Christa. Like I said, we always take a taxi, so your information and research is a big help. The woman just seemed so sincere. In any event, according to you folks who know the island I'm not too worried. Thanks to the best forum spicer-upper. Cheers.

Originally posted by dukeofsands Hi,
I think this forum needs a bit of juicing up! We just returned from a 10-day trip to Orient and stayed at the 3 nearby naturist resorts, Club Fantastico, Jardin D'O and Residence Adam and Eve. I wrote a trip report in the form of a blog here: https://chucknjoni.blogspot.com/2019/12/hi-everyone-we-are-on-our-big-beachtrek.html. After SXM we spent a week in Turks and Caicos with family but you can ignore that part.

Although the strike was depressing, it is mostly history hopefully. So maybe this report will spur some more enthusiasm among fans of Orient Beach!

I just noticed that the link was messed up, here it is:
https://chucknjoni.blogspot.com/2019/12/50th-anniversary-trip-comparison-of.html

@dukeofsads: Maybe that is why I had trouble with it. The new link works well. Thanks.

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Paragraphs Are A Reader's Best Friend.

We just returned from the island on Sunday after a 2 week trip. I think the "bridge" is in the French Quarter, on the road between Dawn Beach/Oyster Pond and Orient Beach. They are evidently replacing a small bridge on the main road in town so you have to detour 8 or 10 blocks around through the village involving lots of speed bumps and crossing some smelly drainage ditches. It's a real pain.

We stayed at an Air BNB in the Dawn Beach area so we had the pleasure of traveling through there almost every day. Never had any problems but it isn't a very nice experience.

Overall, the island is slowly coming back. Club O beach was pretty crowded most days but we had a couple rain outs. We spoke to one of the owners while waiting for the rain to clear out and he seemed very confident that agreements had been reached and construction would begin soon. I don't recall his name but he owned unit 53, on the beach near Papagayo. I hope he is right.

Otherwise, it was a great trip. We traveled around pretty extensively and didn't see any signs of protests or encounter any problems. If you stay in Orient Village, your biggest hazard are the potholes on the way to Club O.

I think we stayed in 53 on our last trip in 2017. It was either 52 or 53. I believe 52 was the year before, and 53 was in '17. If I could see the old map of the resort, I could figure it out.

That's good news that he thinks things are worked out, but I have given up on the resort ever coming back. It's been 2.5 years and the old buildings haven't even been taken down. We shall see.

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Paragraphs Are A Reader's Best Friend.

Christa- you are welcome, sorry about the screwup with the link.

SXM Mike- I heard that the direct (south) road to Club O is terrible.. We had no problem using the north entrance to Orient through the gate. That would have been a bit farther for you coming from French Quarter, I know. I sure hope he was right about Club O coming back!! We know an owner staying here (Cypress Cove), we can ask if they have heard anything.

Originally posted by dukeofsands Christa- you are welcome, sorry about the screwup with the link.

SXM Mike- I heard that the direct (south) road to Club O is terrible.. We had no problem using the north entrance to Orient through the gate. That would have been a bit farther for you coming from French Quarter, I know. I sure hope he was right about Club O coming back!! We know an owner staying here (Cypress Cove), we can ask if they have heard anything.

We will be on the Bare Necessities nude cruise in two weeks. A few of the owners usually give a status update talk on the cruise, so maybe we can find out if there are any status changes as well. Last year they even had a booth where all of the resorts hand out promotional information and give out little trinkets. I guess we qualified as good Club O customers, since they gave us a pair of champagne flutes with the Club O logo on them instead of whatever trinkets they were giving everyone else.

Johnny,
Barbara and I will also be on the BNB 2020 too. We are in cabin 6146. Will you be at the meet and greet after the muster/safety drill?

Originally posted by thedeputydog Johnny,
Barbara and I will also be on the BNB 2020 too. We are in cabin 6146. Will you be at the meet and greet after the muster/safety drill?

Yes, we are ma_jandc on the BN and TN boards. I still want to ask you about where you stayed when you went to Orient, since we are still looking for a place to go next February (we decided not to go on next year's cruise).