Margaritaville St. Thomas

We had a great stay overall, and one of the highlights was how friendly and helpful the staff were. Everyone we interacted with was welcoming, attentive, and willing to assist whenever we needed something. The resort itself was also very clean and well maintained, which made our stay comfortable and enjoyable. There were a few areas that could use improvement. The hillside swim up pool bar did not have a bartender during our stay several times during the day time and evening, which would have been a nice convenience. The restaurant food was okay, nothing to get excited about. The telephones weren’t working in our room several days so we were asked to use the phones outside on the floor. TV’s are so outdated that we weren’t able to cast on from our phones. Several times, some of the flotation devices were unavailable, which was disappointing when we wanted to use them. There also seemed to be a noticeable smell due to the sargassum around the resort during this time of year that took away from the experience. We avoided heading to the lobby and the 5’o’clock somewhere bar and missed out on some resort activities due to the smell. Finally, it would have been much more convenient to have water dispensers throughout the resort rather than only in the main lobby. Overall, the friendly staff and cleanliness were definite positives, but improving the pool service, availability of flotation devices, resort-wide water access, and seasonal odor would make the experience even better.

The sargassum smell messes up the whole resort i was not able to enjoy anything. There is no cleaning service so good look if you want the trash taken out or extra towels. you can’t charge anything to your room.

Worst Margaritaville I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of them. I've been to Margaritavilles all over: Times Square, Boston, Grand Turk, Atlantic City, even Mohegan Sun, so I know exactly what this brand is supposed to feel like. Music, energy, TVs, a room that instantly puts you on vacation. This location delivers none of it. We drove over at night from our hotel with the family, pulled into the Margaritaville Vacation Club resort, and the first problem was just finding the place. I had to ask someone where the restaurant even was once I pulled up. Not a great start, but the real letdown was walking in. The first thing that hit us was the smell. It reeks, like dead fish. Staff told us it's the sargassum seaweed washing up on the shore, and I get that the seaweed itself isn't their fault; it's hitting the whole Caribbean this season. But the stench permeated the restaurant and made it genuinely unpleasant to sit and eat. Then there's the atmosphere, which is on them. No music. No TVs. Empty tables. It was as quiet as a diner at midnight. For a brand whose entire promise is fun and escapism, sitting in a silent, smelly, empty room is about as far from "wasting away in Margaritaville" as you can get. Somebody could have walked over and hit play. That's free, and nobody bothered. Add in the Margaritaville prices and the mandatory 18% gratuity and it's hard to see the value. I've been to enough of these to know the difference, and this one is running at a fraction of what the name promises. For a location carrying this brand, it's genuinely embarrassing.

The atmosphere is Margaritaville and what you would expect, however, the service kinda of ruins it. There is a theme here and pretty much everywhere on the island that we visited. Locals seem indifferent. I see more employees that are locals sitting than working. The only employees that seem interested in servicing you are the bar tenders. We did get good service at the bar. That being said the drinks were so so. Not sure if watered down or not mixed right, but we weren’t impressed. The food is the same as other locations and typically overpriced, but tasted good. I especially liked the blackened chicken sandwich. The sargassum is awful here but I won’t factor that in my review. They were doing their best to try and clean this up. I personally feel JB would be disappointed with the overall experience. It feels more like private equity took over and is trying to make a buck than help people have an enjoyable meal and vacation. Edited to reflect new opinion. I returned home and went to a local cantina. I remembered what a margarita is supposed to taste like. It is sad that they have “margarita” in their name but the drinks in reality are not good at all…