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Grand Lido Negril 05/11/02
Reviewers Rating:  Good
My wife and I just got back from a week long stay at Grand Lido Negril. To get straight to the point, we were both very disappointed. We stayed at Couples Negril last year and were somewhat shocked at how we felt Couples Negril exceeded Grand Lido in almost every category. And considering that GLN is more expensive than Couples and GLN is supposed to be the more ìupscaleî resort, we felt like the unfortunate victims of a cruel practical joke. After our weekís stay we felt that not only does GLN not surpass Couples, but it hardly is even able to compete with Couples in almost every important category (detailed below). Weíre still scratching our heads trying to figure out how GLN gets such consistently good reviews when it seems to be a second-rate competitor to its neighbor just next door. Now, before I go any further I just want to say that this review is not easy to write because I donít want it to appear that Iím just slamming GLN because despite itís shortcomings, the people that work there are super and very friendly. But the long and the short of it is [in our opinion] GLN is over-priced! The two things that we were most disappointed with were the rooms and the food. First, the rooms are much worn. We stayed in an ocean-front, junior suite. The decor in the room was tired; the walls were a drab taupe color with the two sides of the room done in some kind of a rough stucco-like finish. The wood furniture looked very old and worn. The floor was a dull lifeless tile that showed years of daily mopping. The bed was uncomfortable with a dingy comforter and flat pillows. And the bathroom was even worse. It consisted of old fixtures, poor lighting, no water-pressure, old tile-work, and a worn-out shower head that needed to be replaced years ago. Iíve seen better bathrooms in a Motel 6. This seemed so out of place for a supposedly ìupscaleî four-diamond, six-star, five-apple, something-or-other resort. And when I think that we paid about the same price for a full suite at Couples a year ago I just cringe. The suite at Couples was huge, with beautiful art, Jacuzzi tub, separate shower, stocked mini-fridge, double balcony with hammock, huge bathroom, etc. The food was another big area of disappointment. We were expecting some really fine and elaborate dinning experiences. We had read for months (Internet discussion boards) about how great the food was and we had also read about the culinary awards that GLN had received. But we found the food to be just a little better than average ñ something that could be easily gotten at any other mid-range resort. Now weíre not food connoisseurs or anything so the average quality of the food was really a shock to us. I will say, however, that the food at the French restaurant Piacere was very good (compared to most of the other meals that we had at the resort) but again we both felt like the food at Couples was better overall. Now there were some positives associated with GLN ñ the beach was great, the yacht cruise was good, the entertainment was good, and the service was pretty good. GLN is not a ìbadî resort and one can have a very enjoyable stay there. However, the resortís reputation and cost seems somewhat ìinflatedî considering the quality. GLN is in dire need of a renovation (both private rooms and common areas) and they also need to upgrade the quality and variety of their meals a notch or two. We still donít fully understand how Couples Negril can provide much better quality at a significantly lower price than GLN. If we ever go back to Jamaica weíd choose Couples in a heartbeatóthere is just more ìbang for the buckî there!
Pat
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