Unpleasant experience in ClubMed Cherating

As some of u notice  i had tweet few weeks back; i was trying hard to pack for all 5 of us for a short family getaway. When syauQi out of the blue mentioned to me to arrange a short holiday during his off days, i was thrilled. syauQi said anywhere, of my choice. since we can only go for a 3 days trip, we couldnt go anywhere far, thus we had to go somewhere local. Now that i’m pregnant, i wanted somewhere we can relax, hence we decided to choose ClubMed Cherating since it is a family resort and they have Petite Club for our lil ones. I had few friends had a great time in ClubMed so i thought y not give it a try. We invited my parents to come along since they just got back from a year posted in Jeddah. Yes, my dad was in Jeddah for a year.

I called up the ClubMed KL sales office to find out the details, well i would say, it ain’t cheap. With the same amount, we could have gone abroad. But thinking that we can have our own sweet time while the kids be occupied at the Petite Club all day, we decided to make a reservation.

Oh boy, were we dissapointed? Yes we were! There were lots of mishaps that I encountered during my short trip. 🙁

Firstly, my booking got mixed up. Both my husband and I clearly and surely checked that all details were accurate with no errors whatsoever before faxing in the Visa authorization form for our payment to be processed. Unfortunately, the person from the ClubMed KL sales office inserted the information wrongly and my room was booked a day late in our e-voucher. After clearly double checking our invoice form stating the correct date, we were surprise to find out at the guardhouse of ClubMed Cherating that we were suppose to come the next day as the e-voucher stated our stay is from 28^th – 30^th July. My jaws were wide open when the guard said “sorry, yours is not today, but tomorrow” (and he pointed out our evoucher). Good thing i brought along all the documents that i had fax to the KL sales office and pointed out to the guard our invoice letter. He asked me to come down to speak to the receptionist via phone. We were then allowed to enter after I personally spoke to the receptionist.

As a result of this, my room was not ready when I arrived. Although they did rectify the problem but we had to settle with 2 triple duplex room instead of 3 duplex room (2 duplex room (connecting room and another duplex room for my parents) and;

1. I got my room at approximately 1800hrs; costing us any activities we could have done on the 1^st day. ( we arrived at about 1530hrs). While waiting for our room, we were asked to enjoy the afternoon snack which was at the cafe next to the pool. Imagine how tiring it was to ensure the kids didnt jump into the pool. They were asking permission to swim, but we couldnt since we couldnt change them into their swimming attire.
2. We were not given the tour which we saw given to all other guests on our 2^nd and 3^rd day, hence we found it very hard to locate venues during our stay. Imagine, each time we ask the GO for direction such as may i know where’s the Petite Club, and the common answer we get will be ” next to the Mini Club” and i was like “and where is the Mini club?” “near the boutique” &(@#&@!).
3. The room we were given in the end was at the far end of the resort (Nuri), on the 3^rd floor. Please bear in mind that I was travelling with 3 toddlers, ages 3 and 2, with myself being pregnant. Not to mention that there were lizard feces all over the floor of the corridor in front of our room. If the problem is known, it would be good if effort were put to clean the corridors more frequently, which did not happen. For a chain of your reputation, I find this unwelcoming and unacceptable. Seriously, the room was soooo far. I would say it was at at least 4oometers walk, but syauQi felt it was more than that. uZAir demanded to be carried all the way each time we walk to the room and to the activity centre. athirAh would walk half way and asked to be carried another half way. And after the long walk, we have to climb up till 3rd floor. Pengsan nak jalan pegi balik bilik. It was so far for my kids to walk that by the time they reached the room, they were already cranky feeling hungry. uZAir jumped with joy when he saw oreos biscuit in the bag.

And on the next day, we were given our originally booking room. We were greatful the room was much nearer than Nuri ( Block J 2143 and 2142) but it sure caused hassle to us, to pack and unpack all our belongings to move rooms.

here’s how far we had to walk, on the last day i decided to walk along the beah instead the other side of the resort so i could take photo of the stretch we had to walk daily

wondering where exactly we had to walk too? Notice there’s a stairs at the far end? that’s where the main centre is (i.e pool, food dining, petite club)

and for ur information, where hArith is walking, that is only 1/4 way to our first day room and only half way to our 2nd day room! I really have to praise hArith for being such a good boy, walking up and down everyday. uZair mmg asked us to carry him while athirAh usually walks half way before asking us to carry her.

On the 2^nd day, when we returned to the room after a swim to get ready for dinner, we found out one of the connecting room had no electricity at approximately 1845hrs on the 2^nd day. I called the reception and encountered a front desk that inform me all technicians are having their break till 1930hrs and suggested that we proceed with our dinner and he will inform the technician of our problem later. Dalam hati, i was like “huh watt, dont they have technician on standby? All having break at the same time??”

