St. James's Club Antigua - All Inclusive

St. Jame's Club & Villas, Antigua II was interested in going to this resort based on the four and five star reviews that I have read online and the beautiful pictures of the aqua blue green beach and bay that were advertised. After visiting the resort, I am not sure why people gave this place a five star because in my opinion this was definitely not. After visiting many all inclusive resorts, this was by far the worst! I would normally do not spend time to write reviews on vacation getaways, but I find it necessary to alert others who work tirelessly to save money for vacations as I do. I recently stayed at the St. James's Club and Villas in Antigua. I was overdue for Caribbean vacation and wanted to soak up some sun and stay and swim in the ocean for a few days. I am someone who tries to make the best out of things and keep a positive attitude whenever possible given the circumstances, but the Saint James Club was a huge disappointment and made it impossible for me to enjoy six entire whole days there. Upon arrival to the resort, I was flabbergasted by the huge amount of seaweed that as washing up on the ocean shore turning the color of the water from apparently a beautiful blue to a dark brown. Even worse was the bay which was pitch black. Both bodies of water were unbathable in my opinion. The temperature of the atmosphere was scorching hot and humid so you could imagine how frustrated and aggravated you can become rather quickly. Upon arrival the lobby was dark dingy damp and smelled like mildew. The customer service was extremely slow with one girl working behind the counter and three people in front of me. I waited more than 20 minutes to be Helped only to find out that my room was not even ready. We were told that we could dine at the dockside lounge. I received a menu with prices. I was under the impression that this place was an all inclusive resort. The staff were friendly and accommodating and guaranteed that if I were to provide my room number That it would automatically be taken off at the end of my stay. I later found out that each restaurant had a menu which was the same menu day after day. When I decided to use the Reef pool one of the ladders had been broken with a huge amount of caution tape wrapped around it. It stayed like that for two days until some workers came and dropped the level of the pool to about 2 to 3 feet in order to fix it. The pool stayed below level for about 48 to 72 hours afterwards. I travelled with my daughter who loves to swim and she was quite disappointed because she was unable to swim comfortably in this pool or use any of the adult pools because apparently she was under age. Come on in that's OK what's up How's everything good what's up how's your back yeah you need something can you check my pressure for me absolutely could check your pressure yeah I'm alright i'm good thanks for asking here why you want to check fresher you don't feel good I feel a little more I don't know I just maybe cause hot hot outside but I just it's terrible My cousin was like he got his person checked so his heart 12886 is very good let me mark that down while you feel racing No I just you know the last two days I woke up like I had just felt like I was just feeling well and then when I like I said he said that to me together he have a history of hypertaught hypertension He has salty or spicy foods caffeine energy drinks has to be the heat maybe you should put something cold on any like your neck when you work if you feel overheated your neck underneath the axillary even in your groin like you know you should put ice packs like I have those reusable ice packs like just to cool yourself down Also the pools that are advertised online as part of the club were not all accessible to all of the members. You had to be a royal suites member to use one of the pools. One morning I decided to go outside and lay on one of the chairs just to get fresh air and watch the waves of ocean. This was impossible due to the intense smell of decomposing seaweed which gave off a huge aroma of hydrogen peroxide sulfur and fecal contamination. My daughter started dry heaving. I couldn't even see the ocean because there was a concrete barrier wall which obstructed my view as part of the resorts architecture. There was absolutely no one on the beach seated in any of the chairs and I felt that I was ripped off for the money that I paid for this vacation. In the evening the entertainment was close to nothing. There were no shows except for one magic show which was very weak and mostly for the kids. The disco was empty with maybe one couple. Bar service was very slow. The water in the resort was either a hit or miss that is it tasted heavily chlorinated at times. Also the room refrigerator came with two bottles of water and nothing else. The meals were not all inclusive they were maybe two buffets the whole time we stayed. My room was clean one time the whole vacation stay. The bath towels were never ever replenished. This was absurd given the fact that I constantly had to take cold showers to cool myself off in the room. Upon arrival the room accommodation was deplorable. Originally I had requested two full beds. Instead I got one regular bed and one cot on wheels which squeaked and rolled providing for miserable sleep. I could go on and on about small details of this place but I want to keep the review short and to the point. Save your money and just don't father going here. I was interested in going to this resort based on the foreign fires to our views and I am putting online and building pictures of the aquaphorial green beach in May that monetize after visiting the resort I'm not sure why people in this praise of 5 star because of my peers exactly not if the visiting many more inclusive resorts this was my father worst I normally did not spend time with these application anyways but I plan to start too much others who worked hard to say at the same time to save money for vacations as I do I recently stated the same James

