Just wondering what everyone's opinion is as to the constantly changing guests that you get at a resort as opposed to being on vacation the whole time with the same group of people like on a cruise. Personally I prefer the cruise approach as it is tough seeing people you have a connection with leave in the middle of the trip, and hard to have the energy to meet new people with only a couple of days left. There is also that shared energy of everyone being at the same stage of their vacation. But it is nice knowing the obnoxious bachelor party will be leaving while you still have time to enjoy the rest of your trip. You also don't have to spend your entire vacation running into the same people after that awkward drunken interaction.
Interaction between guests is one of the things that makes this resort unique. It always seemed to us that at other resorts guests were much less likely to have continual interaction and conversation, much less do body shots off each other. TTR is certainly unique in that way, and we really appreciate how groups tend to plan their trip to see other members at the same time each year. Yes, sometimes we'll only see friends for a few days before one of us has to leave, but at least we got to see them. I guess we kind of like the "mix and match" flow of guests throughout our stay. It gives us more opportunity to see old friends, and make new ones.
We find Temptation provides a great combo of both, especially because of forums like this. Personally, for us. We love arriving there as if it's going to be a week-long epic pool party with friends. Pretty much what I love most about this website and why I do the Shitshow Rollcall each year is to help get as many people as possible somewhat social before even arriving. I love the fact that throughout the year there are more and more people joining the party and that we are able to get to know people before heading there. By the time we show up other than seeing many awesome friends we have known from past trips we are getting to see a bunch of people that feel like friends that we have never met before.
I kind of like to have some of both. People that I am there with the entire time, and then new people that come in and out. It keeps it more interesting that way. What I do not like is when everyone you have been partying with is all gone, and you are there for like 2 more days. Those almost feel wasted because you might not feel like making new friends at that point at the end of the trip, and other people might not be as open to getting close with people they know are on their way out the door.
We run into this every trip. Those that get there before us are quickly gone Then we are gone while others stay. Our last trip was long (two weeks) and all of our close friends from over the years had left and we were by ourselves for a couple days Just didn't have the energy to make the new connections. We actually hung out at the quiet pool for a while. It was nice to have some time for each other.
Yeah, when that has happened we kind of use those last couple of days just to do our own thing and relax a bit more. It has made that travel day home not feel so terrible. Because other times I have gone strait from full all night party mode into the return. Awful.
Early into our first trip, of five now, we made friends with what was then a large crew of very friendly repeaters. We've since arranged trips, to TTR and elsewhere, to join up with many from that group. Lots of fun has been had. That said, some of our most memorable experiences have been on our last night after meeting new people. You know it's been a good vacation when you're both laughing on the flight home and saying, "Holy hell, did last night really happen?" We can also say it sucks bigtime to meet new arrivals at noon whom you'd really like to play chess with but you have an airport shuttle to catch at 1pm. We've never been on a chess cruise so can't comment about those.
Bein that we typically do a ten day trip, we always have seen people come and go. As new peeps show up, it has, many times really refreshed things for us and made for some great memories!
