FR-T 2011 Pt. 7
As BFC states, I don’t believe that the hotel will open again. If it does, we WILL NOT be going back. Our friends are all splintered off to who knows where, and we for sure do not want to have anything to with the current management personnel. As sad as this is, we will have fond memories of our vacations at FR-T living La Vida Loca. The Dominican people are so gracious and caring. We will miss our friends from the staff. The good news is that we will still be able to visit with our friends from The Great White North as we have continued to remain in contact with each other. Sorry this is fragmented, but WIR only allows a few characters per comment.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

FR-T 2011 Pt. 6
Once we arrived at PPV, the drama continued. It turns out that the FR-T management, provided some guests with FREE AI while we had to pay for ours. Once again we went to the FR-T management to ask why, but never got a reply. When we returned home we contacted out vacation club rep in Texas, who by the way is the daughter of the FR-T owner, told her about our horrible experience, and asked for a refund of our money. She said there was no way she was going to give us our money back, and that if we wanted the money, we should file a lawsuit against them. She said the cost of the lawsuit would be more than the money we wanted to be returned. So once again we were SOL.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

FR-T 2011 Pt. 5
While all of this drama was going on, our family of staff members had no clue that what was about to happen. Fortunately once they found out, they organized themselves very quickly. On the day of our move, the management people had planned a meeting to inform the workers of the closing and how it was going to affect them. Thank goodness the workers had union support, and they staged a 48 hour sit in to make sure they would get their severance pay. We were all so proud of them and were happy to see that they were united, organized, and standing up for their rights. It turns out that they got their severance in two parts, cash and a condo unit to sell for additional cash.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

FR-T 2011 Pt. 4
As the week progressed, we kept asking about the time and date of the move. This information kept changing with the wind. We asked for compensation for changing our airline tickets if we decided to go back early. We never got an answer, so when it did come time to move, we were SOL. What a bunch of dishonest people.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

FR-T 2011 Pt.3
When they told us this info, we went ballistic! There was no way that we wanted to move to another facility. We did not want to have to unpack and then repack for the move, nor did we want to live out of a suitcase. We asked why we were not told of this move ahead of time so that we could have made our own decision as to wanting to spend one week or two. We never got a straight answer from anyone. The hotel manager and his girlfriend assistant just kept telling us lie, after lie, after lie.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

FR-T 2011 Pt. 2
Just as BFC mentioned, we did not know anything ahead of time about the hotel closing. We had made our vacation club reservation for 2 weeks way back in September of 2010. At that time there had been no mention of any adjustments needing to be made, nor was anything said before we left for our trip. We found out about the closing when we were going to pay for our AI fees. The clerk said that we would only be paying for one week at FR-T because we were going to be moving to a second facility, Puerto Plata Village, for week two.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

FR-T 2011 Pt.1
As BFC stated, this indeed was the trip from hell. The difference for us is that we are from the USA and flew direct out of Miami. We didn’t have to deal with a charter company, but we did have to deal with the resort upon our arrival. My wife and I are vacation club owners at FR-T, and have been going there for the past 14 years. Over this extensive period of time the staff has become our 2nd family. In fact, they are one reason we keep going back to FR-T. Another reason for our return is to spend some time with BFC and his wonderful wife Gay, and occasionally Tom/Judith from Hamilton, ONT.
— bellacostero, September 6, 2011

Not a Word
Not a word made up. Actually, I left about half out of it. The 'modest' compensation offered barely covers the amount for the increased tips to the staff. As I said, they're like family.

I've been fighting with WJ since I returned last March and finally got tired of beating my head against the wall. Now, things have settled down and I can tell my story ....

edit: BTW, that was trip #13 to that resort. Does the number 13 have any significance?
— robert dungan, September 2, 2011

That's surely enough ...
... to sink WestJet Vacations! Your story must be factual, because nobody could make up such a terrible "vacation from hell" story.
— Fred Perry, September 2, 2011

That's just TERRIBLE!! Thanks for telling about it, you might have saved some or many people from getting swindled and duped. Better luck next time!!
— Eleanor Robb, September 2, 2011