Here is a sad report by Olaf Danielson who owns the remains of a chalet in Club O: https://www.thepublicopinion.com/neighbors/searching-for-hope-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-irma/article_02acca56-df5d-11e7-a997-5b4ba32ab9d5.html

Man, that's quite a depressing account of things, but unfortunately reality! Lets hope they get their stuff together and get true recovery going soon!

Life's a beach!

I was afraid of this. It has now been over three months and nothing has been done. What I found most telling was his comment about the insurance policies:

"Then came the other realizations, such as the fact that there was fine print in French on the insurance policy for the destroyed house, including caps on total damages for the entire neighborhood to a number about 30-40 percent of the cost to rebuild and restrictions to the condo association bi-laws that could paralyze any response."

There can't be any real rebuilding until the insurance is sorted out, so the delay makes sense to me. I hope the other issues can be resolved. If the condo association rules are preventing rebuilding, I would think the owners would vote to change them.

I have wondered for awhile now, why Club O hasn't started any real clean up yet? I would think even with a sparse crew they could start piling debris and dead vegetation up. Maybe sure up so salvageable trees, etc......... Maybe insurance reason?

Life's a beach!

I got this from Club Orient today: https://gem.godaddy.com/p/6ce55b?fe=1&pact=38106-143122834-8735634327-a281b9ef3ef6a9576d0c8f02adf816e4eeba8bbf

BC9913, i received this email also. This sounds encouraging that something is going on behind the scenes. Hope it happens quickly and all the great staff can get back to work!
Life's a beach!

To me it doesn't sound that encouraging. I would like to hear plans for the future; that is, what exactly is going to be done and when.Seems as though the insurance is causing a problem, and that may be a problem that will not be resolved favorably. Hope I am wrong.

I think that we are in for a long wait until Club O reopens.

I think you are exactly right. I have no real expectation of ever going to Club O again. The events of the last three months have done nothing to dissuade me from that expectation.

If there is no Club O, we won't be making the trip to St. Martin. Our June, 2017 trip, unfortunately, was probably our last visit to the Island.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You have plenty of time to re-explore Orient as it rebuilds. I haven't been there other than as cruise ship but I am looking forward to going before i kick the proverbial bucket and I would believe, based on your avatar, you are a young woman with many years in front of you. Heck, I just turned 60 and I'm hoping to get there soon. As the Journey song says, "Don't stop believing"

It's not that I am hard on myself, but just discouraged about the prospects of Club O reopening. We got spoiled staying at Club O and nothing else is comparable. That's the main reason we go to St. Martin. Without Club O, just no reason to go back.

I hear you. We love Club O as well and have been hoping for something positive to happen. I'm trusting of their word, probably to a fault. But as they say, time will tell!..........BTW it won't be the same, but we will return someday with or without them!

Life's a beach!

We also got the newsletter from ClubO. Was hoping to see watersports had reopened because we are on a cruise stop in February 2018. Was hoping to get some no-line tan and spend some money at ?Perch II?. Any word on if that is even possible or if cabs are transporting cruisers to Orient Beach. The squatter chair rental mentioned in the owners post doesn?t sound like a reliable situation. Guess, if nothing else, we can take a morning damage tour then back to our ship for enough alcohol to put it out of our mind.

We let them keep our deposit to help the cause but progress seems very discouraging, so far anyway. I?m certain they are trying and we wish them the best.



Kentucky Couple

We head over next month and will be meeting friends on the island. Perch lite is available, with expected greatly reduced number of people on the beach. Looking forward to time on Orient!

Keep in mind that everything on the island happens at a slow pace in the best of times. The last time Club Orient was destroyed, they imported prefab chalets from Europe because building them on site just wasn't going to happen in a reasonable time.

One of the emails or facebook posts said that the chair rentals were Club employees, not squatters.