Vistana Now Part of Marriott Vacations Worldwide

[DannyTS]

I have not been to Westin Lagumar but in looking at the website photos, the interior design looks a bit dated to me.

The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, i believe that the condos are very nice and well maintained. And again, all the views are amazing, the resort has so many things that others resorts would just hope for. Proximity to amazing restaurants and an upscale mall, some of the best pools you can go to, relatively low prices, no mosquitoes, you do not have to wrestle to get a pool or a beach seat (because the pool area is so big), I can go on and on.

 

[TravelTime]

The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, i believe that the condos are very nice and well maintained. And again, all the views are amazing, the resort has so many things that others resorts would just hope for. Proximity to amazing restaurants and an upscale mall, some of the best pools you can go to, relatively low prices, no mosquitoes, you do not have to wrestle to get a pool or a beach seat (because the pool area is so big), I can go on and on.

View attachment 8308

That is a nice photo. I think it is the kitchens and bathrooms that look very dated to me. Do all the units have that ocean view?

 

[DannyTS]

It is nice that MVC offers some lower point weeks in Hawaii. It is not a significant savings for Hawaii but the option is nice because then it costs me less to book Hawaii esp if I can use the 30% discount at 60 days. I wish both Westin and MVC had more Caribbean options. Even though I am on the West coast, I would love to go to the Caribbean annually in addition to an annual Hawaii trip. I bought into Vistana primarily for Maui, St John and the Bahamas. However, it is very hard to get St John at the 8 month mark using SOs. So if it were possible to book St John more easily using DPs, that would interest me.

St John is becoming more available, i have seen several condos at 8 months out when i looked (not too often though). Have in mind though the resort just reopened so the owners want to go back there after they used the SO for few years to go to other resorts so less availability is gonna be normal for a while. I think that not all condos are back either yet.

 

[DannyTS]

That is a nice photo. I think it is the kitchens that look very dated to me. Do all the units have that ocean view?

that view is actually oceanfront. This view is from the furthest building to the beach (where the reception is). There are no condos on the Lagoon side. Does it still beat a parking view?
Somebody said that Lagunamar should have won an architectural reward.

 

[Ken555]

I have heard this theory before, told apparently around 2012-2013 by a salesperson at another Westin resort, that Lagunamar had to increase the number of Staroptions because of poor sales performance.

The resort opened in 2008 according to media articles

https://www.hotelexecutive.com/news...-open-westin-lagunamar-ocean-resort-in-cancun


According to the developer prices and SO chart in January 2008 (found on TUG), the SO number for a 2 bedroom platinum was exactly the same as today: 148,100

The story does not seem to be accurate.

View attachment 8306

ROFL

Danny,

I sat through an owners update at WMH when Lagunamar had just started pre-sales and personally heard the original SOs. It was a large part of my complaints about the price for the resort (IIRC, it was about $35k for the 2-bed with the most SOs). I'm certain there are posts on TUG at the time about it.

It's great that you try to confirm facts, but some we know with certainty since we lived through it.

Have a great Sunday!

Ken

ETA: The SO chart you posted is from January 2008, which is a long time after the presales had started. I just checked my notes and I was at WMH in Oct 2006 for that owner's update. FYI, I also visited WLR in Nov 2008, and haven't really seen any reason to return.

And an even later edit: It's amazing what a good backup and storage system will have. This is an image of page 2 of the 2-page SVN chart at approx Jan 24, 2006 (that's the file date). This shows the WLR highest SOs at 95,700. Enjoy.

 

[DannyTS]

That is a nice photo. I think it is the kitchens and bathrooms that look very dated to me. Do all the units have that ocean view?

the kitchens also look nice to me. Again, it is subjective. One thing i know for a fact, condos date at all resorts but Lagunamar will always have a great location, wonderful pools and stunning beach.

 

[TravelTime]

St John is becoming more available, i have seen several condos at 8 months out when i looked (not too often though). Have in mind though the resort just reopened so the owners want to go back there after they used the SO for few years to go to other resorts so less availability is gonna be normal for a while. I think that not all condos are back either yet.

St John is definitely a hard one to get, esp in the unit size one wants. Harborside is also another one that is hard to get in the premium 1 br units unless you are online very early in the 8 month booking window. I lucked out and used SOs for the 1 bedroom premium unit in May. I may book St John for June, when SOs become available in Oct since we already have one week planned for St Thomas in June. I have a tentative studio reserved at another report in St John but I really want a bigger unit. I would need to borrow SOs in order to book St John. I wonder how hard borrowing will be through Vistana. I do not think borrowing SOs in an option on the Vistana website. I think you can only borrow SOs if you call and pay the future MF in advance. I need to look into that so I will be ready to book for June, assuming I can get a week in a 1 or 2 bedroom using SOs at the 8 month window.

