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Not sure whether there was a need to start a separate so if the mods wish to combine this with the other thread please do.
I will report on my weekend when I have recovered but in the meantime the photos that I took can be seen on my facebook page-Trevor Sadd.
I'll give my view but it is pretty limited as I wasn't really dancing. Just had a few with old favourites.
Good.
The journey, no bad traffic jams.
The chalet we had was gorgeous, 3 bedrooms, lounge/kitchen, bathroom, ensuite to one bedroom.
Company, great chalet mates. (I best say that as they are on the forum :wink:)
Dance Demon, Ismooth's sets ( I didn't hear too many others)
Not cooking :grin:
The set out of the rooms, I dont visit the main room anyway so i didn't mind that you had to go outside to get to it (although not very far). The blues and the WCS room were separated by the dining room which was a perfect distance IMO.
The floors were great. The rooms were lovely.
The sofas in the bar areas made for a nice relaxed social area.
The weather, considering it was forecast rain, we were pretty lucky for most of the time.
Free iced water in jugs on the bars.
Not sharing the camp with muggles.
Not so good.
The queue for the food on Friday night! We sat watching it from the bar for an hour waiting for it to go down. It didn't seem to get any shorter so we decided to go and queue. An hour later..... we finally reached the self service food.
The food was fine, not school dinner but not nice restaurant quality.
The following morning the queue looked huge again so we didn't bother. As the weekend went on things were changed and the queues disappeared. The desserts were moved to another area and they duplicated the food to both sides so there were 2 places to serve yourself instead of the original one. So all in all, started off as a nightmare, feedback was given, things were improved. :clap:That to me seemed to be the only teething problem for the new venue.
I actually enjoyed the social side of all eating together.
Someone else can comment on the 'sheds' (these were the 'normal' chalets. but I was so glad I had a premier chalet!)
The distance to Hemsby from home, 3 1/2 hours.
Ugly
Driving home overnight on Sunday as I had work n Monday. Had to stop half way to sleep for an hour, as my eyes were shutting whilst driving! :sick:
All in all, with a few more of the right people there (yes I know I'm a hotshot) It could be a good weekender. At one time on Saturday night, I was standing watching everyone dance in the blues room to iSmooth's set and I had that old feeling of contentment that I used to get in the weekender bluesroom. Shame my body wasn't fit enough to enjoy it to the max. But the few dances I had were fulfilling and I was content. :hug:
Ok, here goes..
NOTE, I'm going to be as honest and forthright as I can.
The journey from North London took just under 3 hours. We missed an exit and it turned out to be a very lucky mistake, as we drove through some amazing woods and pretty villages and then found out we'd actually cut off the only traffic hold up.. BONUS!
When we arrived at the Camp, we nearly wet ourselves laughing.. OMG at first glance its just like a 1950's Hi-Di-Hi camp and the front line of chalets look just like old garden sheds.
It was just after 4pm (check-in was from 3pm) and there was no queue at all and all went smoothy. I got a nice warm hug from Underpar and various hugs and kisses from some people I know from the scene. Plus the usual businesslike "Hello Lory" from John. (why do I always feel I'm about to get a telling off from John? lol )
We were issued with wristbands of the hard plastic variety, which were fine. 'Everyone' was labelled V.I.P
We only got issued 1 key between 4 of us but we went to reception and requested another which we had to collect later. 2 keys, is still a pain between 4, when you're all independent!
To my absolute delight and surprise, our chalet was lovely. In fact, it was pure luxury compared to Pontins. 3 large bedrooms, inc a double, with en-suite (my room :wink:) which was great, until everyone wanted to use MY shower GRR lol the other bathroom, just had a normal bath.
It also had a well equipped kitchen/diner/ living room, with microwave, toaster, mugs, glasses, corkscrew and everything else one would need to to hold a basic dinner party.
The floors were wood and we had faux leather settee's and chairs. A Flat screen TV. Oh, and the beds were already made up!
The distance from the venue was probably 100mtrs more or less. Anyway, not too far and I think we were probably one of the furthest away.
