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What was your first exposure to Timesharing?

missyrcrews

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I'm sitting here on my Sycamores 23 balcony at Smuggs. Last day of spring break. Heading home tomorrow. :( I've been thinking about all of the great vacations we've taken as a family because of our timeshare. I've been reading the Tug Memory Lane threads, which got me thinking back to when I was first exposed to Timeshares. (Time to actually savor a cup of coffee will get one thinking about random "stuff!")

My parents bought a "floating blue week" from Lakewood at Lake of the Ozarks for $5000. They had rented a week there, and were sold on the space and the fact that it had a kitchen. (For those of you who are familiar with Branson...our vacations used to be staying at Rockaway Beach on Lake Taneycomo in horrible "housekeeping cabins." These units were definitely a step up!) What Dad didn't understand was that he would NEVER get a prime week. He didn't understand how to use what he had. I was still in college, so this was 1990 or so. I learned fast! I used the week some years to trade, once I moved to Maine in 1992. And they used it to trade to visit me. These days, they use them (they've subsequently added a second blue float week...they never. learn.) to go to Branson in the off-season.

They exchanged in to Cold Spring Resort one year on one of those New England visits. We also used the week to trade in there in January 2001. We saw that we could purchase a sleeps 8 unit for April break week (Elliott was 4, so we knew enough to watch the school calendar!) for $1500. We paid $300 upfront, and the resort carried the rest until we paid it off. I had that week paid off in less than a year, and we were off on our timesharing journey!

We've since added three weeks, all at the same resort. We do a mix of trading, staying in our owned week, and adding extra weeks through Extra Vacations. We usually are timesharing for 6 or 7 weeks a year, plus any long weekends I can find a great deal for! It is rare for us to venture out of New England...there is so much to see/experience close by. We have four children, though Elliott is now on his own, so three still travel with us. We like that we can have space to spread out, enjoy nice facilities, and cook our own meals. Many of these resorts are places that feel like home to us, because we visit so often. Cold Spring, Smuggs, and Attitash fall into that category.

Hats off to those of you who try new things every trip and venture to the other side of the globe. Timesharing can definitely do those kinds of adventures, or it can lead to familiar and well-loved spots. :)

Safe journeys!
 

DrQ

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Bad, got sold visions of Disney World at an off-site sales office for Ramada Vacation Suites.

Hello TUG
 

cerralee

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Mine was quite different. In the early 80’s I was job hunting and answered an ad for sales at a nearby developing timeshare-Endless mountains resort here in Norteastern PA. I had experience in sales and answered the ad. The resort was in the construction phase and I was offered a job on commission. I underwent a few weeks of training where I learned the lingo and was taught how to overcome the various objections. I was in my early twenties and soon received the nickname “Squash Blossom”. Funny what you remember. I was told that because I had a heavy but refined southern accent I was destined to do well as I had a sincere air about me that put people at ease. I also came in with an impressive track record in fitness center sales.
I learned what I could about the industry and when the center opened up to “Ups” I was in the rotation. Only about three buildings were complete and part of the amenities were open. I was on the floor for about two weeks and made a total of one sale. Shortly after that the owner pulled the plug on sales and closed sales down for about six months. I never got a commission check. Neither did any of the other sales people.
The experience did pique my interest in timeshares and in the late 1990’s bought two resale weeks in Ocean City Maryland, followed by five South Africa weeks and a non all inclusive Cancun week. I learned when to hold them and when to fold them. I am currently down to four weeks and still love timesharing. Everything was bought on the secondary market. Much love to TUG!
 

shorts

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Morritts Tortuga Club (9 wks) Grand Cayman
Our first introduction to timeshare was in 1994. I don’t remember how we got invited, but we ended up at a presentation at (unknown to us at the time) RCI Indianapolis office for Morritts Tortuga Club in Grand Cayman. It had only been open about 5 years at that time. We ended up buying the cheapest thing we could, a poolside studio, which wasn’t even built yet but currently under construction. I don’t know what we were thinking because it wouldn’t even sleep our entire family.

We exchanged it the first couple years thru RCI and really loved timesharing. When we finally made it to Cayman we fell in love with the place and immediately upgraded to a 2 bedroom poolside penthouse, still unaware of the resale market.

As we gained more timeshare experience and learned about the resale market, we bought lots of weeks elsewhere and also changed our ownership at Morritts to oceanfront buying more weeks over the years on the resale market then upgrading and negotiating with the resort to tweak our ownership to our goals for retirement trips ending up with nine weeks during winter.

