Miscellaneous Notes & News

Paradise Island was sold Fall of 2004 and is no longer a Club Med village. (06-2004)
All villages in the American Zone have become totally all-inclusive, as of the summer 2003 season. This is a very pleasant change. Snacks are available through out the day and night. Drinks at the bar are included. No more messing with 'bar tickets'.
Copper Mountain, Huatulco, Playa Blanca and Sonora Bay have been sold and will no longer be Club Med villages. Moorea and St. Lucia's fate remains unclear and are still question marks.
Crested Butte, CO is the only snow village in the American Zone. It is a 'family' village.
After the horrific September 11 events the travel industry has been reeling. Club Med's response to the decline in bookings was to close a number of villages. Six villages in the American zone were affected: Columbus Isle, Huatulco, Moorea, Playa Blanca, Sonora Bay and St. Lucia.
Due to concerns over the safety and well being of Jojo the dolphin (not to mention a HUGE amount of bad press), the water skiing program has been eliminated permanently at Turkoise (as of October 2000).
Apparently ClubMed has eliminated the $10US snorkeling charge they had recently added. The complaint backlash seems to have been effective in reminding ClubMed what the definition of 'all-inclusive' is.
Happy 50th!
After reading all the hype about the wonderful things happening for the 50th anniversary celebration (special parities, dances, dinners, etc...), I noticed very little difference from my last visit (Turkoise). The only evidence of anything changing was the shift from the comfortable cloth ribbon wristband, back to the plastic one, just because it had the 'happy 50th' logo on it. The night of the 'Grand Buffet' has been renamed Happy 50th - same food as before, just a new name. One of the evening shows is Happy 50th, this translates to 2 1/2 hours of line dancing. WOW, some celebration!
Eleuthera is closed and WILL REMAIN CLOSED. It will NOT be reopening as a 'adult only' village, as had been announced. It will NOT be reopening at all.
ClubMed has quietly removed the 'Win a week' contest from their web site. It's too bad, I won a free week through the contest.
Ixtapa now has a 'baby club', for babies from four months.
The name of the Haiti village seems to have under gone a change from 'Magic Isle' to 'Magic Haiti'. Not sure why. Maybe it doesn't matter since it's looking like they may not reopen this village.
The SCUBA program has been dropped from the Mexican village Cancun. The village will only offer two SCUBA excursions. They have brought back the sailing program.
There is a new Club village in Cuba ( Varadero ). You are welcome as long as your passport doesn't have a USA on the cover. The info is on the CM web page as long as you enter saying you were from Canada or England.

The sailing ship Club Med 1 was sold to Windstar for $45 million. Its itineraries had included dividing time between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Hopefully the second ship, Club Med 2, will be renamed so as to not confuse everyone. CM2 has been repositioned from French Polynesia, to take over the routes of CM1.

**Village Closures**
		From	Till
Cancun	closed	now	winter 2006
Copper Mt.	closed	now	forever
Crested Butte	open	now	spring 2006
Eleuthera	closed	now	forever
Huatulco	closed	now	forever
Magic Isle, Haiti	closed	now	forever
Moorea	closed	now	2007???
Playa Blanca	closed	now	forever
Sonora Bay	closed	now	forever
St. Lucia	closed	now	likely, forever

Best villages for:
Singles:
1. Playa Blanca (Mexico)
2. Cancun (Mexico)
3. Turkoise (Turks & Caicos)
Couples:
1. Columbus Isle (Bahamas)
2. Cancun (Mexico)
3. Moorea (Tahiti)
4. Turkoise (Turks & Caicos)
SCUBA diving:
1. Columbus Isle (Bahamas)
2. Turkoise (Turks & Caicos)
3. Moorea (Tahiti)
Honeymoon:
1. Moorea (Tahiti)
2. Bora Bora (Tahiti)
3. Columbus Isle (Bahamas)
Personal Ranking:
I'm always being asked what my favorite village is. So without explanation:
1. Playa Blanca (Mexico)
2. Moorea (Tahiti)
3. Turkoise (Turks & Caicos)
4. Cancun (Mexico)
5. Columbus Isle (Bahamas)
  * big gap here *
6. Sonora Bay (Mexico)
7. Bora Bora (Tahiti)
8. Buccaneer's Creek (Martinique)
9. Eleuthera (Bahamas)
The Club Med definition of:
Dedicated Dive Center.
2 tank dives and we can charge more.
Traditional Dive Center at Moorea.
We can charge more.
Club Med's Finest.
We'll bring the rooms up to the level of a cheap Holiday Inn, then we can charge more.

**Village Size**
Village (American Zone)	Rooms
Punta Cana, Dominican Rep.	543
Huatulco, Mexico	483
Cancun, Mexico	429
Sonora Bay, Mexico	375
Ixtapa, Mexico	375
Magic Isle, Haiti	352
Moorea, French Polynesia	350
Sandpiper, Florida, USA	331
Caravelle, Guadeloupe	329
Paradise Island, Bahamas	314
Buccaneer's Creek, Martinique	308
Eleuthera, Bahamas	300
Turkoise, Turks & Caicos	298
Playa Blanca, Mexico	295
Columbus Isle, Bahamas	288
Crested Butte, Colorado, USA	261
St. Lucia, West Indies	256
Copper Mt., Colorado, USA	236
Club Med 2 (sailing ship)	191
Bora Bora, French Polynesia	150

**Trivia stuff:**
Village (American Zone)	Opened	Notes
Bora Bora, French Polynesia	1976	Destroyed 1988, re-built 1994 on the other side of the island
Buccaneer's Creek, Martinique	1969	Major renovation 2005
Cancun, Mexico	1976	Renovated 1998, 2006
Caravelle, Guadeloupe	1973
Club Med 1 (sailing ship)	1990	Sold 1997
Club Med 2 (sailing ship)	1993
Columbus Isle, Bahamas	1992
Copper Mt., Colorado, USA	1980	Closed 2001
Crested Butte, Colorado, USA	2000
Eleuthera, Bahamas	1979	Closed 1999 due to hurricane damage
Fort Royal, Guadeloupe	1968	1st American Zone village - Closed 1986
Huatulco, Mexico	1988	Closed 2002
Ixtapa, Mexico	1981
Kauai, Hawaii, USA	1974	1st village in America - Closed 1978
Magic Isle, Haiti	1980	Closed
Moorea, French Polynesia	1963	Major renovation 1985 - closed ???
Paradise Island, Bahamas	1977	Closed 2004
Playa Blanca, Mexico	1974	Major renovation 1989, Originally open year round - Closed 2002
Punta Cana, Dominican Rep.	1981	Major renovation 1999
Sandpiper, Florida, USA	1987
Sonora Bay, Mexico	1984	Closed 2002
St. George's Cove, Bermuda	1985	Closed 1989
St. Lucia, West Indies	1985	Closed ???
Turkoise, Turks & Caicos	1985	Technically, Turks opened 22-Dec-84, Renovated 2004/05

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