I stayed at this hotel during the beginning of June with my husband; I had selected the hotel for the price and the pictures they had shown of the beach. I even cross referenced the hotel with its main web site and; I had believed there was a Catch 22 somewhere in the deal but when we got there and checked in we realized that there was none.

The staff was all very friendly and had personality unlike some hotel staff I have delt with prior to this (and we have seen some nightmares before). The housekeeping was very efficient and thorough they didn’t have a set time because they may or may not have to spend a lot of time on the rooms before ours, depending on how the guests treated the room.

They had an exceptional Continental Breakfast with homemade muffins of different kinds and other pastries; the kitchen was also open for breakfast; however it is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Everyone needs a break and there are different restraunts within a mile of the hotel. The Food at the restraunt was wonderful and we ate there for dinner every night of our stay (it really is that good), the service was excellent and it was fun to watch the chameleons playing cliffhanger on the awning while eating.

The Beach was beautiful and the only people on the “Hotels Beach” were the other guests, a few times people who were snorkeling swam through the water in front of the hotel but you can't own water, and it is a great big ocean. But you can’t fault the locals for wanting to enjoy the beach, did I mention its beauty.

We booked our stay for the memorial day week. The first disappoinment w/ sand castle is the fact that some sites do not specify that it is a Gay and lesbian friendly resort. It wouldn't have changed our booking, but is useful information to those who might not be as comfomfortable with their family or children at this type of resort. The back pool is clothing optional,and was used as such. If you are not staying in their suites, don't bother w/the sand castle. There are two seperate room areas, one on the beach as suites and the other across the street. The beach is far from private was usually occupied w/ very loud locals . "Bumping" loud music out of their cars seems to be the favorite past time. Not the romantic vacation we had envisioned There is constant cars and loud music . The area itself is in fredristead which is very run down area. The pools are small and unkept, the property itself was not maintained . There was hoses, rakes, and wet floor signs left out all over. Some of the staff live in the room across the street. No one wears a uniform , so you have no idea who to ask for anything. The restaurant is close on tues and wed. Our room wasn't cleaned until 4pm, and thats with hounding the front desk. There are no phones in the room, so you have to walk to the desk for everything. The back rooms had plastic cups, dirty towels, poor water pressure, and the bedding was about 10 yrs too old. You can find much better for the price ! The size of the room they gave us was a joke. I could not fit a third Person in the room if I tried. No pics on the wall just plain white , very depressing. The air conditioner barely kept the very small room cool. Upon check in we had to lug our bags to the rooms ourselves , only to be told the room wasn't clean yet and lug it back to the office. The so called gym was a small room w/bowflex and a old treadmill. Our check in was Sunday, and by monday afternoon we were on the phone w/expedia trying to get out of this nightmare.

There are several things you need to know before you book this hotel:

1) The continental breakfast is very skimpy --- juice/coffee and a muffin. That's it.

2) On Sundays, whomever is next to the hotel on the right side hosts a no-holds-barred music jam that starts around noon and goes at least until 7 pm. The "music" is so loud that you have absolutely no way of escaping it regardless of which room you are in. Sitting on the wonderful , peaceful beach in front of the hotel that others have described becomes impossible because of the "music". Unless you really enjoy the noise (certainly NOT why we went there on vacation) you should not book for a Sunday or you should plan on leaving the hotel all day.

3) The hotel is split in to two parts -- the ocean side of the street and the "other" side of the street. The accomodations on the "other" side of the street are not that great -- a little ratty.

4) The accomodations on the "other" side of the street are very noisy. Roosters will awaken you starting at 4 a.m. and continuing for 3-4 hours. That's charming the first day and annoying thereafter. Other noise occurs over there, including bad road noise continuously (especially on Sundays) until things settle down at 9-10 p.m.

5) Although the hotel setting is nice, don't plan on Fredericksted providing any form of entertainment or sightseeing opportunities. It's downright scary over there. The hotel is far enough removed to not be affected much but don't plan on the town as a source of food/entertainment.

6) The bedding was horrible --- the mattresses are wrapped in plastic (for sanitary reasons??) and are very uncomfortable to sleep in.

7) When the above was expressed to management, they offered rooms on the other side of the street (the ocean side) for $50/nite more --- even though the rooms were empty they would not move us as compensation for the above issues.