Review by Selena, 8/2/2019

Hi Dave,

We loved our first time trip out of the US. The Bahamas were amazing and totally beautiful. It is just like you see in the movies or advertisements. The water is swimming pool clear and cool. 

Did you end up doing all the activities you had hoped 
1. Scuba diving was awesome and they really took time to help and train. The water was clear and group saw alot of fish and coral.
2. Swimming with the Pigs Tour was THE BEST and highly recommended.
3. The message at the spa was ok. The shower handles were broken and not alot of direction was given to me as to what to do. The lady messager was excellent an very nice. The message was excellent. The facility was OK.
4. We didn't get to do ANY of the water activities (except one morning) due to excessive wind and red flag days (4 of the 5 days were red flag). That was a bummer. The one morning we did go out into the bay was with the guide on the sail boat. VERY fun. The rest of the time was windy and water was rough. The water was never clear and calm and beautiful. The workers at the resort told us the week we were there was unusual.

How did you like your Villa and the butler service?  
5. The villa was beautiful and convenient. Very private and easy to use. Very romantic.
6. The butler service was nice to have but we didn't maximize the usage. We were on the go and liked to venture outside the resort. The main butler (Rubin) was excellent and brought us drinks, food and escorted us to dinner. He did a fine job but seemed to be utilized QUITE a bit by other guests. He was super polite and even sang Happy Birthday to Mark in a restaurant. (Wow! WHAT A VOICE). THe other butler seemed new and was not as attentive. He was a big teddy bear and sweet. The butler phone didn't work very well and we kept having to go up front to the desk to reconnect the phone to the resort. For us, it was great to have but next time we will not need that service.

Do you have any “must do, must see, must try or must avoid” for others going to Exuma and Sandals? 
7. Must do the Swimming with the Pigs Tour and Scuba diving.
8. We rented a car to get off the property to see and do other things. (A little bit of shopping in Georgetown. Must go to Coco Plum beach. Can take a water taxi to Stocking Island but was NOT worth it. Very hot on the island, a little dive bar, an expensive tourist shop. Be aware of water taxi services. Some are fine and others are not.)
9. The butler convoy was not a good experience. There were not enough golf carts and we got left behind. When we finally got a cart we were left to drive around ourselves and we got lost. We finally found the rest and they playing games, not our idea of a good time. We left and went back to the resort. 
10. Rent the golf cart toward the end of the day and drive around the golf course..it is beautiful. 
11. Don't expect nightlife. This is not a party or dance resort. The bands, groups in the evenings were not great (loved the sax player at the pool).
12. The pool bar closed in the afternoon but there were 2 other bars on the resort open.
13. 3 restaurants: The Bombay, French, and the Bay were excellent and highly recommended. All other restaurants were not good, not good service and not a good experience.
(Hibachi grill was the worst. Food prep and presentation was awful, service was terrible and we ended up leaving. The Italian Restaurant service was terrible and the chef ended up coming out to apologize for the crappy food I got and service.
14. Make sure to go to the main building to sign up for activities in advance.
15. The main was pool was awesome and drinks were VERY cool!
16. The quiet pool was nice and beautiful EXCEPT the temperature of the water was VERY warm..not cool at all. We had champagne at the pool. Very nice and romantic.
17. The resort is quiet and at night we walked on the beach and didn't see other people.
18. My husband and I could not get over how nice ALL the employees were, how friendly everyone was, how talkative and sweet the workers all were. EVERYONE said how they loved working there.

OVERALL it was a nice relaxing time. We enjoyed our drinks and time together!

Thank you for a wonderful and beautiful experience!  We would like to explore other Sandals in the future.

Review by Andrea, 12/20/2018

Hi there! 
 
We had the best trip!!!!   We can’t thank you enough!  Not sure if you saw we got delayed in Nassau getting out!  We didn’t get to the resort until midnight!  The airport was charming.  Everyone we met on the island was so nice.  We only left the resort twice- once to go into Georgetown to get our marriage license, and once to go on our Swimming pigs excursion!  We would definitely recommend that.  We used island routes through the hotel.
 
Our wedding planner Bradnicka was awesome.   We felt so special the whole time!  We had our planning session where we customized our reception table, music and cake.  (We brought our own cake topper and went with a chocolate cake with mocha filling).   They brought us the second tier to our room.
 
