Caribbean Timeshare

Thursday’s The Timeshare Authority congratulated Occidental Vacation Club, for receiving an RCI Gold Crown rating. (See: Occidental Vacation Club Receives RCI Gold Crown Rating). Occidental Vacation Club is a great example of a vacation ownership product that many people don’t realize exists: the all inclusive timeshare.

As a part of Occidental Hotels and Resorts (Madrid), Occidental is known for its beautiful, high-quality vacation properties. Yet Occidental is also part of a limited number of all inclusive timeshare and vacation club destinations that offer member/owners the opportunity to “vacation without their wallets.” Inherent in timeshare and vacation ownership is the advantage of pre-paying for years of vacations at a fixed price. Adding the component of all-inclusive resorts to this picture, as does Occidental, means vacationers can experience pre-paid vacations, right down to their meals and entertainment.

At Occidental Vacation Club, all-inclusive means unlimited meals and snacks and the opportunity to enjoy á la carte dining in specialty restaurants including unlimited alcoholic beverages. This literally means the chance to put away your credit card and cash, and enjoy eating and drinking without watching your dollars because the cost of wining, dining, celebrating, and indulging has already been covered in one, flat-rate fee.

But all-inclusive resorts go beyond food and beverage. They include sports and recreation. At  Occidental Vacation Club, this means tennis on lighted courts, water polo, aqua aerobics, kayaking at some destinations, the unlimited used of the fitness center, and much more. Daily entertainment and a supervised Kids Club, for vacationers between the ages of 4 and 12 are also included, along with live shows and nightly entertainment, as well as all of your taxes. On an Occidental Vacation Club getaway, even tipping and gratuities are included in your all-inclusive price.

As Luis Namnum, President of Occidental Vacation Club says, “Not only are we located in spectacular tropical areas with plenty of sun and fun, we also work hard to make every aspect of our all-inclusive vacations enjoyable for visitors from around the world.”

When it comes to vacationing, it probably never gets any easier than this. You can learn more about the beautiful resorts of Occidental Vacation Club by calling (in the US and Canada) 1-888-538-8048 and following them on Twitter @OccidentalVC, Facebook.com/occidentalvacationclub, or in their blog at sharethejoy.occidentalvacationclub.com.

Occidental Vacation Club a division of Madrid’s Occidental Hotels and Resorts has received the Gold Crown rating from RCI (Resort Condominiums International) for 10 of its vacation club resorts.

The Golf Grown award goes only to resorts reaching the highest standards within the Resort Condominiums International (RCI) timeshare exchange network. Receiving the award for Occidental Resorts are:

• Occidental Grand Papagayo
• Occidental Grand Nuevo Vallarta
• Occidental Grand Flamenco Xcaret
• Occidental Grand Flamenco Punta Cana
• Occidental Grand Cozumel
• Occidental Grand Aruba
• Occidental First Club Allegro Playacar
• Occidental First Club Allegro Cozumel
• Occidental Allegro Playacar
• Occidental Allegro Cozumel

Luis Namnum, President of Occidental Vacation Club says, “Receiving this award is a great honor. We are proud to be affiliated with RCI and glad to welcome the thousands of members who exchange their time to visit our resorts in paradise.”

Namnum continues, “Not only are we located in spectacular tropical areas with plenty of sun and fun, we also work hard to make every aspect of our all-inclusive vacations enjoyable for visitors from around the world. The Gold Crown standard comes with hard work and a team of hospitality professionals who are dedicated to making sure our guests have wonderful vacations. The warm service at our resorts also played a significant role in our recent Trip Advisor Certificates awarded to six of our properties.

In order to earn the RCI Gold Crown, a resort must past multiple ranking standards at the highest levels, and receive Guest Comment rankings higher than 4.4 out of 5. RCI has approximately 3.8 million timeshare owner members worldwide and more than 4000 affiliated resorts.

Many have called for expanded St. Maarten timeshare legislation in recent years, believing that it will enhance and improve vacation ownership there. Now, with collaboration by the St. Maarten Timeshare Association, in a  joint committee with ARDA-Caribbean, progress is being made toward the development of a comprehensive legislative act.

One of the most highly publicized issues regarding St. Maarten timeshare stemmed from the challenges experienced by timeshare owners at the Simpson Bay Resort and Marina and the Villas at Simpson Bay, which were formerly known as the Pelican Resort Club and the Pelican Marina Residences. (You can read more about the history of this issue here: Detailed Updates on Simpson Bay Timeshare (Pelican Resort Club) Closing Part I; Detailed Updates on Simpson Bay Timeshare (Pelican Resort Club) Closing Part II; and Simpson Bay Timeshare in the Caribbean Reopens, Some Owners Receive Bonus Interval).

