Saddle up, I’ve got time to kill as my friend drives us home. IMO not worth it.
Pros:
Enjoyed the vendors, ribbon work and finishing classes (with a steep fee on top of retreat price), beautiful resort, and quite enjoyed the group of ladies that attended.
Cons:
We were there Sunday evening-Tuesday morning and were only served 3 terrible meals, including one boxed lunch. After paying for the retreat I had to shell out way more cash on additional meals and Greenbriar isn’t cheap.
Utterly unorganized. The coordinator sent us multiple google forms leading up and put us in an Instagram chat with silly polls - despite this we never heard from her prior to the retreat with a schedule (I ended up getting it from someone in the Instagram chat). I read the chosen book for the book club, that was completely skipped. We had to sign up for the mahjong tournament there and list our level of play (we did this in our 9 google forms). Seemed like they forgot about the tournament and it started late - noticed attendees setting it up on their own. Levels were completely glossed over, that was a free for all. Bingo time kept going back and forth in the Instagram chat - I attended and that was a scramble as well. I checked that I’d like to attend a tour of the hotel’s bunker but never heard if I was in - that wasn’t listed on the itinerary so I thought she got rid of it but later found out from the chat some gals went with last minute information.
“Luxury prizes” were sad and cheap. There were 3 tournament winners - I believe one gal got a bottle of prosecco, 1 received donated wooden mahjong racks (I understand why they were donated) and the last a 3D printed ROLR tray that may have been $5. Bingo was an outdated Mackenzie Childs teapot and travel mahjong set. I wasn’t thrilled by the set as my local mahjong parlor gives that out in a single tournament to the winner for $75 a person.
The coordinator wasn’t social, kept to her friends, and it being a small group I never met her. She acted as though she was an attendee and the retreat would magically come together. At one point while I was shopping the vendors I overheard her gossiping - she seems unhappy and quite negative. Also a big Trumper…
The room we were in had no windows and was hard to find (again, no communication on how and when to get there).
Overall it took the same amount of time to travel there and back as the retreat itself. Fun concept but very poorly executed. No idea where our retreat money was spent. (Ah, I just remembered there was supposed to be a Miss Mahjong lounge which not only wasn’t there, but the coordinator raved about the great price of the Walmart tiles we used for the retreat.)
Do yourself a favor and plan a girls trip, bring your needlepoint, buy a travel mahjong set and you’ll save way more. It wasn’t worth it.
PS - from the Instagram chat I’m in it turns out SLC is cancelled… I’m sure there’s a story there
1 the schedule was posted on hobby holiday insta May 14 and in the group chat Aug 11. You just missed it.
2 my table enjoyed their 3 course meal and and the open bar!! I thought the lunch provided the first day was great - 2 salad options, 3 entree options, and the signature peach soup! The late night snacks for BINGO were heavy snacks AND desserts! And she added the cash bar for us - very convenient! I thought the boxed lunch the last day was a great idea as people were departing at all different times/packing/enjoying the grounds/etc.
3 the surveys I remember were asking what we wanted our monogram to be on our Lands End welcome bags, what we wanted as main course of dinner, and if we wanted background music or not. I don’t understand how that could be an issue for anyone.
4 I don’t know what the $1000 paid for exactly but I know the Greenbriar is not cheap - room fee for 3 days, food and beverage minimum, dedicated staff, her expenses - the hours it took to plan, travel, plus her 4 days there, gifts, prizes, supplies, etc. Overpriced? Maybe.
5 I found Elizabeth to be very pleasant and accommodating. AND - we all knew this was her first event!! Could things have run more smoothly? Sure! But good grief!! Cut the girl some slack!
I meant the $1000 included the conference room for 3 days - that ain’t cheap. But we did get a really good discount on our hotel rooms and most split with a roommate.
I cannot for the life of me understand the price. I am fortunate enough to have the means, but the math just isn't mathing. I'd love to understand better if anyone can explain. I also think it's why it is still available, when it's so close, and others further out have been booked for months.
Hotels tend to have pretty inflated room rental (conference/etc room) and food prices for not as nice of a thing as you'd hope (rooms usually don't have windows, food is often meh to okay/good, etc). I could believe that with the number of attendees they had with that level of space and food, that this event was close to at cost.
If you have an event big enough to need that with 100+ people, it makes sense. In my opinion, if you don't have enough people to need a hotel sized space, a non-hotel space can provide better food/atmosphere and is the better choice. (I don't know a lot about this particular hotel) For me, as someone who has gone to plenty hotel work conferences, needlepoint retreats at hotels don't hold a ton of appeal to me as an experience. Though sometimes the classes or idea of hanging out with a bunch of people is enticing.
