# Best Orlando Timeshare



## nickfury (Aug 15, 2007)

Hi

I am from the UK and am brand new to timeshare, so basically I am after some advice. I am keen to purchase timeshare in the Orlando area, can anybody tell me which is the best timeshare company to go with or is there a particular one they can recommend. I have heard of 4 from the orlando area but don't know much about them. They are:

Celebration World Resort
Mystic Dunes
Westgate
Orange Lake Country Club


Any help anybody can give me would be much apprecaited.


----------



## falmouth3 (Aug 15, 2007)

There are many, many timeshares in Orlando.  If you become a member, you can read the resort reviews on TUG.  I find them very informative.  However, you will find that TUG members are well traveled and generally have very high expectations.  You can get some other opinions by reading the reviews on www.rci.com.  You don't need to join to read reviews there.

Good luck.  I own in the Orlando area and I'm very happy with my timeshare there.  I have gotten every exchange I"ve requested with it.

Sue


----------



## littlestar (Aug 15, 2007)

It depends on what you want and how much money you want to spend. Do you want a resort that trades through RCI or II? Do you want onsite at Disney; do you want Marriott quality/large stable of resorts worldwide; or do you want a nice, well run, reasonably priced resort such as Cypress Pointe? Are you buying to use it or trade it? If you are wanting to trade a lot, I wouldn't buy in Orlando. 

I would start by doing searches on tug on the resorts you listed and see what comes up. Also, I would join tug so you can access the resort reviews. 

Good luck. Don't buy anything too quick. Take your time. There's a lot to soak in.


----------



## falmouth3 (Aug 15, 2007)

One other point.  Check the auctions on eBay.  You will get an idea of the prices for various timeshares. * Do not* buy from the developer.  You will pay as much as ten times the real value, as defined by eBay.

If you want to use your timeshare to exchange now and then, get at least 2 bedrooms in the Orlando area since families won't want a 1 bedroom.

Sue


----------



## Timeshare Von (Aug 15, 2007)

nickfury said:


> Hi
> 
> I am from the UK and am brand new to timeshare, so basically I am after some advice. I am keen to purchase timeshare in the Orlando area, can anybody tell me which is the best timeshare company to go with or is there a particular one they can recommend. I have heard of 4 from the orlando area but don't know much about them. They are:
> 
> ...



Welcome to TUG . . . and best wishes as you explore TS ownership and what is best for you.

I think most would say that owning in Orlando is probably not in your best interest unless you are very restrictive in what resort you wish to stay at . . . or seeking only premium time (like Christmas week).

Orlando is probably the most overdeveloped tourist location with an over abundance of TS resorts.  You can trade into Orlando with just about any average to mediocre week elsewhere.  You may want to consider making your first purchase somewhere else where you think you may enjoy traveling . . . unless you are pretty sure you want to come to Orlando every year.

A good option for you might be FF/Wyndham as they offer a points based system which would give you some travel options to Orlando as they have a couple of easily obtained resorts in the area.  They also have one of the nicest near Disney, which is considered to be a premium exchange (Bonnett Creek).

With that being said, for what it costs in acquisition and maintenance fees, you may find it less expensive to simply rent from existing TS owners.

Best wishes to you as you investigate timeshare ownership and use in Orlando.


----------



## PeelBoy (Aug 15, 2007)

To answer your question, Orange Lake is the best, quality wise.


----------



## SOS8260456 (Aug 15, 2007)

PeelBoy said:


> To answer your question, Orange Lake is the best, quality wise.




out of the ones you listed.  There are many other timeshares in Orlando that equal or exceed Orange Lake in quality.

Lisa


----------



## rickandcindy23 (Aug 15, 2007)

Buy a timeshare with cheap maintenance fees and trade into the Orlando resorts.  It is so much cheaper.  I own at one resort with maintenance fees of $440 and trade into anything Orlando has to offer, including three bedrooms (ours is a two bedroom), and in the busy season.  

Colorado is a good place to buy for low maintenance fees and good trade power.  You can even get into Hawaii with a Colorado summer or winter ski week.  There are SO MANY others.


----------



## sfwilshire (Aug 16, 2007)

PeelBoy said:


> To answer your question, Orange Lake is the best, quality wise.



I would have to disagree. Orange Lake has various sections. Some are inferior by a long shot to Mystic Dunes. There are several Westgates. We stayed at Westgate Vacation Villas (name might not be exactly right) in the Spring and liked it better than the unit we had stayed in at Orange Lake as well.

As mentioned above, there are many nice resorts in the Orlando area. My personal favorites are Sheraton Vistana, Mystic Dunes, Summer Bay, and HGVC Sea World. There are other nice ones that I haven't had a chance to visit yet.

