Hi, I'm new here!

We suddenly have a lot of new posters who are posting regularly - WELCOME!

A lot of the regulars kind of "know each other," but there are so many new folks that I don't know. I thought it would be nice to do some introductions.

My name is Denise (big surprise!) I am a high school teacher, I live in Northern CA, and I have been a SW owner and a TUG member for about 10 years. I bought at WKORV - preconstruction FROM THE DEVELOPER! (That was BT - before TUG!) Since then I picked up a couple of resales - SDO and SVR. I own 3 Starwood units and 4 non-Starwood units.

We rent, use, and exchange our weeks - I've never converted to Starpoints or Staroptions. Right now, renting our extra weeks is working really well for us, and converting to SP's or SO's isn't in our game plan.

If you are a new poster - please introduce yourself (and it would be great if you old regulars would chime in too!)

Except Nodge - you are officially "excused." - FYI - Nodge in under deep cover...

DeniseM said:

We suddenly have a lot of new posters who are posting regularly - WELCOME!

A lot of the regulars kind of "know each other," but there are so many new folks that I don't know. I thought it would be nice to do some introductions.

My name is Denise (big surprise!) I am a high school teacher, I live in Northern CA, and I have been a SW owner and a TUG member for about 10 years. I bought at WKORV - preconstruction FROM THE DEVELOPER! (That was BT - before TUG!) Since then I picked up a couple of resales - SDO and SVR. I own 3 Starwood units and 4 non-Starwood units.

We rent, use, and exchange our weeks - I've never converted to Starpoints or Staroptions. Right now, renting our extra weeks is working really well for us, and converting to SP's or SO's isn't in our game plan.

If you are a new poster - please introduce yourself (and it would be great if you old regulars would chime in too!)

Except Nodge - you are officially "excused." - FYI - Nodge in under deep cover...

Click to expand...

Denise, Thanks for the Welcome! This section of the board feels more welcoming than the Lounge. I've read TUG from time to time for years now, but I am a complete newbie as I just started posting online. I'm unhappy about the recent Starwood/II changes, so I decided I must speak out and add my voice to the mix. I request to be "excused" from public disclosure. See, I'm also under deep cover. You won't find me on Facebook. Yes, a few folks here know me privately. From your posts, I trust you Denise and will be happy to introduce myself privately. Please continue to respect my privacy. Shhh, quiet, people are reading...

Not even a first name?

DeniseM said:

If you are a new poster - please introduce yourself (and it would be great if you old regulars would chime in too!)

Except Nodge - you are officially "excused." - FYI - Nodge in under deep cover...

Click to expand...

Hi, I’m nodge.

I enjoy reality TV, cop shows, game shows, ice cream, contests, jewelry parties, 80's movies, begging for upgrades, 70's music, 80's music, coded messages, finding clues, and . . . . oranges.

Welcome newbies!

If you need to reach me, I'll be in the SVO villa next to the dumpster.

-nodge

Hi,

I'm jerseygirl ... also under deep cover as I believe Starwood may have a contract out on me. I've been involved in Timesharing and Tug since about 2002. Since then, I've also been "texasgirl" and "ohiogirl," but have kept the jerseygirl handle.

I've worked in financial services (wall street) for the last 27 years and am currently taking a year off ... it's been wonderful!!! Since my last day of work on June 30th, I've traveled to Las Vegas, Savannah, Tampa, Estero/Bonita Springs, Key West, Marco Island, Panama City, New Orleans, St. John ... and taken a cruise. I'm off to Las Vegas again in a few weeks, then to Harborside right before Christmas and to Riveria Maya, Bonita Springs and Key West right after Christmas.

I've only just begun planning for my last 6 months of freedom ... so far, Greece in March ... and my last four weeks of "freedom" will be spllit between Hawaii and St John. I still have lots to fill in (February, April and May). I'm loving those 7500 point RCI weeks!

