OregonDucks
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- Mar 21, 2023
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Some background. I'm 41, wife is 39. Kids are 11m, 15m , and 18f. The 15 and 18 year old will likely live with us through the end of college, maybe longer, LOL. We've gone to Mexico (Cabo and PVR) a total of 4 times.
Our first trip to Mexico was in 2019 at Villa del Palmar (Cabo) trip with just the wife and I (used certificate from a friend who received credit for giving it to us). Cabo was nice, but it wasn't something we fell in love with right away (we may go back to try it again). We did enjoy certain things about the resort: We were able to have breakfast and dinner every day right next to the water. The food was really good and wasn't expensive. We enjoyed the water taxi and various marina trips we could take. The room we stayed in was small and musty smelling, didn't like that. I think it's an old resort, so likely has water damage issues. Oh, my wife and I both got sick and spent a lot of time on the Toilet and taking pepto. We've never been sick since though.
Next, we took the entire family to Puerto Vallarta in March of 2021 during covid. We stayed at Villa Del Palmar Flamingos. Our room was very nice and didn't smell musty. Food was quite good, and the staff were great. The beach was nice as well. Overall, it was a great trip and we'd go back given the right price.
March 2022 my wife and I stayed at Villa Premiere Adults Only (PVR) which was located north of the Romantica Zone. Their food was the absolute best, also not expensive. It was a nice little resort with easy access to town. All rooms had an ocean view. On this trip we went to a timeshare presentation at Vidanta and ended up getting suckered into the exit package. We thought it was 1 week/year forever and we'd just have to pay the Usage fee each time we booked. Turns out we purchased 5 weeks to be used in 5 years and a Vacation Club package with Limitless. After the 5 years, we no longer would have access to Vidanta but can continue paying $199/year with Limitless for their "benefits". I don't even want to say how much we paid, but it was just shy of 10k. Huge mistake, but it's water under the bridge.
We just used (last week) the SQN certificate we were given to attend the Vidanta presentation. We stayed at the Grand Mayan in a one bedroom at Nuevo Vallarta. As you all know, the resort is HUGE and you are pretty much isolated to the resort unless you want to take a Taxi into town (which I've heard is expensive and by person???). We ended up bringing our 11 year old. We chose to attend the member update so we could get a few discounts and breakfast. We enjoyed the lazy river, the water slide, and I ended up doing a round of golf at the lakes (10 hole par 3 course). The food was decent, but I thought it was a bit overpriced and thought the food at every other resort was better. It's not that the food was bad, it just wasn't as good as we were hoping. The room was the most musty room we've stayed in so far (our clothes still smell like it now that we are home). I didn't enjoy the idea of sleeping in a room with hidden water damage. It was floor 2 of the Tikal building and wasn't an ocean view. We did go up to a higher level just to see if the mustyness level was lower, and it was. Water travels downhill, right?
When we went to the member update, we were paired up with a British guy named Stanley who had a dedicated office on the 9th floor. He said he wasn't one of the typical sales people and was filling in. He wasn't overly pushy. He offered a Right To Use 2 bedroom Jungle Aqua for 100 years (transferable to children I assume) and 10 years at another new hotel being built near the park (I think). It was somewhere in the 18k range. I can't remember how many weeks it was, but I think it was 2 weeks at Jungle Aqua and maybe another week at this other building. He said he was crediting our Limitless purchase price to this, but based on what I've been reading, I think that was just a sales ploy. I'm guessing anyone off the street could get what we were offered for 18k or even less? He said as members, we would get the best rooms (higher up and ocean view). Not sure if that's really correct or if that's a sales tactic. Another issue when contemplating this package is my youngest will be 12 soon, so our family of 5 won't even be able to stay in a 1 bedroom at the GM according to the website (4 adults + 2 kids). We asked about bringing another adult and he recommended booking (2) 1 bedrooms. That seems like it would be sort of expensive (~3k vs. ~2k for a 2 bedroom). We'd also like to be able to bring our kids' friends, so then we'd be in the same boat. Although, when we checked out, we asked if we could have 5 adults and 1 child in a 1 bedroom at the GM, and they said yes, but it would be 1200 pesos/night extra. I told him we wanted to finish out the week and see how we like Vidanta before making a decision. He thanked us, showed us the elevator and off we went.
After the trip, I started looking at what it would cost for our family of 5 to stay in PVR for a week to see if becoming a member actually made sense. Prices range from 2k-6k with 2k being at maybe one or two of the smaller resorts. We do love going to Mexico to escape the winter cold and get sunshine, but I'm not sure what to do. 2,000-3,000/week seems to be my mental limit for lodging expenses given my Salary. I think I'm beginning to understand why people become members. If you like the Vidanta experience, how else can you come every year? And once you have that initial investment, you pay what is a reasonable fee to book a week at a nice safe resort with golf, lazy river, access to a beach without a lot of vendors pestering you. It's a different Mexico experience, but it's still a good one that checks a lot of boxes.
Without being a member, is there another way to stay at Vidanta GM each and every year for somewhere in the 2,000-2,500 range for a 2 bedroom?
Is there a membership option that actually makes sense that you can purchase in 2023? I know it's dependent on what a person wants, so for us, it's probably the ability to come to PVR once a year for a family of 5 (considered adults going forward I guess). Personally, I'd like a slightly nicer room than what we experienced at the GM, but GM is fine as long as it doesn't smell so bad. Maybe The Grand Bliss?
Given the ages of our kids, I can see Vidanta GM working for us for the next 5 years and that's mostly taken care of by our Limitless 5 weeks we still have. (bookable until March 2027). So, I'm really not sure it makes sense to "Upgrade" at this point unless they truly give us some type of trade-in value for what we spent or we get a "better" experience.
