We arrived at GLSS at about 3PM in the afternoon on a Saturday. The bus ride was about as long as expected (about 2 hours plus a short stop for jerk chicken and red stripe). I didn’t mind the ride much and neither did my wife who normally gets motion sickness relatively easily. (The return trip neither of fared as well).
My first impressions were very good. I had seen many, many pictures of the resort before we even left so I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. I was surprised by how close to the main street the resort was. The resort is very isolated but it is right next door to some of the regular happenings of the town. There are even barbed wire fences around some parts of the property.
I was very impressed with the beauty of the resort. Somehow it seemed smaller than I had imagined. I had also heard that it can be quite a hike up and down some of the stairs on the property. I never found this to be much of an issue. It was, however, somewhat easy to get lost and take a wrong turn because you never really knew what was around the corner.
The Room
We had an oceanfront suite w/Jacuzzi. I had requested A block based on previous recommendations and this is exactly what we got. We were in room A-23 on the second floor, and I highly recommend that location. It looks right onto the main pool and beach and is probably only 75 yards to the palazinna (where most of the meals take place). The room was large with a sitting area and TV. Our minibar was stocked nicely with red strip, cokes, and champagne. I was kind of hoping for some Miller Lite but no luck.
The bathroom was very nice. We only used the Jacuzzi once, and I thought it felt more like an oversized bathtub than a real Jacuzzi. The jets didn’t have much steam. There were two sinks (one of which drained very poorly) which my wife was glad to see. I, of course, got the one that didn’t drain well. The shower was nice and big but the curtain didn’t reach the ground and after the first shower our entire bathroom was flooded. The maid was very nice and came immediately to the rescue with a mop and towels.
The only other problem we has was with the air conditioning unit. It would cool the room nicely, but the first night it spit out black soot all over the floor. Maintenance fixed it the next day, but failed to return to reassemble the unit when they were done. One nice thing about the a/c system was it was remote control. If you got too cold at night you could just roll over and turn it off without getting out of bed.
The Staff
In a word the service was good. Probably 80% of the staff was very friendly and went out of their way to be accommodating. Unfortunately, there were a few who seemed as if they were put out by any request no matter how small.
My favorite of all was the maid. Her name was Sandy and she was always very kind and attentive. Someone there told me they figured out the staff made about $7 US/day. I don’t know if this is true, but it makes you feel even more sympathy toward those who truly did work hard to make your vacation that much nicer.
One other thing to mention – tipping. I know it’s not supposed to occur, but it does. I felt habitually obligated upon first getting there to tip the bellman and the room service guys. Nobody came even close to rejecting the tips, and it didn’t seem to make any difference in the quality of service. Those that were good remained good and those that were bad remained bad.
The Food
I thought the food was very good, but not great. It’s one step above the typical fare of a cruise ship, but not as good as you would get in many fine hotels in America. I know it’s Jamaica and you should not expect the same quality as the States, but for the price you pay for the resort I don’t think it’s an unreasonable expectation. The Palazinna was consistently very good. The beach side restaurant was not very good. They served very mediocre hamburgers and the jerk chicken was much better at a roadside stand.
We ate at the French restaurant only one night. I would rate it as mediocre. They had an excellent selection, but portions were very small (even for a French restaurant).
The quality of drinks was always pretty good. I would’ve liked larger glasses so that you didn’t have to refill a soft drink every 5 minutes, but other than that I was very satisfied with the bar service.
Activities
There’s not much to say about this area of the trip because there wasn’t much going on. We like to relax on vacation so it wasn’t a big deal for us, but I would’ve like to have seen some options particularly at night.
Spa
The gym itself was pretty nice. It didn’t seem to have air conditioning and could get very, very warm. I thought the refrigerator with the juices was a nice touch, but on our last day I happened to notice that about half of the juice bottles had already been opened! I threw them out so no one else would inadvertently drink them.
We only got the reflexology and the Swedish massages. Both of them were average at best. The attendants seemed to be counting the seconds until it was over and their effort was at best marginal. The location of the massage was, however, indescribable. It was very relaxing to be in an open-air hut overlooking the waves with a nice breeze despite the quality of the massage.
Conclusion
This is a nice, quiet little resort. We would not likely return, but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from visiting it. We did end our vacations three days early and opted to transfer to Braco. We thought Braco was much nicer on several fronts including landscaping, rooms, gym, quality of food, and entertainment. I think the bottom line is it is just too quiet for us. We are 30 and 28 and we mostly like to just relax on vacation, but occasionally we would like to do things at night with couples near our age.
Side note: I always think it’s helpful for people to name other resorts they have been to to compare and provide a frame of reference for those reading this. I know it can sound a bit snobbish, but I think it’s important. We have been on multiple cruises (Celebrity, Carnival, Royal Caribbean) and our all time favorite resort has been the Four Season Punta Mita in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. These resorts do not compare to the Four Seasons but quality and service is generally better (although not a lot) than the cruise ships.