Worst timeshare resort you've stayed in?

[IAMTHEWALRUS]

Just out of curiosity, what has been the worst resort you have stayed in? Have you stayed at a timeshare resort that smelled, or was full of bugs, nosiy...

For me, it happens to be The Suites At Fisherman's Wharf, in San Francisco. Don't get me wrong. It was nice, and certainly better than any hotel stay I've ever had. But it was very small and cramped. There seemed to be an overall dampness to the place as well. Personally, I think this resort is the ultimate poster boy for "location, location, location." It was within walking distance to all of the famous San Francisco sights. Although it is an RCI Gold Crown, as well as an II 5-Star resort, I highly doubt it would be rated as high, if it were located in North Dakota.

Anyone else?

 

[JoAnn]

Eastern Slope Inn, North Conway NH, last summer...hands down! We were put in the oldest building with the LR, kitchen, dining area, full bath on the second floor with an A/C that did not cool enough. On the third floor was the bedroom and half bath (toilet only in a little room with slanting ceilings), small sink at the head of the stairs, no closet, a huge whirlpool size tub (under the slanting ceilings), a queen size bed, and a ceiling that was so slanted on one side of the bed that I could not stand up when I got out of bed, and the A/C that didn't work properly. When we complained we were told that is what we got when we didn't have points to use! And then they proceeded to try and sell us points.

 

[rickandcindy23]

There have been so many....

The worst was an older Orange Lake two-bedroom that was generally dirty, though I will try that resort again and ask for a new unit , based on others' experiences, the resort is probably not as bad as that unit might suggest. I didn't like High Point in Orlando and thought it a shame that they do not update it at all, even though it's one of the closest to Disney and has incredible potential. We have stayed 40 weeks in Orlando over the last 15 years and have been fortunate enough to stay in many GC's and Five Stars, but some of our favorites were not. One example is Orbit One, a great resort with the amenities we desire, and always available for Last Call in the fall and other off-season times.

We also disliked San Clemente Inn, even though many TUGgers just love the place for its location and value. The unit was dark and smelled like smoke. My hubby is easy to please, but he didn't like anything about the resort.

In Colorado, The Alpen Rose is a pretty dumpy place, as are Skier's Edge, Orofino, Spinnaker, all near Breckenridge.

 

[wilma]

The Tahoe Sands in north Lake Tahoe. Our unit was truly a dump, most everything we touched was broken, the mattress was old, thin, and should have been replaced 10 years ago. The unit was dirty, dark, and downright depressing. It has a nice location and supposedly is trying to do a major renovation but I don't know the status.

 

[Luanne]

I can't say that any timeshare resorts I've stayed in have actually been bad, but the two that I wouldn't go back to again would be:

Worldmark Kona - I know a lot of folks love this, but we thought the unit was small (especially the bathrooms), we needed to run the air-conditioning all the time which made the balcony unusable. Just didn't care for this place.

Keahou Surf & Racquet - great location, but the unit we were in was closest to Alii Rd so we had a lot of noise. Biggest drawback was the fact that there was no air-conditioning and we were there during the summer. No cross breeze, made sleeping uncomfortable and we ended up eating out a lot more than planned.

 

[AwayWeGo]

No Bad Timeshare Experiences -- Yet

Hey, the "worst" timeshare resort we stayed in was still outstanding & we had a nice time there.

All of our timeshare experiences so far are written up in the reviews section of TUG -- in Orlando FL, Cypress Pointe Resort, Orlando Vistana, Cypress Pointe Grandevillas (twice), & in Mulberry FL (just south of Lakeland), Taranova Imperialakes, plus in Las Vegas, Summer Bay Resort.

(One of our reviews was so excellent that we got TUG Review Of The Month recognition for it. Not bad, eh?)

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

 

[gary01]

..... I highly doubt it would be rated as high, if it were located in North Dakota. QUOTE]

Hey, I resent that. I'm from North Dakota and there must be plenty of great timeshares there! Well, maybe a couple..., one ...?

 

[gary01]

I have to agree about the San Clemente Inn. It was small, dark, worn out, and smelled of smoke. In fact, the whole complex smells like smoke. It amazes me how this resort is rated as high as it is.

