Next TUG Virtual Meet Up Livestream Event - Sunday April 26th @ 4PM ET, 1 PM PT

[dioxide45]

Okay. Based on voting from the poll I set up in the TUG lounge, it looks like we will have Marriott as the next topic of discussion. I am looking for panelists for the next TUG Virtual Meetup Livestream. I expect to schedule it for April 26th at 4pm eastern time. If you are not sure what it is, you can see what it was all about here.

So if you are interested, and you are not camera shy, send me a PM. Here is what you will need in order to participate;

• A laptop or desktop with a webcam and microphone.
• A recent version of Chrome or Firefox.
• A strong internet connection. Just like Skype, you must have a strong internet connection for it to work well. If possible, connect to your router with an ethernet cable instead of using WiFi.
• We recommend wearing earbuds or headphones to prevent audio echoes.
• If you don’t have a laptop or desktop, then you can join on your phone. But the experience is usually best on a laptop/desktop. On Android, we recommend the Chrome browser. On iOS, you must use Safari.

Don't want to be on the panel? Don't worry, you can watch, participate in the live chat and ask questions. A link will be provided to the livestream once we get it setup.

 

[GregT]

Hello Jeremy,

We have alot of great TUGgers on this board, but I think it would be fascinating to hear @jme talk about Hilton Head, plus his experience with the ski resorts. @MOXJO7282 has alot of experience with Hawaii and St. Thomas, and maybe Aruba too? Plus he has a robust rental business and would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the next 12-24 months for those of us who rent time shares. Personally (selfishly) I would love to have panel members who can talk about the different tropical vacation spots that Marriott offers to us. Tradewinds was a big hit on the first TUG panel, is there a hidden gem that we should discover in a future panel (St. Kitts???)?

Good luck and thanks for doing this! I will mark my calendar and log in with questions!

Best,

Greg

 

[ilene13]

I would prefer not to hear about someone's robust rental business as Marriott has discouraged rentals as a business. As an owner of multiple weeks at the Aruba Ocean Club due to the owners that own mega weeks and use it as a rental business, we are often closed out of weeks 51/52. Marriott is supposedly going after those owners as our documents prohibit the use of the timeshares as a business. We bought our first Marriott timeshare in the mid 1980's and we have owned 3 weeks at the AOC since it's inception. We never had a problem getting any of our weeks until 2005 or so when people stopped buying timeshares as guaranteed vacations and started buying them to create an income!

 

[jont]

Hello Jeremy,

We have alot of great TUGgers on this board, but I think it would be fascinating to hear @jme talk about Hilton Head, plus his experience with the ski resorts. @MOXJO7282 has alot of experience with Hawaii and St. Thomas, and maybe Aruba too? Plus he has a robust rental business and would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the next 12-24 months for those of us who rent time shares. Personally (selfishly) I would love to have panel members who can talk about the different tropical vacation spots that Marriott offers to us. Tradewinds was a big hit on the first TUG panel, is there a hidden gem that we should discover in a future panel (St. Kitts???)?

Good luck and thanks for doing this! I will mark my calendar and log in with questions!

Best,

Greg

To add to Greg’s list I would like to hear from StevenTing. JIMinNC, and SueDonJ

 

[VacationForever]

To add to Greg’s list I would like to hear from StevenTing. JIMinNC, and SueDonJ

I second this.

 

[csalter2]

I like GregT’s list and jont’s list. All are knowledgeable. I would suggest to things. First, that we consider our audience. We have on TUG a broad base of owners from the extremely savvy, knowledgeable and sophisticated owner to the I only know what the salesman told me what did I buy owner. It will be difficult to not bore one group while exciting the other. I think their needs to be some structure but room for input from the audience is a nice touch. With the rental of weeks or points, that could be an event all by itself led by MOXJO7282 (weeks) and Steve Ting (points).

If the purpose is to help people learn, then there would need to be more focused. If the purpose is for everyone to kind of talk about timeshare in general at a leisurely what are your thoughts pace, then one can leave the door open. Either is fine, but that should b considered.

