show my sister the wonderful things I have experienced at a Sandals and expected the same satisfcation at Beaches. Unfortunately, that didn't happen - at least not at Sandy Bay! If you don't like to read long reviews than skip this one, but I believe that if a traveler is going to write a negative one the resort and future travelers deserve to have the specifics listed.

ARRIVAL: Normally when your airport shuttle arrives at the property, a Sandals/ Beaches employee is standing right there waiting for your arrival. Someone immediately takes your bags from the driver, greets you with that infamous cold, wet white towel and immediately offers you a drink while you register. When we arrived, no one was there. The driver had to shout several times into the lobby, "Hello" to get someone's attention so he could give them our bags and then it was still awhile before we were officially greeted. So, my sister and I just sat there alone. Nice start, huh?

ROOM: I also had a broken ankle at the time and had notified Jolene, the Sandals Select MGR ahead of time. BSB does not have elevators, so we were placed in a ground floor room (not what we paid for, but hey, not their fault I broke my ankle) near the activities. I was disappointed that we were not upgraded to a one bedroom suite which was one category above what I booked. I know upgrades are based upon availabilty, but they were below capacity and this was the first time I was not upgraded and this was my 6th trip! Anyway, our room would have been ok except our bathtub was stained with dirt streaks and crawling with ants. We issued a complaint with the manager on duty, David McIntyre (a very nice man) who apologized and later that evening he had someone spray for ants and he sent up a bottle of champagne to make up for it. However, the next afternoon, there were still ants and when I called the front desk, the receptionists' response was , "well you know this is not a 5 star resort". I was stunned she would even say that. From there we went back to both managers on duty because they already knew us quite well from other issues (those details to come) and informed them about the additional ants and the receptionist. From there they directed us to Anne-Marie and Andrea in Guest Services who listened to us, but acted like they didn't care and said they would look into transferring us to Beaches Negril (which is what I asked for). I also asked to be transferred to a Sandals. I realize that is for couples, but even when I booked our vacation the Beaches/Sandals rep said my sister and I could stay at Sandals. Anne Marie refused to send us to a Sandals. She said she would look into Beaches Negril, but never got back to us. Later that afternoon, my sister wanted to take a nap. She pulled back the covers and laid her head down on the pillow only to find a bug lying right beside her. She wrapped it in a tissue and took it down to Anne Marie and Andrea and showed them and they really didn't care. My sister insisted we be moved immediately. We told them - forget about my broken leg, I would climb steps, just move us. They wouldn't do so until we returned from dinner that night at Beaches Negril. When we got back from dinner, our room on the second floor and a longer walk for me was ready, but at least it seemed better. We never saw ants actually in this bedroom. They were, however, swarming on the balcony and in our bathroom. Housekeeping was so-so. The floors were gritty. I don't think she ever swept or mopped. We never got our 2 dirty glasses replaced with fresh ones. We caught her one afternoon and asked her for them and she said we had to go to the bar to get them replaced! I have never heard of such laziness from housekeeping. Also, the clock in our room did not work and maintenance had to come fix it and the remote control to the TV had dead batteries. Those are things that should have been checked before a guest enters a room. Our air conditioner was covered in cigarette butts outside.

FOOD: Overall, it was average. I have never gotten sick on any of my five previous stays at a Sandals resort. However, I vomited 4 of the 6 days I was here. And no, I didn't have a flu bug. It started the morning after I had my first meal there and then continued a few hours or even sometimes immediately after eating. The Bayside was swarming with flies. Very sad. I never had dinner there, but had a full breakfast once and on my final am, I just ate a bagel because I was sick again and even then I had flies crawling all over me. The Sesame Grill was hit or miss. My biggest issue with them was that I wanted a simple BLT sandwich which wasn't on the menu. My first afternoon there, the guy on the grill said, "No problem Mon". I thought - this is great because I love BLT's and I'll be very happy on vaca and they always make them at the Sandals. The next day, I went to order one. A different guy was working the grill and a girl was taking orders. When I asked for a BLT she tells me I can't have it and proceeds to yell at the grill guy for taking the special order. And I mean, yells. Then she yells at me. So, I told her to stop yelling at him because it wasn't the same guy and told her to forget it because I would just go get the manager, David. And I did, who also brought in Suzette, the Restuarant manager to handle the situation. About 1/2 hour later Suzette hand delivered my BLT to me and I was able to get them from then on, but it should have not been such a situation. By now, we have spent the majority of our 5 days inside the lobby issuing complaints. On a positive note for the restaurants, Suzette prepared a nice table for us at the Sundowner on our final evening. I didn't really care for the food, but the setting was nice and I truly appreciate her effort. We also ate at The Seville at Beaches Negril twice and it was incredible and also Kimonos at Beaches Negril. This Kimonos was not as good as the ones at Dunn's River or the Regency St. Lucia.

Bar: The bartenders were great! Very entertaining and made the drinks well. There is only one bar open during the day and there are no stools and the disco bar which is open late night untl 2am smelled very musty so I only went there once to get a drink and never visted again.

Pools: There are 2. I only visted the larger main pool which is still very small. There are only about 8 lounge chairs by the pool and they are away from the stage so you can't see anything going on during the day. Also, the chairs are on the opposite side of the pool from where the ladder is to get into the pool. I only saw the pool get cleaned one time as opposed to daily at my previous stay at Sandals.

Employees: There was an overall haphazard feeling to the way they worked. Maybe they didn't want to be there, either, but they didn't have that genuine "No, problem mon" attitude that most have had at other Sandals. Costomer service was not there priority. Rarely did I see a smile. Yes, a few of them did, but they were few and far between. In the end, the General Manager, Winston Anderson did give us a voucher for our 5 nights back. Even that was not what he originally offered to keep us at his resort, but I've kept you reading long enough to get into that saga. However, I do appreciate his efforts and especially those of the other managers David Lawrence and David McIntyre. Renovations are due to begin in September. If you still insist on going here, do yourself a favor and wait until the renovations are complete.