blamona

Just got back from Grand Bahama. Stayed at Westin and Old Bahama Bay.
The weather was pretty iffy the whole time, there was a tropical wave around. The sun would come out for an hour, then pour, then sun, then overcast. Parts of Grand Bahama still look like recovering from hurricanes. (basically weathered and worn)
Westin was nice. Room was in the 9th floor. It was very comfortable. Food at Westin/Sheraton was extremely expensive (in porportion to the room rate) and just okay. Breakfast at Willys was really good. Sheraton was alot more crowded than Westin, definately more "active". No problem even with crowds getting pool chairs. The people from Grand Bahama I found to be extremely well natured and polite. Some of the nicest I've encountered anywhere.
We spent most meals across the street at Port Lucaya. Cool place to hang out. Le Mediteranian was an excellent place to eat, and less expensive than most.
Old Bahama Bay is way out, with nothing close to it. It's a beautiful resort, completely different in feeling from Westin. The marina there had some gorgeous boats.
We rented a car 1 day and went to Gold Rock Beach. Very cool beach with shallow sand bars at different tides. Next to it they had filmed "Pirates of Caribbean 2&3. (At least parts of it.) There had been a bunch of ships but everyone told us Disney had most of it away just a week ago. There was still 1 ship left, and there were some men "cleaning things up."

Pictures for your enjoyment:

http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...amp;interval=3

blamona

<font color="blue"> sorry I forgot the best part:
We did a dolphin encounter, got to pet them, and had our pictures taken being kissed by the dolphins. Too cool!
It's definately the &quot;do not miss&quot; of Grand Bahama!
</font>

bluefan

wow blamona

that's cool that you captured those shots of a P.O.C. ship; loved the photos, especially those of Gold Rock Beach...nice!!!

thanks for your trip report; being a starwood member, i'll definitely have to keep the Westin Our Lucaya in mind for a near future trip

jackiehammond

OMgosh! gold rock beach looks amazing! and old bahama bay looks quite shallow. was it? i love shallow ocean water! gold rock beach also looks shallow, like you mentioned. i never thought the bahamas were that pretty (i'm a caribbean newbie). i went on a cruise to the bahamas and went to paradise island and cococay. boy, did i miss out on the bahamas' TRUE beauty and widest white sand beaches!!! thanks so much for the great trip report and gorgeous pictures! is that your daughter? whoever she is, she is precious! thanks, again!

iw

blamona....I posted a message last night, but I don't think I was specific enough in the title to receive a reply. There are 6 couples looking for an AI, again..groan, with a nonstop flight from Richmond, Va in Oct. We have all been to the Princess and didn't care for it, although that was 5-8 years ago. You are very well-travelled, so I wonder if you have any advice for us (trying to celebrate 40th birthdays..not me, yet) who want to hang out from Thurs. night to a Monday?????

blamona

jw: I live in Virginia, but it's hard to fly out of richmond, always more expensive, and harder to get direct flights. The Princess was last called Royal Oasis (which was really Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Sunspree) but after the hurricane, they took the insurance money and ran with it. All abandoned now.
I saw on another post HowardC recommended Turks and Caicos-that's one of my favorite places. I have to tell you though, I'm not a big fan of All inclusives, so it's hard to recommend places.
I think Mexico has decent all inclusives. (Cancun/Playa del Carmen area) I went to AI in Dominican Republic and didn't car for it too much. Stayed at Beaches in Turks and Caicos, and I love that island too much to stay all inclusive there again. (It was fine, just not my thing)
JetBlue flies out of Richmond, awesome airline. They were having specials to Aruba, and also go to Nassau and PR and DR. You will have to go through NY though. From Richmond, pretty good chance to have to connect anyway.
Do you want a party atmosphere? If it's more about the food, you can get meal plans in alot of cooler places than AI.
Sorry I didn't see your original post!

sandyjoy

Hey Blamona, I just got back from Old Bahama Bay last night. We must have just missed each other!! I agree that the resort is very isolated but we rented a car and saw Lucaya, Gold Rock Beach etc. I still think OBB is the best place to stay on Grand Bahama. My only disappointment was the Dockside Grill. The breakfast service was non-existent (food was good though). Don't know if you had the same problem. Also, another disappointment was the lack of snorkelling at OBB, the trail is non-existent.

blamona

sandyjoy: I found Grand Bahama still recoving from hurricanes. Kind of a &quot;worn&quot; look to it. No snorkeling at OBB. but i found the resort beautiful. We were lucky, wanted food from the nice restuarant, but didn't have the clothes for it. Charles from there actually brought us a menu and let us order on the Dockside Grill. Very yummy. Service was decent for me. They made my 4 year old daughter a whole box of mac and cheese. She could have eaten that for days! The weather was kind of iffy for me. I found Gold Rock Beach to be the prettiest, and dolphin excursion was worth every penny. If I changed anything at OBB, I would add nachos, finger type foods at the beach bar. I would hang out there longer if they had that, I mean, just hot dogs and hamburgers and conch, no munchie hang out at beach bar kind of food. I also found that they were &quot;out&quot; of some foods at the Dockside Grill. I did find the food to be better than at Westin/Sheraton though.