Club Med Turkoise
Turks & Caicos Islands
Sept 25 - Oct 2, 2004
Setup:
We visited the Club Med Turkoise, Turks and Caicos from
Sept 25 to Oct 2, 2004. We had initially planned to visit the Club Med,
Columbus Isle, but Hurricane Frances and her 140 mph winds, which
passed directly over the island of San Salvador, closed Columbus Isle for
several months, and we diverted to Turkoise. This was our fourth trip to
Turkoise, with the last visit there two years ago. As we were leaving two
years ago, workers were starting to tear up some of the pool area to start
renovation work. On this visit, the renovation was still ongoing, with
probably about half of the rooms renovated. I would guess that about 30%
to 40% of the village's rooms were closed for renovation the week we
were there. The rest of the rooms were not highly occupied. We heard
that there were about 175 GMs there that week, at a village that was
designed to accommodate about 600 GMs. Needless to say, the village
was not crowded. Quite a few of these GMs, and many of the GOs were at
Turkoise because other clubs were closed, including Paradise Island,
Columbus Isle, and Punta Cana. I can only wonder how deserted it would
have been without these GMs who had been diverted from other clubs. At
times it seemed that there were more GOs at Turkoise than GMs.
Facilities:
We had one of the "renovated" rooms and it was a definite
improvement over the previous standard rooms. They are the same size,
but the "built-in" storage units are an improvement and the bathroom and
shower area is a major upgrade. We felt the rooms were much more
"liveable". The one downside was the bed. We had the requested king
bed, but it was, to put it mildly, firm… very firm. We tend to be very
active so most nights we were rather tired and managed to sleep well, but
be forewarned.
The common areas had been upgraded some, but we didn't really see any
major differences. Some work was ongoing, such as refinishing some of
the exterior floors and walkways and several whole buildings were closed
for renovation. The only real negative impact we observed was that the
annex restaurants down by the tennis courts were closed, although they
certainly were not needed with the small number of GMs.
Storm Damage:
It is probably worth mentioning that there was a
little damage from the storms that passed near the Turks and Caicos. We
talked to some of the GOs who said that a number of trees were uprooted
and it was obvious that some had been severely pruned and put back in
place. (I wouldn't bet on their chances for survival.) There were a number
of repairs to roof shingles, including some still in process.
None of the damage had any real impact on our activities. I suspect that
the primary downside of the damage was that workers were shifted from
normal maintenance and renovation to damage repair. Although not really
"storm damage", the recent stormy weather, with quite a bit of rain, had
resulted in a major invasion of mosquitoes. For the first time in our visits,
we had to consistently use insect repellent in the evening to avoid major
problems. The club boutique sold out of repellent and some people took
taxies into town to find some. After a couple of days, the club started a
rather vigorous spraying/fogging program, which appeared to help some.
General:
General: Speaking of rain, it apparently rained hard the morning of
the Saturday that we arrived. It rained a couple of times during the week,
but mostly at night or early morning, so it did not interfere with any
activities. Apparently the Saturday of our arrival was the first day in a
week that most of the beach activities were "open for business". The
entire previous week there were huge swells coming in from the storms
(especially Jeanne) to the north, causing very rough waves along the
beach. GOs and GMs there the previous week said that the waves were
easily 8 to 10 feet high at the beach, and that was after coming across the
reef. Sailing, windsurfing, snorkeling and diving were all closed down for
the week. Since the weather was fine, non-beach activities such as tennis,
were "business as usual". The morning of the Saturday we left, it rained
hard again for at least an hour just before we left: it made leaving a little
easier.
Getting there and back:
As I mentioned previously, we had
planned on going to Columbus Isle, but even with the last minute changes,
we got reasonable flights. (Except, perhaps, for having to get up at 4:00
AM to catch the flight from Atlanta to Miami.) We got connecting AA
flights through MIA (rather than the Delta non-stop to Provo.) but all
flights were on time and reasonably comfortable. Our travel agent,
Hal Segal of LeBeach club, was a great help in dealing with Club Med and
getting us the best deal possible on the change of plans. As usual, Club
Med set the departure (return) schedule such that we had a long wait at the
airport in Provo. Since there were no lines to speak of at the airport, I
suspect this early departure schedule is mainly to get us out of our rooms
so that they can be cleaned and readied for the incoming GMs. As we
learned long ago, we made sandwiches at breakfast and took them with us
and ate at the airport. They were much better than the food that we saw
for sale at the airport.
The Food:
No matter what activities you might participate in,
everyone eats, and eats well, at Turkoise.