The foyer had a temporary shop, selling clothes and shoes and there was also massages on offer £10 for 30mins but I didn't like the fact that everyone walking past, had a close-up view of the half naked bodies. So I gave that a miss!
After unpacking, we headed for the bar, which was busy and buzzing and the bar staff were friendly and efficient. There are numerous seating areas, with cream faux-leather sofa's, which I think made the place.
A crowd of us began to gather and I thought, Hmm, I'm liking this atmosphere.
Then all of a sudden we noticed THE DINNER QUEUE, it stretched right out of the dinning room, through the reception area, into the blues room and we thought, oh well, lets have another drink and wait for the queue to go down but another hour later, it was still no shorter, so we decided to join it... it took 1hour 20minutes to get to the front :banghead:
The restaurant was much like a BHS style self-service and the food was basic but fine, with a choice of things like Cod in batter, lasagne, sausages, chips and various other potato creations. Plus a salad bar with ham, prawns and quiche etc. And for desert, we had cream cakes or jelly. (but no desert included for lunch)
The only drinks on offer were orange juice and water.
As Cruella stated, as the weekend progressed, they took measures to make it flow quicker but at times there was still a big queue, to the point we couldn't be bothered.
The only shop on the site, had strange opening hours and only really sold 'sweets', which was annoying, as I'd have brought something to eat back at the chalet, if I could've.
The floors were all good AFAIC, accept, word got around that I had some Shoe Goo (Glue) and I was asked by 4 different people if they could borrow it, due to them ripping their soles or heels, on ridges or nails?
Personally I didn't have this problem and I'd go as far as to say, the blues room had one of the nicest floors I've ever danced on!
The Main room - on entering this room, it felt like stepping off an aeroplane into a tropical climate.. it was absolutely boiling and humid (and for me to say that.. its HOT) The fans were inadequate and they need to invest in some much larger units AFAIC
I didn't spend a great amount of time in there but I liked the layout and it had a nice friendly buzz to it but I hasten to add, I estimate that about 70% of the punters seemed to be aged approx 55years old and over. Not that there's anything wrong with that but its just a point of observation.
The WCS room, this was a smallish room but had a very nice feel to it. The floor was flanked by 2 sofa areas and an area of tables and chairs plus a bar and small stage but unfortunately it never really got very busy. :(
I'd estimate that at any one time, there were never more than 10 couples in there.
The Blues room. As I said before, this room had a beautiful floor and it enabled me to learn a new trick... if I got the right hold, I could hang on my partner and swing round and around on one foot! Such fun, I was like a kid with a new toy :rofl::blush:
The one downside of this room was the lighting. One end was too dark and one area had a blinding light, which made it really difficult to see ones partner!
There is nowhere to dance outside at this venue.
Water was in plentiful supply in all rooms, with a continuous supply of ice
Gender balance was GOOD!
Disappointment - I was expecting to see a lot faces from the Old Southport days but apart from some of the teachers and one or two others, there was hardly anyone . Only one couple I knew from Scotland.
The Standard. Again, apart from the teachers and about 5% more, the general dance standard was IMO low
Daytime dancing, this was on from 2pm in the WCS room but unfortunately, apart from Peter Flood, Ismooth and Dance Demon, none of the other stuff was really to my taste.
There is nothing personal about this, as I like them all but RevDrop, CJ and Tessalicious's sets were all either too slow, obscure stuff I've never heard of, un-danceable or stuff to make me want to kill myself
Now, I know its all subjective and its probably just the fact that I'm a crap dancer, who doesn't have the ability to interprete this stuff :tears: but give me some familier, uplifting tunes, with a good beat, which are fun and easy to dance to any old day
Shock News - I did a class - and I loved it!!!
I did Mel's 'All that Jazz' routine and she was brilliant! I came out of there on a real high. I got back to the chalet ready to 'perform' my newly learnt routine to my chalet mates... then I couldn't find the bloomin' music on my ipod! I'm telling you.. they missed a real treat, they did! haha
I really enjoyed the band, even though I was convinced I wasn't going to and only ended up going into the room by mistake. But I eat my words, they were great fun and good to dance to!
