We Love PIC Saipan

サイパンのPICが大好きです。

  

PIC is the Pacific Island Club, and I'd like to hereby recommend this Saipan resort to folks who live in Japan and want to take the family to a nearby tropical island for a few days.   日本語の書き事は下にあります。Several years ago, we decided to "get away from it all" for a few days, and on the advice of a neighbor, we took the 3 and a half hour flight from Tokyo's Narita airport to Saipan and stayed at PIC for the first time.  Since then, as "Welcome Back Members", we've come back several times, about once a year.  For the last four years, we've timed our four day/three night stays to coincide with the Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Tournament, which has only added value to what is already a great time at PIC.  Here's FAMILY FUN PIX from this year's trip.

One of the issues, is that Martin often travels for work, but even when he is home, he is always working.  So sometimes he needs to relax and have quality family time, and it seems that a short family trip to Saipan is just right.  Martin always loves an adventure, but PIC has become more of a comfortable and welcome respite from the unknown.  Leave the adventures for the longer trips, once in awhile it's just great to go to Saipan to relax.  Accumulating frequent flyer miles is good, but, as anyone who travels for business knows, it is very difficult to actually use those miles with all the program rules, restrictions and black out dates.  By planning ahead carefully, we've sometimes been able to use miles for the family to travel to Saipan, but even if we can't use miles, the cost is comparable to most travel destinations within reach, and the time it takes to travel is less (such as Thailand, China, Bali, etc).  Much time and expense accumulates when you factor in the cost of the travel between our home and the airport, taking the car with the gas and the tolls and the parking, or taking the train or the bus, but that's always an unavoidable reality when traveling out of Tokyo. 

We've also stayed at the Guam PIC a couple of times, which is very nice, a different flavor resort, bigger and more elaborate, as Guam is as an island compared to Saipan.  Guam PIC sits on a wider beach with more exposed waves, so it is great for windsurfing and fine for snorkeling, whereas the Saipan PIC is in a calm lagoon with a lovely sunset.  The food at Saipan is very good, I am totally satisfied with the three restaurants at the resort, but the food at Guam is even more everything.  The facilities and staff of both PIC's are really great, but being bigger, Guam's PIC also has more activities to offer, (such as a great dinner show) so it really just depends on what you want.  Another reason to choose Guam over Saipan, would be if you wanted to shop, as Guam has KMart and lots of other stores, that is, if you choose to leave the resort... which we don't.

Our family especially enjoys going to Saipan to watch beach volleyball during the Marianas Cup Tournament, which is directed and emcee'd by Jon Cramer who currently runs the Guam PIC, and we see the same faces every year, people who live on Saipan or Guam and are involved as players, sponsors and spectators.  During the tournament, Martin can do his "Action Photography" thing, Monica gets to know the players, including some very cool pros, like Jen Snyder and Paul Baxter, Jonah enjoys being "ball boy", and I like watching the games, and following the drama of who gets to partner with a pro, and how that plays out.  This is a unique tournament, because many teams of two enter to play, then before the tournament starts, teams are chosen to partner with pros.  So this year, two male pros and two female pros from the US were involved, so ultimately, there were four teams which had a pro plus a good player in the mix.  These "mixed" teams are always fun to watch, but definately have competition from the semi-pro teams who are used to playing with each other.  It's also really fun to watch the exhibition games on Friday night.  This year, there were only four pros, all from the US, so they split up, Paul and Jen, against Andrew and Claire.  Jon was hilarious as he emcee'd the games, declaring that seasoned veterans Paul and Jen were competing against the youngsters.  With every point, Jon's myriad of ways to describe age vs. youth became more and more intense, and while the game itself was exciting the watch, it was just as fun to listen to Jon's play-by-play commentary.  

There are some things we do almost every day when we are at PIC, such as play in the Lazy River, play frisbee, ping-pong, and listen to the great live music at night.  There's lots of other fun activities, including Point Break, which Jonah really likes, as well as the very fun water slides.  We always play in the pool at night, right there next to the live music of the Buoy Bar, we shoot down the water slides a few times in the dark, then we play water basketball and water soccer.  It's crazy fun.  Over the years, we've also enjoyed archery, in-line skating, golf, tennis, scuba lesson, snorkeling, windsurfing and wall climbing.  But also simple walks on the beach, swimming, sunning, and just relaxing with a good book in the pleasant climate.  When the kids were younger, we'd often put them in "Kids Club" which they very much enjoyed, because of the Clubmates.  PIC has some great evening entertainment for the whole family, something different every night provided by the creative and personable PIC Clubmates.  You really don't have to leave the resort the entire time you're there in Saipan, though recently, Monica went into town with Jen and the girls, and she had a great time and said that the village marketplace was very interesting.

The three restaurants at Saipan PIC are the Magellon, the Seaside Grill and the Galley.  I recommend that you get the Gold Card, which lets you eat three great meals a day during your entire stay.  The Magellon has wonderful buffets, with vast and varied selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The especially nice thing about the Magellon, different from some other buffets, is how much care the chefs and servers take in presentation and quality.  With buffets, sometimes the other guests make a mess, but at the Magellon the staff handles that right away.  Remember, this place is truly kid friendly.  We always make a reservation for one special night to dine at the Seaside Grill.  This is like a fancy French restaurant, with great fish selections as well as steaks, and we always dine on the patio.  Once or twice each stay, we also eat at the Galley, because they have special yummy selections, like pizzas, Japanese bento, and some other cultural specialties.  I've noticed that now they are serving Russian and Chinese specialties, as well as Japanese and Korean daily specials, perhaps to reflect the nature of the evolving guest clientele.  Also, the Galley is open 24 hours, and does take out.

Over the years, we've gotten to know some of the staff at the PIC Saipan, and when we come back, we are immediately reaquainted.  Everyone says "Welcome Back" with a genuine smile of recognition and it really adds to the feeling that we are going on a nice little long weekend to a very familiar place.  Recently, our Welcome Back status seemed to increase, and we got all kinds of perks.  We had our room upgraded to an ocean view, (which was totally wonderful), we got free wireless internet, (YES!!) and they gave us these welcome back bucks which we could use for drinks during our stay.  We also get a good discount at the giftshop, which is a great place to stock up on good quality swim suits and other name brand clothes at American prices and sizes.  So, if you decide to go to PIC Saipan, please tell them that the Tokyo Murrays sent you.  And, "We'll be back!" (We hope!) 

Here are Martin's 2010 MARIANAS CUP BEACH VOLLEYBALL pictures from our trip in February.  These and more reside on his Action Photography website, Pixbymartin.com.

今度の物語はサイパンのリゾートホテル。８年間ぐらい前に、初めてサイパンに行ったので、何回もPICに泊まったので、私たちはとても推薦します。４年間前から、毎年サイパンにの旅行はボレーボールの勝ち抜き試合に同じときに行きます。今年のマーティンは撮ったのボレーボールの写真のリンクはここであります。 　マーティンは家族とか色々写真を撮ったので、それはここにあります。時間があったら、見てください。

すみませんですが、時々に日本語の書き事は少ないので、今度はそれです。次のブログの物語はいつものように、たくさん日本語で書くつもりです。約束。

 

Comments

[Yuki]

Nice Pics!!

[Jon]

Great stuff!

[JIN]

I also have been to PIC, but it is at Guam.
I enjoyed a lot in there.
Especially, windsurfing was the funnest sports for me, of course enjoyed in-line skating also.