Just Returned From Easter Break

Hiya All

Just returned from Easter at Condado - we were over for Michelle's Birthday - 23 again!

Did the quad biking (Easter Sunday)  - thanks to all who helped. If you haven't been up there then your missing something special as the views are beautiful. They did a sunday roast for an extra 5 euros each which was great. We stayed in La Torre (Inter Continental on the evening). To be honest we all fealt extremely disappointed at what Condado has (or hasn't) compared to La Torre e.g. Club House, No barren ground etc - Fingers crossed we'll get there one day.

We had a great Saturday night on Jardine 4 as Mick Parsons (Garden President) has put on a party for us all - Thanks Mick - great night

Didn't get stopped once by security

Course does look stunning and you can see why people think its great, but to be honest the surrounding areas around all inner road roads including the football pitches looks bl.0dy awful

Went to the Restaraunt on one of the evenings - the ambience was nice and the food was pretty good - used the discount card - 48 euros for 4 meals, cokes and a bottle of Protos (sav blanc - very nice!)

Al Kazar is still looking Empty

Clover was quite busy and they had replaced the men with some extremly good looking ladies when we went in - I got tole to put my eyes back in - I'm really glad I took my glasses - wey hey

All in all a nice break with some nice people (new and old)

I still can't help feeling a little let down and nervous at whats around the corner for us to be honest but my 'Glass Remains 1/2 Full'

 ps. Re Paramount - not sure on this one at all - some say its a 90% certainty and other say its a load of twash

Graham

Hi Graham

Good to see some good  sensible comments. Im over pretty regular to CDA and i know what you mean about the course ( or surrounding areas). Really need to be touched up but hopefully given time this will all come together. As a few friends of mine commented PW would have been better building the club house first before the ghost town of the Al Kazar. Most of the units are empty and look as if they will remain empty for the forseeable future. Even if someone was interested in looking at one for any kind of business , who do you contact. No posters, notices, nothing at all as far as i can see about letting or who to contact. seems that like most of PW management skills and marketing it is a bit poor to say the least. I think it will all come together eventually but for a company who are supposedly facing financial trouble they dont seem to be doing much to encourage anyone to fill the units in Al Kazar. i have no regrets about my purchase on CDA but sometimes you just wishPWs management and marketing would give themselves a good shake.

Guys,

I have been saying what you point out here for months now. It is all very apparent once you have visited one of the other 'lesser jewels in the crown'. Come April 22 we are meant to know the outcome of the bankrupcy negotiations. I personally think this means Polaris will no longer own anything of real value and the resort will be taken on from here by the banking consortium in some way ,shape, or form.  As far as managing a concept and trying to encourage trade rather than scare it away, PW have failed miserably at Condado in my opinion. I think if they do survive, it will be as a builder only.

For me, that would be fine (because the resorts do look the part when finished properly). They could continue developing when the economic climate justifies it and the management of the facilites would be run by someone who has a clue about delivering customer satisfaction and ultimately, making a profit in those areas. It is all of our interests that this happens.

Regards,

We returned from CdA late on Sunday after a thoroughly enjoyable 9 days. Its true the land around the  entrance and golf course needs landscaping but the course is good and looks good (mostly). As the buggy driver I had a good opportunity to look around whilst my husband played and for the most part huge sections are really well laid out and appear finished. With limited experience of golf courses and then usualy green ones its taken me a while to appreciate the 'desert' style of this one but once I came to terms with the fact that some of it is meant to look desert and rough I realised its the crater in the middle and some smaller areas that need attention although It may be that some of the planting also needs some further attention.

The Al Kasar/The Clover was busier than our recent visits but could really do with more units taken but as I understand they can only be taken by the Council or Polaris World approved ventures. I remember someone on this forum saying they had enquired about taking one of the units and had been knocked back. They also all seem quite spacious inside and whilst I know sections can be divided its probably a lot for an interested party to take on from scratch. Besides,  they have to be sure of the trade and there cant be many gaurentees of that at the moment.

On a positive note we think many more of the apartments now have owners or the owners have now decided to furnish which bodes better for the future as that should have a knock on for the Al Kasar and the resort in general..

La Torre has taken a few years to get to the point it's at now but I have to agree when we first visited four years ago the entrance was already smartly landscaped, the restaurant /shops area was virtually empty though.

I think we have to be grateful that Polaris have seemed to complete what they started on CdA and while that has left the rough land we dont have any derelict or unfinished properties on the skyline which makes us a bit better off than lots of developments at the moment and has the effect of putting off prospective buyers.