Oakwood Resort – Review

Address: 70671 Bluewater Highway
Grand Bend, ON N0M 1T0

Website: Oakwood resort.ca

Rate: $285 – $349 peak season / night

GPS: 43.3195 -81.7526

Wednesday July 28th 2021 Original Visit

This resort has an eighteen hole golf course, pro shop, a restaurant, a spa, indoor pool and hot tub, along with event facilities, as well as private access to the beach on the shore of Lake Huron. It has a large presence, and is made up of multiple buildings that provide either golf course or resort views, the landscape looks to be well taken care of but with an attached golf course, I would have been disappointed if it wasn’t. We stayed in Oak Lodge in room 145, the end unit on the upper floor, parking was at a premium and quite tight, wouldn’t be big pickup truck friendly.

We were booked for a two night stay, with a breakfast, and a round of golf with a power cart included. And as I have always said you only have one opportunity to make a first impression and so many businesses fail that first test. I think that I referred to the resort as rustic in the previous blog, and while rustic can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, its kind of like the term resort that way. and while there was no shortage of knotty pine on the walls and on the vaulted ceiling of our room, it also seemed to be home to a lot of dust and spider webs. It is the little things that leave the biggest impression, like if you put a ceiling fan in a room you need to dust it often, and all that air movement makes the dust collects on the spider webs, and if one of the rooms features is the pine ceilings, people are most likely going to look up to admire them.

Part of the cleaning issue could very well be caused by the lack of lighting in the room, making it difficult to see the dust … well that’s not a really good excuse because it was easy enough for us to see, another little thing like vacuuming behind the door would have helped, or just stopping to look around you, possibly a supervisor doing spot checks now and then, to confirm the end results. So the lack of lighting is obviously not an excuse that holds any credence, I’m just going to chalk it up to possibly understaffing.

The resort seems to be booked pretty much to capacity, not surprising for one of the busiest vacation weeks of the summer. So this was not a quiet stay with lots of floor noise, barking dogs, kids running up and down the halls, and the constant slamming doors. It was different to see nothing but Ontario license plates in the parking lot, just another reminder of this pandemic.

The room furnishings were all dark wood, a small desk, a large cabinet piece to house a large bar fridge, and a home to sit a small old flat screen television on, a dark wood fireplace/heater sat in the corner with a split a/c unit on the wall above it, a six foot patio door led to a wood deck/balcony with a couple of chairs, and two queen size beds complete the room. There was an ice bucket with some 8oz plastic glasses and the washroom had a supply of packaged soap, shampoo and conditioner.

Missing was the coffee maker for my morning coffee, and real glass glasses to enjoy a cold beverage on a warm afternoon, all cast aside in the name of Covid. Same with the pool and hot tub both closed because of Covid we know that was the resorts choice not a health board restriction, but amazingly it is safe enough for a massage in the spa, who would have thought a massage was safer than a swim. And a comfortable chair or two in the room would have been nice, to sit and read a book or to write a blog.

The beds were very comfortable, although seemed very high off the ground with some sort of big wooden structure around the bottom, once in they were cozy. The air conditioner was quite and worked well on the humid afternoons with the sun beating on the patio door. Sitting on the deck/patio was not pleasant because the split a/c unit was mounted on the deck just outside the patio door, the whole idea of the split a/c unit is allow the mounting the noisy compressor remotely. The deck views were great, but the deck boards needed staining and although it is a no smoking room the ashtray on the deck being full of butts was not a nice touch.

And of course just as with campgrounds the free high speed internet has been nonexistent, it did work early in the morning, I tested it and got 5 mbps but it was short lived and by 8 in the morning the speed test would not even start … remember you get what you pay for … so free or included internet usually equals poor or nonexistent.

Dave’s Pub & Grill remembering that we are still under Covid protocol in July 2021, I can imagine this place being a going concern before covid, with a large patio overlooking the first and tenth holes of the golf course. We had breakfast there which was included with our stay, and while the presentation of the meal was excellent, the food was not hot. Now that was because of two reasons, first we had prime patio seating so we are a long way from the kitchen and secondly because they were understaffed our meals most likely sat before being served, and I understand the difficulty getting staff, but the management is to blame for opening too many tables for the staff that they had. A very smart move was a limited menu, the wait staff was very attentive, but obviously over worked, knowing that turning tables improves profits, simple things like refills of coffee caused us to be more than an hour for breakfast where a craft of coffee on the table allowing the wait staff to deliver plates sooner, would have reduced our time and most likely provided hotter meals. We were not rushed at all which was nice, but with half the course being closed, the tee off entertainment was a little scarce at times.

