I have been a timeshare owner for 15 years. My last trip was Jan. 2002 and we are planning another 2 weeks in Jan. 2003. Does anyone know if they refinished the timeshare pool? Are the 'porches'redone? I think I read TV's and phones are in the rooms now. I also believe they put in new couches and chairs..is that true yet? Any other info appreciated also. Thanks, Stu Slavin

Stu,
We spent 2 weeks at Divi in November 2002. The timeshare pool was great.....sparkling clean and lots of outdoor furniture around it. TV's and phones are indeed in the rooms. The porches (balconies) are the same as before. We didn't see any new couches or chairs. The stoves and refrigerators are recent models, but the kitchen sinks, faucets, and countertops definitely need replacing as do the toilets and bathroom sinks. A couple of units have opaque glass windows and entry door that have replaced the old wood shutters and door. Possibly better for noise control of the noisy street, but the downside is that you can't ventilate the kitchen when cooking unless you open up the whole door. The new air conditioners are great....quiet and very effective. All in all, a fun place to stay, but they definitely must stay competitive with constant maintenance and updating.
I think they could improve the "curb appeal" of the Divi also by cleaning up the roadside that parallels the property, doing some landscaping etc. A nice improvement is the outdoor breakfast area and the nearby exercise room. Manager Frits seems to have spearheaded most of these improvements. I think I now understand the Divi Motto....so many islands, so much to do!

Ah, Barefoot Elegance......The Divi way. Just love it. Thanks for the update! We will return to the Divi for two weeks in May 2003...can't wait. Carole

I just returned earlier this month, after a two-year absence. In our unit, they made the much needed repairs -- replaced the faucets in both the kitchen and lavatory and replaced the air conditioner. We had a telephone and TV (which we used about twice, briefly), new couch, new drapes, and new eating and cooking utinsils. Our unit doesn't have the glass doors and I'm not so sure that I want them. We so enjoyed the open air during the days.

I found the grounds to be beautifully landscaped. Otherwise, I ditto Nadine's comments.

One other nice improvement is the completion of the seaside walkway all the way to the Divi. Just one more observation -- if you have a rental car, the best parking is either at the Casino parking lot or at the main lobby parking area.

Stuart, I hope this helped out. Write me if you have any further questions.

Joann

Just got back from a week at the Divi Flamingo. Ditto on the recent (since last year) improvements. Our timeshare unit had a new sofa, plus the TV and phone. Great air conditioning, which we used only a couple of times. Mostly we just used the ceiling fan. Have to admit, our location backing onto the main drag meant for quite a lot of traffic noise (including the braying donkey in the middle of the night), but who cares? The pool and grounds looked really nice. Went out with the Woodwind and Renee several times, always the highlight of our week. FYI: we left off a bag of laundry for the front desk to send out on Monday a.m. and finally got it back Friday as we were packing to come home. Memo to self: take more underwear and t-shirts next year!!! The nightly pool deck gathering to watch for the Green Flash was highly entertaining: people claimed to have seen the Flash for 5 nights running. Personally, I think it was the pina coladas talking. But we did see it once, from the deck at Richard's. It was a great week.

Thanks for the update on the Divi..can't wait to get back there for two weeks in May 2003. It is a beautifully landscaped property, isn't it?! Carole`

Hi, I just got back from my annual bonaire visit, generally at Divi, and I was delghted by the place, but appalled by the glass-enclosed rooms, which I think will be awful. When it opened the doors had louvers, front and porch, and every reduction in those makes the place worse, as I have emailed the manager. They should work on the locks, not the stop the air flow. Maybe if everyone complained.....

Larry, how many of the units had the glass enclosed areas completed? There was only one unit (738, I think...second floor by the parking lot) last May. How far have they come at this point? Glad you had a good time during your trip! CArole

I only saw the one, 738, but someone elsementioned 2. I really think they are horrible, a sign of people wanting to separate themselves from both the nature and people of the island. Put on different locks and go back to louvers everywhere, like when they built the place.

The louvers are "nailed" shut in some of the units on the first floor. I know Divi tries to save energy, too, in that some folks leave the AC on and open up the windows, too, so the cold air flies right outside to the critters and the yard. I would like to actually "see"/experience the new glass doors to see what they are like. Don't know, yet, which way I will prefer the set up. Thanks for the update. Carole

We have week 41 (October) for sale at Club Flamingo. Rock bottom price for the 30years+ still left

We were recently at the Divi from Jan. 11 to the 25th. There are 2 rooms with the glass enclosures, 738 and 705(I think that is the one). I was all in favor of them until I saw them. First, there is no cross ventilation, second the street side has no curtain, only an opaque glass so there is no way to make the room dark at night and thirdly on the lower level there is no outside locking mechanism so you have to lock the siding glass door from the inside then walk out the streetside door, which defeats the purpose of being on the lower level with easy access to the pool,etc...Apparently they have the rest of them on island somewhere but when they will be installed is anyone's guess. I hope they never get around to doing it.

New couches, a/c's about a year ago and tv and phones and new safes. Otherwise nothing much has changed.
There have been problems with many people not getting their rooms( being asked to stay at other hotels), even though they have reservations(especially those accelerating) since Divi now has a contract with KLM to supply them with 40 rooms/night for their flight crews.
I stongly suggest that you call the hotel directly to make sure that they know you are coming and have a room for you, even though you have the Divi reservation in hand.
The walkway to town is complete and very nice.

Hope this helps anyone ..