As expected, the food was not as good as at Columbus Isle, but there was
usually at least one dish that was especially good. This time, the meats
seemed unusually good (the beef tenderloin on Friday night was to die
for!). Perhaps it was partly because of the GO Chef, Michael, who was the
butcher. Michael was an unusual chef. Most chef GOs are quiet and
reserved and mostly forgettable: not Michael. He was almost constantly
chattering and carrying on with the GMs and other GOs. In another
unusual move, the Chief of the Village, Alessandro, introduced the entire
Chef team one evening after the show. We were somewhat disappointed
in the seafood dishes. Seafood is usually so good in the Caribbean, but
most of the dishes at Turkoise were relatively bland and unimaginative.
We noticed that the rooms in the main restaurant were cooler than our
previous several visits. I'm not sure if this is because they got the A/C
working better, or because the restaurant was only half full. Even with the
annex restaurants closed, the staff only set about half the tables at each
meal. In any case, the rooms were cool enough to enjoy several cups of
coffee after the evening meal and that was appreciated. All in all, I'd say
the food was a small notch better than our last couple of visits to Turkoise.
Pascal (a sailing GO) clued us in on a definite "Grade A Desert". When
there were fresh Passion Fruits on the fruit table, we took a couple of those
and scooped the inside part onto a cup of vanilla soft-serve ice cream:
definitely a good discovery.
Enertainment:
The evening entertainment was about the same as
usual. They did not have as many of the normal evening shows,
sometimes having other activities instead, including a "Comedy Tennis
show", and two Circus related shows. The normal shows in the theater
were some of the standard Club Med shows, but it appeared to me that the
GOs had rehearsed more than usual and the routines were a bit smoother
and less amateurish. After the shows, the "nightclub" was actually the
open area around the main bar. Sometime around 2 AM, the main bar
closed down and all activity moved to Sharky's bar, down by the beach,
which continued until about 4 AM. (Or so we were told…. we never made
it past midnight.) With the "Total all Inclusive" aspect of Club Med now,
all drinks are included. Most of the alcoholic drinks were made rather
weak, especially the pre-mixed specials and some expected drinks were
not available: I asked for a brandy after dinner one evening (purely to
calm a slightly sore throat) and they did not have any brandy at the main
bar. I'm probably fighting against the tide here, but I'd really prefer to go
back to the old mode where the drinks were extra cost, but were made
stronger and a better selection was available. Since the adoption of the "all
inclusive" mode, we have also noticed a much larger percentage of people
who are "significantly overweight" and who primarily sit around the pool
or beach and don't take advantage of any of the activities. They are
certainly entitled to do this, but it does seem to have changed the
"personality" of Club Med somewhat.
Sports Activities:
Our main reason for going to Club Med is the
quality and variety of the sports facilities and equipment, especially
sailing, windsurfing, and snorkeling. Although there are numerous other
sports available, such as SCUBA, tennis, soccer, and others, I'll only talk
about the sports we participated in. (I will mention that the main Tennis
GO was Ross, who we have seen at other clubs, including Turkoise,
previously and he seems to be a very capable and tennis "Pro" and also
turns out to be a very good juggler.)
Snorkeling:
We went snorkeling twice and, unfortunately, the snorkel
boat went to the same location both times (although the GO had told us we
were going to a different place). We went to a site just outside the reef and
I think there was still some sand stirred up from the rough water the
previous week. Although the water was reasonably clear, it was not the
same as we have seen there previously. The boat is very good for
snorkeling and there are at least 5 or 6 different good locations that can be
visited and offer some very good coral formations and fish for viewing.
Sailing:
The primary sailboat at Turkoise is the Hobie Wave, a simple,
safe, but unexciting boat. They also have three Club Med special Hobie
15s which we used most of the time. (The GOs only rigged one of the
Hobie 15's, but we were the only GMs using it this week, so we never had
to wait for it to be available.) The sailing GOs, Gui (Chief of sailing),
Pascal (whom we had met previously at Cancun), Emilio, and Luigi, were
all very capable. When we initially walked up and immediately asked for
the Hobie 15 Gui was a bit hesitant, warning us of how easy it is to tip
over. Since we have sailed them several times before, we were
comfortable and Gui slowly came to have confidence in us. The 15s were
in reasonably good condition, but the Waves were a bit rough. I think that
the sailing team had probably done all they could without having a supply
of replacement parts, but some of the rudder parts and tiller mechanisms
needed replacing. The wind was OK most of the time, but not really up to
where you could really have fun except for a couple of times. It was better
than a couple of other times when we were at Turkoise and the wind didn't
blow much at all. The sailing regatta was postponed on Thursday for lack
of wind, and it was marginal on Friday when we did race. The GO team
did do a good job on the regatta, laying it out and organizing it so that even
the beginning sailors understood what was to be done and avoided any
problems. The sailing and windsurfing area was severely restricted,
compared to previous visits. It turns out that several weeks prior to our
visit two GMs had taken one of the Waves several miles down the beach,
left it on the beach, and took a taxi back to the club, arriving about 7:00
PM. Too keep this from happening again they had restricted the sailing
area for everyone. On our prior visit they had a "sail-away" to a small
island, but this had unfortunately been discontinued. One final comment is
that the sailing team had the all too familiar "close up early" disease.
