SpiderSense
Contributor
Back from Negril! It was a terrific vacation. The resort was excellent, the people were awesome, and the diving was fun. Heres my trip report.
Background
We didn't expect much, because of what I read here. But as someone said, diving in clear warm water is decent diving and we just wanted to dive. My wife and I had only one real dive trip before, to Bonaire last October. My cousin and her husband dive mainly in the Canary Islands. This trip was a compromise trip, part dive, part resort vacation, because my cousin didnt want to just dive dive dive. Also, she was a director at the Mandarin Oriental and accustomed to providing 5 star service, so we had to have some sort of resort service and not just a dive oriented resort. We settled on Grand Lido Negril since it is an all-inclusive luxury resort, including 2 boat dives per day.
Resort - Grand Lido Negril
Arriving at the airport in Montego Bay, our luggage was quickly taken to the bus and we were immediately taken to the resort. We were greeted with cool towels for a quick wash and a fruity rum drink (my wife and I dont drink though). We were then escorted to the lobby lounge where we were offered more drinks. A few minutes later, a hostess came to us and escorted us to our rooms as she described the restaurants and amenities. The rooms were very nice and as we requested- by the main beach near the dive shop. It was still a bit far from the shop, but we didnt mind. We immediately went to eat lunch and quickly visited the dive shop to make sure we were on the schedule. Sure enough, our names were already on the logs for 2 boat dives per day. The remainder of our stay, we ate at all the restaurants but used room service quite a bit too. The food was decent. The service was excellent. The atmosphere was good. The resort itself was pretty empty, and it felt like we had 10 staff members per guest. The beach was well groomed and practically empty. Even with no one at the Reggae Café in the back corner of the resort, they still had a local band play, so we stopped by and enjoyed nice music and food. The girls enjoyed the manicures and pedicures and spa treatments while the boys enjoyed an extra night dive. Our rooms were rather close to the streets and we experienced considerable noise in our room. Checkout was quick and painless and technically the only time we needed to stop by the front desk.
Notes:
-Great people. Everyone at the resort was very nice and professional and really efficient-at least 100x better service than Bonaire (Captain Dons Habitat, airport, restaurants). I think if you have good people and service, youll enjoy the resort, dining, and diving, regardless.
-Superclubs no tipping allowed rule was a bit awkward. We really wanted to tip, but never carried any cash with us. Just about everyone there deserved a tip. We did tip the dive shop several hundred bucks though. And I wanted to make sure we tipped more than we did at Bonaire because these guys at Grand Lido went above and beyond. In Bonaire, they expected tip which came out to be about a couple hundred for the week for two divers, which we thought was high for the service.
-Maid service did a great job and their timing was perfect. We always had fresh towels and fridge restocked (free sodas, waters and beers in the mini bar) exactly when we needed them, even though our schedule was weird with all the diving.
-The wait staff made a strong effort to serve the ladies first, serve from the right, and do everything 5 star. Again, it was weird getting such good service to just get up and leave without paying a bill or tipping.
Diving
All four of us, and everyone we dove with, really enjoyed the dives. In the mornings, wed meet at the dive shop at 8:45am. We grab our gear which the shop kept for us (of course I keep my computer and regs in my room). We then walk out into the water until 3-5ft of water where the boat is tied up. The dive masters bring your tanks onto/off the boat. Weights are on the boat and we were able to keep our gear on the boat if we were doing consecutive dives. After a short boat ride, we do our deep dive of the day, and most all dives are drift dives. We all descend as a group, dive as a group, and ascend as a group. The easy part is, you just dive until its time to go up. The boat comes and picks you up. Theres no turn-around point, or boat to find, or navigational anxiety. Bottom time is 20-30 mins. Then we head back to the resort and about an hour later, were back on the boat for our shallow dive. Bottom time is still usually 30 min and were up with 2000psi left at times. Were back from the 2nd dive by 12:30pm. The night dives were extra, but definitely worth every penny. Underwater life isnt as dense as Bonaire, but theres still quite a bit to see. We actually saw more stuff we were looking for, than we did in Bonaireturtles, huge crabs, spider crabs, various shrimps, dolphins (swam around us, very playful), eels, squid, sea horse, rays, octopus, lobsters. They took us to a couple of plane wreck sites, which were small planes, but still fun to swim through. Visibility is ok, but often with lots of stuff floating. 84F water temps at day, 79F at night. Mild currents. Surface calm. At night, the fire flies congregate about our lights and smother us. Very annoying and gross, but I still think the night dives were the highlight of the trip.
Notes:
-2 boat dives per day, plus 3 night dives. We skipped one boat dive to do some zip lining.
-Everything we want on the boat gets wet as we wade through the water.
-Dive shop guys are awesome.
What would have made our stay better:
-The street noise coming into our room was a bit much.
-More bottom time and not rushed around would be a huge plus.
-We would have taking up every afternoon dive if there was an option.
-Free internet. $18/hour is too much. Everything else was included. With free internet, we could stay longer and telecommute (righhhht).
-Higher premium liquor for those who drink.
Overall, it was an amazing vacation. Were very pleased with the diving and resort services. It may be hard to get my cousin to do a real dive vacation after this trip.