The following news was published by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), on October 25, 2012.

St. Maarten Timeshare Issue Brief

On October 10, the Parliament of St. Maarten formally received the draft timeshare legislation prepared by the St. Maarten Timeshare Association (SMTA) / ARDA legislation committee in conjunction with Judge Jan de Boer of the St. Maarten Common Court of Justice. Judge de Boer sent the draft legislation to Parliament and to the Minister of Justice.

St. Maarten Timeshare Impact

St. Maarten has had some limited timeshare consumer legislation in place since 2003. However, St. Maarten elected officials called for the well-respected legal scholar, Judge de Boer to make improvements and updates to the current timeshare law in response to the short-lived closing of the Simpson Bay Resort and Marina and the Villas at Simpson Bay Resort and Marina in St. Maarten, formerly known as Pelican Resort Club and Pelican Marina Residences.

St. Maarten Timeshare Position/Call to Action

In September of 2011, the SMTA formed a joint committee with ARDA-Caribbean to offer a comprehensive and credible timeshare legislative act. The committee proposed a draft bill to Judge de Boer in May of 2012. After a period of careful review and some minor revision the legislation was officially forwarded to the St. Maarten Government in September 2012.

St. Maarten Timeshare Issue Updates

The bill will be reviewed by Parliament during this year’s legislative session, which started in September. Alerts will be sent out for any updates that become available.

Although forecasters remind us that hurricane season actually extends until Thanksgiving each year, we can’t help but be surprised when tropical weather is an issue late in the month of October. With the bulk of hurricane weather typically ending each year in early September, most travelers do not hesitate to plan a cruise or Caribbean timeshare vacation in October.

This week as a Category 2 hurricane, Hurricane Sandy resulted in the evacuation of thousands of tourists vacationing in the Caribbean. Jamaica’s international airports were closed Wednesday, and cruise ship stops were cancelled as Sandy swept across the island, leaving deaths, injuries, and outages behind. As of early Friday morning, Jamaica’s two major airports, Norman Manley International Airport (KIN) in Kingston and Sangster International Airport (MBJ) in Montego Bay, are open and both have resumed flight service. With the storm now passed Jamaica, no hotels in the resort areas of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Negril, and the South Coast have reported structural damage.

Hurricane Sandy hit southeastern Cuba with sustained winds of 114 miles per hour, causing more than 55,000 people to flee the area and thousands more to be left to ride out the storm. Hoteliers in Santiago have set up generators to provide emergency power.

In the Bahamas, all public buildings, airports, seaports, and bridges are closed for Thursday and Friday as a precautionary measure.

Caribbean Cruise Updates

• Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, the world’s largest passenger ship, and three Carnival ships: the Valor, Pride, and Glory, have changed their itineraries to avoid the hurricane.
• Disney’s 2,500-passenger Disney Dream is skipping a Friday call at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas. The Disney Dream will remain at sea instead of calling at port, with Saturday’s port call in Nassau currently tentative.
• The Disney Fantasy is skipping its call at Castaway Cay.

Many Florida Timeshare Resorts Experiencing Heavy Wind and Rain

Most of Florida’s east coast is under, or will be under, tropical storm conditions today. Tropical storm warnings extend as far south as Ocean Reef, the gateway to the Florida Keys. Although Hurricane Sandy is not expected to be a life threatening storm as it passes parallel to the Florida coastline, it will bring strong tropical winds and intermittent rains to the area, effecting weather as far into central Florida as Orlando and Kissimmee. Florida timeshare vacationers should be wary that rough seas and high waves will keep them off the beaches over the next few days.

Real Storm Threat May Be Eastern Seaboard

Ironically, the storm’s impact on Caribbean timeshare resorts and hotels may pale in comparison to what she brings to the New England area. Presently, Sandy still looks as if she will angle toward the US coastline, aiming at New Jersey or New York by early next week. Meteorologists are concerned that Hurricane Sandy could arrive in the New England area at about the same time a major cold front and winter storm sweeps into the area from the west. The result could be what some forecasters are calling, “Frankenstorm” bringing miserable, messy weather just in time for Halloween.

Best advice: Wherever your timeshare vacation or travel plans may take you, if you have any concerns about inclement weather and the conditions it may bring, you best resource is to contact your timeshare directly for updates.