Positive Timeshare Stories!

[TUGBrian]

I was speaking with an old friend earlier this week and we were discussing how far more folks complain about Timeshares online, or at least the perception is that most of the online references slant towards the negative!

Well low and behold someone started one of the best posts we have ever seen on the TUG facebook page talking about how they love their timeshare, and it caused more owners to follow suit!

This really is a great read, even if you dont have facebook!

Timeshare Users Group | I feel like I should let folks know here, I am actually one of the MANY happy timeshare owners | Facebook

I feel like I should let folks know here, I am actually one of the MANY happy timeshare owners . . . with absolutely ZERO regrets! I bought my first timeshare more than 40 years ago, from a...

www.facebook.com

and if you do, be sure to share your story!

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Purchasing Wyndham resale points was a fantastic decision for my family. We got multiple low maintenance fee contracts for pennies on the dollar. We travel to Walt Disney World multiple times per year and used to spend $4,000ish per week for a week in a hotel room. Now we spend $900-$1,700ish in maintenance fees for a two bedroom condo in a gorgeous resort (Bonnet Creek) on WDW grounds. It has enabled us to travel more frequently, and to have a much better time having our own room and giving our children their own room, along with having a washer/dryer so we don’t have to pack as much and a kitchen so we don’t have to eat every meal out. This year we are branching out and using our timeshare points to stay a week in California in a 2 bedroom on the beach for around $1900 in annual fees when the same trip last year in kind of crappy hotel rooms cost us closer to $3,000. We are also using the points to stay beachfront in Myrtle Beach in the summer, again for an incredible price. I have absolutely zero regrets and am confident I will continue loving these timeshare purchases for years to come.

 

[heitmullerj02]

Love my timeshares, bought another one last year. Great family vacations which i could not have afforded any other way. WaikikI, Disney, Carlsbad, I enjoy them all and will continue to do so until I can no longer travel. 2bed/bath makes it so comfortable, now if I could get them moving before noon….

 

[TravelMaster]

Having timeshares has made a qualitative difference in our lives. We have an autistic son, and it was always difficult staying together in a hotel room whenever we went on vacation. There were times, 25 years ago, when a vacation (especially in Orlando) didn’t relieve our stress, but actually added to it. We all need our space. We’ve bought several timeshares over the past 17 years. Some from the developer, some on the aftermarket. We use them regularly, we take extended family members or close friends with us occasionally, we’ve even donated a few weeks here and there to be auctioned off at charitable events. On those trips where our son joins us we get a 2 bedroom unit, so he gets his own bedroom, bathroom and TV. By experimenting, we’ve found the areas and specific resorts that best meet our needs. Our favorites are in Palm Beach Shores, Door County, WI, as well as Kauai. I might add that we had originally tried owning a private condo in Florida. For fours years we’d rent it out to snowbirds in the winter to cover some of our costs. It was a good arrangement for the first few years, but it really limited our options.

 

[geist1223]

We bought our first Joint Worldmark Account before we were married. We stayed in WM Blvd for our Las Vegas Wedding. Our Honeymoon was a free week at WM Kihei. We have stayed in Timeshares all over the USA (to include Hawaii), Mexico, Canada, France, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Fiji, New Zealand, and, Australia. We just got back from WM Stablewood Springs Hunt Texas for the Solar Eclipse. We are thinking about Sydney Australia in 4 years as it is in the Center of Totality. We expanded and now are also DRI Members and Royal Solaris. Royal Solaris is an AI. But we pay no MF. We got in cheap during the last big Recession.

Have there been negative experiences. Yes but they were overwhelmingly out weighed by the positive. I doubt that we would have traveled to all these locations without our Timeshares.

 

[klpca]

We just love our timeshares and utilize exchanging for most of our travels. I wish that timeshares were located a bit closer to where we like to travel, but you can't have everything. We rarely stay in studios/hotel rooms any more because timesharing has definitely spoiled us. The minimum for us is a one bedroom unit. We love having a kitchen, room to spread out and honestly, the price. Everyone seems to complain about maintenance fees - and I wish that the cost per night was the same as it was when we first got into timesharing around 2011 (all resale) - but when I compare the cost to the alternatives (hotels or airbnb) it is still the best option for us by a mile.

We just got back from a 10 night trip (Sedona/Monument Valley/Moab/Zion) and used timeshare points for half of the trip (Sedona/Moab) and cash for the rest (MV/Zion). The timeshare units themselves were wonderful - especially having the full kitchens. In both MV and Zion, even though we had a mini-kitchen, both places stated NO COOKING when we checked in and neither place came with any cutlery or dishes. Our cost on the timeshare nights was $141/night for a 1 bedroom in Moab and Sedona was about $200/night for a 1 bedroom (expiring HGVC points that needed to get used up). The costs for the cash nights were $260/nt in Zion, and +$285/nt in Monument Valley. The place in MV had a million dollar view of the valley, Zion had no view. Neither did the timeshares, but my point is that we didn't get *anything* for the extra cost in the non-timeshare units, in fact because we couldn't cook in the unit, we received less. Also, both of the non-timeshare units were quite a bit smaller - comparable to timeshare studios. It was a significant contrast in lodging.

