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How the "must haves" in a timeshare change as you age :)

pittle

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Oooh, a 2 week stay! Yeah, I have not done that throughout my career, I was not allowed to be gone that long.
We found that while one week was a great change - 2 weeks is sublime! There is no rush and you can really enjoy your time off! :)
 

pittle

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I was IT, the run up was crazy, then I was 'critical' the first few days into 2000. Crazy days, weren't they?

I never found one week off to be especially refreshing. To me, it does take 2 weeks to melt the stress, get real rest, and feel anywhere near "ready" to jump back into the rat race. Never got to hit the point of Ahhhhh during career.
Y2K was enough for my IT hubby to retire brfore it happened. Our company was going bonkers! Since he was retired, we found a killer vacation for AI in Nuevo Vallarta for $350 each including airfare from Kansas CIty! Kicker was you had to travel on 1-1-2000 :). We did it and had a blast! I took my first week of vacation for 2000 in Nuevo!
 

bbodb1

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RCI Weeks: LaCosta Beach Club, RCI Points: Oakmont Resort, Vacation Village at Parkway. Wyndham: CWA and La Belle Maison, and WorldMark.
I hope comfy toilets are somewhere in this consideration........
 

geekette

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This is a weird question for geekette on January 1, 2020. I worked for a federal agency and we did not have one and again not one problem with YK2000.
Did you or your company have any computer problems? Yes! There were people problems.
There were individuals who want to find something wrong with the computer system hardware or software.
We had zero problems , and we could not find one problem.
Zero Problems Whatsoever. except, nervous mgmt. it was annoying, insulting and to the verge of outrageous. yes, People Problems were the only ones.
 

geekette

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I hope comfy toilets are somewhere in this consideration........
Comfy? I expect they to be more comfortable than a plastic seat on a bucket. Beyond that, I don't give it much thought.
 

easyrider

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Worldmark * * Villa Del Palmar UVCI * * Vacation Internationale*
We like a view on a deck over other amenities. Some of the older timeshares we like are built right on the waters edge. A couple in Hawaii , a few in Mexico and some on the West Coast are so close to the Ocean, Bay, Lake or River that you can hear , smell and really see what's happening.

What has changed with us is we have always liked our own room and there are only a few people we seem to tolerate in our space even with a lock off. I think the feelings are mutual so the change is we reserve everyone there own room when we can.

Bill
 

bbodb1

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RCI Weeks: LaCosta Beach Club, RCI Points: Oakmont Resort, Vacation Village at Parkway. Wyndham: CWA and La Belle Maison, and WorldMark.
Comfy? I expect they to be more comfortable than a plastic seat on a bucket. Beyond that, I don't give it much thought.
Okay, so this goes back to a couple of resort stays I recall where this became a bit of an issue. The design / layout of the bathroom was so bad as to render the toilet area practically unusable because of one (or more) of the following factors:
  • A very small toilet
  • A very low (height) toilet
  • Toilet paper holder permanently mounted in the wall
  • Toilet mounted (what seemed to be) millimeters from the toilet paper holder - where one cannot sit on the toilet without turning to the side
  • All of this being done in a bathroom with plenty of space elsewhere - why is the toilet crammed into a far too small area?
By no means is this the most important consideration, but it sure can get annoying in a hurry!
 

pwrshift

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Toronto
Resorts Owned
Marriott Manor Club - 3 weeks platinum, 2 weeks at Marriott Beachplace Towers, and 1 week at Marriott Canyon Villas
As we have cold snow winters in Toronto Canada we used to love to escape to sun, beach, and warmth in Feb-March to Fort Lauderdale to stay in hotels. After a few trips, I saw a for sale sign on a small timeshare called Coconut Bay and bought a 1 bdrm suite with two fixed weeks 7&8 and started my timeshare life. I have 3 children and it was a bit cramped but we managed and loved the escape...actually driving from Toronto and back which added another week to travel.

