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Going to Vidanta RM in January

MoPops

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Booked into RM in Jan. Used our GL contract to get a two BR GB. It was surprisingly easy to get a reservation. Now I’m having second thoughts. Will Jan be sold out like it usually is? Will Covid keep folks away? Which means, should I have reserved through an outside means and could I have gotten a better deal? Our GL ownership is through NV, and we have an entertainment package. Does anyone know if that gets me the buy one day get another day free deal for jungula water park? Kind of wondering if all restaurants and pools will be open? I realize it’s still five months out so things will likely change, hopefully for the better.
Hopefully we will have three grandkids with us for one of the weeks. Is jungula (whatever it’s called) worth the $$?
We will probably stay in the resort the entire time. Haven’t visited TUG in a while. I was going to say something about things getting back to normal, but I’m not sure that’ll ever happen..
 

StructureGuy

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I doubt that anyone will be able to tell you what January in Riviera Maya will be like. I can tell you what RM was like for my family of 11 in mid-July this past summer.

Grand Luxxe and Mayan Palace were open. My daughters family payed for Grand Bliss and got upgraded to Jungle Deluxxe since GB was closed. By Mexican law, the occupancy was limited to 30%.

Main pool, Grand Luxxe pool and half of the Beach Club were open, Grand Mayan pool closed. Beach and ocean totally open.

Havana Moon and the restaurants in Salum were open. Quinto was open two evenings and Nektar was open two evenings. All other restaurants were closed.

JOYA was running only the 7:00 PM show on Friday and Saturday nights. They limited the seating for social distancing so it sold out fast.

Jungala was open four days. Special cost was $31 but only $17 for those over 65 years old. Our grandkids (8 and 5 year olds) thoroughly enjoyed it. One day was more than enough for me.

We never left the resort but several in our group went to Playa Del Carmen and found it deserted. Tulum, Coba, Chichen Itza, were all closed.

I can let you know what it's like when we return from RM in November.
 

holdaer

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We'll be in RM staying at GL Nov 14-21. We are looking forward to the many restaurants, pools, Salum and Jungala opening. The resort feels large enough to safely open to more than 30%. Maybe Mexican law will change by then to safely open up.
 

MoPops

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Thanks for the replies. We will just find out what’s going on when we get there. Ha
Actually we are thinking of adding a week. We used two 2020 weeks for 2021. We’ve never stayed there for a three week period. Maybe if we have three weeks, we will actually take the time to do some exploring and not just be unwinding by the pools.
 

MoPops

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What the heck.. Added a third week yesterday. We will have to move from 2BR GB to a 1BG GL, but from what I’m told the 1BR GL rooms (2BR without the lock off) are in building 1. We retired a little over a year ago. Last year was our first time trying 2 weeks in a row. So this year (2021) we are trying 3 weeks. I’m hoping I can tolerate the diet and lifestyle adjustments for that long. They were nice enough to use an expired week from 2019 to cover it. Means I still haven’t used any weeks from 2021 yet.
Do we really lose the “extra” weeks out of our contracts when the 10 year renewal comes up? I also confirmed with customer service that my buy one day, get one free contract addendum from the park in NV will cover the water park in RM. Last yr we were in NV. We are hoping to avoid construction and gondolas in RM.
 

Eric B

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.... Do we really lose the “extra” weeks out of our contracts when the 10 year renewal comes up? ....

The way the contracts are set up in general for the ones with a 10-year renewal period is as two separate pamphlets. The first one is good for 10 years and is the actual contract for either 1 or 2 weeks per year, typically written as every other year registered weeks with a right to use corresponding alternate year weeks in the off years. I believe they are limited in the number of contracts they can sell by the number of registered weeks they have. Some of the Parks contracts are written as having a single registered week in the 10-year period with alternate year weeks for the rest of the years. That one is not renewable.

The second pamphlet is termed a certificate and is good for 10 years, renewable for another 10 years up to 9 times for a total of 100 years. The certificate is typically good for twice as many weeks as the contract was good for, but the typical reservation period for those weeks is shorter in the high season (January-March). There may be other differences between the two depending on what contract addenda there are.

As described above, what you bought is commonly called either a 1+2 or 2+4 contract, which likely came with additional weeks bookable through SFX dependent on addenda. As a result, after the first 10 years, you just have access to the 2 or 4 weeks from the certificate plus whatever SFX weeks were included.

One final thing to mention - Vida Lifestyle, which likely came with your purchase, is a travel program run by ICE and has a relationship with SFX. They offer an upgraded membership package that includes unlimited privilege weeks through SFX. The cost of that upgrade is much less than upgrading or purchasing additional Vidanta contracts, though it’s usually harder getting high season reservations through SFX. Depending on whether the high season is important to you, going that way or finding alternative accesses to exchange into Vidanta may be more economical, though you run the risk of modifications to exchange policies and resort fees. Typically, SFX provides good access for shoulder- and low-season exchanges with reasonable terms, though they don’t get very high on the priority list for room assignments.
 

MoPops

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Ok Eric. Sounds like I had it backwards. I have a 1 plus 2 on a 10 year basis. It expires in 2027. If I read your summary correctly I will lose the 1 week with 12 month advance reservation privileges, and keep the 2 weeks that have 10 month advance reservation privileges. That makes more sense, since I think I pay two of the usage fees to renew.
So, in 2027 when I’m 73 we will have to decide to get a new contract, roll it over and lose a week, or just opt out all together and lose what’s invested.
Thanks. (Looks like maybe I should go over and get a contract review again.)

Edit, I do remember having the two additional weeks through SFX. We never used those, and let the Vida Lifestyle contract expire. We don’t cruise, so didn’t see a lot of reason to pay them additional funds.

Thanks again.