At last count, I owned 13 timeshares ... about 1/2 Starwoods (a combination of mandatory and voluntary resorts). I use SOs with one of my inexpensive mandatory units, use my HRA and WSJ units, and trade the rest (formerly through II, but I'm on strike from them unless the new trading restrictions on non-SVN weeks are rescinded). I've been selling a few weeks lately ... with maintenance fees spiraling out of control, and great rental rates, I'm starting to doubt that I'm getting my money's worth on a few of my weeks. But, I haven't lost all faith. Two of my favorite weeks are at a little, independent resort ... maintenance fees ~$700 for both weeks and II gives me an AC for one of them. Three weeks for $700 -- now, that's still a timeshare bargain!

Not much else to tell --- I have a lovely daughter who is about to graduate from college. In addition to collecting timeshares, I collect art (it's gotten so bad that a few beautiful pieces are now stored in closets and I've banned myself from going inside galleries ). My house in on the market ... would love to move somewhere warmer. The latest "lookers" want to buy the art. I told my realtor that they could have it all for a cool million ... I think she thought I was serious! It's not worth even a fraction of that ... but it is to me!

I'm delighted to meet all of the new Tuggers. Stick around. This is a great group -- and, if you pay attention, you'll learn how to travel like a king on a shoestring budget!

-- Jerseygirl

hi, all,i own only Starwood timeshares and am still reasonably happy with my purchases. i do love to travel. just finalized 2010 except for March.

i do convert to starpoints with at least one of my units every year.

i rent out many units and have had my MF's paid for from my rentals for the past 2 years. that is as long as i own all the ts's.

started a blog on how to fly for free. still working on that. now that i am home for a few weeks i will update it.

i give a week of timeshare to Make a Wish every year around Mother's day.

i run a children's theatre program for the last 15 years and during the summer i am the director of a theatre camp. love what i do.i am also an accountant part time.

so, welcome to TUG.

barbra

Well, I mostly lurk, obviously from my post count. But I am a regular on the DisBoards.

My name is Linda, I work for a manufacturing company in Southern Ca. I am in charge of Human Resources. We have owned our Westin TS for 8 years and last year bought 2 DVC contracts - AKL & GCV. My DD used to be a CM so I got her 20% discount. We love to travel, have been to most of the Starwood timeshares and loved them all. Harborside & St John were favorites.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the regulars who post and keep people like me informed and up to date. And to our Miss Denise who keeps all the ducks in a row. We all appreciate it.

Welcome to all the newbies.

Regular Old Old Folks For Sure.

DeniseM said:

it would be great if you old regulars would chime in too

Click to expand...

Shux, practically my whole life is spelled out right here on TUG-BBS, in detail.

Plus, my (mostly complete) timeshare story is on the Internet. Click here for that.

I don't claim to be the oldest person on TUG-BBS, but I am old any way you shake it (late 60s) -- not that there's anything wrong with being sr. citz.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

Hidy ho

I'm another long-time lurker, recent poster.

I'm an IT consultant, based in south-western Canada. Wife and 6yr old daughter, everyone addicted to travelling the world -- the little one has already been to 20 countries, and actually frowns at Best Westerns. We're pretty sure she was conceived at a Westin...

We've owned at WKORV and WKORVN for 5 years now. We are in the process of closing at SVR, and are looking at WLOR. We have never stayed at any of our units so far -- we are planning on an extended family get-together in Hawaii this coming year.

We exchange our units for SPG points, and use them to stay at Starwood-branded hotels...

Fairly New Sometime Contributor

Hi Everyone,

I have been a TUGger for about a year and a half now and am a regular reader and semi-regular poster. I'd post more, but the more I read, I realize I have about 5% of the knowledge of Denise, 3% of the charm of Alan and 2% of the wit of nodge! Therefore, I am happy simply to post when there is something I can substantively contribute.

I own at Westin Princeville, which my better half and I love. Next April, we'll be there with at least two (hopefully all three) of our sons and their wives/fiances (depending on which son we're referring to) to help celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

I am an ambivalent Starwood owner. I love the resorts. But Starwood management has decided to make its TS owners an ongoing profit center through its confiscatory increases in maintenance fees, as well as its continual downgrade of ownership value in policy changes that make owning an ever less attractive proposition.

