Gerard

Thursday 15 August 2013

Yale Women's Basketball Team

Hi all,

I am currently accompanying Yale Women's Basketball Team on their pre-season tour off Ireland.

I have been lucky enough to organise this trip from scratch and this started 10 months ago when Yale first contacted me.

To see the trip unfolding and being extremely successful is absolutely amazing.

I will give you all a full report on my return to the office in a couple of weeks.

Now must dash as we are off to Kiss the Blarney Stone :)

Best regards

Gerard

Family Holiday to Cancun

As promised here is the run down on my family holiday to Cancun, Mexico :)

I travelled with 17 of my family members for two weeks from the UK for various celebrations in our group and not one of us had a complaint about the hotel, its staff or our experience there.

Hotel:

The hotel is very modern/chic, high rise Miami style but once inside you will discover how well they have managed the space creating a very welcoming and warming feel.
Immaculately clean throughout and this is a massive compliment to the staff as their continuous attention to cleaning and maintaining the property is second to none.

Rooms:

The rooms are outstanding, from the lead in Deluxe Ocean View to the very top Presidential Suite, no matter what your budget is you could not be disappointed as all rooms boast a sea view and there is no better feeling than wakening up and seeing the white sand a blue waters of the ocean from your balcony!

Preferred club category rooms come with your own Butler and upgraded amenities, you will also have access to the Preferred Club lounge on the 21st floor and the quieter Preferred Club Pool on the 12th floor. Again if budget allows it, it is a nice option but to be honest there is so much going on in the rest of the hotel that I don't feel you would miss out greatly if not in the preferred club.

Pool Areas/Beach/Bars:

The pool and beach areas are immaculately maintained and have enough sunbeds for all guests to enjoy the facilities. The beach is beautiful and the sea is excellent be warmed it can be quite rough with the current and waves when they pick up. There is a Lifeguard on duty from opening to closing and they do an excellent job monitoring the waters.
There are 3 bars that service the pool and beach areas during the day so getting a drink in the pool, at the beach or lying on a sun lounger is never a problem, just ask my family :)

Restaurants:

One word - Outstanding! I am not going to go into each one but you have 7 different options to eat from a Steakhouse to Asian but all the choices can be found on The Vines excellent website. We were lucky enough to sample all of them and I had a favourite dish in all so I couldn't pick one that towers above the rest but what I will say is try the Tabbouleh in Olio, Sushi Platter in Dragons and the Osso Buco in Nebbiolos :)

The Staff:

I purposely have saved he best to last!

The staff at the Vine are what makes this hotel such a memorable stay. There are 750 in total but unfortunately I didn't get to meet them :)
My hat goes off to all the cleaners/chefs/concierge/butlers/security guards as they do an outstanding job and nothing is ever too much, an absolute credit to the hotel and the AMRESORTS brand!

Now for some special mentions - 

Pool Bar/ Service - Alejandro, Diego, Jorge, Filemon, Veronica and Blanca, you guys were outstanding, so pleasant and super fun with a big smile always on your face. Part of the reason we spent so much time at the pool in the same area :) Diego that tequila tasting is dangerous LOL :).......Thank you for everything.

Bar Staff - Cesar, Jesus, Israel & Diego all in the Piano Bar, superb service and some great laughs with all you guys, again thank you so much for everything and sorry for keeping you up late most nights :)

12th Floor Preferred Club Bar - Our Amigo, Pita, some superb tricks that kept all of us entertained and brought some big smiles to our faces, thank you for giving us some great laughs! A future recruit for the entertainment team possibly?? ;)

Entertainment Team - Last but not least, these guys work so hard from early morning to late nights keeping everyone in high spirits throughout the day and drinking high spirits with us at the clubs at nights :) Alan, Victor, Balam, Bethany, Winnie, Magnolia, Carlos, & Julien, I cannot thank you enough for making my family feel so welcome and giving us some lifetime memories from our stay, We were all genuinely sad to leave the Vine but even sadder to leave you guys.
I wish you all the best for the future and please keep in contact as no doubt we will all be returning to Mexico at some stage!

To finish off I would like to give some further special mentions, Zuleica and Humberto for dealing with all my requests prior to arriving and retweeting all of our updates during our stay, thank you so much for making our stay a special one.

Ana and Maru (The DreamTeam) I was so pleased to see you both before we left. You guys went above and beyond to make my family feel like they were at their home from home, so when we were greeted on our arrival with 'Welcome Home' it was certainly true!

I hope to return to the Vine in the near future and no doubt they will still maintain there excellent levels of service, of this I have no doubt!

Thanks again to everyone at the hotel.

Best regards

Gerard