The Grand Lido Visitors Hangout

This was our 2^nd trip to Braco. We have done GLN many times and also done a Hedo and Sandals week before we knew better. This trip was scheduled at the last minute. We were ready for the break and suddenly had babysitting for our kids. Lance and the rest of the people at Go Classy were a great help in setting everything up.

We flew out of CVG on Northwestern early on Saturday morning, changed planes in Memphis and landed at Sangster in the early afternoon. It wasn’t the champagne flight of Air Jamaica but they got us there and only a little turbulence

We were naturally offered many rides to our resort but we just told them we were with Super Clubs and the hustlers left us alone. We made our way to the Super Clubs desk and were on the bus in about 10-15 minutes.

The bus ride was about an hour and pretty much uneventful. I personally wouldn’t have minded being given the opportunity to buy an over priced Red Stripe from the driver or a road side stop but his priority was clearly getting us to the resort quickly and safely. He did that and made himself available for the tips that such service merits.

We got the usual friendly greeting upon arriving at Reception including the cool wet cloth to wipe of the road grime and an offer of our favorite cold beverage. We were then told that our room was not ready yet. It was shortly before 3:00 and that was not a surprise. The lady at Reception suggested that we might have a drink or something to eat and ‘check back’. We did go to the Jerk pit and have a bite – our first and only visit there – and return around 3:30. Our room still wasn’t ready.

This went on for the next couple of hours. We would take a walk, have a drink, stop back and be told, "Not yet, check back." Finally, after a couple hours of this I asked to see a manager. I was shown to a small office off the lobby where I complained with some volume and emotion. Amazingly a room ‘just came available’. I was very disappointed at this lack of preparation and consideration.

The room was a second floor suite on the A/N side. We had requested a first floor room on the A/N side but were told that none would be available until the next day. We were moved then and were very happy with our room the balance of the stay. There is nothing wrong with either the second or third floor rooms. We just prefer first floor ones. We like to be able to walk out of our room and be right there, near the beach and the pool. The upper floors do provide slightly better ocean views and more privacy. We find the views through the ground floor greenery very pretty and can close our doors when we want privacy.

The suite level accommodation is more than we usually book and actually more than we needed. It was all that was available when we booked. In addition to the basic bedroom pretty common to all Lido accommodations it had an additional half bath and a sitting room. The sitting room was furnished with a second TV, love seat, a couple tables and chairs, and a fridge. As smokers – cigarettes, cigars, and _____ - we didn’t like the chintzy little ashtrays, remembering the large wooden ones at GLN. We really appreciated the fridge and kept it stocked with water and ‘Henry Varnay’ French brut sparkling wine, which is what they served when you asked for champagne. We drank a lot of that and found it quite good. French champagne? No. Good, sparkling French wine? Yes.

I won’t try to go day by day over a 10-day stay but simply list our experiences in areas that concern most people I know:

Service – A Lido strength. The attitudes, appearance, courtesy, consideration, responsiveness, and apparent morale were exceptional. Nowhere did we see any evidence of the opposite. Room Service, Housekeeping, Water sports, and food service personnel were all great. We came to suspect that Victoria Market was the entry level food service worker assignment because we had the spottiest service there but even that was not bad service, just spotty.

Room Service – Usually very good. We did wait almost an hour once on an order that was apparently lost. We got an apology from the manager and our re-order quickly. Be aware that coffee does not always arrive very hot. The decanters they serve it in have apparently seen a few years use, too, and don’t keep it hot for long. We found that by making a pot in the in room coffee maker we could mix the two and have hot coffee a bit longer. At lots of lamb chops and never had a cold one or a bad one.

Used laundry service once and were very pleased with the quality of work and timeliness.

Restaurants – In general, good not great. Victoria Market most days for breakfast was good. Made to order omelets, and a nice selection of fish, cheeses, and breads was a nice start. Would like to have seen greens on the buffet more often. Bacon was seldom crisp or tasty. We came to suspect the sausage because of some bad tummy feelings on the days we had it.

We ate lunch at the A/N pool or via room service. There were buffets on two days at the A/N pool and that was very nice. They were not expansive buffets but they offered a nice selection and were very good. We usually had either lamb chops or steak sandwiches and were always satisfied. They were always served with plenty of hot, crisp fries.

Muna hana, the Japanese place was very good. I had a bit of everything on the menu and enjoyed it all. They have one of the tables for 8 that is purely for sushi lovers. We didn’t book that but had a bit of sushi with our meal and enjoyed it. Good food and a fun experience.

Our meal at Piacere was the best we had while at Braco. We heard the same from many other guests, too. Besides good food, they work very hard on presentation and ambience and did a nice job. We missed the harpist but the strolling violinist was a nice effort at an alternative.

The Pasta restaurant was also a good dinner choice. We ate there several nights. We stayed away from the tomato sauce based dishes knowing that, coming from Italian families, we are usually too hard to please. We enjoyed the meals we had there. They were always served piping hot and there was always plenty. They also have a nice salad/antipasto bar there that we enjoyed. You could probably make a nice, light meal on that alone. The little bakery was nice for desert, too.

