Club Med Turquoise

Heard there was a fire at the main restaurant and two people were hurt. The cooked on grills to serve people. I am trying to find out if it will be open for our Dec. 2 trip.

I heard from a Trip Advisor person who lives on Provo that the kitchen had "exploded". Obviously that is an overstatement, but sounds like significant damage. Perhaps they can "activate" the other restaurant (Luyacan). Hope it goes well for your trip!

(Was not able to edit my post above.)
You probably have an email contact for Turkoise, but if not, you could try Reception at [email protected] They should have some idea what is going on.

Jim, it looks like you may be out of luck at Turkoise. The following was posted on Trip Advisor about an hour ago:

Statement from Club Med Turkoise on the recent fire at the resort:

On the evening of November 26, 2016, there was a fire in the kitchen of the Grace Bay restaurant at our Club Med resort Turkoise in Turks & Caicos. The restaurant was not open at that time and the staff and fire department responded quickly and the fire was extinguished and we had no injuries to our guests. The safety, security and well-being of our guests and staff are always, and remain, the highest priority in every situation.

Due to the damage sustained in the fire and to ensure the highest service level for our guests, we have taken the decision to temporarily close the resort beginning Sunday, December 4, 2016 to allow the resort to conduct a refresh of the common areas, and will reopen on Saturday, December 17, 2016. Starting December 17th, resort guests will be able to enjoy dining experiences in our Lucayan Specialty Restaurant and Sharkies beach lounge – both of which will be available to provide a new enhanced dining experience for our guests.

We regret any inconvenience this has caused to our guests and are committed to finding a solution for each of our valued GM’s. We, therefore, have set up a specialized team to support our guests as they explore other options, such as revising dates of stay or finding an alternative resort. We can be reached by telephone at 1-800-560-1576 or email at [email protected]. If all rebooking specialists are working with another guest, guest calling in are encouraged to leave a message with their complete contact information so that the rebooking specialist may return the call.

Yes, I have heard that it will be closed. From what I hear things were pretty chaotic and no had the number for the fire department. I am hoping to get switched over to Columbus Isle. Supposedly they will honor your room rate at any club and give $200 to cover change fees. I tried the 800 number and typical CM response no one answered and I had to leave my name and number and someone will call me back in 24 hours. Well 16 hours later and no call. Good thing I wasn't leaving today. Thankfully I am using a travel agent.

Columbus Isle would be a good substitute so I hope that works out OK. If you go there, tell Mamadou (Chief of sailing) "Hello" from Mike & Susan and that we were sorry we missed him at Turkoise in Oct.

Yes, we are going to CI and I will say hello to Mamadou-I met him at Turks. Nice guy and ran a great sailing program. Also, I don't know if you remember Sophie from Turks-a land/fitness GO-she is at CI. A couple of questions. I read that sand fleas were bad. We are bringing bug repellent and probably Benadryl. Any tips. Likewise I heard that leaving you do the flight check-in/customs at the resort but there are long lines. Any tips? I know there is not much on the island but is there anything to do outside of CM. We thought of renting bikes and maybe hit some beaches and snorkel and fine a local bar for a drink.

Also, CM has not lost its touch and bad service. Called the Turks help line Monday which was busy and requested we leave contact info and they would call us back in 24 hours. Well still no call back. Called again and got the same message. WTF. Glad I used a travel agent who got us squared away to CI. Just like the old statement about getting a government job-you don't have to be stupid, but it helps.

Not much on the island except Club Med and the Riding Rock (dive resort). If you rent a bike (and you should) just double check the tires. After riding about 12 miles and being 3 miles from the village, tire on wife's bike bike went flat. I rode quickly back to the village (my bike was too big for her) and rental outfit there was not very concerned. Wife finally got a ride with one of the bartenders coming to work before the "rescue truck" got to her. You can ride to the Mexico monument to Columbus and a few other places. There are some isolated beaches, but not much decent shore snorkeling.
I've heard of one local bar, but it seems to come and go. Probably about 1/2 = 3/4 mile from village in "town", just the other side of the airport.
Two long lines: They check your luggage and "clear customs" at the village (in theater). Get there early and you can get done then go to restaurant to eat or whatever. Other long line is for security at airport. Two possible strategies: 1) be one of the first 30 or so off the bus so you get one of the 30 chairs in the waiting area after security. When chairs are full, everyone else waits in line until boarding starts. 2) wait at village until "last minute" then walk to airport ( 10 minutes) and go through security and right onto aircraft.
We did not find sand fleas any worse than at Turks. In general, avoid being close to vegetation line along beach, especially late in day. Either be close to the water, or well away form the beach area. Some people use insect repellent but we never bothered during the day. It may be needed at night for mosquitoes, especially if eating outdoors at night.
You might want to check some of my Columbus Isle trip reports at www.hammocktree.us/ms/trips.html
Have fun!

