When we came to the Baha Mar resort, we weren’t expecting anything special for Thanksgiving with it being an American holiday and we weren’t in the US, but we got a nice surprise on that Thursday.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Thankful in The Bahamas
• WOW: Delta One Lounge LAX is Incredible
• Review: Delta One 767-300ER LAX-JFK
• Review: Delta One Lounge JFK
• Fun in the Sun: A Review of Grand Hyatt Baha Mar
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Breakfast Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Dinner Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Activities
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Pools and Beach
• Wet and Wild Excitement: Baha Bay Water Park
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Thanksgiving Activities (this post)
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-800 Business Class NAS-PTY
• Review: Copa Club PTY Terminal 2
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-MAX 9 Business Class PTY-LAX

The Baha Mar held a large party on Thanksgiving (presumably because the vast majority of the guests are from the US) in honor of the holiday. The best part of all was that the event was completely free, from the snacks to the games and the prizes. The only thing that was not free was the caricature drawings that we didn’t do. With the high price of everything at this resort, it was nice getting something that didn’t require an admission fee. The party took place on the Palm Lawn.

While we didn’t get an exact time of when the party started, we do know that it ended right at 4PM.

Food

Guests had the choice between cotton candy, shaved ice, and popcorn. There were a couple of stations serving snacks, which helped control the lines. Our children don’t have any desire to eat cotton candy, but they were looking forward to shaved ice. Once you get your shaved ice (with your choice of color of bowl), you can go fill it with the flavors of your choice at the syrup station nearby.

Face Painting

The one free activity that seemed to have the longest lines was the face painting activity. There were three ladies there to assist anyone who wanted face paint and any design was accepted (they will check their phones for guidance if you request something they aren’t familiar with). Char sat down and immediately struck up a conversation to request a tiger. For avoidance of doubt, at no time was I requested money for the service.

Char enjoyed how the tiger face paint turned out. The paint lasted until it got wet.

Games

There are plenty of free carnival games to choose from. My younger self would have never left the area until I played every game here multiple times, and sure enough Alex seemed to have inherited my genes as he ran off and was on his own playing games for quite a while.

There is a prize associated with these games. When you meet the requirements of whichever game you’re playing (whether that’s popping a balloon or reaching a certain score or perhaps just giving it a try), you’ll get a hole punched on your ticket. If you don’t have a ticket, the workers will give you a new one. The more holes you get punched, the better your prize ends up being.

Towards the end of the celebration (in the minutes leading up to 4PM), the workers were more likely to just punch multiple holes for you to help you get a prize before the time limit is up. That was nice of them.

There was a good variety of games here and the enthusiastic child (or adult) could spend a decent amount of time here. The lines were never too long to play the games given how many of them were on offer. Want some extra challenge? Ask the worker at each booth how to get the whole ticket punched at once. It seemed like they were having fun with overconfident guests with some friendly wagering.

Prizes

So what do you get with your punched tickets? There is a prize center where you can go redeem your ticket. The prize distribution was simple enough.

• Two holes punched = blue prize
• Four holes punched = yellow prize
• Six holes punched = green prize

It would stand to reason that the green prizes are the most desired ones.

Just walk on up to the booth and see what prizes are available. Prizes do run out as time goes on, so if you want your pick of a potentially-better prize, it’s better to redeem your ticket earlier in the day than at the end. You can definitely come back and get another prize after you’ve already received one, though we never tried redeeming more than one ticket per child at the same time.

Other Activities

There were a few other things on offer here besides the games. In the corner there were a couple of bounce houses. For those wondering, many kids were in their swimsuits, so there didn’t seem to be a dress code enforced.

Hidden back by the bounce houses is a balloon art station in case you wanted a balloon sword, a balloon hat, or a balloon animal.

There are lawn games available as well (the same ones that are typically available in this area).

Throughout the afternoon, they had a variety of competitions like seeing who could keep the hula hoop up the longest or a sack race. The winner would receive a fully-punched prize ticket.

Frankie the flamingo also made an appearance here. The Baha Mar resort likes to have him participate in things around the hotels, but this was our only time seeing him. From the sounds of it, you could also have him tuck in your kids at night and get a bedtime story. It’s not for me.

Frankie also ended up leading the band when the live music commenced at the end of the day. There is a DJ booth that plays music most of the day but they brought in the real instruments and did some dancing that really got everyone jumping and moving.

Meeting Santa

Inside the lobby by the casino is the giant tree where you can meet Santa. Meeting Santa was available between 6PM and 8PM and surprisingly there were no lines to come meet him. If you aren’t able to see him on Thanksgiving Day, he was also available to meet at the same time the following day.

Alex didn’t want to sit on his lap but Char eagerly accepted the invitation to pose with him for a picture. Bring your own camera with you to take a picture as there were no professional photos to purchase unlike the experience at practically every mall in the US.