# Get together in Austin



## Jan M. (Nov 1, 2019)

If anyone is in Austin and wants to get together there is a nice lounge on the 10th floor. We will be here until next Friday afternoon. Give us a call; we are in unit 1406.

Jan and Jim


----------



## dgalati (Nov 1, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> If anyone is in Austin and wants to get together there is a nice lounge on the 10th floor. We will be here until next Friday afternoon. Give us a call; we are in unit 1406.
> 
> Jan and Jim


Remember to try this one out. https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-original-hoffbrau-austin-2
No frills just a good piece of Bulls a##


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 1, 2019)

View from our unit.


 

 

 



My husband calls the building in the last picture the Jenga building. The restaurant you see at the bottom of the picture of the Jenga bullding is supposed to have excellent quesadillas according to several different people here. I call the building in the third picture the owl building.


----------



## WyndhamBarter (Nov 2, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> owl building



There are a lot of wonderful conspiracy theories about that building.
The favorite seems to be that it intentionally resembles Sammy the Owl,
the mascot of UT's competition - Rice University.

https://austin.towers.net/austinites-werent-always-so-sure-about-downtowns-iconic-frost-bank-tower/


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 2, 2019)

WyndhamBarter said:


> There are a lot of wonderful conspiracy theories about that building.
> The favorite seems to be that it intentionally resembles Sammy the Owl,
> the mascot of UT's competition - Rice University.
> 
> https://austin.towers.net/austinites-werent-always-so-sure-about-downtowns-iconic-frost-bank-tower/



Thanks! I keep meaning to look online to find out about that building.


----------



## Richelle (Nov 2, 2019)

We are arriving Wednesday, but we have activities planned for the most part, however, dinner is an option. Friday we are open all day for now. Not sure what Thursday will bring yet. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 2, 2019)

We are arriving late Tuesday night.  We plan to do the river walk sometime Wednesday.  Thursday we’ve got the owners meetings in the morning followed by the CWA owners meeting in the early afternoon.  We don’t have plans for Thursday evening just yet, and are flying back Friday early afternoon.  Hope to meet you all at some point! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## SmileLynn (Nov 4, 2019)

Hi Jan! Arrived yesterday. Yes, let's get together. Had a great time chatting at last years Annual meeting. Rooftop fire pit looks like a great hang out. What ya think?


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 4, 2019)

Not us but another owner was told that owners here for the owners annual meeting wouldn't be allowed to do an update. If anyone was planning to do an update to get free parking for their stay, you may be disappointed. This owner said they had done updates during their stays for owners meetings in previous years and was told this was a recent change. This is the first meeting that I know of held at a resort that charges for parking. $30 a day.


----------



## Richelle (Nov 5, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> Not us but another owner was told that owners here for the owners annual meeting wouldn't be allowed to do an update. If anyone was planning to do an update to get free parking for their stay, you may be disappointed. This owner said they had done updates during their stays for owners meetings in previous years and was told this was a recent change. This is the first meeting that I know of held at a resort that charges for parking. $30 a day.



I wonder if they know you’re registered for the meeting or if they ask and wait to see what your answer is before asking you to do to the meeting. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 5, 2019)

Richelle said:


> I wonder if they know you’re registered for the meeting or if they ask and wait to see what your answer is before asking you to do to the meeting.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Not sure. The person we know had already told them. Was signed up then got a call saying they weren't allowing owners who are here for the meeting to do an update. I wonder if she had said told them when they called to cancel that they didn't need parking if they wouldn't have cancelled the update.


----------



## dagger1 (Nov 5, 2019)

Wish we could be there to meet all of you.  We will be there for a week December 15.  We are currently “suffering” at the Marriott Waiohai.  This place is AMAZING!!!  Wish you all could be here!!


----------



## erniecrews (Nov 5, 2019)

I will be checking in tomorrow (Wednesday)  around 2PM. I will be there until Sunday, looking forward to meeting up thru-out the week.


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 6, 2019)

We are now in unit 1310 and leave later on Friday afternoon. Please give us a call if anyone wants to get together. On the 10th floor the indoor lounge and outdoor lounge around the fire pits are a great place to meet up!