I'm also an owner in the Hilton system and have found Hilton's management to be much more owner-friendly and owner-responsive. (Just compare the reservation systems to get a small hint of what I'm talking about.)

To all new TUGgers and posters on the Starwood boards, welcome!

Hello everyone. I have been soaking in Tug and all of you really knowledgeable regulars for about 8 months. My husband, Ted and I purchased all our weeks from the developer before I found Tug. We purchased to use our resorts (except Florida) and to exchange Staroptions. We purchased our timeshares to share vacations with our DD, a senior in college, parents and brothers and sister and their families. We have so enjoyed our vacations. We were lucky enough to trade into WSJ in 2008 and fell in love with it. Spent 2009vacation at WKORVN. We have been an owners since 2006, first year use in 2007.

We have never used II so I'm pretty lost with all the specifics of exchanging.



Susan

Hello!

I am Katherine and DH and I found TUG right before we bought our first timeshare, thank goodness!!! Actually we found TUG in 2004 and almost signed on the dotted line to buy an OFD unit at WKORV back then (preconstruction I think!). I got pregnant, had complications and was placed on bedrest so suddently travel seemed low on the priority list.

I came back to Tug about 1 1/2 years ago and started learning the system. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge on these boards and the tremendous patience of the many members, I learned the ins and outs and went from no star to 5* platinum in about 6 months. I also managed to keep my "investment" to the bare minimum. All thanks to TUG.

I am always excited to help others with their plans of ownership, whether it means buying 1 week or 10 weeks. New rules and many new changes to exchanging have dampened my spirit somewhat but I still think Starwood is a very nice timeshare system. I am also a big fan of StarPoints (that only folks who buy from the developer or requalify resale units have access to). I love the nearby luxury hotels for quick getaways and we are always flying for free thanks to our SPs.

Thanks and happy learning!

Katherine

My name is Kurt. I am both a CPA and CFP. I have been a TUG member for many years and have been reading the BBS off and on for the past 3 years. Your advice and comments have been very valuable, so thank-you very much. I have passed on your advice to many of my clients, saving them $$$.

My wife and I enjoy traveling and have owned timeshares for 10 years. Last week we visited the Hilton Waikoloa Vacation Club on the Big Island of Hawaii. We currently own at Emerald Bay (paid $2,900), Wyndham Kauai Beach Villas (paid $2,100), and Summer Bay (paid $102). We are also Starwood members. As you can see, we have only purchased resale. I am looking to upgrade our Kauai resort to a Westin (mandatory resort), so I am patiently watching e-bay. I have made bids on Kierland, but have always been outbid, which is okay with me as I continue to see prices drop. As much as we would like to own on Maui, I have concluded that Kierland seems to be a smart move.

I look forward to contributing more when we get our first Westin resort.

Very nice! Thanks folks!

How about a few more? - you can still share a little about timesharing and stay under deep cover personally, if you want to !

Hi

Hi, I'm Danny - until today known as DannyM but, given the recent events, I decided to change my username until further notice...

I am relatively new to timesharing and found TUG about three hours after committing to buy from Starwood directly. Needless to say, we cancelled and ended up going the resale market route. We bought both to go to our properties as well as exchange within SVN. This has become quite a hobby and I am currently looking at other TSing systems to "diversify" away from Starwood...

I transitioned quite a bit betwen work and school and obtained several degrees in the process. I work in the financial services (investment management) industry. We love to travel, but don't get to do it more than 2-3 weeks a year due to work commitments. Best resort we ever stayed at: Hayman Island in Australia. We haven't been to WSJ or HRA, but Hayman is pretty hard to beat - at least the way we remember it from a decade ago... Favorite TV show (for both me and my wife): Friday Night Lights - it runs on Direct TV now, and NBC in the winter. Critics also love it but it has a small (but very passionate) following so we hope they keep running it... Daughter's favorite TV show: Calliou!

Hi,

My name is Jesse. My wife and I live just outside Sacramento with our 9 year old daughter, goofy lab, and wild kitten. I am originally from the Santa Barbara area. Kristina is from the Sacramento area.