Sunday night in the Bluesroom was the best night for me...'after' the main room closed, it got a bit buzzy. For about two hours, the room was busy and I got asked to dance loads, which always makes me happy.
Overal, in comparison to the last 2 weekenders I've been on in the last month, I'd rate it in 3rd place (for me) BUT its definitely got potential.
With the right people and a few tweaks, I think this venue could be fabulous!
There's even space to have some 'outside fun' if it could get it organised.
But as it is, if you prefer a 'smaller' catered weekender (I think approx 700 people), which probably has a slightly less intimidating feel, with slightly older crowd and where most of the daytime freestyle is Blues or Mariachi based, then, as it stands, this is perfect for you.
Apologies for any typo's and grammer errors but I need some sleep!
p.s. forgot to mention.. I love Dance Demon and Blueshoes sets and Steve Hunt!
And Thanks to Gerry for driving me home and to Di and my other chalet mates for getting me there and being great company! :hug:
The journey to Hemsby from my home was relatively trouble free and as we are no more than 20 miles away it was never going to be a problem.
We were on site fairly early;I do like to get my bearings and hate last minute rushes;but if you will forgive me for digressing slightly at this point,we had to exercise a few demons before we could let ourselves 'into' the weekender mood.
It would seem that it was my wifes first return visit to the holiday village since her grandmother died many years ago.You see, her grandmother died in the very ballroom that was being used as the main room for the weekend.Julie was a dancer in a cabaret group working the camps at the time and the family came to watch her (her dad was even playing in the band at the time)and her gran just sat down and passed away.
There were a few tears but to her credit,she got it out of her system and it didnt mar the weekend.
The weekend.
Check in was fairly hassle free,but when you get 6/700 people turning up in a short space of time its hardly going to be speedy.
We were in a Crown d/bed chalet which was excellent.Very clean,fully tiled toilet and shower cubicle with very hot water.Curtains and carpet were very clean and stain free.If I had to find a criticism it would only be the fact that the pillows were a bit flat and could have done with another blanket but there was an adequate heater that could have been left on overnight as the electricity was free.
So that was one of the two main hurdles successfully negotiated.
Obstacle coming up.Meals.
Now Swish which is a catered waitered service is excellent and I really cant fault it so this was going to be a big challenge to get it right at Hemsby especially as this was going to be a self service arrangement.
Unfortunately it fell at the first fence.With nearly all of the 6/700 people wanting to be fed at the same time it was never going to be a walk in the park and the resulting queue and for some a very long wait didnt bode well for the next two days.But,as I am led to believe,in true JA fashion John(see I am already on first name terms with the boss) was onto it and had sorted it by Saturday morning and it worked fairly well for the remaining mealtimes,unless of course you couldn't wait in the queue at breakfast and decided that the best course of action was to jump to the front of the queue,take a pack of cereal and leg it to your chalet.Isn't that right Lory!!:wink:
Aside from Friday,which I suppose was a shambles from an organising point of view but in the grand scale of things hardly anything to get too het up about,I thought the rest of the meal times with a little bit of thought was trouble free.Certainly with a lot of people dancing thro till early morning and opting out of eating,breakfast was a bit of adoddle.
As for the food,as Cruella says, it wasn't nice restarant quality but it was good.A choice of 4 main courses and a vegetarian option with an additional salad bar,orange juice and hot drinks on tap.It certainly fulfilled my needs and ensures another month of purgatory in the gym to get rid of an unsightly expanding waistline.
So although we came a cropper at that hurdle we remounted and made up afew places on the field and certainly didnt embarras ourselves.
As for the music and lessons,I would think that you would rarely go to a weekender and not be treated to an eclectic range of music to suite a varied and even more so these days discerning audience and lessons taught by very competant and accomplished teachers.
Jive Addiction are no different to Ceroc in that respect.They deliver every time.
I will indulge in a little bit of luvvieness at this point if you dont mind.
