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Help needed with choice for TS in Rancho Mirage or PD or Escondido

S

shellibaby

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
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Location
Beverley, East Yorskhire, United Kingdom
Hi

We have just returned from Palm Desert and bought a week at Shadow Ridge which we will be going to next year. With us been from the UK we need to make our trip worthwhile and will stay for 2 weeks. Our dilemma is where to stay for the other week. We stayed at DSV II this time and it was fab. Our choices through II at the moment are DSV I or II or Westin Mission Hills Rancho Mirage, or we were considering the Villas on the Green at the Welk resort Escondido. We were considering the latter as we plan to visit San Diego for a couple of days during our trip. I'm just hesitant of choosing any other resort other than a Marriott after our bad experience this year with the Oasis. Can anybody please help ?
Thanking you in advance
:hi:
 
I would go for Welk, which is lovely resort and close (30-45 minutes) to San Diego, the beach at Carlsbad etc. We just did a conversion from our fixed week to their new platinum points system (I think it was a good idea, but I'm still not sure about it). So looking at one bedrooms in the Villas my notes say that buildings 63-56 have less stairs and you can walk straight into the second level. The advantage of the bottom floor is that you have a patio and can sit out and look across at the golf course and mountains. The disadvantage is that the bedroom windows on some of the units (maybe just the smaller lock off) are at below ground level looking at nothing. But then we didn't spend a lot of time in the bedroom and we did spend a lot of time outside on the patio. The second and third story have balconies, with a kind of heavy mesh metal screen around, so I think I prefer the ground floor. There are no elevators.

The resort feels very, very relaxing. Escondido is about 10 minutes away for shopping, restaurants, movies etc. There is a restaurant on site (OK, but not great), some shops and a pretty good theater where they perform musicals.

Enjoy,
Liz
 
Thank you for that reply Liz. It would be a two bedroom we would need and looking at II's website we have the option of the Welk Villas or Villas on the green, which I believe the latter are newer. Do you know if there are bars at any of the pools ? I do enjoy a frozen cocktail whilst watching the kids play. We have 3 children who will be 15, 8 and 4 when we go next year.
 
Palm Springs is great but IMHO, I'd spend 1 week in PD and a second week in the coastal Socal area. To me that means Orange County (Marriott Newport Coast- NCV) or San Deigo County. They are lots af nice TS in the area, But since you're a Marriott owner, I'd try for NCV.

PS If you're hoping to travel in summer 2008, the nicest TS ( like NCV or the four seasons) will not be sitting there in the II inventory but will be available only if you make a exchange request with II.
 
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I really like the older Welk units. Because they were built as homes, not timeshares, they have very solid construction and they are huge and very spacious, while the Villas on the Green have smaller communal areas due to being able to be two lock off units.All the older Welk units have been recently remodeled and are beautiful. We had to ask them to get us a new mattress, as I need a harder mattress and that was done quickly. I also had to ask for some older flatter pillows. We have a unit on Broadway Hill, which I like because it is facing the golf course and the mountains and is very close to the lap pool at Broadway Rec Center, the units against the golf course are Oliver, Applause and Carousel. Some other nice units facing a little lake (not for swimming) are Paradise, Laura and Sonata. They have tons of activities scheduled for kids and teens as well as adults. The kids will probably like the Boulder Springs Recreation Center that has water slide and water spray and all kinds of things. They can walk there from anywhere, as personally, the noise factor there is something I prefer to leave to the kids.

The coast would be great for summer, but I don't know if that is showing up for you on your availability, which doesn't mean it won't. Welk is a very large resort, so although very highly rated, it isn't so hard to get into because there are so many units.

Liz
 
Thanks so much for your responses. I appreciate all the input I can get. There is nowhere on the coast showing as available at the moment. The only TS's are those I mentioned in my initial post. However there are some others there that I don't think I would like to risk exchange to. Four Seasons at Carlsbad seems to get fantastic reviews but I can imagine that it would be really difficult to get in there late July or early August.
I'm glad you told me about the older Welk villas, I would have plumped for the Villas on the green if we are to go, I didn't know they had been refurbished. Guess this is why I joined TUG. :)
 
A couple of other thoughts...

Las Vegas is roughly a 4- 5 hour drive from Palm Springs.

Hawaii is only a 5 hour flight from LAX.
 
We are going to Las Vegas next year in May to stay at Marriott's Grand Chateau. We are taking friends and leaving the kids with Grandma, yippee !!!
Hawaii is a little too far for us at the moment, the youngest kids will only be 4 & 8 next year and after a long drive to the airport in London then flying to LA it would just be too much, probably not for the kids but for Mum and Dad ?? Stress levels would be too high. But it is something we would look at in the future. Have just been looking at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas and it all looks lovely, just don't know what our chances would be of exchanging to there in the summer.:)
 
Grand Pacific Palisades would be one option. It has 2 and some 3 bedroom units, a great children's play area, an adult lap pool and a short drive to the beach and the main part of Carlsbad.
Liz
 
The Westin Mission Hills is fantastic - a very nice resort for families.
However, instead of 2 weeks in Palm Springs in the extremely hot desert, I concur with the other replies, and suggest you try for Marriott Newport Coast, or Four Seasons Aviara to enjoy more moderate California climates.
 
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