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Taking Care of Teens

In contrast, she notes that parents are not spending as much time as they used to with older children. To cope with this gap in supervision, Beaches established ‘tween and teen programs. “We do have set activities that we like to get them involved with,“ says Chandley, who keeps her staff clued in by watching MTV. “But,” she continues, “If we put it down on paper, none of them will do it.” Instead, the resort’s young hip counselors try to involve teens in sports and entertainment options already available at each resort.

Additionally, when Beaches Ultra Spas were upgraded, they added teen treatments to the wide array of top-notch adult therapies, including seaweed baths and aromatherapy massages. During certain seasons, teens have specially scheduled hours for discounted manicures, pedicures and treatments like You Glow, Girl facials.

Commitment to the Kids Camp Staff

Increased parental participation has not diminished the high quality of childcare and staff training. Applicants are carefully screened before hiring, and staff that will deal with children (whether part of the kids camp, the recreation department or the ‘casual workers’ who are trained as replacements) must participate in a two-week orientation period, followed by three months of probation.

All Beaches resorts maintain a caregiver to child ratio of 1:3 for the newborns to age 5; 1:5 for the 6 to 7-year-olds; and 1:8 for children 8 through 12. Because of concerns over potential sexual harassment claims, there is a minimum of two staff with children at all times.

According to Chandley, Boston-based consultants Parents in a Pinch worked with Florida State University’s Nursery Readiness program to develop the resorts’ training regimen, which includes 1st Aid, and classes in health and safety, supervision techniques, role-playing and local etiquette. One hundred twenty hours per year of additional and ongoing training is required of all childcare staff, some of it with Sesame Workshop experts, to enhance the learning sessions that Sesame Street characters do with children.

Sesame Street in the Caribbean

The Sesame Street initiative masks a number of changes at Beaches. Appealing to the preschool market was originally the way to build occupancy levels during the school semesters, and filled a programming need for that age group, but the response has been greater than expected. Commenting on the guest experience at Beaches Turks & Caicos, general manager and father of three Derek Meanhy, noted happily, “Sesame Street has really kicked it up a notch.”

Sending the lovable, brand name characters from Sesame Street to the beach was also a way to answer families’ growing interest in learning vacations. Once or twice per year, guests who are at the selected resort during the Sesame Workshop training periods may participate in parenting seminars covering such topics as “Preschool Readiness.” In May 2005, these proved so successful for guests at Beaches Negril that the sessions were taken out to the local Jamaican communities.

Following the Caribbean’s trend away from moon-dancing wait staff -- and toward professionally produced evening entertainment -- Beaches now features a very popular, live show directed by VEE Productions, who do the traveling “Sesame Street Live” shows throughout the US.

Echoing the cruise industry’s move to more varied dining options. Beaches has a la carte French, Italian and Japanese restaurants in addition to the mainstay buffets. Resort guests also have the opportunity to dine with Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoe, Grover at a Beaches signature buffet breakfast. Any crowd dominated by under-3s is tough to carry, and many are too shy or too stunned to fully participate, but every family walks away with some great snaps and solid memories, just what together vacations are made of.