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Vidanta 10 year renewal

Z as in Zebra

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Like many here, I wish I knew about TUG when we first purchased Vidanta, but we didn't and subsequently upgraded a few times and now own Grand Bliss Master Suite. We have owned since 2001. We took Mikenk's advice many years ago and decided to just enjoy what we purchased :)

Now we are coming up on our 10 year renewal (July 2020) and I am trying to be smart & check in with TUGGERS about their experiences. We are considering renewing because we do enjoy the resorts. We are not interested in upgrading as we are happy where we are.

Can anyone tell me if we will lose our addendums if we are just renewing our 'certificate weeks'? We have 6 rounds free golf & six hours spa time.

Is there any way to renew the 'registered week' without upgrading?

We will be at RM June 15-22 and I am wondering if we should talk to Member Services? We are NOT interested in spending time with sales.

Thanks for any advice/insights!
 

Eric B

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Member Services is your best bet. Registered week isn’t renewable, though they have given addenda in the past that make one of your other weeks act as one. If you upgrade, it’s essentially a new registered week.
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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own Grand Bliss Master Suite. We have owned since 2001. We took Mikenk's advice ...to just enjoy what we purchased :)
Can anyone tell me if we will lose our addendums if we are just renewing our 'certificate weeks'? We have 6 rounds free golf & six hours spa time.
Is there any way to renew the 'registered week' without upgrading?
We will be at RM June 15-22 and I am wondering if we should talk to Member Services? We are NOT interested in spending time with sales.

Thanks for any advice/insights!
From TUG information and a general knowledge of Vidanta:
1) addendums do not change when renewing
2) Your 1 registered week ends and your 2 certificate weeks renew .(I assume your last upgrade in 2010 was 1+2 )

You should be able to talk to member services . It does require an appointment .

Re: your registered week - you would have to "upgrade in some manner " even if it is still GB - master Suite . I believe Mikenk has posted that he did this once because of some specific
reason ( Senior Certs ? ). Registered weeks are a required part of the "Mexican TS sausage making recipe" for full deal new contracts . However - there has been no indication of problems getting reservations after the 10 year renewal . I would not worry about it - unless you have a specific reason or are under age 50 and plan to renew multiple more times .

I am sure others will add -
 

Z as in Zebra

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Thanks Eric & T-Dot! I am actually not sure we even need to talk to Member Services except maybe to get some clarification. We already have a GB Master suite so the only upgrade would be to a GL unit. Frankly, over the last 10 years they have actually 'upgraded' us on check in to GL about 50% of the time :cheer: We mostly go in the off season as we live in Texas so why would I go Feb-Mar when it is our best weather of the year :shrug:

In looking at the contract, it appears as if the certificate weeks have the 8 mo reservation window after the first 10 years so I am confused as to whether there is even a difference between the registered week & the certificate week after 10 years?

I want to be fairly informed of my options before we go in June so they don't try to scare tactic us to a sales meeting!
 

Z as in Zebra

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Eric & T-Dot-I forgot to mention how much I have appreciated your posts & the information you provide over the years! I am not much for posting to websites but I do like to lurk :) Unfortunately haven't seen this subject addressed so I bit the bullet.
 

Eric B

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Thanks Eric & T-Dot! I am actually not sure we even need to talk to Member Services except maybe to get some clarification. We already have a GB Master suite so the only upgrade would be to a GL unit. Frankly, over the last 10 years they have actually 'upgraded' us on check in to GL about 50% of the time :cheer: We mostly go in the off season as we live in Texas so why would I go Feb-Mar when it is our best weather of the year :shrug:

In looking at the contract, it appears as if the certificate weeks have the 8 mo reservation window after the first 10 years so I am confused as to whether there is even a difference between the registered week & the certificate week after 10 years?

I want to be fairly informed of my options before we go in June so they don't try to scare tactic us to a sales meeting!

They would also try to sell you a unit in the Park in NV. Technically, I don't think you really need to even go in to Member Services. All you really need to do is pay the fee, but you might be best off going in and having them give you an acknowledgement that you renewed.

There are a few seconds they've written recently that ask for a separate written renewal request. Most are for privileges in the Parks. I hadn't heard of any like that for older contracts, but it couldn't hurt to ask them to confirm they renew as well. As an alternate to going in, you can always call the reservation number and ask to speak to Member Services.
 

richontug

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What happens if I just ignore ten-year renewal?
 

