Vacation village@pkwy new owner deal or doomed?

[Newbievv78]

Hey there fellow tuggers!
Recently the collector and I ( aka my ever so impulsive fiancée)purchased a vv@p 2 bed lock out unit in bldg 19: first floor: A/Cunit: perpetually deeded unit: red week #17: 92,500 rci points avail: August renewal: first use 2018: maint fee/taxes: $900 (2018paid by seller) all closing and transfer fees paid by seller: only thing due from our side was the winning bid of $1.25 and the rci new subscription of $224 (inc first years subscription+fee to open account thru Rci) still due as we’re currently awaiting the resort to transfer the recorded deed into our name. The collector and I had just returned from orange lake where we attended a “presentation” . We didn’t buy but liked the pitch. After we returned home I found this unit being offered on eBay with less than an hour left before auctions end... so as quickly as possible I did as much research into the resort as I could before deciding to place a bid with under 2 min left. A little bit about us and what we’re looking for

Both in our early 40’s with decent income (maint fee Wont be aproblem for us altho if we can/are able to rent unit out every other year to reduce expenses we’d be interested in doing so)

Reside in Naples on the sw coast of fl

Our travel needs:Mainly looking to travel to Orlando area or various other locale within driving distance primarily 3/4 short trips with a one week to a 2 week family trip in or out of state. We would like to stay either in our home resort or comparable resort. Finally we would like to bank our points to go to Europe for 3 wk in the future.

We are a family of 5,Mom & dad two teens and a toddler, our older kids may or may not join us. for the most part will be us and the lil monkey.

We can plan our vacations well in advance but are also interested in last min deals or Inst exchanges as our jobs are flexible as far as taking time off. Time of year also is not relevant tho we’d actually prefer to travel in off season as we have learned the lines at parks are shorter and the weather usually better. Also our older kids won’t be joining us for the majority of trips. Either weekdays can work tho we would prefer traveling Friday-mon on our shorter trips.

As I am limited to what I can see offer wise on rci ( only was able to pull a chart listing times of yr /types of units at different resorts /and the points cost to stay a week at each) I am assuming with a trade into rci worth 92,500 pts. That this should be totally feesable. I also signed up for DAE tho only part-ways as I don’t yet hv my contract #. My understanding is that they’ve merged with rci which should be beneficial to them which made them an attractive option for us.

Then I discovered tugg (Definatly joining today)and red week and it seems perhaps my ambitions are a bit high lol. Lots of varying opinions have me thinking that perhaps I didn’t get as great a deal as I’d thought I had... So considering the info I’ve listed above and based on what we’re looking for what do y’all think? Impulse buy gone wrong or totally worth it ? Not a lot of info/input from vacation village at parkway owners out there so please any tips,information, or insights, those of you on here may have are espically welcomed! Hoping to hear from vv@p soon to hear they transferred the ownership into our names soon so I can try it all out myself and I suppose I’ll know for certain then but as I’m not certain how long that will take for now I’m hoping to gain some perspective from the tuggers in the know
From my family to yours we thank you!

 

[silentg]

Welcome to TUG. We have never stayed at VV @Parkway, but have stayed at two affiliated resorts in Weston, FL and also one in Pittsfield, MA. The resort you bought is doing major construction right now. They are building on the land they acquired from Arabian Nights. Best thing about VV I like is, they have their own exchange program within the affiliated resorts. Much cheaper to exchange thru them, from what I have heard. There are other TUG members who have first hand knowledge of ownership at VV.
Hopefully they will chime in.
Silentg

 

[Panina]

Hey there fellow tuggers!
Recently the collector and I ( aka my ever so impulsive fiancée)purchased a vv@p 2 bed lock out unit in bldg 19: first floor: A/Cunit: perpetually deeded unit: red week #17: 92,500 rci points avail: August renewal: first use 2018: maint fee/taxes: $900 (2018paid by seller) all closing and transfer fees paid by seller: only thing due from our side was the winning bid of $1.25 and the rci new subscription of $224 (inc first years subscription+fee to open account thru Rci) still due as we’re currently awaiting the resort to transfer the recorded deed into our name. The collector and I had just returned from orange lake where we attended a “presentation” . We didn’t buy but liked the pitch. After we returned home I found this unit being offered on eBay with less than an hour left before auctions end... so as quickly as possible I did as much research into the resort as I could before deciding to place a bid with under 2 min left. A little bit about us and what we’re looking for

Both in our early 40’s with decent income (maint fee Wont be aproblem for us altho if we can/are able to rent unit out every other year to reduce expenses we’d be interested in doing so)

Reside in Naples on the sw coast of fl

Our travel needs:Mainly looking to travel to Orlando area or various other locale within driving distance primarily 3/4 short trips with a one week to a 2 week family trip in or out of state. We would like to stay either in our home resort or comparable resort. Finally we would like to bank our points to go to Europe for 3 wk in the future.

