Our Lucaya - Grand Bahama
Apr 16th 2002, 9:50 pm
#1
Guest
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Our Lucaya - Grand Bahama
My wife, myself, and our 2.67-year-old (this is significant) just got back from Our
(whose?
Lucaya on Grand Bahama, so I thought I'd post a review. Capsule review:
Highly recommended, but not cheap, and ask about details before you go. I'll presume
you've already checked out www.ourlucaya.com.
The resort is as gorgeous as the pictures on the site. We stayed in the Breakers Cay
building (the big one). We tried to get onto the Concierge Level, but that was
booked. We asked for a junior suite (two rooms) but instead got magically upgraded to
an "executive" suite (three rooms). This suite was significantly bigger than most of
the apartments I've lived in, and unlike a lot of places, it wasn't overfurnished, so
it felt even bigger. The ocean view from the seventh floor was magnificent.
Next time (and there will likely be one) we'll get an all-inclusive if we can. The
food in the restaurants was very good, but very expensive (example: dinner buffet
$29/person weekdays, $38/person weekends). We ate at Barracuda's (trippiest decor),
Willy Broadleaf's (expensive buffet, but excellent and exotic food), China Beach
(hard to tell--we had a trainee watress who screwed up badly enough the our meal was
comped), the Prop Club (very good burgers and such), and Irie's (yummy Caribbean
food, if a bit mellowed out for the Yanks). Adding to the expense is the 15% "service
charge" they tack onto *everything* served by a human, even the coffee from the
little cart in the lobby. It took us a day or two to get over the sticker shock.
Neither of us drink, but I imagine the drink prices were commensurate with the food.
The tap water comes from freshwater sources on the island, so it was clean and 100%
drinkable.
One advantage to the expense is that it keeps away the Spring Break crowd, so there
was no trouble with drunks. There were quite a few kids, and they seemed to be having
a very good time despite the absence of large mice, purple dinosaurs, etc. Also, even
though nobody else in the world has America's restrictive smoking laws, very few
people smoked indoors, except in the cigar bar. Speaking of vices, the casino is
still not open but it looks like it's pretty close.
There are something like eight pools, of varying temperature. The midsection of the
serpentine pool was consistently the warmest, well over 80 degrees. One of the pools
has a fairly large water slide. Much fun. The pool areas quiet down around dinner
time. You don't need to worry about lots of noise at all hours of the night. There's
also a two-lane lap pool, and a couple of whirlpools.
The gym was fairly well equipped, missing only a couple of the machines I use at my
(large) local gym. Dunno about the women's showers, but one of the three men's
showers is of the seven-headed all-over variety. Guess what goes into my next
bathroom remodel! The spa pampers you severely.
The beaches are some of the best I've experienced. There was a good bit of seaweed,
but nothing harmful, and I saw only one piece of glass the entire time I was there.
The sand was incredibly soft, and my son couldn't get enough of it (he's still asking
to go to the beach every morning). They control towels pretty tightly, but they (and
the beach chairs) are free, and you can trade in wet towels for clean ones as often
as you like.
Their water sports are fun but a bit pricey. They'll take you out on a banana
boat for $10/person (up to 8). You can take out a 700cc Yamaha Wave Runner for
$50 per half-hour. Parasailing is $40, but you can probably find it cheaper from
an independent operator. They had Hobie Cats, but like the parasailing, they
were idled due to pretty high winds the whole week. In fact, most of the
ocean-related activities, from all the operators, were cancelled due to the wind
and the rough seas.
I don't know how they do it, but they're very quiet when they do all the maintenance
and cleanup of the buildings and grounds. No waking up to leaf-blowers. Our
housekeeper was very thorough, including washing out the dishes we used (the suite
has a kitchenette, good for dispensing Cheerios to toddlers), and earned a good tip.
The maintenance folks were quick to respond to the requests we made (one drain was
slow, one lightbulb burned out, etc.).
The one bad thing I'll warn you about is that, like most places, some things are done
by subcontractors, and thus are vulnerable to disconnects between what the hotel
thinks the policies are and what they really are. Camp Lucaya, the kids' thing, is
independently managed. One of the reasons we picked this resort is that unlike most,
their "kids' club" started at age 2.5, not age 3. Or at least that's what their
literature says--when we got there, we found out they really don't like to take kids
under three, and in any case, the child must be potty-trained (ours isn't). Failing
that, the child must stay in the babies' nursery, and then for only two hours at a
stretch, plus the nursery (but not the camp) is closed for lunch from
12:30 to 1:30. Too bad about those half-day trips you wanted to take.
Other than that, the camp's facilities are nice, and there's a separate kiddie pool,
swing sets, slides and all that. The kids all pretty much seemed to be having a good
time, and they have organized activities for older kids.
Speaking of kids and supplies, it's worthwhile to find your way to the Winn-Dixie a
couple miles inland. There's a small grocery store in the Port Lucaya marketplace,
but they're jaw-droppingly expensive, often charging three or four times the
preprinted price for things.
So, we ended up taking a much more relaxing vacation than we had planned (we usually
do a lot on these trips), but in the end that was probably for the best. I imagine
that our son wil have an even better time when he's older. I'm looking forward to
going back.
-Ed
(whose?
Lucaya on Grand Bahama, so I thought I'd post a review. Capsule review:Highly recommended, but not cheap, and ask about details before you go. I'll presume
you've already checked out www.ourlucaya.com.