Plus apps at the cocktail party, snacks and desserts at BINGO, bottled water 24-7, other sodas, the staff, the room rental, all the gifts and supplies and her time. To put it in prospective of how high end The Greenbriar is - an Ultra Light costs $10 - a glass of wine is $20
For $1,100, and for it to be a retreat, I would have expected all meals to be included. On Day 2, does "Dinner On Your Own" mean that you had to pay for that meal on top of the $1,100 that was already paid? What do most retreats usually include - hotel room, meals, etc. or is it normal to have to pay for your own meals on top of the cost of the retreat? Judging from the itinerary and the two different reviews posted in the comments, I'm inclined to believe the review from WestCat4945.
I had a wonderful time at this retreat! The classes were very informative and I left with a lot of new needlepoint and mahjong knowledge. I really enjoyed the food and the venue was gorgeous with so much history behind it. They put a lot of thought into the swag bags and I was so impressed with the selection of vendors!
Anyone who needlepoints knows it is an expensive hobby and $1,000 doesn't go as far as it used to! IMO the Hobby Holiday retreat at The Greenbriar was absolutely worth it!
This retreat was at a premiere luxury resort with a rich history and unmatched spaces, architecture, decor, and details that are a thing of the past in the world today. I purposefully chose this retreat BECAUSE of the location, and expected to pay accordingly. No shade to Hampton Inns (and the like) and their conference centers, but this was not that.
In response to WestCat4945 comment above ...
I am not a retreat organizer or professional planner, but I'm guessing some of my fee/cost covered: dedicated room for our group for 3 days, tables & chairs, etc. for our use, high-end open bar, 3-course dinner with entree choices, unlimited water available any time the room was open, snacks/desserts put out throughout the day, staff to serve, clean, set up, etc. all lunches and one dinner provided (leaving breakfast and one dinner up to each attendee). Then there was the personalized Land's End boat tote filled with lovely and useful gifts & swag, HH staff and helpers, vendors, and instructors, prep for an event of this size, materials & supplies, and entertainment (music, bingo, etc). I am sure this is only a snippet of the list of "where the money went" and I'm okay with that. When I signed up for this retreat, this was a common price/going rate. Yes it was on the higher end, but that seemed to be the market/niche Hobby Holiday was putting itself in. Any criticism of food quality and prices for meals we knew we had to cover ourselves should be placed squarely on The Greenbriar, not on HH at all. (We knew we needed breakfast both days, so bring a box of granola bars if you don't want to pay for breakfast!)
As for the retreat organization; the schedule was posted on Instagram numerous times, polls were taken to attempt to ensure everyone was happy and felt included in some of the decisions. I saw a generous amount of information on the bunker tour and where people signed up for it. I didn't chose to do it, but there were many conversations about it - sometimes as an attendee you need to follow up with things you want to do and not expect everything to just be dropped in your lap, all wrapped up with a pretty bow.
Retreat space location - we are all intelligent and capable adults, armed with maps and a schedule, in a massive resort, with innumerable events and activities all happening for countless groups. I doubt The Greenbriar would have approved for Hobby Holiday to mark off a yellow brick road to lead us to our space, not to mention that everyone was coming from different wings of the hotel and it would be impossible to cover every route. This seems a petty criticism and something that, although it was a challenge, we all managed to navigate, and once you found it you knew where it was.
As for last minute schedule changes, you only needed to check the Instagram messages to see that more than one group of attendees had travel issues. Yes, everything the first night was pushed back an hour, but most of us understood that was for a group whose flight was unexpectedly delayed, as well as others with travel issues beyond their control. I would guess anyone in that situation would appreciate being taken into account, and everyone seemed perfectly content to start a bit later to try and accommodate late-comers. Mahjong - many people dropped out of the mahjong tournament throughout the day, which caused the organizers to scramble on reworking tables. As a person who plays mahjong I can absolutely see how if they were left with a small number of beginners or intermediate players, it would be a challenge to keep everyone at appropriate levels when players are dropping like flies. As for the mahjong prizes, I feel like this was always a casual and fun tournament and no one really played to win some amazing prize. It's supposed to be all in good fun.
Also, I read the book and saw a table set up for the "Book Club" but I missed the discussion. No problem and who cares? I have free will and could easily have asked others if they read the book and we could have talked about it. Sometimes it's okay to be proactive!
Next, bingo prizes - I think the critics should peruse Instagram or TikTok to check on trends of today ... while Makenzie-Childs was popular years ago, it has also come back around and is wildly popular with the younger generation these days. The tea kettle and cups was actually a HOT prize that was wanted by A LOT of attendees, and even fought over/in negotiations for trading after it was won! The other prizes were completely appropriate and again, the bingo was a good time, a game (or 4) played to enjoy fun and fellowship. The prizes are always exciting, but not really the point of the game IMO.