We are a family of 5,Mom & dad two teens and a toddler, our older kids may or may not join us. for the most part will be us and the lil monkey.

We can plan our vacations well in advance but are also interested in last min deals or Inst exchanges as our jobs are flexible as far as taking time off. Time of year also is not relevant tho we’d actually prefer to travel in off season as we have learned the lines at parks are shorter and the weather usually better. Also our older kids won’t be joining us for the majority of trips. Either weekdays can work tho we would prefer traveling Friday-mon on our shorter trips.

As I am limited to what I can see offer wise on rci ( only was able to pull a chart listing times of yr /types of units at different resorts /and the points cost to stay a week at each) I am assuming with a trade into rci worth 92,500 pts. That this should be totally feesable. I also signed up for DAE tho only part-ways as I don’t yet hv my contract #. My understanding is that they’ve merged with rci which should be beneficial to them which made them an attractive option for us.

Then I discovered tugg (Definatly joining today)and red week and it seems perhaps my ambitions are a bit high lol. Lots of varying opinions have me thinking that perhaps I didn’t get as great a deal as I’d thought I had... So considering the info I’ve listed above and based on what we’re looking for what do y’all think? Impulse buy gone wrong or totally worth it ? Not a lot of info/input from vacation village at parkway owners out there so please any tips,information, or insights, those of you on here may have are espically welcomed! Hoping to hear from vv@p soon to hear they transferred the ownership into our names soon so I can try it all out myself and I suppose I’ll know for certain then but as I’m not certain how long that will take for now I’m hoping to gain some perspective from the tuggers in the know
From my family to yours we thank you!

Welcome to tug. I don’t know much about what you purchased, other tuggers will give you advice on it. No matter what consider yourself fortunate that you did not buy for big bucks from the developer and you basically got it for free resale. Many of us tuggers purchased our first timeshare from developers. Take what you got and learn here on Tug how you can use it best. There are always better deals, there are always worst deals, learning how to make it work the best for you is now the best deal

 

[Newbievv78]

Welcome to TUG. We have never stayed at VV @Parkway, but have stayed at two affiliated resorts in Weston, FL and also one in Pittsfield, MA. The resort you bought is doing major construction right now. They are building on the land they acquired from Arabian Nights. Best thing about VV I like is, they have their own exchange program within the affiliated resorts. Much cheaper to exchange thru them, from what I have heard. There are other TUG members who have first hand knowledge of ownership at VV.
Hopefully they will chime in.
Silentg

Thank you, for replying slientg, and for the warm welcome. I’m definatly lucky to have found tugg! No buyers remorse where that’s concerned lol... And yes, I read somewhere that construction is allotted there over the next few years at least. Definatly something I should hv considered before purchasing but I believe the unit we own( provided we stay in that exact one) is located on the other side of property. So noise from it shouldn’t be a bother with the exception of course of potential renters having an issue with it. Other than that it should ensure that the devolver isn’t packing his bags n heading on home just yet which from my understanding means my maint fees will remain reasonable. As for the internal exchange I’ve heard they don’t allow resale’s to partake tho someone recently commented that they absolutely do allow for it. (They bought resale and exchange internally) so for now that ones still up for debate I guess lol. Again thank you

 

[Newbievv78]

Welcome to tug. I don’t know much about what you purchased, other tuggers will give you advice on it. No matter what consider yourself fortunate that you did not buy for big bucks from the developer and you basically got it for free resale. Many of us tuggers purchased our first timeshare from developers. Take what you got and learn here on Tug how you can use it best. There are always better deals, there are always worst deals, learning how to make it work the best for you is now the best deal

Thank you!! And well said... My family have gone on a few “discounted” vacations throughout the years which required a “90 min tour” of which ever facility we were at. Hey for the free tickets to Disney why not! It had been a few years until we agreed to do the one at orange lake so fortunately we already knew the drill... got out exactly at the 90 min mark and collected the promos ( 7 of the 3 day playpasses and a free week stay at any of their participating affiliates plus a second week discounted with $700 resort credit... gotta read the fine print on those yet lol What made this time so unique tho was that this was the first time we had heard about rci and the points system and how your week long vacation time can potiently get you a couple of weeks to different venues in addition to a few mini vacays along the way! That was what truly & for the first time got me interested in something they had to offer other than the initial promo to get me in the door... Thankfully, we had a train enthusiast for a salesman and when I told him we weren’t interested in buying (that even if he offered it to us free of charge save for the reoccurring fees ) the answer today was no! But that we did want to learn about the program and if we felt it could suit us we would be intouch at a later day n time. I then presented our non refundable locomotive rental agreement and explained to him that if he really wanted a sale to get us out in time so that my husband to be wouldn’t miss out on his life long dream of being an engineer for a day.. plus it was Father’s Day.. perhaps he had plans ... I have read and seen some truly horrifying stuff on these developers henchmen’s tactics, and its appalling how there able to legally get away with such practices . That’s kinda what brought me to the forum. After watching a you tube video of the promises made vs. the actual vacations this couple got (0 as they didn’t have enough points )... so just wanting to make certain that although I don’t have a mortgage that I also didn’t buy a dud in the terms of trading power. From everything I’ve learned so far tho I think it is entirely passable to make it work for us. Thanks again

