At Harborside - any questions?

[Ken555]

Not sure yet if I have time for a presentation, but if I do get the chance, are there any specific questions I should ask?

 

[ownsmany]

what gifts are they offering? I'm going in Nov,

Does your spouse also have to attend?

 

[califgal]

We're going in June..I'm wondering how many starpoints are they giving fo ra SVN owner attending a presentation.

 

[DeniseM]

what gifts are they offering? I'm going in Nov,

Does your spouse also have to attend?

That's standard in the industry. Otherwise you can say you can't make a decision, because your spouse isn't present.

 

[Transit]

If you go to the presentation would you ask about Starpoint Devaluation and if there are plans to raise unit values to match the hotel catagory jumps.

 

[Negma]

How is the new water park? Crowded? How long are the lines?

 

[sharktzu]

I'm heading there in June as are several others on the board. I'd appreciate any advice in regards to groceries, shopping, and dinning. Also, if I visit the casino in the evening, is there a dress code? Also, what's the best way to get from the airport to Harborside? Thanks.

 

[Pedro]

How is the new water park? Crowded? How long are the lines?

The new water park at Atlantis is great! We were there on Friday and we all had a lot of fun. I had never been on a lazy river that had white water rapids! The lines were not bad at all, and seldom had to wait more than a minute or two. The pools were not crowded either and it was easy to find lounge chairs. Now my kids want to go and stay for a whole week.
I remember reading a report not too long ago indicating that the place was crowded. This must be low season, since it didn't look crowded at all.
Drinks are not cheap. A small bottle of water goes for $3.75!

 

[Ken555]

How is the new water park? Crowded? How long are the lines?

I'm not sure what part is new and what is old, as this is my first time here! However, I didn't see any lines at all, except a 3 minute line to get towels.

I walked the entire resort this morning and just got back to get some A/C time...

 

[Ken555]

I'm heading there in June as are several others on the board. I'd appreciate any advice in regards to groceries, shopping, and dinning. Also, if I visit the casino in the evening, is there a dress code? Also, what's the best way to get from the airport to Harborside? Thanks.

I went with the shuttle this morning (8:30am) to the market across the bridge. $7.50 round-trip, and be sure you can carry your own purchases (some people had trouble today). I bought 1.5L bottles of water at that market for $1.50 each, whereas across the street of the resort they are almost $4 and at the resort they are $9 (!) - and prices in between.

I took TUG advice and packed one duffle of food before I left, though some of the items I packed could be bought here for just slightly more than home prices.

Harborside doesn't even include a complimentary laundry or dish washer soap for even one wash. They do sell dish washer soap for $0.75 per load.

Too much detail?

I went to Murray's Deli today and it was good - about 15 minutes walk, just past the Marina shops on the path to Atlantis casino.

I have no idea about dress code for casino, but I suspect they'll take your money regardless of how you dress, especially since that's in the hotel portion. BTW, the tables today were min $15 for BJ (most at $25 or $50) and $25 craps. You just know they've got a monopoly on gaming when there aren't lower priced tables. I have no intention of playing this trip...unless I get really bored!

I spent a few days in south Florida before heading over, so my flight from Fort Lauderdale had a number of people traveling to Atlantis. Ironically, two of those were on my flight from LA a couple of days prior and we shared a taxi. Cost about $35+tip for the ride. There are posted signs for prices to Atlantis ($27/28 + $3 per person beyond first, I think). I heard people saying the shuttle wasn't worth it.

BTW, the weather is perfect. Though humid.

 

[Negma]

I'm not sure what part is new and what is old, as this is my first time here! However, I didn't see any lines at all, except a 3 minute line to get towels.

I walked the entire resort this morning and just got back to get some A/C time...

I was refering to the new Aqua adenture with the rapids and water tubes All behind the Mayan tower.

 

[sharktzu]

Thanks for all the information. I'm bringing my wife and three kids plus my mother-in-law. Will we all be able to fit in a taxi? Are they vans like in many resort areas? About bring the bag with food, what can't we bring on the plane? Is an unopened jar of peanut butter or Nutella going to fly? So laundry detergent and dishwasher soap are a good idea? I'm wondering if the TSA will give us a problem with that too? Anyone else have experience with this?

 

[Ken555]

I was refering to the new Aqua adenture with the rapids and water tubes All behind the Mayan tower.

Ah! Well, I took a few pictures while walking the resort earlier today (just before noon, I think). Can't see much of the actual ride from the outside. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the river portion of the ride. It looked like fun!

