Thread: New things CN Sept 2011

Quick post about what we've noticed at CN so far this year...

Lychee menu changed up quite a bit. Think we have a pic to post later but big change was a pick-your-main-entree-meat(or not meat)-and-style-of-cooking-and-sauce.

Water dispensers with glasses at each bar (which others had posted but we hadn't seen).

Brian P. (from watersports) has left to join his family overseas (we'd been told via email from some friends but the watersports staff are using the opp. to claim each is singularly running things as di boss now).

Durval (bar) has moved on.

Marcia Griffith still has amazing smile (and memory).

Int'l airlink didn't appear to have a rep at MBJ (though we didn't do an exhaustive search) and TimAir claimed they were still the airline to beat.

Sun is up. Time to run.

The BG bar flipped the arrangement of soda/water dispenser and salad bar.

The pool deck is painted (though it blends in well and may not have noticed if we hadn't been told by someone before arriving).

The Hobie Cat.s all have new sails- each is a different color... somewhat unusual.

BG has the buzzers for food (which is not new to us but someone posted recently that they were gone).

Elkie is looking good with swelling belly but painfully swollen feet.

Jermaine expressed concern for his friends living on the East coast b/c of hurricane Irene (Hi champagne/white wine lady).

WOW -- Surprised that Brian left!

Keep the updates coming Rudi!

Originally Posted by rudi

The BG bar flipped the arrangement of soda/water dispenser and salad bar.

The pool deck is painted (though it blends in well and may not have noticed if we hadn't been told by someone before arriving).

The Hobie Cat.s all have new sails- each is a different color... somewhat unusual.

BG has the buzzers for food (which is not new to us but someone posted recently that they were gone).

Elkie is looking good with swelling belly but painfully swollen feet.

Jermaine expressed concern for his friends living on the East coast b/c of hurricane Irene (Hi champagne/white wine lady).

Rudi,
Do you go twice a year now? I seem to remember you went Valentine's. Please tell Elkie that her Aunt Becky says hello. Is Tennyson doing ok?

Hi Rudi, We can ALWAYS count on you !! Hope you are having a Wonderful Time!
Sorry to hear that Brian P has moved on - he was so nice!
Hoping that Elkie's feet aren't hurting too badly - not too much longer right? Please give her a hug from us (gentle please)
Awww Jermaine is a Sweetheart - Hi & Hugs back to Jermaine!
Keep enjoying - and report daily LOL!!

Rudi - BTW, someone on the main board (HYTOP ? ) is requesting a copy of recent CN menus.... Can you help him out ?

Rudi, you are the king of details! We forgot to mention the water at the bars. Some people seem to be upset that they don't give out bottles, but the beach does look cleaner. We also noticed that the 8:00 games have a new look and were not in the piano bar. I didn't notice the sails even though we took one out. So we missed you by a week but now it seems like it was years ago that we were there. Have a great time!

oxbgirl - Tennyson is doing great! We made fast friends with him in August, I remembered him from before, but now he's working evenings at the Cassava Bar and that's our favorite haunt, so we got to visit with him every night.

As for other new things, I'll chime in. The couches on the beach side of the pool are a new addition - at least I hadn't heard them mentioned. Very comfortable for star gazing. More tables and umbrellas were added next to the beach bar/grill area. I like the water dispensers, very convenient and easy (and green!). The pool area was resurfaced while we were there and is a bit more heat resistant - nice for the feet.

LeoC- will try to keep 'em coming.

OxbG/AdoptedM. yes, we actually saw you at the mainbar in Feb. but, not having been properly introduced (T's fault), did not say hello. Tennyson seems the same (night shift at main bar). Elkie is off now - early leave b/c her feet were so swollen.

A/F - we did give her a hug before she left though. Baby boy predicted. Lamar?? I think will be his name.
I think Jermaine said something like "don't hug up no man", but we'll see what we can do.
Apparently we saw Ava/Sherika on her last day (Sat?? Sun??). We had no idea it was her last day.

We did already take some pics of the menus posted by Cassava (at least twice b/c they change), will post later for HYTOP or anyone else. Sun is up. must go.

[QUOTE=rudi;146678]LeoC- will try to keep 'em coming.

OxbG/AdoptedM. yes, we actually saw you at the mainbar in Feb. but, not having been properly introduced (T's fault), did not say hello. Tennyson seems the same (night shift at main bar). Elkie is off now - early leave b/c her feet were so swollen.

Rudi,
If you are going back in February, we will have to get Tennyson to properly introduce us. I appreciate your chivalry. Glad to hear Tennyson is doing well. Please tell him his adopted mom will be there October 4.

