Vidanta NV Celebrate Park (merged)

[bizaro86]

In that last render, the ratio of accomodation rooms to rides and attractions looks very high.

 

[mike53]

The Vidanta names really have me baffled. Is the Kingdom of the Sun comparable somewhat to a GL level? In June of 2018 we were offered a Celebrate Deluxxe contract which I understand is at the Grand Bliss level.

 

[StructureGuy]

The Vidanta names really have me baffled. Is the Kingdom of the Sun comparable somewhat to a GL level? In June of 2018 we were offered a Celebrate Deluxxe contract which I understand is at the Grand Bliss level.

The names baffle me as well. The 2-bedroom loft in the Kingdom of the Sun gives me access to a Grand Luxxe 2-bedroom Spa or a Grand Luxxe 2-bedroom Master Suite or a Grand Bliss 2-bedroom Master Suite as well.

 

[mike53]

OK. Thanks for the clarification. We have a GL 2br Master Suite so I assume this is at the minimum the next upgrade they will try to sell us when we get to RM in June.

 

[petenjen]

OK. Thanks for the clarification. We have a GL 2br Master Suite so I assume this is at the minimum the next upgrade they will try to sell us when we get to RM in June.

Oh no. I'm sure they'll try to hit you for The Estates. That's the next planned property that doesn't exist at RM.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

This is the Celebrate Park package that they were trying to sell us in February, 2019. I have no idea how many salesman lies are included in selling future access to something that does not even exist ....... (Haha, wink, wink) but since we are owners buying before the park opens it is "only" $6,000 if you buy today.

So if I have this correctly - you paid xxx to upgrade to Kingdom of the Sun - 2 bedroom loft .
from a 1 bedroom - Celebrate Park / Cascades (Mayan Palace) Your “internal trade “access is (now)into GL or GB - 2 bedrooms as you listed .

the $ 6000 is just for all the premium park access ?

I am guessing your buy in initially / last year was 20 +K range
the MF / week use cost for the 2 bedroom loft Kingdom is $2400
What was the one bedroom Celebrate / Cascade/ MP ?

*********

I believe the SFX Privilege Weeks - will allow you to book at Vidanta without paying any (exchanger) resort fee just the MF/ week usage fee , for the level you book . You will have to keep an active SFX membership .
I believe when you (or who ever you book for) uses these weeks - some or all of the addendumin in your contract will not be able to be used.(things like 1/2 price massages or golf deal if you have them)
You should contact Vidanta Member Services - to find out the specifics . (ie)how can the park pass be used with a Privilege Week .
At the same time it would allow you to use a one bedroom Grand Mayan for about $ 1100 a week. The Priviledge Weeks are likely without guaranteed ARP They will get you access , but Presidents Week in Feb. might not be available (SFX requests availability from Vidanta - when you contact SFX)

Privilege Weeks (IMO)
1) allow sales to use bonus weeks as a selling tool ..
2) are run by a “concierge”such as SFX - so they do not count against registered week number count .
3) likely have a better revenue split for Vidanta than a RCI or II exchange .

I hope that helps .

 

[Eric B]

My wife and I just bought a Kingdom of the Sun two-bedroom loft. They referred to it as a "penthouse" since it's on the top two floors of a nine story building in Celebrate Park. It has a huge deck (we did not buy an end unit with an even larger extended deck.) The contract gives us two weeks per year for 100 years and an additional week for the first 10 years. The usage fee is $2,400 per week and at the end of 10 years the fee to continue is the same as the usage fee = $4,800 lump sum ($2,400 for each week) to continue another 10 years. We get an additional 2 privilege weeks through SFX which I really don't understand. We will likely use it 2 weeks per year and hope to rent it some. I'm hoping there is a market for this as a rental unit paying us more than $2,400.

The "best guess" from the salesman is that it will be ready for occupancy end of 2020. He also said that Celebrate Park, Phase 1 (a water park) is scheduled to open end of 2020 as well but it will likely really happen early 2021.

I love our Vidanta vacations but I think we paid way too much for this as an upgrade.

Once you have your SFX account set up and accessible online, go to https://members.sfxresorts.com/specials/privilegeweeks/search for details on how they work. The text below is from the pop up box labeled "What are Privilege Weeks?". They can be used at other timeshares as well as back at Vidanta ones. That part of the SFX site also allows you to search their current inventory of Vidanta weeks, although it's not always up to date. Also, they very rarely have any inventory above the GL suite levels, so if you own above that level they have to set up a conference call with Vidanta to book a week for you. You will have to pay a resort fee when using a privilege week because it is really an exchange, but with SFX the cost is only $75. The availability of privilege weeks requires you to have an SFX diamond level membership, by the way; I think they were running a special on long term memberships recently and you should have a 2-year one from your upgrade.

