|
wallypoo40 (Linda)
GL Braco Trip Report 10/2000
GL Braco
Trip Report **First I
must apologize for this trip report being so late. I'v
enjoyed all the trip reports so much and they've been so helpful, that I
really intended to send this in as soon as we returned. Due to health
problems that didn't happen, but now I'm finally getting around to posting
this. Our trip was 10/27/00 thru 11/02/00. Travel We had
booked the Super Surprise ++ out of Check In
and Room Arrival
was greated with the usual forms to fill out and a
mimosa (never have gotten the damp cloth ), and
meeting Gilbert, who was just a lot of fun and entertained us many times
throughout the trip. I put on our check in that we were back at Braco for our 2nd time and this was our anniversary trip
and could we please be upgraded if possible. No problem mon! We were offered a room / suite if we would go
to the A/N side. Well to have a beach view, sure we go over to that
side. Our room would not be ready for awhile, so we changed into our
bathing suites, which we'd brought in my carry on, along with cosmetics and
things for my contacts, didn't want to chance losing those. We headed
off to Nanny's, which is where we ate lunch everyday on our last trip, found
Godfrey to still be waiting tables and ordered our lunch. I always have
the jerk chicken ( without the sauce, which is VERY
hot ) and hubby had the same, though he would try other things throughout the
week. We love sitting at Nanny's, you can see the beach & water and
watch the folks around the pool area. Even though we knew we were
actually there, that is when it seemed real. What bliss. We hung
around for awhile and then went and sat in front of the Japanese restaurant,
which another beautiful spot to relax. We then headed for the Spa to
make our reservations there ( Note: when we
checked in we made reservations for Piacere,
because we knew if we didn't they would be hard to get). We both wanted
to try several of the spa services, so we made appts
to have massages on the beach the next day, and took the list of services
with us to decide what else we wanted. Tensilyn
and Doreen were still both there and we'd had massages from them on our last
trip they are wonderful! Headed back to
the front desk and found out our room was ready. We took a deep breathe
and followed our escort over to the A/N side. We were in the second
building on the 3rd floor, can't remember the room number, but it was right
in the middle of the building, and it was fantastic! Sure there were
things we would not have chosen, 2 reg beds,
instead of a king size, and the room had been made up in a hurry so no pretty
folded towels or flowers, but man, what a view. It was just perfect and
we could stand in the middle of the room and open the front door and look 1
way and see the mountains and look the other and see the ocean. Sigh.it was awesome. This room also had a fridge in
it, which was really great to have. Shortly after arriving, there was a
knock and management had sent up champagne, fruit plate & some chocolate
dipped fruit for us! We stood on the balcony and had our champagne and
goodies and all was right with the world. We were so tired at that
point ( and relaxed from the champagne) that we
decided to nap for a couple of hours so we would make it to the Street Party
that night. Food
& Fun When we
woke up we had our first experience with the shower that runs hot/ cold in
spurts, this was a bit annoying but it never did get better the whole week,
however, we were still in Friday
night is the Street Party and our favorite dinner night, except when we dined
at Piacere ( which we
managed to do 4 times while we were there thanks to Ralston , who was
super!). I just love love love
the grilled lobster and the rest of it is fabulous also. I dressed
pretty casual, because 2 yrs earlier that had been the dress, but found that
it was a little nicer than shorts now, with most of the women wearing sun
dresses, though shorts were fine for the fellows. The place was packed,
we stuff ourselves, took lots of pics, watched the
entertainment and turned in, cause we were just
beat. Next day,
we'd slept late, and when we got up I turned on the TV to catch the OU vrs Everyday
from then on was the same, started ordering room service for breakfast, which
was great and then down to the beach for awhile, on to Nanny's for lunch or
lamb chops by the pool ( finally tried them and they are delicious). I
got nicknamed Miss Kitty, because I would take everyone's leftovers (and more
if I could beg it from the staff) and feed all the
little kitty cats around the resort. They should have been fairly well
fed while we were there! Lay around the pool,
play some volleyball, have our spa treatments (more about those later) and
then on to dinner and the entertainment and back to the pool to laze around til we had to turn in. We never saw any extra
curricular activities, though some of our friends did, but very little.
We loved Piacere,
service was fantastic and the food always wonderful. I loved the quail
appetizer and the rack of lamb or the Angus beef entrées. We felt like
the Italian place, La Pasta, had greatly improved from 2 yrs earlier.
This time we tried the Japanese Restaurant which was a neat experience, just
not my favorite type of food. Room service was always very prompt and
good and we've never had any less than great food
from Nanny's. Spa The Spa
is a little slice of heaven, when you are already in paradise. We had 2
massages on the beach ( it turned out to be 3,
because of a fall that hubby had the second day we were there) and that is
just fantastic. You have to ask for them to be on the beach, or they
will just set up to do them inside in the spa area. Those massages are
nice also, but on the beach is the best! I had a facial and we both had
body wraps. I always had Tensilyn, who is
terrific! I have fibromyalgia (which is a
muscle disease) and have actually had some massage at home that has caused me
pain, Tensilyn was just perfect, very firm but she
never hurt me or caused me any tenderness after. I can't remember which
body wrap I had but it was wonderful, but I know that hubby had the milk
& honey body wrap, which he said was fantastic, but after they are
through with you they directed you to the shower area ( which is an outside
shower ) and as he stepped out into the shower area ( where I was already rinsing
off ) his feet went out from under him and he fell hard on his tail bone and
back and he tried to stop his fall with his hand and they had these coral
things and rocks in this one area and he cut his hand up on those. I
tried to grab him (silly) and so did Doreen and I fell also, though nowhere
near as hard. Of course, they all rushed in and were very concerned, they called the Nurse, Karlene,
who was great. We had to go fill out an incident report and hubby had
to go and visit her everyday, and she would check his injuries and put some
medicine on his hand. I want to strongly say that we felt this was in
no way anyone's fault at the Spa. The resort does need to put
something down to make that area less slippery. The spa ladies (which we came
to be good friends with ) were all really concerned
and called us daily to make sure my husband was doing ok. And they did
throw in another massage for us. Of course, he was really sore and it
kind of ruined the rest of that day for us, but we had gone on this vacation
with the idea that we were going to have a great time no matter what and we
did. All the treatments were excellent and Charisse,
Tensilyn, Doreen, Caroline and Coletta
were all just terrific. The only negative feeling that we had through
out and after our trip, was that we never even heard from any one in upper
management. I mean this was a pretty bad fall and even some attempt by
management to just apologize would have made us feel better. That said,
because we set our minds to, we had a fabulous vacation, and particularly
loved our Spa friends. Staff We had
just great people around us all the time. Charmaine
and the girls at the front desk were great. Godfrey always had a big
smile for us at Nanny's. Conclusion I won't
go into the details of leaving because it is just a sad day when you have to
go. I want to say that we love our new friends from OK, NJ and |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||