We divested ourselves of most of our other ownerships with the exception of our Wyndham points. We acquired those back in the Fairfield days. We did have more, but got rid of some of the higher cost converted fixed week contracts we had. We mostly use these for family trips or let the kids use them for their vacations. Since we now travel fulltime by RV we don’t have as much need for the Wyndham points.

We do joke a bit about buying our first timeshare sight unseen from a video presentation!
 

WinniWoman

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When my grandmother passed away, she left my mom $30,000. (She left all 3 of her daughters this amount). This in itself was amazing because my grandmother lived like a very poor person above a bodega. My grandfather was a drunk and didn't work except a few paining jobs. She sewed for a living in a factory in the Bronx.

Anyway, my mom was a very hard worker and she always wanted a little house by the ocean to unwind. She saw an ad for timeshares at Waters Edge in Connecticut, just 2 hours from their home in NY. My parents purchased week 30 and 31 there. I was already married, but we had some very happy memories staying there with them, usually long weekends. Our son spent lots of time with them there for the 2 weeks while we worked.

They exchanged once to go to Disney World when my mom had breast cancer and we all went. They also gave us a week to exchange to St. Lucia. The only other time they exchanged was to go to Maine one year where they had their honeymoon and hadn't been since. They never did find the town and place they stayed in in Maine. I do not recall the name of the place. They said no one there ever heard of it.

When my dad died, my mom did not want to go any longer. Someone who always rented there made an offer immediately to take it off her hands. Just a couple of thousand dollars. Mom wanted us to have it- or our son, but we did not want to take it on and our son certainly couldn't. My brother did not want it.

Our son still says he would like to go back there one day.

Anyway, one time (our son was around 7) we received a postcard in the mail from Smuggs (before it was called Smuggs) and took a vacation there at a discounted rate. We went on a presentation- no pressure- and I called my mom and she offered to give us the money to purchase. We signed for an every other year one week with a floater in between years, but then backed out the next day because I did not like the idea of having to bank the floater every other year when our son was in school.

We again went up for a visit a few years later on another discount program.

Meanwhile good friends of ours who went up there on our recommendation bought in Aspens a year or so later when it was built.

Then, we eventually received a brochure about the building of West Hill and I called the saleswoman we originally had and made an offer sight unseen. My parents gave us the money for it- advanced inheritance- $32,000. Thsi was in 1999. We drove up on Labor Day weekend (staying in a local motel for one night) to see the construction and to show my parents the resort and an example of the inside of a unit (Willows), which the resort was kind enough to show them. They did not want us to purchase week 30 because they owned week 30 (and 31) and felt we should have bought week 29 so we could have 3 weeks in a row with their Water's Edge timeshare for visits and for inheriting when they passed. But we really wanted week 30 because our friends in Aspens had that week.Plus, we were not sure we would really want to go to Waters Edge all the time and also have the extra maintenance fees, exchange fees and so forth.

We were able to choose our unit- a 2 bedroom on the top floor- corner- with a fabulous view of the notch (which we are now losing due to mature trees). It was the model, so unfortunately the first year we couldn't use it and Smuggs put us in a huge, beautiful Highlands unit.

So-after we owned for awhile, my parents finally came up for a visit one year not long before my dad passed (they rented out their week 30 so they could come up with us). I really wanted them to see West Hill and the rest of the resort in full swing. My dad sat out on the deck one night with me and said his own parents (immigrants from Italy, as was my dad) never would have believed we could own something like this-or their Water's Edge one. Even though they were just timeshares, it would be something unimaginable to them. Was a sweet moment.
 
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pittle

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Our first experience was a 4-day 3-night stay at Fairfield Bay just outside of Clinton, AR in maybe 1983-84. We did the free stay because hubby's family lived near there and our kids were in Jr. High and loved to play golf. They were at the age when going to the grandparents home in the middle of nowhere was not exciting for them. So, we went. Hubs wanted to buy so that we would have our own place to stay when visiting his family. It was not very expensive, but I read the entire contract and made notes the night after signing papers. We decided that it really was not for us and rescinded the next morning.

In 1991, both boys were in college and we were in Honolulu. This time, we did buy a resale 1-bedroom 2-bath unit at Imperial Hawaii. It cost around $7000. I really thought we should buy in Maui, but the salesman said that everyone came to Honolulu first so it would be good for exchanges. It was. It also was exchangeable with RCI & II. They gave us a free membership to both and II gave us a free week that we used in 1992 to go to Puerto Vallarta the first time. We decided we liked Mexico just as well - the climate was the same, but we could get there in 4 hours from KCI as opposed to 8-9 hours to Hawaii. We sold that timeshare in 2005.

