James - April, 2011

For all of us former Grand Lido Braco devotees who are searching for the best
possible replacement, here is my review of Breezes Grand Negril which we
visited with our group in April 2011.

It says a lot about the overall occupancy of the resorts in Jamaica that our
Braco group of about 60 people all were accommodated at BGN, and all into the
AN side. Hedo was very sparsely populated as well, except the nude pool area,
which had an active and lively group.

The ride to Negril sucks. I remember the old road to Braco, before the new
highway was built. The road to Negril is worse, and longer. The road is narrow
and winds along the coast for an hour and a half. If you can afford it, take
the plane shuttle or a private comfortable pre- arranged cab.

The arrival at the front desk was handled well and faster than Braco, but may
have been because my wife appeared ill on arrival from the ride to the resort.

We were put in a room with an inoperable a/c unit, and after an hour we were
switched to another room. Both rooms were not the first floor room I had
requested in advance, and the next morning I was at the desk at 10am to try to
get the correct room, and at noon we were switched to the proper room.

The rooms were satisfactory, but had two major flaws. The AC unit in my room
was very noisy. I mean Roaring/tick/tick noisy that took about
3 days for my brain to finally white noise out. I asked maintenance it check
it several times over the week when it would episodically stop cooling, but
the noise factor could not be fixed.The bath unit in the beachfront cove rooms
are a most unusual set up. The tub is large and requires a full two steps up
to get in and out. It is not to be navigated by the frail or ill or
intoxicated. However, there was plenty of hot water! Hooray.

The overall setup and appearance of the resort is very nice and well
maintained.

The AN side is inferior to Braco in several major categories.

Whereas the Braco AN side is all AN, at BGN it is c/o. Our group was large and
AN, there was a very few people who were not AN. This could be a problem with
gawkers, but it was not a problem during our visit.

Towels were plentiful with a little planning. There are no towel Nazis. We
were supposed to be given towel cards, but never got any, and it was not an
issue at all. Towels come out in mass quantity at 830 am, and again about 1pm.
If you are an early riser, just keep a couple overnight.

Be prepared for afternoon rains which are common. Those clouds to the west at
braco are over negril. The rains are not long or unpleasant, they cool it off.
Just don’t leave books or electronics out while you go elsewhere, and have a
dry towel in your room to use after the rain.

The pool is pathetically small. 20 feet by 20 feet. Almost too small for
volleyball. I don’t know who planned it, but they were clearly not thinking.
The hot tub is standard and although tiny compared to Bracos, it is suitable
for most needs. There is no swim up bar, consequently the AN side has no
natural gathering point to meet and talk to people you don’t already know.

There is also no social coordinators on the AN side. Had our group not already
been coordinated, it would easily be a very quiet and isolated experience on
the AN side. Without a gathering place, and people to get the guests to
interact, it could be a very glum place. A young lady came by about once every
other day to body paint, tye/dye, paint stones. Our group usually has a strong
turnout for volleyball twice a day, but with such a small court and no one to
yell VOLLEYBALL, they played twice in a week.

The AN grill is small but adequate. It is like a large kiosk. It serves
drinks, meat pies , lamb chops,and burgers and fries. Never fear, the lamb
chops are excellent. The bar staff keeps up, and waiting for drinks is not a
problem. But you do have to stand around and wait for your food , there is no
seating or swim up bar.

The Trees on the AN side provide a much improved shade compared to Braco.
Although they give the watersports guys a lot of extra work sweeping and
skimming the leaves, there is no shortage of shade as there was sometimes at
the pool at Braco.

The wind is variable. It is usually pretty calm until about 9am, then the wind
comes up to a nice breeze for sailing. It isn’t the persistent sandblaster
like it is at braco. It will sometimes come up to a strong wind, then die down
with the common brief afternoon rain.
At first the wind is a little annoying, with no escape from it like there is
at Braco at the pool. However, after you go to Hedo, and have no wind at all,
it makes you appreciate a breeze.