You may have also received a Vida Lifestyle membership with the upgrade; it is run by ICE and includes some "Lifestyle Weeks" that work similar to privilege weeks, but are restricted to April-December IIRC. There are many other ways to exchange back into Vidanta in the low season that are less expensive, though.

WHAT ARE PRIVILEGE WEEKS ?
Privilege weeks are the unique opportunity to travel back to your home resort without having to use your ownership week.

You were given these as part of your recent purchase or upgrade at your Vidanta resort. These are similar to your Vida weeks, but with Privilege weeks you book back to a Vidanta property that is equal or lesser in luxury level to what you currently own.

The cost of a Privilege Week is similar or equal to what your usage fee is (which is a fraction of the true market value.) When booking a Privilege Week, you will be required to pay the full amount of the week up front to confirm the space. There are no cancellations or refunds of Privilege weeks when purchased.

In the event you cannot travel on the week booked, you can call The San Francisco Exchange Company up to 30 days prior to your arrival date and make changes to your reservation. There will be a $199.00 rebooking fee, plus the cost of any additional fees due at that the time of rebooking. In order to access your Privilege weeks, you must have a valid SFX Diamond Membership.

Privilege Weeks are available for Member's Use Only, they cannot be booked for guests.

DON’T HAVE A DIAMOND MEMBERSHIP,
OR IT’S ABOUT TO EXPIRE? NO PROBLEM!
Contact an SFX Vacation Concierge today at 1-800-739-9969 and we can renew your membership!​

 

[StructureGuy]

I am guessing your buy in initially / last year was 20 +K range

It was $20,000 until we returned the next day to cancel the contract and they reduced the price by $5,000 and gave us several nice little addendums. Closing fees etc. ran it up to $17,000

the $ 6000 is just for all the premium park access ?

yes. It would have cost $5,000 in April last year and $6,000 in February 2019.

So if I have this correctly - you paid xxx to upgrade to Kingdom of the Sun - 2 bedroom loft .

Yes. There were two problems with our original purchase. The contract said we could only stay at Nuevo Vallarta (and not at any sister resorts) once our room at NV was constructed. (Southwest has a direct flight to Cancun!) We are both retired and wanted to bring our kids and grandkids on the rare occasion that their spring break wasn't Easter week. So we were primed to buy a more moderate upgrade. The salesman pushed us towards a larger upgrade with the idea that it is much easier to rent larger units to offset the buy-in cost. We'll see about that.

What was the one bedroom Celebrate / Cascade/ MP ?

Mayan Palace one-bedroom $900 usage fee per our old contract
I asked Vidanta about the one week usage fees and here is their answer;
Grand Mayan one-bedroom Master Suite $1,050 1,296 sq. ft.
Grand Mayan two-bedroom Master Suite $1,600 1,899 sq. ft.
Grand Bliss one-bedroom Master Suite $1,150 1,304 sf. ft.
Grand Bliss two-bedroom Master Suite $1,700 2,054 sq. ft.
Grand Luxxe two-bedroom Master Suite $2,400 ?? sq. ft.
Grand Luxxe two-bedroom Spa $2,300 2,574 sq. ft.
Kingdom of Sun two bedroom loft $2,400 ??? sq. ft.
I have no idea if this is all sister locations have the same square feet size

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

The text below is from the pop up box labeled "What are Privilege Weeks?".
They can be used at other timeshares as well as back at Vidanta ones. You will have to pay a resort fee when using a privilege week because it is really an exchange, but with SFX the cost is only $75.

WHAT ARE PRIVILEGE WEEKS ?
Privilege weeks are the unique opportunity to travel back to your home resort without having to use your ownership week.

You were given these as part of your recent purchase or upgrade at your Vidanta resort. These are similar to your Vida weeks, but with Privilege weeks you book back to a Vidanta property that is equal or lesser in luxury level to what you currently own.

The cost of a Privilege Week is similar or equal to what your usage fee is ....There are no cancellations or refunds of Privilege weeks when purchased.

In the event you cannot travel on the week booked, you can call The San Francisco Exchange Company up to 30 days prior to your arrival There will be a $199.00 rebooking fee, plus the cost of any additional fees due at that the time of rebooking.

Privilege Weeks are available for Member's Use Only, they cannot be booked for guests.​

What I just learned about SFX Privilege Weeks / that are included with full deal Vidanta contracts ,that contain registered weeks .

1) member use only / no guests / (ie) no rentals

2) no cancellations or date movement / (ie) pay the $199 rebooking fee and your week use payment can be applied to a new booking . (Similar to getting TPU's back from RCI but having to pay a new exchange fee to RCI to use )

Questions
1) Eric - re the $75 resort fee / when you used a Privilege Week to book (holiday time) was the $75
charged at check in / or when booked ?