 

[elked12]

I agree. 3 of the most knowledgeable contributors I know of.

 

[StevenTing]

I still have much to learn but am flattered by the comments. I have grown and learned from others as well.

 

[jme]

On Tuesday 7th I emailed Jeremy with my "other" list, while still keeping the outstanding original panel on call.
(Panelists old and new could be rotated, as there's a six-person limit.)
My list:
SueDonJ, JIMinNC, jmhpsu93, Dean, Swice, CPNY, Mr. Vker, StevenTing, DeniseM.
All are prolific posters and very knowledgeable, imho.
Glad to see jont and I mutually recommend three stars.....

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

On Tuesday 7th I emailed Jeremy with my "other" list, while still keeping the outstanding original panel on call.
(Panelists old and new could be rotated, as there's a six-person limit.)
My list:
SueDonJ, JIMinNC, jmhpsu93, Dean, Swice, CPNY, Mr. Vker, StevenTing, DeniseM.
All are prolific posters and very knowledgeable, imho.
Glad to see jont and I mutually recommend three stars.....

This is a good list. Hopefully CPNY is well enough to be able to participate as he was one of the unlucky ones who had Covid 19 and had a very rough time of it. I am hoping he is doing much better now!




.

 

[SueDonJ]

Dioxide, what a great thing you're doing! I'm watching the first in fits and starts, very interesting! Thanks to those who think I could add something - I'm hoping to participate and have saved the date.

BUT I won't know for sure until we're closer because life is crazy here. Don and I have been sitting intermittently for our son Steve's kids because he and his wife are essential but have lost their daycare, and we'll know early that week if they need us that day. Also, our daughter and her family closed on their newly-built home the other day so they'll be moving out of our place when their movers schedule, which they say will probably be sometime that week.

I hope you're all happy and healthy, and that you're enjoying a bit more sanity than we are.

 

[dioxide45]

Dioxide, what a great thing you're doing! I'm watching the first in fits and starts, very interesting! Thanks to those who think I could add something - I'm hoping to participate and have saved the date.

BUT I won't know for sure until we're closer because life is crazy here. Don and I have been sitting intermittently for our son Steve's kids because he and his wife are essential but have lost their daycare, and we'll know early that week if they need us that day. Also, our daughter and her family closed on their newly-built home the other day so they'll be moving out of our place when their movers schedule, which they say will probably be sometime that week.

I hope you're all happy and healthy, and that you're enjoying a bit more sanity than we are.

Great @SueDonJ . If you are able to participate let me know. If not, we can get you in to a future livestream.

Sanity is a hard thing to come by these days...

 

[NYFLTRAVELER]

Will this be via Zoom (by invitation/password only?)

And with respect to the comment above about Marriott Aruba Surf suing the hoarders of week 51/52 who turn around and rent it, I’ve been told by sales there that it’s never going to happen.

 

[bazzap]

Will this be via Zoom (by invitation/password only?)

And with respect to the comment above about Marriott Aruba Surf suing the hoarders of week 51/52 who turn around and rent it, I’ve been told by sales there that it’s never going to happen.

It wasn’t via Zoom last time.
They might have targetted high volume, commercial renters, but there will always be peak week renters.

 

[ilene13]

Will this be via Zoom (by invitation/password only?)

And with respect to the comment above about Marriott Aruba Surf suing the hoarders of week 51/52 who turn around and rent it, I’ve been told by sales there that it’s never going to happen.

My comment was about the Ocean Club not the Surf Club and there has been movement. I have a close friend on the board!

 

[NYFLTRAVELER]

I hope that is the case for both properties.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I would love to hear TUGgers talk about Marriott. It would be fun to watch.

 

[dms1709]

I would love to hear the Marriott experts.

 

[SteelerGal]

I would love to learn more. Just became an owner.

 

[jont]

I would love to learn more. Just became an owner.

