TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Big changes at Divi

We went to our owner update with Haresh. He tells us that as of yesterday, Divi will only be with II and not with RCI. And of course, you can still trade around into other Divis.
We also went to the manager's party on Monday night. For the first time, they actually introduced some managers to us. There was a guy from corporate in North Carolina there. They also introduced us to the new executive chef, the front desk manager, maintenance and an HR person.
I took this as an opportunity to speak with them.
I spoke to the executive chef and asked him what he was going to do about the food at the resort. While I was talking to him, a few other people came up with the same questions. Iwan seems very dedicated to making the food AND service at the restaurants far better. He actually acknowledged that service is a disaster in the restaurants. In all of my talks with the higher ups at the resort, no one has actually acknowledged that bad service IS part of the issue.
Apparently there is a re-launch of Toucan's next week (while we are still here) and I am actually excited to see what he may have done. We did eat at Gizmo's for lunch one day and I have to say, the service was good! A huge step in the right direction!
I complimented the front desk manager to the guy from corporate. Sandra truly is the best thing that has ever happened at the front desk. The process is much better streamlined.
It will be most interesting to see the changes as they evolve here. So far so good!
One issue I have always had is that the music at Gizmo's reverberates across Little Bay. They have built a bandstand of sorts and that does seem to limit the sound carrying across the bay. (Although I suspect it does little to prevent the people in the casitas from being blasted).

You went with Haresh!?! Not the infamous Manek of Caravanserai history. Read posts on The Caravanserai and run!

The only negative I have had with Divi is the persistant time share salesman, Haresh. Enough said. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" />

Interval? What happens to the people who bought at divi and took rci points because we can't go on our regular weeks every year!

Haresh IS a persistant time share salesman who never really updates us on Divi....just tries to sell us more timeshare.
I don't think this is the same Haresh as the guy from Caravanserai as he has been our owner update guy for several years.
As for your question Dansc, I suggest you call Divi Corporate and ask them.

I am going to on Monday but hoping someone asked the question of a manager and might give me some idea going in. Thanks for bringing it up, wish divi had better communicated this at the very least!

I hadn't thought to ask it. But if you don't get any sort of good response, let me know. I can ask down here. We are here til the 10th.

Business Card reads:

"Haresh Balani
Assistant In-House Manager"

Easy to see him coming so plenty of time to hide in the bushes while he tackles another prospect.
Watch for falling coconuts!

Thanks. I will let you know. One more thing to do on the first day back at work in almost two weeks! Thanks divi!

ok, just got off the phone with DIVI. They are still honoring RCI for people that own RCI point but are no longer offering it to new buyers, upgrade etc. They say the inventory made available to RCI will not change but i dont really believe that. Why would they give the same amount of inventory to a now cancelled partner. The reasoning they gave me is they feel that interval offers more options to the owners. I was told that you could switch your week from RCI points to interval with no penalty. We will also see about that!

All of which reaffirms my belief that personally, I would not want to give up my beautiful rooms and views for points Should the Towers ever decide to go that route. Not that I think they will......

But while I know there are many who can and do make their points work well for them, I am personally really happy with my fixed weeks and units. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /><img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Hey Pat, ready for the cold? not me! We do have one fixed week but our son is in 1st grade and the spring break schedule constantly changes so hard to manage sometimes. I like the flexibility of the points but sometimes inventory can be a bit of a bear! I have had to do some fancy dances in the past to make it happen when we need it

Nor am I - ready for the cold, that is.

I do know many people who own points and the program really works for them, but for us it just wasn't the better way. We bought SXM timeshare because we'd been visiting every year at the same time of year for about 15 or so years and wanted the certainty of the annual island visit and knowing what kind of accommodations we'd be having. Fixed weeks for us was definitely the way to go, and if there ever are extenuating circumstances requiring changes, the Reservations people at the Towers are great at working out the internal exchanges, but it's pretty much a given - if its weeks 16 & 17, we're probably in St. Maarten.

Wait until that son of your gets a little older. My daughter gave away two weeks in a three bedroom penthouse because she got tired of the internal exchanges year after year and she was able to latch on to the same unit for the prep school calendar weeks she needed, so in her case it was a no-brainer to do it. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

thanks Pat. Stay warm! at least oil is relatively cheap this year.