# Marriott Grand Vista Orlando exchange- not so grand



## Larry (Sep 4, 2006)

I hope I don't offend any Marriott owners but here is my review that I just posted on TUG. My purpose is not to bash Marriott but I sent this to Marriott when they requested feedback and perhaps if others do the same thay will improve the maintanace at this resort.

This was our first exchange into a Marriott timeshare and I was a bit disappointed in many areas. First the good parts:

1)Very comfortable and spacious 2BR unit with just about anything you would want in a timeshare unit. As a matter of fact the unit was so comfortable you could live in a condo with these features. We received a recently refurbished unit with full kitchen, granite countertops, breakfast counter, dining area, living room nice MBR with jacuzzi tub, 2 bathrooms, Washer dryer, nicely furnished throughout and in good condition. We requested a new unit with view of lake or pool but we would have had to wait an hour to get it so we took this unit with golf view. View was just OK and building was not very close to lake or pool which we wanted.

2)First impression when we entered the front entrance was WOW with long entrance that reminded us of our entrance to the Mayan Palace Acapulco or Paridisus Punta Cana. That first impression was quickly diminished when we arrived at our building which now reminded us of Vacation Village at Weston, (OK but far from the WOW factor of Mayan Palace) . As we got to the elevator we were faced with cracked sidewalks and dirty elevator leading up to the infamous Florida cat walks ( sorry no offense intended I just prefer interior hallways to get to my room). I think that the all around maintenance at this resort leaves a lot to be desired.

3)Before I get into my Marriott rant ant pet peeve please realize these are just my own personal preferences. All of the timehares that we own provide daily maid service and my maintenance on all seven weeks that we own are far less than any Marriott. When we go on vacation we prefer daily maid service but realize that many timeshares do not provide this service but almost all will provide at least a midweek service, Not so with Marriott they are great at maximizing the bottom line profit and charging high maintenance fees for very little service in return, At the Mayan Palace and in Punta Cana they provided maid service twice a day. In Aruba we have maid service every day at all resorts except for Marriott.

4)General maintenance of resort. The pools which were fine but certainly no comparison to any really nice 5 star resort was not maintained at all. We never saw anyone cleaning the pool area or skimming the pool with a net to get rid of bugs or leaves. The public bathrooms by the pool were filthy in both the men's a ladies room. As a matter of fact the one time my wife went to the ladies room not only was it filthy there was no toilet paper. Pool towels were only available at the boat house near the main pool area and no towels were available at the new pool area which we went to. I don't think you would find this at any full service Marriott hotel so every day when we went to the pool across the lake I had to first go to the boat house and pick up four towels to carry across the bridge to get to our lounge chairs. Not 5 star service at all.

5)There were some positive aspects to the resort in addition to the great 2BR unit we received such as really nice helpful staff throughout the resort. Excellent restaurant by the golf lodge were we ate dinner twice. Excellent snack bar by the pool which served not only the usual burgers, fries and hot dogs but really good salads, wraps and veggie dishes which helped both of us maintain our diets,

6) Overall we had a good time but as you can see there are many things Marriott could and should do to improve the overall maintenance of this resort.

 7) Sorry if I offended any Marriott owners but for the money you paid to Marriott to purchase and your annual maintenance fees they should do a better job IMHO.


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## Big Matt (Sep 4, 2006)

So to boil it down to a few of sentences.

You thought your unit was great, the restaurants great, the people were great, and the pools were good/okay.

You thought that maintenance of the resort was poor because of a dirty elevator and cracked sidewalk.

You were appalled (I would be too) about the public bathrooms.

You didn't like not having pool towels at the pool (they are in the unit).

You wanted daily maid service, but had to pay for a tidy if you wanted it.

I'd say that in my three stays at Grande Vista, I couldn't disagree with any of your comments, even the bathroom comment.  I would say that this resort is fairly representative of Marriott timeshares overall.  I've been to some slighty nicer and some not as nice.    

You probably should stick to timeshares like the ones that you own.  I think that they suit your preferences much better than the Marriott brand.


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## Larry (Sep 4, 2006)

Big Matt said:
			
		

> So to boil it down to a few of sentences.
> 
> You thought your unit was great, the restaurants great, the people were great, and the pools were good/okay.
> 
> ...



I actually rent out all three Aruba weeks which pays for the maintanace at all seven weeks and when I retire I plan on spending at least two weeks in Aruba every winter at our resorts. Having daily maid service is a great feature when renting out our units especially to non timeshare owners that expect this service while on vacation.

The other timeshares that we own we use strictly for trading since we like to experience new places and go to either the Carribean or Mexico at least one week a year during the winter. We have traded to Rome and the French Riviera during the summer as well as Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Jamaica, Punta Cana. Acapulco, St. Marteen, Cancun, Puerto Rico during the winter where we enjoyed spotless units with daily maid service. The Marriott Grand Vista was probably the nicest 2BR unit we have ever stayed in but overall maintenance in almost all of our other timeshare exchanges was considerably better than this exchange. The Royal resorts in Cancun come to mind where we have stayed twice in 2BR units that were spotless but still not as nice as the Grand Vista Units. Overall maintanace and service in general at the Royal resorts were far superior to this Marriott exchange.

