lets be positive; also new update soon; web site info soon too;
Hello C&C members,
lets be positive; also new update soon; web site info soon too (brief mention at bottom of this post);
I want to invite every C&C member to stay as positive as possible. Unlike at the Enchantment (so far at least), those responsible for building Castles & Condos and deciding to make a large part of it timeshare units continue to keep in touch with us despite their financial losses to date and continue to work on finishing the construction and also getting us timeshare members as much for our membership money as is financially viable.
I am confident at this time that the C&C resort will be finished in 2010, most likely in the first half and as soon as possible, and we will all, if we so choose, get the chance to stay there on a regular basis from year to year thereafter (or binannually if that is your membership), and hopefully including the year 2010. An update on that is all coming soon, including, I believe, answers to many questions posed by myself and others. There is some delay in that the C&C member who did visit PV last weekend and met with Amanda and with another resort rep the next day became almost gravely ill for almost all of this week and has not had time to get pictures to me or pass on answers to many questions asked. We wish him the fullest recovery and thank him for taking the time to make a side trip from elsewhere in Mexico to get the visit in. Pictures will not be really good because of the heavy rains and winds that came with the recent hurricane that missed PV but still brought ugly weather conditions there. More pictures however have been arranged.
I agree with recent posters that primarily, despite all other problems that might have to do with our contracts and/or reservations, that most members want more than anything else that otherwise is minor to see DNG complete the project and get us into it.
I agree that "there is no comparable accomodation", and indeed in my opinion, despite the beautifull resort with 5-star rating that it is, even "Villa Quinta Del Mar" (VQDM) is not comparable to C&C, but for those with already committed and booked reservations due to whatever contract item or ammendment at signing resulted in that, it is better to have VQDM than not having anywhere to go in the meantime until C&C is complete, as other options are going to cost the developer much more (as I think DNG or Donald Busby also owns the VQDM), and I would rather see most of the financial focus and other efforts be on getting the C&C building completed and the contracts modified to ones that will work for all. Though the daily non-optional all-inclusive meal and drink fee is very expensive at VQDM, most of you are not committed by bookings to go to PV yet if you don't want to, so the whole issue is not important to most members. For those that have already been or will soon have to go there, myself included who has a reservation in October that cannot be moved because of a very important commitment I made to be there with some planned guests a long time ago, I will stomach the charges this one time. 4 people for 7 days is $2100, plus my weekly fee, but I am still looking forward to the trip, and I am looking forward to staying at VQDM, and hopefully will even have the opportunity to meet Amanda and others at DNG, and maybe even Kieth Thomson, and look forward to seeing C&C construction in progress and report back to all of you.
What company structure the completion of the resort is done through is not in the end important if it does not have serious impact on any possible contract that could still emerge for us as palatable at least, so as to the mechanics and reasons for the change in provider company shell, it does not matter, because too many bariers and problems will result in no resort available to us at all and expensive and likely futile efforts to salvage any large amount of what each C&C member has already each spent.
One can say what one wants about whether DNG's has legal obligation to honor the original contracts (I believe they do, but can't, so it does not matter), as what is important is not the legal obligation but whether they can afford to do it in any way at all, and the business plan needed to do it will be what we will have to live with, and thus will live with, and likely in the long run we will happily live with if we get to use C&C regularly from year to year.
So for most members having seen first Castles and Condos or later DNG but in both cases with the same sales company arrangement that failed, and then DNG about to enter a sales relationship with Saver Express that will hopefully and most likely succeed, I urge you to thus help this to happen by being as cooperative as you can, yet providing important input and feedback as best we can to look after getting what is reasonable where it is affordable to the providers for our contracts, whether rewritten or not.
There is in my opinion, and I could be wrong, not having the fortune to be travelling around the world from timeshare to timeshare, but from what I have seen through internet searches, very little in the same class of resort as the C&C in PV or anywhere else, and certainly not in the same cost band as well, and I am sure almost all of you, like me, look forward to being able to use the resort for the long term, and I am confident that will occur, and only the details remain to be worked out, and we must trust that the construction, which has begun again, will be hurried along as much as possible because an empty timeshare building produces no revenue whatever for the developer.
Thus I encourage you all to give Amanda LaRosee and DNG our full cooperation and respect, and Keith Thomson too, and allow them to pull this all together as best they can for us (and for them - yes, they are also in the business to make a profit, not just to look after us, but happy customers lead to future sales and future developments, and unhappy customers lead to bad reputations and failure and no future developments and not even the development we hope to enjoy, so certainly they are working to do what best they can to keep us as satisfied as they can despite the circumstances that led to all of this, no matter how it happened - the history really does not matter too much. Let's not be the sand that glogs the gears and brings everything to a standstill, but rather the grease that keeps it all moving.
There is some concern that continued negative posts will make it more difficult to make the project a viable resort. So let's stay positive, since we do have many reasons to stay positive at this time. For those with issues, I am sure those issues can first be discussed outside this forum in a positive manner with Amanda and DNG and Keith. And if there are still problems, let's try to resolve them or work on them in private emails first among members or through the upcoming members-only web site. Then if you still need to post, then post, as that is how some of this progress was made already.
No, I did not get paid or coerced or bribed or in any other way encouraged to say all this. I just believe we need at this time to be less confrontational and work together to make this work out for all, because I am optimistic that it will all coming together. Yes, there will be problems perhaps for those that counted on rentals or exchanges of your m-weeks or were promised purchases of your other timeshares. They are not insignificant problems, and I believe at least some of those issues can be addressed in time in a cooperative manner as best as the developer and sales agent can do, though in some cases perhaps there is little that can be done. But for most of us, we will come out of this with something that will work.
I will report more as information becomes available shortly, and I am sure Amanda will do her best to keep us up-to-date also. Be patient with her. There are as many as 300 contracts for her to organize and examine (though maybe less), and as many as 300 members to talk to. She is working lots of extra hours to do that. As is Keith Thomson. He and DNG will together make this work.
Watch for an invitation to join the C&C members-only member-run web site also, which I have not had anything to do with, but will be another way we can work together for the benefit of all of us members. Those that are not TUG members or TUG posters but have replied to me privately in email will get an invitation to join. Thank you to the two TUG members doing this for taking the time to set it up and to those and perhaps maybe others also who will administer the site and the membership for the site. Your input through the web site will certainly be welcome.
Joe
(joefaubert at shaw.ca - replace ' at ' with '@' for email)
