I read all the reviews and thought how bad could a tropical beach resort be. It was not one specific aspect of the resort that was lacking, it was 10 or so different small reasons for regret.
We had a free timeshare week from family and used it at Island Seas, we decided to save the $1000 instead of renting in Hawaii or another tropical location. I have vacationed in several tropical countries and always enjoyed the sunshine and drinks. I regretted traveling to Grand Bahama and I regretted staying at Island Seas.

1.Only 20 out of the approximate 200 room have ocean views. You will not stay in one of the ocean view rooms, they are owned privately.
2.Island Seas was run down, needs a complete remodel and facelift.
3.Room was OK, lousy furniture and TV that had constant bad cable with fuzz on most stations.
4. Bathroom was very old with bad tile and lots of rust in the shower.
5. Island Seas requires round the clock security to keep unpleasant and semi dangerous people from entering the private beach and property. This is no exaggeration.
6. Location is too far from anywhere to walk except on the beach.
7. Only free transport is the shuttle that runs every hour, the shuttle is old and beat up. A traveler is instantly "not on vacation" when 30 people are crammed onto the bus.
8.Overall the Island is in bad shape, lots of poverty. All the parks we went to were falling apart, and the bird preserve had no birds.
9. The bar in the common area is a mess, TV hanging from bad carpentry, tile on the bar was missing.
10. The bar has karaoke 3 nights a week, no guests participate. The staff has free reign apparently to play music at any volume from 8-10:30pm, this was unbelievable. This showed me that the guests were not a priority at the resort.
10. Lots of guests are at the resort for the free time share presentation, this makes for a "mixed bag" of travelers.

Simply put don't stay here. If you are traveling to Grand Bahamas stay somewhere else. It was truly a buzz kill when I realized that we could have listened to a review like this and yet we ignored the warning.

I just returned from a 5 day stay at Island Seas in Freeport, Bahamas. I have to admit that I was very leery after reading a number of reviews about the place. However, my sister owns there so I figured it would be a nice, fairly inexpensive trip to take with her, my niece (2yrs old), and my granddaughter (1 1/2 years old). I’m so glad I did!

Flight:
We flew Vision airlines from Baltimore and were very pleased with everything. It was a non-stop flight both ways and the price was advertised at $79 each way from BWI to Freeport. However, once taxes and the checked luggage fees were included the cost ended up being about $300 total, still less than any of the other carriers we’d checked. The flight leaving out was on time and the plane was new with big leather seats throughout. From what I understand, all of their planes are 737’s. However, there were only 29 passengers on our flight which afforded us plenty of room to spread-out with two toddlers. Our return flight was just as empty with only 28 people on board. I wonder how long Vision will be able to offer these flights given how few people seem to take advantage of them. I hope that more folks book with Vision because I’d hate to see them discontinue the service because it can’t be cost effective for them.

Taxi ride to the Resort:
We’d packed a lot of snacks for the kids and I’d read a review where someone suggested bring frozen meats with you. This was the best tip that I’d receive since we were traveling with small children and wouldn’t be eating out a lot. I packed chicken breasts, steaks, bacon, lunch meat, chicken nuggets, cheese, and butter which were all still frozen solid when we arrived at the resort. I asked the taxi driver to take us to a supermarket in route to the Resort and he did. There, I was able to purchase water, juice, fresh salad fixings, fresh vegetables, eggs, milk, and bread. The prices were somewhat more expensive than what I’d pay at home but that’s to be expected. Another thing worth mentioning is that I took a taxi to the International Bizarre and was able to buy some fresh snapper and take it back to the room and cook it. It was very inexpensive and was the best fish I’d had in a long time.

Island Seas Resort:
We booked a 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, beachfront room which wasn’t ready when we arrive (around 4:30pm). We waited for about 45 minutes before we were shown to the room. I was somewhat nervous about what we might find but I was pleasantly surprised. The room was very clean which is definitely a MUST for me (especially with small children). The furniture was dated, e.g., wicker style but by no means was it beat up. The kitchen appliances worked fine and the unit was furnished with all of the utensils and dishes that we needed. As mentioned, everything appeared to be really clean but we did spend some time disinfecting with wipes and Lysol. The person who came daily to clean did a sufficient enough job of sweeping and tiding up each day. She mentioned that they only changed the sheets on Wednesdays (we checked in on a Sunday) but when Wednesday came that wasn’t done. I’m sure she would have had I asked but we were leaving the next morning so it really was no big deal. The staff were very friendly and accommodating; we had no problems whatsoever. However, we did experience major problems with the Island Seas staff located in Florida. As I mention, my sister owns here and has for the past 6 years or so. She has been coming annually. She booked our stay in November of 2011 for dates in January of 2012. Since she’d not used the 2011 time this trip was to be counted towards that stay. Everything was fine when she booked and the person indicated that the stay would be for 2011. Everything was fine when we checked in; however, a couple of days later, we get a call from the Interval folks in Florida saying the we had to pay the 2012 maintenance fee or leave. My sister explained that she had paid the fee and that the time we were spending there was actually for 2011. The Interval folks said they had no record of the fee being paid. This turned into a nightmare experience; they turned off the phone (which was a big deal since our cell phones didn’t work) and they locked us out of the room with two toddlers. Fortunately, a cleaning person was able to let us in. The Interval folks in Florida were some of the rudest, most unprofessional people that I’ve ever encountered. I would not recommend anyone buying from Interval!!! As it turned out, the day after we returned home they called to say that they had the maintenance fee. I want to note that the staff at the resort were trying to be as helpful as they could and were only doing what they were instructed to do by Interval by turning off the phone and locking us out of the room. I, in no way, fault them.

Overall, the entire trip was nice and the Resort isn’t as bad as I’ve read from some reviews… and I’m a very picky person!

The resort common areas are ok. The units are good size but need more updating. The kitchen stove was from the 80s and one burner didn't work. There were several items missing from the kitchen. We were also missing some towels and wash clothes for both bathrooms and the kitchen. The staff is friendly but slow. The resort is on a good beach location, the building is sound but the maintenance was very poor. Not much activities provided at the resort and they didn't do most of the activites listed, like the resort oreintation was scheduled for 2 different days and it never happend. Not sure if we will stay there again. We liked the beach, the size of the units, friendliness of the staff. But didn't like the lack of maintenance, poor housekeeping, cost of food and drinks, and that they didn't have the activities that they had listed.

With a seemingly handpicked staff, the Island Seas Resort, offers a very comfortable and stress-free vacation. The resort is well maintained and the staff is poised to please.