I stayed at the Pelican Grand Beach Resort for a week in early November for a much-needed vacation. I booked an ocean-front king suite and was not disappointed. The room was beautiful and the private balcony was wonderful. The toiletries were great – Crabtree & Evelyn for those who are familiar with the brand. The hot water was plentiful and the water pressure was very strong. I definitely enjoyed having a ceiling fan in both the living room area and the bedroom – it was nice when it wasn’t warm enough to necessitate having the air conditioning on but to keep the air moving. The staff was friendly, responsive and helpful. I worked with David, the concierge, to arrange to have some fresh flowers in my room and they were beautiful. I appreciated the fact that the room had a small refrigerator and microwave and I used both. I used the former for keeping breakfast food to cut down on meal expenses and the latter for reheating leftovers from dinner out. As others have noted, the menu for the in-house restaurant is not particularly extensive but I thought the prices were on par with other resort restaurants. The bar area was nice and I enjoyed the drinks there. I did not utilize the pool area as I prefer the beach. The beach area is not particularly large because of some beach erosion and when I was there, the surf was very strong and came in quite far due to the after-effects from Hurricane Noel. That certainly wasn’t the resort’s fault and it was very nice to be at a place where the beach was right outside the door as opposed to across the street. I also enjoyed the rocking chairs and wicker chairs on their deck. It was nice to sit outside while reading with the beach sounds in the background.

I walked to the shopping district of Las Olas Blvd. I would not recommend walking – it was further away than I realized. However, if you do not have a car, you can take the #11 bus, which can be caught across the street from the hotel, to the Las Olas Shopping District. It’s only $1.25 per trip. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the shops but I did have a wonderful lunch at Café Europa, an Italian restaurant and wine bar. I also walked to the Galleria, which is a reasonable walking distance from the hotel. However, you can also take the #36 bus from near the hotel to get there as well. The Galleria was a pretty typical mall, nothing special.

I also had a wonderful dinner at Thai Spice restaurant, which is located about five miles from the hotel. Since I had not rented a car, I took a taxi both ways and the meal was definitely worth it. The valet staff at the hotel was helpful in calling for a taxi when I needed one.

I would definitely recommend the Pelican Grand Beach Resort and look forward to staying there again.

This was our second visit to the Pelican. We also went this past July 2007. Both trips were good and uneventful. The rooms are very nice, and the private balconies are AWESOME! We also were able to see the Pelican from our plane when we left, and it just stood our amongst the other buildings surrounding it. David Tabb, the concerige manager, was so friendly and very personably. He gave us great insight to some sight seeing and restaurants, although the restaurant he recommended did not own up to the quantity for price.

The rest of the staff was very helpful and always seemed pleasant and greeted us with enthusiasm. In another review recently by another guest they discussed having to pay for hotel towels for the beach. We did not pay for towels, but had to pay for the umbrella on the beach, which should be a courtesy as the hotel price is not cheap.

We enjoyed all the ammenties the Pelican had to offer, but felt jilted with the prices of valet, umbrellas, water at the ice cream parlor, and the restaurant. We did find that the prices for dining were the same no matter where you went, but the menu on the Pelican's dining was very limited in selection. It is a great place to stay but recommend to have lots of ones and fives ready because it seems every time you do something you are tipping. Again, the valet parking should be part of the hotel price as well as the umbrella. And does it really need to cost 2.45 for a bottle of water when down the street at the local gas station you can get a bottle for a $1. The nickel and diming is a little much. Nonetheless, we are looking forward to our next trip, hopefully for the Air Show in May.