Sheila


----------



## rickandcindy23 (Aug 16, 2007)

Sheila is right!  Mystic Dunes is one of these best resorts in Orlando and trades with II.

One of the beauties of NOT owning in Orlando is getting to stay at different resorts every visit--cheaper than owning there. You can try Orange Lake, Hiltons, Summer Bay, Vacation Village at Parkway, Vistana, and so many others, if you buy an RCI trader.  If you buy an Interval International trader, you can get into any of the Marriotts, Vistana (with II and RCI), Cypress Pointe and many others.  There are about 100 resorts in the Orlando area to choose from.  We have stayed in about half of them and would not own because it is such an easy trade.


----------



## SuzanneSLO (Aug 16, 2007)

I don't think anyone mentioned DVC, the Disney Vacation Club timeshare sold by Disney and on Disney property.  If the primary purpose of the visit to Orlando is to visit Disney and teh OP prefers to stay on property, DVC may make sense for the OP.  It is probably also an excpeiton to the don't buy from a developer and don't buy in Orlando rule.  It is expensive both in terms of initial buy-in and MF, so don't buy unless you primarily plan to stay at DVC.

-- Suzanne


----------



## spookykennedy (Aug 16, 2007)

Personally, I wouldn't say any on your list are on our "best" list. We would pick DVC (we own a small contract there), then Marriott Cypress Harbour/Horizons/Grande Vista, the Hilton Grand Vacation Properties, and possibly Vistana Villages.


----------



## nickfury (Aug 18, 2007)

Thanks to everyone who replied. It seems the consensus is to buy else where that's cheaper and then trade into Orlando if I want to holiday there. Either way I think I need to do a little more research before I finally commit.


----------



## Sea Six (Aug 18, 2007)

SOS8260456 said:


> out of the ones you listed.  There are many other timeshares in Orlando that equal or exceed Orange Lake in quality.
> 
> Lisa



One would hope so....


----------



## veenstra56 (Aug 18, 2007)

The best piece of advice I could possibly give is to do alot of homework before you purchase.  One person will swear that Orange Lake is the best of the best, while another dislikes it.

Perhaps you can rent a timeshare for a vacation one year at a resort you have interest in.  That way you'll know for sure whether or not the resort is right for you.  Better yet, while you are in Orlando you can rent a car and investigate other resorts.  Who knows?  Maybe your dream timeshare is one you don't even know about yet.

Good luck, whatever you decide!


----------



## gjw007 (Aug 18, 2007)

Dean, online here but mostly it seems at www.disboards.com, once stated that the best thing to do is to do some research for 6 months.  This is good advice no matter what you buy.  It is important to determine what your vacation style is.  I bought at OLCC because I go back there several times a year and I like the resort.  Other may dislike the resort for the reason that I like (nothing wrong there, different tastes for different people - just think how dull the world would be if there wasn't variety.  As an example, my worst experience was at Summer Bay yet you'll find those who love it and there's nothing wrong with that).  If you don't plan to go back to the same resort every year, it doesn't matter where you purchase since you're looking to exchange the unit every year anyway.  The key is to be honest with what your vacation style is.  Once that's done, you can narrow your choices.


----------



## AwayWeGo (Aug 18, 2007)

*Lots Of Great Orlando Timeshares.*




nickfury said:


> Any help anybody can give me would be much apprecaited.


Shucks, I don't know of any _bad_ Orlando timeshares. 

When getting round to what's the best in Orlando timeshares, it's not all that different from deciding which flavor of ice cream is best.  Some folks like chocolate.  Others prefer strawberry.  My late father-in-law always went with vanilla.  So it goes. 

The way we're put together -- The Chief Of Staff & I, I mean -- it's not just a matter of what's good, but even more a matter of what's best (in our view) for the money. 

Not only that, we didn't want to wait till we'd checked'm all out before buying 1.  So we went ahead with a resale purchase, sight unseen, in 2002. 

We are still highly satisfied with our Orlando timeshare that we bought resale in 2002 -- even though we sold it off in 2003 so we could buy an eBay resale unit at the timeshare  right across the street instead.  (Then last year we bought our original Orlando timeshare again, resale, EEY, so now we've got'm both.) 

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


----------



## abc31 (Aug 18, 2007)

If you really think that you will vacation in Orlando most years, then I personally don't think it is a bad idea to buy there.  Exchange fees have gotten very high and depending on which exchange company you join, you might have to factor in a yearly membership fee. So buying elsewhere to trade into Orlando most years, might not make sense. You can usually purchase an Orlando timeshare on the resale market pretty inexpensively.  Because Orlando is inland you don't have to worry very much about special assessments due to hurricanes.

