Grace Bay Club

My husband and I visited Turks and Caicos for the first time to celebrate a big milestone birthday. The Grace Bay Club was a perfect place to do so. We stayed on the residence side which is very quiet (actually the entire resort was quiet) but given it was the first week of January it was quite quiet. Leaving two very high-stressed jobs back home my husband I spent the first two days staring at the water. Not reading, not talking, hardly eating. Our souls needed time for silence and restoration. This was achieved. The water color cannot be explained. It is the most beautiful array of blues I’ve ever witnessed. Pictures will never show its true majesty. The sound of the waves makes you fall asleep. I was greeted one night in my room with birthday balloons, delicious cake and champagne and a bottle of wine. I also received free dessert at dinner the first two nights to celebrate. Thanks to Fredna and Fritz for making me feel special. Fritz and Fredna were our personal Concierges and they made sure we had everything we needed. My husband became very ill and they got us in touch with the on call physician for the resort and to a clinic the next day along with a ride there. The GM called us to make sure he was OK. Everyone was so kind and concerned. All fake? Nope. Not for a minute. This IS Grace Bay Club. It’s a community of guests and staff and if you can get yourself to slow down and join in, you find yourself being swept up into island time and feeling like you are living in a small quaint town where you know everyone. You will not be able to push your frantic stressed out lifestyle on these people. Instead, they will slow you down so your soul can be restored. Which leads me to the reviews I’ve read and caused me concern before I got there. Regarding service. How do I say this without offending anyone. If you think you are going to make them move faster, bring your drink sooner, deliver perfection to you at the snap of your fingers, then you are missing out on the whole point of being there. You are bringing your high stressed life to a place that refuses to buy into that way of thinking. And if they DID it would ruin your stay. So all the complaining about waiting - that’s on you. I feel bad that you couldn’t (yes couldn’t - it’s a choice) get to enjoy the greatest gift of all - no time constraints. To Amado & Jim on the beach, we will miss you most of all. Thank you for helping us decompress. For excellent margaritas and good conversation. For caring about my husband when he was sick. Garth, for finding those diet cokes when we needed them so badly. For Sonny and Stanley at breakfast, we enjoyed getting to know you both. Your smiles always brightened our days. I know I’m forgetting names but thank you to all the staff. We noticed. To all the beautiful young families that played on the beach and made me smile thinking of my children when they were younger. To the beautiful grounds and the good mornings from staff. To housekeeping th

The pool and beach crew ignored us and were all rude when we got their attention. One even questioned if I was a guest because we had a blue microfiber towel we brought from home due to my wife’s allergies. No one explained the flag system or the towel setup to us, so we ended up sitting in chairs with no towels. Once 5:00 hit, the beach crew was so eager to clean up that we felt unwelcome and just left. I agree with the comment that the only way to get attention is to tip $20 for each interaction, which is outrageous, even if I can afford it.