View from our table at Dave’s Pub & Grille

The Beach was quite a walk from the resort through a gated community, the beach was a sand beach on the shoreline of Lake Huron, which is still quite cool, not getting to its peak temperatures near the end of August through the first of September. Signage prohibited any alcohol on the beach which will reduce our beach time, and something as simple as a shuttle that runs back and forth would be a nice touch, when hauling chairs and such, either that or supply chairs at the beach. Again I see a missed opportunity, refreshments, snacks, French fries, easy money and an enhanced experience, on this busy private beach.

The golf course we were unable to play because of recent flooding on the back nine, and we have elected to return later to enjoy all eighteen holes in a month or so. I will amend this blog when we have been able to play the course.

In closing we did speak with Jeff the general manager, not because of any issues, just because he was greeting people outside of the Pub after we had finished our breakfast. We discussed the staffing issues that every business is experiencing right now, he said we could reschedule our golf for later in the year. We found all the staff to be trying to assist, possibly a little green from lack of experience, but definitely trying to accommodate everyone’s needs and requests. While we will most likely never be back, for no other reason than it’s just not our thing, we can see no end of potential to this resort, it needs some updating, and redecorating, but we are also fifteen months after the pandemic shut down so much of the world.

Monday September 13th 2021 Update

We ventured to Grand Bend and the Oakwood Resort today to play our rain check round of golf from our rained out July visit, because we had rained again overnight I tried calling the pro shop twice before driving there, just to confirm the course as open and playable. I got voicemail both calls, left my name and number on the first call, and the message did not indicate that the course would not be open so we drove the near hour long trip to arrive in advance of our tee time and we more that annoyed to see a “Golf course closed” sign at the reception. The young lady at the desk was very accommodating, and told us that none of the pro shop staff came to work today, so that was why no one answered my call or returned my message.

I’m sorry but when you put resort in your operations name people have some sort of expectation that they will be treated well, at least with a little extra care, but that has not happened here. Just a simple message on the phone at the pro shop to say that the golf course was closed, I mean they had taken the time to make the damn sign up! So two hours later we are back at the coach, well that’s not true, we stopped for a wood fired pizza at the golf course just ten minutes up the road from Oakwood Resort that was open and being played.

So we have rebooked out tee time for next Tuesday, the 21st, maybe the third time will be the charm … but I’m not holding my breath.

I did get a call from the pro shop on the next day, and he apologized, but said management had told them not to come to work.

Tuesday September 21st 2021 Update

Well it has happened, we got to play the July round of golf that has been rained out twice already. We had a 1:10 tee time, but when I called the pro shop I was told that the course was open, and playable but if we wanted to get there earlier we could tee off earlier. We were able to get on the course about an hour ahead of our tee time, the day was overcast and rain was forecast for later in the afternoon.

The course itself was a mixture of par 5’s and par 3’s and while the length from the white tees was only 5356 yards it played long because there were some big par 5’s. This par 70 course has 5 of its 8 par 3’s on the front nine holes with three in a row to bring you back to the clubhouse and three par 5’s in a row on the back nine with some being 600 yards. I didn’t see a sand trap on the course, which has many huge mature trees guarding some of the holes. There are a number of the par 3 holes with mats to tee off from, not a desired feature on a golf course but from what we had observed most likely a good call for a resort course in a party town.

The course was still showing signs of having being under water, with piles of debris in the roughs on some of the low holes, I would still call the course wet when we played it today, with standing water in some areas, and because of being cut into heavily wooded areas some of the greens were in poor shape, but with the rain that the area had received over this year understandable.

We had a great day on the course, we did have a little light rain on the back nine but only for a hole or two, Miss Laurie got some pictures of a Blue Herron on hole 10 and we seen a King Fisher by the creek near the green on hole 7 but no pictures that time. The photo is of the 160 yard par 3 11th hole, which was beside our room and also shows the mature trees around the course.

A midsummer getaway

Friday July 29th 2021

Well we are just over halfway through the summer camping season, and to say that it has had some difficult times would be an understatement. So Bonnie and Rich have booked us a midweek getaway, just an hour south of the park at Grand Bend we have a couple of nights booked at the Oakwood Resort.