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 6, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> We are now in unit 1310 and leave later on Friday afternoon. Please give us a call if anyone wants to get together. On the 10th floor the indoor lounge and outdoor lounge around the fire pits are a great place to meet up!



We are here now in unit 1206.  Same goes for us.  Feel free to reach out to us via Facebook message:

https://www.facebook.com/CraigandStacy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Sandi Bo (Nov 6, 2019)

We are here, too. Meeting sil for early dinner. If anyone is meeting up later, please message me. That 10th floor lounge Jan mentioned sounds like a good idea.

Also if anyone is interested in dinner tomorrow night, maybe that steak house mentioned earlier, please message me.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## Richelle (Nov 6, 2019)

I’m loving the views in 1501. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dgalati (Nov 7, 2019)

Richelle said:


> I’m loving the views in 1501.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I highly suggest The capital tour if you have time.


----------



## bryjake (Nov 7, 2019)

Has the meeting agenda published?

Just wondering on the topics


----------



## Sandi Bo (Nov 7, 2019)

bryjake said:


> Has the meeting agenda published?
> 
> Just wondering on the topics


I haven't seen anything more detailed than what was emailed earlier.  And all that's on the table is the Privileges handout.





Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## Richelle (Nov 7, 2019)

Was there any doubt? 














Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## bendadin (Nov 7, 2019)

Richelle said:


> Was there any doubt?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



What were the two questions that you missed?


----------



## Richelle (Nov 7, 2019)

bendadin said:


> What were the two questions that you missed?



The Plus partners one was one. The question was what could you use your points for in Plus Partners. They had two answers that were almost exactly the same.  They both had the answer of airfare, cruises, rental cars, but one had attraction tickets. I missed that last one. 

@Jan will have to remind me what the second one was. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 7, 2019)

Richelle said:


> The Plus partners one was one. The question was what could you use your points for in Plus Partners. They had two answers that were almost exactly the same.  They both had the answer of airfare, cruises, rental cars, but one had attraction tickets. I missed that last one.
> 
> @Jan will have to remind me what the second one was.
> 
> ...



Yeah I blurted out the correct answer but wasn’t quick enough on the draw before Richelle submitted our answer.  She almost lost tablet privileges over that one LOL, but we still won and all got the nice soft fluffy blankets so all is well with the world! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## bryjake (Nov 7, 2019)

Any new announcements, highlights, or new information

Or just more of the same old information


----------



## Sandy VDH (Nov 7, 2019)

I was hoping to be in Austin, but I ended up out of state, on business.


----------



## Richelle (Nov 8, 2019)

bryjake said:


> Any new announcements, highlights, or new information
> 
> Or just more of the same old information



A lot of the same info. They are working so you can modify reservations after they’ve been made. They didn’t specify what exactly you would be able to change that couldn’t already change.  They are working on improving website and search response time. They answered Jan’s question about why upgrades are not being honored. In a nutshell, they identified what was causing that problem and have address the major causes and some other fixes will be going in later to completely resolve it. One person asked if Wyndham was buying Bluegreen.  He said he couldn’t discuss any potential deals like that but if some company were for sale, there is a good chance they would be one of the potential buyers. He did not say “no, we are not buying Bluegreen”. He just said he could not talk about any deals.  Also, they cannot talk about any new locations they are considering because as soon as they mention it, real estate prices go up. I get the impression they want the deal to be done before anyone knows it happened, so they don’t have to pay that higher real estate cost. 

No new information on Privileges but they did confirm existing VIP would be automatically enrolled in the new program. So no need to buy more points unless you want to go to the next tier. Also, Anyone who bought points after May 1st to get them to the Advantage level would be an Advantage member. 

Also, apparently they are auto depositing expired points into RCI now. So people are not losing their Club Wyndham points at the end of the year. They get deposited in RCI, so they are good for another two years in RCI.  Did I get that right @Jan?

I included photos of some of the slides, including financial data. One thing to note about revenue listed. Housekeeping and reservation revenue is money they get when you have to buy more housekeeping or reservation transaction credits because you ran out of your “free” ones. Rental revenue is not renting units. It’s the revenue they get when people rent points for $12 per 1,000. 

Finally, they started providing Scrub Mommy instead of regular sponges in their units. They gave us a trial size one, but they also already have them in the Austin rooms. 
































Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Richelle (Nov 8, 2019)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 8, 2019)

Team TUG for the win. When they were announcing the team names prior to the game beginning they very conveniently skipped reading team TUG! We got a good laugh out of them not being able to avoid announcing Team TUG when we were consistently vying for the top several places and by the last couple of questions we stayed in first place.

We did TUG proud! Richelle picked our team name. There were so many Texans at the meeting they probably thought the T in TUG had something to do with Texas.

Craig's wife Stacy, me, Craig (Hitchhiker), my husband Jim, Richelle.


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 8, 2019)

They talked about how Wyndham has acquired a tech company, ATN?, sorry don't remember the name. Search times will be much faster. A better functioning website and more accurate inventory would have a higher priority over speed at this point for most of us.

They also talked how they are collecting data on us. Our birthdays, anniversaries, etc. They are now in the process or are going to be tracking our searches and anything we do on the website. Say you are searching multiple times for a stay for certain dates at Bonnet Creek. Supposedly they will alert you that something you've searched for is now available. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how that will work. If you've been searching and not found anything then most likely so have other people. If you all get the alert the first one, two or three people to see the email or text will get the stay(s) and everyone else gets nothing. Not sure I would want to know it was available and not get it. I got the feeling some people weren't thrilled to hear that it appears that Wyndham will be tracking and compiling data about us and everything we do. It seems like it would be more for their use for sales than of benefit to us.

Another big thing that was talked about is that they are thinking of or working on a program that will tell owners before they arrive at the resorts what incentives are being offered if they choose to attend an update. An email? You would select which gift you want and select a day and time to go to the update. Or select to not attend. They've heard our complaints about being repeatedly asked and called during our stays. I hope I didn't dream that!

All the resorts will never be in CWA.

They were asked about PR losing both Glacier Canyon and Chicago. Not a very satisfactory response on that question. The response was to acknowledge it happened. Said they were going to be enhancing the PR perk at the PR resorts. That caught a number of people's attention as the program needs to have some actually worthwhile perk at the individual resorts.

They plan on moving the future annual meetings around instead of just rotating between Vegas and Orlando. At least half of the people there were first time attendees. They did give us a nice breakfast this year which was a pleasant surprise.

Annie Roberts in talking to several of us after the meeting gave examples of the rotating benefits that will be offered with Privileges. She mentioned maybe for a few months it would be a coupon for a free appetizer with the purchase of two entrees. Or the next time it could be say 15% off your bill at a specific restaurant. I was hoping that she didn't mean that those are exactly the types of things they have in mind for the rotating benefits because they hand out the little cards for stuff like that in your welcome pack when you check in. and most locations have coupon books along with brochures for things to do. I couldn't in that moment think of a polite way to ask for clarification.

They did say repeatedly that nothing but the point levels have been decided yet for Privileges. And the names too.

I missed what Richelle mentioned about expiring points being automatically deposited to RCI. Hopefully someone else can verify what was said.


----------



## Richelle (Nov 8, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> They talked about how Wyndham has acquired a tech company, ATN?, sorry don't remember the name. Search times will be much faster. A better functioning website and more accurate inventory would have a higher priority over speed at this point for most of us.
> 
> They also talked how they are collecting data on us. Our birthdays, anniversaries, etc. They are now in the process or are going to be tracking our searches and anything we do on the website. Say you are searching multiple times for a stay for certain dates at Bonnet Creek. Supposedly they will alert you that something you've searched for is now available. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how that will work. If you've been searching and not found anything then most likely so have other people. If you all get the alert the first one, two or three people to see the email or text will get the stay(s) and everyone else gets nothing. Not sure I would want to know it was available and not get it. I got the feeling some people weren't thrilled to hear that it appears that Wyndham will be tracking and compiling data about us and everything we do. It seems like it would be more for their use for sales than of benefit to us.
> 
> ...



I remember her saying, during the one on one conversations, that it didn’t meet PR standards or something like that. 



> I missed what Richelle mentioned about expiring points being automatically deposited to RCI. Hopefully someone else can verify what was said.