We have also stayed at other Florida resorts which were maintained better than tha Grand Vista. I just don't think that Marriott owners should just sit back and remain silent, but should start requesting that these conditions are corrected.


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## KarenLK (Sep 4, 2006)

I am a Grande Vista owner and was there 3 weeks ago. I arrived early, but they said I could have unit xxx and they gave me a key. I opened the door and there was a family still there, and they shhhhed me because the baby was sleeping, as though they weren't leaving anytime soon. It was already noon, so I don't know if they were being charged an extra day or not. So I went back to reception, waited in line, and was given a key to a different unit. The first, occupied unit, was refurbished. The one I was in for the week was NOT, and I was disappointed. The dishwasher racks fell out of the unit, and to close the machine required 2 people pulling on the thingy to close it. Some of the wood finishing was pretty poor, too.
I only used one pool, way in the back, and didn't use the rest rooms, if there were any. 
I ate one night at the Grille and thought the food was quite good. 

I see you have a number of foreign timeshares, and I have Royal Resorts in Cancun. I missed having the daily maid service, but that is probably not found anywhere in the US. Marriott owners who go to the Royals complain about the lack of carpets. Who would want a carpet filled with sand, anyway??


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## Timeshare Von (Sep 4, 2006)

Daily housekeeping?  I think that is a luxury that most timeshares do not provide.  I'm thankful my three don't, as I would not want to have to pay for it through higher MF's.

Many of the FF's offer a midweek pick-up to include fresh towels.  That is typically more than enough for us.

Yvonne


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## Jeni (Sep 4, 2006)

I have stayed at the Grande Vista three times now, I do not disagree with any of your comments.  It is one of the Marriott resorts I prefer the least.  What I do like about staying with Marriott, if I bring an issue to the attention of management, they usually fix it/compensate right away, and take responsibility for the issue.


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## gmarine (Sep 4, 2006)

I agree with Larry in that I prefer daily maid service. This is something not everyone agrees on but when resorts have high m-fees without having maid service I tend to question where the funds are going.


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## Dean (Sep 10, 2006)

No offense taken, but I agree with Matt's assessment.  There's no excuse for cleanliness problems and you should report your views and experience.

I don't know the fees for your Aruba weeks but I can't imagine they are much below that of GV.  After reading through your review, I looked at your info to see where you own.  I was expecting to see places like the Royal's, Hyatt, Four Seasons or similar and was surprised that your portfolio of resorts seemed to be generally well below the quality of the resort you are complaining about (even with the issues).  If I read your post correctly, you rent out your best weeks to pay the fees then trade the others.  And it appears you traded up in unit quality (even with your concerns), did you trade up in unit size as well?


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## Steamboat Bill (Sep 10, 2006)

Larry

What TS do you think offers superior vacation experiences?




			
				Larry said:
			
		

> The Marriott Grand Vista was probably the nicest 2BR unit we have ever stayed in but overall maintenance in almost all of our other timeshare exchanges was considerably better than this exchange.


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## 2Blessed (Sep 10, 2006)

For the life of me, I don't understand why people trade into timeshares that do not offer daily maid service and then complain later.  If you do your groundwork early on, you will discover that most timeshares do not offer this service, and that the hallways for the most part are not interior.  I for one do not care for daily maid service.  I like to think of my timeshare as a home away from home, so I like that "lived in look".  I do not want someone running behind me cleaning up each day.  When vacationing, we treat our ts unit as we treat our home.  So, we will tidy up the place when needed.  We rarely spend much time in the unit, so it is not a big deal.  I do agree that the maint. issues should be addressed.  Please address them with the manager when you are onsite.  It has been my experience thay they will take care of it promptly.  In support of Marriott, I do have to say thet they offer some of the best timeshare experiences.  Even the top dogs can falter every once in a while.  Don't let this one experience form your opinion about Marriott resorts.

Brenda


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## Larry (Sep 10, 2006)

Steamboat Bill said:
			
		

> Larry
> 
> What TS do you think offers superior vacation experiences?



As far as overall maintenance and cleanliness of the pools, elevators, and bathrooms by the pool at the Grand Vista almost all of the resorts we have stayed at and mentioned in my posts was better.

As far as the unit we stayed in at the Grand Vista it was the best !!!!


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## Larry (Sep 10, 2006)

Dean said:
			
		

> No offense taken, but I agree with Matt's assessment.  There's no excuse for cleanliness problems and you should report your views and experience.
> 
> I don't know the fees for your Aruba weeks but I can't imagine they are much below that of GV.  After reading through your review, I looked at your info to see where you own.  I was expecting to see places like the Royal's, Hyatt, Four Seasons or similar and was surprised that your portfolio of resorts seemed to be generally well below the quality of the resort you are complaining about (even with the issues).  If I read your post correctly, you rent out your best weeks to pay the fees then trade the others.  And it appears you traded up in unit quality (even with your concerns), did you trade up in unit size as well?