 

[TravelTime]

the kitchens also look nice to me. Again, it is subjective. One thing i know for a fact, condos date at all resorts but Lagunamar will always have a great location, wonderful pools and stunning beach.

View attachment 8311

These units look nicer than the photos I have seen. Did they recently renovate them? Before, the cabinets were older style and the cabinets were still tile. I do not like the green tile in the kitchen and the blue tile in the bathroom. I am glad the cabinets and counter tops have been updated. It is a big improvement! The view is very nice, no arguing there!

 

[DannyTS]

ROFL

Danny,

I sat through an owners update at WMH when Lagunamar had just started pre-sales and personally heard the original SOs. It was a large part of my complaints about the price for the resort (IIRC, it was about $35k for the 2-bed with the most SOs). I'm certain there are posts on TUG at the time about it.

It's great that you try to confirm facts, but some we know with certainty since we lived through it.

Have a great Sunday!

Ken


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Pre-sale seems to be very different that what was said before. I also think that a lot of the Laguanamar qualities only reveled once the resort was actually completed. What you are saying can have also been distorted by the sales people, we just do not know. It is also possible that they realized the number of SO was too low for such a beautiful resort. We do not know for sure what the real reasons were, we were not in the room when (and if) they made that decision.

As a mandatory resort owner i would love to use less SOs for Lagunamar. Unfortunately it is not the case.

 

[DannyTS]

These units look nicer than the photos I have seen. Did they recently renovate them? Before, the cabinets were older style and the cabinets were still tile. I do not like the green tile in the kitchen and the blue tile in the bathroom. I am glad the cabinets and counter tops have been updated. It is a big improvement! The view is very nice, no arguing there!

I think that you may mix some of the photos with the other Westin in Cancun. I believe that the kitchens always had granite counter tops.

This is a kitchen at Westin Ka'anapali , picture i found on tripadvisor. Do you find this better? In any case, it is subjective

 

[Ken555]

Pre-sale seems to be very different that what was said before. I also think that a lot of the Laguanamar qualities only reveled once the resort was actually completed. What you are saying can have also been distorted by the sales people, we just do not know. It is also possible that they realized the number of SO was to low for such a beautiful resort. We do not know for sure what the real reasons were, we were not in the room when (and if) they made that decision.

As a mandatory resort owner i would love to use less SOs for Lagunamar. Unfortunately it is not the case.

Actually, we do know. We sat through enough meetings at the time and there was enough anecdotal comments that it was clear they weren't selling at the lowered SOs. End of story. Also, see the post above as I edited it to include the staroption chart which shows the original amounts. That should convince even you...

 

[CalGalTraveler]

My point is that you do not need to deposit your DPs if you want to use them in your season at your home resort. So you can avoid the skim entirely.

What about if you want to lock off your unit and book a second consecutive week? I believe MVC charges a lock-off fee and Vistana does not.. Do they also skim in this situation?

IMO charging a lock off fee for what you already own is wrong. So far I am not liking MVCs approach to owners. Feels like they are constantly tightening the vice around their owners.

HGVC (which we also own) seems to treat their owners much better. Depending on what MVC devise for Vistana, we may do more trading with HGVC now that they are adding new properties incl. Japan and Carribean and just use our Westin Maui OF.

 

[TravelTime]

Going back to the original theme of this thread, as both a Vistana and MVC points owner, I think there are pros and cons to both systems. If the enrollment fee were in a reasonable price range to enroll my Vistana week in a new and improved MVC, I would do it because I would love the flexibility of booking at 100+ resorts in any view category. However, I also hope MVC will keep SOs as an alternative too.

 

[Ken555]

Pre-sale seems to be very different that what was said before. I also think that a lot of the Laguanamar qualities only reveled once the resort was actually completed. What you are saying can have also been distorted by the sales people, we just do not know. It is also possible that they realized the number of SO was too low for such a beautiful resort. We do not know for sure what the real reasons were, we were not in the room when (and if) they made that decision.

As a mandatory resort owner i would love to use less SOs for Lagunamar. Unfortunately it is not the case.

It turns out there were two StarOption charts back then, one PDF for weekly and one for daily. Here's an excerpt from the daily PDF:

 

[TravelTime]

What about if you want to lock off your unit and book a second consecutive week? I believe MVC charges a lock-off fee and Vistana does not.. Do they also skim in this situation?

IMO charging lock off fee for what you already own is wrong.

I think we are splitting hairs here since lock off fees are minimal in the big scheme of things and only apply to weeks owners. I own a 2 BR at Ko Olina, where they are all lock off. However my deed does not say I own a lock off. So that is probably why they can charge for a lock off. I technically do not own a lock off. I look at it this way. Vistana and MVC have pros and cons. I would like to have the option of enrolling my Vistana week into MVC and having the best of both worlds. I enrolled my Ko Olina week into MVC at what many people would consider a very high cost but I am glad to have the flexibility as well as it took me to Presidential level where the benefits seemed worth it to me.

