TRAVEL THERE: ENJOYING THE EVENING PERFORMANCES
If you were looking for it, there was always something to do at Club Med. As I said earlier, live music entertained the guests in the Cielo Bar before dinner. After dinner there would be more live music, often from a different band. And so it would go into the the wee hours of the morning, but we can’t tell you much about that, because we usually turned in after the evening show.
Not Broadway, But Not Bad
Perhaps you read some of my reviews of our recent Royal Caribbean cruise which included scathing remarks about the on board talent, or lack of it. At Club Med, the performers weren’t pros (with a few exceptions) and they didn’t try to pretend they were, but the entertainment was completely enjoyable. Most evenings, some time in between the end of dinner and the beginning of the hard core partying, there would be entertainment. We found it quite fun.
Michael Jackson Tribute
Our first night featured a tribute to Michael Jackson. A professional performer danced to familiar Jackson tunes and he was accompanied by a cast comprised of Club Med staffers – known as GO’s (Gracious Organizers). We discovered a large number of the GO’s are interns on a stipend. Pretty much slave cheap labor, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
The pro had the right build to play MJ and had someone doing great make-up. His wardrobe was very convincing and so was his dancing. While I can’t say it was just like watching MJ himself, it was high-energy, fun and entertaining.
After the MJ tribute there was something very familiar – an introduction to the staff. I felt like I was on a cruise – but without the trays of champagne. The intro went overly long I thought, but the Chef du Village (the guy in charge of Club Med Punta Cana) was embarrassing people who left early, so we sat in our seat until he was through.
Creactive Demo
Creactive is the name of the Cirque du Soleil (CDS) trapeze training school at Club Med Punta Cana. There guests can pretend they’ve run away and joined the circus. Bill wasn’t the least bit interested in taking a high-flying class and I’m a little acrophobic, so we didn’t take advantage of Creactive at all – except for the show they put on one evening.
The show was great. Performers, alone and in pairs, put themselves through their paces high in the sky. If you’ve ever been to a CDS show or seen one on TV I don’t have to tell you of the aerial feats of skill and awe they performed. However, it was also different from the usual performance.
There was no plot or theme and I missed it. I love the crazy costumes and surreal stories featured in the CDS shows I’ve seen previously. There was also none of the floor acrobatics, juggling and magic that make a CDS show so fantastic. As I said, it was a great show and this isn’t meant as criticism, just a warning about what to and not to expect.
After the show, there was a Balloon Party in the Rondele, a circular patio next to the Cielo Bar. Whatever they called a party at Club Med, it contained a lot of singing and swaying. There’s a song they sang all the time that started out “alle’ alle'” and included hand signals that everyone seemed to know – but us. It was called the Crazy Dance and they gave Crazy Dance lessons every day, but since I don’t know my right from my left, I stayed away. This was the Balloon Party, because they dropped balloons on the crowd. The White Party was white, because they dropped white confetti on you. The Red Party was red because…well you get the idea.
The Brazil Show
Another evening we were entertained with a show featuring Brazilian music and dance. As far as I could tell, there were no professional performers for this one, just jiggling GO’s giving it their all in skimpy costumes. I’m not complaining. It was a lot of fun.
Then out came the Chef du Village (CDV). This guy really needs his own TV show. I don’t think the stage at Club Med is big enough for him. He had on a knock-out Carnivale costume and performed some “magic” that were actually gags, which poked fun at his victim, but entertained the audience.
From Carnivale, the CDV moved on to world peace. (See I told you his stage was too small.) He recognized all the countries represented by staff and then moved on to the audience to see how many other countries were represented. Then we all sang, “We Are the World.”
No Dominican Show
We were disappointed on our final day that there was no show. It was supposed to feature the Dominican culture, which I would have enjoyed. The show had been on the schedule I took a picture of that first day. The show was on the schedule I picked up in the lobby. However, the schedule at the Cielo had been changed somewhere along the way and the Dominican show had disappeared. The only people to show up were Bill and I and one other group. There’s being prepared and being over-prepared. I think I was over-prepared – as if that’s a surprise.
Sometimes after the show we would head over to Cielo to check out the action, but usually we were worn out by so much relaxation, so we’d head to the room. Come back next week and I will tell you about our accommodations – and as always, thank you CTC Travel.
jane sadek 