Back from Bali
We spent a week in IC Bali from January 25 through February 1. The resort completely exceeded our expectations. Let me hot the highlights: Even though it was rainy season, there was only one rain day. It did rain often overnight and two or three days started out cloudy but we had a decent amount of sunshine every day, one or two days even without clouds. It was often windy though. Don't trust the weather forecast - it can be a different weather at the resort and further inside the island. The Club benefits are the best that I have seen anywhere. We had our 4-year old with us and we could hardly get her out of the Planet Trekkers kids' club which is open from 8 until 10 pm! They even take care of lunch and dinner for the kids, and they have different activities every hour. Simply awesome. The Club lounge was great; I did not even understand why they plan to renovate it. Contrary to an earlier post by someone, kids are not prohibited in the Club lounge during cocktail hours, nor they are prohibited at the Club pool. One just has to make sure they behave. Ours did wonderfully, but when we felt she was too active, we just sat on the outside terrace. The drink offerings during happy hour is really good considering it is included in the benefits; however, their wine options ought to be upgraded. The staff were wonderful with kids and super courteous to us. Breakfast venues and options were great - our breakfasts gradually changed from the first-morning jetlagged 6:30 am one to the 10:30 am "brunch". They claimed that the resort was 50% full but it seemed to me more like 20% max. Nothing was ever crowded.
Update on the renovations. As others have already noted, they postponed the Club renovations until mid-October (after the annual meetings of the WB/IMF nearby on Oct 12-24). When we were there, the 3xxx and 4xxx wings were being renovated. I did not find it distractive; I only heard noise when I walked by those wings, but no noise in the other wings. It did have an impact on the Uluwatu spa though since they were working right above it. The gym was also relocated to two ground floor club rooms in the 6xxx wing. I only saw one other person using it once.
There was only one aspect of our stay that still leaves me wondering, even after having raised it to the assistant Club manager at an evening cocktail they organized for guests. I booked a Club room, and expected to be upgraded to Club Duplex as a Platinum Ambassador. Our reservation reflected it even before we arrived. However, we were put into the Newly Duplex in the 1xxxx wing. When I questioned it, they said it was a "better" room since it was just updated, and it would keep us away from the noise of the construction. It still puzzles me if those were the real reasons. I did not make an issue of it officially. But I did check out one Club Duplex and it seemed fine to me. It did not look too outdated at all, and the noise did not seem to be noticeable. There were other people staying in that wing so I can only speculate why were were placed there. It could be that I actually canceled our original reservation and re-booked two weeks earlier when they ran a 40% off deal.... Perhaps they wanted to keep the Club Duplexes open for full-fare customers? While I had no problem at all with the Newly Duplex, the IC wing would have been a bit more convenient to the Club Lounge, Pool, Gym, Kids Club, and of course it has better view.