We have a family vacation scheduled in S. Padre next week. What is the condition of the island? How many businesses are shut down? How long will it take for the island to resume business as usual?

No one really knows. I think you should cancel.

It depends on where you are staying.

A convention scheduled for August 22-23 has been postponed due to damage to the Sheraton Hotel.
Call ahead to find out about where you are staying and it's condition.

a friend in los fresnos told me that as of two or three days ago they weren't letting anyone but padre residents onto the island. that may have been letup if they have power, but you should probably call ahead to wherever you are staying.

As of this afternoon 75% of the power has been restored, the bridge is now open to everyone and the curfew has been lifted.

I would certainly call and check. Our organization uses the island facilities frequently and we have gotten daily updates that are showing that some of the hotels are not going to be open for business till October and the Bahia Mar will be closed till January.

Just because the power is on, doesn't mean the hotels with broken windows/water damage are in operating condition.

Thanks for the information!

I have scheduled vacation for next week and has planned to go to S. Padre. The place I'm staying is still being worked on. I am going to look for another place to stay there today. Schllitterbahn is opening Saturday, and I'm hearing many resturants are going to be doing the same. It may be sort of a "ghost town" in some respects, but that's not so bad. I went at the same time last year and Schiltterbahn was freakin' packed, too packed. And I remember having to wait over an hour at Blackbeards.

I'm thinking of going. Just need to find another place, but I'll bet I can get a good deal if I can find something.

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but I'll bet I can get a good deal if I can find something

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Right! You and everyone else who's hotel is damaged. They are looking for another place to stay too!
I hope you're right. Good luck.

Well, I'm just thinking that many other people will just blow off S. Padre and go to another beach. A few posters have already said as much. Heck, I might too.

I just need to call some of the resturants, property mgrs, etc to get a feel to what the real story is.

I'll be there this afternoon. Hopefully Wanna Wanna's toilets still work.

Wanna Wanna is open for business.

PJ, let me know how things are down there. I'm about to book something in a few minutes for next week.

The water is beautiful and the beaches are clean. Wanna wanna's lost part of it's roof in the motel section. I dubt they're booking rooms. The bar is open. Radisson is closed. Pizza hut was open. Denny's looks open. It's not bad at all to me.

Our beach house rental from last week looks out of commission for a while. Huge 12 foot by 5 foot piece of the roof was lying on the 2nd deck. Oh and Amberjack's is open. I would book your trip.

Got a room at la quinta for $149. I'm thinking prices are gonna stay strong because of the lack of rooms.

btw the walmart was sold out of bugspray and there's no wait at amberjack's. And wow nice view at la quinta with the aep guys.

I heard the mosquitos were a concern. I'll make sure to bring spray.

Is there just tons of const. workers at the restaurants, etc.?

mosquitos are a huge problem right now

There no mosquitos on the beach yesterday - just a problem last night. Amberjacks was 1/3 full at 9:30 and La Quinta was maybe 2/3 full. Just noticed some mold in the room btw.

Wow bahia mar has some big holes in the side of it's main building.

I heard Bahia Mar is going to be out of commission the rest of the summer, and the Holiday Inn may not be fixable.

Thanks for the reports. We had planned on staying at the Sheraton, but it is out of commission.

PJ -

Which beachfront hotels are open that might be comparable to the Sheraton? (The Sheraton is pretty nice.)

Obviously, the La Quinta. Are there any others?

La Copa is also open. I think I called there and the surf motel is all. I certainly would not say that the surf motel is comparable. I think the hurricane made that place look a little better if anything.

I would book asap as I'm guessing things will be sold out. 2 of the 3 beach houses we have rented looked to be out of commission for some time.

From the looks of things, what percentage of businesses would you guess are open?

Was Schlitterbahn open yesterday?

I sure appreciate your help, PJ.

It was open.

http://www.schlitterbahn.com/spi/trip/schedule.asp

I would guess at least 2/3 of the island businesses are open now.

I just got back yesterday. We decided to go ahead and go on Thursday for our vacation. We had a great time.

Schlitterbahn was open on Saturday. It was still pretty full.

Our condo was not damaged, but there were several hotels/condos that were closed. Most businesses (restaurants, stores) were open for business. Mosquitos were bad at night. Did not notice any at the beach during the day.

Interesting that S-bahn was still pretty full. I'll be there Thursday or Friday...was hoping it was 1/2 full.

I think the mosquito spraying is supposed to start today.

It could have been half full for Schlitterbahn. I have never been before this trip. However, there were still plenty of people there. There were still lines for rides around an hour.

We're headed down to SPI tomorrow. Really appreciate the reports, guys.

la quinta is 250 a night this weekend.

wow

That brings us back to this...

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but I'll bet I can get a good deal if I can find something
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Right! You and everyone else who's hotel is damaged. They are looking for another place to stay too!
I hope you're right. Good luck.

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Yea La Quinta is now booked solid for Friday. It only makes sense that when you constrict supply prices will rise.

is that some economics law you just quoted! OMG!