Orient update??

I know there are lots of people on island. What's the latest on the Orient construction?? Any pictures?

Do not have any photos, but we left the island on Thursday and I do not think they will be open before Christmas. No interior work done yet but they have started working on the parking area. There has been no announcement who will be allocated the restaurants.

OK, thanks.

Here are a few pictures posted on Orange Fever's Facebook page on Friday. No word on whether one of them will be theirs though.
Link

When the pool to guess opening dates started here I thought dec and Jan were pessimistic dates. Now they look optimistic.

I can't imagine any business in any line of work (except snow skiing) that could survive unaffected from 6 months of no revenue and total uncertainty about even having a location to reopen in.

Even if the tenants are great as are the new locations, I think that piece will forever be different?

Absolutely it will be different. The ramshackle nature of those beach bars was part of the appeal for me. I am sure once it is all settled out it will be good for the vendors.

how far is grand case from orient village. Does a bus run to grand case from the village

It might be good for vendors short term, but the seawall, steps etc. I think will be a beachfront disaster... no beach = no customers. Messing with that shoreline like they've done may look appealing now, but they've assuredly change the natural dynamics of the wind and waves, and usually man armed with his pitiful arsenal of concrete and wood never wins the battle with the sea.

Last Tuesday there was about 30 feet of beach in front of the wall. Of course, that will change regularly, but it was interesting to me that there was little to no sand in front of the outer bar at Kontiki.

I agree that messing with the ocean's flow is usually disastrous.

What is your assessment on construction progress, GaKaye?

So back to the contest
We had Nov 30, that has come and gone. Can we pick again, any open dates?
Must be very hard on the operators, seems so uncertain, who gets a spot, when do they open
Got to be tough
J&B

It's gotalovit's contest, they decide. I would say "no", as that's like getting two bites at the apple, but they decide.

When I picked Monday dec 28th in time for new years I thought that was pessimistic but I could win! We are back in St. Martin January 7th & hope they will be open then!!

Photos from today show little progress. I'm guessing first of the year
Sorry, but don't have a web page so I can't upload them.

If you want to, you can email them to me at chill@info-res.com and I will post them.

OK, I was getting ready for an update...we had 36 guesses and as of today, 18 are out of contention. Apparently, a lot of us were optimistic...

I don't think a second guess should be allowed but there are open dates out there for other folks that are looking better than they did when we started this...

Carol;
Thanks, emailing now