Eric B

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pittle

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Our renewal does not come up until 2023, so I am not sure how it works. We did not get the free golf and massages, but super discounts on them. We do not play golf, so were not the least bit interested in that, so we have not been concerned. We did get a separate Senior Certificate for our Residence weeks that we will still have 2 weeks per year covered when we renew. We do plan to pay the renewal fee in 2023. Our Senior Certs kick in at 1/2 price next fall and then free in the fall of 2022.

Mikenk told me that now that he is using his Senior Certificates, the free golf and massages do not apply to the Registered weeks, but do apply to his Residence weeks. Because he upgraded, he is still on the Registered/Residence plan.

Read all of the pages in your contract folders.
 

betztug

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Our renewal does not come up until 2023, so I am not sure how it works. We did not get the free golf and massages, but super discounts on them. We do not play golf, so were not the least bit interested in that, so we have not been concerned. We did get a separate Senior Certificate for our Residence weeks that we will still have 2 weeks per year covered when we renew. We do plan to pay the renewal fee in 2023. Our Senior Certs kick in at 1/2 price next fall and then free in the fall of 2022.

Mikenk told me that now that he is using his Senior Certificates, the free golf and massages do not apply to the Registered weeks, but do apply to his Residence weeks. Because he upgraded, he is still on the Registered/Residence plan.

Read all of the pages in your contract folders.

Phyllis, Am I reading this correctly that if you do not renew your registered weeks at the 10 year mark you would lose your senior certificates? My parents have a 2 + 4 2 bdrm GM contract, and we've been using the senior certificates to bring the whole family every year or 2 for awhile now. I think they're 10 year mark is coming up since their last upgrade, so I'm trying to help figure out what to do. We obviously want to keep the senior certificates, but are very happy with the level they own and don't have interest in an upgrade. And we all have some recollection of being told that anyone on the contract would have access to the sr. certificates once they reach the appropriate age, enough to where we put the oldest spouse in each of their kid's families (my husband, for instance) on the contract. Reading through different threads though it seems like we were told what we wanted to hear to sign??
 

pittle

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Yes - If they do not renew, their contract is cancelled. Our Renewal fee is 1/2 the price for each remaining Residence week (4) - so basically it the MF for our regular 2 weeks which gives us 9 years of 2 free weeks a year. The renewal is less than upgrades! :) :) We will not renew when we are 86 & 88.

They should have something that shows that. We also have the 2 Registered 2 bedroom weeks and 4 Residence weeks. We have 2 Senior Certificates in our paperwork - the first one is for the 1st 10 years and the 2nd one is for the following years. You will lose the Registered weeks, but 2 of the 4 Residence weeks will still be covered under the Sr. Cert and 2 of the Residence weeks are not covered. You have to pay full price to use those as they are basically the old Vacation Fair (bonus) weeks.

Also - golf and massages are NOT covered with Sr Certs. MikeNK told me about that. But, they do apply if you pay the MF for your extra weeks.

FYI - The Sr. Certs only apply when the owner(s) of the contract are there with ID. These specifically state they cannot be passed down to children/heirs.

The 2 Sr, Certs are most likely in the 1st of 3 packets. That is the real contract. We did our upgrade in 2013.

I would think that Vidanta would send them a bill for renewal, but since we still have 4 years, I do not know for sure. I just know that I have been building my savings account to cover it. :)
 
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betztug

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Yes - If they do not renew, their contract is cancelled. Our Renewal fee is 1/2 the price for each remaining Residence week (4) - so basically it the MF for our regular 2 weeks which gives us 9 years of 2 free weeks a year. The renewal is less than upgrades! :) :) We will not renew when we are 86 & 88.

They should have something that shows that. We also have the 2 Registered 2 bedroom weeks and 4 Residence weeks. We have 2 Senior Certificates in our paperwork - the first one is for the 1st 10 years and the 2nd one is for the following years. You will lose the Registered weeks, but 2 of the 4 Residence weeks will still be covered under the Sr. Cert and 2 of the Residence weeks are not covered. You have to pay full price to use those as they are basically the old Vacation Fair (bonus) weeks.

Also - golf and massages are NOT covered with Sr Certs. MikeNK told me about that. But, they do apply if you pay the MF for your extra weeks.

FYI - The Sr. Certs only apply when the owner(s) of the contract are there with ID. These specifically state they cannot be passed down to children/heirs.

The 2 Sr, Certs are most likely in the 1st of 3 packets. That is the real contract. We did our upgrade in 2013.

