Smugglers Notch vs Massanutten

[tschwa2]

I stayed a week with my family at both Smugglers Notch Resort in Vermont and Massanutten in Virginia this summer. They are both popular resorts in the East and I wanted to do a comparison of both. I have stayed in 3 different areas at Massanutten in the last 6 years (Woodstone, Regal Vistas, and Shenandoah Villas) once in summer, once in winter and once in the fall. This was my first visit to Smuggs. We stayed in Sycamores in the West Hill Community. I live about 4 hours from Massanutten and 10 hours from Smuggs.


I will be doing reviews but I also wanted to compare both.

Massanutten
Pros
1.You can reserve in specific sections. Both resorts were built over several years and have areas that are nicer than others. The 1 in 4 are area specific and you can pick other areas to visit more often.

2.All resorts have AC and Heat in all areas.

3.There is a lot of availability. If you want to reserve prime time you can reserve one year plus at 15-22 tpu's. Off season weeks and non holiday ski weeks go for less than 10 tpu's even far in advance. You can usually wait until RCI has a sale and then even prime weeks can be discounted to 5-15 tpu's. Regal Vistas is the newest section and has higher tpu's but last minute rentals pop up for less than 10 tpus.

4.Every area has at least 2 indoor pools and 1 or 2 outdoor pools which can be used without paying any additional fees. They can get very crowded. The kids didn't seem to mind but if you are traveling without kids the pools would probably be too busy to visit outside the adult only times.

5.Nice indoor/outdoor water park. Indoor only outside of summer.

6.Regal Vistas does have an outdoor pool only for owners/exchangers in area. It was always very quiet and nice but it was not heated and was fairly chilly in mid June.

7.Scenic area with natural and historic areas nearby. Resort offered excursions as well as accessible by car.

8.Free Internet

9. Some free kids programs like daily kickball and wiffleball. My kids really enjoyed these although it was too hot a few days.


Cons
1. No shuttle system and almost everything requires driving throughout the resort.

2. You have to strip beds before leaving. This isn't the only resort that I own that does this but very few "gold crown" resorts seem to require this.

3. The waterpark and other activities are quite expensive. There are no discounts for larger families. Buying the activity cards help a lot if you are golfing but only really helps otherwise if you plan on doing several days of paid on site programs.

4. The waterpark is not subsidized by MF's which is nice for owners but they also have no control over how it is used. Waterpark tickets and activity cards are given as a perk of touring and tickets are also given free or at a substantial discount to community members. One day when I was there was the first day of a local promotion giving free passes to library card holders. The park was swamped with "gratis" tickets.At $38 per person per day ($90 for 3 days, $112 for 6 days). I felt that I was subsidizing all the free visitors. To make it worse- 2 days in the park was plenty because there was so much else to do but one day didn't seem like quite enough. We bought the 3 day tickets but the 3rd day only went for 2 hours just to justify the extra expense. For larger families these fees really add up. Ski and snowboard activities can be equally expensive.

5. There were several other activities that were overpriced. Bean bag toss and putt putt which cost the resort virtually nothing are charged $5-$6 per person. I think rentals for these kinds of activities should be free or $1-2 per person. Although there were a few free activities plan on spending $5-$15 per person for each activity. Activity cards $99 adults/$69 kids cut most activity fees in half and make most activities that are under $10 free.

6. Sales folks are very pushy and the called at least daily to sign up to tour. (They only called once when I was traveling without my husband and then they just called to ask if he joined me on the trip)

7. The outdoor pools are not heated and can be chilly during early summer. The free pools can get crazy busy during the summer.

8.Check out time was 10am. Check in time was 5pm in some sections and 4pm in others. 3:30-5:30 can be really busy and crowded and take 15-40 minutes to check in.

9. Some sections have tons of steps. When I stayed in Shenandoah Villas (while pregnant and traveling with 80+ year old and a toddler) I had a unit that had over 60 steps with limited handrail to get up to the unit. Once in the unit one bedroom was upstairs and the other bedroom was down a full flight of stairs. The heat was also poorly distributed. The upstairs was HOT. The downstairs was freezing and the middle floor- living room, dining room, kitchen was just right. I will avoid this section but others may not have the problems with it that I did.

I will work on my Pros and Cons for Smugglers Notch tomorrow.

 

[Luvstotravel]

Thanks for an interesting post, and I'm looking forward to your view of Smuggler's Notch!

