March 2019
Dear Fellow Virgin Grand Villas Owner:
As your elected members of the Board of Directors of our condominium association, we recently participated in the annual meeting of owners at the resort and a board of directors meeting immediately thereafter.
CONDITION OF THE RESORT
The first thing to report is that the resort is beautiful. There are still a few things to be done, but the management company has done an outstanding job of getting on top of a disaster and moving quickly to get the resort up and running. Within days of Hurricane Irma, Vistana met with Cotton International, which became our resort’s primary construction contractor, and also met with our insurance carrier. As a result, Vistana locked up the talent and construction material that we would need before Hurricane Maria hit. Resort personnel, from top management to dishwashers, then worked day and night to restore the resort. In the end, reconstruction required 180 53-foot containers of new equipment and supplies and the rental of a special barge to bring this material to the island, night after night.
These before and after pictures of the pool area say more than we can describe in words:
Immediately After Irma
March 2019
As you can see, the foliage has recovered nicely. Ninety percent of the palm trees survived, and iguanas are beginning to be seen on the grounds.
The work that still remains to be done includes the re-opening of buildings 33, 34, 41 and 42, scheduled for May 4, resurfacing of the tennis courts, re-opening of Lemongrass restaurant, bringing in sand to replace what the storm carried away from the beach, and furnishing the new sun terrace. Although some owners who have unit weeks before May 4 in the four buildings that have yet to open can’t use their units this year, all such owners are being accommodated elsewhere on the resort. No 2019 reservations were cancelled.(Kudos to Vistana’s Suzanne Clark and her team for making arrangements for everyone).
Regarding Lemongrass: the resort is awaiting approval from the Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission—and its approval has not yet been given. After that occurs, getting the restaurant set up to begin service will take several months. So the restaurant may not open until fall. Meanwhile, three meals a day are being served at Snorkels (with a limited menu), the Mango Deli is open for breakfast food and sandwiches, kitchens in the villas are fully functional, and grills are operational for all the villas that have opened. The St. John Market and the Starfish Market are open, and although the island lost several nice restaurants (including Zozo’s, Asolare, Café Bordeaux, and Knox and Ollie’s), several others are back to normal or near-normal operations.
As you know, the main lobby was demolished. There are currently three lobbies for check-in: at the airport, at the dock, and near the fitness center (which is operating, as is the spa). Where the main lobby used to be is a concrete slab with several white pillars, most of which used to be part of the lobby. The management company plans to turn the area into a sun terrace, with outdoor furniture including tables and chairs, shade sails, internet access, and views of the bay. In our personal opinion, the white pillars are unsightly and not in keeping with the look of the resort, and we have made our views known to management.
Sun Terrace
During the annual meeting, an owner reported a rumor to the effect that management planned to construct new timeshare buildings on the slab where the lobby once stood. Management has informed us that the plot of land is owned by the Developer and that it may build more units on that plot in the future but has no present plans to do so.
Management expects to resurface four of the six tennis courts for tennis, and to turn the two other courts to a hard-surface court for basketball and pickleball. We think this alteration may prove popular, but if it does not, those courts could be resurfaced for tennis in the future.
Internet service is much faster than before and, once you are logged in, it is no longer necessary to log in again each day or from other areas of the resort.
The balconies of the hillside villas now have much lighter and more easily movable chairs and tables. The two bedroom corner villas have larger balconies than the other hillside villas and have four balcony chairs.
New cushioned chaises were purchased in 2017 for the hillside iguana pools and the 3-bedroom pool villas but were not in place at the time of the hurricane. Since then, the Westin brand standard has changed to a chaise that has mesh for the seating area, which you can see in the picture of the big pool above. They dry more quickly than cushioned chaises. Some people prefer them; others do not. (The Virgin Grand Board might have agreed that this change was a good idea, but it was not consulted.)
The Westin ferry now leaves from Red Hook rather than Crown Bay, which means that if you use the Westin ferry to get to the island, you will have a longer land trip and a shorter boat ride than before. This change has made it possible to have many more trips per day—and on a much nicer ferry boat. The resort’s newest ferry operates Thursday through Sunday due to a high volume of usage on those days and will be used any other day if demand is high. At other times the trips are made on the Island Time ferry. The public ferry, which also leaves from Red Hook, remains available, at a lower price. (It goes to Cruz Bay, not the resort, so it is then necessary to taxi to the resort or rent a car in town). The car ferry is also operating again, with only one carrier operating two barges at this time.
O’Connor Car Rental located on the resort property is back in operation.
ELECTION OF DIRECTOR
Philip Schrag was re-elected at the annual meeting for a three-year term as an owner member of the Board.
OTHER MATTERS
Owners who banked 2018 StarOptions are allowed to use them within three years (until Dec. 31, 2021) rather than the usual two years. This change to the usual banking rule has not yet been reflected in the computer system. We hoped that the later expiration date would show up by now in your account, accessible through the
vistana.com dashboard, but it will take a little longer for the later date to be visible to you.
Vistana is offering us a new benefit called VSN Select, available from the
vistana.comdashboard. StarOptions can now be exchanged for rooms at certain hotels without the need first to convert them to hotel points (formerly known as Starpoints, now Marriott Bonvoy points). In addition, Starpoints can be converted to passage on certain cruises, albeit with a cash payment as well.
The network has also just added a new timeshare resort into which you can exchange using StarOptions: the Sheraton Kauaʻi Resort in Poipu, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi.
We want to remind you to close your patio doors and leave your air conditioning running when you leave your villa. We know this is counterintuitive, as we have always been told to conserve power. However, we have brand new dehumidifying air handlers and ducts, and the best way to keep the villas mold-free is to keep the warm, moist outdoor air out of the rooms. The additional energy cost of running the air conditioners will, in the long run, be a lot lower than the cost of remediating the villas if they become polluted by mold. As always, please turn off all lights that are not needed when you are away from the villa, as the excessive usage is reflected in eyeryone’s maintenance fees.
Finally, one more request: on or before May 4, our Freecycle shed will be back in operation, with a new lock and improved springs on the door (so that it closes automatically). We hope that owners will be able to borrow beach chairs as well as sand and beach toys, books, and fins, and to pick up unopened, non-perishable food and beverages. However, we have had a chronic problem with beach chairs that are placed in the Freecycle shed. Many have been abandoned on a beach or squirreled away in the storage lockers that are rented by some pool villa owners. As a result, on many days there have been no beach chairs, despite the fact that your Board has allocated $500 a year to purchase beach chairs in addition to those bought by owners and left in the shed. If you take a beach chair from the shed, please return it to the shed no later than the end of your vacation period.
Your owner-elected directors,
Larry Pelletier
Philip G. Schrag
