SOS8260456
TUG Member
We are staying at Vistana Resort and we did the tour this morning. We haven't done a timeshare tour in a long time because we are usually at Wyndham (avoid it like the plague) or DVC. So we decided to do it. They offered $100 cash, 2 50% off vouchers for stays at some of their hotels, and the deal breaker for us was a free pass for unlimited bus transportation to the parks. Now I never knew Vistana had park transportation, but apparantely they do, but it is $9 a person each way. Since we have a 17 and an 18 year old we liked the free transport option just in case they wanted to go off on their own.
I know nothing about Starwood except that Atlantis is part of it. So I learned some things today about it. 1. that they GUARANTY availability up to 48 hours prior to check in. I kept bringing this point up, over and over, during the presentation, but they insist. The sales person finally did make the comment that good sense would tell you not to wait until the last minute for booking Easter, 4th of July, etc. I had a ball with that one, since we just scheduled this trip a couple of weeks ago and we have done other last minute holiday trips. He was like a deer in the headlights.
Next, owning here in Orlando would have much more trading power than owning in Hawaii. In fact, they have owners who change their ownership from Hawaii to Orlando to save money and get more trading power.
Next, everything is free, free, free. And when you use points, that earns you more points, keeping the cycle of free, free, free going! Plus he guaranties that we would get our money back if we needed to sell it for any reason. We never did get to how everything is free, free, free, because I kept harping on wanting the "getting our money back" in writing and that is when he went and got the manager. The offer was 28k for a 2 bedroom at Vistana Villages and 18K for a 1 bedroom. I didn't pay attention to season, but I think he said gold, because I remember noticing that there were 5 different seasons.
Oh, and at one point I brought up special assessments and he said no resort ever has special assessments. Then when we were talking about Hawaii, he opens the II book and selects a resort at random for a possible choice of where we could stay by exchanging through II. No word of lie, he picked Point of Poiu (don't know if I have the name and spelling exactly correct). This is the resort that has that horrible special assessment due to water erosion. At least I hope it was that resort, because I told him it was and had fun talking about the 10K special assessment.
We exchanged into this resort by doing a direct exchange with another TUGGER (called relative for presentation purposes) and I told him that we were considering taking over the ownership from our relative. I asked what benefits would transfer over to us if we did this. He said absolutely none would, not even the ability to use Interval International.
It was an entertaining 2 hours (even though it was suppose to only be 90 minutes).
Lisa
I know nothing about Starwood except that Atlantis is part of it. So I learned some things today about it. 1. that they GUARANTY availability up to 48 hours prior to check in. I kept bringing this point up, over and over, during the presentation, but they insist. The sales person finally did make the comment that good sense would tell you not to wait until the last minute for booking Easter, 4th of July, etc. I had a ball with that one, since we just scheduled this trip a couple of weeks ago and we have done other last minute holiday trips. He was like a deer in the headlights.
Next, owning here in Orlando would have much more trading power than owning in Hawaii. In fact, they have owners who change their ownership from Hawaii to Orlando to save money and get more trading power.
Next, everything is free, free, free. And when you use points, that earns you more points, keeping the cycle of free, free, free going! Plus he guaranties that we would get our money back if we needed to sell it for any reason. We never did get to how everything is free, free, free, because I kept harping on wanting the "getting our money back" in writing and that is when he went and got the manager. The offer was 28k for a 2 bedroom at Vistana Villages and 18K for a 1 bedroom. I didn't pay attention to season, but I think he said gold, because I remember noticing that there were 5 different seasons.
Oh, and at one point I brought up special assessments and he said no resort ever has special assessments. Then when we were talking about Hawaii, he opens the II book and selects a resort at random for a possible choice of where we could stay by exchanging through II. No word of lie, he picked Point of Poiu (don't know if I have the name and spelling exactly correct). This is the resort that has that horrible special assessment due to water erosion. At least I hope it was that resort, because I told him it was and had fun talking about the 10K special assessment.
We exchanged into this resort by doing a direct exchange with another TUGGER (called relative for presentation purposes) and I told him that we were considering taking over the ownership from our relative. I asked what benefits would transfer over to us if we did this. He said absolutely none would, not even the ability to use Interval International.
It was an entertaining 2 hours (even though it was suppose to only be 90 minutes).
Lisa