If you think you will be going to Orlando most, but not all years, you can purchase an every other year timeshare there and just rent where you want to go on the years that you don't have use in Orlando.  Some resorts such as Vacation Village at Parkway even have every three year (triennial) memberships.  You can get these really cheap.

However, if you are buying to trade, then I agree with others here that you should probably purchase elsewhere.


----------



## borntotravel (Aug 24, 2007)

Firstly, you ALWAYS want to buy resale.  It should be a red week at high season for the resort you are purchasing for the best trading power.  Secondly, you want to purchase this week at a resort with the least expensive maintenance fees (with the best record for low yearly increases).  Don't bother with one bedroom units as two bedrooms are not that much more and trade much better/easily.  Here's what I did for one of my weeks.  I purchase all of my resales from a company called holiday group in Washington state.  They are very reputable and efficient and have great prices.  You can easily see what's available on their website, I check it frequently.  Orlando is very easy to trade into, so I would not purchase in Orlando, maintenance fees tend to be high, in my opinion.  I purchased a prime ski week, two bedroom unit at Fairmont Vacation Villas in British Columbia, Canada just for trading (it is a five star, Interval International).  I purchased this unit for 1,200 and my maintenance fees are around $440 per year.  That enables me to trade into ANY five star property in Orlando that has availability.

As far as properties, I am an owner at Orange Lake (RCI gold crown 2 br) and love that resort. I think it is by far the best "self-contained" resort in Orlando, in that there is such a vast amount of activities to choose from, you don't have to leave the resort for fun, if you don't want to.  We traded a week we had banked for a THREE bedroom to use the end of Sept/beg October.  

As far as Interval properties, I love the Marriott Grande Vista and Westgate lakes.  The Grande Vista has elgant and extremely comfortable rooms, IMO any Marriott resort should be wonderful.  Westgate Lakes is another favorite.  I have been there three times, twice in an efficiency and once in a two bedroom.  The units are clean and very comfortable, has a wonderful spa, nice pools, and a lake.  Both the Grande Vista and Westgate Lakes are very convient to all of the attractions in Orlando.  Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions about purchase a resale or these resorts.  Good luck.


----------



## nickfury (Aug 26, 2007)

Thanks for the reply. I have now decided against purchasing in Florida because like so many peole have said it is too expensive. I think I am going to purchase in England and trade into Orlando. I have also decided to buy re-sale. Once again that appears to be the most popular idea.


----------



## LTTravel (Sep 3, 2007)

Being from the UK, I doubt you would come to Orlando every year. So I would consider buying a low point DVC membership. With Disney, you can bank one year and borrow from the next year so you can go once every three years. For example, If you can find a 70 point resale, you will have 210 points every three years. I think DVC is the best timeshare in Orlando if you want to go to Disney, especially with their new policy of early and late hours. One of the parks is open two hours later and one is open one hour earlier only for those staying on Disney property. You also don't have to pay the $10 parking fee and fight the crowds from the parking lot. Not to mention that the resorts themselves, I believe, are the nicest of the timeshares in Orlando. I would look for something at Beach Club Villas or Boardwalk Villas.


----------



## Timeshare Von (Sep 3, 2007)

nickfury said:


> Thanks for the reply. I have now decided against purchasing in Florida because like so many peole have said it is too expensive. I think I am going to purchase in England and trade into Orlando. I have also decided to buy re-sale. Once again that appears to be the most popular idea.



When we were staying at Sutton Hall there were some resales available from the resort and as I recall, at pretty reasonable prices.  You may want to check them out . . . they are in Thirsk, Yorkshire.

P.S.  Here is the link to their website which has the resales currently available listed:  http://www.suttonhall.free-online.co.uk/sales.html .


----------



## gjw007 (Sep 4, 2007)

I don't think that DVC is your best choice unless you are staying on Disney property.  If you are looking to exchange it, then it is an expensive timeshare to own for exchange purposes and the main exchange company, II, has less resorts to choose from than RCI.  Owning DVC compares favorably over the long term if you consistently stay on Disney property paying the hotel rates but it doesn't compare very well for trading into other timeshares as there are less expensive options.  For DVC owners, the occasional exchange is okay but not as a primary reason for owning.  DVC resorts are better themed than many other resorts and have the advantage of being on Disney property but I actually prefer to stay offsite at OLCC.  I do like staying at DVC during the first few weeks in December when the holiday decorations and events are going on at Disney (but then again, I like Xmas).

Some would argue that the quality of II resorts are better than RCI and vice-versa as it depends on what area you are exchanging into.  Also, I'm not very familiar with European timeshares but I have always been of the opinion that the maintenance fees were more expensive generally than in other parts of the world.  I may be wrong about that but I also think European timeshares also operate different in that there is a daily cleaning of the room whereas many US timeshare will only clean once a week with some providing a midweek trash-and-towel service.


----------