Here are my highlights/notes:
 

• We loved the resort!  We were glad we had bug spray and avoided the beach at dusk and at night.  Some people were covered in bites.
• So many fun treats in our room- rose petals on the bed, champagne, notes from housekeeping.  The staff knew us as newlyweds and made it so great!
• We went to the Drunken Duck every night.  Delicious late night cheeseburgers.  We danced, sang karaoke one night and made friends.  There is even talk of a reunion trip next year. J
• Definitely island time.  Ben’s suit wasn’t back from being pressed at wedding time, but we adjusted with their help.  We weren’t stressed.
• We snorkeled, sailed and saw dolphins, kayaked, basically all they had to offer.
• All the food we had was delicious.  Our only so/so was the hibachi. 
• Wedding pictures- we used their photographer.  They turned out beautiful.  But expensive. 

 
We left a review on your facebook site.  Not sure if you saw it.  But thank you so much for helping us choose this!  We can’t recommend this island enough!
 
Andrea

Review by Myrna, 10/23/2018

Hi Dave,

This picture is a perfect example of our vacation!
We enjoyed every second, it is just the relaxing trip we dreamed of. The water was beautiful and the sun was out every day.
Dexter enjoyed the golf outings; a bit of a mix up with the Jeep rental, ( my fault) but the car worked just fine. The beaches were stunning; the map was very helpful. Our favorite was the beach by the pink house; all of the beaches were either empty or just had 2-3 people on them. The resort also had Glenfiddich!!!I am so glad we came to your office to see pictures of the resorts that your staff suggested; a great pick!

Thank you again, can’t wait for the next trip!
 Myrna

Review by Heather, 10/27/2017

​Hi, Dave -  We absolutely loved our time in Exuma! 

  Our Villa was beautiful, and we decided we always want to stay in that exact one - lol!  it had a perfect view because of where it was situated and a hammock, and pool - it was absolutely lovely!!  We enjoyed all of the restaurants as well - really good food. 
   
  We were both very impressed with the staff at the resort.  They do a very good job of representing Sandals well in their interactions with the guests, and all seemed to go out of their way to make sure everyone was having a good time.  We joked that we would like to bring some of them home with us to work with our company as it is so difficult to find that attitude in Johnson County these days!

  We did do the excursion, but we did one off resort because we heard from some other people that it was much cheaper and it was about half the price and probably the best money we spent!  It was absolutely fantastic!  We did the half day - there is also a full day, but we didn't want to be gone for a full day from the resort.  Also, we met the Lauck family while we were there - turns out that Luke had actually met David before for a work thing, and Sarah and I have a mutual friend - super small world and we really enjoyed spending time with them and their family that was there!  All of my pics are on my phone, so I will send some from there.  Thanks for scoping things out in September and getting us such an awesome suite... everybody was jealous of our room!  

Anyways - I will send over some pictures here shortly. Thanks again!

Review by Alyssa & Brian, 12/7/2017

Alyssa and I had a wonderful time in Exuma!  

​It was fantastic.  We did have Kevin and Eckron, and they were wonderful butlers.  Kevin in particular, was just a great guy.  

Our favorite things from the trip:

1. Secluded Island Getaway - we did this on our last way and it was the perfect way to cap the trip.  The island was much larger than we expected and it was the best water/beach either of us have ever been on by far.

2. Jeep Rental - we did this about half way through our trip, and it was a great way to leave the resort and explore.  We met fantastic people, and even say some "Love to Travel” swag on the walls at both restaurants we went to.  The locals were so nice.  Mom’s rum cake was fantastic.  Seafood nachos were phenomenal.  Just a great day.   Our only advice would be to make sure people head back to the resort before it gets too dark out - the roads are rough and everyone else drives with their brights on…but we made it!

3. Swimming with the pigs - it was fun, but maybe over hyped.  We were glad that we did it, but the other two days were much better in our opinion.

We can’t believe how many activities there were to do.  We could have stayed a few more days and done completely different things - we definitely weren’t bored. . . I didn’t even get to play golf.

Here are some pictures - we have plenty more.  

Thanks for your help, it was a great honeymoon!

