Florida Timeshare

Bobby Cole, the PGA Tour player we at SellMyTimeshareNOW sponsor, finished T-4 in the Florida State Senior Open. Hosted at the championship course of the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, the event is sponsored by the South Florida PGA of America. In a field of 191 players, Bobby opened with a round of 67, followed by rounds of 71 and 69.

This was the 30th year for the tournament, but only Bobby’s second time to play there. In 2005, he shot 70-68 in a rain-shortened two-round tournament, to finish one stroke off the lead and alone in second place.

PGA Tour veteran Roger Kennedy won the championship with course record low rounds of 63-64, followed by a final round score of 71. Steve Waugh turned in rounds of 71-67-and 63 to claim second place.

The Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club is a landmark resort located in an area of beachside luxury hotels, Florida timeshares, and vacation homes. The original property, The Naples Hotel, was constructed in the late 1880’s. In 1930, the heir to the Jergens hand lotion fortune married Allen Joslin, who built the area’s first 18-hole golf course and purchased beachfront land adjacent to the hotel, where he built The Naples Beach Club. In 1946, Henry Watkins Sr., a retired toy manufacturer, bought the original hotel and later The Beach Club and golf course, combining the properties to create the historic Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club.

Naples is the heart of the region known as Florida’s Paradise Coast, and is always a great place to spend the day on the golf course. Congratulations to Bobby and all the golfers who play in this year’s Florida State Senior Open.

Celebrity Resorts Timeshares in Palm Coast has one cat too many.

How many cats are too many? At the Celebrity Resorts Timeshares in Palm Coast, Florida, just north of Daytona Beach, 38 cats are definitely too many—even if that is 70 fewer cats than there were a year ago.

A colony of wild cats has apparently decided that they want to try timesharing in the resort community and who can blame them? The timeshare resort sits on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway, with an 80-slip marina and outstanding golf and tennis nearby. Understandably, the management at the resort would like the feral cats to leave, eliminating the possibility that one of the animals might scratch or bite a guest.

Local animal activists regularly feed the cats on the resort’s private property. Over the past year, the volunteers have managed to catch many of the animals and transport them to a local clinic to be spayed or neutered and to administer rabies shots. Even better, the group has found homes for some 70 felines, cutting the size of the colony by more than half. Yet many of the cats are simply too wild to catch.

The management at Celebrity Resorts wants the activist group to stop feeding the cats and relocate them, otherwise they will have no choice but to contact the Flagler Humane Society to remove the animals.

Florida’s temperate climate makes it a haven for feral cat colonies and some experts estimate there could be as many as 10 million wild cats across the state.

As I reported in early June, when MVCI purchased the Radisson Suite Beach Resort in Marco Island, Florida, with plans to renovate the property as a timeshare, local ordinances stood in their way. Marriott’s intention was to convert the 233-room property into a 219-unit timeshare. But to do that, they’d need to build upward beyond the building’s present 125-foot height.

The timeshare/vacation club developer requested permission to build to a height of 175 feet. At the August 7, 2006, Marco Island city council meeting, a compromise was reached. MVCI will be permitted to build to a height of 150 feet.

According to an article by reporter Jennifer Brannock in The Naples News, (www.naplesnews.com) the president of the Marco Island Civic Association, Kathryn Sullivan, expressed disappointment with the decision. Sullivan was quoted as saying, “I think hotels are important to the economy of the island, and I think we lost a hotel tonight. The danger with this is that we’ll lose more hotels as the owners realize the advantages of going to timeshares.”

A recent survey of island residents showed that more than half are opposed to raising the height regulations for Collier Boulevard, the main thoroughfare on the island. The Naples News says, “Some residents and councilors said they were concerned that the allowance of more units will create traffic and congestion problems, because more people can occupy a two-bedroom time-share than a hotel room.”

And while it is easy to empathize with the local residents’ desire to protect their community from overgrowth, it is interesting to note they have identified some of the very same things we are always saying at SellMyTimeshareNOW.

1. When people realize the advantage of timeshares, it is hard to go back to hotels, and this applies to both vacationers and hoteliers.
2. The spaciousness of timeshares beats out a comparable hotel room every time.

While Florida struggles with the largest power outage in the state’s history, $10 billion in damages is expected to result.

Either we’ve seen it in the news, or we heard it roaring outside our homes earlier this week, but everyone knows about it. Hurricane Wilma plowed through southern Florida leaving a big mess behind.

An estimated 2.5 million homes are without power in the state of Florida today, as rescue workers and cleanup crews go about their business. In regard to what is described as the worst power outage in Florida history, it could take a month to restore electricity. Widespread power outages plus the usual assortment of telecommunications foul-ups make it hard to find out about damages to specific resort areas. In this instance, the affected area was so broad that a huge number of resort properties took at least minimal damage. I’ll try to summarize what I know at this time.

– The Florida keys have flooded, and the Overseas Highway has been rendered impassable in at least two places. Key West International Airport is shut down due to flooding. Concern was voiced yesterday over damaged docking facilities which could hamper rescue efforts. About 90% of Keys residents stayed in their homes during hurricane Wilma. Consequently, right now there’s a lot of people without power, refrigeration, or clean water (a water main broke because of the storm). The Keys are reportedly experiencing the worst flooding in years. We’re waiting to hear more from the Keys, but I don’t expect good news.

-Though flooding in the streets was as deep as five feet in some places, Naples survived the storm more intact than previous estimates allowed for. Flooding from the storm surge is receeding, and Naples expects to be back in business by the end of this week. Marco Island survived better than expected, though 3,000 homes had their roofs damaged. The Radisson Suite Beach Resort on Marco Island also sustained some roof damage, and it will reopen once it has been repaired. The Ritz-Carlton at Naples expects to reopen at 12 PM on Friday, October 28, and is only waiting for additonal clean-up and power restoration. As for other hotels in the area, The Registry Resort & Club also expects to be open for business later this week.

-Wilma’s winds grew stronger as she passed over Florida’s East Coast, and this is where some of the worst damage occured. High-rise buildings in Miami lost their windows, and the storm lobbed pieces of asphalt into parked cars. 98% of homes and businesses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties remain without power. This in turn complicates the assessment of damages; most resorts are waiting until the power is back on before they investigate damages. What we do know is that Fort Lauderdale hasn’t been hit this hard by a hurricane since 1950, and that structural damage to resort properties is likely.

-Many airports in southern Florida are not operating. However, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers is open, and flights should resume today. MIA and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airports are unsure whether or not they will be able to reopen today.

Regardless of what you read here today, remember that online information and third-hand news reports can be faulty. If you’re worried about your specific timeshare or other vacation property, contact your resort ASAP. Unless you weathered Wilma in your timeshare (we’d love to hear stories if anyone has done this) you won’t know the extent of the damages until you ask. Due diligence, coupled with an equal measure of assertiveness, has saved many a timeshare owner from nasty surprises.

More on Florida as more information becomes available.