Since then we have bought and sold many. We now are done with exchanges pretty much and go to the ones we own in Mexico. PV is still our favorite location.

Probably the best thing was that it forced us to take a nicer vacation each year. We always knew that we would not be in a hotel for days. We loved the space!

......................
Lakewood still has one of the best locations at the Lake of the Ozarks. We moved to our vacation condo in the Four Seasons area in January 2002. In March 2007 we sold that and moved to AZ. We wanted to be closer to a major airport, have warmer winters, and a more urban area. One of our sons lived out here for a long time and the other followed us a couple of years later.
 
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missyrcrews

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Lakewood is great! Several years ago now, we went to Worldmark Lake of the Ozarks after our time at Timber Creek. We could see Lakewood just across the channel. What a great vacation spot. I wish we were closer...definitely a place we'd go every year.
 

geist1223

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Royal Solaris San Jose del Cabo
We bought a small Worldmark Account together in August 2002 before we were married. Since then we have added Points in Worldmark. Mostly during the Recession when Worldmark/Wyndham had lots of foreclosed Points they needed to move to improve their balance sheet. Our most recent purchases in Worldmark have been resell. We have also joined DRI Hawaiian Club, Royal Solaris in Cabo (also bought during the recession), and Residence Club at Worldmark Seaside Oregon (bought on sale when they were getting ready to shutdown sales). Using our timeshares and trades we have traveled all over the USA including many trips to Hawaii, British Columbia, Mexico, Fiji, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand twice, Australia twice including one time to Tasmania.
 

DaveNV

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My first exposure to timesharing as an industry was in the early 80s in San Diego. Coworkers were talking about visiting a new vacation development in Del Mar, and sitting through the sales pitch, just to collect the free gift. (Some folks still do this, not me.) I decided I wanted my free gift, so I went. The development was the Winner's Circle, adjacent to the Del Mar Racetrack. Nice place, pushy salesperson, and no, I didn't buy. My free gift was a set of cheap steak knives. Woohoo! :)

My first experience staying in a timeshare was in 2005. My brother and his (now ex-) wife had bought from the Developer in Cabo San Lucas, after an airport sales invite that included a free bottle of tequila. When they stayed there the first time, they invited us to go along. It was a nice resort (Hacienda Del Mar), and we had a pleasant time. I decided that maybe there was something to this whole timeshare thing after all, and when we got home I started researching things. I knew the Developer pricing was ridiculous, and there had to be a better way.

Enter Tug. I found this site, and that's when the timesharing doors literally flew open for me. I discovered new ways to look at things, and (wonder of wonders) the resale market. Ebay quickly became my friend, and I started researching things very closely. Soon after, I bought a resale week at a timeshare location in Waikiki, and my education really began. I learned all about exchanging, right-to-use vs. deeded weeks, and the differences between various timeshare organizations. The pinnacle of that now-defunct Waikiki ownership was when I used my final week's cheapo reservation to exchange into the Manhattan Club in New York City (pre-TPU days in RCI.) End of an era, for sure.

I've bought and sold about a dozen places since then, (I still believe the best way to learn is by owning the resort or system, and seeing things from the inside.) I currently own only WorldMark, a pure points-based system without underlying deeds. For the way I travel now, it fits me very well. If that changes, I'll do something different. After all these years, I still view timesharing as a good thing in my world.

Education is powerful, and Tug gave me my strength. :)

Dave
 
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Passepartout

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About 1988-or '89, I was single and trucking. My widowed mom had a neighbor who was some kind of BOD person with SunTerra (a predecessor of (unknown) TS). Somehow, she got a week from him in a 2 BR at Torres Mazatlan in Mexico, and invited me to spend a few days there with her and her girlfriend/traveling companion. This happened within a week-or so- of Carnival in January. I don't recall any presentation, but that was the impetus to join TUG on Prodigy, send Bill Rodgers some money, and begin studying timesharing.

Jim
 

slip

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It was 1985 and I had just started work a year earlier at the company I’m still with. One of my friends started working selling timeshares at Christmas Mountain in the Wisconsin Dells. He needed people to go on tours so I helped him out and signed up. I didn’t go with him, I got assigned to another salesman.