Life is what you make of it. The biggest issue with timesharing is the need to plan - if you are a planner it is great, if you like to be spontaneous it is probably not a good fit. I don't know why there is such a focus on what people don't like about timesharing vs what is positive about timesharing, but maybe some people just tend to focus on the negative. I think that timesharing is great!

 

[missyrcrews]

That was a great read! Count me among the happy timeshare owners as well. Timesharing is my hobby. I don't wear expensive clothes (thrift stores for most!), I drive an old car, and I have a modest home. But I dearly love my timeshares. Now that I'm traveling mostly alone, I don't need to have large units, but I still enjoy the ability to cook my meals, wash my clothes, and spread out. And I ENJOY the planning process. Anticipating the trip is half the fun!

 

[PamMo]

After more than twenty years of owning, we continue having amazing trips with our timeshares!

We did a similar trip to @klpca’s in Dec/Jan, and did it all by trading smaller units into 2BR timeshares for five consecutive weeks. We love hiking, so we were thrilled with 1 week in Santa Fe, 2 weeks in Sedona, 1 week in St George to hike Zion and Bryce, and 1 week in Moab. It was absolutely magical!

And we just got home from three weeks in Cabo - one week with my sister and her husband, the next week with all our kids and grands, and the last week to relax and unwind! We used three of our timeshares, plus a couple of exchanges into bigger units at the resort for everyone. I couldn’t imagine hosting 16 people in hotel rooms (cost and comfort wise). The timeshares were perfect!

 

[stan0832]

We are very happy with our timeshare experiences! We bought our first from the developer at Palm Beach Shores in 2000, along with membership in RCI Weeks. We have since added biennial ownership (2 villas) at Atlantis Harborside, and units at Windjammer Landing and Sheraton PGA (Vistana). For all we now use RCI Points, and we trade extensively (except Harborside which our extended family loves). We have learned the “system” and traded on RCI for timeshares in Orlando Vistana several times, Sedona, Japan, Thailand, China (Badaling near the Great Wall), India (Agra/Taj Mahal), Mexico many times, Hawaii on Oahu and the Big Island. We normally have 10 or more family members joining us, and love the availability of large spaces, kitchens, laundry facilities, etc. Hotel rooms would not do for us. We have also used TUG recommendations on purchasing, renting, and eventually passing on our ownerships.

 

[noreenkate]

Seriously I love love love ones that I adopted here on TUG-
Just traded that VV, referred to around here as the little trader that could, thanks to the sightings board into a week at DVC Kidani villas.

 

[silentg]

We have had many great timeshare vacations . The positives out way the negative. Thank you to all the TUG members for many useful opinions and advice. We are looking forward to many more years of travel especially Timeshare related vacations.

 

[LannyPC]

...we were discussing how far more folks complain about Timeshares online, or at least the perception is that most of the online references slant towards the negative!

In my personal observations, people tend to vent, criticize, and complain more than commend online. Many who have complaints feel they need somewhere to vent whereas, with TSs for example, very few find avenues online (except for maybe here on TUG) to praise their TSs.

But, yeah, in amongst all the negative talk about TSs, it is nice to see some here give their positive experiences.

 

[CO skier]

Rather than repost, here are just a few links for a multitude of positive timeshare experiences over the years:

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/s...m-timeshare-now-or-later.257623/#post-2015332

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/bygone-days-value-of-rci-exchanges.348128/#post-2887964

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/t...nb-vacation-rental-route.347725/#post-2884185

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/rent-or-buy-how-you-decide.318038/#post-2600344

 

[chunkygal]

Kids are grown and gone, but are always up for a family get together at dvc or mvc. Great memories, future memories to make. Priceless. In a resort, there's something for everyone, and space in our togetherness. Best money we ever spent.

 

[Hindsite]

We've had over 20 years of really great quality vacations and are just getting started on exploiting much better use, thanks to the encouragement of examples here on TUG and elsewhere.
For the rational brain, it was just last year that we reached the all up actual cost per week of what we were paying for vacation lodging before we bought our first timeshare and we have had larger units in nicer resorts and gone to more places than I initially budgeted for.
Luckily I like forward planning and the process of getting the great deals, so that only adds to the entertainment of owning.
Working out when/how to dispose of our holdings is a bit or a background worry, but there are also many other much larger problems that will occur when we get to that place, so I'll just put them up for adoption with some sweeteners so someone else can get good value from them.