One of these pictures is of the Cove beach area and a pool near the Aqua Adventure. By contrast, the pool at Harborside was crowded (no pictures of that, sorry). You can see how many people are there...

http://img101.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/05/13/img0225-46gr4blez.jpg
http://img104.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/05/13/img0227-5f04397.jpg
http://img104.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/05/13/img0229-5f043pn.jpg
http://img103.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/05/13/img0230-46gr64xef.jpg
http://img103.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/05/13/img0231-f1obfgdn.jpg

 

[Ken555]

Thanks for all the information. I'm bringing my wife and three kids plus my mother-in-law. Will we all be able to fit in a taxi? Are they vans like in many resort areas? About bring the bag with food, what can't we bring on the plane? Is an unopened jar of peanut butter or Nutella going to fly? So laundry detergent and dishwasher soap are a good idea? I'm wondering if the TSA will give us a problem with that too? Anyone else have experience with this?

Many of the taxi's are SUVs or vans, so you won't have a problem.

Absolutely do *NOT* bring fruit (or plants, not that you would). I would not bring a bag of food on the plane. I checked my duffle with food, and customs in Nassau didn't even check us, so...

I doubt I'll bring laundry soap or dishwasher soap next time (I did bring laundry soap). I think prices at the market were about $1-2 higher than home for laundry soap, and for $0.75 per dish washer load at the resort I'd rather not bring it with. I suggest packing granola/energy bars, cereal, water (!), nuts, pretzels, popcorn, pasta, etc.

And, for those who are curious, my Kierland Options got me exactly what I expected - absolutely the worst location.

Seriously, I'm in one of the new buildings - phase 2 (which I did request, since I wanted high-speed Internet in the room, even though it's $10 per day), but I'm on the first floor, NO sunlight, and am directly next to the walkway so I hear everyone walking into the building.

And yes, I reserved 8 months out. I can only suppose there are a lot of elite members here!

 

[califgal]

Good reporting Ken....there ws no one in the lounge chairs in your pictures it must have been early ini the morning?? Although you did say that it was by the new Cove area. I expect it will be very crowded when we go in mid June. That's too bad about your room location. I guess I'll expect that as well. I traded our studio in Maui for a larger 1 bdrm. exactly 8 mo out.

It's very lousy they do not provide at least 1 mini box of tide and dishwasher soap....that should be standard at all of the SVN reosrts. Even Worldmark gives that at all locations!

 

[tomandrobin]

That's standard in the industry. Otherwise you can say you can't make a decision, because your spouse isn't present.

Disney is the only timeshare presentation I have been on that the spouse did not need to be there.

 

[tomandrobin]

Ken555

Thanks for taking the time and posting while on your trip. My family and I are heading to Harborside in June also. It will be our first trip there and find any advice or information you post very helpful!

The pictures look great! When you get a chance, we would love to see some more. We used our Kierland for our Harborside exchange, hopefully we'll get a better draw of unit location. If not, it'll be ok, we are there for the pools and beach more then the view from our room.

Have you used any of Harborside's amenities? How is the gym and pool areas?

We had read somewhere that you can pay a little extra to the taxi driver to stop at the store, on the way to Harborside, from the airport. That would be nice just to be out once before settling in at the resort.

Are planning to do any offsite activities, do you need to? My wife wants to head over to the straw market to do some shopping. Kids want to snorkle, but there seems to be more then enough at the resort to do.


Tom

 

[Ken555]

If you go to the presentation would you ask about Starpoint Devaluation and if there are plans to raise unit values to match the hotel catagory jumps.

It's been raining all day today...so I thought it would be a good time to attend an update meeting. There were no direct beneifts for going to a meeting here - no points, no $$$, nothing, nada, zip. And, of course, it was supposed to be just 20 minutes but turned into an hour (and I was trying to end it).

Anyway, first off let me say that the staff here are the nicest I have yet met during one of these meetings (I've been to WMH, WKV, WKORV).

I spent at least 10 minutes explaining the devaluation issue with the initial salesperson, and then again when the manager stopped by to "close". At first, they tried deflecting the point (!), but then understood my issue. From my perspective, I buy resale and have very little reason to buy direct. There are only two reasons to buy direct for me: 1) conversion to points (which I doubt I would *ever* do) and 2) elite status. With the devaluation of Points, it's clear Starwood has no interest in retaining parity between the resorts and the hotels, so I have to immediately discount any perceived benefit of Points from a developer purchase - though it may reasonably be correct for the first few years of ownership. And Elite status, while nice, is hard for me to justify the expense.

