What a great day to write this post as I sit in my office staring out all the white snow nature has dumped on my home state of Ohio. Trying not to get cabin fever as I’m enduring my second day of being confined to the house with under a level 3 snow emergency. What I wouldn’t give to be back at Club Med Sandpiper Bay in Florida with my family having fun and being active OUTSIDE! This will be the second part of the 2-part series. In this post i’m going to focus on the rooms, food and staff.
Before we get into the topics, it is important to describe the experience here, the ambiance. As we were sitting around with a few other travel agents I mentioned the place feels like someone took the resort from Dirty Dancing, made it sporty and then moved it to Florida in 2019. The staff you see and interact with during the day, does the entertainment at night and guests are sometimes invited to be part of the show. Nobody puts baby in a corner (couldn’t resist) and, in the evenings entire families can be seen out on the dance floor learning new dances the staff are up on a stage demonstrating. This is a very unique environment and the experience here is special for 1 reason, the staff.
Normally I would save the best for last, but I’m going to kick this off with the staff as they absolutely blew me away. First off, if Ralph Lauren is looking for new models, they need go no further. They all looked as if they came straight out of a polo ad. What is more impressive is they are genuinely nice, intelligent and caring people. They also mix and mingle with the guests, way more than I have seen at other resorts.
We had a chance to get to know a few of the G.O.’s (Gentils Organisateurs/ Nice Organizers) at our welcome reception. At first I thought it was just because we were travel agents, that they showed up and took such an interest in us at a personal level. As we talked to them over a couple drinks, they informed us, that no, this was the norm for them. They are encouraged to get to know the G.M.’s (Gentils Membres / Nice Guests/Members). They really take this to heart and it was evident everywhere we looked. From the various pick up games going on around the property, to the trapeze instruction it was all very impressive.
The act that really drove this point home for me was at lunch. As my wife and I were enjoying our meal, two boys about 10 yrs old came and sat at the table next to us. Dari and Antoine, two of the G.O.’s we met the night before saw the kids and came over to their table. They asked the kids if it was ok if they sat with them. The kids were kind of shy, but by the end of the meal, all were talking like old friends. At no point did the kids ever get the impression that the G.O.’s were there to keep an eye on them, they just interacted like they would with peers. Dari and Antoine could not have been sweeter, and the entire staff seemed just as nice and genuine.
Speaking of lunch and food, wow. They have an on-site chef that plans out the meals. We did not have a bad meal the entire time we were there. Lots of options at every meal. One of the specialties is the chocolate bread. At first I was like, whatever, I have had specialty breads before and then I tried it. About a half a loaf later I figured I better go check out the workout facilities. We received a gift of a loaf of the bread when we left. I shared it with my kids. They may have tasted it, but I’m not sure as it was gone in about 30 seconds. Good thing I got to try it before I left. Might have lost a finger if I tried to get in on the feeding frenzy.
Next up the rooms. The rooms were big! Walk in closet, huge beds, and large sitting areas. There are different options for rooms, some have a separate room, with double beds or bunk beds for families. Parts of our room had been updated, like bedding and floors, but some of the room needed some tlc. The closets and bathrooms look original, or at least like they had not been updated in the last 20 years or so. Functional and clean, but not really up to par with most other resorts I have been to in the last couple years. The size of the room makes up for the lack of updates and chances are, there is so much to do you probably won’t spend a lot of time in the room anyway.
Overall, I highly recommend Club Med. A great experience with wonderful people, all without ever having to leave the United States.