Cocoplum-Marathon, FL

[stratusnj75]

I have been looking for a nice place to exchange in to in the Florida Keys area(preferably actually in the Keys) for a family of 4. I have found the Cocoplum, which looks nice in the pictures, but have not seen any recent reviews of. Has anyone been there that might be able to provide more recent data on it? Is it a hard trade in to?

 

[lgreenspan]

I never stayed at Cocoplum though I did check out the facilaties while traveling through the area on a visit to Key West several years ago. The units are seperate apartment like units with a small pool and beach area. The Resort appeared nice clean without any activity going on. Marathon is aproximately an hour from Key West where all the night life is. You are located very close to Bahia Honda State Park which is often rated as one of the best beached in the US. You can check out thier website
http://www.cocoplum.com/
I can recommend the Hammocks at Marathon ( Now trades through RCI) which is a converted Hampton Suites Hotel. It was still a Hotel in 2001 when I stayed there which had a excellent pool area and poolside Tiki Bar though no swimable beach.
http://www.bluegreenrentals.com/landing/hotel-deals-in-florida-hammocks.htm

 

[stratusnj75]

Thanks for the info. I have a 9 yr old and a 6 month old, so the night life has past me by at this point. Several years ago I drove from Ft. Lauderdale to Key West and back again in a single day and loved it, the drive was great and the couple of hours I spent in key west was interesting so I would like to spend some significant time there.
The separate units of the Cocoplum intrigued me. Unfortunately none of the resorts other than those in Key west have any new reviews. And Key west seemed to be less kid friendly than other keys.

 

[rkd]

I agree Key West is NOT the best choice for a vacation with kids. You know...."to everything there is a season...." Save Key West (and in my opinion New Orleans also) for when you are "child free".

That being said, Marathon will be lovely. Our first time share was Key Lime Resort in Marathon where we vacationed for 24 yrs in a row. Alas it was a RTU & was demolished to make way for high dollar homes

We have plans to go to The Reef in Marathon in September so I will let you know how that is.

There is another nice State Park in Marathon.....Curry Hammock.

Be sure to take Card Sound Road and have a meal at Alabama Jacks! Grouper Sandwich and Conch fritters

Regina

 

[brucecz]

We were told while looking for some more Keys resales by the gal behind the Coco Plum front desk this past December that there are only 4 units that exchange and the rest of the units are for rentals owned by some Corperation.

She gave us a key to check one of the exchange units out. The unit had a nice layout but the unit was a IMHO a bit tired. But those 4 exchange units were water front units.

The Reef was nice but has no real beach but we still traded into there for this New Years using II last month as our main traders weeks are both RCI and II.

We really liked the Top Sider and bought a fixed week 4 there as it has a beach, pool, hot tub, paddle boats and IMHO nicely kept grounds.

We will get our first availibility to use it in 2008. All 3 of the above resorts units are 8 sided units with 2 bedroom 2 bathroom which I would estimate to range from 800 to 1,000 square feet. They are set up off the ground on petistal bases unlike our 4 Florida Bay Club ownerships which are 3 story and are about 2,000 square foot units.

The 3 bedroom unit and three 2 bedroom units at the Florida Bay Club have 4 balconies and a garage on the first floor.

The other timeshare in Key Largo is called Port Lago is in a bit of better freaher shape than the 4 named above resorts but those Port Largo units are not Ocean or Gulf front units but are on a type of canal.

All of the above resorts have about 20 units or less per resort and that is why it is harder to trade into those resorts.

The Hawks Nest im Marathon about a Mile from the Hammocks and has a few more units and a bit of availability. There are some Keys units and weeks I saw this morning on II.

The Hammocks is a newer Bluegreen resort that has been rehabbed by Bluegreen and we enjoyed our stay there in 2005.

There are about 4 or 6 other upper Keys resorts that you may have a chance to exchange into and some are one bedroom sleep 4 units.

WE wish you good luck in exchanging into the Keys.

Bruce

 

[stratusnj75]

How was the weather during the New Years week. I was thinking about next year trying for that time frame.

 

[brucecz]

We stayed at The Florida Bay Club week 4 starting on January 28, 2006 which on the average should be colder than New Years seeing it is closer to the middle part of winter.

If I remenber the Day time temp highs were about 74 to 85 degrees.

Bruce

 

[jlwquilter]

Since we are talking the Keys...

My husband would LOVE a Keys TS, but Key West is out for us for now. How Is the Floridaa Bay club now? The last review is old and quite unfavorable.

 

[Timesharemogul]

It'd be nearly impossible to get a trade...

...into Cocoplum as they had become unaffilliated with any exchange company but they appear to have reaffiliated with RCI..
Cocoplum has the distinct advantage of being set far from route 1 (unlike most other timeshares inthe Marathon area) and I can see that it would give its users the feeling of a remote tropical retreat.
FWIW,Hammocks at Marathon, before it was developed as timeshare by Bluegreen just a couple of years ago, was a Best Western Motel. It is in proximity to the Buccaneer (a/k/a Pirates Cove Villas [PCV], an I.I. exchangable timeshare which I believe has largely gone the route of rentals).
Rentals have become the way to go in the Florida Keys for a developer to maximize income in the long run. Severalmiles down the road in Islamorada, the developer of Caloosa Cove stopped making an effort years ago to sell the units off as timeshares. When he passed away two years ago, the family continued to run Caloosa Cove as status quo. I think that the Florida Keys really got "discovered" by an adoring public shortly after or at about the same time as many Keys' resorts converted to timeshares back in the '80's.
Brian

 

[brucecz]

If you keep a open mind and discount that 2 rating the other reviewers ratings average out to about 7.5.