Even the sales staff said that it doesn't make good business sense for Starwood to increase the conversion amount over time. After all, they're increasing the room rates at the hotels as they can, but have no reason to increase the conversion since...WE'VE ALREADY PAID. If there are some of you which are up in arms about this issue, then I'd suggest a petition, or some other communication, to get notice. I, for one, don't care much, and it's even more of a reason for me to buy another unit resale...

On other news, Harborside has sold out of all 2 bed non-lockoff units and all 3 beds. 2-bed lock-off's for Gold are just under $46k and Plat for $52.5k. Plat includes 200,000 StarPoints. I just looked at RedWeek and am amazed at the prices - I found one 2-bed LO Platinum for $28,000, though there weren't many in that range and even some Golds in the 30's.

As an aside, the entire sales staff here at Harborside apparently were unaware of the recent StarOption adjustment for Cancun. All their printed literature has the old prices. I wonder how many people have bought in the last 60 days under the impression they would be able to trade into Cancun using their Gold week at Harborside for an even exchange (back when Harbor's 2Bed = Cancun's 2Bed during Platinum season)...

 

[Ken555]

I was refering to the new Aqua adenture with the rapids and water tubes All behind the Mayan tower.

It was very cool! Definitely a fun addition that everyone will enjoy.

 

[Steamboat Bill]

Great info Ken...

Do you have any photos of the rumored topless beach near the cove. I want to make sure of the exact location so I can avoid it when we go in August...cough!

 

[Ken555]

I was refering to the new Aqua adenture with the rapids and water tubes All behind the Mayan tower.

So I can answer this question now. I've been over there twice thus far this week, and the new lazy river is pretty much all I've done, or need to do. It's fantastic! Of course, I lost my WKORV hat as I went down "The Drop" (I think that's the name), but it was fun.

I also have never seen a lazy river with rapids... it was a blast. There were NO lines today that I could see. On Monday there were a few, especially if you walked up to the top of the new ride. Instead, there's a path on the lazy river to "turn right" and slowly go up to the top on a movable sidewalk (? - innertubewalk? )

Anyway, you'll have a blast. Definitely one of the coolest parts of this park.

 

[sharktzu]

Thanks for the pictures and info!

 

[califgal]

Hey Ken....I got an email today from Atlantis about a big grand opening event, I guess for Aquaventure and the Cove. Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder performed and there were a lot of other "stars". Did you catch any of that?

 

[Dani]

I just made my second trip this year to the Atlantis. The Cove and Aquaventure were not open when I went earlier this year so I could not wait to visit both. Many people know that I am absolutely crazy about the Atlantis, but for the very first time, I had a few issues.

I think that the Atlantis has gotten a little too big for even my tastes. I couldn't wait to go the new Aquaventure area. I did a look-see the first day and then never made it back again. It was just too far away from the beach where I stayed mostly to scoot over to. The Cove beach looks wonderful. I still remember when it was the Pirates Cove Holiday Inn. The chairs at the Cove beach are padded and fancier. Unfortunately, you cannot use the beach at the Cove unless you are actually staying at the Cove. Cove guests are even given different wrist-bands from Atlantis guests !!! I was not too happy about this. I had planned to lounge around at the Cove beach and then use the new water rides/lazy river nearby. I'm not sure about the pools at the Cove, but I don't think Atlantis guest can use those either. Since Harborside guests only get Atlantis bands, I assume that they are unable to use the Cove beach etc. too. Does anyone know if this is the case? Also, some mentioned that the Cove was built on a hill and as a result, it wad very, very windy on their balconys. I have no idea if this is true or not.

The lazy river ride is a great upgrade from the one at the Beach Towers and is a mile long whereas the one at the Beach Towers is only 1/2 a mile. I also saw the wave pool which looked great.

One other issue I had with the Atlantis is that the beach chairs at the beach did not have any covers on them!!! They said that due to several storms, they had been blown off and that they were waiting for new ones. I did not believe this as they had plenty of covered chairs at the fake beach or lagoon and at all of the pools. This meant that I could not sit on the beach until later in the day as I refused to pay the price each day for an umbrella which of course, was available for purchase.

All in all, I love still love the Atlantis, but I kind of wish that they would slow down a little and stop expanding. It's getting to be too much. I can't imagine what it is like during spring break or the summer when the kids are out of school. Oh yeah...Shaq was strolling around the Marketplace at the Marina yesterday.