There is a slide about the auto deposit that I posted that wasn’t very specific. The question I didn’t think to ask is, what if you’re out of reservation transaction credits or housekeeping credits?  Maybe they can forgo the reservation transaction credit since it’s automated, but not sure about housekeeping. Maybe that goes along with the “number of free cleans” format they are going with in the new program. If you’re out of free cleans, you’ll be asked to pay a fee for housekeeping. Or maybe they are doing away with needing to use either and will just charge you for the housekeeping. That might tick more then a few people. I can hear it now. “Wyndham is a scam. This is just another fee Wyndham is profiting off of.  Don’t I pay enough in maintenance fees?  Why do I have to pay housekeeping too?  I don’t have to pay for housekeeping with (enter resort system name here).”    That I top of how they are devaluing the program and taking away benefits, etc.  We will need a FAQ sticky thread to address all of those comments. 




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## bryjake (Nov 8, 2019)

I am glad the TUG "A Team" was there
Your input has helped myself and others really better understand and appreciate Club Wyndham

Can someone explain a bit more about "All the resorts will never be in CWA"?
Was that to re-assure CWS select owners and to minimize ideas that Wyndham was growing towards the Worldmark points model?

Several sales people have mentioned the website tracking.  Apparently it is more real than I gave credit for it.  I do not know how I feel about that.  Struggling with trust and what benefit do openers really get from it issues


----------



## Rolltydr (Nov 8, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> They talked about how Wyndham has acquired a tech company, ATN?, sorry don't remember the name. Search times will be much faster. A better functioning website and more accurate inventory would have a higher priority over speed at this point for most of us.
> 
> They also talked how they are collecting data on us. Our birthdays, anniversaries, etc. They are now in the process or are going to be tracking our searches and anything we do on the website. Say you are searching multiple times for a stay for certain dates at Bonnet Creek. Supposedly they will alert you that something you've searched for is now available. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how that will work. If you've been searching and not found anything then most likely so have other people. If you all get the alert the first one, two or three people to see the email or text will get the stay(s) and everyone else gets nothing. Not sure I would want to know it was available and not get it. I got the feeling some people weren't thrilled to hear that it appears that Wyndham will be tracking and compiling data about us and everything we do. It seems like it would be more for their use for sales than of benefit to us.
> 
> ...



Great update, Jan! Thanks for sharing. 

It concerns me that Wyndham has “acquired” a tech firm to improve the website instead of hiring a firm. I worked in the IT field for 30 years for a large insurance company. While they placed a lot of importance on tech, their business was insurance. Same for Wyndham. I would prefer to have a tech company work on the website. We’ve already seen what a timeshare company can do with it. And, we don’t like it! Hire a company that knows what they’re doing and let them do it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Richelle (Nov 8, 2019)

bryjake said:


> I am glad the TUG "A Team" was there
> Your input has helped myself and others really better understand and appreciate Club Wyndham
> 
> Can someone explain a bit more about "All the resorts will never be in CWA"?
> ...



Someone asked if all resorts would eventually be in CWA. Maybe for the reason you mentioned or because a sales rep told them that because they wanted them to buy CWA points. The executive flat out said not all resorts will be part of The CWA trust. Meaning CWA owners will never have 13 month booking rights to all resorts. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 8, 2019)

bryjake said:


> I am glad the TUG "A Team" was there
> Your input has helped myself and others really better understand and appreciate Club Wyndham
> 
> Can someone explain a bit more about "All the resorts will never be in CWA"?
> ...



In talking to other people about them flat out saying that no not all the resorts will ever be in CWA this is what I learned. There may be other locations but the resorts in Hawaii will never be in CWA because there are so many different laws?, rules?, regulations? in Hawaii for timeshares. I may not have the best grasp on the why's regarding Hawaii timeshares but another person simplified it by saying they are just set up very differently.


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 8, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> They talked about how Wyndham has acquired a tech company, ATN?, sorry don't remember the name. Search times will be much faster. A better functioning website and more accurate inventory would have a higher priority over speed at this point for most of us.
> 
> They also talked how they are collecting data on us. Our birthdays, anniversaries, etc. They are now in the process or are going to be tracking our searches and anything we do on the website. Say you are searching multiple times for a stay for certain dates at Bonnet Creek. Supposedly they will alert you that something you've searched for is now available. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how that will work. If you've been searching and not found anything then most likely so have other people. If you all get the alert the first one, two or three people to see the email or text will get the stay(s) and everyone else gets nothing. Not sure I would want to know it was available and not get it. I got the feeling some people weren't thrilled to hear that it appears that Wyndham will be tracking and compiling data about us and everything we do. It seems like it would be more for their use for sales than of benefit to us.
> 
> ...



