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Trip Report, Club Med Turkoise, 5-22-04 to 6-10-04
Trip Report, Club Med Turkoise, 5-22-04 to 6-10-04
I guess I should write up a trip report, before I forget everything. I am going to leave out a bunch of the details of the resort, they are available in other trip reports and not much has changed. I am going to concentrate on what has changed, and the current renovations. Club Med Turkoise is a 300 room adult-only all-inclusive resort on Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos. Turks and Caicos is a British Colony (British West Indies) 75 miles north of Haiti, with lots of air flights from the US, about 90 minutes from Miami. Grace Bay is an awesome beach. It is a "lively" Club Med with lots of sports, a young crowd (20s to 40s) and about 50% singles. Renovations The big thing going on currently is renovations. They are in the midst of a $12M renovation which will include renovating all the rooms. Renovations are scheduled to be completed in November 2004. Currently (as of 06-10-04) about 40% of the rooms are completely gutted, everything is being torn out and replaced. There were no renovated rooms available when I left. In addition to the rooms being renovated other parts of the resort are scheduled for renovations; what is going to be renovated changes, depending on who you talk to. All the tile in the pool, bar and theatre area has been torn up. They were pouring new concrete as I left, which made getting around a bit interesting, with detours everywhere. All of the concrete should have been poured by now. The current concrete areas are going to be ground down and resurfaced. They are currently doing this on about 20% of the area around the pool, which they have nicely walled off. As each area gets finished they will wall off a different area and grind it down. The main bar is on the list to be renovated, but no one was sure exactly what was planned. I am not sure they actually need to do anything, although I am sure the mechanical parts could be upgraded. A bunch more ceiling fans would be nice, but it is unlikely CM will actually think of that. The aerobics room is going to be converted to a meeting room. A new outdoor aerobics area will be made outside, "down near the beach bar". But no one really knew what was planned. I am curious how they expect an outdoors area to work if it is September, and 90+ degrees, or pouring down rain and windy and wet? Another planned addition is a bunch more of the wooden umbrella things on the beach. This will be a nice addition, as when the village is full all the shade on the beachs gets taken fast, and there is plenty of room for more. Hopefully they will also add a bunch more umbrellas around the pool. New Room Information There was one partially finished new renovated room. It was not completed, but it was close to finished, enough to get a good idea of the rooms. The rooms are being completely gutted, and redone, so the tile, woodwork, fixtures, furniture, etc, is being completely replaced. The biggest change is the bathroom, it is no longer partially "open" to the rest of the room. It is being walled in, with a door to the rest of the room. (The toilet was and will still be in its own separate room with a door.) The showers are being completely redone, and will no longer be the current little cave they are. The new bathroom is a lot nicer, but walling it in makes it seem a little cramped, and the door takes up space. It will be nicer for people who go to CM and have a roommate, since it will make for more privacy; but if you get a single room (like I do) the door and walls just take up space. In the bed area, the current wardrobes (closets) and desk have been replaced by a large combined built in unit. It takes up one entire wall opposite the bed, with a desk in the center and lots of storage space (closet, drawers, etc) on both sides. There seems to be more total storage space than before, and definitely better laid out. The only problem is the color, it is a dark wood stain, this makes the room seem dark. It is very nice, but I would have used a light wood stain, or maybe even painted it white or bright colors. The bed area is basically the same, headboard, nightstands, etc, just new and much nicer. There didn't seem to be very good lighting by the bed, for reading, but they weren't finished and could be adding more lighting. One other note, the ceiling fans are gone. This may be a problem for people who don't want to run the AC. There are supposed to be new screens for the windows, but without fans it won't matter much? In general, the new rooms are much nicer. CM should no longer get complaints that the rooms aren't nice enough. Personally, I never really had problems with the rooms, but they were getting old and worn out. Other parts of the trip Given that 40% of the rooms were closed, there weren't many people even though the resort was "full". This can be good or bad, depending what you like. It makes it a lot easier to find shady spots, get drinks quickly, get a sailboat, etc. But activities that need lots of people are harder. I like to play basketball, and we had some good games, but it was harder to get enough people. I didn't see any baseball games, etc. I have never quite figured out whether I prefer the village full or empty, it is just different. The weather was very good. It rained two days at the beginning of the trip, and after that very nice. The scuba conditions were also very good. The only problem with scuba was the lack of dive sites, about 50% of the moorings are missing, and the Park Service doesn't seem very good about getting them replaced. It seems the Park Service is supposed to provide the rope, bouys, etc, but is not good at providing the right equipment. The dive operators do the replacement, but only if they have parts. CM has changed the food slightly, there were more "fancy" dishes and less "normal" dishes. This made for a better variety, but it made it harder if you just wanted meat and vegetables. Overall, the food was very good, and the breads were great like normal. One minor issue, the "staff" was really bad at seating people for meals, they would often seat 4-5 people at a table and then leave the other 3-4 seats empty. I reallt prefer it when they fill the tables up, which is what they normally do. Enough for now, if you have questions, ask away. Steven Goodman |
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