We have just returned from a two-week holiday at the Grafton Beach hotel (12 - 26 January). Four of us had two interconnecting rooms, my husband and me with our grown up son and daughter.
This is my report on the hotel: We were greeted on arrival by the Customer Service Manager, Elroy Green, (wonderful chap) who showed a real interest in our trip and concern that my son had got a chest infection at the last moment and couldn’t travel with us. Golden Caribbean had already faxed the hotel (commendation to them) to inform us that they had re-scheduled his flight to the following week. We were given a refreshing cocktail and Elroy showed us to our rooms where he checked all appliances to make sure everything was working. Thanks Elroy, for all your help during our stay! The rooms were ocean view and were clean and very comfortable. Maid service every morning made sure it stayed that way.
The hotel is a little dated, but my goodness that is compensated for by the excellence of the staff team. Every one of them was polite and very friendly and quickly attended to our every need. I take exception to the comment of Richard Buckley about as he put it, “one old bald man who was grumpy and unhelpful.” I think maybe the problem was with Richard Buckley! If he had made the effort to talk to Philbert Cunningham (Mr C as he’s called), he would have found a rather shy man who was warm and friendly and went out of his way to be helpful. When my son arrived the flight had made him feel quite ill and he spent the first day in bed. Mr C was the one who went out of his way to arrange for special drinks that we could make up in our room. In the middle of the very busy dinner preparation time, other members of staff arranged for bread to be brought from the pastry room so they could make some toast for him. If you bother to make the effort, you will find the staff are really sweet. If you don’t, you are the one who misses out. Our special thanks to Ivis Bonas, restaurant manager, who is a real gem. Her warm and helpful manner at breakfast and lunch enriched our stay. Our congratulations to the management for creating this happy team. All the staff commented on how well they were treated and how much they loved the job. This was evident to us and we were sad to say goodbye to so many new friends. We feel the derogatory remarks about staff on this site are completely unjustified.
The food was excellent too! Plenty of variety at every meal and the fish and roast meats were particularly good. We thoroughly enjoyed the Buffet evenings. This is only because on A La Carte evenings the meals served were BIG portions and my husband was putting on weight!! I like to eat local food when I travel and there was plenty of Caribbean foods but also lots of other options too. The sirloin steaks were particularly good and we were told the beef had been imported from America. Those who said the food was dreadful… well, I wonder what they serve their families at home!!
Don’t know why anyone would complain about the drinks either. We found them all full strength and no evidence of anything watered down. (We had learned all about watered down drinks on an all-inclusive holiday in the Dominican Republic where you can drink cocktails all day with no effect at all). The white wine was good too. I didn’t taste the red, but Tim said it was not so good. However his favourite drink is Carib anyway.
We enjoyed the entertainment most evenings and found the rest rooms in the lobby were cleaned regularly. Only once during our stay did the hand towel run out and five minutes after telling a member of staff it was replaced.
We talked to many of the guests and made friends with some. When we were there they were a great friendly bunch! Interestingly they all had the same view of the hotel as us. Our thanks to the General Manager, Mr Dickinson who responded quickly and efficiently when we had a special need and even said goodbye and shook hands with us on our departure. Our stay was a very happy one thanks to all the staff for their friendly welcoming and warm Caribbean manner. Well done!! We look forward to seeing them all again in the near future. Irene
