Vacation Village the Colonies at Williamsburg - my first timeshare experience

[jp10558]

Well, I'd have created a review online but it didn't seem to take my forum logon - maybe you have to be a paid TUG member to leave a review? IDK. I'll leave it here.

So this is my first experience with a timeshare staying, so take this with a grain of salt. I did an RCI exchange via HGVC resale account I bought. I guess this is a 3/5 location in terms of timeshare tier rankings from what I can tell on this forum.

So, with those expectations, this blows me away in a good way. The 2BR lockoff is very spacious, especially compared to any hotel room, even suites I've stayed in. The kitchen is nice and fully appointed. The furniture is a little dated but clean and comfortable enough. The little deck is nice for our smoker, and even though it's next to the air conditioning things, this is actually like our deck at home, makes us feel more at home LOL.

The outdoor pool isn't open till Memorial day unfortunately, but I personally don't care about pools, however the week before memorial day is plenty sunny and warm, so maybe they should open it earlier in the year now IDK.

The location is pretty convenient to a Food Lion and a bunch of restaurants. It's not a full resort in that I think the spa is off site, and there aren't a lot of activities right at the location. But it's right in Williamsburg so there's all of that to go and do.

I may have just been lucky, but getting in later than I expected around 8PM yesterday the check in was not a problem, and no hard sell for a meeting to try and sell me on the location. I guess I'll see if they call my cell, but I don't answer that anyway and have it send calls to Jolly Rodger to waste telemarketers time.

I'll try and update as the week goes on, but so far everyone is very happy with the room and experience so far.

 

[Patri]

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[pedro47]

Thanks for sharing your mini review. The following groceries stories are within 4 miles of the resort. WALMART, Target, Publix, Fresh Market, Traders Joe's and Food Lion. You are near many outstanding restaurants in the Williamsburg area all within a 10miles radius of the resort.
You are so near the College of Williamsburg, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Festival Park and the York Town Historical site..

Please enjoy you vacation in Williamsburg, VA.

 

[SusanRN]

Minor correction, Pedro47. It's The College of William and Mary (est. 1693).
Susan
Class of 1973

 

[gln60]

I believe the College of William and Mary is the 2nd oldest college in America.

 

[pedro47]

Minor correction, Pedro47. It's The College of William and Mary (est. 1693).
Susan
Class of 1973

Thanks you, it is The College of William and Mary (est. 1693).

 

[SusanRN]

I believe the College of William and Mary is the 2nd oldest college in America.

Interesting trivia, perhaps...
Back in 1982 I was a recent president of the Maryland alumni association and was asked to represent W&M at the investiture of the new president of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. I dressed up in a cap and gown (mailed to me by the College) to march in a line of representatives from other colleges honoring the new college president. It turns out that the order is determined by the year one's college was established. Since William and Mary is second in the U.S., I was second in line, right behind the representative from Harvard (est. 1636), who happened to be a friend from work.

 

[jp10558]

After the week and getting home - the only "issues" (which I didn't care enough about to report to the resort) were a problem with the AC vents not being able to shut so the Master Bedroom would get hot and the bathrooms and second bedroom would get cold. This is a normal issue with any HVAC so while I'd love them to have separate mini splits for every room, it's far from practical. I suppose I could have contacted them about the vents being stuck, but I'm not sure that wasn't by design (stuck open I mean) and we just sucked it up. It's worth pointing out that this may likely never be an issue for most people - I have the misfortune of being hot much of the time while my relatives travelling with me are the opposite and usually cold. So while I'd like it to be 65 at night, they'd like it to be 74. I don't knock the resort on this.

The second "Issue" was just being pretty unclear how the ice maker in the freezer was supposed to work. It would just stop running randomly, and if left on overnight would just fill the basket with a 2" sheet of ice with "ice cubes" sticking out of it. I finally just bought a bag of ice at the local store and stopped fighting it. I did comment on the survey that either it needs repair or better instructions somewhere for people like me.

The third "issue" may not really be an issue at all - and why the resort is a bit lower in the tier rankings, but the outside pool is closed till Memorial day, so wasn't open for our stay even though the weather was mostly pretty warm. The resort had limited things to do on site - which I expected, but if they wanted to level up, adding some saunas or a couple other areas for like table tennis and such would (??probably??) be an easy way to give people something to do after they have done their sightseeing for the day but before bed. Luckily, we liked walks and TV and reading, so it was not a big issue - you can walk around the property, and even walk (if you like long walks) over to the outlets.

On to the "surprising to me as a newbie":

We were surprisingly happy with the washer / dryer between the A and B parts of the units. It was small, but worked well, and didn't actually have much competition for access (only sharing with one other unit - not sure if they used it at all) and was locked off from the public so we could just leave things going without having to fully babysit it like a laundrymat. Saved us having to ask for more towels - just washed the ones we had. One downside was only one batch of laundry soap for one load - could have used more soap IMHO. We just bought some, but for the cost of 5 "pods" or something it would save some hassle for us newbies or those less good at planning. We thought there wouldn't be sufficient dishwasher tabs, but actually 4 or 5 was enough for us (just). I think in the future I'll bring extras though anyway.

The trash wasn't too hard to take out, and the morning "clean up" on leaving wasn't too bad - though 10AM is quite early for us night owls to get out the door by. One thing I've been spoiled by with Hilton hotels is the 11AM or Noon check-out time.

Final comments -> Someone should really figure out a deal with Netflix, and other streaming on either just having it for the rooms like cable, or some sort of roku built in with a temp signin system. Pulling out an HDMI cable and connecting it to a balanced laptop is not the best. This is an issue with Hotels too so... just musing.

All in all, I avoided the sales call by accident, avoided by accident the sales presentation push (asked me if I was travelling with a spouse, said no, didn't actually ask if I'm married ), and check out was also painless. The rooms are fine, if a little dated and the room and kitchen etc are all amazing vs even Hotel Suites I've occasionally stayed in before.