Brilliant idea Lory.... I couldnt go either, but planning on being there in September! Looking forward to hearing from everyone too!
oh.. missing you too Lory xxxx
I thought I'd start this thread in preparation for when everyone gets back, cos I'm gutted I wasn't able to go and I want to know EVERYTHING!
Sooooo, how was the....
Journey
Accommodation
- Cleanliness
- Hot water
- Cooking facilities
- Distance from your accommodation to the venue?
Venues
- Distance between venues and was this an issue?
- Timings of available dancing
- Size
- Floor
- Heat - fans - air-con etc
- Bars - efficiency and prices
- Seating
- Atmosphere?
Restaurants
- Quality
- Prices
- efficiency
Other facilities
- spa
- swimming
- Shops
- Bars
the good the bad and the Ugly of the...
Music - Dj's
Workshops
Cabarets
and any other incidentals.
Forum meets etc
Would a BBQ be feasible for the summer?
Any complaints?
Any surprise.... 'Wow..... that was a brilliant innovation'?
What could be improved on?
Any Shocking gossip???
Lovey dovy news, Valentine proposals etc?
and finally ... compared to the previous JA Southport's, how does it rate, as an overall experience???
P.s. I missed you all!
Last edited by Lory; 15th-February-2009 at 12:16 PM. Reason: Forgot something
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
Brilliant idea Lory.... I couldnt go either, but planning on being there in September! Looking forward to hearing from everyone too!
oh.. missing you too Lory xxxx
I'm not there either. So I can't comment about the event as I wasn't there to see anything first-hand - I wonder if Rocky will feel the same?
Another cracking idea from Lory...waiting with anticipation to hear about it as I have booked for June and it will whet my appetite even more...I hope
Great list there Lory - One thing I thought of to add is the potential for outside dancing, if any.
Good list - under the Accommodation section, you could also add a sub-section:
- Bed
and within that:
- cleanliness of sheets
- aroma of the bedding
- stiffness/hardness experienced in the bed
- pillows: lumpiness, softness.
I think that's a whole different thread.Originally Posted by JiveLad
Edit:darn! Beaten to it!
Posted via Mobile Device
i agree with lory need all the details i couldnt go due to family things but good job i didnt ive been ill all weekend lol so come on asap need the gossip whos gonna be home first and fill us in........
This has got to be the most eagerly awaited aftermath thread we have had.You just know that everyone will have a great time but you have a feeling that JA will come up with a surprise or two.
When you are sharing a weekender with other holiday makers I have this image of people with their noses pressed up against the windows envious of all the fun that those on the inside are having.
I wonder how many people go home from such a weekend and make an effort to find classes that teach MJ
To be honest i dont think there will be any spare spaces left at any other Eclipse weekender again.
The accomodation was fab, from beds with no missing middle bits to being able to cook and have the POWER shower on at the same time. No elec costs, no cleaning the room b4 you unpack and free tea and coffee in your room.
The size of the site did meen that some people did have a bit of a treck to get to the venue but we had a good chat there and back so it didnt seem to matter for us.
We had a 90 second walk between venues, nothing to panic about.
Reds = WOW, sexy colours made this venue my fav it would be the equivelent to the old big room, better seating, plenty of bar staff and plenty of room to dance. Price of the bar is prety much the same as Southport. £3.20 for a bottle of Stella and free chilled water from dedicated water machines.
Jacks = Blues room, a spent lots of £3.20's in here. Old saloon type venue, nice place to sit and enjoy company for me.
Arthers = Latin room, dont do latin but went in for a look, again i liked it, decorated with black cloth on the walls and sparkling lights set into it.
I found all 3 venues very pleasent and all had a good vibe.
Music = well we all know the Dj's and they all do a wicked job, with i had been there to hear the Beatz set.
I only came across 2 negatives and these were both from other dancers = floors were poor quality and heat in Reds, im have no doubt that these will be rectified by June.
This will never be Southport, its in Skeggy and is a different type of place but im sure people will keep going and it will become second home for many.
All in all i think it was a fab weekender again, well done JA.
Would be really good if rooms were named according to what folk are used to from Jive Addiction - Main room, Latin room, Blues room and Dance Den. Otherwise it'll mean nothing to those that weren't there. (Thanks for that above Achaeco, but I'll never remember further down the list...)
And it would be interesting to know if it lived up to the trade description - eclipsing all other weekenders. (Has anyone been to all others to find out??! Did it really eclipse Southport??)
(Unofficially have heard of 3-4 people who didn't have a great time, and one who has.)
Last edited by Nessiemonster; 16th-February-2009 at 08:19 AM.
Getting There - was a nightmare as it is an hours drive from the nearest motorway across bendy A roads with 40-50mph speed limits and about 30 speed cameras
Accommodation was excellent; We ended up in a three bedroom apartment over looking the sea with a large living room, LCD TV, Kitchen, Dining area, bathroom etc. And it was CLEAN.
The only downside was we had to drive to the venue as it was a 15 minute walk and blood freezing. When you got to the venue there was nowhere to park because everyone else had driven there as well.