It was especially nice that since we arrived after 1am, that Mr. Tabb arranged to have a basket of snacks and water waiting for us in our room at no charge. What would be great is if they stocked the frig with small water bottles and juices as a courtesy. After all the room is very nice, and the beach beautiful, as well as the balcony, but how much time do you really spend in the room. This makes it hard to appreciate when everywhere outside your room there is extra charges for everything. Lastly, it appeared despite the time of day the drinks at the bar varied in price. one time it was a $6 for mixed then another it was 12. We did take advantage of the two for one specials at happy hour, buy one get one free drinks and buy one get one appetizers too. that was fun sitting on the deck staring at Ocean, sipping cocktails eating snacks.

We also loved when the staff came to the beach to bring you drinks or food, however they did not do it frequently enough. If they could do that more that would be so great as to go to the bar yourself is annoying because you have to redress from the beach as you need to be covered to walk through the lobby. Barefeet in the lobby is frowned on, I know I got a frown....

Overall, we loved it here had great time and can not wait to return. It has been only a week but I miss everyone there already!

Let me start by saying that I was extremely excited to stay at this resort, despite many of the negative reviews about the staff. I am a very positive, optimistic person and I just knew that our stay was going to be perfect....That said, I'll begin with the many positives I experienced.....

This hotel is beautiful. The view is perfect, the decor is excellent, the atmosphere lovely. The vicinity to the beach is irreplaceable. We were upgraded to an oceanfront room upon arrival, which started the trip off right. The concierge, David Tapp, is excellent. He is extremely helpful and friendly, a huge asset to the resort. The food is very good, restaurant service fine. The room was spotless and spacious. I had an absolutely flawless stay, until my last day.....

Unfortunately, I experienced a security issue. An item was taken from my room, almost certainly by housekeeping. At first, the front desk staff acted as if it was my fault I had something stolen. Then, the insisted that I "misplaced" it. Let me just say, I am 110% sure I left this item in my room. I never left the hotel all day, except to go to the beach. They showed no concern and definitely no apologies. The response was "do you want me to call the police?" I was not even in the least bit rude to the staff, although I should have been, considering the way they treated me. I am not going to name names on here because I do not want to discredit anyone-as I understand everyone has bad days. BUT there is a serious problem with customer service at this hotel. I am thoroughly disgusted. I was told that the manager would contact me, but have heard nothing. I absolutely hate writing negative reviews. I know that some people look for things to complain about and I am absolutely not one to do that. I had no complaints until this incident. I feel that something needs to be done because the personell at the Grand Pelican is seriously lacking.

If you stay at this resort, I am sure you will enjoy your stay. Friendly advice: NEVER leave anything in your room that is of any value whatsoever. I realize that there was a safe deposit box in the room-as the front desk manager RUDELY reminded me after the incident-that I could have used. But the fact is, I didn't. I trusted the hotel and the staff-and personally thought nothing like this could happen at an upscale facility such as this one.

This resort needs a complete personell replacement, from the top down. As I said before, David Tapp-the concierge, was the only person that showed any concern or recognition of my problem, which was appreciated.

If Overall: Hotel was excellent. Unfortunately, service was incrediblly terrible.. I'm sure there are Super 8's with better management and personell.

The location of this hotel is great as it has a direct acces to the beach not likely other hotels where you have to cross the street first. We had booked a double room, king size and ocean view. Quite surprised that, upon arrival, out of 9 windows of the superb room, only one had a partial view on the ocean ! We have asked for a change but we were answered that this is the type of room they give when booked through internet ! As I said it was not acceptable, after one night they changed our romme and is was not perfect but better (side view). Without saing anything to us the packed all our belongings , removed everything from the previous room and stored the whole luggage. Quite surprising ! Moreover the lost everything and it took them 1 day to find the luggage ! A jacket was still missing when we left. I sent 10 messages without one answer while back in France. I had to ask my lawer to move to get, at last the information that they found my jacket , asking if I would accept to be charge for the carriage to France! Unbelieable is n't it ? After 2 weeks I finnaly received my jacket by ordinary mail, poorly packed ! Not a word of excuse, no apologize....hope this does not happen often here...Hotel is nice, service terrible and they should also not charge for towels at beach .