# HGVC and the Crane Resort



## GregT (Sep 17, 2018)

All,

Apparently, HGVC is buying a large quantity of unsold inventory at the Crane Resort in Barbados.  We are speculating that these are recently built Residences at the Park, versus the original buildings which are closer to the ocean.

I believe there are a few Crane owners here on TUG and I will be curious if you hear anything about the HGVC acquisition (ie, are they trying to buy back your weeks, or are they trying to get you to “enroll” into HGVC).

The Crane has a tremendous reputation and I’m very happy for this addition to the HGVC portfolio.   I do not know if anyone has stayed in the Residences, but would appreciate any perspective or comment.  Thank you!

Best,

Greg


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## DannyTS (Sep 21, 2018)

bump


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## Talent312 (Sep 22, 2018)

There was a thread about this in the HGVC forum.


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## youppi (Sep 22, 2018)

The only problem with The Crane is it's on the wrong side of the island (Atlantic) with lot of sargassum.
This is a picture I took last July when I passed close to the Crane resort and the Crane Beach


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## alwysonvac (Sep 23, 2018)

youppi said:


> The only problem with The Crane is it's on the wrong side of the island (Atlantic) with lot of sargassum.
> This is a picture I took last July when I passed close to the Crane resort and the Crane Beach
> View attachment 8297



Wow, thanks for sharing.
Found these videos when I did a google search and along with a few articles.

2018 post





2015 post






https://barbadostoday.bb/2018/07/10/not-just-brown-seaweed/
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/mysterious-masses-seaweed-assault-caribbean-islands
https://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/2018/06/25/barbados-battles-sargassum-seaweed-through-innovation/


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## dioxide45 (Sep 23, 2018)

There was a Sighting posted in the Sightings forum for several 2019 weeks in RCI.

Sargassum is a huge issue and one major flaw for The Crane is that it is on the east coast and he east coast is most impacted by the seaweed issue. However, Barbados is a beautiful island with friendly people. We spent twelve days there in May and had a great time. We did however rent a car which allowed us to travel anywhere we chose. We were intimidated at first with the thought of driving in Barbados, on the left, but it really was the best decision we made. Getting used to driving on the left only took a day or two and then it was second nature. Having a car gave us the opportunity to explore and head to the west coast away from all of the seaweed.

Another issue with the location of The Crane is availability of nearby restaurants and shopping. You will undoubtedly need to go to the south and west coasts for the best options for those.

I have a video on our YouTube channel about driving there, the link is in my signature.


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## youppi (Sep 23, 2018)

dioxide45 said:


> There was a Sighting posted in the Sightings forum for several 2019 weeks in RCI.
> 
> Sargassum is a huge issue and one major flaw for The Crane is that it is on the east coast and he east coast is most impacted by the seaweed issue. However, Barbados is a beautiful island with friendly people. We spent twelve days there in May and had a great time. We did however rent a car which allowed us to travel anywhere we chose. We were intimidated at first with the thought of driving in Barbados, on the left, but it really was the best decision we made. Getting used to driving on the left only took a day or two and then it was second nature. Having a car gave us the opportunity to explore and head to the west coast away from all of the seaweed.
> 
> ...


I just watch some of your Barbados video and in your driving video, you said that the turn signal was on the wrong side (right side of the steering wheel) but FYI, it depends of car brands.


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## dioxide45 (Sep 23, 2018)

youppi said:


> I just watch some of your Barbados video and in your driving video, you said that the turn signal was on the wrong side (right side of the steering wheel) but FYI, it depends of car brands.


Thanks for the info. Was not aware. Our vehicle it was on the right. Though knowing that, it would make buying a car there a little tricky, you would possibly have to get used to a turn signal on the opposite side than it was with your prior car?

I did some more research on this, it seems that vehicles manufactured in Australia and Japan have the turn signal on the right. We were in a Suzuki, so thus it was on the right. It seemed like many of the vehicles for rental were Nissan or Suzuki, so most would probably need to be aware of this.

_One area which is not standardized is the location of the turn signal lever. In most places, the turn signal is mounted on the left side of the steering column. This includes right-hand-drive vehicles in the UK, and left-hand-drive vehicles in America and continental Europe. Vehicles built in Australia and Japan, however, have the turn signal lever mounted on the right. At one time this meant that cars made by Nissan in Britain had the signals and wiper controls one way round, but cars made by Nissan in Japan for the British market had them the opposite way round. In recent years most Japanese cars sold in the British Isles seem to conform to the European convention._

https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/trivia-about-driving-left/


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## youppi (Sep 23, 2018)

dioxide45 said:


> Thanks for the info. Was not aware. Our vehicle it was on the right. Though knowing that, it would make buying a car there a little tricky, you would possibly have to get used to a turn signal on the opposite side than it was with your prior car?
> 
> I did some more research on this, it seems that vehicles manufactured in Australia and Japan have the turn signal on the right. We were in a Suzuki, so thus it was on the right. It seemed like many of the vehicles for rental were Nissan or Suzuki, so most would probably need to be aware of this.
> 
> ...


It may be more difficult to deal with change of side for the turn signal but dealing with light and wiper where they are often positioning differently from car to car may be confusing too. 
Some cars have the wiper ctrl on the left lever and the on/off light on the dashboard where others cars, the wiper are on the right lever and the on/off light on the left lever. On some brands, you must pull the left lever to put high beam and on others brands, you must push the left lever to do the same thing. On some cars you must turn the lever to turn on/off the wiper and on some others you must lift up/down the lever.
Many others control on the steering wheel are positioning differently like audio volume and cruise ctrl.
So, changing car needs an adaptation except if we change for the same car/brand.


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## GregT (Sep 26, 2018)

alwysonvac said:


> Wow, thanks for sharing.
> Found these videos when I did a google search and along with a few articles.
> 
> 2018 post
> ...



Wow, that is some serious seaweed......thanks for posting this!

Best,

Greg


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## Sandy VDH (Sep 26, 2018)

http://seas-forecast.com/

Here is a project based out of A&M Galveston, that forecasts Sargassum over the entire caribbean.  

Check it out.


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