 

[okwiater]

Having been to nearly all of the resorts in the Vistana network, I find the Lagunamar units to be some of the nicest, especially the bathrooms and kitchen.

 

[DannyTS]

ROFL

Danny,

I sat through an owners update at WMH when Lagunamar had just started pre-sales and personally heard the original SOs. It was a large part of my complaints about the price for the resort (IIRC, it was about $35k for the 2-bed with the most SOs). I'm certain there are posts on TUG at the time about it.

It's great that you try to confirm facts, but some we know with certainty since we lived through it.

Have a great Sunday!

Ken

ETA: The SO chart you posted is from January 2008, which is a long time after the presales had started. I just checked my notes and I was at WMH in Oct 2006 for that owner's update. FYI, I also visited WLR in Nov 2008, and haven't really seen any reason to return.

And an even later edit: It's amazing what a good backup and storage system will have. This is an image of page 2 of the 2-page SVN chart at approx Jan 24, 2006 (that's the file date). This shows the WLR highest SOs at 95,700. Enjoy.

 

[tschwa2]

What about if you want to lock off your unit and book a second consecutive week? I believe MVC charges a lock-off fee and Vistana does not.. Do they also skim in this situation?

IMO charging lock off fee for what you already own is wrong.

MVC only charges for locking off if you are not enrolled. The program fee and skin covers lock off fees and cancellation fees (if you book a week and the decide you want a different week - no cancellation fee, unemployed Marriott owners pay the fee. Also no hk fee like SVN regardless of how many reservations you make with points from a single unit. With SVN if you make more than one reservation per unit you may have a few after the first reservation when you check in. You also don't pay to banking. So all in all the higher program fee and skin pay for a lot of the a la carte fees you pay for with unemployed Marriott weeks and even SVN weeks.

 

[DannyTS]

deleted

 

[DannyTS]

It turns out there were two StarOption charts back then, one PDF for weekly and one for daily. Here's an excerpt from the daily PDF:

Again, 2006 is something else. A lot of the Lagunamar qualities have to be seen, pre-sales does not count IMO. Also, how can you guarantee what the pre-sales would have been at other resorts if they had initially been allocated a lower number of SOs? What would the sales have been at WKV if a 2 bedroom was 91,000 SOs?

 

[TravelTime]

It turns out there were two StarOption charts back then, one PDF for weekly and one for daily. Here's an excerpt from the daily PDF:

I am confused. How could there be 2 SO charts? Were they for different SO amounts for the week?

 

[DannyTS]

Again, 2006 is something else. A lot of the Lagunamar qualities have to be seen, pre-sales does not count IMO. Also, how can you guarantee what the pre-sales would have been at other resorts if they had initially been allocated a lower number of SOs? What would the sales have been at WKV if a 2 bedroom was 91,000 SOs?

I also find bizarre the choice of the initial number of SOs. A spring break week only 15% more SO than an October week? Certainly a malpractice. No wonder they had to change!

 

[TravelTime]

I think that you may mix some of the photos with the other Westin in Cancun. I believe that the kitchens always had granite counter tops.

This is a kitchen at Westin Ka'anapali , picture i found on tripadvisor. Do you find this better? In any case, it is subjective

View attachment 8312

Yes I like this better bc I hate the tile at WLR. But some people may love the tile. I think Vistana should replace the tile on the walls when they renovate but I assume that is very expensive to change.

 

[TravelTime]

It sounds like this thread has become a WLR thread and should be separated from the original thread.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I think we are splitting hairs here since lock off fees are minimal in the big scheme of things and only apply to weeks owners. I own a 2 BR at Ko Olina, where they are all lock off. However my deed does not say I own a lock off. So that is probably why they can charge for a lock off. I technically do not own a lock off. I look at it this way. Vistana and MVC have pros and cons. I would like to have the option of enrolling my Vistana week into MVC and having the best of both worlds. I enrolled my Ko Olina week into MVC at what many people would consider a very high cost but I am glad to have the flexibility as well as it took me to Presidential level where the benefits seemed worth it to me.

MVC only charges for locking off if you are not enrolled. The program fee and skin covers lock off fees and cancellation fees (if you book a week and the decide you want a different week - no cancellation fee, unemployed Marriott owners pay the fee. Also no hk fee like SVN regardless of how many reservations you make with points from a single unit. With SVN if you make more than one reservation per unit yowou may have a few after the first reservation when you check in. You also don't pay to banking. So all in all the higher program fee and skin pay for a lot of the a la carte fees you pay for with unemployed Marriott weeks and even SVN weeks.

Perhaps they are small but all these fees add up. Especially in light that we pay on average $1000 to $1500 more per year to be in the Vistana / MVC system vs. HGVC or Hyatt. I would expect that such fees would be included given the premium MF Vistana/MVC charges. Makes me wonder if MVC/Vistana are poorly managed or just greedy.