We spent a weekend at Massanutten about 18 months ago, and I wasn't impressed. I prefer timeshares that let me use them as a base to explore the area, not ones that are designed to keep you onsite.

That said, we're going to Smuggler's Notch next summer! LOL. But, that's because it's only about 20 minutes from family, our REAL reason for going there. I don't think we'll be using much of their activities, we'll be visiting family, or exploring the area.

Unless, of course, your review of Smuggler's Notch changes our mind!

 

[Weimaraner]

Thanks for notes. I've been interested in both resorts and know they are popular with East Coast-ers. Do they get people from far away too? From Michigan, it doesn't look like they are particularly easy to get to. So that leaves me wondering if it's worth going through the hoops to get there? or if I should stick with Great Wolf or Boyne Resorts closer to home that offer indoor water parks. Or are they special or unique enough resorts that they are on the must do list?

 

[senorak]

Another one who is looking forward to your review of Smuggs, (since we are heading there for our first visit in less than 2 weeks).

Deb

 

[Ridewithme38]

Add me to the list! I stayed at Massanutten during presidents week and i enjoyed it...so i'd like to hear how smuggs compares

 

[tschwa2]

Smugglers Notch

Pros
1. Definitely more compact and friendly campus like. More than half of all units are within an easy walking distance to 90% of the activities. Even the communities that are outside of the main village area are an easy 5 min drive with ample parking.

2. Shuttle Bus - but you don't have to drive if you don't want to for the onsite activities. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a shuttle. Sometimes by the time we walked out of our building one was waiting for us.

3. Heated outdoor pools. Vermont can be a little cooler and the pools were never bathwater but were usually just the temperature.

4. For those staying in the West Hills Community or the North Hill Community you also had use of an additional pool, exercise room and game room. Ours had 2 ping pong tables, 2 pool tables, and air hockey. Air hockey and pool table was $1 per game. There were 4 video games. 3 cost $0.50 per game and one was $0.25. The pool also had a splash area, play ground and grills. The area was never crowded.

5. We really enjoyed the wikes. They were typically 2-2.5 hours and really just longer than walk not more strenuous, although the resort is on a hill so there was some up and down. The guided hikes looked good but I knew I wasn't up to a 5-6 hour hike. You did need a pass to go on the guided walks, wikes, or hikes. They did ask you if you had one and had to write your name and unit number on a sheet.

6. The funzone area was a nice place to go in the afternoon or early evening for 30-45 minutes. It was a little on the hot side. Good for children 3-12. Older children might enjoy it once but probably wouldn't want to spend too much time here. One of the teen centers had an evening here after the regular 8:30pm closing time. Without the younger kids, the 13-15 would probably enjoy it.

7.Mini golf was slightly above average for resort mini golf. It followed a nice stream side wooded path. They did ask to see pass. I am not sure how much it would have been without it.

8. Summer weather in Vermont (in my book) definitely beats the weather most places. We had a few unseasonably hot days (lower 90s with moderate humidity) and even those days were no where near as bad as average days in Virginia in the summer.

9. Camps were better than average. Many children (I'm assuming of owners and those booking directly through the resort) attend camp 5-6 days during the week. There was a lot of diversity and I let my boys each pick the one day that had the most interesting content. They both got along with the other kids and made friends even though they were the only ones going for only one day. Even with the 30% discount each camp was about $60 for the day. The specialty camps were not discounted and ran about $90-$100 per day.

10. Courtside pool was included without pass. It's basically a regular pool from 4-8 ft deep with a slide and 2 hot tubs. Sometimes it would be very very crowded but other times it was not so bad. It is not a good swimming area for small kids who can't swim.

11. Reasonable tpu's for summer months. I think most weeks can be had for 15-28 with most in the lower 20's.

12. Decent amount of grills where we stayed but they were charcoal and you did have to bring your own charcoal. On vacation gas would be more convenient.

13. I don't think Wyndham is in full selling mode yet because although after checking in we did have to go to the Wyndham desk to get the keys, they asked once about an update and never mentioned it again. We did get a call in the unit and I was expecting another pitch but they wanted to know if we were missing anything or needed anything from housekeeping.

Cons
1. As I mentioned, you can't pick your area. You may get an assignment with your original confirmation from RCI but now that Wyndham is managing the resort it seems that there is more juggling around of accommodation. I don't know if any of the areas have elevators. Ours didn't and although our unit was all on one floor-the ground floor. We had to either go up 5 steps and then down 13 or down 12 and then up 6 to get to our unit do to the way it was on a hill.