It has to be said that Mikey can still pull in the big audience for his 'naughty' lessons.My wife loved it;she though he was hilarious.
But for me the stand out teachers of the weekend were Simon and Nicole.
Their rapport with the dancers and between the two of them was both amusing and well presented and extremely well received.Top teachers.
I can endorse Cruellas comments regarding the floors,layout of the rooms and general good feeling and ambiance of the place.Unlike Cruella,I spent most of the time in the main room but I did think that the WCS and the Blues room,especially, had a really good feel about them.
My overall opinion of the weekend was that it was excellent and now that the first one is out of the way so to speak,word will spread and this will be another one to add to the sellout weekenders that seem to have grown and grown.
It wouldn't be a aftermath review without some negatives so let me think.
After check in the only first official social freestyle dance was almost completely dominated by 'blues' music which was a little disappointing if you were not a competant blues dancer as it was a tad intimidating for us lesser qualified dancers who might have been expecting a little bit of a mixture.Nevertheless,no big deal.
On a somewhat lighter note.As a mobile dj and ex MJ dj nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing a floor full of happy dancers enjoying themselves.Playing good music whatever the tempo or style always makes me want to dance or at the very least gets me 'moving',but this weekend I have never seen such a miserable and bored looking bunch of guys.Sat at what looked like a school desk with their computors,their head resting on their hand with all the charisma of a wet lettuce,no doubt wondering if they can beat Lory to the last box of Cornflakes in the morning at breakfast.
Seriously you guys,fabulous music - if only I could remember those ones that seemed to have escaped my radar.
I think thats it,hopefully there will more reports from others who were there.
:lol: Busted!!Quote:
Originally Posted by djtrev
My wife has just insisted that I mention Mels routine.It was her weekend highlight.Mels follow up styling class was also a hit.
Can't say I was happy to be ushered out of the class by a horde of baying chanting women, not even the boss was given preferential treatment.John was ousted as well.
The reviews are as I thought they would be and I know what Lory means when she says there are a lack of 'faces' at Jive Addiction weekenders, we hardly knew anyone at Metropolis in February. Also, it seems to be a running theme with Jive Addiction that they keep bringing back the same terrible DJ's who try to 'out-weird' each other with their track choices, although there are a few diamonds among the rough.
All the rest of it sounds really good though so I've just sent my cheque off to John for me, Gav, Trouble and Scarface for September. Quite a lot of the options have sold out already so I'd say get in now or lose out.
Great reviews all, keep um coming please. :flower:
I'm no longer in Scotland (and I didn't go anyway - student issues :sad:) but in all honesty, it's one Helluva way from Scotland to Hemsby, especially if you live north of the central belt!! It's really not the most accessible place to get to, so I'm not surprised there weren't many folk there. :flower:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lory
I'd guess that those would be interested in attending were waiting to hear feedback from this one before deciding whether it's worth making the trip - it's not just the cost of the weekend itself, but also the cost of getting there, additional annual leave etc. That's a big commitment for an unknown event!
So maybe next time there'll be more folk from Scotland... :nice:
:yeah:Quote:
Originally Posted by Nessiemonster
so true, there are so many weekenders, and they are scattered all over the UK. My trip to Southport cost nearly £100 in fuel and unfortunately I was travelling alone.
If you like your lamb a little pink and on the bone with a nice aged Bordeaux from France or mature Rioja from Spain, then for you, the catering may have been somewhat lack luster. If you like having people get out of bed at the crack of sparrow's fart to cook you a full English breakfast while you're still dancing to sublime tracks, then you'd have probably appreciated the hot, honest food. The free coffee that was not only palatable and welcome, but also a counted towards my weekender caffeine fifty-five-a-day.
The accommodation was WASTED on me. Seriously! If I have been dancing all day and night I can sleep on a washing line. So a comfy bed, a warm, clean, spacious chalet filled with good chalet mates and a flat screen digital TV was frankly over the top. As was having a microwave oven, fridge, kettle and a toaster. If you add a cocktail area and a couple of bathrooms with a piping hot shower in one and a full sized bath in the other then you'll understand the depth of the problem. Our chalet also had a small but surprisingly well equipped gymnasium with an on call German sports masseuse called Heidi - although I gather that NOT ALL OF THE ACCOMMODATION HAD THIS!!
There was plenty of great music to dance to, BlueShoes, Pete Flood and ISmooth all really deserve special mentions for their cracking sets. As the shadows got longer the music just kept getting better and better. DanceDemon's sunrise set on Saturday night/Sunday morning was testimony to his skill as a late-late DJ. For me, that was the set of the weekend! Life is about balance though, and the goddess of Karma retaliated and SPANKED US HARD! Due to SICKNESS on one of the days the Blues room was 'treated' to not one, not two, but three helpings of - as someone I spoke to described the DJ - "the scotch one in that huge leather P.E. skirt". Of course I knew who they meant, but I played dumb and looked quizzical so they'd repeat it... just so I could hear the description again. I am like a five year old sometimes. I hate myself, but what can I do...
The dance floors in the Blues room and the WCS room were superb. There was a Jive room (this is JiveAddiction after all), but SADLY due to excessive musical awesomeness in the other two rooms I didn't find time to partake of it's pleasures. I swear someone told me it was good but too warm in there. But that's just hearsay, they may have been lying. It could have been crap and cold in there, it may not of even had a roof. I really don't know for sure. Like I said, hearsay. So, please don't allow that comment to sway your decision to book on for the September one.
The drive there and back took longer than the gestation period of a seriously overdue sperm whale. However, due to a stroke of luck I was able to make the journey in a car, if I had had to walk, in bare feet it would have VERY MUCH SPOILED my weekend BEFORE IT HAD EVEN STARTED!!!
Having the beach so close was also distracting as Essie-Jo insisted that I took her to see the sea. I am unsure why this trip was needed. It looked a lot like the sea did last time. But I suppose it's responsible to check. This was a pleasant ten minute interlude, but I still think I will contact JiveAddiction to ask them to move the coast a little further away from the campsite to save me having to endure those sand filled eyes of romance in September.
Over and out........ Stokie
P.S. I almost forgot some smily faces! How can you have a review without them? OK, just imagine that my brain was working and I'd put these in the post in really clever, funny, ironic places and we'll call it quits :flower: :sleep: :tears: :lol: :flower:
Travel was Ok, journey back was made so much easier by Lory, thanks again for the advice, it was spot on:wink:
I was in one of the beach huts, double bed was great, lots of hot water, my only gripe is there was no shower, I appropriated a large teapot which was used to enable me to wash my hair
When I walked into the main room I thought everyone is so OLD, I know I am nearly fifty but I don't feel that age.
I had some great dances in the main room but once I heard a duff track I was off to the WCS and Blues rooms. Unfortunately because I am so lazy I couldn't be bothered to walk outside to the main room, it was a pity because there were some lovely dancers that I should have danced with.
As Lory commented on, some of the DJ's played music that I was unfamiliar with which I felt only the uber blues dancers would have enjoyed, it was just too experimental.
I felt Steve Hunt, Peter Flood and Ismooth did a great job. A big ups to Dance Demon who always plays a great set and he always pulls out a track that I have which I wasn't sure would work but it always does. :respect:
The three tracks of the weekend for me were
So in Love Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton (Dance Demon)
I'm Sorry Mitch Kashmar (Dance Demon)
Walkin' On The Moon The Dream and Kanye West (Steve Hunt)
I only went to two classes which were taught by Miles and Tessa, very professional and I think I learn't a few things.
On a personal touch I have always loved dancing outside in the afternoon to a varied set of music, pure blues for me should have a late evening early morning slot.
Would I go back, YES
:drool: Lovely track!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerry
:clap: See you there!Quote:
Originally Posted by Double Trouble
As a matter of interest has anybody received their DVD yet
I saw John's reply to someone else who'd asked that on FB and his answer was.. hopefullythey'll be sent out sometime next weekQuote:
Originally Posted by djtrev
Thank you Lory