Although we do have another connecting room with electricity, it was a hassle to search for the kids attire and all in the dark room.

When we returned to the room after dinner and theatre performance, the electricity was back. However,  the problem again happened at approximately 0230hrs. When a technician was finally sent, he was not even armed with a torch light but instead asked for the one placed in the room. Although this might be the case, I should think that in the line of work that this person does, it is not too much to ask that he come prepared with a torch light of his own. And furthermore the torchlight that was in the room cabinet was not functioning, lucky thing we had the other torchlight in the next connecting room. After all this, the technician could not help us as, according to him, it was a problem with the fuse box and nothing can be done. Might I remind you again that I have 3 toddlers with me and that it is a time-consuming hassle to have to put all 3 back to sleep. All this ultimately resulted in us sleeping in and wasting yet more precious time the day after. The 5 of us ended up sleeping on one bed of the next room. That surely was not comfortable. Ended up syauQi slept in the room next door without the aircond.

The next day, we planned to have early breakfast so we can bring the kids to the beach as the room check out time was at 11am. We ended up having our breakfast at 0845hrs. Before heading for breakfast I approached the front desk at approximately 0830hrs to voice my troubles only to be informed that the manager only arrives at 1000hrs. With my husband and dad’s job nature (alhamdulillah we blessed with rezeki to travel around and have stayed at many hotels), we know for certain that even less reputable hotels have night managers. Why this resort does not have the same is beyond me.

I paid for all 3 children to join the Petite Club on both days. I sent my kids only to find that there are only 2 GOs entrusted to care for my 3 children as well as 3 other children. It was surely handful to care for 6 children (age 2 and 3) by 2 GOs. On the first day, when we left the kids, 1 GO was handling uZAir, trying to calm him down, crying his lung out and another GO was chasing after athirAh. You know how fast she is, she can be somewhere else within seconds. Infact i did write a special note on the form to be extra alert on her since she is very active. So one GO was calming uZAir, one GO was chasing after athirAh who was running away. So who’s left to look after the other 4 children??

I witnessed another occasion where 1 GO brought 3 children riding the tram to the beach. What will happen if there is an emergency and the GO has to attend to 1 child (i.e: a child runs into the sea, need medical attention if insect bite, since i saw lots of insect around, we even encountered with snake by the beach! )? Will the other 2 children be left alone? It is with this knowledge that I refused to leave my children at the petite club.

Infact on my 2nd day i saw another parents ended up not sending her 2 year old child to the petite club too. hmm, i wonder y?

So on few occasion, we ended up staying there with the kids at the petite club

This is one of the GO, she was very nice, trying all her best to comfort the kids, but she really didnt have enough hand to comfort all the kids at one time

and hArith trying to do like Michiko’s mouth

athirAh busy eating, not bothered by the ppl passing by

Besides that it was surely tiring for us to walk up and down to our room to change our kids’ diapers. The baby’s changing room was under construction, leaving us no choice but to walk back a distance to the room to get them clean. If we were informed of the distance we had to walk, we would have brought the kids strollers. But then again, it would be hassle to be carrying all the strollers up the stairs.

Having said all this, I do admit that when the manager got back to me, he was courteous and understanding and allowed us late check-out. We were also greeted with a fruit basket and t-shirts for the children at our departure.

” I sincerely apologize for all the unfortunate events that happen to you and your family during your stay. I wish you to enjoy to the most of the day”

However, I am forced to say that the service they provided is nothing near to the value that they are charging me. The price of our stay was a large sum and with this price tag I expect impeccable service, one that lives up to the resort reputation. Although the resort does have some merits, what I have encountered is such major distress which I cannot overlook and greatly overshadows whatever good points the resort may have.

The very main reason I chose this resort was because I am pregnant and was looking for a resort that could let me and my husband relax and unwind, knowing that our children are also taken care of and enjoying themselves. Instead, what I got was a stressful misadventure that I could certainly have gone without. I say this with honesty but without malice, I will not recommend the resort to anyone and do not wish this to happen even on my greatest enemy.

Anyway here are pic of us on the very last day, spent some time at the beach while waiting for the manager to call me after the breakfast. we woke up late that day due to the  electricity failure. all kids went for breakfast in their pyjamas on and we head straight to the beach after breakfast. although we did get the late check-out, we still had to go back to our rooms coz my parents room did not get any extension and the check out time was at 11am. We managed to spend bout 45 mins at the beach

kids were upset we had to cut short their playtime at the beach, had to rush back coz my parents need to transfer their stuff to our room

After transfering my parents stuff to our room, we shower the kids and went for our lunch. We decided to let the kids have some playtime at the beach nearby (infront of the resort) before heading home.

Finally some peace of mind for the husband…

and mine too…

as well as the kids