We had a tee time booked for Tuesday morning but heavy rain had forced a closure of the golf course, so we rebooked for Wednesday afternoon, hoping that the course would be dry enough to be enjoyable. This will actually be our first round of 2021, I’m not just sure why other than we have been enjoying a lot of beach time here at the resort, a lot more this year, particularly because of the extra area with the lower water level. In fact we enjoyed a sunset on Monday evening from the beach at LHR (Lake Huron Resort), and the smoke is back in the air causing the sun to turn red before setting.

Miss Laurie’s birthday was last week, and although it was a workday, lots of people stopped by with best wishes and a few treats for her, my birthday is a little more than a month and a half away, and this getaway is a gift to both of us. Now at this point of the season things should be more routine, but it’s also the time when little thing seem to upset people even more. And as we approach the busiest couple of weeks of the summer this will give both of us a much needed breather as we look toward the last couple of month of the summer.

So after rescheduling our tee time to Wednesday, on Tuesday morning we were able to take a more relaxing start to this getaway. So we set out around noon with our first stop the LCBO for some adult beverages for our trip, our second stop was to be lunch at Bayfield Brewing’s Public House for lunch, they make a plater of won ton nachos which are excellent not to mention they have a couple of brews that normally also get my approval. But alas they decided not to open their restaurant on the Tuesday on one of the two busiest summer weeks and before the holiday weekend in August, after months of being forced closed because of the lockdown, and with the Main Street in Bayfield packed with cars and people, some how it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me but there again what do I know. In fact the brewery was open and the bartender suggested buying takeout food up the road and bringing it back to the bar to enjoy, so we said thanks but no thanks.

So down the road we go to Grand Bend, now Grand Bend was a real hot spot for summer weekend parties when I was just young fellow, and it doesn’t appeared to moved past that era yet, we were just looking for a nice sit down meal, for our first in restaurant dining experience after months of lockdown but there just wasn’t anything like that readily available, and take out was not what we had in mind and with check in not being until after 4pm we decided to drive to Exeter to maybe get an oil change on the SporTrac and find some lunch. Well the local TireCraft shop got us in for an oil change while we waited.

As far as lunch we settled for the local A&W to try their new Nashville Hot chicken sandwich, well I guess that now we can say we had it, but it wouldn’t be something that I will order again, but we were able to sit inside which was nice but some people still do not seem to have a real grasp of the whole mask on unless your seated and eating. It’s not that we are living in fear of the pandemic as we are both fully vaccinated but it is just seems ignorant to everyone else and just adds to the restaurant staff’s nightmare of trying to stay in compliance.

Oh ya I forgot to mention that we had a detour because of a bridge construction, and while on the detour route we ran into a road maintenance crew patching the road surface, and while necessary the timing just seemed wrong. Like I would have thought that a little communication and coordination between the road work crews could have saved some annoyance for a lot of travellers. But there again what do I know … jus’saying.

So it is off to the Oakwood Resort, check in time was 4pm and we arrive to an empty registration desk, of course there is a Covid protocol to follow, all of which was basically wearing a mask indoors and filling out a Covid affidavit verification you are not ill and have not been out of province, just like at the park. Of course there was plexiglass everywhere, so between a mask and a wall of plexiglass, conversation is at times a difficult task to say the least. Our room is on the upper level of the Oak Lodge and we have a balcony facing the west, the room I will just call rustic, I will follow up with a review of the Lodge in another blog soon.

We decided to get some pizza for a late dinner, and found the “Riverbend Pizza” just a kilometre down the road, and as luck would have it we were able to get a table by the window and it was also 85 cent wing night so we got a pizza and some wings, the pizza was half the price of the one we just got on the weekend and was better as well the wings were jumbo wings and we ordered a “Forty Creek” bar-b-que sauce on the side, the beer was cold and we left full and content.

Of course in keeping with last weekend we received a tornado warning for the Sarnia and Lambton Shores area as we sat in the pizza parlour enjoying dinner. After all the warnings on the previous Saturday at the park I’m thinking these tornado warnings are coming becoming way to frequently.

So with a little more rain overnight, playing the course here is not looking promising, but we will check on that after breakfast this morning. After we left the restaurant after breakfast we met Jeff the resort general manager, and while talking to him, he told the same story as most managers, you just can’t hire staff, and when they do hire staff, many just never show up to work. We also spoke to him about rescheduling our round of golf in September, which will be after the park starts to slow down. And it will make for a great Monday getaway as the summer winds down, and it’s close to my Birthday, so golf and dinner will be nicer, quieter, and maybe even a little romantic, or as romantic as this old fart gets any more.