No offense taken here either Dean but the point I was making is that with Marriott's high maintenance fees they need to do a better job of maintaining this property. The bathrooms by the pool was probably the worst that I have ever encountered and far below what I see at any of the Marriot Hotels that I have stayed at and I travel on business quite frequently and stay at Marriott hotels most of the time. Although the 2BR villa was exceptionally nice I can't accept the maintenance issues that I mentioned. 

Regarding where I own, except for my first purchase they were all purchased resale with either the intention of renting them out or trading them and using the system as best I could and have been succesful doing so.

I'm not here to cast stones just provide some honest information on this vacation experience including it's good and bad points. I don't see why anyone should expect less simply because we don't own Four Seasons, Hyatt or the Royals.


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## Dean (Sep 10, 2006)

Larry said:
			
		

> No offense taken here either Dean but the point I was making is that with Marriott's high maintenance fees they need to do a better job of maintaining this property. The bathrooms by the pool was probably the worst that I have ever encountered and far below what I see at any of the Marriot Hotels that I have stayed at and I travel on business quite frequently and stay at Marriott hotels most of the time. Although the 2BR villa was exceptionally nice I can't accept the maintenance issues that I mentioned.
> 
> Regarding where I own, except for my first purchase they were all purchased resale with either the intention of renting them out or trading them and using the system as best I could and have been succesful doing so.
> 
> I'm not here to cast stones just provide some honest information on this vacation experience including it's good and bad points. I don't see why anyone should expect less simply because we don't own Four Seasons, Hyatt or the Royals.


As noted, there is no excuse for many problems including lack of cleanliness, however, things happen and can change very quickly.  I've stayed at GV and my experience did not support your concerns but that was my limited experience as well.  The question is whether it's a sign of a real problem or just bad luck on your part of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I think it's likely not a representation of the overall resort quality and experience one can expect at GV but I could be wrong of course.

My comments about where you own was to question the experience of those who traded in to the units you deposited or your experience were you to stay at your home resorts rather than trading, mostly at the resorts you trade.  Essentially to question whether it was actually lower overall than your experience at GV.  I also was suggesting that for the units you stated you generally trade, that this was a trade up even if you traded a 2 BR and even more so if you traded smaller units.  I can't think of a single timeshare stay I've ever had where there wasn't some issue or the other, usually fairly small and taken care of when brought to the attention of the appropriate people, but things do happen.  I hope you let the management know in a manner where they can take action to correct any problems.

On a side note, you may live to regret that daily housekeeping in Aruba.  As I understand it, one you hire someone in Aruba they essentially become an institution and it's almost impossible to get rid of them.  I also own at an Aruban resort and the management tells me they are really stuck with this issue even though some would like to cut it back due to the cost involved.  Or they could take the approach of many of the MX resorts and shift the cost indirectly to the guest in terms of "encouraged" tipping.

Good dialogue, glad you had a good trip overall.


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## littlestar (Sep 10, 2006)

It could be because Grande Vista is so massive that there are cleanliness issues in the common areas and bathrooms. There has to be a ton of people coming and going at all hours. It's a big resort. We noticed some of the the same things you mentioned on our trip in April. We had family staying at Grande Vista and we were staying at Marriott Horizons. So we went back and forth between the two resorts quite a bit. Our family members got put in a nonrenovated room and had numerous problems during their stay. I have to say Marriott tried to solve the issues, though.  

Over at Marriott Horizons, the public bathrooms were spotless and we saw staff each morning washing down the common areas and cleaning the pools and pool deck areas. 

I really kind of wonder if a resort can get so big that it's just hard to keep up with the sprawl and shear number of people doing wear and tear on a resort.


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## Larry (Sep 11, 2006)

littlestar said:
			
		

> Over at Marriott Horizons, the public bathrooms were spotless and we saw staff each morning washing down the common areas and cleaning the pools and pool deck areas.
> 
> .



That's exactly what I would have expected at the Grand Vista. My problem was that we went to the pool 5 out of 7 days we were there and never saw this once.


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## Scott_Ru (Sep 12, 2006)

Different days, different problems.  Sorry you had a bad experience.  But we have vacationed at GV for years, often spending four weeks, and we've never experienced the cleanliness issues you faced.  (It's true we also never experienced maid service...except when a new week rolled around.  But then we never expected maid service.)


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## rickandcindy23 (Sep 12, 2006)

Larry said:
			
		

> That's exactly what I would have expected at the Grand Vista. My problem was that we went to the pool 5 out of 7 days we were there and never saw this once.



Just because you did not see this happening does not mean that it didn't happen.  I would hope that all exterior areas, including pools and hot tubs, would get regular cleaning.

We experienced a problem at Marriott Grande Vista with the whirlpool tub.  It was horribly dirty, not externally but internally, when the jets ran.  It was really bad.  We were treated to two meals, a room change and an extra night of stay.  They were very accommodating, thanks to Dee, an engineer who came to the room in person to see what we were talking about.  

I was very impressed with Marriott.  I wish all of the Orlando resorts handled their problems like that.  It was beyond our expectations with customer service.


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