A few comments to add:

The acquired company was ARN (Alliance Reservations Network) and it was actually acquired by RCI, here’s the actual public announcement that also contains some info on what to expect:

https://www.wyndhamdestinations.com...twork-to-accelerate-growth-through-new-travel

Wyndham hasn’t actually started their big data project just yet - this is me saying this to be clear based upon what I heard - not what was actually said.  I had a bit of a detailed conversion with Annie on various IT modernization topics.  They still have a long way to go.  They are still using waterfall PM and are not an agile IT shop at present.  RCI and ARN in comparison have already completely adopted agile DevOps for example.  Believe it or not they don’t have any CRM in place (hence the reference to the birthdays, anniversaries, etc.).  They are adopting SFDC (Salesforce) as their CRM/CSM platform heading into 2020) which will eventually tie into other systems to deliver integration services into the reservation systems to automatically associate important dates when owners are booking reservations.  Right now it’s all manual phone calls from the reps to the resorts and so forth.  

I spoke in some detail with Annie and her cohort Sanela about how to modernize the VIP program and bring back cancel/rebook but in a different and more limited fashion.  This earned me their direct contact information and a desire to meet with me again in the near future to discuss costing details and program modernizations.  This ties into the rotating benefits idea as well so rotating benefits may actually include times when we can make reservations in the standard booking windows that will include our discount rates and room upgrades as one example - none of this is written in stone but these were the ideas that Sanela indicated are actively discussed already.  The idea of putting them into the rotating benefits windows is to define a specific timeline and limit the cost of these types of benefits in the process - rather than attempting to make them permanent.  Again just one example, we will report back as we continue to engage with Wyndham on these types of modernizations.

Yes they did mention that expiring points would be auto deposited into RCI - I’m not sure it this is a trial program nor the scope of the program in question and I didn’t follow up on this item either since I’m not a big RCI user.  


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 8, 2019)

Rolltydr said:


> Great update, Jan! Thanks for sharing.
> 
> It concerns me that Wyndham has “acquired” a tech firm to improve the website instead of hiring a firm. I worked in the IT field for 30 years for a large insurance company. While they placed a lot of importance on tech, their business was insurance. Same for Wyndham. I would prefer to have a tech company work on the website. We’ve already seen what a timeshare company can do with it. And, we don’t like it! Hire a company that knows what they’re doing and let them do it.
> 
> ...



ARN isn’t for the website, it’s for the reservations system itself.  They are two different systems behind the scenes.  I know because I asked when speaking with Annie. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 8, 2019)

The other topic that had questions was better integration for the other clubs, including Club Pass and SVC. 

For SVC they basically said that we would see inventory for SVC coming into Club Plus in early 2020 timeframe.  They didn’t provide specifics but my best guess is it will come in through CWA since it’s a trust, but that’s just a guess.  I got the sense that some people were complaining about the fact that post SVC conversion they could not book SVC inventory via Club Plus which prompted them to address this issue during the Q&A session.

The COO also took some time to address better integration with Club Pass (Worldmark) and whether we would ever see a complete merging of CWP and WCP (Worldmark Club Pass) to which their answer was that these are two completely different systems with different underlying documents and therefore unless greater than 50% of all CWP and WCP owners would actually vote to merge the two systems, this is not ever going to happen.  With that said, they did indicate that there will be better ability for CWP and WCP owners to book across the two systems via the website at some future date.  No dates were shared though.

