Courtesy The Grand
Although the front porch reception is a Grand staple, the hotel also likes to keep things fresh.
“Closing in the winter allows us to focus and look at everything we do with fresh eyes,” said Musser. “We couldn’t begin to do everything we do if we were open year round, but the new things we do each summer with enthusiasm trickle down to the staff and all of the services they provide.” As a summer resort, operating from May through October, the Grand has all of the expected outdoor amenities.
In addition to croquet and bocce, there’s tennis and golf. The Grand nine is across the street from the hotel, and the Woods nine is a 15-minute horse-and-carriage ride away. Guests can bask around the swimming pool in which Esther Williams swam in the 1947 movie, “This Time for Keeps.” The hotel was also the setting for the 1980 movie, “Somewhere in Time,” with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.
“Kids can have a sense of freedom here,” said Haywood. “With no cars on the island, parents can let them wander around.”
One of the challenges for the hotel is initiating groups that don’t believe the hotel can handle massive numbers of guests, said Haywood
“Most meeting planners are not comfortable with the fact that we can serve more than 1,600 people in our main dining room for a five-course banquet,” he said. “Our capabilities are a little different from most hotels.”
In addition to the main dining room, which serves a bountiful 100-foot-long lunch buffet daily, the hotel has other dining options, including the more casual Jockey Club, the Gate House, the new Cawthorne’s Village Inn, the pool grill, Fort Mackinac Tea Room and the Woods, a Tudor mansion a carriage ride away with America’s oldest operating duckpin bowling alley.
“That means a group can have a four-day meeting and have a different dining experience each night,” said Haywood.
Memorable experiences, no doubt.
