Annual Visit to Club Med, Turkoise
October 2014
Getting there and back
We paid our now standard annual visit to Club Med Turkoise Oct 10 - 20 this year (2014). As usual,
Steve at Mill travel took care of the details of the travel arrangements and all went smoothly.
The Delta flights were on time, transportation between the airport and village went well, and the
updates to the airport were almost complete,
making the arrival and departure process smoother.
The arrival back into Atlanta was the now familiar hassle of arriving at the old International
Terminal and having to walk (about a mile)
to the new International terminal to clear customs and claim our luggage.
This year though we had our Global Entry membership so clearing Immigration and Customs was a breeze in Atlanta.
The Club Med Fleet: the Getaway on the left with the mast down was some of our doing.
The Turkoise Village
This was our 15th visit to this Club Med resort, and about our 30th visit over all to various Club Med villages, so we knew our way around
pretty well and mostly knew what to expect, or at least we thought we did.
Although not visible here, the airport improvements were almost complete.
As expected, the rooms and facilities are getting a bit worn and in need of repair and updating. That said, our room was
comfortable with very effective air conditioning, plenty of hot water, frequently changed towels and linens, including
washcloths after the first day, and a comfortable bed. (I like a firm bed, so I was happy,
others may not be as comfortable.) We did experience a number of disappointments though, which I'll discuss in the sections below.
The general feeling I got was that the resort was pinching every penny it could, cutting costs
and reducing any service that might cost a little more. As you might expect, this has an impact on the quality of the experience.
Noon Crazy-Signs around the pool deck.
The Staff - GOs
The staff was very good. Housekeeping did fine with our room, including mopping the floor every day
and the previously mentioned frequently changed towels and linens. The shower was starting to show
just a little mildew, but not a problem. The GOs were very good also although I thought there was a
little "short timer" effect as many GOs would be leaving in the next couple of weeks. We mostly saw
Casey (chief of sailing) and the sailing team. We had met Casey several years ago at Turkoise and
again a year and a half ago at the Cancun Club Med so he knew we could sail and stay out of trouble.
The whole sailing team was helpful and friendly and we got along with them well. We went snorkeling
several times and the SCUBA/snorkeling staff (Club Med contracts this out to an independent company)
were fine, especially the young man from the island of San Salvador (wish I could remember his name).
The Chief of the Village (CdV) was Mike Clarke, although he has left for a Japanese Club Med by now.
He seemed very oriented toward the entertainment side of the activities. He was in practically every
evening show and you would often see him around the village. After a few days however, I got the
feeling that he was trying to put a pretty wrapping around something that was falling apart. There
were just too many areas where too many corners had been cut.
Impact on Sailing
One example of this was the availability of sailboats. One of the reasons we have always liked to go to Club Med
is because they have always (previously) had better sports equipment and facilities than other resorts.
Club Med had Hobie 16s where other resorts only had Hobie Waves (and there is a big difference).
Club Med had decent (not great) windsurfing equipment for beginners and experienced windsurfers where
other resorts had only cheap beginner equipment. This has been one reason I have recommended Club Med
in the past, but not any more because in recent years the quality of the equipment has been going downhill.
The one Hobie 16 was in very poor shape and GMs were not allowed to use it.
Boats on the beach at Iguana Island during the Armada.
There were 7 or 8 Hobie Waves
and three Hobie "Get-a-ways" which are essentially a large Wave with a jib. (Sailors will understand the
implications.) The Get-a-ways are better than a Wave, but not nearly as much fun for experienced sailors
as a Hobie 16. Of course, they are not as expensive either so this is a case of Club Med cutting expenses,
at the cost of the GM experience. But we can go to almost any resort and find Waves and Get-a-ways, so
Club Med is no longer an advantage. Likewise, the windsurf gear was decent 10 or 15 years ago, but it
has been updated little or none in that time so now the boards are pretty well beat up and the sails
are heavy and worn. To stay ahead of other resorts, Club Med needs to significantly update their gear.
The sailing team did host a "Sail-a-way" or "armada" to Iguana Island on Thursday afternoon.
This is a significant additional effort for them, especially this week because of unusual waves
breaking onto the beaches, making launching and retrieving the sailboats difficult. We sailed
one of the Get-a-ways and had four additional ladies (non-sailors) join us for the trip.