A great choice for a family holiday We have just returned from 10 days at SJC and had a fantastic holiday. SJC is a big resort with 2 beaches and 5 pools - though one beach is blighted with seaweed and unusuable. The Mamora Bay beach is long and full of sun beds and although no visible seaweed it is murky but clear enough to see fish at the shoreline. The beach only ever had a handful of people on it. We stayed at the Village in a 2 bed villa which was a great accommodation choice for a family. We had the kids pool opposite the villa which was generally quiet and a nice place to relax. Our villa was near the access road into the resort and was noisy from 7am onwards and up a number of steps, at the top of a hill which got a bit tiring! The food was generally good and the a la carte meals at the Rainbow Garden were delicious though the menu is on a weekly rotation so could get a bit ‘samey’ for those staying longer than a week. The Sunday Roast buffet at the Docksiders was great for a Brit abroad - the Yorkshire puddings were fantastic! Eleven 11 has all day dining with a decent menu overlooking Coco Bay. The biggest disappointment with the food was no chocolate ice cream until the day before we left (daughter loves chocolate ice cream!). Activities and entertainment were generally good and we loved the music quizzes and karaoke! Plenty of excursions are available and we really enjoyed the Pink Panther safari and Bernie’s Snorkelling. Unfortunately due to rough seas we didn’t get out on the sunset boat cruise. We found the staff were generally lovely and helpful with particular shoutouts to Elvis, bar tender extraordinaire, Michael on morning smoothies and Joseph in entertainment. We really enjoyed our stay at SJC and would recommend it .

Don’t Waste your $ or Time From the moment we arrived I knew this place was going to be bad. The smell of seaweed rotting was so off putting. Only beach that has advertised Caribbean blue water was closed due to seaweed. The hotel is run down, staff is rude minus a couple of nice people, rooms are large in villas but extremely run down, no wait service in pools or other Bay Area, bars are like pulling teeth to get drinks. NONE of the restaurants are air conditioned. Only one bar has air conditioning and only one bar tender. I knew it was odd this hotel seemed only 25% full. Save your $, I spent over 9k for a family of five. Theres also zero entertainment. Go somewhere else. They bused us to a beach area because of seweed issue and that was a disaster as well. If you go with kids under 16 they send you to a public beach and you have to rent chairs and umbrellas. I wouldn’t even come back here if this place was given to me for free. Next time I will do more research

Beautiful Island Just got back from the St James Club. The resort was nice, with beautiful views and grounds. Unfortunately the beach on the ocean side is closed due to sargassum. You can go to the bay side but the water is not clear. The resort offers a shuttle to their sister resorts for the day where the beach is beautiful. The food was ok. Not all restaurants were open everyday. The buffet for breakfast was the same everyday. Wish they would have changed it up on certain days. The Eleven 11 restaurant was opened all day and we enjoyed the variety there. We met a lot of staff that were so friendly and willing to please, and some that had bad attitudes! You must check out the coffee shop and have a frozen coffee and yummy sweets! One staff member stood out from all the others and was the reason we had a good time. Elvis, the bartender at the lobby lounge. You are welcomed with a friendly smile and his full attention! Elvis would mix up some great cocktails and engage in some good conversations. He is such a great fun guy and is a great asset to this resort! Many of the staff should take after him!

First trip to Antigua We had a great time at St. James, but were greatly disappointed because our beach was buried under Sargassum. We were unable to go to the beach or get in the ocean. If we would have known this, we would not have gone to this resort. It was nasty and disgusting. We did take two excursions. One was with Pink Panther Tours, a jeep tour company run by women. We thoroughly enjoyed this. Saw a lot of sights and learned a lot about Antigua. The second one was on a catamaran. Sorry, I don't remember the name. We went out over the Atlantic, which was a pretty rough ride. We went to a beach that was in the Caribbean, so we got some beach and ocean time. They also fed us while we were at this beach. Coming back, we went along the coastline in the Caribbean. That was enjoyable. The resort is beautiful, and well maintained. The rooms were a little small, but nice. The bathroom has 2 sinks and mirrors, which was great for getting ready. My one complaint is that there was not a handicap bar to get into the tub/shower. That would have definitely helped someone like me who is dealing with RA. The restaurants were all nice. We had the buffet for breakfast. There was a restaurant down by a beach that served lunch that we ate at. For the evening meal, we ate at a buffet one time. Made reservations for one night, and the rest of the time we ate at the Eleven/11. It was down by a beach, and was our favorite. There were 2 pools and a kids pool. There were no swim up bars, but they did have bars by both of the pools. If the beach would not have been covered, this would have been a really awesome trip. This is a good family resort. There wasn't a lot of night life, but they did have a club where you could hang out, get drinks, watch TV, etc. There was a little coffee house that had things going on in the evening. We were there one evening when they had Name That Tune. They did have tennis, pickle ball and basketball courts. There were ping pong tables by the pool and in the lounge. There was also a gym. We flew American Airlines from Oklahoma City to Antigua. Not what we wanted to do, but it was the cheapest flight. Our connection flight was in Miami. Hopefully I never have to fly into that airport again! Going out wasn't too bad, but coming back was awful. Three hours to get through customs, and almost another hour to get to our gate. We were lucky our flight was delayed, or we would have missed it.