G&P - we'll see you here again sometime I'm sure. Saw reggae dance class on the activity list and thought of you.

Oxb - already said hello from Aunt Becky to him. No chivalry here - was actually attempting to imitate some of Tennyson's cheeky?? language. If we atre lucky enough to be here in Feb will love to do introductions.

There are several more small detail changes - will write them down sometime and post later.

Weather has been great w/ exception of one monstrous downpour for an hour or so yesterday.

Some addition to items above as well as consolidation and a few clarifications/corrections:

Lychee chef change – A. Patrico is gone and K-something from northern Thailand is the new chef. She walked around to check on each table, which was nice.

Lychee menu changed up quite a bit. One main entrée had “Choose From: Beef Strip Loin, Pork Spare Rib, Chicken Breast Fillet, Duck Breast, Fish of the Day, Shrimp, or Tofu” and a “Finishing: Green Curry w/ coconut & Pumpkin, Red Curry w/ bamboo Shoots & Chili, Yellow Curry w/ Ginger, Garlic, and Leaf Green Veggies, Stir-Fry with Chili & Gingers, BBQ with Honey, Lime & Citrus, or Sweet & Sour.”
The other was still Pad Thai. Also a choice of Steamed Jasmine rice or Fried rice (as a side).

Andre is now the head chef (which we knew from a MB post but hadn’t met him personally as head chef).

At the repeater dinner Andre told us we’d all be getting a gazpacho (only 1 not 3) appetizer (besides appetizer on the menu) that he was testing out on us and solicited our feedback (very good).

They had sorbet before the Otaheite entrée to cleanse the palate – we believe this was part of the new menu at Otaheite that they had just switched to that day (as all the waiters were telling guests it was a brand new menu). They also had a 3-gazpacho appetizer.

BeachGrill has the buzzers for food (which is not new to us but someone posted recently that they were gone). Fried Calamari is back on the menu (very good!).

The BG side prep. area has flipped the arrangement of soda/water dispenser and salad bar.

Water dispensers with cups at each bar instead of bottles (which others had posted but we hadn't seen yet).

Internet pre-checkin added selection for mini-bar stock (Randymon posted that fact after we were already at CN but we noticed it before we left and it worked perfectly).

Mini-bar now has certain items stocked daily always (mostly sodas) and under “on request” have added sparking wine and removed bottled water.

The Welcome/Check-in folder is a bit different. It is back to being a folder, rather than an envelope and the resort map is on the inside.

Repeater shirt changed. It now says “VIP Very Irie Person” on the back and Couples Resorts on the front, both done in very subdued font and color (which we like). We saw several couples wearing the previous style so perhaps CN gives out different versions or perhaps the other guests brought their prior ones.

Brian P. (from Watersports & Scuba) has left to join his family overseas (we'd been told via email from some friends) – also were told that he was born & grew up there (Holland??) not Jamaica.

There are 2 sunfish sailboats now (only saw 1 before).

The Hobie Cat’s all have new sails- each is a different color. At 1st it looked somewhat unusual, but upon reflection, the older ones were probably the standard. Desmond said the old ones had been repaired too many times.

The BloodyBay/Resort Map on the board at watersports near the Eric the Eel board was updated/changed. It is largely the same but shows some of the main buildings more clearly; swim and boating buffer zones in the water; and has a legend for handicap access, fire extinguishers, garbage/recycling, etc. Perhaps compliance to something related to one of those latter items drove the change – we didn’t ask.

After snorkeling in the past they typically had a card or two for identification of various marine life that was passed around to everyone. Now they seemed to have one for every guest on the boat and on the back there is a map of dive and snorkel sites; not sure if the marine part of the card changed.

No palapas on the beach anymore.

Lots of new small palms being planted on the beach. Unfortunately some of the mature palms were being cut down due to some disease – the new palms should be resistant to it.

The floaties have texasrec.com on them. That is not strictly new, we just had seen it before and failed to note it. Someone on this MB had asked about purchasing them and that may not be the same company that someone replied with.

The pool deck is painted (we had been told by someone before arriving, but realized later in the week it was still progressing in different areas when we left). It is not actually paint – they bleach/clean/scrub it and then apply a special compound for wear and to make it look new.

There were a few watersports persons, waiter/waitresses, bartenders that were gone, but we also were pleased that some of the former trainees had made it to more permanent positions. Some entertainment departures and a vacation left them with 2 staff + Simone which made it very tough on them.

Sheryl is pregnant.

Entertainment activity list changed. Not too many differences but we might post an updated list later.