One day there I saw an ad on a new timeshare going on market that was right on the beach and had 2 bedrooms, etc, at Marriott BeachPlace Towers. Toured it and bought a week to start the next year because it could be split into two parts to give us 2 weeks. Sold Coconut Bay that year and got what I paid for it resale. Then I bought another BeachPlace week so they could be split imto 4 parts total.

I went every year with my daughters but as they got older it got hardper to get them all to come every year, so my significant other and I split the 2 lock off suites and she and I stayed the 4 weeks mid winter...loved it.

I put all 6 of my Marriott weeks with my name and a daughter on 3 of them so that one day they would be an owner. They loved the idea. Maintenance was only about $450 a week back then, but almost $1700 now has turned my kids off timesharing ownership, and as I am well over retirement age now I feel the same.

Covid 19 has really hit us badly even though we didn’t get it...but as Canadians we can’t cross the border unless it’s for ‘essential’ reasons but Marriott still wants their maintenance fees.

TUG came to the rescue as I placed rental ads on it just to cover the maintenance fees and the two studios, two 1-bdrms, rented in the first week on TUG ... and the Canyon Villas 2bdrm took 2 weeks to rent...all to USA residents. Would have preferred to go but at least I broke even on costs.

My aging health changes may force me to cut back on vacations and sell the timeshares but timesharing has changed so much over the years it appears I won’t get anything close to what I paid for them.

Brian
 

Sandy VDH

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FLEXIBILITY, which is why points system work better for me than fixed week system or even the exchange programs (II or RCI), most of the times.

Travel by yourself, check. Travel with a group of friends need a 4BR, check. Travel for a few nights, check. Travel for 2 or 3 weeks, check.
 

CalGalTraveler

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Okay, so this goes back to a couple of resort stays I recall where this became a bit of an issue. The design / layout of the bathroom was so bad as to render the toilet area practically unusable because of one (or more) of the following factors:
  • A very small toilet
  • A very low (height) toilet
  • Toilet paper holder permanently mounted in the wall
  • Toilet mounted (what seemed to be) millimeters from the toilet paper holder - where one cannot sit on the toilet without turning to the side
  • All of this being done in a bathroom with plenty of space elsewhere - why is the toilet crammed into a far too small area?
By no means is this the most important consideration, but it sure can get annoying in a hurry!

Visit HGVC Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. The TS units have Toto toilets. Bidet, heated, air dryers...apparently Asian customers insist on this.
 

bbodb1

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RCI Weeks: LaCosta Beach Club, RCI Points: Oakmont Resort, Vacation Village at Parkway. Wyndham: CWA and La Belle Maison, and WorldMark.
Visit HGVC Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. The TS units have Toto toilets. Bidet, heated, air dryers...apparently Asian customers insist on this.
I had to Google this - I have never seen one of these in person.
 

DonnaD

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Raintree Vacation Club
As a widow, I love the beach-front Puerto Vallarta Club Regina. I have enough points to spend 9 winter weeks in a warm and sunny place. I use a
one bedroom unit which has 2 bathrooms, small but adequate kitchen, a sleep sofa for guests, and king size bed for me. I love to spend my mornings with
patio doors open or on the balcony, watching for the whale, reading, etc. I have laundry facilities on every other floor free to use. The staff treat all of us like family and there are many snowbird friends whom I enjoy here. (fewer are here this year). I love coming home to Club Regina, my little piece of heaven on earth.
 

Sugarcubesea

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Before, I retired twenty years ago. I never had a two consecutive week vacation.

I even worked the day of and the night before when the Year 2000 came in. :shrug::crash:
I’m still working and I’ve only had one two week vacation approved in mr career. My father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and wanted to take his only child and her family including the grands on a nice vacation. That was one of my best vacations ever.

My 3 kids are all adults now with 2 of them still living at home and they all still want to come along on the TS vacations, thankfully not all at the same time due to-only having limited vacation time. We still need the 2 bedrooms / 2 bathrooms plus laundry
 

missyrcrews

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Cold Spring Resort, Acadia Village Resort, Samoset Resort
I want to be DonnaD when I grow up. ;) I get my 6 or 7 weeks in timeshares, but they are spread throughout the year, and without the warm temps for now!
 

clifffaith

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Worldmark
I had to Google this - I have never seen one of these in person.

