We are from Long Island NY USA, a group of 36 family and friends in Barbados for my daughter's destination wedding. We arrived on April 30 and stayed 5 nights and 6 days at this all inclusive. We all had a wonderful time. My wife had been dealing with the staff for about a year prior to get this all set up. They were very accomodating and everything was handled from coordinating transport from the airport for all 36 people dribbling in in groups of 1 to 10 over 6 flights and 3 days. No problems. Sondra handled all aspects big and small, of the wedding preparations with us and it all turned out fabulously. My daughter loved the photographer and the reverand as well as the steel panist playing at the beach ceremony and cocktail hour. There was a band or DJ playing almost every night during dinner. We had commented to Sondra that we would not have minded having the friday band for the wedding. We were informed that the female singer was in our wedding band. Great!! As it turned out there were 3 female singers in the wedding band. I had made the comment to a friend that we did well getting Diana Ross and the Supremes. The reply was that we have 3 Diana Ross's. They took turns singing lead. Great music all night. With regards to the wedding package, if you are the type that needs to audition bands and scope out a photographer for a year, this is not the place to have your wedding. If you can kick back and go with the flow you will be pleasantly surprised and have fun along the way.

Our room (231) was fine and had a spectacular view of the 4th pool and ocean. The balcony had a small hammock, table and chairs to sit on. The showers are a little different as they are low pressure and have a large sunflower style head. Kind of like showering in the rain. The AC worked well and the housekeepers kept it clean and tidy.

If I have to single out the weakest point I would have to say it is the Reflections staff (indoor restaurant) I don't know if it is lack of training, understaffing or both. Dinner will require 50% more time than should be required. They will come for an initial round of drinks and then nothing after that. We all adapted and walked the 100 feet to the cave bar and retreived a round of drinks from time to time. Also it does not appear that coffee is a ritual after dinner and it will not be forthcoming unless you ask. The food quality varied from good to excellent with effort put into presentation. The breakfast was buffet and omelets were made to order. The bacon and sausage were very popular with our crowd. You should be aware that the dinner dress code is a country-wide rule that prohibits jeans, shorts, tees etc. We made this clear to all of our guests before arrival. In another review they seemed to be outraged at this.

Our group loved the included water sports on the beach which included sunfish, catamaran, water skiing, tubing, banana boating and snorkeling from the beach. Be careful to swim inside the marked area as the snorkeling reef will cut your feet, as we found out the first day. The snorkeling was pretty good right off the beach. lots of fish and an 18 inch sea turtle.

The photographer dropped off the finished album in 3 days and supplied all of the negatives.

By the way, I have traveled extensivly for 30 years of business and my wife is a travel agent. This is not our first trip.

I have seen some bad reviews and have tried to figure out the reason. All I can say is if you want a NY style hotel and wedding, stay in NY. My daughter was happy with the Crystal Cove and giddy the whole wedding night and that is all that matters to me.
-John

This was my first trip to Barbados, my husband visited 20yrs ago and wanted me to see his Paradise so we booked for 2wks at the Crystal Cove Hotel. We were thrilled with the beautiful view as we sipped our punch served upon our arrival and were quickly shown to our ocean view room. We were given room 121 which is a ground floor room right on the front, however there was a fence directly in front of our balcony which made it feel closed in and totally ruined the view, the room was also very tired and dark. We asked for a room change and were told that we would be moved the next day, we agreed to this. The bathroom had seen better days and the toilet would not flush and my husband had to remove the cistern lid and do it manually.
The next day we were moved to room 219, a second floor room, which was much brighter and still had a good ocean view. Again the room was a little tired but clean, the shower was not very effective but was ok when you got used to it, however the toilet flooded on our first night (it must be us!) we reported it and it was sorted immediately.
When we booked the holiday we had not been made aware of a dress code in any of the restaurants and were some what annoyed when were given the weekly activities list which informed us that only Reflections would be open in the evenings and told us that there was a strict no jeans, t-shirts policy. My husband had only taken jeans and just the one pair of trousers for any special meal that we would venture out for. We were told that we would have to speak to the manager and get his permission to wear jeans; we refused to ask permission to wear what we wanted to wear especially as they were not giving us an altenative place to eat. We wore our jeans and in fairness nothing was said.
The food was ok for a while but the menu was limited and quickly became boring; a buffet would have made a welcome change. A buffet style would also allow you to eat when you want to as apposed to an appointed time which sometimes meant you were eating late. One big complaint, not just from us, but from our fellow guests was of the attitude and inefficiency of the waiting staff in the evenings. The service was hap-hazzard, they asked if you wanted drinks and then didn't bring them, some of the staff were totally miserable and quite obviously did not want to be there and a couple of them came across as down right rude. We bit our tongues on numerous occasions to avoid a scene.
The 'entertainment' was dire and the only effect it had was to drive people up to their rooms after their meal. The place was deserted by 10 o'clock - we couldn't believe our eyes. A couple who had been to Crystal Cove for the last 7yrs said that they would certainly not return as the standard was so bad this time, when they told the staff this they were presented with a bottle of champagne and were made a big fuss of for the rest of their holiday, however they remained adamant that they would not go back.
One last gripe was that there is a fridge in the bedroom with no drinks in it; last year we went to Bahamas all inclusive, paid £1500 less for 3 of us than we did this year for two of us and the fridge there was stocked daily with beer, soft drinks and mixers and there were optics on the wall. We didn't use the optics but it's nice to have the option!
Saying all of that we still had the most fabulous time, we hired a jeep and saw the island, went for the most beautiful meal I've ever had in the most beautiful setting I've ever seen at The Cliff and enjoyed the beautiful beach - if you like wave jumping make sure you visit Turtle Beach, the sea there is fantastic and there are no rocks and coral underfoot unlike at Crystal Cove.
A few things you don't find out are that if there is nothing on the menu that you like then put a special order in when booking the restaurant,if you want tea and coffee making facilities ask for them otherwise you have to walk to the cave bar every morning for drinks, if you don't fancy a drink you can ask for ice lollies and if you fancy a burger in the afternoon you can order one at the cave bar. None of this is in your welcome pack.
I would most definately go back to Barbados but not Crystal Cove.