I would think that Vidanta would send them a bill for renewal, but since we still have 4 years, I do not know for sure. I just know that I have been building my savings account to cover it. :)


Thanks Phyllis! That's helpful - The biggest concern is making sure the Sr. Certificates stay intact, so that's a relief.
 

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On the senior certificates, I was told when I upgraded to the GL 8 years or so ago that all of my addenda (including free golf) would transfer to one of my residence weeks after 10 years. A couple of years back, I was told that the senior certificate was not an addendum and would not transfer after 10 years to one of my residence weeks - in other words, I lose it after 10 years. Of course, I challenged that and initially won my challenge - only to be overruled a few days later. Bad me for not clarifying that precisely in the contract when I originally bought in - Oh well!!

As a result, I negotiated a 10 year renewal which gave me 8 years more of the Senior certificate - plus a number of tweaks on my contract to make it work better for my kids who all want to keep it after my wife and I quit using. That actually has turned out to be working quite well for us.

As for golf, the free rounds are not included on the senior certificate but are good for the residence weeks. Next week, we will be in Nuevo with my son and grandson. We will use most if not all our 16 free rounds as we have already used the senior certificate this year so this is one of our residence weeks.

Mike
 

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On our last "owner's update" (aka sales pitch), they tried to tell us that if we didn't upgrade, we'd lose our Sr. Certificates because they were tied to the Registered weeks, which would go away after 10 years. Needless to say, I was skeptical of that and checked my paperwork when I got home. We have Sr. Certificate addendums for both the Registered and Residence weeks.

This is just and FYI to periodically review your paperwork (especially before you go down there) and know what you have. :)
 

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That just proves that great minds think alike!!!!

Good job on making sure your Senior certificate applied to both contracts in you contract. I should have done that but relied on the intent of that addendum.
 

Pizza67

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Yes, sir! I have to admit there might have been a little luck involved. I do recall making sure we kept our certificates last time we upgraded, but never thought that it could have been applied to only one and not the other. I guess they took my emphasis to heart and applied to both. I'll take the win. :)
 

pittle

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Thanks Phyllis! That's helpful - The biggest concern is making sure the Sr. Certificates stay intact, so that's a relief.

So - looks like you need to check your packet to see if there are 2 Sr. Cert addendum pages.

The one we have starting at the renewal for the Residence weeks says:
upload_2019-7-18_6-5-53.png


So when we lose our Registered weeks at 10 years, we have 1/2 of the 4 Residence weeks that are eligible for Sr. Certificates. So we have 2 per year like we will the last few years of our current deal with 2 Registered weeks.
 

StructureGuy

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From TUG information and a general knowledge of Vidanta:
1) addendums do not change when renewing
2) Your 1 registered week ends and your 2 certificate weeks renew.

I have two addendums (reservation window, golf and spa) that specifically applies to my registered week only. Member services told me I will lose them after 10 years. (Of course, everything is negotiable, I assume.)


Our Renewal fee is 1/2 the price for each remaining Residence week (4)

I would think that Vidanta would send them a bill for renewal, but since we still have 4 years, I do not know for sure.

Interesting. My renewal fee is one usage fee for each remaining Residence week (2)

My contract says they will not send any bill or notification at all for the ten year renewal and after a 3 month grace period I lose my RTU.
 

pittle

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I guess they are all different. We still get the 12 months on our Residence weeks.
 

betztug

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On the senior certificates, I was told when I upgraded to the GL 8 years or so ago that all of my addenda (including free golf) would transfer to one of my residence weeks after 10 years. A couple of years back, I was told that the senior certificate was not an addendum and would not transfer after 10 years to one of my residence weeks - in other words, I lose it after 10 years. Of course, I challenged that and initially won my challenge - only to be overruled a few days later. Bad me for not clarifying that precisely in the contract when I originally bought in - Oh well!!

As a result, I negotiated a 10 year renewal which gave me 8 years more of the Senior certificate - plus a number of tweaks on my contract to make it work better for my kids who all want to keep it after my wife and I quit using. That actually has turned out to be working quite well for us.

As for golf, the free rounds are not included on the senior certificate but are good for the residence weeks. Next week, we will be in Nuevo with my son and grandson. We will use most if not all our 16 free rounds as we have already used the senior certificate this year so this is one of our residence weeks.

