• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

WKV Trip Report

Catazog

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
144
Reaction score
1
Points
378
I thought I'd do a quick belated trip report on our week at WKV during the last week of October. We exchanged our summer week at SMV for a week at WKV (an even exchange for a 1BR premium). I called exactly 8 months out and had no trouble reserving our week.

This was our first trip to Kierland and I thought the resort was lovely. The villa was spacious, larger than our premium 1BR at SMV, and nicely furnished. We stayed in Building 7 which is the newest one, so the furnishings didn't show any wear that I could notice. The kitchen was very large and well-appointed, but the one thing we didn't like was the microwave -- or I should say, the lack of a regular oven or even a convection oven. I read the manual to the microwave to try and determine if it was also a convection oven but as far as I could tell it wasn't. There were instructions on how to bake fish, but our one attempt didn't turn out very well. We stuck to pasta after that.

Aside from that small issue we loved the villa and had a nice golf course view. I'd read that Building 7 was a bit far from the pool area, but it was a quick and easy walk. Even the walk to the Kierland hotel was a leisurely 5 - 10 minutes. I LOVED the lazy river at the hotel! And the slide was fun too. I really like how the pool areas at the hotel and the villas are surrounded by trees and other plants. It makes for a very pleasant environment. And being a fair-skinned redhead I have to admit I was happy that the lazy river was mostly in the shade during the late afternoon!

The weather was almost perfect. I say almost only because it was unseasonably warm in Scottsdale for the end of October, 93 to 95 degrees every day, which was a little too warm for us to do any hiking in the area. But coming from cool and rainy Seattle I have to say that the sun felt glorious (thank goodness for SPF 55 sunscreen)! It wasn't too warm, however, to have our Tournament of Mini-Golf Champions. My husband and I played mini-golf at four different course, one which had four separate 18 hold courses and another that had three different courses. We had a blast!! :banana: One of the places we played, Castles and Coasters (the one with 4 different courses) was probably the best place I've ever played.

We also took a day trip to Sedona (amazingly gorgeous) and visited several museums in the area. I'd also highly recommend visiting the Botanical Gardens and taking one of the docent tours. I really learned a lot about the southwest and fell in love with the saguaro cactus. Oh, and we did do the owner's update (we had a free morning and figured it was worth the $100 AmEx card). It was low-pressure and our salesperson, Suzanne, was very nice and understood that we'd had bad experiences before with owner updates. They made us an offer to purchase an EOY (odd) Platinum 1 BR premium at Lagunamar (44,000 SO) for $9,900 plus a 60,000 Starpoints bonus; or an EOY (odd) Platinum 2BR lockoff at Desert Willow (148,000 SO) for $13,950 plus 60,000 Starpoints. We also had to option to purchase an additional 80,000 Starpoints for $1,550 and had until June of 2011 to do so for Desert Willow, and until June of 2009 for Lagunamar.

For one brief moment we were tempted by the 1BR Lagunamar offer, but then cooler (TUG-like) heads prevailed. If we want to buy another EOY week we will do so at resale (we currently own an EOY even 1BR premium at SMV and a 2BR lockoff at WKORV). Frankly, since we don't use our 2BR lockoff in Maui every year we can exchange our studio side for a great week in Kierland if we so desire, so we don't really need another week at this point. We were also offered the explorer package (4 days/5 nights at WKV plus 50,000 Starpoints for $1,695 plus a $99 processing fee to be used within 18 months) which we turned down as well. This was the first time we took a "survey" after the sales presentation, which is when the explorer package was offered to us. Again, no high pressure, so it was not a unpleasant experience. The whole thing took just under 2 hours and could have been less if we hadn't asked some questions. We used the AmEx card to pay for most of a delicious dinner at Deseo, a restaurant over at the hotel resort.

So, that was our week in Scottsdale. We were there Oct 25 - Nov 1. It ended up being one of our best vacations and we definitely look forward to going back. Gotta play more of that mini-golf!
 