P.s. make sure you take a trip on a 'reggae bus' it's a great experience!

Our first time to Barbados, We were on 2 week holiday, one week on the island and one week on the Royal Clipper. Choose this hotel instead of Hilton (part of package) and we did not regret our choice. We were given a fantastic welcome by Shane, given a cold drink and quickly taken to our room but we were the only people checking in at the time. Stayed for 3 days then went away for the week, returned for 4 days. The staff at this hotel are really good, they do their best to be helpful and always have a smile for you, from the pool/beach staff to the duty manager . The room we stayed in (204) first which was really nice, clean with a good size bathroom. The second room (234) was an ocean view room (upgraded by hotel and much appreciated) again everything we needed and more. The food was really quite good but buffet nights were our least favorite. Sometimes there was a long wait between courses but on holiday, what's the rush. The pool area, grounds and beach are well maintained but sometimes parents use the chairs and tables putting wet towels etc on them and allowing children to sit down when wet but staff changed the cushions every evening. I cannot understand some of the bad comments I have read about this hotel. I would certainly stay again. I suppose some guests have too high expectations and think that everything should be the same as at home and don't have an open mind but this is the Caribbean, the people and the islands are wonderful but things happen at a different pace, just chill and enjoy.

We were so excited to be in Beautiful Barbados again!!!
We rented a jeep and drove up to the West Coast and found Crystal Cove. A litle nervous driving into Crystal Cove...it didn't look like it's pictures on their website. It looked run down a bit.
We didn't let it faze us..we were in Barbados again!!!!
We picked an all inclusive because we have stayed in some wonderful ones like Halfmoon in Jamaica and Royal Hideaway in Playacar and I thought this would be close to the quality.
It took about an hour and a half to check us in.Gave us warm rum punches and let us wait, and wait and finally a porter took us to our room. Pretty shabby room.The bathroom was falling apart and the bed was mush. Oh well, lets try and have a good time we are in Barbados!!!!
We have a fridge and since we were probably the farest walk from the cave bar and drifters my husband went to go and get some banks beer at the bar to bring back to our room. Yea....they only allow you to have tap beer and as for water or canned soda to keep in your room. They hand you a cup and you go to a fountian. Very Tacky!
Our first night was a 'buffet'. Buffets scare me and this was the scarest buffet I had ever seen. I asked what was in the "Surf and Turf" and the cook replyed Fish and Meat. YUK! Then, I proceeded to walk through fresh vomit that was laying on the floor. Which no one had taken care of right way.
We tried breakfast. Not bad. We tried lunch...a warm caesar salad BARF!.....Dinner we tried the next night. That was a joke. The only thing we could eat was the pork tenderloin..which was awful and the chicken which was revolting. The rest of the menu was a joke. Fish that I had never heard of much less eat.
This was not an upscale all inclusive. This was a motel 6 with jail food on the beach!
We could not stay there any longer and moved to another Hotel.
This hotel should not be regarded as a 3 or 4 star hotel. It is a dump! And, a complete waste of money! If you are from the states and are used to upscale hotels. Do not stay here. You will be so very disapointed.
We left after 2 days.It was vile!