 

[Barbara]

Casa Blanca Resort

The worst timeshare resort we ever stayed at was Casa Blanca Resort in Panama City. It was our second timeshare exchange, just the next week after our very best ever timeshare exchange. We knew nothing about TUG and reviews at the time. What a contrast in our first and second week!
The Casa Blanca Resort beach location is great but these timeshare units were awful. It is a converted motel, very cramped, old furniture, worn and dirty. The one bedroom had just about enough room for the bed and funiture in the small bedroom. The only bathroom was in the back of the small kitchen/living area and was very small with a tiny shower. When we used the pay community washer we could only get cold water. Reporting it to the staff, didn't help they made no effort to fix the hot water heater.

 

[philsfan]

Divi Heritage, Barbados

We were forced to spend a night and a day here when Divi Southwinds overbooked and had no unit left for us. It was like we stepped back in time, the furnishings were very 50's. The smells from the resort next door were awful.

 

[patty5ia]

Breezy Point Timeshares in Minnesota. Old furniture and appliances and it was very damp and moldy. Good location but you needed a boat to really appreciate it. We got locked out one night and almost had to spend the night in another unit!
Most of our exchanges have been very good. This one was an exception. It was listed as a Gold Crown!

 

[Karen G]

The worst would have to be La Concha Beach Resort in LaPaz, Mexico. I submitted a lengthy review of our Aug. '01 stay here. Fortunately we didn't have to stay there more than two nights, and we did enjoy the rest of our visit to LaPaz.

 

[shagnut]

My worst was Adventure Inn in Hilton Head. We had a studio with a loft and the bedroom was so small upstairs Kelli had to crawl on her hands and knees to get in the bed. The couch was so lumpy you couldn't even sit on it. Another couple told me they had bugs in the bed . The good thing about it was the location, right on the beach. shaggy

 

[mikey0531]

La Renaissance in Atlantic City NJ!! It was very small, pull out sofa was broken, 2nd "bedroom" didn't have a door or a window and was right off the kitchen. Only good thing about it was location right on the boardwalk. Oh -- and the indoor roof top "pool" was pretty much a large spa type of pool -- kind of like a big hot tub -- without the heat.

 

[geekette]

My worst was Adventure Inn in Hilton Head. We had a studio with a loft and the bedroom was so small upstairs Kelli had to crawl on her hands and knees to get in the bed. The couch was so lumpy you couldn't even sit on it. Another couple told me they had bugs in the bed . The good thing about it was the location, right on the beach. shaggy

Likely not the Adventure you had anticipated!!

 

[debraxh]

La Cabana in Aruba. The smallest studio I've ever been in, smaller than many hotel rooms. You could not walk through the living area when the murphy bed was pulled down. No soundproofing in the walls. We could hear the neighbor talking to her mom on the phone as well as the kids watching TV at 7am every day.

Advertised just across a "service" road to the beach. It's actually across the MAIN road -- dangerous to cross with cars speeding at 50+.

I would probably return to Aruba, but wouldn't stay at La Cabana again.

 

[PStreet1]

The worst was Carpediem Assissi (and yes, I did a review of it).

Places I wouldn't stay again:
1.) Shandoah Villas at Masanutten (everything was old, tired, threadbare, and splinters were difficult to avoid on the outside walk areas since there had been no painting done for years and years). In addition to its run down condition, and I was inside three different units, the confituration of the units is very odd, and almost all units require 20+ steps to get into the unit; then, one bedroom is upstairs, and the other bedroom is downstairs--no bedrooms on the level you enter on.


2) Worldmark at Bass Lake--the only bed fit to sleep on was the Murphy bed in the living room. The others (queen in master and two twins in the second bedroom) should have been retired about 5 years ago. Everything else was old and tired.

