The wife and I went up to Massanutten to take advantage of their marketing dollars - we had no intention of buying. This was about our sixth getaway weekend on timeshare developers' dimes. We live about 3 1/2 hours from Massanutten, near Williamsburg.
They offered us Woodstone - Casa de Campo, new construction, occupancy in 2010, with 2 RCI bonus weeks annually until the unit is finished and one annual RCI bonus week thereafter, it is an even year unit, week 24, 2 bedroom lock-off, sleeps 8; maintenance fee is $340 every two years. They also added in their "Gold Card" which essentially gives you usage rights to the resort facilities - rec centers, pools, the Western Slope (their wilderness area), and discounts on lift tickets, hotels, golf, and a few other things.
The "Gold Card" is what hooked me. We take one or two ski weekends a year. Being able to get 1/2 off on a hotel - or even book a getaway weekend condo - and 20% off on lift tickets, plus the access to all the amenities seemed like a big enough carrot to get me to part with ... $10,000!
As a pure timeshare unit, I know we paid way too much. As a trader we paid way too much; as a unit we'll use we paid way too much. But, as membership to the resort, and as an incentive to get our butts out there to use it, I feel we did "OK". Not great, but unlike all the other places we've been (Florida, Williamsburg, VA Beach) Mass. offers activities and facilities we will take advantage of throughout the year. That is why I bought it - to force/encourage us to go out to the mountains more often and do the things that Mass. has to offer - oh yeah, and we're part of the timeshare cult now, too. I am much more outdoorsy than my wife, and I hope/expect that having a restaurant, heated pool, etc. over the hill will allow us to do more camping (on the Western Slope) than I've been able to do so far.
You may now scold me for paying way too much and being a fool. :hysterical:
- Jasen.