Int'l Airlink didn't appear to have a rep at MBJ upon our arrival (though we didn't do an exhaustive search) and TimAir claimed they were still the airline to beat. Update on this – we took IA on the return trip and everything went very well – on time, smooth flight, everyone very friendly.

Thanks for ALLLLL the updates Rudi... Detail Guy!! As always you are the BEST w/info! Almost makes us feel like we are there !

Sounds like we should request the new t-shirts instead of the sparkling wine for our repeater's gift. Thanks again Rudi

Originally Posted by Art and Francine

Sounds like we should request the new t-shirts instead of the sparkling wine for our repeater's gift. Thanks again Rudi

Agreed, smart lady. Now that one can get sparkling wine in the mini-bar the only reason I can think of to select it as repeater gift might be that it could be of a higher quality maybe?? We wouldn't know b/c we obviously did not select that (and probably don't have sufficiently sophisticated tastes to differentiate). For those that care, our mini-bar brand was Kraemer.
We definitely prefer the more muted logo on the new shirts to the big, bold, bright logo from a few years ago.

Bonus material for you:
The bird net on the side of the BG/Heliconia was gone - not really sure why.
The walkway to block 1 behind th BG has been gone for years, but one could still walk across there if needed. Not anymore. It has been completely walled off from the edge of the BG kitchen to the "Lychee" bathroom

Gary& Patti,
Missed earlier your comment on the 8:00 games - They do seem different. We didn't see any newlywed or music trivia type games listed. The only game we saw in the piano bar was "Deal o No Deal". There was a "Couples Game Show" listed Wed. night but we were elsewhere.

Rudi ~ Thank you for the updates. I agree with Francine that it makes me feel like I am there.

They have moved the news-stand from the lower level to the upstairs gift shop. The vacated area will become the photoshop. Loved the move away from plastic water bottles. Karen L said they were using 18,000 bottles a MONTH. Just at CN...that's a lot of plastic floating around. Also new since I had been there 2 years ago were the beach towel self exchange sites. And the addition of patties at lunch on the AN side! Also, repeaters dinner was at Lychee and I think it was at Otahite in the past, (anyway, 2 yrs ago it was.) Of note also, you cannot use resort credits for night scuba diving...not sure why..

Originally Posted by lovnrumpunch

They have moved the news-stand from the lower level to the upstairs gift shop. The vacated area will become the photoshop.
Also new since I had been there 2 years ago were the beach towel self exchange sites...

That's an interesting move for the newsstand. We liked being able to stop by the newsstand from the pool side. Oh well.

Where are the towel self-exchange sites? On a rare occasion we've seen the main towel hut (on the beach just outside the pool bar) unmanned, but 2 weeks ago there was someone there whenever we passed.

You are correct that the repeater dinner was held at Otaheite (or outside) in the past. Karen told us her reason (avoid the disaster of planning an outside dinner for a large number of repeaters and then have no place to go when it suddenly rains) for moving it to Lychee at the beginning of this year.

We got the sparking wine gift because I collect the coconut bowls. It is the exact same green bottle brand served elsewhere. Also you can get it in your minibar! nice! The man who replaced Brian in scuba I had seen before but did not ever catch his name. Not a chatty guy at all. Never spoke once. Craig took a job at Breezes. Alain is on the snorkle side now. We dove with Ashrayn (shrek) all week. Richard teaches as does Sugar. Courney drove Bubbles

Also they now have "american" outlets in the bathroom! yahoo. They now grow their own herbs (not "herb" haha) out by building 4. Fresh to the table made the dishes so extra yummy. The new chef is amazing and all the dishes were bumped up a notch. We noticed more guards and they stood very close if beach vendors came near guests.

Originally Posted by kaityogill

Also they now have "american" outlets in the bathroom! ...

Hi Kaityogill,
Curious about which block were you in? We were in block 6 the same week you were there and did not have an "american" outlet (just the same old "shaver" outlet) in the bathroom. Maybe they are installing them block by block?

Also curious as to where the herb by block 4 is. Only walked that way (assuming you mean on the tennis court/nurse's station side of the block, not the balcony side) a few times but don't recall seeing any.
There is (and has been for a while) an herb garden off to the side of the main delivery/loading area. It is kind of hidden back there, but if you take the sidewalk from the guard shack at the entrance it goes straight to it and has signs labeling all of the various herbs growing (banana tree too!!)

I thought for sure I saw Alain coming in on the dive boat one day (w/ Ash), so I assumed he was doing both (he definitely was at snorkeling/watersports a few days. Stevie for sure was on the dive boat one day and at watersports others.

Thanks for the info.

Alain was our DM for 2 dives in September.