I respect that Steve. I will say initially one of the bartenders told me. I will not say the other position because it is a much smaller group and my intention is not to get anyone in trouble.
So Steve, the only question I will ask, as narcissistically as possible, is if I should be worried about my coming week8, 2014 trip, based on your discussions with senior hotel folks. I think that's a fair question, from a couple who only gets away once a year, and spends the rest of the year looking forwArd to it. You clearly know more than the rest of us, and I just want to manage my expectations, and those of my wife.
I think it is a fair question too. I wish I could answer it with 100% certainty. All I can say (because I don't know any more detail or timeframes, and my info is based on a conversation 3 months ago) is that the changes will take place in a phased manner. The ultimate aim is to increase the hotel's room capacity by up to 50% but it is going to be little by little and intended to cause as little inconvenience to guests as possible. My best guess is that at any one time maybe 10% of rooms will be out of service. I don't know when it will start or where they will start first. The hotel is big enough that they can manage this in a way that wont inconvenience people too much. Personally if it were me, I would not be too worried about week 8 and would go ahead with my trip. There may well be work going on somewhere but I very much doubt it is going to make the difference whether you have a a good vacation or not. Besides, Feb week 8 is one of the best weeks at Temptation there is!
We have recently returned from a week in Desire RM followed by a week in Pearl. At both of these (much smaller) resorts, one of the 2 main restaurants was closed for refurbishment. At Pearl it was the largest one used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were not happy when we found out! But, these guys know what they're doing. They made excellent alternatives, eg using the "formal" restaurant for breakfast, serving dinner outside, gala dinners on the beach, chef's special menus in one of the conference rooms (specially decorated) etc etc. They have to make improvements, but they know if they upset the repeaters (roughly 70% at Desire) while doing such, they risk losing trade. I say bring it on! :daisy:
I remember being at TTR during many renovations after Wilma and during one trip when they were changing the old nice shoes to the current Tex Med restaurant. At that tome they did nice shoes stuff in the seafood restaurant. It was still a lot of fun. I have no doubt that they can keep a party going while under construction.
I agree. Unless they are upgrading things to sell the property it doesnt make much sense to keep dumping money at it to tear it down. Personally, i dont want a five star resort. I dont want the price and i dont want the "five star people" i love having real genuine people with me and i think TTR does a wonderful job and keeping the place nice and clean!
My money is on expansion very slowly. So they shut down the 1000 block quiet pool building for a year and add a floor on top or two. Then the 4000 building for a year and add a floor or two (and hopefully an elevator) And so on. Of course they won't have to worry about over crowding and main area facilities as it will take YEARS for them to get to the point of being done. As Steve points out, they are trying to add capacity and they are smart enough to know they can't kill the demand when they are about to have an increased supply. I am willing to bet body shots and/or AIWC shots that when we visit in may 2014 they will not have started building expansion and/or tear down (and I bet tear down never happens, doesn't make economic sense). Any takers? Lol
I agree with you... But I think they will start all the way at the other end of the resort, and possibly put some jacuzzi rooms down there... That way they don't drop the jacuzzi room capacity too much...