You've come to the right place. congrats on your Marriott addition. I find the marriott tuggers, as all tug members, to be very friendly and helpful.

 

[jme]

I would love to learn more. Just became an owner.

Hello SteelerGal,

Wow, congratulations on being a new owner, and welcome to TUG.

I tell you, on TUG you'll have MORE FUN than watching reruns of Franco Harris' famous "Immaculate Reception"...

(NFL is blocking this first video if I post it as a clickable link, so copy and paste this, and just add "www." up front)
youtube.com/watch?v=k3BmsangduI

(another interesting video taped on the 45th anniversary of the play--this link works fine)

...which occurred on Saturday December 23,1972 in the AFC Divisional Playoff with the Oakland Raiders, with only 22 seconds to go,
putting the Steelers into the Conference championship.
They did not make the Superbowl after the win, but it inspired them so much they soon established their dynasty and went on to
4 Superbowl championships shortly thereafter, then later added two more in 2005 & 2008. One play did it all, and their world changed.
Super Bowl championships (6)
1974 (IX), 1975 (X), 1978 (XIII), 1979 (XIV), 2005 (XL), 2008 (XLIII)

BTW, their "Immaculate Reception" was selected as the NFL'S GREATEST PLAY OF ALL TIME, and rightly so.
(Were you even born?)
I remember exactly where I was when the play happened----a teenager downtown, sitting curbside alone,
outside a bicycle shop before going in,
waiting & listening on my car radio for the game to be over.
Steelers were down by one point with Oakland leading 7–6, Steelers facing fourth-and-10 on their own 40-yard line
with only 22 seconds remaining in the game and no time-outs.

That is, the game seemed irreparably LOST (in my mind), with the radio's volume now turned way down due to disappointment .....
BUT, as the play was happening, after Franco caught the ricocheted ball and began running frantically toward the end zone,
I turned the volume up as high as I could get it because of the distraction of the traffic (the car was now reverberating and shaking).
I really didn't know what actually happened, it sounded crazy and chaotic, but I had a feeling it sounded good.
When they said he scored I almost jumped thru the roof, and I do remember screaming. They won 13-7. The rest is history, as they say.

Being on the radio, it now seems even bigger than life as I recall that cosmic event.
I instantly became a lifetime Steelers fan. I've also liked a couple of other teams, so it wasn't as rabid a thing as it is
for most Steeler fans, but it's still pretty strong. I was forever hooked on the Black & Gold, as the rest of the sporting world was.
Great history, great uniforms, great personalities, great players.

Oh yeah, SteelerGal, welcome! What was I talking about?

 

[Steve Fatula]

Yeah, I recall watching it live, that likely is the best play ever, though, lucky too. But, just says never give up on a play. Being from Cleveland, it was kind of odd for us to be Steelers fans.

 

[dioxide45]

Here is a link to the next livestream. I will add any additional participants to the video thumbnail if we can get more people to join.

If you have a Google account, you can hover over the video thumbnail and setup a reminder. Not exactly sure how this works, but you may need to have alerts setup on the device you are using.

Also, if you don't have a Google account, be sure to set one up ahead of time. You can get a free GMail account. By being able to be logged in to your Google account while viewing, you can then also participate in the chat.

 

[VacationForever]

Here is a link to the next livestream. I will add any additional participants to the video thumbnail if we can get more people to join.

If you have a Google account, you can hover over the video thumbnail and setup a reminder. Not exactly sure how this works, but you may need to have alerts setup on the device you are using.

Also, if you don't have a Google account, be sure to set one up ahead of time. You can get a free GMail account. By being able to be logged in to your Google account while viewing, you can then also participate in the chat.

I will be joining. What do you need me to do when you said add to the video thumbnail?

 

[dioxide45]

I will be joining. What do you need me to do when you said add to the video thumbnail?

Actually, it looks like you need to hover over the thumbnail and click on it. Then a Set Reminder button will show up in the bottom right. Basically click on the image for the video in post #23.