Lame treatment at Boatyard

[Spike2000]

Sorry to sound negative but I was very disappointed with a visit to Boatyard about a week and a half ago.

 

The cab driver dropped us off at a different spot (a common restaurant down the road - I can't remember the name) for some Carlisle snorkeling. We spent some time with the turtles and visited the wreck as well. No diving for us this time (just snorkeling) ...and had an excellent time in the water.

 

When we were finished snorkeling, I wanted to go see The Boatyard, have a drink or two & get a cab back to the ship. After trekking all the way down the beach with our dive bag, we finally made it to The Boatyard. (it looked like a fun place to visit while we were there) As we were walking (from the beach) toward the bar to get a drink, a Boatyard employee stopped my wife and I. He asked if he could help us. I said that "My wife and I are going to need a taxi and" ...He immediately interrupted me and rudely said "Sorry sir, this is private property and you will have to go down there for taxi service"...I said "Fine, we were going to have a few drinks here but whatever..." and walked off. He heard me say we wanted a couple of drinks and he couldn't care less that I wanted to have some cocktails there. We walked all the way down the beach SO we could have a few drinks there.

 

As a business owner myself, it boggles my mind that they have no problem turning away people that want to come enjoy a few drinks on the beach while visiting Barbados. Oh well, we were happy to spend our money in other island establishments. The Boatyard will certainly NOT be on our to-do list for future trips to Barbados. It's a shame because my 3 children are just now old enough to start cruising with us & it looked like it could have been a fun place for them. Oh well...there are plenty of other options I suppose.:cool:

[barbados]

A note of clarification: All beaches are free to everyone on Barbados.

 

You have a perfect right to be on the “Boatyard beach” without paying.

 

That being said, you cannot enter the Boatyard through their entrance without paying their fee and you cannot use any of their facilities or rides.

 

However, you can enter the stretch of beach that the Boatyard is on without charge through the public access entrance.

 

You can spend as much time as you wish laying on the sand and swimming in the water there.

 

As long as you do not use any of their facilities you have a perfect right to be there regardless of what they say to you.

 

If you are denied access to the beach, demand that they call the constable and you will find they will leave you alone very quickly.

 

I believe they only charge US$10/pp and that includes a ride back to Deep Water Harbour (and a drink?), so the price is fair but you should never be accused of trespass on a public property.

 

My apologies that you had this bad experience. I hope you’ll come back again and give us another chance. :)

[Spike2000]

Yes it was unfortunate. In our case, the employee did not even mention there was a fee etc. to us. I may have paid it. He just said that this is a private property and that we needed to go. It was extremely strange. We were simply walking up to the interior of The Boathouse towards the bar. If we would have actually made it to the bar, I can only hope that a Bartender would have politely explained it to us. We never once used any of their facilities, sat in a chair etc.

 

This is the first time that I have ever been kicked out of a beach bar. ...and completely sober at that. :eek:(ha) I am joking about this at this point, however it was very strange and irritating at the moment.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Spike2000