 

[tschwa2]

Overall you did well. The main difficulty would be the Europe vacation. The 3 weeks in Europe using RCI will be near impossible unless you are open to off season and off the beaten path Europe. There are very few timeshares in places where most North American tourist travel to. Most European timeshares are to places hours away from the beaten path. They are to lakes and beaches that Europeans go to holiday and get away from everything. There are probably nicer beaches and equally nice lakes in the country that you can travel to for a lot less. There are a in or just outside of cites but they are hard to get and you would be lucky to get one such week, let alone 3 consecutive weeks.

 

[Jan M.]

You got a great deal! Congratulations and welcome to TUG.

We own annual points weeks at Grandview Las Vegas which is also in the Vacation Village family of resorts. And we've stayed at VV at Pkwy twice with our granddaughter. She loves all the things there are do there. The free sno-cones at the different pools, the different pools, the playground in the buildings 1-6 section we stayed in, the free face painting, the activities and games at the pool, the movie nights at the pool with the $1 bags of freshly popped popcorn.

You can do a great deal with 92,500 points! We also live in Florida and have stayed at a number of resort here with our points. Here is the list of resorts we've stayed at in the last 5-6 years using our points in RCI. I've probably missed a few. Some of them we've stayed at several times. Now that my husband finally retired, in February, we plan on going even more.

Orlando
Vacation Village at Parkway
Wyndham Bonnet Creek
Wyndham and Worldmark Reunion
Wyndham Star Island
Silver Lake (this one is an RCI sale week I have booked starting the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. $203 with no points used.)
Disney's Saratoga Springs
Disney's Animal Kingdom Kidani House in a savanna view unit.

West Coast
Sarasota Sands
Caribe Beach Resort, Sanibel
Casa Ybel, Sanibel an HGVC resort (Hilton Grand Vacation Club)
Lighthouse Resort, Sanibel
Plantation Beach Club and Beach House, both at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva and both HGVC resorts
Vanderbilt Beach Club, Naples
Gulf Point Intervals, Naples
Charter Club, Marco Island, HGVC

East Coast
Ventura at Boca Raton
La Boca Casa, Boca Raton
Plantation Beach Club Resort, Stuart, a HGVC resort
Disney's Vero Beach Resort
A resort in New Smyrna Beach that has since had a name change

Panhandle
Casa Blanca, Panama City Beach

Keys
Anchorage, Key Largo

Texas
Wyndham Austin, This is a new resort and we stayed there in February for two weeks right after they opened!

South Carolina
Ocean Palms at Port Royal, Hilton Head
and there are two other resorts that I've booked on Hilton Head for my sister and BIL

Arkansas
Fairfield Bay, a Wyndham resort

Nevada
Grandview Las Vegas, We just stayed there towards the end of April for 17 nights for the first time in the 6 years we've owned there. Booked it all in one stay so the exchange fee was $278.

 

[Newbievv78]

Overall you did well. The main difficulty would be the Europe vacation. The 3 weeks in Europe using RCI will be near impossible unless you are open to off season and off the beaten path Europe. There are very few timeshares in places where most North American tourist travel to. Most European timeshares are to places hours away from the beaten path. They are to lakes and beaches that Europeans go to holiday and get away from everything. There are probably nicer beaches and equally nice lakes in the country that you can travel to for a lot less. There are a in or just outside of cites but they are hard to get and you would be lucky to get one such week, let alone 3 consecutive weeks.

Thanks! We definatly want to travel to spicifically, the uk as we have friends in London. And from there make our way to Paris Ireland and possibly Italy or Spain . We’d like to spend the longest stretch with our friends perhaps a week or so but for the others a 3/4 day quick tour of the sights would do just fine. We enjoy both the touristy parts but find better the out of the way/off the beaten path sorts of areas so that may be worth mentioning. Also, This isn’t something we’re planning on anytime soon possibly sometime within 3-5 years or so maybe further out.. who knows lol.. but would it be totally Impossible or do you think if we’re able to save up enough unused points to get a cottage say ( even if hours away our friends could vacay there with us) & perhaps have some points left for the hotels/ts in other countries cities or do u think there are better deals for Europe via discounted travel sites (Groupon Expedia etc) that you think would be better suited and for us to save up for Hawaii or nyc instead?