We were a bit surprised at how many Iguanas are on the island now; when the armadas first started
5 or 6 years ago there were only a couple, now there were 15 or 20 waiting to be fed.
The beach at Iguana Island is called Half Moon Bay and is beautiful in it's own right.
Food and Drinks
The food at the village has suffered also. Although the food at this Club Med has never been as
good as some of the other Club Med resorts, it has gone downhill significantly over the past
couple of years. There are fewer serving stations and less choice of freshly prepared food.
There was less choice of fresh fruit (no mango and no papaya and only occasional watermelon)
and the meat dishes were few, especially beef (no Beef Wellington which used to be standard fare).
The "house wine" was poor; the white was essentially undrinkable and the red barely so. I'm not
sure if they are just saving on the cost of the wine or trying to force guests to purchase the
available "good wine" which is sold at prices about 50% above a normal restaurant mark-up.
Everyone agreed that switching to Trader Joe's "Two Buck Chuck" would be a major improvement
over the house wines.
The main dining room in the evening. It can get a bit noisy.
The appetizers/snacks that were put out around the bar and pool about
30 minutes before the restaurant opened were frequently rather stale and very unremarkable.
The one bright spot for food was that the alternate restaurant, "The Lucayan" was better than
our last visit there several years ago. It is now full service with a decent menu and the
prepared food was very good. Unfortunately, the Lucayan is only open 3 or 4 days a week and
requires standing in line to make a reservation.
Susan and Casey during dinner at the Lucayan. The evening dress code was "Pirate".
Evening Entertainment
The entertainment and shows were reasonably good, with high and low points. The circus show over
the pool was good, as was the "Music Factory". The new "Movie Factory" was less successful and the
Cabaret show needs a major rework. Several of the shows seemed to be geared more toward the female
audience than usual, featuring many more "lightly dressed" male bodies than female this time.
As previously mentioned, it seemed the time and effort spent on some of the shows was an attempt
to take attention away from the other areas of the resort: a form of "window dressing".
General Comments
More evidence of a lack of attention/maintenance is the swimming pool. The pool is lined with
tiles and the grout between the tiles is a little rough and apparently attracts mold. This
would not be a problem if it was cleaned occasionally, but it apparently has not been. Fixing this
would not really be expensive, just a little tedious, using a pressure washer and a pool vacuum
line. Leaving it as it is borders on disgusting.
"Parting" Comments
When we left the village for the airport we were the only passengers in the taxi/van and as we
left the Club Med property the driver (who has been driving GMs for over 20 years) asked us
what we thought of the resort. He said he recognized us from our previous visits and wanted
to know what we thought of the changes, or lack thereof. We all agreed that Club Med has an
amazing property but that they need to make some reasonable investments to make/keep it
attractive to most visitors. Everyone we talked to said they would be willing to pay a
little more if Club Med would spend it on upgrading the village. I am not suggesting that this
Club Med village be enhanced over what it ias traditionally been, just that it be brought back up to
the level of quality that it provided 10 years ago.
Aerial view of Grace Bay Beach. Club Med is just to the right of the middle of photo.
I hope that the new Chief of the Village will change things and make some investments
in facilities and equipment to put this Club Med back where it used to be, but I fear
that we are seeing an overall change in Club Med direction, deemphasizing sports and
activities. With some relatively simple changes and moderate investment this could be a
great and fun village again. I think most customers would be glad to pay a little more
to get this improvement. Until that happens, we will probably be looking elsewhere in the future.
I will include a few additional photos below.
Contact me via mike@hammocktree.us
Some additiional photos
On the snorkel boat, "Miss Turkoise", getting ready to dive in.
Heading back to the Snorkel boat after exploring the reef.
Helene at the Pasta Bar. It was good, but they had problems with the hotplate both times it was offered.
Looking south and west along the widest part of Grace Bay Beach.
Our room, complete with welcome ornament made from towels. Nothing fancy, but clean and comfortable.
The exterior of the guest rooms at night.
The weekly awards cermony. Can you find Susan and me?
We made friends with "Little Miss Tortise Shell" last year and she was glad to join us again.