While the sailing hours were 9:30 to 5:00, they were bringing the boats in
by 4:30 and by 5:00 the boats were de-rigged, sails put away, and the GOs
on the way to the bar. If you showed up at 4:30 you were definitely
discouraged from going out.
Windsurfing:
The winds were a little light for anything but beginning
windsurfers most of the time, but there were several times when the wind
picked up and I was able to get up on a good plane. The board selection
was somewhat limited, with only one of the type (205 liter) that both
Susan and I like to use. I used it most of the time and Susan tried several
other boards, with little success. I finally moved to a smaller board and
Susan had better success with the 205 board. Perhaps they just had a
shortage of proper boards, but it bothered me that they were trying to teach
beginning windsurfing using Bic 328 boards. I have used these in the past
and have found them very unstable and tippy… just what you do not want
for a beginner. The sail selection was OK, but for some reason they did
not allow the use of some of the newer (and preferred) sails. For example,
the better of the two 6.2 M sails was the normal heavy AeroTech rig, but
there was a much nicer, new 7.0 M rig that they apparently did not want
me to use. Likewise, when I moved to the smaller board, there were three
of them in the rack; two relatively new ones and one rather old, beat up
board. They gave me the old one, of course. Perhaps they were trying to
completely wear out the old equipment, but it was frustrating to use the old
equipment, with the new stuff going unused. The beach is good for
windsurfing, although the prevailing winds are generally offshore, so the
GOs were frequently in the safety boat retrieving the beginning
windsurfers who could not work their way upwind.
A comment.....
Some of the above may sound a bit negative but believe me, we had lots of
fun. Most of the GOs were friendly and helpful, especially Pascal and
Emilio. The beach is beautiful, the weather great, the water warm, and we
had a grand time. I make it a habit to offer ways to further improve any
resort we go to, but we always enjoy our visits to Club Med.
Odds & ends :
The Chief of the Village was Alessandro, from Italy.
We saw him around the village on several occasions, including seeing the
snorkel trip off both times we went. He did not participate in the evening
entertainment as much as some CVs do, but I'd rather see the chief around
the village rather than in the shows.
There was a wider variety of GMs at
Turkoise this week than we have seen there before, with relatively more
Europeans present, and fewer New Yorkers. One of the most enjoyable
parts of Club Med visits are the people you meet there, both GMs and
GOs, and there were interesting people from all over the world, including
the US, Canada, and even the British Channel Islands.
Anyone who has visited Turks & Caicos in recent years will probably remember the
Allegro resort, about 1/2 mile down the beach from Club Med. It was a
Ramada Inn prior to being an Allegro. Well, it is no more... That plot of
land is completely leveled. Nothing standing but the pier and some beach
shelters. A local resident said that the maintenance had gone downhill in recent
years and it was slightly damaged in an storm early this year. Rather than
repair the damage they decided to completely tear it down and a new facility will
be built in it's place. We heard both "upscale condos" and "upscale resort"
mentioned. There are numerous other construction projects under way, mostly in the
small to moderate size ranges; no new large resorts (like Club Med or Beaches) are
under construction. There is also a lot of road work in process, with nice
roads reaching almost from the airport to the Club Med (and beyond). And, being
a British "colony", they are proud of their "Round-abouts".
Some Sample Photos
Sunrise at 30,000 feet, looking over some of the storm clouds from Jeanne.
This was on the way from Atlanta to Miami.
Grace Bay from the air. Club Med is about in the middle of this view.
The beach goes on for about 5 more miles to the right.
Main Bar area at night.
The pool is right in front of the main bar.
One of the Food displays at dinner.
The desert table in the evening.
The Chef is ready to hand dip some very good icecream
The Snorkel boat "on location".
Pascal, one the sailing GOs, in front of some of the Hobie Waves.
You can see some of the beach and a dive boat in the distance.
One of the Hobie 15s in front of some Hobie Waves.
(The 15s are much more fun!)
The beach, looking south toward the main part of Grace bay.
Sharky's Bar is located right next to the sailing area... How convenient!
Some of the rooms in the evening lights.
The Sailing GO team at the sports awards cermony
Left to Right is Gui, Pascal, Luigi, and Emilio
Sunset over Grace bay. Very peaceful!
The morning we had to leave, it rained for about 2 hours,
including this downpour!
