We had a wonderful time at the Grand Lido. We spent five nights in early May. We didn't have any difficulty finding the Nexus people at the airport and they were actually a bit early. It's then a long ride to the resort, but we're used to that. The ride was perfectly comfortable and the driver was entertaining. They then really went out of their way to make you welcome as soon as you arrived. You are assigned a wrist band that is color coded since there are various levels of access and availability in the overall resort. Grand Lido is the top level of access. The wrist band is your room key, so no carrying key cards or anything else. And hurrah for wrist bands that looked like jewelry rather than plastic hospital ID's.

The room is lovely. We paid for a swim-out suite and were so glad we did. We could walk out the door of the room and be outside and in the pool are in seconds. We didn't end up using the swim-up pool very much. I found it a bit cold and they don't have a way to swim or even walk to the main pool from that pool. But we did swim in the other two pools a lot and they were very nice. The three tier pool structure is a bit strange, but works well, since the middle pool is great for swimming and the lower pool is for the bar. Be careful of the various steps and ramps in the deck, though. There were unlimited towels available all of the time.

We were assigned two butlers. Butlers are available from 8am to 10pm. I was concerned about the butler service. We tend to want to be off by ourselves most of the time and didn't want someone intruding. That was never an issue. They were very nice. They contacted you in the morning about restaurant reservations and you are given a phone so you can call them any time. Other than that, they were quite unobtrusive. They would stop by every now and then to see if you needed anything. If you did, they were quick to help out. Two afternoons they did fix up the room very nicely with a drawn bath and lots of flower petals and towel art. It was certainly lovely and quite romantic. I think they would have preferred to do more for us, we're just not very high maintenance.

The resort is massive. Grand Lido is a single building at the end of the resort with its own pools, bar, grill, and a swimming area in the bay that is nice and private. Beyond that there are several buildings for the Royalton Hideaway, then the main building, then the Royalton family side. There are a bunch of restaurants. We ate at Dorado, Hunter, Ocean Point Bistro, and the main buffet, Gourmet Marche. All of the food was great and in reasonable portion sizes (well, the buffet was unlimited, of course). We always left full, but not overstuffed. The evening shows varied from a truly terrible Bob Marley tribute show ("Let's get together and…" and he didn't finish the verse?) to a wonderful dance troupe and a thrilling acrobat act. There were not many activities at the Grand Lido itself. We saw bingo and Connect-4, but mostly it's a chill place.

The Grand Lido doesn't have a beach of its own. There's a sea-wall with a ladder you climb down to get into the water of the bay. We found this wonderful and spent a lot of time swimming out there. There were fish to see and a small ray and lots of starfish and the water was so warm you could spent hours there if you liked.

There are some negatives worth mentioning. At every other all-inclusive we have stayed in, you received a sheet on your last full day with details of when the bags would be picked up and where and when to meet the airport transportation. Even though we used Nexus, who were recommended by the hotel and have a presence on-site, we had to go to the Nexus counter to arrange the pickup and the process was confusing. That's something that really should be done by hotel staff. Take care of it and let us know what we need to do.

The room had a slight musty smell to it. When we arrived we picked out a scent for our room, but only really remember smelling that once. It's hard to keep a room from smelling a big musty when next to the sea like that, but I think they need to work on the ventilation or something to get rid of that smell. And the jetted tub in the middle of the room is fun and all that, but getting into it you inevitably splash a lot of water and bubbles onto the floor of the room and end up with a bit of a mess.

The bar and grill close down at 6pm. I know there are not many around, but I would prefer that they stay open into the evening.

But, it's a wonderful resort with a real luxury feel and we had a wonderful time and will certainly be back.

Hi. I made this post it's own thread so that it doesn't get lost. Thanks so much for the report. I am somewhat confused as to the swimming situation. I'm guessing that the nude section is NOT where the nude section used to be at the old resort, as there was a beach out front there. Not a great beach, but a beach, nonetheless. What kind of room service was available? I remember with great fondness to lamb chops, champagne and potato skins at the old Lido Resorts.

Grand Lido is on the point, bordering the Point Village property (which is looking pretty rundown, BTW). The new property is much larger than the old Grand Lido was. The buildings extend much farther onto the point. What used to be the beach in front of the clothing optional side is now the Hideaway main beach. The Royalton properties extend to the east of the point and are all facing to the east to north. Grand Lido is to the north and behind the last of the Hideaway buildings and faces just a bit south of west. It's been strategically placed so nobody in Hideaway can see onto the Grand Lido area, though there is one Point Village building that can. It also means it's the only building that gets sunset views!! There are three pools. The first runs along the back of the building for the swim-up suites. Then there is a middle pool deck about 5 ft lower that I would consider the main pool. Nice and long, but not very wide. Below that is another pool about another 5 ft down that is the swim-up pool for the bar. The lower two pools are heated, the one by the rooms is not and was considerably cooler. Mary loved it, I preferred the other two. There is a nice big hot tub as well with jets that can be turned on.

There is no beach. There is a small area where they have put sand and refer to as a "dry beach". Nice place to lounge around. Then there is a drop off into the sea of about 8 feet. There's a ladder you can take to get into the water. Once in, the swimming is great! Next to the ladder it's a nice sandy bottom and about 1ft deep. It's shallow for a bit, then about 10ft deep once you get about 20 ft out and very warm. It is shared with Point Village and we saw other people swimming from there fairly regularly. You can also use any of the Royalton beaches, but you'll have to put a suit on to do so.

They do include free room service. The breakfast selection was very nice. The dinner selection was more basic, mostly sandwiches and some simple dishes like pasta. We arrived late and it was nice to just order in. You can order Champagne. Room service does include bottles of liquor, BTW. We ordered a bottle of Appleton Reserve for the room. Alas, no lamb chops in room service, but the restaurants had them. They will grill them on demand in the buffet.

OK, thanks much for the additional info.