2) (,I have the Vida -SFX Weeks brochure from 2016 ). I understood Vida-SFX weeks were for use at non vidanta resorts , & Privilege Weeks(SFX ones) were for use back into Vidanta . Is the ability to use Privilege Weeks outside Vidanta just an expansion of use ,due to what is included (or not) in the more recent contracts ; and perhaps a way to simplify" bonus weeks" for owners of full contracts with registered weeks ?

3) The term - Privilege Weeks " was also used for some "exit packages " , sold by the PRTC and
Destinos ICE brands , by the various exit package sales teams that Vida Sales has in place .
It sounds like the term " LIfestyle Week" might be more appropriate for the ICE product that has April to December use .
Of course - Timeshare Sales terminology is subject to - " presentation variation" .

 

[MoPops]

Interesting reading. I’ve come to the conclusion that the names, programs, rules, clauses, and spur of the moment decisions that Vidanta makes (maybe it’s Vida) that I will never understand the program. I will continue to go to guest services for a hour or so while I’m there, just to catch up. No more owners meetings for me.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Interesting reading. I’ve come to the conclusion that the names, programs, rules, clauses, and spur of the moment decisions that Vidanta makes (maybe it’s Vida) that I will never understand the program. I will continue to go to guest services for a hour or so while I’m there, just to catch up. No more owners meetings for me.

HI MoPops
1) Just read & reread YOUR contract - so you understand what YOU own .
2)Keep meeting with member services to get clarification of anything you do not understand .
3) keep reading TUG / keep asking questions here .

A lot of the terminology changes are because Vidanta keeps growing / some are to help sales to sell more / some terminology changes are to differentiate prior contracts from the next generation ; so there is less confusion .

 

[Eric B]

WHat I just learned about SFX Privilege Weeks / that are included with Vidanta contracts that contain registered weeks .

1) member use only / no guests / (ie) no rentals

2) no cancellations or date movement / (ie) pay the $199 rebooking fee and your week use payment can be applied to a new booking . (Similar to getting TPU's back from RCI but having to pay a new exchange fee to RCI to use )

Questions
1) Eric - re the $75 resort fee / when you used a Privilege Week to book (holiday time) was the $75
charged at check in / or when booked ?

2) (,I have the Vida -SFX Weeks brochure from 2016 ). I understood Vida-SFX weeks were for use at non vidanta resorts , & Privilege Weeks(SFX ones) were for use back into Vidanta . Is the ability to use Privilege Weeks outside Vidanta just an expansion of use ,due to what is included (or not) in the more recent contracts ; and perhaps a way to simplify" bonus weeks" for owners of full contracts with registered weeks ?

3) The term - Privilege Weeks " was also used for some "exit packages " , sold by the PRTC and
Destinos ICE brands , by the various exit package sales teams that Vida Sales has in place .
It sounds like the term " LIfestyle Week" might be more appropriate for the ICE product that has April to December use .
Of course - Timeshare Sales terminology is subject to - " presentation variation" .

The resort fee was paid at check in when we did it. I’m not sure whether there’s been a difference for the Vida weeks and the privilege weeks; it had always been explained to me that they were bonus weeks and the difference between them is you can’t use Vida weeks back at Vidanta. You can, of course, use other SFX bonus weeks from depositing a non-Vidanta week with them to go back there.

 

[Zib]

Just returned from Mayan Palace on the Marina P.V. We have owned Grand Mayan for more than 34 years. Bought at the old "Vidafel" Mayen Palace on the Marina that burned down during the earthquake and was replaced by the one at the Marina now. We stayed at The Grand most of our years after we did a couple of upgrade when it was first built out in Nuevo. We have always owned two 2 bedroom units. The past 4 years we have booked our Grand Mayan into the Sea Garden or Mayan Palace on the Marina P.V. because of all the walking and difficulty getting out of the Vidanta property. We were very satisfied with Sea Garden and Mayan Palace now because of our age, 91 and 88yrs. We aren't interested in all the new parks and stuff on the Vidanta properties out there. We love the old Mexico! Best part is, that we got our Senior Certificate years ago and have gone for FREE for the past 14 years. No more maintenance fees! I think they hate to see us coming for free again and AGAIN!!! So we think we have gotten back every bit we ever put into the resort. I hope we can go at least one more year. I guess the kids will have to finish out the rest of the contract until 2036 but we've really gotten our moneys worth already! Best thing we ever did was get talked into buying that timeshare!