Maui_ed

TUG Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
269
Reaction score
35
Points
239
Location
Pacific Northwest
Resorts Owned
WPORV, WKORV, WDW
Nice write up. Thanks.

Your experience was very similar to ours earlier in October. The temps were a bit warmer for us, approaching 99 on a couple of days. We agree with your assessment of the resort, with the possible exception of the furnishings in our villa. I wrote about them a few weeks ago - we had some worn fabric in spots and some cracking veneers on some of the furniture. Nothing major, but enough that we noticed.

If (when) we go back, we will likely wait until in November with the hopes that the temperature will at least drop down into the 80s. Right now it seems crazy to be complaining about 90 degrees and sun, with our termperature registering at 26 degrees this morning. :)
 

tomandrobin

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2006
Messages
4,115
Reaction score
120
Points
448
Location
Bel Air, Maryland
Thanks for taking the time and writing about your trip. Kierland is a great resort, our first timeshare purchase.
 

SDKath

TUG Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Messages
3,076
Reaction score
16
Points
273
Wow! WDW at $14,000 EOY seems like a great deal!! That would put the platinum 2br LO at $28,000, which is much better than the $39,000 I was offered about 3 months ago! The TUG price was $38,900 on the sales sheet. Would you mind confirming the WDW price for me? I would actually be temped to buy an EY platinum for under $30,000 from the developer. Not that I am shopping. :)

Katherine
 

stevens397

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
808
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
NJ
Katherine-

You know there are 12 step programs I can refer you to!!!
 

tlpnet

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2008
Messages
315
Reaction score
1
Points
379
Location
Los Angeles
Wow! WDW at $14,000 EOY seems like a great deal!! That would put the platinum 2br LO at $28,000, which is much better than the $39,000 I was offered about 3 months ago! The TUG price was $38,900 on the sales sheet. Would you mind confirming the WDW price for me? I would actually be temped to buy an EY platinum for under $30,000 from the developer. Not that I am shopping. :)

Katherine

I'm with Katherine on this one because I purchased (and retroed) at that price. I'm not going to be happy if they dropped the price over $10K months after I purchased. Actually, going back and looking at the developer pricing, $14,000 makes perfect sense for EOY GOLD. SVO is now selling EOY to ALL owners at 50% (it used to be only if you owned at the specific resort).

-tim
 

Catazog

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
144
Reaction score
1
Points
378
I'm with Katherine on this one because I purchased (and retroed) at that price. I'm not going to be happy if they dropped the price over $10K months after I purchased. Actually, going back and looking at the developer pricing, $14,000 makes perfect sense for EOY GOLD. SVO is now selling EOY to ALL owners at 50% (it used to be only if you owned at the specific resort).

-tim

I'm sorry to get your hopes up, Katherine (and anyone else) -- I looked back at my notes and it was indeed GOLD season. Only Lagunamar was Platinum. Sorry about the TUG faux pas. Seasons do matter! :doh:
 

SDKath

TUG Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Messages
3,076
Reaction score
16
Points
273
Katherine-

You know there are 12 step programs I can refer you to!!!

Thanks, but I am not interested. :D :D :D But I did change my profile on the left to be a bit more accurate. :doh:

Katherine
 

Catazog

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
144
Reaction score
1
Points
378
Your experience was very similar to ours earlier in October. The temps were a bit warmer for us, approaching 99 on a couple of days. We agree with your assessment of the resort, with the possible exception of the furnishings in our villa. I wrote about them a few weeks ago - we had some worn fabric in spots and some cracking veneers on some of the furniture. Nothing major, but enough that we noticed.

If (when) we go back, we will likely wait until in November with the hopes that the temperature will at least drop down into the 80s. Right now it seems crazy to be complaining about 90 degrees and sun, with our termperature registering at 26 degrees this morning. :)

I remember reading your post and I thought, there's no way it can still be that hot at the end of October! Most of the locals were surprised it was so warm. I agree it does seem silly to complain about the heat. I look at our pictures of us wearing shorts with the blue sky and sunshine and I think, I want to go back! :whoopie:
 
Top