I didn't realize how much I enjoyed diving till this trip.
Background
We didn't expect much, because of what I read here. But as someone said, diving in clear warm water is decent diving and we just wanted to dive. My wife and I had only one real dive trip before, to Bonaire last October. My cousin and her husband dive mainly in the Canary Islands. This trip was a compromise trip, part dive, part resort vacation, because my cousin didnt want to just dive dive dive. Also, she was a director at the Mandarin Oriental and accustomed to providing 5 star service, so we had to have some sort of resort service and not just a dive oriented resort. We settled on Grand Lido Negril since it is an all-inclusive luxury resort, including 2 boat dives per day.
Resort - Grand Lido Negril
Arriving at the airport in Montego Bay, our luggage was quickly taken to the bus and we were immediately taken to the resort. We were greeted with cool towels for a quick wash and a fruity rum drink (my wife and I dont drink though). We were then escorted to the lobby lounge where we were offered more drinks. A few minutes later, a hostess came to us and escorted us to our rooms as she described the restaurants and amenities. The rooms were very nice and as we requested- by the main beach near the dive shop. It was still a bit far from the shop, but we didnt mind. We immediately went to eat lunch and quickly visited the dive shop to make sure we were on the schedule. Sure enough, our names were already on the logs for 2 boat dives per day. The remainder of our stay, we ate at all the restaurants but used room service quite a bit too. The food was decent. The service was excellent. The atmosphere was good. The resort itself was pretty empty, and it felt like we had 10 staff members per guest. The beach was well groomed and practically empty. Even with no one at the Reggae Café in the back corner of the resort, they still had a local band play, so we stopped by and enjoyed nice music and food. The girls enjoyed the manicures and pedicures and spa treatments while the boys enjoyed an extra night dive. Our rooms were rather close to the streets and we experienced considerable noise in our room. Checkout was quick and painless and technically the only time we needed to stop by the front desk.
Notes:
-Great people. Everyone at the resort was very nice and professional and really efficient-at least 100x better service than Bonaire (Captain Dons Habitat, airport, restaurants). I think if you have good people and service, youll enjoy the resort, dining, and diving, regardless.
-Superclubs no tipping allowed rule was a bit awkward. We really wanted to tip, but never carried any cash with us. Just about everyone there deserved a tip. We did tip the dive shop several hundred bucks though. And I wanted to make sure we tipped more than we did at Bonaire because these guys at Grand Lido went above and beyond. In Bonaire, they expected tip which came out to be about a couple hundred for the week for two divers, which we thought was high for the service.
-Maid service did a great job and their timing was perfect. We always had fresh towels and fridge restocked (free sodas, waters and beers in the mini bar) exactly when we needed them, even though our schedule was weird with all the diving.
-The wait staff made a strong effort to serve the ladies first, serve from the right, and do everything 5 star. Again, it was weird getting such good service to just get up and leave without paying a bill or tipping.
Diving
All four of us, and everyone we dove with, really enjoyed the dives. In the mornings, wed meet at the dive shop at 8:45am. We grab our gear which the shop kept for us (of course I keep my computer and regs in my room). We then walk out into the water until 3-5ft of water where the boat is tied up. The dive masters bring your tanks onto/off the boat. Weights are on the boat and we were able to keep our gear on the boat if we were doing consecutive dives. After a short boat ride, we do our deep dive of the day, and most all dives are drift dives. We all descend as a group, dive as a group, and ascend as a group. The easy part is, you just dive until its time to go up. The boat comes and picks you up. Theres no turn-around point, or boat to find, or navigational anxiety. Bottom time is 20-30 mins. Then we head back to the resort and about an hour later, were back on the boat for our shallow dive. Bottom time is still usually 30 min and were up with 2000psi left at times. Were back from the 2nd dive by 12:30pm. The night dives were extra, but definitely worth every penny. Underwater life isnt as dense as Bonaire, but theres still quite a bit to see. We actually saw more stuff we were looking for, than we did in Bonaireturtles, huge crabs, spider crabs, various shrimps, dolphins (swam around us, very playful), eels, squid, sea horse, rays, octopus, lobsters. They took us to a couple of plane wreck sites, which were small planes, but still fun to swim through. Visibility is ok, but often with lots of stuff floating. 84F water temps at day, 79F at night. Mild currents. Surface calm. At night, the fire flies congregate about our lights and smother us. Very annoying and gross, but I still think the night dives were the highlight of the trip.
Notes:
-2 boat dives per day, plus 3 night dives. We skipped one boat dive to do some zip lining.
-Everything we want on the boat gets wet as we wade through the water.
-Dive shop guys are awesome.
What would have made our stay better:
-The street noise coming into our room was a bit much.
-More bottom time and not rushed around would be a huge plus.
-We would have taking up every afternoon dive if there was an option.
-Free internet. $18/hour is too much. Everything else was included. With free internet, we could stay longer and telecommute (righhhht).
-Higher premium liquor for those who drink.
Overall, it was an amazing vacation. Were very pleased with the diving and resort services. It may be hard to get my cousin to do a real dive vacation after this trip.
I didn't realize how much I enjoyed diving till this trip.