Mike
Mike, do you mind sharing what tweaks you were able to negotiate into your contract? I looked over the contract we have, I found good news and bad news - we did have a clause allowing the senior certificates to be passed on to other people on the contract once they reach the proper age (not just my parents, the original owners of the contract). What a win! But then it does appear that the sr. certificates expire along with the 10 years of registered weeks, which are up in 2020. Which is before anyone else reaches 75, and has the compounding effect of my parents losing the certificates as well. So they gave us this great concession, and probably knew it was worth nothing...

This leads us to feel like we probably want to do some upgrade that would allow us to keep these terms, even though we don't actually want to upgrade what we have really. Do you have any suggestions on what we should ask/aim for? We ultimately want to pay the least amount of money possible to add as little as possible, but seems like we should go in with a plan of exactly what we want to come out with to not fall into their traps.

Again, thank you all for your help. I've been mostly a reader and rarely a poster, and your collective knowledge has been invaluable.
 

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Mike, do you mind sharing what tweaks you were able to negotiate into your contract? I looked over the contract we have, I found good news and bad news - we did have a clause allowing the senior certificates to be passed on to other people on the contract once they reach the proper age (not just my parents, the original owners of the contract). What a win! But then it does appear that the sr. certificates expire along with the 10 years of registered weeks, which are up in 2020. Which is before anyone else reaches 75, and has the compounding effect of my parents losing the certificates as well. So they gave us this great concession, and probably knew it was worth nothing...

This leads us to feel like we probably want to do some upgrade that would allow us to keep these terms, even though we don't actually want to upgrade what we have really. Do you have any suggestions on what we should ask/aim for? We ultimately want to pay the least amount of money possible to add as little as possible, but seems like we should go in with a plan of exactly what we want to come out with to not fall into their traps.

Again, thank you all for your help. I've been mostly a reader and rarely a poster, and your collective knowledge has been invaluable.

I really don't want to go into specifics as I as well as Vidanta negotiated in good faith around my specific contract - it would not be fair for people to be using what I got as rationale to get the same thing. However, I will give you some thoughts on how I look at it.

Vidanta wants cash for upgrades; we as owners want vacation value. My situation as yours was I was not going to get but a couple of years on the senior discount - so I really needed to renew my 10 year contract to ensure maximum value. I asked myself: "what things do I want to make my life with Vidanta better?" some of my answers were: better golf privileges when my 16 free rounds don't apply; better family access to the theme park when it Opens; better room assignments; reduced selling restrictions; rising inflation costs. Your list would probably be different but the key is to focus on reasonable upgrade features that make for better vacations but don't cost too much for Vidanta - then discuss with the member services folks - not the sales sharks. BUT, be prepared to back out if not suitable value for you.

Hope this helps a little. I have actually found over the years that there are very reasonable people at Vidanta; you have to find them and be reasonable as well.

Mike
 

pianoetudes

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On our last "owner's update" (aka sales pitch), they tried to tell us that if we didn't upgrade, we'd lose our Sr. Certificates because they were tied to the Registered weeks, which would go away after 10 years. Needless to say, I was skeptical of that and checked my paperwork when I got home. We have Sr. Certificate addendums for both the Registered and Residence weeks.

This is just and FYI to periodically review your paperwork (especially before you go down there) and know what you have. :)
I scanned my contract as pdf and uploaded to the cloud for easy access anytime I want.

Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using Tapatalk
 

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In looking at the contract, it appears as if the certificate weeks have the 8 mo reservation window after the first 10 years so I am confused as to whether there is even a difference between the registered week & the certificate week after 10 years?

After many conversations with Vidanta, this is what I've come to understand about my reservation window per my contract:

Advanced Reservation Window
2-bdrm Loft Park Terrace=> 12 months registered week
2-bdrm Loft Park Terrace=> Not allowed to reserve residence weeks
Grand Luxxe 2-bdrm master suite => 12 months registered week & April to Dec residence week
Grand Luxxe 2-bdrm master suite => 10 months Jan to Mar residence weeks

Grand Bliss 2-bdrm master suite => 8 months registered week & April to Dec residence week
Grand Bliss 2-bdrm master suite => 6 months Jan to Mar residence weeks

Grand Mayan 2-bdrm master suite => 6 months registered week & April to Dec residence week
Grand Mayan 2-bdrm master suite => 4 months Jan to Mar residence weeks​
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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Thank you for posting .

It shows Vidanta’s desire / need to balance availability with sold contracts over all 12 months
of potential reservations .
 
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