More Wyndham/Sabor drama with a Sand Dollar Sports and Dive Palancar thrown in!!!!

[1KWIK_69]

Funny - that's my post on Trip Advisor

My wife and I are going to Aura at the end of April, and I was going to use SD to do a refresher and a number of dives, while my wife was going to do a Discover Scuba, with the possibility of rolling it into a full certification.

Now I have to decide if I want to still book with Sand Dollar and wait for pick-ups, book with Dive Palancar for the ease of on site service, or go wit a completely separate third party...

Thoughts?

Sand Dollar always used their pool onsite at Wyndham and the beach for training. The question is, do they have the infrastructure at their other location to do training? If so, I'd still be using them if I were you since they seem to have gotten a really rotten deal from Sabor/Wyndham. And another thought, does anyone know if Dive Palancar will even be set up to do training by the end of April?

If the answer is no in either case, I'd be finding a different shop all together so your wife can get addicted to diving like the rest of us.

 

[DandyDon]

Since Sand Dollar was so happy to charge pier fees, I wonder how happy they will be to pay them?

 

[1KWIK_69]

Since Sand Dollar was so happy to charge pier fees, I wonder how happy they will be to pay them?

I can't say that thought hasn't crossed my mind. I still blame Wyndham for allowing them to "own the concession".

Wyndham, Reef Club, Sabor or whatever they're calling themselves today should provide that wodden dock for its guests that choose not to use the onsite dive op, no matter what shop that is. Sand Dollar had the big concrete pier. Why on earth would they need control over the only other pier on the premesis if not to try and force people to use them instead of the countless other dive ops on the island. Still, I feel for the owners and employees of Sand Dollar because they were screwed by the resort by being kicked out without notice.

 

[DandyDon]

I can't say that thought hasn't crossed my mind. I still blame Wyndham for allowing them to "own the concession".

Wyndham, Reef Club, Sabor or whatever they're calling themselves today should provide that wodden dock for its guests that choose not to use the onsite dive op, no matter what shop that is. Sand Dollar had the big concrete pier. Why on earth would they need control over the only other pier on the premesis if not to try and force people to use them instead of the countless other dive ops on the island. Still, I feel for the owners and employees of Sand Dollar because they were screwed by the resort by being kicked out without notice.

Without notice? Or after refusing to pay more...??

 

[Christi]

I can't say that thought hasn't crossed my mind. I still blame Wyndham for allowing them to "own the concession".

Wyndham, Reef Club, Sabor or whatever they're calling themselves today should provide that wodden dock for its guests that choose not to use the onsite dive op, no matter what shop that is. Sand Dollar had the big concrete pier. Why on earth would they need control over the only other pier on the premesis if not to try and force people to use them instead of the countless other dive ops on the island. Still, I feel for the owners and employees of Sand Dollar because they were screwed by the resort by being kicked out without notice.

Sand Dollar built and maintained the concrete pier.

Unless something changed, the other pier fees were being charged by Dive Palancar who has actually been onsite there for awhile. Apparently what is happening now is that Dive Palancar will also take over the Regency side.

Please do not make Sand Dollar the bad guys here (or Dive Palancar) - I know they will do everything possible to honor all reservations, and provide the same service their divers are accustomed to.

I feel for Sand Dollar right now - this is not easy on anyone form the owners to the staff!

 

[spyder]

Sand Dollar built and maintained the concrete pier.

Unless something changed, the other pier fees were being charged by Dive Palancar who has actually been onsite there for awhile. Apparently what is happening now is that Dive Palancar will also take over the Regency side.

Please do not make Sand Dollar the bad guys here (or Dive Palancar) - I know they will do everything possible to honor all reservations, and provide the same service their divers are accustomed to.

I feel for Sand Dollar right now - this is not easy on anyone form the owners to the staff!

Thanks Christi, quite a few good dive ops down there including yours. Bad situation and hopefully everything will get worked out and subjectively for me since we'll be there Thursday. If not I might be making a pleading call to you or Aldora

 

[CozumelAntonio]

Since Sand Dollar was so happy to charge pier fees, I wonder how happy they will be to pay them?

For a long time I thought SDS owned the concrete dock, as it was said after the hurricane in '05 that they rebuilt it, I recently found out that SDS pays rent for the pier known as "muelle San Clemente". The owner of the pier is the former owner of the hotel, someone in the Gonzalez family, they sold the hotel some time ago to the current owners, but kept ownership of the dock. So SDS charged dock fees to offset their rental fee, which although I did not agree with, I do believe makes good business sense if they were paying rent themselves.

We just received this email:

------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 02:14:55 PM CST
From: "Milton Ocampo" <mocampo@auraresortscozumel.com>
To: "'Milton Ocampo'" <mocampo@auraresortscozumel.com>
Cc: "Isela Valenzuela" <ivalenzuela@auraresortscozumel.com>, "Isabel Valdominos" <reservas@auraresortscozumel.com>
Subject: New Dive Operator Sabor and Aura Cozumel

Dear all,

I am glad to announce that effective today our new In house Dive Operator is Dive Palancar, this change is effective for Aura Cozumel Grand Resort and Sabor Cozumel Resort and Spa.

As of today, they will be based at our properties providing diving and water sports facilities. I am confident that our mutual customers will value this new change in our company, We are in process of sending you their contact information to arrange any kind of dive tour. Do not hesitate to contact me for any question

Milton Ocampo
Director de Ventas / Sales Director
Sabor Cozumel Resort & Spa
Aura Cozumel Grand Resort

 

[Brules]

Sold the hotel but kept the dock.....genius move......thats one wiley old business person!

Sounds like a bad thing for SDS, but it makes sense to me to have 1 dive op on the property.

 

[1KWIK_69]

For a long time I thought SDS owned the concrete dock, as it was said after the hurricane in '05 that they rebuilt it, I recently found out that SDS pays rent for the pier known as "muelle San Clemente". The owner of the pier is the former owner of the hotel, someone in the Gonzalez family, they sold the hotel some time ago to the current owners, but kept ownership of the dock. So SDS charged dock fees to offset their rental fee, which although I did not agree with, I do believe makes good business sense if they were paying rent themselves.

So you're saying the former owner of the Reef Club sold it but kept ownership of the wooden pier, ad it's called muelle San Clemente?

That sounds very strange? I can see Sand Dollar renting the pier and facility the operated out of, but why would they want to control the wooden pier as well, unless it was to drive Wyndham customers that don't want to pay a pier fee to them?

 

[1KWIK_69]

Sand Dollar built and maintained the concrete pier.

Unless something changed, the other pier fees were being charged by Dive Palancar who has actually been onsite there for awhile. Apparently what is happening now is that Dive Palancar will also take over the Regency side.

Unless Shirley and I are both suffering from seriously faulty memories, the guys that for the past couple of years have been chasing us up the wooden pier to collect the fees were wearing Sand Dollar shirts? It's always possible that we both imagined that, but I don't think so.

I'm not making Sand Dollar out to be the bad guy. I blame the ownership of Wyndham for allowing any single dive operation to hold a monopoly on available piers at their facility. Sand Dollar, or whoever else was allowed to control the wooden pier, did just what any business would have done if given the oportunity. That being said, I intentionally did not use Sand Dollar in any of my stays at Wyndham strictly because I don't like being strong armed into choosing which business to give my hard earned money to.