Brian

Review by Courtney and Jimmy, 9/27/2017

Hello! 
We had the MOST amazing time ever. We thought the swimming with the pigs excursion was the most amazing thing we have every experienced and if we had more time, we would have went on it again. The secluded castaway was so relaxing and wonderful. Both excursions were worth every penny. We did not end up renting the jeep. I think the only "feedback" I could give is more prompting and instructing on how to "use" our butler. I don't think we used our butler option NEARLY close to it's potential - and probably won't ever use this service in our future travels with Sandals. However, it was such an amazing time and perfect for what we were looking for. We can't wait for our anniversary trip in 5 years!!! 
Here are some pictures :) absolutely.... breathtaking.... most fun I have ever had in my entire life. 

Review by Megan and Keith, 8/1/2017

We absolutely LOVED the Bahamas! It was absolutely gorgeous and we had the BEST time on our honeymoon!! We definitely enjoyed the butler service. It was nice not having to worry about getting a cabana because the butler always had one saved for us! At the resort, we enjoyed the fun activities they had planned throughout the day, the French restaurant and room service for breakfast every morning was awesome. I miss waking up to breakfast being delivered to the room. :)

We went on the swim with the pigs excursion, but it was a lot more than swimming with the pigs. The tour guides were so much fun and we got to go to iguana island, snorkel, swim with the pigs and they took us to an island with a blow hole. I would recommend this tour to everyone!! We just did the half day tour and it was a blast!

We have recommended you all to many of our friends because we greatly enjoyed working with you! Thank you for always being so helpful and making our honeymoon go smoothly. We had the BEST time! Thanks again for helping us book our honeymoon. 

Thanks,
Megan & Keith

Review by Valerie, 5/26/2017

What were some of your favorite things about the destination and resort? The location is beyond amazing – super blue, warm ocean, huge pool, and beautiful grounds.  I’m so disappointed in myself for not taking more pictures of the landscape…so pretty.  This is probably the best vacation we’ve ever been on – so relaxing and perfect. 
 
How did you like having the butler service? Would you recommend that to other travelers?  The butler service was nice, but the only reason we got it is because of the room category we were in – we wanted to be oceanfront.  We were in unit 8103 which is the villa at the far end with the pool in the middle.  It was away from everything, but we LOVVVVVVVED it!  The butlers were nice – I think the perks were the dinner and excursion reservations and when they brought us snacks and drinks at the pool (no poolside service like Mexico). 
 
Did you go on any excursions and if so, would you recommend them?  We did the swimming with the pigs and I can’t recommend it enough – and not because of the pigs (that kind of freaked me out).  They stop at 5 places I think – the scenery was unbelievable and something I will never forget. 
 
If you happen to have some pictures of you all that you could share, we would love to see them!  A few of our favorites below.  The first one pretty much sums it up.  :-D
 
After going to a Sandals we would like to try another one.  I think the only “negative” was the service in Mexico is better.  It was by no means bad, just different. 
 
Loved, loved, loved Exuma and will go back someday!  Thank you so much for the AWESOME recommendation Kim!

Review by Tim, 5/18/2017

We had a great time and Michelle was very surprised. Resort is kept up beautifully and the staff was great. Food was very good. Not a place to go if you are looking for a lot to do which was what were wanting. Very relaxing and laid back for the most part. Lucked out for the most part on the weather. Mid to upper 70's for the most part with clouds on and off and breezy most of the time. Really enjoyed the staff and nightly entertainment they provided - Returning guest dinner, Martini party, chocolate party and local and staff entertainment. 

Wife isn't a golfer but I did play in a 9 hole scramble one afternoon.  She just rode along in the cart.  Played the back 9 which basically has every hole on the ocean which made for some great scenery. Course was in great shape.

Review by Nolan & Maggie, 4/18/2017

Hi Dave-

YES!  Exuma was awesome…we can’t wait to return.  Everything went great, even with the jeep, our butler sprang into action and got it all sorted out.

I definitely think the butler service is worth the money.  It is such a unique experience and if you’re really looking to make it a special trip i don’t see how you can do it any other way.  We probably didn’t use our Butlers for everything we should have, but to have them booking reservations, holding places, just generally looking out for you made for again, a great experience.  In fact, we loved it so much, we locked in a rate for Barbados for a similar setup (great room, butler, etc) for Fall of 2019 (we will likely reschedule for the spring).  I understand we can transfer the trip to you so you can earn credit?  We should talk about that sometime to get that sorted out.  That trip we will likely make with friends, so we should come up with a game plan if Sandals is offering greater deals for the opening of the new resort our friends could take advantage of.