Stu Slavin

Stu,

thanks for the update on the patio doors...I agree with you based on your description...I hope somebody steals them before they get a chance to install them....only a knucklhead Divi project manager would specify a door with no external lock mechanism....will the ineptness ever end...it would be ok for the upstairs but the downstairs....we have never used the street side door..that is awful..especially since they installed the "security" fence. Now to get out of the place, you would have to exit the streetside door, walk around the building to the sliding glass side to cut through the casino to vacate the property

The glass doors sound like a nightmare if you cannot lock them from outside on the first/ground floor level. Will the screened porch area remain the same? Or will that be turned into glass, as well. I can only imagine Divi will place a "board" or something along those lines on the back door areas to keep the light out as the current/old back doors now have wood where there probably once was some sort of frosted glass at one time, I would imagine. I don't know what to think, now. Sometimes it's just best to leave things alone.....we'll have to see how this progresses. Thanks for the tip. Carole

PS If folks cannot lock the glass doors on the pool side and TV;s and the likes start to disappear (Divi's own property), perhaps they will realize they did not "think this one out" very well....perhaps. Unfortunately, "our" belongings would go out the doors with their property. Do not wish any of this on them or on "us"...

If anyone goes down there you may want to try to talk Frits out of installing the glass doors. When you see them you will know what I'm talking about.The screened-in-porch remains the same. Stu

Thanks, Stu. At least the screened in porch area will remain the same...for now, I guess. Carole

I'll be at Divi for 6 weeks beginning the end of March. I'll talk to Fritz but I figure they have already made up their minds.

Fritz...if you read this column, please talk to owners and get their input before proceeding. Or, try to get a lock mechanism that will allow locking the door from the outside

I'll weigh in one more time on the glass doors. I emailed the manager and he replied that the porch will provide ventilation. Since there will be no air from the back, there will be precious little ventilation--even the bathroom louvers are gone. Originally both kitchen and porch doors were louvered, as was the panel next to the porch door, now a window, and every loss diminishes the lovely bon-air. I hear a Leatherman will take care of the panels next to the kitchen door, however. I think they should be putting back the louvers, not turning the rooms into something that looks like it belongs in a hospital. Is this a response to fears by the time share owners? Theft? Invasion? I've been staying there nearly since it was built and have never had any trouble or been aware of any. I think we're doomed to this "improvement," but a campaign of complaint couldn't hurt. And those new doors look expensive. I wonder whose weekly payments will pay for them?

Larry,

This owner didn't ask for them. None of the other owners I know asked for them either. I preferred the louvered doors and windows. It certainly will make it complicated to try to vent the moisture out of the bathrooms....I think the intent was good but solution was weak. For whatever its worth, the timeshare owners rates have gone up 48% in the last 5 yrs...guess we know who is paying for the improvements. Divi is still the best game in town but the difference continues to weaken

Do you mean the crank out windows above the toilet tank and the shower stall?? Are those being taken out, too? What is going in their place? Definitely need ventilation while you are in there. We always remembered to close them up when we went out to "discourage" anyone who might want to venture in that way...would be a very small person to make it through those windows, too. The leuver windows in the kitchen area in 710 were semi-nailed shut each time we were there....only the living room area ones "worked". We usually use the air conditioning while we are there, so it will not affect Joe and I too much as far a "ventilation" goes, but most others do enjoy the cross breeze it enabled in the past. I hope the bathroom moisture is permitted to escape somehow with the new set up, however. We'll just have to wait and see. It will probably take them forever to complete the job, anyway. They had one room done in May 2002...room 738 up on the second floor. Now there are two.....Carole

Larry, what is Leatherman?? Carole

PS Did Frits mention anything about the sliding doors only locking from the "inside"??? cb

Carole,

a man who has been out in the sun too long...

seriously...one of those multi tool devices that guys like to carry on their belts...they have knife blades, needle nose pliers , screwdrivers etc built into them....

Frits wrote me and said new locks were on order...he did not clarify their operation

Thanks, Gregg....I misunderstood completely! I thought a Leatherman was some sort of object placed on the door itself...LOL. Sort of like the wood panels they have there now where there used to be glass of some sort at one time, I would imagine...or, maybe there used to be louvers inside the kitchen door ???? Hmmm. I like your first description/definition of a Leatherman, tho!! Lots of sun and lots of relaxation...that's the prescription....Bonaire is the answer. Thanks again. Carole

Right about the Leatherman. It's a great travel companion, and can pull nails. Upstairs, at least, the louvers now can be opened over the kichen door, on either side of the door with a tool, and in the bathroom, and used to make up the kitchen door itself, as well as much more of the porch-side. I hate to think what we will pay for getting hermetically sealed into the new "glass bubble" rooms. I really like the place, the people who run the front desk and registation, who clean, although I miss the old gardener, and the tennis court where you could watch local kids taking lessons, few others used it. The sidewalk to town that some doubted would get done is also great. I just wish they would repair their winning design in the rooms instead of ruining it.

FYI...the bathroom window in the 2 rooms with the glass doors tilts down to allow some air movement (not much) but of course the front door would have to be left ajar to allow a cross ventilation, however small that might be. In short with the new glass windows figure on using your A/C, leaving through the street-side door, and wearing blindfolds to sleep in the dark.
BTW..what is Frits' E-Mail address?..I have the opportunity to purchase a used timeshare and want to upgrade it from Oct. to Jan. and Divi told me that I had to contact the resort to upgrade it. Does anyone know how much the upgrade should cost?
ALSO..I was told that this was an "old" timeshare, with unlimited acceleration (which is what I want) and a Belinda Gunn at Divi seems to confirm this. Does anyone know when the "old" timeshares were stopped and converted to the newer ones with only 10 weeks of acceleration?

Thanks, stu

divibon@bonairelive.com is how to get hold of Frits.

Jake