Legacy Week at Riviera Beach

[VegasBella]

I own a legacy week at Riviera Beach and Spa in Capistrano Beach (Dana Point/Doheny Beach). DRI now owns and manages that property as well as Riviera Shores (next door with same checkin office). DRI renamed both to "Riviera Beach & Shores." My ownership is very specific: I get a floating week during prime (Summer plus all holidays) and my room must be a 2 bedroom ocean-view in only one of three buildings on the property.

There are only a few of these types of rooms and very few of us legacy owners. Most owners sold or deeded back or they owned points from the former system before DRI took over (Monarch) or they switched to DRI points after the takeover. DRI tried to get us to change our ownership at first but they've been pretty good about hearing us say our firm NO. Although, they did turn the former on-site restaurant into a huge sales office.

The old way to make reservations was to fill out a postcard with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices. Then the management company would draw the postcards randomly and assign reservations. We did that process the March before the Summer of use, so the window for reservations was pretty short. After DRI took over they offered an online version of the postcard system.

But when I didn't get any email or postcard by the end of March this year, I called to make my reservation and learned the new system is for owners to call in up to 1 year in advance to book our use. I specifically asked and there is no online process for us, no fax, no snail mail. The only option is to call (which requires long hold times). I was able to easily get the reservation I wanted (early August - which is PRIME). They were very nice and knew exactly what my ownership entailed (aside from the old reservation system) and they impressed me with that. My experience owning a legacy week with Wyndham has not been as good, although there too I have always gotten my reservation, and it's been the same thing - you can call but there's no other method that can be used to make your reservation.

I have looked into deeding our ownership back in case we decide we no longer want to use it. But so far I think I can manage this one hassle of having to call. We do like the place quite a bit. And the resort as well as nearby property has been improving every year.

 

[chemteach]

I have had lots of trouble with my Riviera Beach Legacy week ownership. It seems the dust is finally settling, but in the beginning, whenever I phoned, I was put on hold for a long time more than once because they couldn't figure out all the details of my "Premier" week. Still working with them to determine how many Club Points this ownership is valued at. My deed shows as a 1 bedroom unit, but then also says "Premier Vacation Plan," and sales can't figure out that this means 2 weeks in a one bedroom high season or 1 week in a 2 bedroom ocean view Prime season. It still confuses me how Riviera Beach dealt with their inventory because my ownership creates a strange inventory control issue... one 2-bedroom week or two 1-bedroom weeks - what happens if all the Premier Owners wanted two 1-bedroom weeks... Anyway - Diamond doesn't seem to know how to deal with this ownership category.

 

[VegasBella]

My deed shows as a 1 bedroom unit, but then also says "Premier Vacation Plan," and sales can't figure out that this means 2 weeks in a one bedroom high season or 1 week in a 2 bedroom ocean view Prime season. It still confuses me how Riviera Beach dealt with their inventory because my ownership creates a strange inventory control issue... one 2-bedroom week or two 1-bedroom weeks - what happens if all the Premier Owners wanted two 1-bedroom weeks... Anyway - Diamond doesn't seem to know how to deal with this ownership category.

Well, there are more 1-bedrooms than 2-bedrooms so I think it would work out even if all units were sold and all were legacy weeks owners and all paid MF and all reserved in time and all wanted 2 weeks in 1 bedrooms instead of 1 week in 2-bedrooms.

I have the original documents for Riviera Beach & Spa (not Riviera Shores) and it clearly outlines the types of ownerships, but it's super confusing:

A - one-bedroom, oceanview 650 sq ft in "phase I" building (end building near big pool)
B - two-bedroom, oceanview 850 sq ft in "phase I" building
C - two-bedroom, oceanview, 950 sq ft in "phase II" building (middle building near front office and smaller pool)
D - two-bedroom, mountain-view 950 sq ft in "phase II" building
E - one-bedroom, oceanview 750 sq ft in "phase II" building
F - one-bedroom, oceanview 800 sq ft in "phase II" building

Prime Season - Summer and holidays
High Season - anytime that's NOT Summer or holidays

Riviera - one-bedroom anytime that's NOT Summer or holidays
Riviera Limited - two-bedroom during Summer and holidays
Riviera Premier - either one use week in a two-bedroom during Summer and holidays or two use weeks in a one-bedroom during NOT Summer of holidays
Riviera Preferred - either one use week in a one-bedroom during Summer and holidays or two use weeks in a one-bedroom during NOT Summer of holidays
(*The above appears to originally mean only room types A & B, but was later amended to include rooms from phase II)

Riviera Sunset Prime - two-bedroom, oceanview (type C) during Summer and holidays
Riviera Sunset High - two-bedroom, ocean-view (type C) anytime that's NOT Summer or holidays
Riviera Surfcrest Prime - one-bedroom, oceanview (type F) during Summer and holidays
Riviera Surfcrest High - one-bedroom, oceanview (type F) anytime that's NOT Summer or holidays
Riviera Sea Breeze Prime - either one-bedroom oceanview (type E) OR two-bedroom mountain-view (type D) during Summer and holidays
Riviera Sea Breeze High - either one-bedroom oceanview (type E) OR two-bedroom mountain-view anytime that's NOT Summer or holidays

 

[chemteach]

Interesting. My owner documents only include the Phase I descriptions and information. I must have purchased a unit that was purchased prior to Phase II being built. It only has Type A and B units described in the owner documents. Thank you for the additional information!

 

[JeffDH]

Interesting. I'm a Monarch owner, with a reservation there later this month and I was thinking about looking into a weeks ownership there in lieu of my points. The Diamond points reservation system still shows them as two separate resorts. The latest MGVOA owners meeting update does as well, and lists MGV ownership as 21%/44% of 102/28 units respectively for Beach/Shores. No idea what the ownership percentages are for whatever other Diamond collection(s) own there.

If you don't mind saying, what are your annual MF's there? For MGVOA its equivalent to about $1200/week for a 1-br. I'm guessing yours are appreciably lower. And if you decide you want to get rid of it, try giving it away here before you turn it over to Diamond for them to make more money with!

One last note - according to the information I see with Diamond, the Shores section doesn't have any 2-br with ocean view, for what that is worth.

 

[chemteach]

My unit is $1100 per year. I can choose two 1-bedroom non-summer ocean view weeks or one 2-bedroom summer ocean view week.

 

[VegasBella]

My ownership is EOY and it's just under $540 annually right now, so about $1080 for my week.

Yeah, I think they keep the two resorts separate on paper. But when you go there the sign says "Riviera Beach & Shores" like it's all one resort. And on hotel websites like expedia and trip advisor etc it's called "Riviera Beach & Shores" for both.

In other news for this Summer - the Dana Point Trolley is scheduled to come back again and this time they're hoping to connect to a San Clemente trolley as well as the Laguna Beach trolley. All the trolleys are free And there's a stop by the resort!
http://www.danapointtimes.com/2018-summer-trolley-route-modifications-presented/