Our 16th year to Grand Palladium was very different but NOT because of COVID-19. Shortly after our May 2021 trip a fire destroyed most of the Colonial and Kantenah lobbies. They are now fully restored. The image on the far right is Colonial and the other is Kantenah.
Additonally here in the Kantenah lobby Churchills is open again but not allowing smoking indoors. The result is a much better atmosphere then Hemmingways. We were not the only ones to notice this as the occupancy of Hemmingways was much less than Churchills while we were there.
The Colonial remodel resulted in a lot more seating which made sense since the nightly shows make this lobby the most active evening lobby on property. The roof of both new lobbys now have a fire retardant roof, smart!!!
Another major change was not positive, the TRS champagne. Obviously there is no quality control even on the TRS side. The champagne they were serving the entire time we were at the resort was very badly oxidized. I mentioned this to a number of bartenders who obviously did not know what oxidization was. Ironiclly enough the champagne on the non-TRS side was great. I assume the TRS champagne was older from the COVID months and probably got exposed to too much heat, thus oxidation. Not a biggie as stated the non-TRS was great and pretty sure the old/oxidized champagne will be gone before we return in 2023!!!