REDs - the main venue had a feel good factor, it didn’t look tiered like all the Pontin’s venues. It didn’t smell of stale beer & sick and your feet didn’t stick to the carpet. The dance floor was very spacious even at the busiest time however there were a few ridges in it that would catch the edge of your shoes. And for some reason the heating was blasting you with hot air most of the night.
JAKs - the Blues & WCS Room. Nice venue but someone decided to cover the floor in talcon powder Friday night, which made a right mess of your shoes. I didn’t think the music was that great, shame there wasn’t a separate WCS room
Arthurs – Another lovely venue although the bar was tiny and finding somewhere to put your bag and coat was challenging. I only went to this venue once as it was tucked away from the other two venues and I had forgot to pack my trekking poles.
Workshops – Carl & Sarah were excellent, Always learn something from Victor. I was looking forward to the Tango workshops but thought the teacher was crap. Bring back Admir.
Summary - Nice accommodation & Nice venues although the distance between the three venues was too great. This put people off from walking between the rooms as you had to change your shoes and put your coat on. (Thank god it never rained). I missed being able to wonder with ease between the different venues. Finally Skegness is not the easiest place to get too.
I've had a review sent to me via FB.
The sender wishes to remain anonymous but I asked if they minded if I posted it here, as I thought it was a very 'full and detailed' review
Skeggy - well....
it was always going to be difficult as comparisons with Southport were going to be made automatically and John & Wes didn't have much of a choice really.
the good:
The accomodation - very clean, spacious although no towels
the not so good
- we were a good 10 to 15 mins walk from the venues- some people even drove from their rooms to the venue
- Jaks the new Blues room was a bit too seedy, dance floor was very slippy, even more so when some idiot put talc down! Very clicky too and quite a few people made that comment too! There was never a click at the Blues room at Souhtport so i dont know why thats suddenly developed.
There was no main Jive Ballroom until 11:30 - due to other guests being entertained 1st! On the Saturday night dancers were made to wait outside and queue until 11:50 - caberet was at 12:30am!
There was no atmosphere in their again
so until you could get access there was either a very clicky Jaks or a very latin Arthurs - so no real choice
The lessons were only 45 mins instead of an hr - most Teachers ran over as they were running out of time and to be honest 1hr is better, but this was done so more lessons cud be put in as there was only 2 rooms for lessons instead of 3 at Southport.
didnt like wandering around with all the chavs / non dancers and all the screaming kids
there were no places / spots to mingle other than the 3 venues so unless u went to 1 of them u wudn't bump into fellow dancers or people you know
there just wasn't a buzz or atmosphere like at Southport, not hearing music s your walking from your apartment to the venues just didnt help.
it didnt help that on Friday night in the blues room the only dances i got were with women in their 60's who were proud of telling me they were half-cut!
The music wasnt particularly fantastic either from what we heard.
Not having a main jive room till 11:30 on all 3 nights was my biggest issue!
at least @ Southport u cud dance from 8 / 9pm in the evening and really get in the mood for a nights dancing - i just cudn't be bothered waiting till so late to get in the mood!
Other things
The teachers were very good in the classes we did
Simon & Nicole
Amy & Peter
Viktor - who is as slick & smooth as ever!
For us we would have preferred the atmosphere & dancing rather than plush accomodation! Everyone who went to Southport knew the accomodation was rough - but u didnt go for that - well at least we didnt!
and we would gladly sacrifice that anyday so we cud enjoy our dance weekenders!
My heart goes out to John & Wes as i know this isn't their fault and it was always going to be a toughie! For those who never went to Southport they are fortunate and from what we heard did enjoy their selves and in some ways are lucky as there is nothing to compare to.
For us who loves Southport it is a different matter, we left yesterday afternoon as we cudn't be bothered to wait until 11:30 on a Sunday night for main room jive.
As you may have gathered by now i wasnt very impressed! lol
So we wont be returning to Skeggy which is sad as we always like supporting John & Wes and it means we wont see Teachers etc.. that we know as friends.
Im sure there are people who did enjoy their weekender and the last thing i want is for it to fail, but i'm just giving an honest objective opinion.
it does seem as though we paid more for less which just doesnt sit well.
we do know other people that have picked up on all the above and like us wont be returning to Skeggy which is sad!
Having said all that we are going to Blush @ Southport next month and despite all the politics and wondering if Ceroc can make it work we are really looking forward to goin back!
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
Thats a very good and honest appraisal of the weekend and I think thats exactly what Lory wanted.Don't you just feel that somewhere there is a gloat fest going on.
What a shame
Cor:
and:Jaks the new Blues room was a bit too seedy
Sounds good to me...a very latin Arthurs
I hope you don't mean from me?
I want 'all' weekenders to be good and I'd like to go to a JA one later in the year (if possble) so, hopefully, if people write honest reports about the 'not so good' along with the good.
JA will have a chance to straighten some of the 'not so good' issues out!
Also, I don't think anyone's in a position to gloat just yet, with Blush coming up so soon!
I think they're going to have the toughest job, so lets not start stirring, its not helpful
Lets hope the competition forces all weekenders to keep raising the bar....At the end of the day, lets not forget, its Joe Public, that will either suffer, or reap the rewards of the changes!
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks