“Though it was over almost as soon as it began, few incidents were as frightening as that lost child,” according to Chris. “Mom was setting the table outside their RV for lunch. Her three year old was supposed to be helping her. Mom turned around for an instant, just an instant, and the little one was gone.
“Our Walkie-Talkies lit up like a Christmas tree. Within minutes everyone on the team was all over the place, scouring the park. It might have seemed like an eternity to Mom, but it was only a few minutes before the little one was found. Wouldn’t you know it; she was down at the Lake playing in mud. Mom didn’t know whether to hug the life out of her or ground her for the rest of the summer.”
Chris is proud of the way her team can be counted on to react quickly in an emergency, but even more so for the compassion they show. “We had guests that had come from Canada. Within a few hours of their arrival they had quite an unexpected emergency – the woman had a heart attack. Our team was on it immediately. An ambulance was called and arrived, fortunately within a very few minutes. While his wife stayed in the hospital, the team banded together to take care of her husband.
“We hooked him up with a pharmacy, helped with insurance faxes, and even took turns making and bringing meals to him so he’d have one less thing to worry about when he got home from the hospital. Jack Sowers, our longtime greeter, and a Tropical legend, made daily visits to make sure he was getting along. We enjoyed looking after him, but we were a lot happier when the misses was back home and doing fine. They’ve already booked again for this coming winter.”
The subject of winter brings a smile to Chris’ face. “Of course, there are all kinds of emergencies,” she says. “Like the night the team saved Christmas. It was Christmas eve and some folks were just returning from Old Town. It was after dark and our guests were a little disoriented as to where to find their RV site. One of our helpful team members asked if they knew what site they were looking for and they said they were not sure of the number. It would be a shame to be lost on Christmas eve so the team member offered to radio the front desk for the location. They asked the guest for their last name and they said Rudolph. We all had a good laugh that we had saved Christmas when we helped Rudolph find his way on Christmas eve!”
But the team does believe in helping whenever they can. “We put ourselves in our guests shoes,” Chris explains. “Whether they’re park model owners, RVers, or renters, they just want to enjoy the resort and their time here with us. Our job is to make sure that happens. It is just part of being mindful and responsive to their needs.”
Just how responsive, Chris tells us, is exemplified by a call one member of the maintenance team took. It was from a frantic young mother who was certain her little one had flushed the car keys down the toilet. One of our maintenance men responded and with a smile – only slightly forced – filtered through the tank, sadly to no avail.
A few hours later she found our maintenance man, thanked him profusely for his efforts and explained that she had just found them where she’d left them – on the dashboard of her car. She went to hug him in thanks, but thought the better of it. He had just finished putting her tank back together. To his everlasting credit, he just kept smiling.”
Sometimes that thoughtfulness and good spirit also goes out to non-human guests at Tropical, Chris tells us. “Last year, we kept seeing a scruffy black dog around. He didn’t seem to belong to anyone and he always seemed too scared to come out from under any of the cottages he would hide under. Finally, one of our Clean Team women, Brenda, coaxed him out, took him home and adopted him. He was nicknamed Stinky by the team, but that didn’t stop Brenda from loving him and giving him a home. Only problem, Stinky only speaks English, Brenda only speaks Spanish, so getting Stinky to listen to anything is a real problem. But they’re working on it.”
Our staff keeps working on keeping our guests happy, going that extra mile in an emergency. “We want people who want to make other people happy. We can teach skills, we can’t teach attitude. What’s great is the team is always happy to help, and that attitude carries over to our guests. It’s a big part of what makes Tropical Palms such a special place.”
