The NEW Baldwins Resort

Holy F*** I’d Hate to see what the old Baldwins was Like!!!!

I often like to joke that I have a lot of class, and that most of it is 3rd!  That was put to the extreme test on a recent weekend at The New Baldwins Resort.  For $250.00 per room, per night you can enjoy less than 1-star accommodations, a fan to keep cool and sporadic internet service.  Could it be that the Old Baldwins was a trailer park???

Three mornings in a row, same, same, breakfast every day, greasy bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs, poured right out of the milk carton.  Liquid pasteurized eggs – YUM YUM.  You can touch pretty much everything in the dining area, but God forbid you touch the coffee pot.  On the last day our group was lucky enough to have a garbage can and vacuum cleaner at the end of it.

You are pretty much trapped in no-mans land at this place, I have a hard time referring to it as a resort!  35 minutes from anywhere.  After our first breakfast we were given what I would consider a bar menu at best as choices for dinner.  Best option was a simple burger, mine was not too burnt, I survived.  Fries were good.  I could hardly imagine how they would kill the flat iron steak.

Our jack of all trades server/ hostess advised us that that evening there were only 2 choices for dinner the following night, chicken currie over rice or spaghetti, no, no meat balls in sight.  Out loud so the entire group of 16 could hear I asked, “how much?”  She replied with $25.95 and of course I was quick to respond out loud with “WHAT…..for a plate of pasta?”  Trapped I settled for the pasta. It wasn’t bad and had a Mexican flavour to it. It ended up being $20.00 and came with a coffee cup of something they were passing off as Stracciatella Soup with no sign of parmesan or any other spice for that matter.  My guess was they multi purposed the eggs in the carton for the appetizer…this time shaken not stirred.

You all know I appreciate good wine and have no problem paying for it.  Vintage Thursday was what we were served, cheap shit $11.00 per bottle from the LCBO and they had the gall to charge through the nose – $30.00 per bottle.  The last night we were also offered dessert and of course they did not have enough for all of the group, so the amount of pie left a lot to be desired and of course we were charged for that too!

I’m sorry, but I had to get that out of my system and warn anyone to avoid this trap.   Sooooo two trips in one, unless there is a sort of 2nd coming, this was my first and last visit to the New Baldwins Resort.  They will never see another nickel out of me – and now you know, the rest of the story.

There was golf of course, or why would the Traveling Golfer be there?  A beautiful sunny and warm Friday at the picturesque Windermere Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Ontario.  Other than the fact that some of us were not able to complete our 2nd round on Saturday because of rain, we had a couple of issues with the club.

It is a private club during the summer, I guess because our organizer had been running this event for many years we were allowed to play.  4 groups, but times were staggered over about a 2-hour time period.  Kind of weird but I was a newbee and went along and was ready to go at my assigned time.  Just happened that I was in the first group and upon completion of the round we pretty much had to beg to be able to have a drink or 2 while waiting for the others to complete their rounds.

All was good, staff serving us were very friendly and one of the managers even came out to greet us and told us that they had a band booked for the evening.  That was about as good as it got, unfortunately.   Around 9:30 PM when my buddy Tim and I decided that we should go and check out the band, hoping that we might be welcomed to have a couple of cocktails.  Not wanting to be bold we sat outside the covered members area, there might have been 15 people listening to the music, in a space that held well over 75.  Our server from the afternoon noticed us and came over, greeted us and told us that she might not be able to serve us, but would find out.

We were then approached by Chef Steve, and the first words out of his mouth were, “You need to get off the property NOW!” as he pointed toward the road.  Maybe he can cook but certainly flunked hospitality 101.   Calmly, Tim tried to explain that we were part of a group that is playing 2 rounds at Windermere and the group had been a regular customer for many years.  Steve, Mr. Personality, blurted out that “this will be the last year for the group, we don’t need your money!”

Maybe he was trying to impress the staff.  A simple, “Hey guys I’m sorry this is a private club and we can’t allow any outside visitors.”  Both of us being members of clubs we would have understood…he didn’t need to be a dick!

Since he brought up money, value for money there is not much here either – $125.00 range per round, cart included if it were not where it is they are – maybe $75.  One spectacular hole does not make a great golf course.   Only 6,300 from the tips, very average par 72, many 300 – 350-yard par 4’s, 2 under 300 yards, and all par 5’s south of 500 yards.

So there, take that you wanna be visitors – Welcome to Windermere!!!  OR NOT.

No website for either required here I am sure that you can find them if you really want to!