The resort is as gorgeous as the pictures on the site. We stayed in the Breakers Cay
building (the big one). We tried to get onto the Concierge Level, but that was
booked. We asked for a junior suite (two rooms) but instead got magically upgraded to
an "executive" suite (three rooms). This suite was significantly bigger than most of
the apartments I've lived in, and unlike a lot of places, it wasn't overfurnished, so
it felt even bigger. The ocean view from the seventh floor was magnificent.
Next time (and there will likely be one) we'll get an all-inclusive if we can. The
food in the restaurants was very good, but very expensive (example: dinner buffet
$29/person weekdays, $38/person weekends). We ate at Barracuda's (trippiest decor),
Willy Broadleaf's (expensive buffet, but excellent and exotic food), China Beach
(hard to tell--we had a trainee watress who screwed up badly enough the our meal was
comped), the Prop Club (very good burgers and such), and Irie's (yummy Caribbean
food, if a bit mellowed out for the Yanks). Adding to the expense is the 15% "service
charge" they tack onto *everything* served by a human, even the coffee from the
little cart in the lobby. It took us a day or two to get over the sticker shock.
Neither of us drink, but I imagine the drink prices were commensurate with the food.
The tap water comes from freshwater sources on the island, so it was clean and 100%
drinkable.
One advantage to the expense is that it keeps away the Spring Break crowd, so there
was no trouble with drunks. There were quite a few kids, and they seemed to be having
a very good time despite the absence of large mice, purple dinosaurs, etc. Also, even
though nobody else in the world has America's restrictive smoking laws, very few
people smoked indoors, except in the cigar bar. Speaking of vices, the casino is
still not open but it looks like it's pretty close.
There are something like eight pools, of varying temperature. The midsection of the
serpentine pool was consistently the warmest, well over 80 degrees. One of the pools
has a fairly large water slide. Much fun. The pool areas quiet down around dinner
time. You don't need to worry about lots of noise at all hours of the night. There's
also a two-lane lap pool, and a couple of whirlpools.
The gym was fairly well equipped, missing only a couple of the machines I use at my
(large) local gym. Dunno about the women's showers, but one of the three men's
showers is of the seven-headed all-over variety. Guess what goes into my next
bathroom remodel!
The spa pampers you severely.The beaches are some of the best I've experienced. There was a good bit of seaweed,
but nothing harmful, and I saw only one piece of glass the entire time I was there.
The sand was incredibly soft, and my son couldn't get enough of it (he's still asking
to go to the beach every morning). They control towels pretty tightly, but they (and
the beach chairs) are free, and you can trade in wet towels for clean ones as often
as you like.
Their water sports are fun but a bit pricey. They'll take you out on a banana
boat for $10/person (up to 8). You can take out a 700cc Yamaha Wave Runner for
$50 per half-hour. Parasailing is $40, but you can probably find it cheaper from
an independent operator. They had Hobie Cats, but like the parasailing, they
were idled due to pretty high winds the whole week. In fact, most of the
ocean-related activities, from all the operators, were cancelled due to the wind
and the rough seas.
I don't know how they do it, but they're very quiet when they do all the maintenance
and cleanup of the buildings and grounds. No waking up to leaf-blowers. Our
housekeeper was very thorough, including washing out the dishes we used (the suite
has a kitchenette, good for dispensing Cheerios to toddlers), and earned a good tip.
The maintenance folks were quick to respond to the requests we made (one drain was
slow, one lightbulb burned out, etc.).
The one bad thing I'll warn you about is that, like most places, some things are done
by subcontractors, and thus are vulnerable to disconnects between what the hotel
thinks the policies are and what they really are. Camp Lucaya, the kids' thing, is
independently managed. One of the reasons we picked this resort is that unlike most,
their "kids' club" started at age 2.5, not age 3. Or at least that's what their
literature says--when we got there, we found out they really don't like to take kids
under three, and in any case, the child must be potty-trained (ours isn't). Failing
that, the child must stay in the babies' nursery, and then for only two hours at a
stretch, plus the nursery (but not the camp) is closed for lunch from
12:30 to 1:30. Too bad about those half-day trips you wanted to take.
Other than that, the camp's facilities are nice, and there's a separate kiddie pool,
swing sets, slides and all that. The kids all pretty much seemed to be having a good
time, and they have organized activities for older kids.
Speaking of kids and supplies, it's worthwhile to find your way to the Winn-Dixie a
couple miles inland. There's a small grocery store in the Port Lucaya marketplace,
but they're jaw-droppingly expensive, often charging three or four times the
preprinted price for things.
So, we ended up taking a much more relaxing vacation than we had planned (we usually
do a lot on these trips), but in the end that was probably for the best. I imagine
that our son wil have an even better time when he's older. I'm looking forward to
going back.
-Ed
Nov 2nd 2002, 2:38 am
#2
Just Joined
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 1
Spring break croud
Hello,
I am interested on planning a vacation during March somewhere in the Carribbean that will not be crouded due to Spring Break.
Regarding your review of "OurLucaya" in the Bahamas, you mentioned that they "kept out the spring break cround", how so? I am assuming that you went during spring break season.
Was the property crouded during this time period? i.e. were all the rooms full??
Thank you!
-LT
I am interested on planning a vacation during March somewhere in the Carribbean that will not be crouded due to Spring Break.
Regarding your review of "OurLucaya" in the Bahamas, you mentioned that they "kept out the spring break cround", how so? I am assuming that you went during spring break season.
Was the property crouded during this time period? i.e. were all the rooms full??
Thank you!
-LT
