Follow Up to Club Med

During our most recent winter break from school, the five of us drove down to Florida in the minivan and stayed at Club Med's all inclusive resort for 4 nights, at a cost of approximately $3000. I'm not counting the motels and the gas in either direction, just what we paid to the resort during the months leading up to our visit.

The vacation, compared to the expectations we had of it, was rather disappointing. If you didn't already read my earlier, whining blogpost about it, the "village" (Club Med speak for "resort") had been closed for 9 months of renovations and was NOT ready to reopen, yet the company was unwilling to miss out on all the Christmas holiday guests who had made reservations, bought vacations, planned to be there. So, they let us come, and then, pretty much pretending that nothing was wrong until we checked out, when they invited each guest to fill out a "declaration" (that's Club Med for a complaint form).

So, I complained, made a few phone calls, blogged, forwarded my blog to the corporate offices, left a message or two...

Two weeks after returning home, we received an apology letter and a voucher for $910which I briefly, happily imagined we might apply toward the cost of our next winter vacation in the same spot. I called and told Paul the good news and he congratulated me, calculating that I had earned about $200 for each hour of my trouble.

When Paul got home, however, he flipped the voucher over and read the fine print:

"...subject to availability, not for use during peak travel season, 7 night stay minimum, not to be blah blah blah..."

O.K., so, we can't use it next December, then. I suddenly felt quite let down.

In June, for the first time, all of our kids will be away at summer camp. For twelve days, for the first time since we met, we will, ever so briefly, be empty nesters. Partially because we don't live anywhere near extended family, we have always taken turns leaving home, never leaving the children without at least one parent for more than two nights, and then only very rarely. Twice, I think. After Isaac, our youngest, was born, we imagined that when this "someday" eventually came, and the children all cleared out for camp, leaving us behind, we would take a second honeymoon, perhaps go back to Europe, discover a new place, its food, its people, its language. I had not thought back then to calculate the future cost of sending three children to camp all at once, nor to consider that we might have difficulty coming up with money for groceries once we had done so, much less two plane fare across the ocean, and the price of the most modest hotel room, or even beds in a hostel.

As the time finally approaches, we have lately been planning a staycation for that childless week and a half - almost two weeks - in June. But the voucher, especially its fine print demanding seven nights, makes Paul think we should use it then, when the children disappear. He acknowledges that yes, it might be too hot in South Florida in June to play tennis outside, but not too hot for flying trapeze lessons, or for sailing, swimming, reading in a cabana, or playing beach volleyball in bathing suits still damp from the pool. And it's never too hot to enjoy good food in an air conditioned dining room, assuming that the air conditioning works.

If we stay at home in Cincinnati, but spend a leisurely week without doing the dishes, just dining out and buying tickets to concerts, exhibits and shows, or, as Paul has more recently imagined, drive down to Louisville to spend part of the time at our favorite hotel there, we might easily spend more than $150 on lodging, meals and entertainment each day. With the Club Med voucher, we can pass a week at that rate being fed, exercised and entertained. I know Paul hates the thought of my having made such efforts without receiving any real compensation. I love that he is willing to spend his hard earned money to give us the satisfaction of "getting" something as compensation for our disappointment in December, and for all my trouble after returning home. But when we had envisioned our future vacation or staycation, over the past eight years or so, it was never at a familiar resort. It was meant to be an adventure, in my mind, anyway, whether here or abroad.

We are going to have think hard about this. I'll let you know.