Grand Lido Negril Trip Report - Jim & Gina
I’m very hesitant to write this review but the experience my wife and I had deserves to be shared in the hope that good will come from it. Without question, individually these issues will seem nitpicky but I hope that I can make the point that in totality, they point to a pattern that decries Grand Lido’s assertions of being “luxury”, “upscale” and “elegant”. One issue is significant.
When we arrived at Grand Lido, our check-in was smooth. We were not offered a welcome drink as later we saw other being given. Our butlers assisted taking our bags to our room. The room was comfortable and clean. I wouldn’t call it “elegant” but it was fine. Unfortunately our fridge was not stocked with anything. We were brought soda and beer but it was all warm. The website also mentions a selection of premium liquors in the room. I later learned that this means you’re offered to choose 1 bottle from a selection of liquors. Sometimes semantics matter. In addition, we were never offered a selection to choose from.
On our first morning, no beach towels were brought to the pool area until 10:15. That taught us to take a couple fresh ones up in the evening. Later in the week, towels were not brought until 12:30. That first morning the pool bar did not have sparkling wine for mimosas, the beer was warm and they did not have ingredients for the daily advertised cocktail. There was a picture of it on the bar so someone thought to do that but not check for ingredients. A couple of times they ran out of Red Stripe.
I’ll pause here to assert that any one of these things isn’t a huge deal but when you market yourself as being upscale and luxury, attention to detail is what sets you apart.
There is a post on the Royalton Trip Advisor section that mentions a problem with non-nude people at the Grand Lido pool area. I will affirm this was a problem. There were a number of guests who seem to book a Grand Lido room and spend their time at Hideaway or Royalton. The problem is when they’re hanging around at the pool bar or sitting in the swim-out of their room clothed and no one questions them. I am not talking about people who have shorts or a wrap on while in transition to get settled. Staff don’t seem empowered or willing to address this. In addition, I’ve read reviews on Trip Advisor about Grand Lido mentioning how much they enjoyed their fitness instructor. This is something that happens at Hideway or Royalton, not Grand Lido so these are reviews by people who stayed in the room but did not hang out at the au-natural pool. The resort needs to make a decision if it is clothing optional or au-natural and stick with it so when you book there, you are making an informed decision.
In addition to some clothed guests, there were up to a dozen staff who showed up for lunch at the pool grill. Apparently that is not tolerated. Except when it is. The bartender and staff were drinking and kind of having their own party. We saw other occasions of staff drinking behind the bar.
Grand Lido mentions wait service by the pool. Only three times in the week we were there did someone ask us if we needed a drink at the pool. There were typically just a few guests so it would have been easy for the bartenders to come around but that just didn’t happen. I also learned a couple of conflicting stories about the advertised hors d'oeuvres in the afternoon at the pool. We were told that you could get dressed and go next door to the Diamond Club at Hideway or call your butler to bring you something. Again, semantics matter in advertising because saying they’ll be available at the pool is different than either of those options.
Something that is not clear from the Grand Lido website is that you have to dress and go next door for breakfast and dinner unless you order room service.
On the entertainment person’s day off, another guest asked the pool bartender if he could turn some music on and was told “no, today is a quiet day”. Really?
Our butlers were very nice. Each morning they texted to help us make a dinner reservation for that evening. On two occasions, they checked with us in person at the pool and took our drink order. Upon check-in, they did not give us any kind of orientation as to what services they could offer or assist us. Never having a butler (or two) before, we did not instinctually know how best to use them. For example, the ice machine in the building was not working. No one told us it was turned off due to COVID and that we could have asked the butlers to bring us ice to our room. My expectation was that the butlers could have checked in at least by text more than once in the morning to see if we needed anything. But apparently I was wrong.
I wanted to mention the food. But any positive comments are negated by the apparent wide-spread food poisoning that occurred the week we were there. Other guests at Grand Lido reported being very ill with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. We stayed Sunday to Sunday and made it until Thursday when both my wife and I had our turn. 24 hours of it plus Friday we were still not 100%. You could not walk anywhere on the entire resort property without hearing people talk about themselves or people they knew who were sick. Wedding parties were affected. I was told this was affecting other resorts in the area however, comparing the Royalton reviews to those of Hedonism, Couples and Riu, those other resorts have no mention of people being ill. One day at the Grand Lido pool, we watched a butler prepare an apparent lunch plate for room service from food at the pool grill. He washed by hand, a used dish and used it to make the plate. Maybe it was cleaned enough but I’m pretty sure that’s not up to sanitization standards at a luxury resort. For breakfast our last morning at the buffet, I tried some stewed chicken but in the 60 seconds it took to get back to my seat, it was cool. Poor sanitization practices and improperly maintaining food temperatures may be a couple clues as to what was happening.
Our overall impression of Grand Lido is there is not enough oversight by management. It seems they are struggling to focus on the details to make this an upscale and luxury experience. We spoke with other Grand Lido guests who have been there before. They agreed there were multiple issues the week we were there that had not been issues in the past. So maybe, this is a temporary lapse in oversight. We met with both Anna, the Diamond Club manager, and Lorna, the Assistant General Manager of the property about our concerns. I’m hoping they’ll make changes so future guests don’t have our same experience.