We have just returned fom a fantasic 2 week stay at the SBR.
After reading a couple of unfavorable reviews we were a little concerned, but found the resort to be wonderful.
The staff were all great, friendly and helpful. all the staff made you feel special, especially Joy ,Simone, Wayne, Paul and Andrew ( who makes fantastic BBCs)The food.....wow, we have never stayed in an all inclusive resort which provided food of such a high quality and loads of it.
Yes some cruisers come a couple of days a week for a couple of hours at most, they were not a problem.
The diving was brilliant and Namoi was very helpful and good fun. The main wall is not that far off the mini wall and we managed it with no problem at all. Infact by the time we reache dthe wall we both had over three quarters of a tank and we'd dived the whole way and we are both middle aged. We even managed to see a hammerhead shark twice!!!!
Yes the hotel is being sold but it did not affect the quality of service we recieved. If you have booked a vacation at this hotel please do not worry and certainly do not cancel you will really miss out. If you haven't booked your holiday yet book while you can before this piece of paradise is lost for ever. Many of the people we met were returners and the hotel was not being sold we would have certainly joined the ranks of the returners.

Another wonderful stay @ SBR- we are some of the many repeat guests at this resort which says a great deal about the place.
As always the staff were fantastically helpful and attentive- nothing is too much trouble. Food good, but not fancy and the rooms clean and tidy (opt for the villas if you can- very spacious and private).
We see postings about the cruise ship passengers who visit the resort on some week days- please don't be put off by this- they stay only briefly and really do not cause such a disturbance as others may have you believe. They bring much the needed tourist $; without this the island would stuggle post hurricane Ivan. We find that the stay-over guests are treated better, with priority service at the bar & buffet etc.
The diving was fabulous as always- calm seas for almost our entire 3 week stay, and suiting all levels of diver from the novice to the very experienced. North Wall diving right off the jetty- bliss!
Do give this lovely, quiet, relaxed resort a try- we are sure you will also want to return again and again......

Spanish Bay is a great resort at weekends, its quiet, the food is great for all-inclusive and the staff very helpful. The room is basic and ok, we had probs with the weak pressure in the shower, the TV channels are limited. Generally we had a good holiday except for 3 days - see below.

However during the week (with Tuesday/Wednesday being the worse) the invasion of the Cruise shippers occurs and this can mean up to 80/90 people descending on the resort to basically eat,drink and make as much noise & mess as they can in the 3 or 4 hours that they have been let loose from their ship.

Unfortunately Spanish Bay is being Sold / or has been sold so the owners and the manager (Lady Pamela) give the impression they dont really care as its income to the resort. One thing I must say through all the pressures of the cruisers and the fact the place is being sold the staff, especially Super Wayne, Paul & Andrew, deserve a lot of credit as they remained so helpful.

We arrived at the weekend and did not experience the nightmare until the Monday and basically its unbelieveable when they first arrive its like watching the doors open at a macys/Harrods sale, they run for the sun beds around the pool & on the beach, then at 9am they line the bar demanding drinks, they take the pool over and dispite signs to the contary their kids jump and dive in the pool litter the place with cups from the bar and generally treat the place like its there to be trashed.

Twice during our week there were agruments between Cruisers and residents of "bombing" in the pool and soaking residents clothes/books - agruments that went on for hours in one case, that no one in management felt obliged to stop.

You actually feel like a second class citizen when they all arrive as there is no seperation re geting sunbeds/part of the beach and you even have to join the half mile queue to get your lunch.
It got so bad that some of the residents hired cars and went out of the hotel at 8.30am and came back at 2.30pm just to find a beach with peace and quiet (its about 1mile down the road).

A group of us made our feelings known one evening and was told by Lady P that "the cruisers are here to stay so get used to it"

Also be warned get your snorkel equipment and if you want a bike (they are available) get them before 9am as they disappear once the Cruisers turn up.

If you want to go into George Town take the local bus (minivan) from outside the hotel its cost 2 dollars (taxi will be 35 dollars)and will take you down into the town (get off at the end its stops at the bus depot) - go on a Friday or Saturday as there is only one cruise boat in on those days , compared to 4-6 Tuesday throu Thursday.

Take care re the all-inclusive at the bar - its not - only local drinks are included , not bottled beer (they ran out of draft beer for 4 hours and that caused a slight problem!)

Its unfortunate re the cruisers, take them away and you have a great resort in a good location, if you have booked to go here , just wait and see re the cruisers and do what most of the residents did which is to go further up the beach or rent a car to avoid them.

My family and I had a very nice vacation at Spanish Bay. However, these are our complaints, which I post to hopefully spur the owners into fixing a few problems. They aren't very serious problems. Prior to booking & arriving, I had exchanged several emails with the Resort's Lady Pamela,
1. When I arrived, I was under the impression that boat-diving was included, since I specifically had requested that 2 of 4 members of my family would be diving. It was somewhat of a shock to learn when I arrived, that each boat dive was $95 extra.
2. I was under the impression that for boat-diving, the boat would use the dock at Spanish Bay. But that isn't the case. For each of my 5 dives, we were bussed for 20 minutes into George Town to get on a boat, and bussed back after each dive.
3. For shore-diving from Spanish Bay, you can't take their tanks out of the resort, (so no free shore-diving elsewhere). The "North wall" at Spanish Bay begins at 65 feet depth and it is at a good distance from shore. On my first attempt to reach it, being a middle-aged man, I reached the half-way point on my air-supply before reaching it. On my 2nd attempt, I stayed shallow until reaching it, then descended and had only a few minutes of air-time to explore, before reaching the half-way point and needing to turn back. It was a very tiring long swim to reach the shore.
Note: there are reefs with fish, and a mini-wall, closer to shore than the true North Wall. But my underlying point here, is that boat-diving is highly worthwhile.
4. Despite my initial emails requesting Internet service and my willingness to pay for it, when I arrived, I was told that my rooms didn't have Internet, and it couldn't be arranged. I smiled, but I was very upset. I won't return to Spanish Bay for this reason. The front-desk person offered that I could come to the lobby, and use internet there, but THAT IS NOT SUFFICIENT.
5. Only 5 TV channels were working. SciFi, CNN, HBO, TNT and something else.
6. We had 2 rooms, one for parents, the other for our children, and in that room, the shower's water pressure was too weak to be usable. Our kids came to the parents room for showering.
7. There were no clocks in the rooms. No Alarm Clocks, which is stressful when you're supposed to wake-up each morning for a bus for a boat-dive at 8am.
8. Only 1 key was issued, per room. This was inconvenient every day, when divers and non-divers go in separate directions.
9. Our queen sized bed had a very tightly stretched bottom fitted sheet, which would slip off the corner of the bed every night, and I'd end up sleeping on its wrinkly retracted corner. They ought to buy bed-sheets that fit better.
10. Whenever lunch or dinner were served, a line-up for food would form (initially, for about 15 minutes), which is not a problem because no-one is in a hurry, but the line-up means standing in the sun. I'm a person who sun-burns very easily, and I wish there were a shaded canopy over the area where people line-up.