I didn’t know anything about timeshares at the time but I listened. I think the buy in was about $15,000 to $20,000. I liked the idea and I didn’t really understand those UDI’s at the time. Anyway, with the purchase price that high, I couldn’t afford it, plus I could never make the numbers work so I didn’t buy.

Fast forward to the early 2000’s and we started going to Hawaii. After our second trip, I started looking into timeshares. I believe I was looking on EBay and then started researching timeshares on the internet and of course TUG came up. After a couple months researching TUG and some help from Aliikai2, I made my first Pono Kai purchase.
 

Timeshare Von

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Early 1980's . . . went to a pre-construction sales office in NoVA where they were promoting a new development in the Poconos. They have a sales floor with a fully furnished "model" with the layout of a sample unit with photos of the surrounding area. I bought a 13 year RTU ("right to use") contract for a week a year in "white" time (excluded Memorial Day through Labor Day essentially, plus Christmas week) for $6,000. Was able to buy an add-on of 7 years for 10% so essentially $6,600 for 20 years of use.

We went there several time once Westwood Villas at Split Rock Resort was completed . . . and loved it initially. When they added beyond the initial Westwood Villas (the big Split Rock Lodge and entertainment area) the resort when downhill in my opinion. We were happy with ownership there, given it got us into RCI and some great trades . . . plus the resort affiliated with the Golf Villas of Bonita Springs . . . so we could use our week down there. I loved the Ft. Myers area so the white week provided a lot of great vacations through the year 2001.

In anticipation of not having that RTU any longer, I bought a 3 BR lock-off at Fairfield Kingsgate (fixed wk #18) and the rest is history . . . as is that ownership, which I gave away about 5 or 6 years ago.

I still own a 1-52 floating week at Waikiki plus a small 77k points contract at Wyndham Myrtle Beach. Both serve us very well today!
 

bogey21

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I don't remember the exact year but I was reading the local newspaper while sitting in the Orlando Airport waiting for our plane to go home after visiting Disney. There were two full page (somewhat identical) ads in the paper, one for pre-construction Marriott Sabal Palms and one for whatever it was that Kemmons Wilson of Holiday Inn fame was selling. I called Marriott primarily because Sabal Palms was located on the grounds of the Marriott World Center. Before I left the airport I had purchases a Floating Red Sabal Palms Week obviously without ever having set foot on the property. Years later I ran into the Salesman I had dealt with on that phone call. He told me I was his first sale ever...

I later bought a Harbour Club Week and a Heritage Club Week directly from Marriott and a Monarch Crown Suite Week resale. I later sold them all, at a small profit no less, and used 10% of the proceeds to buy six Fixed Weeks in six different Independent HOA controlled Resorts which I used for years before I gave up traveling. All in all it was one heck of a run. Without TUG it wouldn't have worked out the way it did...

George
 
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Luanne

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San Diego Country Estates
My first exposure was in 1973 or 1974. My dad had played golf with what turned out to be a salesman for San Diego Country Estates in Ramona, CA. He told Dad he should come down and check it out. I'd never heard of timesharing at that point. So Mom, Dad my now ex-husband and I went. It was an extremely low pressure sale. Mom and I fell in love with the units, the guys fell in love that it was on a golf course and they could play free! They timeshares were sold in two week floating increments. So, the four of us went in on a two-bedroom together. Another nice feature was you could break you stay down by the night. This was great as it meant we could go for the weekends as it was about an hour from where we were living. So, we bought to use it. About a year later we each bought a one bedroom (again in two week intervals) to use for trades.
 

bluehende

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Around 2000 I was an Ebay addict. Went to lodging and bid and won a week long stay at the Seasons @ Sugarbush. We had a great ski week and fell in love with the charm of the place. A year later we bought a resale after a few more ebay timeshare stays.
 

missyrcrews

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I don't remember the exact year but I was reading the local newspaper while sitting in the Orlando Airport waiting for our plane to go home after visiting Disney. There were two full page (somewhat identical) ads in the paper, one for pre-construction Marriott Sabal Palms and one for whatever it was that Kemmons Wilson of Holiday Inn fame was selling. I called Marriott primarily because Sabal Palms was located on the grounds of the Marriott World Center. Before I left the airport I had purchases a Floating Red Sabal Palms Week obviously without ever having set foot on the property. Years later I ran into the Salesman I had dealt with on that phone call. He told me I was his first sale ever...