We only used the A/N pool and it is one of the features that we love about Braco. This is a huge pool with crystal clear water, lots of floats, and a nice swim up bar. We had lunch several days sitting at the swim up bar. This is a big contrast to GLN where there is just, basically, a plunge pool. At Braco, the whirlpool adjacent to the A/N pool is larger than the c/o pool and hot tub combined at GLN. We only got to the hot tub a couple times but it was nice. We heard that it was broken for a couple days but it seemed to be working by the time we left.

The little hot tub on the A/N side was not open the entire time of our visit. We walked back to it once and it looked like it had been out of service for some time. Wouldn’t be surprised to see it closed permanently. That would be a shame. It is much more intimate and secluded than the main one there.

There are also plenty of lounges around the pool and on the beach. As GLN veterans we went out and ‘saved’ our chairs the first day by placing books and towels on them. That was a waste of time that we didn’t do again. There are probably enough lounges for all of the A/N guests (52 rooms on the A/N side) to be at the pool at the same time. And then there is an equal number on and near the beach.

Spent one day sitting on our back porch while wife laid out on a lounge in the sun towards the beach. Those wooden Adirondack chairs on the patios look nice but they get pretty hard after a while. After the first couple days we realized that we could use the little cushions from the love seat in the room as cushions for these hard wooden chairs and they were a lot more comfortable. You have to remember to bring them in at night, though, or they are covered with cat hair in the morning.

We had drinks at every bar on the property except the main pool swim up bar. Return visitors will be glad to know that the dirty bananas were consistently wonderful. They were clearly our drink of choice before switching to ‘champagne’ in mid-late afternoon. Wayne, Michael, and the rest of the staff at the A/N pool bar learned our preferences and kept them smooth and frequent.

The main bar, near Victoria Market, was usually pretty crowded in the evening after dinner but they kept up with drink orders pretty well, too. There is still a ‘sewage’ smell around that bar that kept us from sitting around it much. I was disappointed that they had no sherry for after dinner, but they had plenty of Grand Marnier and ‘champagne’.

We found it amusing that the Piacere sommelier went through his usual opening and tasting ritual with the same ‘champagne’ that we had been drinking steadily all week. It would be a nice touch if the ‘champagne’ there was a little different to go with the ‘special’ dining experience.

The A/N clubhouse was our usual and favorite late night bar. There was always a fresh bottle of chilled champagne and a smiling face to greet us no matter what the time. The pool table and ping pong equipment there were in surprisingly good shape for a tropical resort, too.

We were concerned about going to Braco because our last time there the weather was terrible. That was in January or February a few years ago and we actually went to Ocho Rios on a shopping trip to try to find warm clothes. It rained for most of every day then and the winds were so strong that even when it wasn’t raining the pool was not fun.

This trip the weather was almost perfect. It rained for a short time almost every day but the rest of the time it was bright and sunny with only light winds. When it did rain in the evenings when we were dressed and out to dinner umbrellas magically appeared for us to use as we chose. I heard that one bonfire was rained out when we were there but we were busy elsewhere and didn’t miss it, anyway.

The fact that there were a lot of umbrellas available does say a couple things about the resort, though. As my wife’s manicurist said, the weather here is rainier than much of the island. More importantly, though, the resort was prepared for what rain we did get and did their best to make sure guests weren’t put out by it.

We both came home with a few bug bites. There didn’t seem to be a lot of flies or bugs around but the ones there found us. The little lizard that took up residence in our room and lived behind the mirror in the bathroom probably kept the number of bugs down.

The Entertainment Directors were energetic and enthusiastic but not pushy or aggressive about it. The daily ‘aquasize’, water aerobics classes, were just enough to make guests feel like they had earned a few more drinks without being too taxing.

We didn’t get to the disco or the toga parties. The nightly entertainment gets an "A" for effort but wasn’t really much. The karaoke near the main bar was probably better and more entertaining.

We didn’t partake in any water sports, nor did it seem that many others did. I don’t think we saw a sail on the water the entire time we were there. We did see the dive boat go out a few times so we assume that those who wanted to do that didn’t find the water or winds too rough.

We missed the Playboy channel on the TV a couple nights when we were sitting around and would have used it for background.

We took the side trips several years ago and decided not to book any this time. Dunn’s River Falls was fun but not a ‘must do’ and we enjoyed the mountain to beach horseback riding then, too. Braco is just far enough away from everything to make you think twice about going anywhere once you are there. We were just too laid back and pampered to leave the resort this trip.

We will be more attentive and deliberate about our air scheduling next time. We flew Northwest through Memphis and were not pleased. Our return trip allowed us an impossibly short time to clear Customs and make our connecting flight. They should not have been allowed to sell such a ticket. We experienced almost no delays with luggage or Customs and still got to our connecting gate long after our flight had departed necessitating a 4-hour wait for the next flight.

We had a wonderful time and will be back to GLN or GLB again as soon as we can. Still not sure whether we like Braco or GLN better. They are both special to us in different ways. We love the A/N pool and clubhouse but missed the long beach walks along Bloody Bay. There is no Negril to escape to. Ocho Rios is just too far. There are also no aggressive beach vendors to contend with like there are near GLN. We’ll probably just have to continue going to each of them for the next decade or two to establish a preference.

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