Thanks! I did check your trip report which was helpful. Good idea about walking to the airport. I assume there is one or two flights so if you are at the airport they will make sure you get through. So we may wait till an hour and a half and then go.

There is only one flight so as long as you get to the airport a reasonable time (30 - 40 minutes) before flight time, you should be fine. We generally get to the airport as one of the first people and get the seats there, but that is mainly because by that time, we're somewhat tired of sitting around the village.
I believe there is normally only one Bahamas Air flight each day. Then there is the "charter" Spirit flight on Saturdays and the "charter" flight from/to Paris on (I believe) Wednesday. For a while there was a Tuesday flight from/to Miami but I don;t think that is active any more. It is not exactly a busy or large airport. Matter of fact, it will probably be the smallest "commercial" or international airport you have ever gone through.

I believe the charter is now AA from Miami.

Very bad fire. I was there. Engulfed restaurant entrance within minutes. Raged for an hour. Through roof and over 100' feet into air.

Happened while I was at bar 20 or so minutes before dinner. Had been in village for 6 hours. Was due to be there three weeks. Francis and team did best to save situation and keep a happy face. But eventually Miami regional management showed up and had to make the decision to close the resort.

I got 3 days of my scheduled 21 of sailing and sun before they shut down the village. They hope to reopen Dec 17 or so and try to save the XMAS season.

I was there 50' from fire origination. Have some great pics if you want to email me. [email protected]. Don't believe official reports from Club Med. They significantly down play it. It was very big and a dangerous situation, thus the closing.

No overstatement. I was at bar 50-75 feet from entrance waiting for restaurant to open. Had been at resort for 6 hours waiting for my first meal. It was very bad, very very bad. 20 minutes later and would have killed a few hundred people.

Two explosions occurred about 45 minutes in to the fire while flames were out of the roof and a 100 ft in air. Were still waiting for fire dept.Sounded like a 5 gal propane tank would have it it exploded.

At that (explosions) point they moved all guests and GO's to beach.. Also evacuated all guests from rooms and moved to beach.

Official announcements by CM corporation downplayed a very bad and dangerous situation.

Annex restaurant doesn't have the equipment or space.

They gave up announced closing Tuesday am. I had to cut short my visit by 17 days.

Another CM story, I have some great pic's.

It is so small that the non-stop back to Paris has to go to Cuba and fuel up before heading to Paris!

Landing strip too short for a big jet full of fuel.

One person burned and back to work. Other worse and checked out of hospital Thursday to go home to recover. Expected to be a full recovery. Very very lucky.

Sounds like you have something to "write home about" Bob, only not what you intended and it certainly cut your visit (and sailing) off short.
From your description of the fire, it will take a while and a lot of work to get the main restaurant back in operation. I wonder if they will make any improvements while rebuilding? Having the Lucayan restaurant available will be a help, but I don't see how they could support a full village (or more than about 50% full) with just the Lucayan and Sharkies operational. Maybe they could put up tents or other temporary structures to add some space to the Lucayan.
Will be interesting to watch..

Bob (or anyone else at Turkoise when the fire occurred)... Over on Trip Advisor there has been some concern expressed over the apparent long response time of the Provo fire department. Most reports say the fire had been going 45 minutes before the FD showed up. I understand that there was some initial confusion and delay within the Club Med staff and the call did not go out right away. I'm wondering if anyone has a fairly good idea how much of those 45 minutes .was due to Club Med delays and how much was the time it took for the FD to react. Any comments welcomed....