 

[moonstone]

Newbievv, you will find there aren't many timeshares very close to, or in, any major cities in Europe, or really in North America, land is too expensive right in the cities. There used to be a timeshare right in London but it closed a year or so ago. There is a Marriott property there but it is ridiculously expensive and probably impossible to trade into. We also have VV points (77K) based out of Pigeon Forge and get anywhere from 3-6 weeks with them by travelling in shoulder season and also booking when RCI has a sale on. We have found that using our points for hotel stays isn't financially worthwhile when we calculate the number of points needed and what each point costs us (maintenance fees, booking fees...) to stay there.

We have stayed at VV@P many times and we really like it there. We always ask for a room on a top floor so we don't hear footsteps above us. Our DS likes the 2 bedroom lockout style as it is almost like having a 3 bedroom unit. He has a 16yo girl & 14 yo boy so they can each have their own space (bedroom + livingroom of L/O unit) and just share the bathroom. They even each get their own TVs!

Enjoy your new purchase and welcome to TUG!


~Diane

 

[Newbievv78]

You got a great deal! Congratulations and welcome to TUG.

We own annual points weeks at Grandview Las Vegas which is also in the Vacation Village family of resorts. And we've stayed at VV at Pkwy twice with our granddaughter. She loves all the things there are do there. The free sno-cones at the different pools, the different pools, the playground in the buildings 1-6 section we stayed in, the free face painting, the activities and games at the pool, the movie nights at the pool with the $1 bags of freshly popped popcorn.

You can do a great deal with 92,500 points! We also live in Florida and have stayed at a number of resort here with our points. Here is the list of resorts we've stayed at in the last 5-6 years using our points in RCI. I've probably missed a few. Some of them we've stayed at several times. Now that my husband finally retired, in February, we plan on going even more.

Orlando
Vacation Village at Parkway
Wyndham Bonnet Creek
Wyndham and Worldmark Reunion
Wyndham Star Island
Silver Lake (this one is an RCI sale week I have booked starting the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. $203 with no points used.)
Disney's Saratoga Springs
Disney's Animal Kingdom Kidani House in a savanna view unit.

West Coast
Sarasota Sands
Caribe Beach Resort, Sanibel
Casa Ybel, Sanibel an HGVC resort (Hilton Grand Vacation Club)
Lighthouse Resort, Sanibel
Plantation Beach Club and Beach House, both at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva and both HGVC resorts
Vanderbilt Beach Club, Naples
Gulf Point Intervals, Naples
Charter Club, Marco Island, HGVC

East Coast
Ventura at Boca Raton
La Boca Casa, Boca Raton
Plantation Beach Club Resort, Stuart, a HGVC resort
Disney's Vero Beach Resort
A resort in New Smyrna Beach that has since had a name change

Panhandle
Casa Blanca, Panama City Beach

Keys
Anchorage, Key Largo

Texas
Wyndham Austin, This is a new resort and we stayed there in February for two weeks right after they opened!

South Carolina
Ocean Palms at Port Royal, Hilton Head
and there are two other resorts that I've booked on Hilton Head for my sister and BIL

Arkansas
Fairfield Bay, a Wyndham resort

Nevada
Grandview Las Vegas, We just stayed there towards the end of April for 17 nights for the first time in the 6 years we've owned there. Booked it all in one stay so the exchange fee was $278.

Wow! That’s an amazing array of vacations... I’m definatly feeling more confident now after reading everyone’s responses that we made a wise purchase that will continue to bless us with many memories for years to come! I have visited vacation village before, once many years ago when I lived in Orlando. ( friends of ours were staying there) I absolutely loved it then as I’m sure I will maybe even more so now! Hope everyone has had a happy Independence Day! And thanks to all

 

[BennyBoy00]

Thank you, for replying slientg, and for the warm welcome. I’m definatly lucky to have found tugg! No buyers remorse where that’s concerned lol... And yes, I read somewhere that construction is allotted there over the next few years at least. Definatly something I should hv considered before purchasing but I believe the unit we own( provided we stay in that exact one) is located on the other side of property. So noise from it shouldn’t be a bother with the exception of course of potential renters having an issue with it. Other than that it should ensure that the devolver isn’t packing his bags n heading on home just yet which from my understanding means my maint fees will remain reasonable. As for the internal exchange I’ve heard they don’t allow resale’s to partake tho someone recently commented that they absolutely do allow for it. (They bought resale and exchange internally) so for now that ones still up for debate I guess lol. Again thank you

I own at Grandview Las Vegas and at VV Weston, FL. You have a good amount of points. You'll probably never use the week you own there as you can typically find deals at VV Pkwy that require fewer than your 92000 points, and you can also find deals through RCI for rental weeks/extra vacations at VV Pkwy for cash and save your points for trading elsewhere.