My wife and I arrived at The Grand Isle Resort and Spa in Exuma, Bahamas on 10/4/10, only to discover that due to an incredible miscommunication between my wife and her aunt, who had arranged our honeymoon stay through her company, we had flown to the wrong island. (We were supposed to be in Freeport on the Grand Bahama island, not anywhere in Exuma, much less a five-star resort in Exuma!) At this point in time, my wife and I had already experienced several major travel mishaps, and we still hadn't slept since the night leading up to our wedding, which had occurred on 10/3, the day prior to our arrival in the Bahamas.
Completely exhausted, exasperated, and defeated, my wife burst into tears (and my wife is NOT one who cries easily). I tried to console her, but I was not very effective due to the fact that I was pretty much feeling all of the same emotions that she was at the time. I'm sure we looked out of sorts, and I'm sure that most employees affiliated with other resorts would have offered sincere sympathy and then just sent us on our way.
However, this is not just any resort. The Grand Isle should be extremely proud of the staff that it has put together, because the response that we got that evening may very well have made the difference between our having a good honeymoon vs. one that we would always live to regret.
In the office during our ordeal were Kendra, their receptionist (one of the nicest ladies I've ever been helped by in my entire life - she "counseled" us and joked with us through the entire ordeal), Janice, their head of security, Cecile, their food and beverage supervisor, and a plainly dressed gentleman to whom we had not been introduced. I assumed that he was just another guest at the resort, since he wasn't walking around with a pompous air, like he owned the place. Surprisingly, some quiet words were then exchanged between this gentleman and the staff, and then the receptionist said, "Thanks, Mr. Beasley".
She explained that Mr. Beasley (it turns out he was/is one of the owners of the resort, so he does own the place!) had explained to them that paying to stay the night at their five-star resort may not have exactly been in the honeymoon budget for a couple that had already paid to spend a week at a resort on an entirely different island in the Bahamas, since we were now obviously going to have to buy some new plane tickets as well, if we were to ever reach our original destination. Because it was already evening and there were no more planes leaving until the next day, he knew the easiest thing for this exhausted newlywed couple to do would be just to spend the night in one of their several available rooms (after all, it was still their off-season), and he authorized them to offer us an incredible discount on a room for the night.
Cecile and Kendra worked hard to console us, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure their work day was supposed to be nearing an end. They brought us a complimentary bottle of wine to help us calm our nerves down, and after Cecile discovered that I don't really drink wine, she disappeared again, this time returning with Ann, the resort's head chef, who provided me with a shot of tequila and then both of us with two freshly cooked meals to take back to our room with us. The food had been cooked quickly, so quickly that it seemed like someone had decided to start cooking it somewhere around the same time that we first arrived and my wife had broken into tears. What an amazing group effort to turn the first day of our honeymoon around!
They provided us with a key to our room and a key to our own personal golf cart (one came with our room), and we set off to unpack and eat our delicious meal. In the middle of the meal, there was a knock at our door, and on the other side we found Cecile waiting to hand us a large bag which held a continental breakfast for us to store in our refrigerator so that we could have a nice quiet breakfast as soon as we got up in the morning. I can't think of anything else they could have done to help us turn our day around.
The room (I should say "rooms", as it was more like a small apartment - with a really good hot tub in it!) was BEAUTIFUL! Truthfully, the entire resort was absolutely breathtaking. We loved it so much and we were so appreciative of everything that had been done to help us, that we actually delayed our trip to the correct island by a day, opting to stretch our budget and pay the full price to be able to stay there an extra night.
There is one other person at this resort that I would like to highlight. I never got the correct spelling of her name, so this may not be it, but the resort's massage therapist, Neetza, gave us each a massage during our time there, and she is the best that I have ever experienced by a long shot! In my lifetime, I have probably had at least 30 massages or so, and she blew them all away. My wife and I were so relaxed by the time she was done with us that I just couldn't believe it.
Also, should you find yourself staying at this wonderful resort in Exuma and looking to travel around the island to see what there is to see, you should only contact ONE person: Ken "Dr. K" Nixon, a taxi driver and certified tour guide (his cell phone number is 242-422-7399). Dr. K is not only extremely polite and friendly, but also very knowledgeable about the island. Plus, it is a huge added bonus to get a tour from a man who sounds EXACTLY like Morgan Freeman (no exaggeration - just don't tell him we told you that, ha ha!) Dr. K was very helpful to us on several occasions when we found ourselves in a bind, including helping us out of a situation at the airport that could have easily sabotaged an entire day out of the 3 days that we ended up spending on the island of Exuma (but that is a different story...)
In closing, we did finally make it to our original destination in Grand Bahama, and although this too, was a higher-end resort, I have to say that the staff and the service at The Grand Isle FAR exceeded that of the second resort, and we didn't really have any significant complaints about the second resort either - but as you can see, we only came here to provide details and recommendations for one of the two, so that should tell you something!