Salsa in St. Maarten/St. Martin

D

DancerGirl

New Member
Hi everyone! My husband and I will be going to St. Maarten in November and wanted to know if there are any Salsa clubs on the island. We will be staying on the dutch side, but I'm sure we'll venture into the French side as well. We were planning on going for the Salsa Escape in St. Maarten trip (it was advertised on this site in the Salsa congresses page), and we got unchangeable/unrefundable plane tickets and hotel. Unfortunately the promoters ran into problems and changed the dates to hold the event a week early, so we are stuck with going on the original dates (Nov 17-22), with no salsa escape for us :( . So I thought we'd try and still get some salsa in our trip anyway, with your help! Can anyone help me out and suggest some places? Thanks in advance!
 
DancerGirl, sorry to hear that you were affected by the date changes! How about contacting the organisers directly? Perhaps even try sending Henry Knowles an email directly and see if he has any suggestions?

I know you said that your tickets and hotel are non-refundable. Have you tried talking to the organisations (airline/hotel) anyway? That is, if you can also shift your holiday by a week. I know that the hotel and airlines can be "impossible" in this day and age/economy but if you haven't already done so, you call them and explain and asking them "what is possible". At worst, they will say nope, you are stuck. At best, they may say for a small fee, they will change. The miracle would be if they do it anyway without a charge.

I haven't checked the website but if it still mentions about the date change and perhaps you can show that you had bought your tickets in advance, based on the original dates, maybe, maybe, just maybe.

I don't think I have Henry Knowles email anymore which informed me of the date change, which I then notified here on DF.

I received an email from Henry recently announcing one of events at his Monday place in NY so I have that email address which I will PM you. I don't know if it will help but, I would say it is worth a try.

Goodluck and my thoughts are with you. It is a real *bummer* when that happens.
 
Hi everyone,
Thanks for trying to help Pacion. I'm already in contact with Henry Knowles and he knows of my situation. He is still trying to contact my airline and change it for me. Unfortunately I bought the airfare on Priceline and it is really impossible to change anything with them, he is trying to work it out directly with the airline (US Airways). Unfortunately I haven't heard from him or his assistant so I don't think they had much success. Although the hotel is nonchangeable either, I'm pretty sure that the dates could be changed as long as the airline would budge. Anyway, I pretty much gave up hope on this, so I just thought I would ask you guys about the salsa there. Thanks for trying to help!
Pacion said:
DancerGirl, sorry to hear that you were affected by the date changes! How about contacting the organisers directly? Perhaps even try sending Henry Knowles an email directly and see if he has any suggestions?

I know you said that your tickets and hotel are non-refundable. Have you tried talking to the organisations (airline/hotel) anyway? That is, if you can also shift your holiday by a week. I know that the hotel and airlines can be "impossible" in this day and age/economy but if you haven't already done so, you call them and explain and asking them "what is possible". At worst, they will say nope, you are stuck. At best, they may say for a small fee, they will change. The miracle would be if they do it anyway without a charge.

I haven't checked the website but if it still mentions about the date change and perhaps you can show that you had bought your tickets in advance, based on the original dates, maybe, maybe, just maybe.

I don't think I have Henry Knowles email anymore which informed me of the date change, which I then notified here on DF.

I received an email from Henry recently announcing one of events at his Monday place in NY so I have that email address which I will PM you. I don't know if it will help but, I would say it is worth a try.

Goodluck and my thoughts are with you. It is a real *bummer* when that happens.
Click to expand...
 
Not that this is any comfort, but I suspect Henry has been doing a lot of travelling and I know, silence/not knowing can be deafening!

Don't give up hope as yet! There are still four weeks to go and anything can happen in that time. Have you and your husband sounded out your workplace (if you are not self-employed) about taking your holidays a week earlier, just in case HK is successful? It would be an even bigger bummer if he succeeded and then your bosses turned around and said, no, you can't have the earlier week off. :(

As I am not in the US, Priceline does not mean anything to me :oops: Have you tried speaking to US Airways yourself? Perhaps even going to their local office, if there is one near where you live? I don't know to what extent it is in force in the US but in the UK, we have a "Data Protection Act" which prohibits companies/airlines from discussing a passanger's details with anyone other than the passenger him/herself. Law enforcement agencies I presume are exempt provided they show reason/get court permission.

DancerGilr, I have had to put up with some bureaucracy in my time :evil: and have had some successes :banana: therefore, I will keep the Flame of Hope burning on this side of the Atlantic, until the 99.9th hour, if it is alright with you :D
 
Oh man. I really hope the ticket change works. :?

If not, it looks like Marigot may be your place. There are a couple salsa venues listed there.

{broken links removed}
 
Danoo said:
and again
this forum has some hard working people that write the longest messages ever :P
Click to expand...

Danoo :tongue: as you are a fellow Librian, I will pretend that I didn't hear that :roll: :lol:
 
Hey everyone!
Thought I'd update you on my situation. I ended up purchasing airline tickets to go to the Salsa Escape, and just letting my priceline tickets go to waste. But in return the organizer let us go to the event for free so it's not so bad.
The Salsa Escape was a blast! We had a great time and I recommend this event for everyone next year. We had workshops, pool parties, and nightly parties, and Spanish Harlem Orchestra played 2 of the nights. The island was beautiful and the location for everything was perfect. I think the dates will be Nov. 14 - Nov 20 2005 next year so keep it in mind, I'm definately glad that I went! :D
 
Great. Thanks for the info DG!! Glad that you had a good time and got a somehwhat discounted vacation. :)
 
Great news DancerGirl! I guess that means that the hotel amended your booking also?

Glad you had a great time. I don't suppose there are any photos by any mere, slight chance, is there :wink: :lol:
 
Yep, changing the hotel dates was no problem.
Sure I have some photos and also some videos that I took on my digital camera. Do you know of any place on the web I can post photos and files (like the videos?). Let me know and I'll definately post them!
 
I think you will need to speak to Dance Mentor about that. The photos are no problem. You can upload them here on DF in the Photo Album. :banana: which is fairly easy/straight forward, even though I did have to get some help initially :oops: :lol:
 
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