Also ck out their Facebook page for the recent update on 3/16. Have a great time!

Life's a beach!

we certainly have fond memories of Club O and the nearby village and you guys too

Originally posted by canda

Been here since Sunday. The beach is absolutely amazing - just don?t look towards the resort. The food at Perch Lite is very good and although we don?t have Willie serving drinks, everyone working the bar are very friendly and making our visit that much better. A lot of clean up is happening at Club O. So far they have been accumulating debris in large piles and burning. But this morning when we pulled in, there was at least 3 large dump trucks that they were loading and hauling debris away!!! At it all day. What a difference. Here until the 25th - hope to report on more progress.

Thanks for the report. Where is the drive to access the parking, and where is the parking?

I saw some photographs that appeared to show the umbrellas and chairs were in one small area and were jammed up next to each other as they were back in the days when the resort was open and crowded. Is this the way the beach boys are doing the set up, with little to no room between the chairs? It would be nice to have a little space between neighbors. They often set the umbrellas so close, there is no room to walk between them.

Club O mentioned somewhere that they were clumping the umbrellas together because of problems with gawkers and not having their full security staff to run them off. They also said that this had created the impression that it was only OK to be nude in that small area and they were working to change that.

Take a right before the old entrance to Club O as if you are heading to Pedro?s. Turn right after the last Club O chalet (actually think this was Bert?s house) and you will see Perch Lite and cars parked. The wall that separated Club O and the road to Pedro?s was destroyed and has now been removed. The beach is huge!! and Cedric can?t possibly set up chairs the full length. Some chairs in the front row are close together but not as close as pre Irma. Second row is just random chairs and he will always place an umbrella wherever you pick. You can have lots of space if desired.

Interesting fact - it had been reported earlier that Cedric rounded up whatever umbrellas he could find after the storm and so that?s why all the different colours. Not so - all the umbrellas are new as Cedric purchased everything available after the storm and so took whatever colours just to ensure he had enough. The yellow and blue are Club O colours and the orange is pretty good, but don?t like the green.

Sorry - obviously take a left just before the old entrance to Club O.

When I read that I thought you must have meant take a "left." A right turn would have us headed to the salt pond.

Thanks for the information. As long as I have enough room to walk between the umbrellas, I am fine.

Club O contractors removing concrete and debris from Pedro?s site yesterday.

Originally posted by babs

we certainly have fond memories of Club O and the nearby village and you guys too

Originally posted by canda

Originally posted by babs

we certainly have fond memories of Club O and the nearby village and you guys too

us as well Babs. Checked out beach chalet 86 today - real sad!!

too bad about #86 and ALL of the others also we were scheduled to be down there but the storm beat us to the island

I just saw an update on the Club Orient facebook page. The insurance settlement is moving along well and they were ready to start rebuilding when "a few individuals" objected to the rebuilding plan and delayed things. While the issue is being worked out, they are burning through money paying the staff.
They do not plan to have any units open this year and hope to be up and running sometime in 2019

Here are the details, from an email I received today:

Dear Friends of Club Orient,
==========

Sorry it has been so long since an update. Nothing moves quickly down here. Usually that’s a positive, but not in our current situation.

As we have discussed in previous missives, Club Orient is really two separate and distinct entities, OBC which is Orient Beach Club and is responsible for the resort and its employees and The Corpropriate which is like a Home Owners Association. The responsibilities are not designed to overlap. However, our common goal is to return Club Orient to the paradise we all have loved for over 30 years.

The Copropriate or Copro for short is responsible for the repair and rebuilding of the individual units, as well as many of the common area building like the Papagayo.

We were about to announce the repair and rebuilding of the resort had commenced and with some luck, be able to receive guests and owners back in November or December. For those of you who have visited us, you know the basic clean-up is already finished and the demo is underway. The construction fence is in place, for the first units to be brought back to life.

But, we have just been informed the timeline has hit a roadblock. Because of an action taken by a few people, they have temporarily halted the repair and rebuilding of Club Orient. I am not able to give you details, either in this posting or privately, but the Copro believes the delay will be rectified this Fall. The broad answer is the insurance money long promised is still delayed.

I am sure you are asking yourself how the insurance payment can just continue to drag out. Our delay is not unique for the island. In fact, we understand that roughly half the claims on the island have yet to be settled. Even the French Collectivité itself has only received about 20% of what they claim they are due and the airport is in litigation with their insurance company.

This is incredibly sad news for all of us who love Club Orient and especially for our employees who were so excited seeing the recent progress, to be told they must wait even longer to return to work.

Accordingly, Copro must halt the construction work until the funds are received. This will result in us all needing to take a step back and reevaluate the schedule, but it definitely will mean that no units will be completed until 2019.

This delay will have a serious impact on us (OBC) as we will not be able to begin renting units for the fall and will force us to change our strategy regarding how we can proceed. You may remember OBC received our insurance proceeds in October. But, we have been having to pay partial salaries (chomage partiel), office rent and a host of other things for over ten months. It has taken a large portion of our proceeds to have gone this long with no revenue. But, thanks to the help of many of you, we’re still here and still determined.

We are as frustrated as we know you are and believe us when we say no one wants to be back in our home, as much as those of us who have the privilege of working at Club Orient.

Thank you for everything and we hope these issues get rectified quickly and we can put the construction crews back to work.

Thanks for the information. I wonder why I didn't get this email?

Doesn't look good.

Aha, in going back and looking at my messages, I see that I did get it. I think it came in on FB.

We just rec'd their email yesterday. Same bad news.