Grand Lido Braco
John and Jackie
November 25 to December 4, 2003
We have been back a few days now. The memories of our last trip float to the surface of my conscience from time to time. It was a great trip, much like what we have experienced on past trips, many old friends and a few new ones, some old staff and a few new, some things have not changed and there is some new stuff.
Writing a trip report is way to stretch and relive the experience for myself and share some of it with the people who are curious enough to read it, or those who like myself at times want a no cost vicarious mini vacation. So enough of the "why to write a trip report" here it is.
We fly from Philadelphia to MoBay. It’s an early flight about 7:30AM. And arrives about 11:15 AM. The flight was uneventful food OK. When the flight arrived there were no other aircraft on the tarmac at the time, this got us through customs and immigration by about 11:44 AM. The usual 15 minutes at the super club desk got us on the road about 12:20 PM. Note: They are adding a building on to the side of the existing terminal area so the route to the bus has changed.
No pit stop on the way to Braco; however, the road improvements do slow the trip. Of note was the guard rail from last trip are still in place. This is surprising since they are constructed of tree limbs and yellow caution tape. We arrived about 1:30 PM. Check-in a breeze. Got the bags to "B" building got nekid and had lunch at the bar. Balance of the afternoon was saying hi to old friends and floating in the pool. First dip in the pool made me sound like a tryout for the boy’s choir.
Almost forgot. The White Gualin Bar is now the White Gualin Lounge. It is closed during the day. Sooooo when you arrive and you are accustomed to wandering over to the bar for a drink while your wife insures the paperwork is correct (and a most wonderful and important task it is) you must now go to the jerk pit to procure your favorite beverages rather than the welcome drink (never been big on the sparkly stuff).
Thanks to some great friends we found out we had dinner reservations for the French restaurant on two nights (another important task completed). For dinner Tuesday we had dinner at La Pasta with two other couples. The menu at La Pasta has not changed, the food and service was great.. A drink at he White Gualin Lounge after made for a great but exhausting day. Of special note is that the service at the White Gaulin is greatly improved. There are a lot of hard surfaces inside and it can get a bit loud.
On a day to day basis it was great to hit the gym for about an hour or so in the AM and on the way back to the room jump in the pool. After that, coffee at the clubhouse and then wake up the better half. Most days consisted of reading, pool, bar runs and munchies and or lunch. Other stuff does happen but that depends on the person or persons. Water aerobics, drinking games, volleyball etc are always a daily thing.
The AN side was booked for the whole time we were there. There were lots of lounges available. Towels would be in short supply occasionally. There are not as many yellow floats as in the past and the remaining ones are showing there age.
My apologies. I know there is the other side of the resort and we have seen it from our breakfast table and when we check in or out. We just don’t get over there much. As a matter of fact we did get over there one afternoon and purchased a few paintings and wood turnings.
Thursday night is repeat guest night and, as in the past for the anniversary, they have a dinner for the repeaters in the Town Hall. There is a drawing for some free nights. They even use the good dishes. This is only done at the anniversary repeaters party not the weekly one. Weekly repeat parties are cocktails and munchies. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving "Butterball Turkey" was the main dish. I believe this was also the main entree for Victoria’s Market.
The Friday night street party was fun and the food was good. I am not down playing the Friday night party but when you compare it to the anniversary party on Monday night. It is dwarfed by the Anniversary night street party. More on Monday night later.
Saturday was a quiet day. However. There is usually a "however" lurking about when you are on vacation. This "however" was quite entertaining. There were two females that appeared to enjoy dressing up just a bit. The Victoria Secret drawers were cool, the feather boas matched the drawers and I believe they had high heels on (it’s a guy thing we are easily distracted). I do believe that they took a walk up to the town square that way. I don’t know for sure. I did not hear applause or cheering in the distance. I am sure that if they did, the guys on the textile side would have cheered. Even textile guys can be distracted. At least I would have cheered.
Sunday was Tamika’s birthday. She sure looks young for a 40 year old. Those botox injections must work. There were guests who had brought Tamika birthday gifts and cards, however. There goes that "However" word again. Mike Scharpf and Sara threw a birthday party for Tamika, some of the staff and guests at "Yow’s". Hope I got the spelling right. Yow’s is just down the road toward Runaway Bay just past the school. The owner-operator is Michael who was the pastry chef for GLB just a few years back. The party was great, the food good and if you ever need snacks such as large bags of Lay’s potato chips or Oreo cookies, he has them fresh. Thanks for the party Mike and Sara. A good time was had by all. Michael has a very nice place and it’s a nice change of pace to get off the property.
Well Monday December 1st 2003 was Grand Lido Braco’s 6th Anniversary. This year the resort personnel were put to the test. For starters the power to both sides of the resort went out about 3 AM. Jamaica power lost the load. GLB’s power plant kicked in for about 10 to 15 minutes till an underground cable shorted out.
About 6:30 AM I went to the gym. The air conditioning in the Gym was working, there was no power for the treadmills. The town square and kitchen had power. I got my workout on the bike that AM. We had breakfast and lunch at Victoria’s (No problem). The only problem that persisted for the day was no blended drinks and no popcorn at the AN bar. We learned at lunch that as part of the repair process it would be necessary to shut off power to the town square and kitchen areas for about 2 hours in the afternoon. This put the pressure on the kitchen staff. They had a 7 PM time for the street party and lots to do. The kitchen staff pulled off some kind of miracle. By 7 PM the 6th Anniversary Street party was underway. It had to be a major team effort by all of the staff to deliver everything on time and they brought it off without a hitch. Power was restored to the rest of the resort by about 8 PM. By then most all guests and staff were partying. Yes, the showers were a bit cool and getting dressed by candlelight was a new experience.
Now I have been known to imbibe a bit much on occasion. And at some time in my past I did inhale. The damn stuff always gave me the munchies. No buzz just munchies.
So this next story is told without knowing the individual or his reasons.
While at the 6th anniversary street party a good time was being had by all. The food fantastic the music "not knocking you out of your seat", the free shirts for the repeat were being worn. "However" There it is again. One guest who I have seen before on prior visits. So he must be a repeat guest. Either "A" did not like the color of his shirt. "B" had way too much of the non-blender type drinks that day. "C" – Gets more than the munchies when he inhales. "D" – does not like cold showers or dressing by candlelight.
For whatever the reason he came to the street party in red undies and lots of body paint. He was friendly and sociable. He circulated among the other guests quite a bit. However, he did stand out somewhat. I believe the only minor problem was when he was videotaped by the resort photographer. He appeared somewhat unhappy. Actually, quite pissed would be more accurate. I imagine he forgot that in a public setting you can be photographed or videotaped and your permission is not required by law. It is nice to be asked but not required. Anyway the party was a blast. By the way, for you repeaters, "Renard" showed up at the party. He is working at Hedo II on the entertainment staff. He is still a major character and had many of the guests doing a type of line dance. It was great to see him again.
After all of the above the last few days were essentially quite and relaxing. Dinner again in the French and actually we never made it to Victoria’s for dinner during this trip.
We had heard about the pending snowstorm on the east coast. We were out on Thursday a 6 PM flight on Air Jamaica. Arrived Philadelphia about 9:30 PM. Watched the snow begin Friday morning, Spent several hours shoveling snow on Saturday. Thoughts of seeing nekid people walking by as you ordered a drink were in sharp contrast with a heavy jacket and snow shovel. To those who were not departing till Saturday (Redstripe I know you were one of them) our best wishes. Hope your return trip was not as bad as the news made it sound. Hope you all enjoyed the trip report. It was fun to write and remember the trip.
John & Jackie