Contributed
Repeat guests to Grand Lido Negril, along with hotel representatives, gather for the symbolic cutting of the 17th anniversary cake.

Chester Francis-Jackson, Contributor

In a time when skimmed milk is increasingly masquerading as créme, it is always such a refreshing interlude when one comes across the the real-gungo.

While some say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, there's nothing like the real McCoy, so for those given to the insincerity that is coached under the cloak of flattery.

But when it comes to style, elegance and the joys of creature comforts, please spare the flattery and bring on the real thing!

Well, it's been nearly two decades since the ultimate in five-star accommodation, tourism's grand dame of Bloody Bay in Negril, first opened her doors and began accepting guests as the Grand Lido Negril.

Truth be told, today, some 17 years later, the Grand Lido Negril has not lost its lustre nor its grandeur, or the style, flawless culinary offerings, and sense of olde world elan, for which it became noted and is much celebrated!

Toast and testament

So, after years of near flawless service as Negril's multi-award winning leading five-star resort, the Grand Lido Negril has much to celebrate, and so it did with a week-long affair that was a toast and testament to the quality and esoteric charm that is the very essence of the Jamaican tourism experience!

The flagship of the Lido chain of resorts that form part and parcel of the John Issa-founded and led SuperClubs, that spans the Caribbean and South America, the Grand Lido Negril is one fine and fabulously elegant resort that is not just representative of the finest holiday experience that there is on offer here in Jamaica but it represents the finest of holidaying traditions in style, essence and substance!

Definitely not for your Coca-Cola and hamburger tourist, even though that, too, is on offer at the hotel. Here, the fare is demonstrably haute cuisine and fine libations served up in an embracingly warm and yet convivial atmosphere, designed for fab-fun-filled living, and nothing but!

Not only was this a case of putting one's best foot forward, but we are talking gilded feet here, as this was not a matter of stepping up to the plate and performing; this was a command performance, and all in the name of service!

In a culture where the polloi often confuses service with servitude, this was a most welcomed departure. But then again, there should be no surprises as style and service are the hallmarks of the establishment, and not merely something to be trotted out in press releases, or parroted by those who would wish, that by merely mouthing a desire, it becomes the reality!

Repeat guests

Anyway, before we digress, let's return to what was a most fabulous celebration.

One of the more interesting features of the resort experience is that of the multi-repeat guests. These are the people who, by their yearly, quarterly or monthly commitment, always return to the resort, and not just during the winter season, but more so, those who constantly return just because!

When it comes to multi-repeat guests, they are the engine of success driving most all-inclusive resorts, and at the Grand Lido Negril, they are no longer regarded as mere guests, but more like a close-knit family with the resort as one big playground.

And a playground it was - from the week of the third to the ninth - as multi-repeat guests (there were 140 couples in-house) were treated to a fabulous experience that was not only uniquely Grand Lido Negril, but essentially Jamaican.

From the six-course dinner- note, not a buffet but a formal six-course dinner with synchronised service for the multi-repeat guests - to the clothing optional sunset Catamaran cruise from Bloody Bay to the West End and back; to the clothing optional luncheon and beach regatta; plus the full-treatment at the Blue Mahoe Garden Spa, inclusive of Swedish massages and sensuous aroma therapy; we are talking the full-hundred here, and nothing but!

Gastronomic fare

And if all that fine, fun-filled activity did not do it for you, then there was the gastronomic fare.

Oooh-la-laa! I'm-a-tellin' y'all, the kings of old never had it so good, they just thought they did!

And with the Resorts Gran Terrazza transformed into a sea of floating white, made so by bolts and bolts of white fabric draped from every-which-where, and white lights to match, the place looked like everybody's fantasy!

And if y'all think it was all that then, then y'all should have been witnesses to the release of the white butterflies. It was spectacular, especially more so as it heralded the singing of the Jamaican National Anthem. And from there on then, it was kudos all tha way, as no briquettes here, only bouquets for hotel manager Stuart Douglas and his team.

And then there was the fare. From fresh sushi, and sashimi, representing the resort's most recent addition to its dining options; to lobster tails and peppered jumbo shrimps; jerk chicken, pork and lamb, it made for one marvellous culinary cantata, with the sweet-tooth aficionados going to town in the La Pasta Restaurant, transformed as it was into one giant box of goodies, that boasted a to die-for tiramisu, freshly made and served fruit flambé; raspberry and gooseberry tarts, plantain-tarts, strawberry-topped lemon meringues. What a feast!

There was a brief ceremony that saw the symbolic cutting of the anniversary cake by the hotel manager, Stuart Douglas, joined by hordes of repeat guests.

There were champagne toasts and flowing champagne, and above all there was flawless entertainment headlined by the incomparable Georgia Henry, who simply took the evening to another level in her own sweet style and repertoire that had guests dancing up a fabulous glow!

August guests

What a week! What a resort! And an august body of national and international guests too, with among those spotted including Godfrey Dyer; Sam James and his fabulous wife Yvonne; Suzanne McManus (VP public relations); Sam James Jr. and and sibling Steve James of Cable and Wireless; Owen Brown and wife, Senior Superintendent Jasmine Tomlinson-Brown; Richard Bourke (general manager of Hedonism II); Metty Scarlett-Jones (general manager of Starfish Trelwany Resort & Spa); John Moorhead; John McIntosh (hotel manager of Starfish Trelawny Resort & Spa); Cleveland Hoo (general manager of Breezes Montego Bay); Conrad McLeod;Phillip Paxton and his fabulous wife Patty; Mr. and Mrs. Harry Khiani; Cosmo Brown (of Cosmo's Restaurant); Janice Walters; Ted Kieran of Coral Cliffs; Mr. and Mrs. George Holloway; Carey & Eleanor Wallace (she looking fabulous after recently celebrating the new addition to their family); Glen Gray (manager of BNS Negril); Tom and Susan Martin (Pirates Cave) and Sheryl McGaw Douse, plus several scores more.