I am an unemployed bank manager transitioning into the real estate industry. Kristina works for her cousin who is a race promotor and manages two race tracks in Northern California. I get to help out and watch the races when I can. It is dirt track racing at it's best. There are several classes, but Sprint Cars are what the fans come to see. The World of Outlaws series comes to the Chico track twice each year. I am also a driving instructor at Thunderhill Raceway. I teach people how to drive their expensive sports cars very fast. I eventually hope to have a race car of my own someday.

Our daughter's soccer season is wrapping up and softball starts in January. We love basketball and football. I still play in a basketball league and lift weights five days per week to stay in shape.

We love sushi and collect and drink wine, too much wine.

Until five years ago I had very little experience vacationing. We have had the financial ability to travel much more and now own two TS. We purchased them to improve our ability to travel and to share our love of travel with our friends and family. We fully plan to purchase more TS, but the next one will be a resale. I wish I had found this site two years ago. We could have saved a lot of money. I have lurked here since June and I have learned a lot. I hope to one day be as knowledgeable as many of the TS veterans that post here.

My name is Lisa and I became an alcoholic shortly after I bought my first Starwood timeshare.

Seriously, I'm a Budget Coordinator for one of the divisions of a Fortune 50 household goods manufacturing company located in Cincinnati. (Connect the dots if you want.) My role is to track and contain overhead costs. My husband is a financial advisor aka a stock broker. We are both in our 40s and have two teenage daughters, the oldest of whom is in the middle of her senior year in high school. Not looking particularly forward to the empty nest.

We were born and raised in Ohio. I love to travel. Haven't traveled outside of the Americas yet, but all in time. In recent years we've gone to San Diego, Phoenix/Sedona, Hilton Head, Gatlinburg, Maui, St. John and Seattle. Looking forward to visiting the Big Island in the summer of 2010 for the first time.

I own exactly one timeshare with no plans to buy another. I do look forward to enjoying the Getaways on II more frequently once we have been emancipated from the school calendar.

Welcome aboard and happy travels!

My name is Jim and I am an attorney in Chicago. I will be 65 next month. I intend to retire at 70.

I got into timesharing because I got cancer 5+ years ago. At first I thought that, if I survived, I would be debilitated and have to move to a warmer climate and commute in to supervise my 3 businesses every now and then. But, when I fully recovered, I had to decide whether to follow that course. Chicago is a great place to live - but only for about 8 months a year. Winters are notoriously brutal.

I decided that buying a place somewhere warm would be a waste of assets. I looked around and decided that Starwood was the most flexible luxury timeshare system. So, with TUG's help and a couple of retros, I quickly got to 5 Star Elite. Rather than having invested $200K - $400K (and probably now being upside down on a large mortgage in Phoenix or Florida or somewhere else warm and paying 12 months of taxes for 3 months of use), it cost me about $140K to acquire 6 weeks of 2-br (or larger) Platinum Starwood weeks at mandatory resorts and 3 new Lagunamar that have a carrying cost of about $7.5K per year. My wife and I leave for WKV this weekend and we will be gone - in and out - from Chicago 11 weeks before next April 20.

We enjoy traveling and have done so here and abroad since our kids have grown. We take a 2 week cruise each summer. Starwood fits our standard of travel. 5 Star Elite, IMO, was worth it. As an example, just this summer I converted 180K Starpoints to air miles and purchased 3 round trip business class tickets from Chicago to Istanbul (value $15K+) and still have enough air miles from the conversion to purchase 2 more round trip business class tickets to Europe.

I feel that Starwood is like any large corporation - arrogant, bottom-line oriented and sometimes completely wrong. But, it is not evil or rapacious - as it has been portrayed on TUG. Moreover, there is much speculation posted that passes as fact on TUG. But, I don't like defending a huge corporation that is arrogant, bottom-line oriented and sometimes wrong against what I consider to be an unjustified torrent of criticism. So, now I lurk and take the TUG good (and there is a lot of good) with the TUG bad.