 

[SunFunTravel]

$20k for GM? NOPE!!! I am in the Estates and don't have $50k invested with them yet. Trade-ins are a gimmick. Negotiate!! Work them down, don't let them work you down! Vidanta sales are willing to tell you ANYTHING to get you to buy. What they promise and what you get are never the same. Read your contract, negotiate and demand addendums. The park is going to be nice when it finally opens in late 2020 or 2021. It's not going to be a Cirque park since they pulled out. It's going to be called "The Parks" and will not rival Disney in any way. However, they did hire a former Disney lead engineer to complete the park after they parted ways with the Godard Group. It's a great place to own but don't over-pay by getting caught up in their hype and marketing presentation. You will not make money buy owning at Vidanta and you will not be able to sell your contract for anything near what you paid for it - $.10 on the dollar if you are lucky. So don't buy unless it is something you want to utilize long term.

 

[SunFunTravel]

There is a page on Facebook called Vidanta Owners Contract Information. Owners have been disclosing their contract details so others can have an idea of where they should buy at. It only has a few posts so far but at some point it should get enough content to be helpful. Vidanta has a clause in their contract stating that they will go after the member if they disclose their contract details to anyone. Vidanta can not legally go after you for this... It would be thrown out of court if they were dumb enough to actually file a complaint. It's basically a scare tactic. I'm sure they are well aware that all of the owners sit around the pool discussing their contracts with other owners on a daily basis.

 

[hurnik]

$20k for GM? NOPE!!! I am in the Estates and don't have $50k invested with them yet. Trade-ins are a gimmick. Negotiate!! Work them down, don't let them work you down! Vidanta sales are willing to tell you ANYTHING to get you to buy. What they promise and what you get are never the same. Read your contract, negotiate and demand addendums. The park is going to be nice when it finally opens in late 2020 or 2021. It's not going to be a Cirque park since they pulled out. It's going to be called "The Parks" and will not rival Disney in any way. However, they did hire a former Disney lead engineer to complete the park after they parted ways with the Godard Group. It's a great place to own but don't over-pay by getting caught up in their hype and marketing presentation. You will not make money buy owning at Vidanta and you will not be able to sell your contract for anything near what you paid for it - $.10 on the dollar if you are lucky. So don't buy unless it is something you want to utilize long term.

Wait, what? They're not longer "partnering" or whatever with Cirque? Interesting.

 

[SunFunTravel]

Originally the plan was for three resort buildings, Grand Cascades, Kingdom of the Moon and Kingdom of the Sun. Grand Cascades was going to be at the Mayan Place level, Kingdom of the Moon at the Grand Mayan level and Kingdom of the Sun at the Grand Bliss level. Now that everything has changed the Cascades will be the smallest building by far and still at Mayan Palace/Bliss level. This level has also been sold under the names The Collection & Entertainment Collection. The Kingdom of the Sun will still be at the Grand Bliss level. This level has also been sold as The Grand Collection & The Grand Entertainment Collection. However, the Kingdom of the Moon resort is now called the Celebrate resort. It apparently is going to be as many as 3 very large resort buildings bordering the north and northwest edges of the park. I cannot confirm if this resort is going to remain at the Grand Mayan level, although I would expect it will. It seems they are constructing what would be considered Grand Luxxe level units on the top levels of the Celebrate and Kingdom of the Sun buildings. This would certainly be in line with Vidanta's way of building. Of course, as par for the course, things can change as they have very regularly since they broke ground in 2014... Stay tuned.

 

[Cabocowboy]

Doesn't surprise me at all. We finally got out of the contract but it cost us some money. Word of caution: do not rely on using PROFECO as a way to rescind your timeshare contract. They are basically worthless. Go back to your sales group and gut it out by rescinding with the local sales team. I did it with PROFECO and they could not do anything for me.

 

[hintok]

Just bought yesterday a junior suite (1 bedroom sleeps 2) at celebrate park. They also threw in a bunch of things I don't want. I'm reading the contract and don't see anything about reminding. Help please!

 

[Eric B]

Assuming that you mean "rescinding" rather than "reminding," you can do so by going over to Member Services while you're there or by registered mail, return receipt requested to Desarrollo Marina Vallarta, S.A. de C.V., Paseo de la Marina Sur #220, Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco 48355 Mexico. The address is on the page of the contract for the 10-year registered week that is titled Reservations and Customer Service; it's not specifically titled rescission address or anything like that, but is under the heading that says "The only official channel for questions, reservations and all other communications with the Company regarding Member's Contract is the Company's Contact Center in Mexico." It also lists the e-mail address customerservice@vidanta.com. Be sure you follow the advice given in the sticky post for your rights of rescission in Mexico and that everyone who signed the contract signs the rescission letter.

 

[hintok]

Eric B
Thanks, I did find that. I will read the sticky and go to member services. So glad I posted this.