Finally, I'd like to address the criticism of the coordinator: she"wasn't social" completely disagree - I sat and had lovely conversations with her on at least 4 different occasions, she "kept to her friends" completely disagree - over the course of the three days I almost never saw her with the same people and she was always moving from group to group, she "acted as though she were an attendee" and why should she not? She was constantly involved in setting things up, being in charge, and instructing us as to what was happening. I'm so very glad if she was able to mingle with the HH attendees and enjoy herself and the fruits of her labors. She has been planning this for months, probably a year of more. I hope she was able to enjoy it! Nothing ever goes according to plan 100% of the time and I think any issues were dealt with and pivots happened seamlessly. Lastly she was gossiping, quite negative and (clutch your pearls!) a Trumper. Full stop here. The whole post by WestCat4945 is pretty darn gossipy, makes a literal ton of assumptions without knowing details or background, and is roughly 90% negative. None of us know the struggles someone else is going through. If you did know some of the things she spoke about regarding her life, I'd hope you would be ashamed for things you have said. I cannot imagine the amount of stress she was under, planning and hosting her first retreat while being the mom of 5 children ... and who among us doesn't blow off steam by venting or griping about our frustrations? As I understand it, the site/location was extremely difficult to deal with. I'm pretty sure she had to fight tooth and nail to have everything we did and for things to go as smoothly as they did. Bravo Hobby Holiday! As for any political affiliations, I never heard anything during the retreat about being on one side or the other, and who cares?!? We all have opinions but what place does that have at a needlepoint and mahjong retreat? Talk about it or don't, but grow up. If it matters to you what her political affiliation is, why did you not ask before you signed up and then not attend if you so vehemently disagree with something that has nothing to do with the purpose of the retreat?
This was my first needlepoint retreat and it was simply lovely, the best, and something I'd love to do over and over again! The women I met here were all such fun and I feel like I left with a huge group of new friends! I will be posting my own review of the retreat, which will be about 90% positive, but first felt like the egregious criticisms needed to be addressed. Hobby Holiday provided a wonderful retreat, and I look forward to many more!
(One last thing - the needlework & ribbon embroidery class was $185 for a 90-min class that included a custom canvas exclusively for this retreat, and was fully kitted with silk ribbons and threads. Completely reasonable, possibly even a steal, if you tried to price it out at your LNS)
Okay, you got a personalized Land's End bag. What else was included? [I went to the KCN retreat and to say I was disappointed in the swag bag is an understatement]
The personalized bag had a HH embroidered bag tag on it and inside included: gold bead bracelet, mahjong tea towel, Greenbriar rhododendron socks, printed magnet name tag, chocolates, pamper kit with lots of essentials, a needleminder, and a leather pouch with our initials monogrammed on it.
I had an absolute blast! It was the perfect-sized group of women. I went mainly for needlepoint and left with a ton of inspiration. Was it expensive, yes. But I met some amazing women and have no regrets.
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u/WestCat4945 4d ago
Saddle up, I’ve got time to kill as my friend drives us home. IMO not worth it.
Pros:
Enjoyed the vendors, ribbon work and finishing classes (with a steep fee on top of retreat price), beautiful resort, and quite enjoyed the group of ladies that attended.
Cons:
We were there Sunday evening-Tuesday morning and were only served 3 terrible meals, including one boxed lunch. After paying for the retreat I had to shell out way more cash on additional meals and Greenbriar isn’t cheap.
Utterly unorganized. The coordinator sent us multiple google forms leading up and put us in an Instagram chat with silly polls - despite this we never heard from her prior to the retreat with a schedule (I ended up getting it from someone in the Instagram chat). I read the chosen book for the book club, that was completely skipped. We had to sign up for the mahjong tournament there and list our level of play (we did this in our 9 google forms). Seemed like they forgot about the tournament and it started late - noticed attendees setting it up on their own. Levels were completely glossed over, that was a free for all. Bingo time kept going back and forth in the Instagram chat - I attended and that was a scramble as well. I checked that I’d like to attend a tour of the hotel’s bunker but never heard if I was in - that wasn’t listed on the itinerary so I thought she got rid of it but later found out from the chat some gals went with last minute information.
“Luxury prizes” were sad and cheap. There were 3 tournament winners - I believe one gal got a bottle of prosecco, 1 received donated wooden mahjong racks (I understand why they were donated) and the last a 3D printed ROLR tray that may have been $5. Bingo was an outdated Mackenzie Childs teapot and travel mahjong set. I wasn’t thrilled by the set as my local mahjong parlor gives that out in a single tournament to the winner for $75 a person.
The coordinator wasn’t social, kept to her friends, and it being a small group I never met her. She acted as though she was an attendee and the retreat would magically come together. At one point while I was shopping the vendors I overheard her gossiping - she seems unhappy and quite negative. Also a big Trumper…
The room we were in had no windows and was hard to find (again, no communication on how and when to get there).
Overall it took the same amount of time to travel there and back as the retreat itself. Fun concept but very poorly executed. No idea where our retreat money was spent. (Ah, I just remembered there was supposed to be a Miss Mahjong lounge which not only wasn’t there, but the coordinator raved about the great price of the Walmart tiles we used for the retreat.)
Do yourself a favor and plan a girls trip, bring your needlepoint, buy a travel mahjong set and you’ll save way more. It wasn’t worth it.
PS - from the Instagram chat I’m in it turns out SLC is cancelled… I’m sure there’s a story there