The panel also explicitly addressed “Project Holiday” which is the new reservation and website integration project within Wyndham.   They focused initially on the clubwyndham.com website and will next be modernizing the myclubwyndham.com website experience.  So yes, we now have an official project moniker tracking the next evolution of the Voyager website. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## HitchHiker71 (Nov 8, 2019)

bryjake said:


> Several sales people have mentioned the website tracking.  Apparently it is more real than I gave credit for it.  I do not know how I feel about that.  Struggling with trust and what benefit do openers really get from it issues



This will be a part of their ongoing modernization efforts and a move toward a big data platform.  I’ve often complained to Wyndham that their lack of any real data warehouse is a real detractor to providing a signficantky better customer experience.  I would love to see them tracking website traffic and tying it to booking recommendations for owners.  They aren’t really doing this today, but they have eyes on doing some of this tomorrow as others have already indicated - such as allowing for setup of a watch list - similar to the ongoing search function within RCI - that will keep watching for booking windows that aren’t available today and automatically book them when they become available on your behalf as long as you have the available points.  They are also looking at adding functions to enhance searches - like many of the online airline and travel websites do today - where they will provide you with alternate adjacent travel dates when there is availability or a similar type of resort that you’re currently searching for.  Lots on the roadmap from what I can tell.  I intend to do some relationship building with Annie and Sanela to get some better visibility and possibly even access to early adopter pilot environments so we can elicit feedback from actual owners during the development sprints.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## TUGBrian (Nov 9, 2019)

Richelle said:


> Was there any doubt?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


this is amazing!  please email the list of tug members on the team so i can provide some extra thanks!


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 9, 2019)

I forgot that they said a new directory will be coming out in 2020. I don't remember if they said when in 2020. 

I could have used a couple more question forms. I'm still kicking myself for not having my husband request second form to submit a question so I could have asked two questions. I would have asked when are they going to get better pictures of the resorts, the facilities and the more shots of the different types units. It's a disgrace that we have to rely on Trip Advisor and other people to get a better idea of what the resort and units look like when we are thinking of booking somewhere we haven't been before. But more importantly I would have asked when they are going to include resort layouts with the units numbers. What is the point of being able to request a specific unit if you have no idea of what the unit numbers are to do so.


----------



## Jan M. (Nov 9, 2019)

TUGBrian said:


> this is amazing!  please email the list of tug members on the team so i can provide some extra thanks!



Left to right in the picture are the TUG members (names underlined) on Team TUG. Stacy Baldwin (wife of Craig Baldwin), Jan M., Craig Baldwin (aka HitchHiker71), Jim M. (husband to Jan M.) and Richelle Spafford. John Wilson was also at our table. He is a platinum owner and brought his lady friend and her mother. During our stay we kept running into them at the fire pit, the lounge, the lobby and on the elevators and talking. Mostly it was my husband who talked up TUG to John so hopefully we will get another new member.

I get a kick out of my husband telling people that he knows very little about our timeshares but he knows I learned a lot on TUG. That he has met and gotten to know some great people from tagging along with me to the owners meetings and the TUG get togethers and now looks forward to going. He's an unofficial TUG ambassador.

Several days before the meeting we were sitting around the fire pit and I was talking to another couple who said that they might want to consider buying points in a different timeshare system rather than buy more Wyndham points. I told them that I didn't know too much about systems other than Wyndham but that they could find out a lot about other systems on TUG. He got on his phone to look at the TUG website and they were amazed at how many different forums there are and how much you can learn on TUG.  However what really got them excited was when I got him looking at the Last Minute rentals on TUG.

I really enjoyed hearing about the resorts other people have been to and their recommendations.

Repeatedly when we were meeting so many other owners they could tell that some of us obviously knew each other and would ask how we met. We explained that some of us initially met at the annual meetings or the TUG get togethers in Orlando the third Wednesday of January. That for some of us we kind of felt we knew each other from the TUG forums before we even met in person. That we look forward to meeting up and some of us have gotten to know each other well enough that we vacation together sometimes.


----------



## ecwinch (Nov 10, 2019)

So sad I missed out on the event. But unfortunately my wife planned a cruise to Mexico that week. It would have been good to put a face to the name of so many people that freely contribute their knowledge to the forum.


----------



## Richelle (Nov 10, 2019)

TUGBrian said:


> this is amazing!  please email the list of tug members on the team so i can provide some extra thanks!



I thought it was funny they purposely skipped out name when reading out the other team names. We got personal satisfaction out of the fact that they were forced to say the name repeatedly when we kept coming in first place. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------