 

[artringwald]

We keep getting scammers calling saying they have a buyer for our timeshares. It keeps reminding us that we don't want to sell. We've visited many other places, but Hawaii is still our favorite. The timeshares "force" use to stay there 3 weeks every year. The MF's do increase each year, but so does the cost of staying anywhere else. A roomy 2 bedroom oceanfront condo in Poipu is going to cost much more than what we pay for the timeshares.

 

[TheHolleys87]

My family - husband, kids, and me - benefited tremendously by being able to travel with my parents on their timeshare exchange weeks to Hawaii and various mainland locations, and our kids were able to grow up on multiple WDW visits where we could grant them increasing independence over the years. And we’ve been able to gift honeymoons and grandkid visits to WDW, too. Even though we’ve reduced our ownership and can’t travel as much as we’d like, we’re still happy to be timeshare owners!

 

[CO skier]

Checked into my WorldMark Lake of the Ozarks as a WorldMark Owner. Front desk agent: "I have bad news, the building with 1 bedrooms is undergoing renovations, so we upgraded you to a 3 bedroom Presidential" (with a private hot tub on the deck overlooking the lake).

I hate when that happens , and nothing like that would, obviously, ever happen with a VRBO or AirBnB RENTAL.

Timeshare Ownership has its privileges.

 

[WorldT]

Still new to the timesharing experience (just a couple of months) but I already have good stories.
After much research on this site, I entered with a low point (16k per year)GV Las Vegas unit. Already been to Vidanta Riviera Maya for 7 days. Stayed in their big 1 bedroom deluxe unit (2 bathroom) Grand Luxxe unit. All in price including MF $650.
Got the family and in-laws booked in a 4 bedroom unit at Massanuten later this year on an extra vacation. I would have used a cheaper option but it took awhile to get everyone to agree to a date .
And so far I have used less than my yearly points allocation.
Going forward, in addition to my travelings, I will be in a position to give the gift of low cost traveling to family and friends.

 

[Eric B]

The biggest issue with timesharing is the need to plan

^^^ This is quite true. ^^^
We own a mix of fixed week, floating week, and points system timeshares/fractionals and I have to work around my work schedule for a couple of weeks in the year I have to be in person. We plan our travel to our fixed weeks in St John, Puerto Vallarta, and San Jose del Cabo, plan to plan additional days or weeks either side of those to minimize air fare costs/travel day, and pick up a few extra trips as they become available. As a result, my planning horizon stretches from next month through about three years from now and includes contingency planning in case someone wants to rent a fixed week.

 

[Sugarcubesea]

I love my timeshares, I have sold some thru the years but I keep buying at my favorite resort in Naples, Florida. Since all of mine were purchased resale, I feel I have gotten good value for what I own and at the end of the day, I will be able to get at least what I paid for most when I get rid of them.

 

[stmartinfan]

Our experience is different from most in that we usually go to the resort we own. We bought in St. Maarten on our first visit to the island nearly 30 years ago. We fell in love with the beaches, the people and the amazing restaurants. For many years, we traveled there during our kids spring break week, often bringing one of their friends, because it was a great escape from our frigid winters. This year our daughter and son in law joined us with our two young granddaughters. So fun to see them enjoying the beaches now! We have a RTU contract with 40 years and can accelerate to book additional weeks each year annd upgrade unit size. With increasing fees, it’s not as cheap as it once was, but we figure our contract will expire about the time we are no longer able to travel!

One week has worked well for us because our summer travel has usually been to major European cities where we rent small apartments and timeshares wouldn't be as convenient.

 

[dazzlingheart]

That was a great read! Count me among the happy timeshare owners as well. Timesharing is my hobby. I don't wear expensive clothes (thrift stores for most!), I drive an old car, and I have a modest home. But I dearly love my timeshares. Now that I'm traveling mostly alone, I don't need to have large units, but I still enjoy the ability to cook my meals, wash my clothes, and spread out. And I ENJOY the planning process. Anticipating the trip is half the fun!

I have also decided to take on timesharing as my hobby. It's fun and fascinating.

 

[ScoopKona]

We've saved approximately six figures using our timeshare instead of renting hotel rooms and other short-term solutions.

I'm actually glad that timeshares have such a lousy reputation. It's hard enough to trade as it is. If everyone knew how to use what they own and talked the whole program up, it would be much harder for traders.

 

[easyrider]

With the help of SFX I managed to reserve two weeks in a three bed unit at Vista Encantada in Cabo. We were on the top floor beneath the swimming pool with an incredible view. The goal of this trip was for a special person in dwindling health and their family to enjoy some time together. Even though we were only allowed 8 occupants there were times that we had over. The resort allowed us to do this and provided excellent service to our guests who were friends and family. It was a fun trip in an opulent resort with a fantastic view.

The costs would have been very high to do something like this without using timeshares for exchanging.

Bill