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Villa Del Palmar Flamingo Owners

A

amyhen

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Feb 27, 2009
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Location
Pennsylvania
We stayed at the Villa del Palmar last week but did the timeshare representation at Flamingo while we were there. Beautiful place but a little far out. I talked to a woman who owned one and she told me not to get one. She said that she can never get in when she wants no matter how far ahead she books, that they are always charging her a fee for whatever she wants to do, staff isnt as friendly, etc. She told me just to stay there as an all inclusive package and i would get a better deal. In fact she was selling hers to a place down there that buys used ones. What do you think?

I have seen some for resale but I am not sure if you lose some of the benefits too
 
VDP Flamigos is part of UVC with premiere, gold and now points memberships. With the different memberships come different costs and lenghts of time left on the right to use contracts. So a resale premiere member will have an upgrade fee or other cost to do things a gold member can. Premiere MF is about $500.00 for 1 bed unit. Gold is about $750.00 for 1 bed unit. Premiere can book a room 1 year out and gold can book 2 year out. With either membership you can reserve rooms at all of the resorts. Gold members have upgrade options that premiere members have to pay for.

We are premiere and have never had a problem reserving a room in winter and have always been treated great.
 
I agree with easyrider. We own there and have gone there for 4 yrs in a row. We have been treated great by all of the staff and love the resort. We always go in January and never have a problem. We were there for 2 weeks this year
 
As a Premier member at VDP in town, I have been able to reserve at my home resort and also at Flamingos and Cabo without a problem. (Arco was not available the one time I tried, but that was not surprising.)

I find it impossible to believe that this woman was unable to get a week at her home resort even when trying well in advance.

Having said that, if you're interested in buying, there are plenty of weeks available on the resale market for a tiny fraction of what the developer is asking, so if you do want to buy, that option is always open. If you go that route, this woman may have saved you several thousand dollars, in which case she did you a favor after all.:)
 
I have a studio winter floating premier membership. My home resort is the VDP in downtown Puerto Vallarta. I have never stayed there. I always book VDP Cabo and Flamingos and have had the opportunity to book at Arco. I am told that I will be able to book at all of the new VDP resorts as they become available.

Definitely buy on the resale market. I picked up my studio a few years ago for $2300. It has served me well. I now have a WorldMark timeshare which I use regularly in the states as well as abroad with II exchanges. I am considering selling my VDP premier membership for this reason.

I am leaving on Saturday for a week in a 2 bedroom unit at VDP Flamingos. I can hardly wait!
 
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We bought two weeks winter on the resale market. Resale buyers get the very same "priveleges" as those who buy from the deveoper. As far as haing to pay a fee for everything, she may be referriing to the $3.00 or so daily tip that is added to the bill. In addition, there is an in-room internet fee. We've always been able to book the weeks we want, including a week at Villa del Arco this coming December. Arco is harder to get since the developer still controls some of the weeks. We love the resort but not the Owners' Update which is the same as other TS--an attempt to sell points. All the new resorts in UVC are in a points system but are availabe to book by weeks owners.
 
For Premier members you have to wait until 10 months before your check-in month to book any resorts other than your home resort. We just booked 4 weeks in Jan/Feb, 2011 at Flamingos and our home resort is del Palmar downtown PV.
Steve
 
The fee for tips that is on your bill is NOT mandatory! You just tell them that you do not want to pay it. The idea is to spread the tips around to those who do not usually get them, ie gardeners. pool boys. maintanance, desk workers etc. I understand the reasoning, but do we really want to go this way with tipping? I feel that a tip is for face to face good service. We own here but do not pay the fee at the end. We tip generously to our maids, bell boys, towel boys, beach boys who get us chairs, concierge who makes us a reservation, maintanance man who might come to our room to fix something, and anyone else we have personel contact with. So if you don't want to pay it on your bill just tell them. We just came back from there and have never had trouble booking in there any time we want to go. And we have always found everyone very pleasant and friendly. However, you don't want get caught at a timeshare presentation! They are rude, unfriendly obnoxious and the worst 5 hours you'll ever spend, so DON"T waste your vacation time at a presentation for any reason!
 
I find the fact that owners have to pay a (high!) fee for wifi to be outrageous. That and the "entertainment" people running their mouths on the microphone all afternoon by the pool are my only significant complaints about VDP.

I certainly understand and respect the point of view of tipping staff members directly when interacting with them and not paying the fee. I'm usually happy to just pay the $3.00/day fee, though, in addition to tipping staff. I figure the grounds are always spotless and everybody is so nice and friendly. And when I'm on vacation, $20 is the same as a couple of margaritas or something, so it doesn't bother me.
 
I was planning to take my laptop on Saturday, and I assumed that I could pick up a wireless signal without paying a fee from my villa. Is this assumption incorrect? If so, how much would I pay for wifi? We wanted to Skype our family and friends while there.
 
If I remember correctly the wireless fee is $60 per week. I have no problem with the $3.00 per day tip added to the bill to be divided among the staff that we never see face to face We also leave a daily tip for the maid. We did have an experience with tipping that was rather interesting We always leave the tip on the kitchen counter. All of us happened to be out of the condo for a while and came back before the maid was there to clean. We were surprised to see the tip was gone! I called the front desk and found out that a "supervisor" had come in to count the towels. I explained the situation, and they supposedly asked the supervisor if she/he had taken the tip. Of course, they denied it. We then made sure that we either gave the tip directly to the housekeeper or put it in a less obvious place.
 
I believe that ~$60 for the week is correct. Outrageous that OWNERS have to pay that.

I've never used it, but I read (on a thread here?) that there is free wifi in the lobby. Obviously it's not very convenient to bring a laptop to the lobby in order to Skype, but if you just have an iPhone or something and want to get your e-mail every so often, that might be the way to go.
 
ShinjukuBaby said:
I believe that ~$60 for the week is correct. Outrageous that OWNERS have to pay that.

I've never used it, but I read (on a thread here?) that there is free wifi in the lobby. Obviously it's not very convenient to bring a laptop to the lobby in order to Skype, but if you just have an iPhone or something and want to get your e-mail every so often, that might be the way to go.
Click to expand...

Charging $60 per week is totally outrageous. I will be there tomorrow and check it out. Having free wifi in the lobby would be better than nothing. I would use my laptop in a pinch to Skype family members merely to avoid the hassle of using a Mexico phone card.
 
The free wi-fi is no longer in the lobby. It is in a room up over the supermarket. It is very inconvenient but complaints fall on deaf ears. We to did not want to pay $60 foa a week's worth of internet, but, we stay at other resorts and the cost is very similar elsewhere.
 
UVC

I book my weeks as far out as I can, as a gold member I book 2 years out, and I am fine.
 
Free wifi in the lobby is available for gold members. I bought a week's coverage at the Palmita market.
 
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