Meet Edwin, the Club Med Amazing Family Manager!

Have you ever teared up saying goodbye to a resort employee you met on vacation? Yeah, me neither – until Edwin! I literally got choked up saying goodbye to him after our family vacation at Club Med Miches Playa Esmeralda.

Don’t get me wrong, this entire property is spectacular. It is part of Club Med’s Exclusive Collection which is their elevated all-inclusive resort product. However, what really sets Club Med apart is its G.O.s, Gentils Organisateurs (Gracious/Nice Organizers). Do not think of G.O.’s as staff there to serve you. G.O.’s are the hosts there to engage with you and ensure you are having a good time, and we had the best time!

There is no doubt that we would have had a wonderful time at Club Med Miches no matter what. The Club Med Amazing Family program that Edwin was in charge of is a brilliant concept that I will tell you more about below. What is even more brilliant is that Club Med chose Edwin to run it. Our entire family thinks Edwin is the greatest thing since sliced bread which was why it was hard to say goodbye! To be honest, I still tear up thinking about it. I realize that sounds ridiculous, but let me explain …

Club Med Amazing Family Program

We learned throughout the week that the Amazing Family Program is currently only offered at select Club Meds (although I will be suggesting that it be expanded to every Club Med to whoever will listen to me!) Some children just don’t feel comfortable at a kids club, but parents still deserve a break on vacation. Amazing Family sets up activities throughout the day that keeps your kids entertained. Parents need to be around for these activities, but Rob and I were able to sip our cocktails and have a conversation without being interrupted while Edwin entertained the kids. Not to say, we just ignored the kids and Edwin, sometimes we joined in the fun too. However, we did not have to be in full parent mode 100% of the time.

Before I go on, I want to point out that it may seem like we spent out entire vacation with Edwin. While we did hang out with him as much as possible, he was so good about making sure he included other families in all of the activities. We just happened to be there in low season which meant there were fewer families seeking out the Amazing Family program.

We were first introduced to Edwin on our night of arrival. My Club Med rep had mentioned that there was a secret chocolate room at this resort. It was all the boys had talked about for weeks! During our first night, a man dressed like Willy Wonka approached our table and introduced himself as Edwino Wonka. He told us where to find him when we were finished eating dinner. Of course, we had to quickly consume our dinner because once the chocolate room talk began, the boys were ready to visit! Edwino Wonka made the experience fun. Little did we know, that we would be seeing Edwin again (and again and again) during the trip …

The next morning Edwin showed up at the pool and set up flags that said Amazing Family. It turns out that his sole purpose is to help entertain your kids if you choose not to take them to the kids club. I heard the kids club is great at Miches, but we never found out because we never took the boys. They just wanted to play with Edwin! Every morning, he sets up pool toys and games…

And when your kids get bored with the games, he is ready to jump in the water and let your kids jump off his shoulders!

Some days, there are activities that all the G.O.’s take part in like the beach bbq on Mondays. Fresh fish is grilled right by the beach and there are live performances. At some point, they pass out color powder, and it becomes a color party. The adults seem to get really excited about it and were grabbing all the powder, but Edwin made sure the boys got plenty of color to throw at each other!

And when there wasn’t a barbecue, we just ended up inviting him to sit at our table. G.O.’s join guests for meals, but if you want to opt-out, just sit at a table without any extra seats!

Then, at 2:15 when your kids should probably be taking a break from the sun, he shows up to do trivia at the covered bar area. This technically is not an Amazing Family activity, but the boys still wanted to attend everyday because Edwin was the host and because they are very competitive. It’s a win-win because mommy gets to sip on a cocktail while also impressing my children with my knowledge of music trivia.

Some days, you can find Edwin at the Adventure Park around 4 PM where younger kids can enjoy a fun obstacle course complete with zipline!

The boys may have mentioned their obsession with Pokémon to Edwin, and Edwin made the mistake of letting the boys know he plays Pokémon GO. Edwin got looped into trading Pokémon game characters (it’s part of the game, and he asked for our permission). I am pretty sure he gave up some Pokémon that were not as valuable as what he got in return because he’s nice like that!

I guess Edwin gets a little break late afternoon because we don’t see him again until 7 pm (on the nights he is not playing Edwino Wonka) He sets up blocks, jenga, tic tac toe, and more for evening Amazing Family time!

Rob and I could sit back and watch, but we have also grown fond of Edwin so we end up talking to him as well. In fact, sometimes the men ended up playing games while the boys did their own thing. Amazing Family is for the whole family!

And after game time and when he wasn’t playing Edwino at night, guess who sat with us during dinner?!

So yeah, we are all pretty smitten with Edwin! That is why saying goodbye was hard! This was our final photo with Edwin as we awaited our transfer back to the airport.

It seems everybody leaving Club Med feels the need to seek out someone special to say goodbye to. We saw a lot of goodbyes going on, but I still think our family had a special connection with Edwin. And just when we thought we could not love him anymore, we watched the episode of Undercover Boss (Season 10, Episode 7– totally worth signing up for the free trial of Paramount to watch!). Edwin casually mentioned to us that he was featured in the show during our last day with him. While watching the episode, we learned more about his journey, and I teared up again! He mentions during the episode that his goal is to be Chief of Village (General Manager) of a Club Med resort one day, and I truly believe he will be!