But, Starwood works for me - as a vacation destination and vacation planner. However, no timeshare is really a good investment. It's all how you decide to spend your disposable income. ... eom

Hi All,
My name is Sue. I am married 22yrs with 4 kids & live in PA. We bought a VV 2bd EOY. Like many others I wish we knew about TUG prior to the purchase as we were pressured into it from the developer & paid way too much for what we got. I regret the purchase immensely but what can you do. We have stayed once at VV, traded to SBP in Myrtle & just last month went to Harborside which was fabulous. Now we don't have to worry about what to do till 2011. I have learned so much here on TUG from everybody. It is truly a wonderful forum.
Sue

jarta said:

Chicago is a great place to live - but only for about 8 months a year. Winters are notoriously brutal.

Click to expand...

Jim, I lived in Wilmette (lovely town) in the 90s. I think you have that backwards -- Chicago is a WONDERFUL place to live -- EXCEPT for about 8 months of the year.

I'll never forget arriving (from Texas, in shorts) in early April and the temperature was 30 below with the wind chill factor. We left my d's poor little hermit crabs in the car overnight by accident -- and then had to keep them in the house for weeks as she was convinced they would thaw.

I'm surprised the School District didn't call Child Services -- the poor kid had no "Chicago worthy" winter clothes. In May, it would start out a nice day (60s), so I'd send her to school in her "Texas" clothes. By late afternoon, it would be 30 again and she would be freezing to death. We couldn't get the "timing" down to save our lives. Due to leaving the house in what appeared to be nice weather, I think we bought about 40 jackets/coats in the first three months!

My office was right next door to the Sear's tower. One day, a few weeks after arriving, I decided to brave the cold and actually go out to lunch with a co-worker. I asked him where the Sear's Tower was. He laughed so hard as he pointed to the building that was literally right next door. But, it was so damn cold (this was April, mind you), that I never looked up as I walked from the train. I kept my face buried in my coat ... and therefore that somewhat imposing building had escaped my attention!

When we made the decision to leave a few years later (truly because of weather), my boss told me he understood. His exact words were, "That's okay -- we understand. If it weren't for people like you (meaning those who can't take the weather), Chicago would be LA. And we like it just the way it is." (We had a great relationship -- he was just giving me a hard time for not being hearty enough to handle those 8 month-long winters!).

So, although I think your fine city is one of the most beautiful in America, I now only visit from late June to mid-September ... your good months!

My name is Tom, Robin is my darling wife who supports my vacation addiction. We own five Starwood weeks and are 5* Elite. We are also big Disney fans and own 1260 DVC points. I am an Electrical Engineer and partner/co-owner of an Engineering firm.

We bought our first timeshare in 2005, at Westin Keirland. We looked at timeshares for two reasons. First, as a means to save and stretch our vacation dollar. Second, to allow us to vacation to places we had only dreamed about prior to owning timeshares. We feel that our timeshare purchases have accomplished both.

We use our weeks, rent our excess weeks, use staroptions, traded on II, and done some very nice exchanges...all with our Starwood ownership. Eventually, we would like to use our timeshares for retirement getaways from the winter months.

Timeshares is not suppose to be looked at as an investment, but that is exactly how we use our ownership. We manage it like a business, tweaking as necessary to get the most production from our investment.

We look forward to many more years of vacationing and hopefully with our Starwood ownership.

Hi, my name is Helen, I am self-employed and mom of 3 boys.
I had decided to purchase timeshare right after I paid over $400 per night (it was Wyndham Bonnet Creek) when we visited Orlando in 2007.
One of my friend purchased RCI points resort directly from developer, and I had heard her regrets so much, so I did research for resales and all my purchases are from resales - one from resale broker, two from individual owners, three from ebay (westin mission hill is one of them).
Being a 5* elite was quite tempting, but after I found out starwood is not much owner-friendly, change the rules with no notice and they don't listen to owners' voice, I decided not to buy any more starwood and currently looking for good resales of Hilton in NYC.
I travel 5-6 weeks per year plus couple more weekend trips, and mostly travel during spring break, summer and winter break, so it makes sense owning timeshares for me.
My family loves enough space, their own bedroom(s) and mom's cooking during trip, now we cannot imagine staying in a tiny hotel rooms anymore.
Many, many thanks to timeshare gurus in TUG, I learned so much from you!