The Beach on the AN side is small and sloped. The sand on the shore is fine.
The bottom is mostly sand, but rocky enough to be unpleasant and camouflages
the sea urchins. There has clearly been quite a bit of erosion. The area would
be much improved with a large deposit of sand to fill out the beach and cover
the bottom.

The beach on the prude side is gorgeous and contiguous with a mile of beach
that extends through several nice resorts. BGN is the dead end and there is no
through foot traffic. The pool on the prude side is very nice and very
unutilized. I kept count, and I counted a total of
8 people in the water during the entire week. Granted I spent nearly all my
time on the AN side, but when we did go past the prude pool it was nearly
always completely empty.

As poorly attended as the prude side is, they might as well make it all AN,
and see if it flies. As it is, BGN has no advantages over many other resorts
for the prude visitor, but if you opened up the prude beach to AN, it would
have all the advantages of Braco, with only the ride from the airport and no
swim up bar to count against it. But the again it is next to Hedo, so they may
not want to go head to head and compete with themselves.

The toilets are very poorly placed. On the AN side there is no toilets on the
beach or pool area. You must use your room. So a ground floor room is
essential. Elsewhere on the resort it is not much better. We used the toilet
near the front desk when we were in the French or italian restaurants, and
there is one by the disco for the main dining/ entertainment area. I think it
is very similar on the prude beach, with a bar and toilet at the very far end
of the property where it adjoins couples.

We used room service only to replenish the room fridge. This was done
promptly. We used to use room service for breakfast at braco and a late night
snack, but it never worked out that we wanted it at BGN.

The restaurants were nice. The Italian was good, but a bit slower than at
Braco. You can see why. There is just one guy cooking every bit of food. There
is no room for an expanded kitchen. He is it, no matter how busy they are or
full the resort is, he can only cook so fast. The French restaurant ambience
is a bit nicer than Braco, but the fare and service is identical. There is an
extra restaurant that can handle larger groups called the Grand Café, the
service there was fine and the food was good. The reggae café is more proximal
than at braco, and is a step up from braco in its hours of service. The Sushi
is not as good as Braco, but the chef is the difference and that could be
remedied with one stroke of a pen by management.

The Friday street party is not quite as nice without the street, but was
essentially the same as having it in the victorias market.

The staff is friendly, but there wasn’t the interpersonal interaction that
there was at Braco with Wayne and the gang. The staff for the most part
seemed to be grinding it out. I tried to think of a phrase that captured the
attitude of the staff including management, “compliant noncompliance”. That
is, they would agree to most anything, but then not follow through.

The nightlife seemed to be much less active and the night partygoers in our
group migrated to Hedo for their night activities such as the toga and PJ
parties. Their parties were variably attended. It may have had more to do with
the low occupancy

Security is much better at BGN. At braco there may just not have been much
need for security except to tell an occasional gawker to strip.
At Braco the security was mostly seated and trying not to fall asleep.
At BGN the security was constantly moving(which from a security standpoint is
much more effective). They were visible but not at all intrusive, they would
even pick up trash or ask you how you were doing. Security checks you coming
in the gate from hedo, and if you come in from the beach from couples.
Everyone on the ground floors seemed to leave their doors ajar on the beach
side, but I heard of no problems with theft or pilfering.

Watersports is much improved at BGN compared to Braco. The wind at Braco was
prohibitive for most things after about 10 am. BGN is in a bay and much more
protected. The snorkeling is much better close to shore, as well as on the
trips with watersports. The hobie cats at BGN are fun and safe inside the bay,
and an experienced person would feel very comfortable sailing all over the
west end of Jamaica. Watersports staff is available to pilot you or teach you.
The sailboards and kayaks are also available and clearly more usable than in
the more unprotected water at braco.

The proximity to other places at Negril is definitely a plus. We took a large
catamaran to Ricks. If you want to spend time there, you’ll want to take a
cab. We just really had time to look around a little.
The seven mile beach is also a nice walk and accessible if you enjoy that sort
of activity.

Overall BGN is a nice resort. There are some distinct advantages and
disadvantages compared to Braco. It may be the best available nude resort in
Jamaica, but overall, it is still has some serious defects that need to be
improved upon.

Dyermaker2001=