They spoil you for any other toilets, such that I miss my Toto more than my cats when we travel. My fear is when we finally get to fitting up our old folks home apartment that there will be some rule (city or otherwise) about not having an electrical outlet behind the toilet. I swear I will run an extension cord from the sink if I have to in order to have my butt washer!
 

slip

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Resorts Owned
Pono Kai, 20 wks; Maui Schooner, 1.5 wks; 1 week Ke Nani Kai; WaveCrest Condo, Molokai, HI
In ten years things haven’t changed much for us. We love a lanai with a view. Laundry in the building is fine and a full kitchen. We prefer smaller resorts and enjoy upper floors so we need to have an elevator.

When we first bought my wife wanted to be walking distance to a town and restaurants. We still prefer that but she can’t walk as far as she used to so not too high on the list any more.

We have one and two bedroom units. We use the two bedroom units when friends or family come along. One bedrooms are fine when it’s just us two.

All this criteria has worked well for us. So much so that we used it when we chose our condo on Molokai.
 

easyrider

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FLEXIBILITY, which is why points system work better for me than fixed week system or even the exchange programs (II or RCI), most of the times.

Travel by yourself, check. Travel with a group of friends need a 4BR, check. Travel for a few nights, check. Travel for 2 or 3 weeks, check.

Yes on the flexibility of points and multi-destination systems for us too. For now anyway, we still like going to different destinations but I think we have narrowed the list to a few resorts we really like. Eventually it might be nice to just go to one destination for a month or better every winter.

Our uncle and aunt would go to the same resort every winter for up to 8 weeks. After our aunt passed he continued to go. I always thought it was odd that they would go to one destination every year. We decided to go to this old but nice timeshare and found we liked it but didn't like it as much as most of the others we visit because of amenities and age. When others at this resort found out who our aunt and uncle were we soon found out why they came to this resort every year. I Think it was all of the other people they were friends with that was the amenity or attraction.

Bill
 

geist1223

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Salem Oregon
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Worldmark 97,000 Credits
DRI Cabo Azul 50,500
Royal Solaris San Jose del Cabo
As a widow, I love the beach-front Puerto Vallarta Club Regina. I have enough points to spend 9 winter weeks in a warm and sunny place. I use a
one bedroom unit which has 2 bathrooms, small but adequate kitchen, a sleep sofa for guests, and king size bed for me. I love to spend my mornings with
patio doors open or on the balcony, watching for the whale, reading, etc. I have laundry facilities on every other floor free to use. The staff treat all of us like family and there are many snowbird friends whom I enjoy here. (fewer are here this year). I love coming home to Club Regina, my little piece of heaven on earth.

Have you tried the Club Regina in Cabo? We love it there. It is built on the cliffs down to the Beach. So every Patio` has an Ocean View. Whales and calfs spend hours playing in the Ocean just off the Resort. You do not have to worry about walking around the Resort. If you call they will send a golf cart for you. The only negative is that you need a rental car as it is located on the Corridor between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. So no good grocery store within walking distance. The Resort Store has limited items and expensive.
 

Limace

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DVC-Animal Kingdom Kidani
Visit HGVC Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. The TS units have Toto toilets. Bidet, heated, air dryers...apparently Asian customers insist on this.

We put one of those in our home remodel as DH had tried on during a VRBO stay-completed our remodel just a few months pre-pandemic and appreciated it extra during the TP shortage days!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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...Yes on the flexibility of points and multi-destination systems for us too.

Me, too. This is so easy, and I generally know what to expect.
 

amycurl

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I really, really enjoy a hottub with a view. I miss it when the resort doesn't have one. :(
 

MrockStar

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Warm pools, a Handicap beach access matt/boardwalk if its a long walk through very soft sand. Nice Balconies, barbeque grills.
 

Glynda

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Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
Not much difference. A/C and washer & dryer musts. If more than hubby & me, must have two bathrooms. If traveling with my mother must have handicapped unit. Elevator for all of us.
 
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