Our first trip to Mexico was in 2019 at Villa del Palmar (Cabo) trip with just the wife and I (used certificate from a friend who received credit for giving it to us). Cabo was nice, but it wasn't something we fell in love with right away (we may go back to try it again). We did enjoy certain things about the resort: We were able to have breakfast and dinner every day right next to the water. The food was really good and wasn't expensive. We enjoyed the water taxi and various marina trips we could take. The room we stayed in was small and musty smelling, didn't like that. I think it's an old resort, so likely has water damage issues. Oh, my wife and I both got sick and spent a lot of time on the Toilet and taking pepto. We've never been sick since though.
Next, we took the entire family to Puerto Vallarta in March of 2021 during covid. We stayed at Villa Del Palmar Flamingos. Our room was very nice and didn't smell musty. Food was quite good, and the staff were great. The beach was nice as well. Overall, it was a great trip and we'd go back given the right price.
March 2022 my wife and I stayed at Villa Premiere Adults Only (PVR) which was located north of the Romantica Zone. Their food was the absolute best, also not expensive. It was a nice little resort with easy access to town. All rooms had an ocean view. On this trip we went to a timeshare presentation at Vidanta and ended up getting suckered into the exit package. We thought it was 1 week/year forever and we'd just have to pay the Usage fee each time we booked. Turns out we purchased 5 weeks to be used in 5 years and a Vacation Club package with Limitless. After the 5 years, we no longer would have access to Vidanta but can continue paying $199/year with Limitless for their "benefits". I don't even want to say how much we paid, but it was just shy of 10k. Huge mistake, but it's water under the bridge.
We just used (last week) the SQN certificate we were given to attend the Vidanta presentation. We stayed at the Grand Mayan in a one bedroom at Nuevo Vallarta. As you all know, the resort is HUGE and you are pretty much isolated to the resort unless you want to take a Taxi into town (which I've heard is expensive and by person???). We ended up bringing our 11 year old. We chose to attend the member update so we could get a few discounts and breakfast. We enjoyed the lazy river, the water slide, and I ended up doing a round of golf at the lakes (10 hole par 3 course). The food was decent, but I thought it was a bit overpriced and thought the food at every other resort was better. It's not that the food was bad, it just wasn't as good as we were hoping. The room was the most musty room we've stayed in so far (our clothes still smell like it now that we are home). I didn't enjoy the idea of sleeping in a room with hidden water damage. It was floor 2 of the Tikal building and wasn't an ocean view. We did go up to a higher level just to see if the mustyness level was lower, and it was. Water travels downhill, right?
When we went to the member update, we were paired up with a British guy named Stanley who had a dedicated office on the 9th floor. He said he wasn't one of the typical sales people and was filling in. He wasn't overly pushy. He offered a Right To Use 2 bedroom Jungle Aqua for 100 years (transferable to children I assume) and 10 years at another new hotel being built near the park (I think). It was somewhere in the 18k range. I can't remember how many weeks it was, but I think it was 2 weeks at Jungle Aqua and maybe another week at this other building. He said he was crediting our Limitless purchase price to this, but based on what I've been reading, I think that was just a sales ploy. I'm guessing anyone off the street could get what we were offered for 18k or even less? He said as members, we would get the best rooms (higher up and ocean view). Not sure if that's really correct or if that's a sales tactic. Another issue when contemplating this package is my youngest will be 12 soon, so our family of 5 won't even be able to stay in a 1 bedroom at the GM according to the website (4 adults + 2 kids). We asked about bringing another adult and he recommended booking (2) 1 bedrooms. That seems like it would be sort of expensive (~3k vs. ~2k for a 2 bedroom). We'd also like to be able to bring our kids' friends, so then we'd be in the same boat. Although, when we checked out, we asked if we could have 5 adults and 1 child in a 1 bedroom at the GM, and they said yes, but it would be 1200 pesos/night extra. I told him we wanted to finish out the week and see how we like Vidanta before making a decision. He thanked us, showed us the elevator and off we went.
After the trip, I started looking at what it would cost for our family of 5 to stay in PVR for a week to see if becoming a member actually made sense. Prices range from 2k-6k with 2k being at maybe one or two of the smaller resorts. We do love going to Mexico to escape the winter cold and get sunshine, but I'm not sure what to do. 2,000-3,000/week seems to be my mental limit for lodging expenses given my Salary. I think I'm beginning to understand why people become members. If you like the Vidanta experience, how else can you come every year? And once you have that initial investment, you pay what is a reasonable fee to book a week at a nice safe resort with golf, lazy river, access to a beach without a lot of vendors pestering you. It's a different Mexico experience, but it's still a good one that checks a lot of boxes.
Without being a member, is there another way to stay at Vidanta GM each and every year for somewhere in the 2,000-2,500 range for a 2 bedroom?
Is there a membership option that actually makes sense that you can purchase in 2023? I know it's dependent on what a person wants, so for us, it's probably the ability to come to PVR once a year for a family of 5 (considered adults going forward I guess). Personally, I'd like a slightly nicer room than what we experienced at the GM, but GM is fine as long as it doesn't smell so bad. Maybe The Grand Bliss?
Given the ages of our kids, I can see Vidanta GM working for us for the next 5 years and that's mostly taken care of by our Limitless 5 weeks we still have. (bookable until March 2027). So, I'm really not sure it makes sense to "Upgrade" at this point unless they truly give us some type of trade-in value for what we spent or we get a "better" experience.