Hi there. My name is Lee (to make my poor mother happy, it's really LeeEllen,:rofl: but I have been Lee since 7th grade, now 47) and hubby is Allen - 55. We have 2 dd's - 23 and 18. We live outside St. Louis in a great little town called Wildwood and are originally from Indy. We moved over here 15 years ago when Allen's work required it (Formally Colonial/Earthgrains, now Sara Lee) I have been doing child-care out of my home for the past 14 years. We are the slaves to six cats (hence the name Hefleycatz).

We were always work-aholics and hardly ever took time off for vacations, only 3-4 day quick trips close by. When our oldest daughter graduated high school 2004 we took a family 5 day vacation to St. Pete Beach in Florida, we were having so much fun we stayed for 1 more day (cost out the nose to change everything and add on, but that's how we are). That fall my oldest daughter (18 at the time) had a Pulmonary Embolism and we almost lost her, we were extremely thankful at Thanksgiving to still have her alive. That Christmas my parents came over from IN for the holidays and my mother (84) ended up in the hospital here and pasted away that Jan.

We did not vacation in '05 due to we were busy getting things in order for my father to come live with us here. Really sunk in that life is very short, time passes too quickly and some plans never get realized. 2006 we went back to St. Pete Beach for a week-long trip and decided that we would really work hard at making time for fun.

DH and I took a short trip at Christmas 2006 to WKV and to make a long story short, we decided to jump in with both feet and learn along the way. We ending up buying a 2bdrm l/o at SVV. Since it was short notice, we went thru II for our first vacation and made ressies in Feb. 2007 for vacation in May 2007 and went to Paradise Village Beach Resort and Spa in NV Mexico. It was a first for all of us and it was spectacular.

Went to our home resort in '08 (hubby had a serious broken leg) and Harborside '09. We're taking a quick spring-break trip to SVR in March, we are booked for Lagunamar in June '10 and hopefully to see the new Westin Desert Willow in the fall.

We are fresh into the TS scene, but so far it has been peachy. Yes, I wish I would have found TUG earlier, but I'm just happy I did. It's so hard to chime in with an opinon when there are so many here that have so much knowledge. I have become a sponge and am just absorbing as much as I can. Thank you Denise for starting this thread!!

To l2Trade: Welcome to Tug. Please don't feel hurt from your recent post. There are really a ton of very nice people here at Tug. For whatever reason, you just struck a nerve with some and it kinda spun out of control. I think nerves are just a little frayed with recent SW/II mis-doings and you were just the messenger. That is the thing I love about this place is that everyone has a voice. You were just making a statement and some people thought you were pointing fingers. It started a good, honest thread, and thats what we are here to do. Talk things out. Welcome again.

I'm Tim.

I live and work in the DC metro area. I've worked in residential real estate finance for 10 years, five on the single-family side, five on the apartment/multifamily/commercial real estate side. Previously, I worked as a economic consultant within a law firm, so I'm not a lawyer, but I know my way around, and I have an MBA. I was on the board of my condo for several years. I have a wife and young daughter.

So far I have just one timeshare at HRA. I'll likely be buying into the DVC sometime in the near future. I'm a theme park/casino kind of person, so these will likely be my only purchases.

I have one specific beef with Starwood, otherwise I've been pretty pleased with SVO and HRA management.

Not a member ~ yet!

Well hello all.

My name is Jim and while I do not own any Starwood timeshares, I am a former employee of the company. I started my employment with them when the company was Vistana Management. I answered phones making reservations and providing customer service for the owners of Vistana Resort, Vistana Beach Club and The Oak Plantation. To say the least, it was a very simple world then. My last position with the company (by then SVO) was the owner services manager.

I am currently involved in the secondary market and like to share whatever and whenever knowledge I can. Mostly information on processes, how their systems work and from time to time, I am actually able to share some usage strategies that have not been shared before on TUG.

I do own a nice EOY week in Key West (odd years) and use the fixed week every year. I will keep the resort location private....what happens in Key West, stays in Key West - except for the few pictures of me and my sisters mooning Sloopy Joes from accross the street :hysterical:

Cheers!