I later bought a Harbour Club Week and a Heritage Club Week directly from Marriott and a Monarch Crown Suite Week resale. I later sold them all, at a small profit no less, and used 10% of the proceeds to buy six Fixed Weeks in six different Independent HOA controlled Resorts which I used for years before I gave up traveling. All in all it was one heck of a run. Without TUG it wouldn't have worked out the way it did...

George
Do you miss traveling? I (hopefully) have many, many years left at this timesharing game. We were pretty young when we bought, and so even though we've owned for 18 years, I'm still not quite to that 1/2 century mark. :) I think when we finally *do* hang it up, we'll really miss the places and the people. We love traveling with our children, but we're also looking forward to seeing how our travels change once we aren't tied to "at least 2 BR's, full kitchen, and a pool."
 

Sandy VDH

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Ironically the first one I ever owned is one of the two I no longer own.

I went with a friend who owned a Studio at Sea Gardens in Pompano FL, which was part of Vacation Breaks, which became Fairfield which became Wyndham. Staying in a studio sucked but I liked the concept.

I purchased a 1 BR at Santa Barbara in Pompano for 11K in 1995. That unit is now also in Wyndham. In 2005, this unit, with a huge $2K special assessment looming because of Hurricane Wilma, I used as part of a deal that was an equity trade, 3 other fixed week conversion, 2 PICs, and a 160K purchase direct from Wyndham song and dance routine, that I did with Wyndham to become VIPP.
 

Kel

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We went on a timeshare presentation in 1981 in Hawaii. I think we got free tickets for a luau and the Polynesian Cultural Center. We were young and the sales people were very aggressive. We said no and it left us with a very bad impression of timesharing for many years after that.

But, we bought a Marriott Desert Springs II lock off unit in 1996. The idea of getting 2 weeks for the price of one week and being with Marriott sold us. It was one of the best things we ever bought. We have had so many great trips and Interval’s Getaways and Accommodation Certificates are great too.

Happy travels! :)
 

rhonda

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Fun topic! We, as a community, must be in a reflective mood this week?

Our first encounter with timeshare was in 1998. We booked a 7-night land/sea package on the brand new Disney Magic cruise ship. The package put us 3 nights in the newish Disney Boardwalk Villas (studio) and 4 nights on the ship. We took the tour during our stay but didn't buy for several reasons. Our #1 argument: We couldn't see ourselves traveling to Orlando, in any consistent fashion, for vacation.

However, the tour did spark an interest. The ideas of points, multiple locations, any size unit, any season, any length of stay (etc) all made sense. After some research, we purchased our first timeshare about a year later with Worldmark taking all the points we liked about DVC but adding "drive-to destinations that we might actually use."

Eventually we did circle back to Disney's timeshare ... buying into their Saratoga Springs property in early 2004 (pre-opening) once we had firmly established a need for and habit of Orlando. :D
 

jackio

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In the early 1980's we visited my grandparents who were Snowbirds near Orlando. They brought us to tour a timeshare that was going up. There was no presentation and I believe the price was around $8000, which we could definitely not afford at that time.
In 1996 my haircutter told me that they purchase Vistana Resort from a resale broker. We took a trip that summer and stayed at Westgate on an owner's promotion, and also toured Vistana. We found a resale broker when we got home and bought a 2BR for $5,200. Retail was $18,000.
I found TUG right after the closing (the old bulletin board style website) and got so much valuable information. I have since sold the Vistana, bought and gave away a South Africa week, a Hawaii week, a Las Vegas Week and 2 North Carolina weeks. We now have one So. Cal, one New Orleans and one Surfside Beach.
 

DrQ

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South African timeshares. That brings back memories. We never got into the RCI trading scene and the the idea of purchasing a timeshare that we would NEVER visit, I could not embrace.
 

mdurette

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New England
my first experience was Christmas around 2007. We opened a present from his parents and they were gifting us a TS they purchased a few years before in New Smyrna, FL. We executed the docs and I started ( or maybe took over their) II account. I recall there was a week on deposit and I made my first exchange into Lincoln, NH and we went skiing with a group of friends.

My DH is a “disney guy” and wanted to go to Orlando, not new Smyrna so a deposited the next year with II and received an AC. Well this was back when DVC was with II and ACs had the same trade power has original unit. Between 2008 and 2009 we exchanged into DVC 4 times. I was hooked. We added a Williamsburg 3br LO from eBay a year later.

We still only have these 2 units and have yet to stay at either.
 
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