As we have done the past several years, we timed our visit to coincide with
Helene and Bruce from Long Island. Steve at Mill Travel did his usual
efficient arrangement of the Club Med part of the trip while we arranged
the airline part, using Delta vouchers that we got from volunteering to change
flights on our return flight last year. The Club Med part was largely paid
by a Club Med voucher that we got this spring because of broken air conditioning
at the Columbus Isle village, so this turned out to be a relatively inexpensive trip.
Atlanta airport International concorse F is quiet on a Monday morning.
Getting there and back
We had non-stop flights from Atlanta and since the vouchers covered almost the
full cost, we splurged for first class seats and were relatively comfortable.
All flights were on time with no significant problems. Since we arranged our
own air travel, we had to pay for the transfers between airport and Club Med
at $20 per person per trip.
The upstairs departure lounge was a pleasent place to await a flight.
One Overriding Factor
Our trip this year was flavored by one overriding factor: hurricane Joaquin.
We arrived on a Monday and Joaquin"s influence was felt through the following
Saturday, interrupting most of our activities. I have said numerous times in
the past that we are very seldom impacted by storms on our Caribbean trips
in hurricane season, but this was a major exception.
Sometimes the rain poured and the wind blew.
As an example, take our sailing activities: sailing is usually our primary
activity and although the quality of the Club Med sailing equipment has gone
downhill the past few years, we still like to sail whenever reasonable. Well,
for a day-by day review of our sailing this time:
We arrived on a Monday and when we got to the beach about 3:00, there was no
wind at all. One Hobie Wave was out on the water bobbing around. No sailing on Monday.
On Tuesday we started getting Joaquin"s influence in the form of a moderate
northwesterly wind which pushes waves up onto the beach, making a beach break
which is too dangerous to try to launch/retrieve the boats. No sailing on Tuesday.
Large waves hitting the beach are unfriendly to small sailboats.
On Wed we were starting to get strong the wind from Joaquin, probably
about 20 - 25 knots and out of the west. So the waves were still too big and
the wind was now too strong. This afternoon the sailing GOs pulled all the boats
up the beach as close to the sailing shack as they could get. No sailing on Wed.
The boats look like they are huddling up by the sailing shack.
On Thursday Joaquin had moved to the southwest some, causing our wind to
now come out of the southwest. From this direction the wind was now an
off-shore wind so there was nothing to cause any waves. We took a walk that
afternoon and it was strange: the wind was blowing about 30 " 35 knots,
blasting us with sand as we walked, but the water was perfectly smooth with
barely a ripple along the shoreline.
Everything looks calm, but the wind was actually blowing about 30 - 40 mph.
There was a group of about 15 people in
the water in front of Seven Stars enjoying the strange conditions. No sailing on Thursday.
Friday the wind had shifted back a little to the north, so there was
now a moderate but reasonable beach break, but with the winds still at
20 -40 knots, they were not about to let any boats out. No sailing on Friday.
On Saturday the wind speed had dropped a bit but had moved more to the north,
so the still strong (20 -25 knots) wind combined with a nasty beach
break meant the usual. No sailing on Saturday.
Finally on Sunday the wind had dropped to about 15 -20 knots and the wind
was enough out of the north to northeast that the beach break was not too bad.
The GOs looked over the conditions and started pulling the boats back down
the beach toward the water and started rigging them. Finally, about
10:30 they started letting us go out, but only on the little Waves, not the
larger/faster Hobie Getaways. We sailed in the morning and afternoon.
(They closed sailing for 90 minutes during lunch.)
Since we did not have time for a sail on the morning of our departure,
Sunday was the only day we got out on the water at all.
Joaquin flavored all activities around the village that week. Every day
had a "rainy-day" list of activities. There was no snorkeling or diving at
all, tennis on the recently resurfaced courts was severely limited, for much
of the time the new palapas around the pool were disassembled and stored under
cover in the "reading room" behind the theater. Even the restaurant was
affected because the dining room that is usually used (closest to the pool)
had too many leaks in the roof and you had to be careful where you sat
during meals or you would get wet.
Here is a sample of the rain and wind.
With all that said, I"ll cover some of the other topics around the village.
Around the Village
There were several changes around the village and more in process. As
mentioned above, the tennis courts had all been recently resurfaced and
looked very nice. Of course they spent much of this week underwater. The
annex restaurant, the Lucayan, was completely closed and did not even open
a couple of nights a week as in past years. Sharkies was closed and was
undergoing a major renovation and expansion. From what we could tell,
the new deck will be three to four times the size of the old one and will
have a small stage in one corner for live performers. I could not tell
what they were doing to the kitchen and bar area, but the new deck area
certainly looked nice.
Sharkies was undergoing a major renovation and enlargement.
While Sharkies was closed they opened a temporary
snack bar, named Dolfin"s, just the other side of the sailing shack.
While they could provide food and drink as a reasonable replacement for
Sharkies, there were no restrooms along the beach at all, which was
somewhat inconvenient. I did not see any other significant work going
on around the village and there are still plenty of rumors as to what
will happen to this Club Med in the future.
The Sports Equipment
Unfortunately, the quality of the sports equipment, other than the tennis
courts, has continued to decline. We see this mainly in the sailing and
windsurfing equipment. Whereas Club Med used to have better equipment than
other resorts (Hobie 16s instead of the more basic Waves and Getaways) the
clubs have now regressed to the same level as other resorts so no longer offer
us a reason to come to Club Med. We are now looking at other resorts that do
offer the better sailing equipment, such as Nnesuch Bay resort in Antigua.
What is really aggravating is that Club Med continues to offer better sailing
equipment at the villages in Europe, but not in the Caribbean zone.
Food and Drinks
We had noticed a decline in the general variety/selection as well as
quality of food over the past couple of years. This time we felt the
quality was definitely improved with more nicely done offerings and more
flavorful dishes. The overall variety/selection was only a little better,
but what was offered was definitely better. The meat selections were
definitely better with a carving station with nice beef, pork or ham
each evening. The only area that I thought went downhill was the deserts
which did not seem as nicely presented or as flavorful
The restaurant is rather quiet a lunch.
The wine was only slightly better. The white wine was bad: we tried it
the first night and avoided it the rest of the week. Perhaps we got a
bad bottle, but I am not a fussy wind drinker and I considered it undrinkable.
The red was drinkable but we all agreed that Trader Joe"s "Two-Buck Chuck"
would be a definite improvement. The procedure for getting (and paying for)
better wine was different and a bit strange: you had to order the wine at the
main bar before going in for dinner. I"m not sure what you would do if you
decided you wanted a second bottle.
The evening appeizers and snacks that are put out prior to dinner were better this year, being both
more flavorful and fresher.
Evening Entertainment
The evening shows seemed better arranged and rehearsed than the past year or
two, with more of the GO"s attention directed to the audience rather than to
the other GOs in the show. They still had the same basic shows with nothing
really new or different this time. The after show partying and dancing was
a bit impacted by the storm (no beach parties) and the closure of Sharkies
(no parties at Sharkies).
The evening of our arrival everything is quiet around Villege-Center
"Parting" Comments
Because of the storm, the whole village was somewhat toned down the whole week.
Although the GOs tried to offer alternate activities and get people involved,
shooting pool on old tables with poor cues, playing ping-pong, reading books
and such activities just go so far. I can no longer say that we have never
been seriously impacted on our trips by a storm.
