The Grand Bahama Island Experience
By Melody Fee

When was the last time you explored Grand Bahama Island? Well, what exciting changes are taking place across this tropical paradise! Grand Bahama Island, with its lovely beaches and fun shopping (including fine duty free shops and jewelry) is just a stone’s throw away from Florida’s shores! At the invitation of Grand Bahamas Vacations executive, Jackie Rudd, we flew down to reacquaint ourselves with this fun-filled destination for a quick inspection of some of its most unique properties and sites.

Here is what we found! The former Princess Hotel is now known as the Crown Plaza Golf Resort and Casino and consists of two lovely properties, the Tower, a 400-room high rise adjoining the Royal Oasis Casino and the International Bazaar, and the Country Club, with its two popular golf courses, six tennis courts, and 565 rooms. Both “sister” properties have lovely restaurants that are touted to be excellent and both have lovely pools. In fact, the complex even has a “beach” pool with waterfalls and waterslides that would make you feel as if you were staying right on the beach although you are actually just a few miles away from the beachfront properties. There are excellent conference facilities for all sizes of meetings and groups. Although the hotel was booked solid while we were there, we were very impressed that the properties did not seem packed and we really felt a very relaxing atmosphere prevailed throughout our short stay. AND this is really saying something since we arrived at the beginning of “SPRING BREAK.” Although I did not realize that Grand Bahama Island was a popular student travel location for Spring Break, it really does make for a great option since the Bahamas are overall known as a very safe and friendly destination and indeed, we could tell that tourism is doing well here. The Crown Plaza also has many other amenities which were well presented including a “children’s program with great supervision, a fitness center with modern equipment and a spa with many wonderful services available. They are presently in the process of developing “spa packages” that will allow you to book the spa treatments in advance for you clients and get commission on these services! Grand Bahamas Vacations’ Jackie Rudd will be introducing these options to OSSN members as soon as they are finalized, but in the meantime, the spa is still a great selling point for both the Tower and the Golf Club properties at the Crown Plaza Resort and Golf Club.

If you have been to Grand Bahama Island in the last several years by ship, you may have visited the Port Lucaya area of the island with its colorful marketplace, shops and restaurants. You may have taken one of several fun shore excursions that depart from this area, but if you have not visited some of the hotels and resorts that have been refurbished and developed in this area, you may have missed some real “jewels!”

There are several beach front properties to offer including the Sheraton and Westin properties that make up much of “Our Lucaya Beach and Golf Resort.” Both have lovely beachfront pool areas and lush grounds leading to some of the most lovely beaches in the to be found and they are just across the street from the Port Lucaya marketplace.

This is also just a few miles away from the Crown Plaza Resort and Golf Club, so even if you opt to stay at their lovely properties close to the International Bazaar, you are still just minutes away from the Beach and Port Lucaya! It was such a comfortable island to get around that we were really impressed! Another unique property was the Pelican Bay at Lucaya which has 90 tropical style rooms that are located right next two Port Lucaya Marketplace with all rooms having either Marina or canal view rooms (just across the road from the beach also.)

Activities on the island are ample and varied! Golf, snorkeling, diving, horseback riding, check out the “Dolphin Experience,” two busy casinos, deep sea fishing, Glass-bottom boat tours, catamaran cruises, and kayaking are just a few of the possible activities from which to choose during your stay!

Although we flew down on a BahamasAir jet which took only 30 minutes from Ft Lauderdale, we also found another FUN way to get to Grand Bahama Island and decided to try the CAT, a 900 passenger catamaran with four high powered engines to get us home! What a fun experience! We departed from the port on the island at 10 AM on this fabulous water craft for our two hour ride home to Ft Lauderdale. The CAT has a casino onboard, two movies being shown in comfortable seating areas with reclining chairs, a buffet that served breakfast and lunch options, two bars, and a duty free shop onboard! It was a comfortable and exciting way to get back to the US and surely beat having to spend the same amount of time in airport lines! Although we found he regular price for a round trip on the CAT is $99, we paid $129 for a one way ticket since we did not book this in advance. A much better idea is to include this in your clients’ vacation package if possible. And since it departs FLL at 4PM each day and arrives in Grand Bahama Island at 6PM, your clients can often make this connection very easily depending on their arrival time into Ft Lauderdale ( if they are connecting from another city.) They depart each day from Grand Bahama island at 10AM, arriving to the US each day at 12:00 Noon which also allows travelers to connect to afternoon flights out of Ft. Lauderdale. This option can be booked with your hotel package also so that you can avoid the check in or purchase of tickets at the pier in Grand Bahama Island.

All of these exciting options can be booked through Grand Bahama Vacations, an OSSN “Alled Supplier” member that has been promoting this destination for almost two decades and knows exactly how to help you match your clients with the best options for them.

Grand Bahamas Vacations can be reached at 800-545-`1300 or contact Grand Bahamas Vacations exec. Jackie Rudd at jrudd@gbvac.com for more information also.

Melody Fee
OSSN Vice President
melodyfee@ossn.com

 

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