The restaurants were really great…you should update your resources, there are now 9 restaurants at Emerald Bay…French is #1 for sure.

Our favorite of part…jeez thats tough.  Sandals and Exuma seems to have everything.  We liked how you sort of could choose your own adventure.  if you want to have a day of just being together and romantic, very easy to do on the property (don’t have to lock yourself up in your room).  if you wanted to really party and meet people and have a good time, you could easily do that between the pool, staff and drunken duck.  if you want to do something fun and different you can’t do anywhere else, you can take an excursion (or a jeep) to see some sights you’re only going to see in Exuma.

All and all it was a beautiful awesome trip.  We can’t wait to go on the next adventure and whether its Barbados in 2020 or someplace next year, we will definitely reach out to you!

All the best,

Nolan and Maggie

Review by Patty, 4/4/2017

​​Yes we had a great time.........we swam with the pigs.....drove to almost the end of island to visit Santana's and Mom's Bakery.  Best thing was having a butler to take care of us!  We loved our stay and everyone was great.  The only downfall......in the evenings it took FOREVER to get a cocktail.  We did play golf...did not take our own clubs so the free golf cost us about $200-and I only rode along.....and the only cocktail you could get was the couple of beers they gave you at the clubhouse before we started our round.  If we would have known that we could have had out butler prepare cocktails for us before we left.  We had no service on our phone out on the course.  All in all pretty prefect.  Just what we needed.  I have attached a few pics.  Thanks once again for all of your help.

​Review by Wendy, 4/3/2017

​​Hi!  We loved the resort…the food was very good, the grounds beautiful!  Our room location was perfect.  The beach and water were just gorgeous.  We did the half day excursion with Island Routes that included swimming with the pigs.  Overall we had a great time!


Thanks so much!
Wendy  

Review by Jeff, 10/22/2016

Kim and Dave,

Thanks again for all of the help!  Sorry it has taken a while to get back to you - things have been crazy...The honeymoon was absolutely fantastic!  The resort was gorgeous and the staff were all extremely friendly.  The Ocean Cays Safari was a blast and Justin (the guide) was great!  We ended up cancelling the Jeep rental and instead we did the Stocking Island trip, which was also fantastic - I swam with a barracuda and we hung out with a couple of stingrays!  We played a bunch of golf and the course is amazing!

All-in-all it was a beautiful trip and we are both so happy we picked Sandals Emerald Bay.  Thank you all for the help and we will definitely use Love to Travel again!

Jeff

​Review by Calli & Curtis, 8/10/2016

​Hi,

Sorry I’m just now getting back to you!  Our trip was AWESOME!  Loved every moment of it but the highlight of our trip was definitely  the swimming with the pigs!  We highly recommend it to anyone who visits Great Exuma. 

The resort was very nice and food was pretty good.  We went to everyone restaurant on the resort.  I think our favorite was the Italian restaurant, we ate there three times 🙂 

I am so happy we were able to experience the butler service!  It was nice to have a spot saved at the beach as well as a cabana at the pool.  The first day we spent all day at the beach and completed roasted!  The butler brought us lunch and drinks to us which was very convenient!  So the next day we spent most of our time under a cabana away from the sun.  We had great butler service however some of the butlers were slower than others. We obviously had a lot of time on our hands so it didn’t bother us one bit!

Thanks for all of your help!  We will be back soon to book another trip.
I will also send pictures!
​
Thanks, 
Calli and Curtis

​Review by Amanda, 7/29/2016

​We had a great time in Exuma! We did do the Safari tour and it was awesome. The captain was great and we got to do so much more than just swim with the pigs. We would absolutely recommend Sandals in Exuma. It was a great way to spend our first week as a married couple. ​

​Review by Bridget, 6/20/2016

​What were some of your favorite things about the destination and resort? Being able to run around and do whatever we want. It was nice that there were so many different places to hangout or relax. Two pools, different games outside( I.E. Shuffleboard, bocce ball, life size chess, croquet, etc). We also enjoyed having the dinner reservations and being able to use the ocean activities.

Did you both enjoy having your own butler during your honeymoon? Yes it was great! It was
sometimes tricky because they like to plan ahead for you and sometimes you’re not sure what you want to do but it was never a problem! They were super friendly and awesome!

How was swimming with the pigs, and would you recommend it to other couples? It was awesome!

I do recommend it, it’s just a good time overall.

