Club Med Turkoise - Trip Report

I just returned from an 18 day stay at ClubMed Turks and I've come to the
conclusion that it will be my last ClubMed trip.  This was my fifth time to
the village in the past five years and every year things change a bit.  This
year the village was advertised as "Total All Inclusive" so I thought I
would give it one more try.

To start the trip off, American Airlines lost my luggage.  It turned out not
to be a big problem since they quickly found it and had it on the next
plane.  The thing that irritated me was that after arriving at the village,
the reception desk would not make a local call for me to American Airlines
to help me resolve the issue.  They said it was my problem and I needed to
call from my room.  I guess they never heard of the word "concierge" before!
So after strapping the wrist band onto me so that I could go to my room and
make the call, they said I had to pay $15.  After three or four minutes of
trying to communicate with the reception desk staff who only spoke broken
English, I came to the conclusion that the money was to pay for an early
check-in.  It seems that I arrived at 1:45 and check-in isn't until 3:00.
Since I booked my own air (using frequent flyer miles) instead of booking it
through ClubMed I had to wait until 3:00 or pay the $15!  I said I would
wait so they then got the scissors out and cut the wristband off.  I travel
a lot for business and I certainly understand the need to have check-in/out
times.  But I already paid them approximately $4000 for the 18 days, I was
only an hour early, the room was available, and they knew that I needed to
call about my luggage.  Common sense, and general customer service would
dictate that they just let me check-in and waive the fee.

The village now advertises itself as "Total All-Inclusive" which is very
misleading.  It seems that the all-inclusive package is required for North
American guests, but European guests still have the option of paying for
their drinks.  According to the ClubMed website the "Total All-Inclusive"
phrase means "All-Day snacking and extended dining hours".  Well, the "Late
Breakfast" consisted of a small, 2 foot long table that held a coffee pot, a
pitcher of juice and a try of rolls.  The "Late Lunch" was basically
Hamburgers and Hotdogs and Sharkies.  Sometimes they also had cookies and
small fruit cups.  All of these items had to be ordered and you had to wait
for them.  It wasn't a big deal, but I was expecting more of a help-yourself
buffet to be available.  The "Snacks" included peanuts and cheddar
goldfish - so much for the advertised "Potato Chips, Pizza, Nachos,
Yogurt...".  And finally, the sit down restaurant was only open three times
the entire 18 days I was there.  All of these things are minor but I was
expecting much more from ClubMed especially with the recent price increases
they have had.   Looking back at what I paid in the past, ClubMed has raised
the price over 50% from what I paid 2 year ago.  And the price I paid two
years ago also included my airfare!  In my opinion the village is now
extremely overpriced and I noticed that in the low occupancy that they had
during my stay.  Taking into account the cost of rooms in the resorts next
to ClubMed - Ocean Club and Royal West Indies, I don't know how ClubMed can
continue to justify their rates.

Finally, I think the thing that pushed me over the edge in not wanting to
return was the way I was treated when checking out.  Since I booked my own
air, I knew I had to pay for my own transfer back to the airport.  No big
deal - in the past I always just jumped onto one of the buses that was
departing at the same time and paid the driver $7 for the trip.  Well on
this trip ClubMed had a full size school bus parked outside to take 14
guests to the airport.  The reception desk told me that I did not have to
call a taxi and that I could just pay the driver.  When I went to get on the
bus, the Assistant Chief of the Village said no way!  I tried to explain to
him what the reception desk told me and he said they made a mistake - I MUST
take a taxi.  He tried to make up some excuse about why I couldn't ride the
bus, said he understood that the excuse did not make any sense, but that he
could not let me on!  So I called a taxi which followed the half empty
school bus to the airport!  Again, the ClubMed management showed no common
sense  when it came to customer service issues - next year somebody else
will get business.

Well, besides my problems, the beach area was fantastic as always.  The
water sports group did a great job and since the occupancy was pretty low,
there were always plenty of sail boats and wind surfing boards available.
The food this year seemed to be very generic with many of the same dishes
served night after night.  I especially noticed that they had the same
specialty salads (on the center islands in the main restaurant) all the
time.  And finally on more positive note, Sharkies is now open from about
3:00pm to 7:30pm for drinks and late lunch.