The Tribune

A Grand Bahama timeshare resort exploited the COVID-19 enforced tourism shutdown to invest $1.2m in restaurant upgrades as well as other improvements to the property.

The Ocean Reef Resort, which suffered relatively minimal damage from Hurricane Dorian, having taken a long time to recover from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, used the pause created by the pandemic tp as renovate its roof, kitchen, and outside pool area.

“We took the time during the COVID downtime to refurbish rooms and upgrade our restaurant facilities. We’ve also revamped our social media pages and are working on our website revamp this year,” said Kor Dormans, Ocean Reef Resort's chief executive. “This way we can update our guests, both locally and internationally, on resort news and we joined Instagram to highlight our restaurant news too.”

With COVID-19 protocols in place, the renovated restaurant can accommodate numerous guests, with its roof completely covering the outside seating. The restaurant held its first theme night, an Ugly Sweater Night, just before Christmas with singer Ryan Carroll hired to entertain guests.

“Though our turnout was small, we were pleased to welcome local guests and show off our new expanded seating area,” said Mr Dormans. “Our guests also enjoyed the soft sounds of Carroll’s singing and we plan to have him back every Saturday evening in January and February.”

Oceans Blue's head chef, Michel Pratt, who has been with the resort for 15 years, said: “Our menu combines both Bahamian and International favourites. We try to offer specials on the weekends to add to our menu, and for private events we cater to our client's needs.”

The resort added more parking earlier this year, which allows locals to park both outside the resort and in the rear of the restaurant location. “We hope to welcome more locals this year,” added Mr Dormans. “We have the room for safety in spacing, and our resort allows us to have fun games for children to play while here, and docking space for those coming by boat, too."