​Review by Brian, 2/29/2016

​Hi Dave,
We really had a nice relaxing time.  Vacation is a little different with a pregnant wife for sure!  She obviously had zero cocktails and i figured it out that i averaged just less than 3 drinks per day including wine at dinner. Which was great for a nice “chill” vacation.  The resort was good, dinners were really good except we didn’t like Il Cielo very much.  Just kinda ok.  We had a lunch and dinner at Barefoot and a dinner at Cafe De Paris (OUR FAVORITE).

The wind was howling the entire time so they had the red flag out every day.  Not that big of a deal for us because we really weren’t planning on doing anything anyway!

The golf was fantastic.  I played twice.  Both times around 1pm by myself with not too many golfers around me.  Megan joined me for the back nine the 2nd time and really enjoyed those views right on the ocean.  The course is really nice, was in really good shape, and is very challenging especially from the back tees.  25+ mph winds made for some interesting shots, but i had 3 good nines and 1 very forgettable nine.  I could play their every day and love every minute of it.

Megan had a spa day the first day i played golf and said the massage was just ok (they didn’t go deep enough for her because of the pregnancy liability) but the facial was fantastic.

Mostly we just slept in, ordered room service for breakfast, walked on the beach, hung out at the quiet pool, and read a couple of books.  After dinners we came back to the room and watched movies.  It was very relaxing for sure!
​
Thank you so much for hooking us up.  We will 100% be booking our vacation travel in the future with you guys!
Brian

Review by Shannon, 11/20/2015

Hi there!
 
Everything was really great. I miss it!!! We had never seen water so beautiful. The beach was breath taking. Pool was fantastic. The hotel seemed a little older than I imagined. I did not realize it was an old Four Seasons. I think I like the resort in Negril a little better, but still really, really nice.
 
The ceremony was fine. Unfortunately, it poured down rain at exactly 3:00 on Wednesday. As soon as I got down to the beach, Chris, the photographer, and the priest were running up screaming “its coming!!” Haha, I got pretty drenched before he even saw me (bummer). We went up to the café to try to wait it out. I was so pleased the coordinator let us do that. I was afraid if we didn’t get married at the backup location right away, then we just weren’t going to get married. Luckily we still had it on the beach. It was VERY windy, but ultimately everything I wanted.
 
We were also very pleased that they still booked us a photographer, even though we did not pay for one. She allowed us to just choose the images we liked instead of committing to an entire package. That was exactly what I wanted and I was so happy. The coordinator was very nice and helpful. We also really like Kenny, our photographer.
 
The airport transfers went well.
 
I don’t really have any suggestions for you guys. I was very happy the way everything turned out. I definitely see us booking with you again. Hopefully in the NEAR future. I feel like I am addicted to beach vacations!
 
I have attached some pics. The Ocean safari was AWESOME! So glad we did it. We also rented a car and drove up to Santana’s. The lobster was fantastic.
 
Thank you!

​Review by Mary, 11/18/2015

​The resort, accommodations, beach, and ocean are absolutely beautiful! Staff is super friendly and accommodating, best anywhere. Food was very good at the restaurants and the Junkaroo street party and dinner was fabulous.
The Ocean Safari and swimming with the pigs was well worth the cost.
Yes we had individual taxis.  I highly recommend taking a later shuttle on Sunday to the airport no need to go at 10 you can easily make your flight by waiting until 11:15 or so.  No extra charge just sign up the night before at the main lobby desk.

Review by Mindy, 5/23/2015

Hi Dave!!

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, we have been so busy since we got back from the trip!

We had a wonderful time on our trip!! The resort was so nice and service was great. We got upgraded to being in one of the beach villas which was really cool. We were on the very end which was nice because it felt like we were far away from everyone. We met some fun couples so always felt like we had plenty to do! The week went by way too fast.

We wound up not going out on our own because no jeeps were available the whole time we were there. We did get to see a little bit of the island when we went on the pig excursion. We are really glad we did that. It was so fun to get out and see all the different islands and of course the pigs and iguanas!

Only issue was that I did get a ton of bug bites. I think I got a few and then my skin reacted.  Tyler had no bites though so it’s weird how it varies by person whether or not they bother you. I went to the nurse on site to get some medicine and they also sprayed our room for us bc we kept seeing small bugs randomly – so they did make an effort to help us out which was nice.

​ Thank you so much for all of your help! We are ready to go again!!