 

[Icc5]

Tehachapi

We stayed at Tehachapi about 10 years ago. The booking was for a week but we left after 5 long days. The Resort offered a mini golf course, movie studio, etc. The mini golf course was all torn up with weeds and deserted. The movie studio was a tv/vcr and you brought your or rented your VCR tape to watch. The pool looked green. My kids were 11 and 5 at the time. We quickly ran out of things to do.
Bart

 

[akbmusic]

French Lick Springs

Without a doubt the French Lick Springs Resort Villas in southern Indiana. We picked it up at the last minute on and RCI bonus vacation and went on Spring Break. We were out of things to do and were all ready to go home after 3 days! (Which is exactly what we did!) On the plus side, the units were incredibly big.
Also wouldn't return to Sapphire Beach Resort and Marina in St. Thomas. (Thought the only thing good about St. Thomas was you could leave it and go to St. John! Anyway, units need refurbishing badly, staff could use some friendliness training!

 

[SharonD]

Bass Lake Refurbishment

2) Worldmark at Bass Lake--the only bed fit to sleep on was the Murphy bed in the living room. The others (queen in master and two twins in the second bedroom) should have been retired about 5 years ago. Everything else was old and tired.

Just curious when you stayed at Bass Lake? We were there in June (in the older section they put RCI exchangers into). Our unit had been refurbished somewhat recently, and the bed in the master was the usual comfortable Worldmark bed (except I wish it had been a king rather than a smallish-queen). It also new paint, new carpet, and furniture in good shape. Just wondering if you might have stayed there before the refurbishment.

 

[PStreet1]

Nope--two weeks ago. We had a unit that "almost could see the lake." We could from the parking lot as we walked in, and we were in with some houses.

 

[lawren2]

I know I'm going to get flak for this one...

the worst stay we have had in a Timeshare in over 20 exchanges has got to have been Orange Lake.

No it wan't dirty, or noisy it just WAS so to speak.

If we had not been led on by glowing attributes here on TUG, glitzy accomodation examples on their website and RCI VCs I guess it would have been acceptable. BUT we did not expect a plain vanilla 2 bedroom with 20 odd year old TVs ( not even input jacks for son's video game system ) and the world's tiniest bathrooms ( no whirlpool tub? ) and the view of the moonscape golfcourse that was being redone.

Some folks would think our Powhattan exchange would have been our worst experience but the expectations had been realistic and the refurbed unit was clean and had a very large jacuzzi.

Unless you can confirm a 3 bedroom unit I would not exchange there. Much nicer places to stay near the House of Mouse.

 

[Dani]

Very easily the Sea Palace in St. Martin....oooh....what a disaster!!!

 

[timeos2]

Eastern Slope Inn, North Conway NH, last summer...hands down! We were put in the oldest building with the LR, kitchen, dining area, full bath on the second floor with an A/C that did not cool enough. On the third floor was the bedroom and half bath (toilet only in a little room with slanting ceilings), small sink at the head of the stairs, no closet, a huge whirlpool size tub (under the slanting ceilings), a queen size bed, and a ceiling that was so slanted on one side of the bed that I could not stand up when I got out of bed, and the A/C that didn't work properly. When we complained we were told that is what we got when we didn't have points to use! And then they proceeded to try and sell us points.

Now we stayed at this resort and while it certainly isn't a Gold Crown but it is an old Inn and as such has a degree of charm. I would prefer it over some converted motel like many beach resorts are. It will never rank as our favorite it was a reasonable stay in an area we otherwise wouldn't have visited.

On the other hand we have the Carriage House in Las Vegas. This is supposed to be a decent resort and we found it almost unbearable. The room design was poor, the kitchen was dated and rather dirty, the bathroom was barely a closet. It was really bad and yet somehow holds an RID rating.

So much about any resort depends on the unit you get and the way it is maintained overall. On any given checkin two different groups may have completely different experiences depending on where they are assigned.

There are some truly dismal resorts to be avoided but they are few and far between and can be avoided with just a bit of research here on TUG.

 

[glenn1000]

Sheraton Vistana

We had a very nice stay at the Worldmark, Bass Lake and thought that it was nice. Also exchanged for a week there another year that we donated to our school auction and the people who won it said that it was one of their best family vacations ever. So opinions do differ...

Here's our worst: the Sheraton Vistana in Orlando. Even though we tried to request ahead of time, we ended up in a GROSS unit in an old section of the resort. It was filthy beyond cleaning and, even though we asked to be moved or at least have some of the filth removed, we were not even able to get a housekeeper to our unit. The good news is that we had a blast in Orlando and were too busy to spend much time indoors.