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pittle

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Do we really lose the “extra” weeks out of our contracts when the 10 year renewal comes up?
I think that when the 10 year renewal comes up, you lose your Registered weeks and keep your Residence weeks.

We currently have 2 Master Suites that are Registered weeks and 4 Residence weeks and when the renewal comes up, we will have 4 Residence weeks. I think there could be different reneal fee % per week, but am not sure. We upgraded to GL in 2013, so in 3 years I plan to pay the renewal fee one time in the fall of 2023.

We also have the Senior Certificates which will allow us to go for 2 weeks per year for 1/2 price now that hubs is 75 and will be free when he is 77 in 2022. We have a separate Senior Cert for when when we renew and only have 4 weeks. It says that we can use 2 weeks of our 4 Residence weeks with our Sr. Cert once we do our renewal and to use the other 2 we need to pay a MF.

FYI - the Senior Certificates were available to owners between November 2006 - January 2008. You had to be an owner before November 2006 to get them and had to go to Member Services. We got ours in February 2007 and when we upgraded, they let us keep it and issued new documents that stated we had them for life. They do not transfer to our kids.
 

MoPops

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We owned back then, but were inactive. I had virtually no vacation back then. Probably never should have bought. Sure never even looked into the Sr Certificates. Live and learn. I am glad we own now. We really don’t have that much invested to have what we have. But it still costs $1800 for a week to go. I’m thinking we couldn’t get this nice of a room for $250 a night, but maybe we could get a much nicer place. Haven’t bothered to check. We know what to expect at Vidanta and enjoy it.


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pittle

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AS we have gotten older, we are of the opinion that you should buy where you want to go and go there. We have not gone to Vidanta using our weeks but once in the past 7 years. We have been able to get Grand Mayan and Grand Bliss weeks for much less using exchanges. They do treat you differently when you go on an exchange. RM more than the others. We would not do an update for our normal benefits - been there done that! We preferred to enjoy our vacation but made a point not to spend money at the resort on the two worst instances.

We have owned many weeks since 1999 - 4 MP (3 resale) & 2 GM (used 3 other resales +$ for that) when we finally consolidated into fewer weeks at a nicer level in 2013. We did get the no pay unless you go when we got the Sr. Certs on all but one (it was in the finalization process at the time). We were able to upgrade for about $1000 more than all those 5 year reno fees that we were obligated for on all these contracts. Our family was not traveling with us as much because grandson could not miss school and some job changes with other family members, so we decided to focus on the where do we want to go. We have 2 GL weeks that give us many options and 1 week plus bonus weeks at Buganvilias in PV. We think that a coupe of weeks at a Vidanta each year for free and 2 weeks at Buganivilas is awesome. The Buganvilias last year is 2026, so starting when I am 80, Vidanta will be our go to resort.
 
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StructureGuy

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This is a strange year due to the pandemic. I scheduled two weeks in February and one week in October and that used up all three of my 2019 weeks. Then I asked for an additional week in July (not through SFX) and Vidanta let me do it. Last week I called and asked if I could extend my 7 night stay in October from Friday to the Monday 10 days later and they okayed that as well (for more $$, of course).

They need to fill some rooms right now, so they are pretty flexible.
 

MoPops

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Yep. When I asked for the third week they pulled up an unused (expired) week from 2019, and used it. So my 2021 weeks haven’t been touched yet.


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hurnik

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Have a friend staying at RM at Grand Bliss in November via SFX. She called to inquire about Jungala water park and restaurants being open.

Anyway, they said that if you book with RCI, ICE, or SFX, they are extending the old "members/owners" only Promo where if you pre-pay your ROOM CHARGES (for a 2 BR it's $1,500) they give you an extra $250 to spend. This is NOT the RESORT FEE. It's ROOM CHARGES.
 

pittle

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MO-Pops - welcome to retirement. We had done 2 weeks at a time most years until retirement. The year I retired, we went 4 weeks to Acapulco during January/Februray & loved it! We always do 3 weeks now. The first week is with one of my brothers and his wife, the 2nd week with a son & his wife and the last week just us! That one is our fav! We can do whatever we want to without thinking about the others! :)
 
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rpennisi

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MO-Pops - welcome to retirement. We had done 2 weeks t a time most years until retirement. THe year I retired, we went 4 weeks to Acapulco during January/Februray & loved it! We always do 3 weeks now. The first week is with one of my brothers and his wife, the 2nd week with a son & his wife and the last week just us! That one is our fav! We can do whatever we want to without thinking about the others! :)
Phyllis, I hope your son's and brother's families are not on TUG reading this!! LOL
 

pittle

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Phyllis, I hope your son's and brother's families are not on TUG reading this!! LOL
None are on TUG and most do not get the concept of timeshare and do not want them when we are no longer able to go. They do however like staying with us in luxurious places! :D But, they all know that we like to have a week that is just OUR vacation and we are not the hosts!
 

MoPops

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Have a friend staying at RM at Grand Bliss in November via SFX. She called to inquire about Jungala water park and restaurants being open.

Anyway, they said that if you book with RCI, ICE, or SFX, they are extending the old "members/owners" only Promo where if you pre-pay your ROOM CHARGES (for a 2 BR it's $1,500) they give you an extra $250 to spend. This is NOT the RESORT FEE. It's ROOM CHARGES.

Wow! This is one of many of the weird things about TS ownership that continues to baffle me. So, I spend more than $1500 for a week, for a 2BR at GB. Then I find out Vidanta is giving away another $250 as enticement to come in. So it’s $1250 outside cost vs $1800 ownership cost (for the same room, but maybe November vs January makes a difference).
This just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside about owning at Vidanta. Oh well, we really like the resorts. Not sure I like “owning” though. Ha


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