Nassau Hotel Closure

[fdog]

Just returned from a week diving in Nassau. Had some friends that wanted to dive there, went along to show them the ropes. We made reservations at South Ocean Beach Resort, since it is about 200' from Stuart Cove's.

Surprise, surprise. When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by security guards. Hotel closed.

Seems two days before our arrival, they called in all the employees and told them they were fired, closed up the hotel. This would have been on the 16th. We wern't informed via our reservation, so we arrived on Sunday the 18th clueless.

After chatting with Stuart, we found out that the prior owners had sold the property, and were closing for 18 months to demo and rebuild the resort, with some of the old buildings being remodeled. Apparently the intention is to turn it into a much more upscale resort.

Our reservations were through NorthWest Airlines, they did a few backflips and placed us in the Wyndham. A PITA because of the 15 minute drive every morning.

FYI.

All the best, James

 

[TropicalDiver]

Glad it worked out for you at the Wyndham. We were at the Paradise Island Beach Club timeshare and had extra room if you had needed it (if you had posted this while there and needed a room).

 

[fdog]

Made the first post while in a hurry at DTW, wanted to save someone else the agony if they'd made resos and hadn't heard.

Anyway, reread what I'd said about the improvements and it doesn't come across right.

They (apparently) are demoing the old hotel, the Sandpiper, to the east. The central part of the beachfront property is being demo'd as well, to make way for a "resort-like" central area. Only a couple of the old beachfront buildings are being kept, these will be extensively remodeled. As we left, they were already doing the demo work.

So it sounds like it will be a nice place to stay in 18 months. With a nice price tag, too.

All the best, James

 

[cdiver2]

I hope they revamp the service as well it was the pits.

 

[Yazmeen]

Sorry to hear about the PIA experience you had, but its about darn time SOMEBODY did something with that place. Its been a mess for years. Hopefully, a phoenix will rise from the ashes, and preferably not with a premium price on its tail!

 

[scubagng]

Interesting, we just returned from a trip to Nassau and we had booked through Stuart Coves and South Ocean. I called Stuart Coves on Jul7 27th (we flew down on the 30th) and Pam at Stuart Coves "just happended" to tell me that South Ocean just closed the day before (July 26th). Obviously she was lying! I would strongly discourage anyone from booking a trip through Stuart Coves. To make a long story short, we demanded and received a full refund for pre-paid dives. Also, we were moved to the British Colonial Hotel, again, just four days before we arrived on island. The hotel was nice but definetely not diver friendly. In addition, we spent about 3 hours total on a bus traveling back and forth from the hotel to the dive shop. If anyone would like to find out additional details on our awful experiences with Stuart Coves, please feel free to contact me and I will give you the complete story. My email is elswictl@muohio.edu.

 

[stu_in_fl]

I acutally had quite reasonable dives with Stuart Cove's (but booked my flight / hotel completely separately - and although diving, this was not predominantly a dive trip)
....talked to some people who had been with a different operator and they said Stuart Cove's was much better (can't recall all the problems they had with the other outfit or what they were called).......I did go when it was not so busy though, so the boats were not overcrowded...I guess when it get alot of people, they cram them in like cattle (then wouldn't be much fun)...also I was lucky on the dive boats with pretty decent divers on each one

 

[stu_in_fl]

forgot to say - it wasn;t South Ocean I booked - I was staying downtown -found it and booked it via expedia or travelocity (can't remember which)

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Sorry to hear about the PIA experience you had, but its about darn time SOMEBODY did something with that place. Its been a mess for years. Hopefully, a phoenix will rise from the ashes, and preferably not with a premium price on its tail!

Amen.

 

[scubabamatxn]

On the subject of Stuart's Cove --- I've met Stuart before, and he was a gentleman. He certainly is a very astute businessman--by far the largest operation on Nassau. However, I have been diving Nassau for the last 15 years ( we have a timeshare there)and we get much better personal service from Nassau Scuba Centre(NSC). NSC is not perfect, but I also believe it is important to support the 'little guys' as long as they provide excellent service. JMO