2.Internet cost $30 per week. This was per unit and not per device but still it was extra.

3. The Smuggs pass came to about $360 with tax for the week. We had 4 for the whole week and another 2 people in our unit for 5 days. I feel like we really didn't get $360 value out of it but if you take the tpu's spent 21 (far a large 2 bedroom condo) at $20 per point $420+$179+$360= $959 for the week not including the 2 days of camp and about $40 in other activity rentals/fees, I certainly feel it was worth it for the week. For a smaller family of 2-4 it might be a little overpriced with the pass. We did 2 day trips outside of Smuggs. We did our own taste of Vermont trip modeled after the resorts trip and stopped at a maple sugar farm, cider mill, chocholate store, and Ben and Jerry's. The next day we visited Stowe and went up Mount Mansfield on the toll road and hiked around the top trails.

4. Availability is decent 18 months prior but you really need to decide and book at that time for the best selection of dates. There are a few last minute cancellations but most weeks are snatched up by 12 months prior for summer weeks. The resort also has a 1 in 4 rule. It looks like a great place for kids to learn to ski but for me it is just too far for a partial week and the only full week we could travel in the winter is Christmas and I don't see that happening. Its sometimes hard to plan 18 months out so I would suggest taking the rci insurance in case you need to change your plans but depending on when you realize you need to change it may be 2 years before there would be availability to book again.

5. No decent grocery stores nearby. It took about 35 minutes to get to an ok grocery store (Hanisford). Some of the prices were a little high.

6.We went to all the pool areas. Each one was fairly small and more a pool with a slide or two or two -three swim areas with a slide. Taken all together I would call it a water park but Courtside, Mountainside, and Notchville Park as a stand alone waterparks would be very underwhelming. The daily admission rates if you don't have the pass is something like $40 for adults and $30 for children 12 and under with a separate admission for Mountainside and Notchville Park.These prices are for non Vermont residents. Residents are 1/2 price. The parks are definitely not worth that admission price.

 

[massvacationer]

I found this info on the Smuggs website. Looks like Wyndham owners, who book with their own points, and stay at Smuggs, get the SmuggsPass for free:

" SmuggsPass

As a CLUB WYNDHAM owner reserving your Smugglers' home through the Wyndham reservation system using your own points, you will receive a complimentary, non-transferable SmuggsPass gaining you access to Smugglers’ programs and facilities as well as a number of discounts. See below for more details. Guests using your CLUB WYNDHAM points may access Smugglers' programs and facilities under the same terms and conditions as the general public. "

 

[Ridewithme38]

I found this info on the Smuggs website. Looks like Wyndham owners, who book with their own points, and stay at Smuggs, get the SmuggsPass for free:

" SmuggsPass

As a CLUB WYNDHAM owner reserving your Smugglers' home through the Wyndham reservation system using your own points, you will receive a complimentary, non-transferable SmuggsPass gaining you access to Smugglers’ programs and facilities as well as a number of discounts. See below for more details. Guests using your CLUB WYNDHAM points may access Smugglers' programs and facilities under the same terms and conditions as the general public. "

There are very few times i want to be a points owner...this is one

 

[AKE]

I have stayed at both Smuggs and Massanutten a number of times. In my opinion they are not even comparable - Smuggs is a very small resort (when compared to the Massanutten complex) largely focusing on ages 12 and under; Massanutten is huge by comparison and there are activities for all ages. At Smuggs you can walk everywhere; at Massanutten you need to drive. The one advantage of Smuggs is that it is further north so there is way more natural snow in the winter for skiers than at Massanutten; as well, the ski side of Smuggs is huge when compared to Massanutten.

 

[Luvstotravel]

The skiing is something I had not considered. There is no comparison: Smuggler's Notch wins by far!! Not only can you ski here, you can drive further to Stowe or Jay Peak. Massanutten can't even come close, if you want to try really top-notch skiing.

Thanks for all the comparisons.

 

[cmh]

Wow, LOTS of extra fees at Smugs.

 

[massvacationer]

There are very few times i want to be a points owner...this is one

Here's the link to the page on the Smuggs website for Club Wyndham points owners:

http://www.smuggs.com/pages/universal/wyndham/