So breakfast was included with our package, and Miss Laurie booked us at the best patio table at “Dave’s Grill & Pub” where we enjoyed an excellent breakfast overlooking the first and tenth hole of the course. And it did provide me with some entertainment, watching people tee up and dribble the shot off of the front of the tee (hey we have all been there). But as with most places post Covid the restaurant seemed to be understaffed which to many would make service seem bad and actually it is, because there were just not enough wait staff to cover the number of tables open. This is where management needs to reduce the amount of tables available, and while I realize that is a hard choice after being locked down, it would be the correct choice for customer experience. We used to refer to that as the uh ha moment, where customer experience becomes as important, as the bottom line, because the customer that has a disappointing experience will most likely never return and you can be sure all their friends will know about it as well, and with social media it is even worse. And it’s not the big things that need to be changed, it’s the little things like when you charge $2.50 for a coffee, and are short staffed, you can afford to just leave a craft of coffee on the table for client to do their own refills, you have to get past “this is how we always did it”, because that just doesn’t work anymore.

So with golf off the menu for today, we will be checking out the beach, although all the no alcohol on the beach signs mean it could be a short lived experience, certainly not like the park. Well the beach was busy with vacationers (the really untanned people) and while it was a sand beach it still drops off quickly and is still the same chilly Lake Huron water, although Miss Laurie said it was warmer than LHR.

Maybe, it’s just me but when someone asks me to do something, I feel that I will do my best to comply so when we were asked to stay off the sand dunes to help protect the shoreline, I find it annoying when others disregard the same regulations. And use the dunes as a play area for the kids, these should be teaching moments, by explaining how the dunes protect the shoreline from erosion damage, again just an observation.

Now as we just snacked on our left over pizza for lunch, finding a spot for dinner has proved a little more challenging, many restaurants seem to be either booked or just not serving dinner. So we are going to walk to a place on the main strip and hope for the best. The pub at the resort has mainly a fried menu and after a fried chicken sandwich and wings on the same day, I just thought I needed something different.

Ro’s Fire Fusion Bar & Grill, menu had an eclectic selection of options, from a burger to Mexican, Indian, even Pakistani, along with a wide selection of cocktails. Just a fifteen minute walk from the resort so maybe twenty for an old fart, but still not to bad. Well dinner came with karaoke, as entertainment, and as always with karaoke entertainment is in the eye of the beholder and I will leave it there. Our food was good, maybe a little spicy, but very flavourful, we left stuffed and quite content, as we headed back to the resort.

A nice walk back to the lodge down the 7th hole of the golf course, made it obvious why the course as restricted because of wetness, but we also got to see the fountain between the 1st and 10th hole which was lighted at night, as well as the tiki torches at Dave’s Pub, and we finished the evening by catching up on the Olympic action from the day.

Thursday we woke to more thunderstorms, I guess we must be in monsoon season. We decided that Tim Hortons would supply our breakfast, quick and easy, well maybe not. As many of you know I’m not a real big “Tim’s” fan, and that has been a long standing opinion, but they were promoting how they have improved their deep roast coffee and have gone to fresh cracked eggs. Well the breakfast sandwich was better without the egg puck things that they used to use, but the dark roast coffee still has a ways to go, unlike the regular brew that I still believe tastes burnt, the dark roast is still bitter and I now remember why I don’t order the hash browns, they are still soggy. We tried the order ahead option on the Tim’s app and that didn’t go well either, but maybe it was just because the store was so busy, I couldn’t even get on the lot.

So we are packing up to head back Thursday morning, we have a couple of stops planned, but just to pick up supplies and check out a furniture store. We both need to get back to work in the afternoon Miss Laurie has the store and multiple trailer showings, and I have pump outs and lawn mowing, followed by pool closing and washroom cleaning. So a quick stop at a Lazyboy showroom, you see we are looking for some new recliners for the coach but after we were told there is over a six month wait for custom pieces, and that certainly doesn’t work into our schedule we headed down the road.

Luckily there was only a short wait in the line up for some fresh corn, followed by a quick stop at Food Basics, where as always during the summer many shelves were bare, so no cream for Miss Laurie’s morning coffee, I may have to make a mercy run to the government milk store for a bottle of Baileys, I won’t tell her bosses if you don’t.

So as I close this blog, it’s early Friday morning, of a long weekend, but as we climbed into our bed last night Miss Laurie’s last words were getaway, what getaway!