Thanks to all my LTC friends for the condolences. It has been painfully apparent that my mother was terminal all summer. When she passed peacefully on July 12, it was sad, but almost a relief. But then the major problems hit. This renedered my 93 year old father too mentally and physically weak to care fully for himself. He had already bought into a "full care center" which begins with an independent living apartment. Since July, I have sold their house for a good price that all the realtors said was too neglected to be salable, had all the desirable furniture and property transferred to the heirs, held estate sales, closed on the sale, moved my father, and handled the final transactions at the full care center.

I am more exhausted than I have ever been, and I'm not sure that right now is a good time for major travel for me anyway. Maybe in October. As jhp mentioned our time share owning friends do have access to other facilities literally all over the world. When they return to the US from Norway on Sep. 7, I am sure they will unravel this Aruba resort mess quickly. Do any of you have any recommendations on good, restfull destinations for Octobr?

Well, so much for Aruba not being in the hurricane zone. Felix is on the way :eek:

I saw that this morning and thought about Richard :) I wonder when their last hurricane was?

1947, according to TripAdviser and the 2002 Managing Director of the Aruba Tourism Authority. Some minor fringes since then.

LOL Betty!!!

It looks like it didn't get near enough to cause any damage.

I can play that game: :D :D

September 02, 2007 - 09:55
Weather Update
Hurricane Felix update from Aruba Tourism Authority

As you may know, Felix has become a hurricane and will be passing 100 km North of Aruba.

Aruba will experience the effects of tropical storm (heavy rain, heavy surf around the coast lines and wind surges), between this morning until around 1 PM.

The airport has been closed from 6 AM to noon this morning. As a precaution, hotels that have rooms with direct access to the beach have relocated their guests staying in these rooms to other floors.

We will be sending updates during the day.

Aruba Tourism Authority

For what it's worth, this post is NOT from Aruba! Still stuck in Yukon, OK. While the Weather Service reported a category 1 hurricane (Felix) forcasted to strike Aruba today, I checked and found that the flight I should have been on landed in Aruba today at 2:52 PM eastern standard time (same as central daylight, I think). So the winds must not have been that bad.

I have been in contact with our friends who got us this "free" (and non-existant) stay in Aruba and told them about the foul-up. They are going to try to fix it when they get home from Europe late next week.

I want to thank all who referred me to Trip Advisor. I did my research (a bit too late due to the death of my mother and the relocation of my father)and discovered that there are indeed three Divi Village resorts on the same property in Orangestadt. There is the Golf Resort, sometimes called "the links" that gets good ratings. There is a new high-rise that gets good ratings. and there is the old Divi Village mid rise which gets horrible ratings. It is consistantly reported as being unsanitary and in great need of repair and redecorating. THAT'S the place where we had the free stay!!! I also learned that one booked into that dump could be upgraded to one of the good newer facilities for $170 to $300 for the week, and that's what I was trying to do when I made the call and discovered that (according to Divi) we had no resertvations!

My friends who owned the timeshare who set this thing up for us are going to try to set it up again in October. If I can upgrade out of the "dump", I'll go. If not, will use my ticket value (less $100 pp penalty) on something else.

Thanks for all the help
Richard