I will not give it a number rating seeing we own there but there are several reasons already stated in those same reviews by other reviewers is why after we stayed at the resort we bought 3 more weeks in less than one year's time.

It certainly is not like the Key West Galleon or the Hyatt in newness, freshness or amemities. But overall it is improving compared to the near bankruptcy problems of about 10 years ago. We do not have stangers making noise above or below our units like most other timeshares do.

But those two resort do not have garages and are comparely cramped in comparison to The Florida Bay Club. If you read the reviews carefully you may decide the the non Key West resorts are more family freindly. From our resort you can see the Everglades, catch shrimp, crabs, fish ect.

The person who gave that 2 rating arrived late apparently did not follow the RCI stated website exchange instrutions to call ahead if they were going to be late and make arrangements to pick up the keys.

The reason I know RCI gives those instructions when you reserve the week is that we traded into the Florida Bay Club for that January 2006 date I mentioned before.

Seeing that there are only 18 units in the whole resort common sense would dictate that the office is not going to be staffed for 24 hours a day.

The 3 other resorts I mentioned above are smaller resorts and that party would had similar problems checking in late if they did not call ahead to let the resort know that they were running late

To own or rent in the better Key West resorts in prime time takes a lot more $$$$$$$ per square foot of unit.

Seeing people who paid big bucks for thier prime week Key West units are mostly renting them out instead of exchanging them, your chance of getting a 2 bedroom in prime times like New Years are IMHO very slim. You would most likely need Top trading power and luck.


I know that because of supply and demand I will not be depositing our Keys weeks for exchange especially given some exchange companies present rental policies.

But good luck to you in getting what you want in the Keys in high demand times like a New Years week.

Bruce

My husband would LOVE a Keys TS, but Key West is out for us for now. How Is the Floridaa Bay club now? The last review is old and quite unfavorable.

 

[jlwquilter]

We do want a family friendly TS

and we are actually looking for (GASP!) an early summer week...child out of school, slow at husband's work, and not too hot yet (we are Flordians ourselves but fry easily ).

Are any of the units 2 bedroom? I am sorry if I should know this, but I've been reading and searching like a fiend the past several days and it's all starting to blur!

 

[brucecz]

and we are actually looking for (GASP!) an early summer week...child out of school, slow at husband's work, and not too hot yet (we are Flordians ourselves but fry easily ).

Are any of the units 2 bedroom? I am sorry if I should know this, but I've been reading and searching like a fiend the past several days and it's all starting to blur!

Most have 2 bedroom 2 bathroom units. The Florida Bay Club does not have one bedroom units but does have 13 two bedroom and 5 :whoopie: three bedroom units.

I have noted at several of the Florida Resorts that a lot of Florida people own summer weeks at beach locations seemingly for their own use.

You best chance IMHO based checking on Keys exchanges are early January, end of October through the week before Christmas and the week before schools start up at the end of summer.

I seemingly see more availability in II than in RCI.

We wish you good luck in your efforts.

Bruce

 

[jlwquilter]

Thanks, Bruce, for the info I will definitely keep all of that in mind during my searching.

I did get a follow up call from a realtor I emailed yesterday re: a Floriday Bay Club 3 Bedroom I saw listed on their website. When he told me the asking price ($10,000) I said it was way more than we were looking to go. He asked our range, I told him and he laughed and ended the phone call (which took less than a minute - I am not kidding). NICE. OK, so maybe it's out of our league but he could have taken 2 minutes longer, asked me some questions and maybe he had something else that might of worked. Now he's lost me as a potential customer for that RE company forever. Argh. Sorry to rant, but this kind of behavior just irks me so much! Ok, I am done

Let the search continue! After all, the hunt is half the fun!

 

[JanDon]

Cocoplum

We stayed at Cocoplum just over a year ago and found it to be an ideal location. Yes, the units are old and dated, but so are most beach units in Florida - it's the peace and 'laid back' atmosphere of this area of the Keys that is great.

We enjoyed it so much we are returning in May this year and, no, it is not on an exchange as we have found it difficult to exchange into here - we are actually renting one of the beach front units for a week.....can't wait!

 

[stratusnj75]

I have gotten to the point of forgetting about trading in to the keys and am planning to look at renting there next year, probably Nov 2008. Can I ask what was the cost to rent?

 

[JanDon]

Cocoplum

The rental rates are on their website www.cocoplum.com

The cost all depends on whether you are 'right on the beach' or further back.
The RCI exchange put us in the back two condos, which we found to be OK as they are all just seconds from the beach, but we thought we'd splash out on the rental and go into one of the beach front units so we could sit on the balcony and look out at the ocean.

I know there are probably better places to stay, but it all depends on taste. The only drawback you could anticipate with Cocoplum is the spiral staircase leading to the bedrooms, which could be difficult to get your luggage up or could be a danger for older people or young children, although there is a gate at the top of the stairs.

The other problem we had, though it didn't cause us too much anxiety, were the ants - loads of the little b**gg!rs and the 'no see ums'. But when we were there it was 2 days before a mandatory tourist evacuation due to a hurricane and the heat was oppressive, so that could explain why!

 

[rkd]

We have a favorite spot for supper in Marathon: Dockside Marina & Tiki Bar. Even allows dogs...if they bring their people. Perfect Keys Setting.

After Hurricaine Wilma we went down to Key West, stopping first to check on Dockside. Huge Relief....it was just fine!



Regina

 

[brucecz]

JanDon, Thanks for posting about were to find those Cocoplum rental rates.

I checked their rates and with taxes some of their 2 bedrooms for this month are over $310 a night.


Bruce