I'm so glad I check in with this forum! I'm booked for the Omni for 3/5, and I'm not all that excited about being the only family there!

E-mail to TA.... <groan>

Spoke with the Omni today and they said that we could come through our vacation club membership on 2/25, but there will be no restaurants and only half a beach.

Here are some pics from someone taken on 1/29/06. Thanks jspangler for posting them. He also said that there was heavy construction going on there.

Sorry about that forgot the link:

community.webshots.com/album/546967443kgzBxU

Thank you for posting a link to those photos. We were supposed to be there 2/20-27 but I am in the process of canceling. I thought Apple would re-locate my reservations to another resort, but so far they are saying that the hotel will be up and running and therefore it's not their responsibility to relocate me. I have since sent them these photos along with the e-mails that I received from the Omni.

We canceled our Omni reservation for Feb 16 and rebooked for March 3. It sound like the Omni will be near 100% operational by March 1st. At least we hope so!

I also checked with the Omni yesterday. We are arriving on 2-25-06. Kuku's bar and the Pina Colada will remain closed until 3-1-06 and the beaching area has been moved closer to the Oasis due to the construction. That will also change on 3-1. The LaPaloma and DaVinci's will be open by 2-18-06. The reason I was given for the opening delay was poor weather in January slowing construction. As I am an optimist I am sure all will work out fine.

Wow Lejaff -that's too bad. I guess I lucked out with my travel agent.

We were originally booked to stay in a beachfront villa at the Hilton Feb 18th-26th. Moved to the Omni and were credited the difference in price. After finding out the conditions at the Omni last week, I decided it would be better to stay somewhere else. We are now booked at the Riu Cancun. Even though it costs more than our Omni package, the travel agent "waived" the difference. Therefore, I won't feel guilty when I still eat dinner out at my favorite restaurants rather than back at the hotel. It will be my first experience at an "all - inclusive" so even though I will truly miss the Hilton, this will be a new "adventure."

Hotfire we will join you for a drink there 2/25. Will the lobby bar be open? It is more costly to change our plans (being timeshare people) at this point. Have you seen the Onmi photos here:

community.webshots.com/album/546967443kgzBxU

Considering the photos and the past delays I will believe the openings when I see them. There are some good pics of the neighboring beaches posted in the same album. I think the trick is going to be to find a good patch of beach. Many night clubs will be open anyway. I will have fun one way or another.

After a lot of back and forth with Apple, I've finally been able to change my reservation to another hotel rather than cancel all together.

We were limited with the dates we were able to travel, so now, we are off to the RIU Cancun on 2/20 instead of the Omni. I hope the Omni will be up and running soon, but I wasn't convinced that things would be in good shape by the 20th. For the sake of the Omni and all those who are keeping their reservations, I hope I am wrong! Best of luck for a speedy recovery for the Omni!