how and when did you become involved in timeshare?

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

I can't remember exactly, but somewhere in the 80's we went to a timeshare presentation in New Hampshire and actually purchased a week. Got home and went to the library...this was before you could look up anything you want on a computer. The information I saw wasn't good, so we rescinded. We later discovered the site over yonder and learned lots and lots, starting with South Africa, which I'm sure many of you remember. Because of timesharing, we have traveled to many new places and have met many really good people.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

June, 1989.

Oh, I see it says that below, almost.



& I've found it's problematic to discuss timesharing with folks who have gotten involved more recently.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Early 1980's on a trip to New Hampshire. Bought and a couple of days later rescinded. Bought first resale in 1995, 3 more in 1996 and still bought as of last spring. Never had one for more than 12 years and made money on most that I resold.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

oops

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Our story starts in 1999.

Over New Years that year, I took three of the kids (2 sons, one daughter) on a four-day ski trip in eastern British Columbia. We squeezed the budget, staying in Model 6 types of accommodations, rooms with two queen beds. DD got one of the queens to herself. The two boys got the other bed. I slept on the floor. We had an ice chest where we kept a few perishable items, especially milk, juice, fruit, cheese, and yogurt. Breakfast was cold cereal in the room + yogurt and fruit. We bought simple lunch at the ski lodge (hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, etc.). Dinner was usually take-out pizza or Chinese. When I got home and reviewed, I was amazed at how much money we had still ended up spending on food.

Seven months later DW and I are in Hawaii for our 25th wedding anniversary. Once in a lifetime trip; we had talked about doing it for years. Then it was our 25th anniversary and we received a great promo offer from the Marriott in Lihue. Six days/five nights, rental car, and $75 in hotel vouchers. So we took it. When we got there, they said that if we attended a timeshare presentation, they would double our hotel vouchers, and give us about $100 in other gift certificates for local restaurants and activities.

So we went on the tour and were totally sold. I looked at the room, which had only a mini-kitchen since the Marriott is converted hotel rooms, and asked DW if she thought we would be able to handle almost all of our meals with what was available. When she said "Yes", I immediately deduced that with a unit such as that, we could have spent the same amount of money as we did in the ski trip, while having beter accommodations. It all came down to controlling the cost of feeding teenagers.

So, we purchased two one-bedroom units. Later that week we learned about the resale market, and that Marriott wasn't the only timeshare on the island. We did whirlwind visits to several other facilities, and decided that Point at Poipu was ideal for us. We rescinded our Marriott purchase, and started looking for a resale at Poipu.

That was more than fifteen years ago, and those intelligent decisions are still working nicely for us.

[Luanne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Luanne]

1974 I think. My husband (at the time) and I went with my parents to view San Diego Country Estates in Ramona, CA. My dad had met one of their salesmen playing golf. We were impressed with the units and liked that green fees on the excellent golf course were free for owners. We could also break down our time by night. They were sold as floating units in two week blocks. My husband and I bought a 2-bedroom unit and my parents bought 2-bedroom as well. A year later the 4 of us bought a one-bedroom to use for trade. Fast forward and in the early 80's my now ex-husband had tne 2-bedroom and I still had the one-bedroom jointly with my parents.

In 1986 my current dh and I ended up at Maui Hill on a trade. We liked it so much we bought.

Both purchases were through the developer. I'm not even sure if there was much resale in 1986, I'm sure there wasn't in 1974.

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Sometime in the early 90's we bought 2 resale blue weeks in Ocean City MD. Not too long afterwards, we bought a SA week. We still have those 3 weeks and never purchased anymore. We've gotten some very nice trades with those 3 weeks.

Nancy

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

In 1996 I saw a flyer on a bulletin at the supermarket advertising a cheap 4 night stay in a 2 BR villa in Orlando for attending a presentation. I called the number and booked it. Then I mentioned to my haircutter that we were going. She told me that she had been on a presentation the month before and that they could be bought resale. She was in the process of buying at Vistana on the resale market.
Our resort turned out to be Westgate, and when we went to the high pressured sales pitch, I told them we were going to tour Vistana the next day and to give me reasons why they should buy from them instead. I told them we were definitely going to buy, but were going to comparison shop. Then it got ugly. At Vistana it got ugly too.
We ended up buying a Vistana resale for $5200 (resales were not so cheap then).
Since then we have bought, sold, gave away and were given several timeshares.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

We are not "hotel room" people. Even from the earliest days with our eldest a toddler, we would either rent vacation homes or stay in Residence Inn-style places with separate sleeping spaces for the kids, a simple kitchen, etc.

We got started looking into timeshares when we rented my uncle's pool villa in Orlando for the "family discount." He also owned a week at Orange Lake, and a couple more S. African weeks back when they were tigers. He suggested that if we were going to go back to Orlando regularly we should think about getting a resale somewhere. Our first purchase was ten years ago now, a Wyndham resale. We quickly added a couple more weeks to our portfolio, and it's some of the best money I've ever spent. We've had fantastic vacations over the years, and probably gone on twice as many as I would have otherwise. So, I'm probably not "saving money." But, I think about the fact that after next year, our kids will both be in college and out of the house, and am thrilled that we got to spend so much time together away from the day-to-day grind while they were growing up. And, who knows? Maybe they'll still come on trips with old Mom & Dad.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

Our story starts in 1999.

Over New Years that year, I took three of the kids (2 sons, one daughter) on a four-day ski trip in eastern British Columbia. .

Where in Eastern British Columbia? I lived there in Windermere BC from the age of 8 to 14. My wife and I lived in Spokane WA for 6 month in 1996 where I was a consultant at Kaiser Aluminum in Trentwood. We took some time off to travel up through Eastern BC and visit my old stomping ground. Boy what a change.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

Interesting stories. Mine starts in Cabo around 2004. It was our 25th wedding anniversary and some friend had a penthouse available so we all went to have a good time in Cabo. At the marina a guy told me if I went on a breakfast tour of the PBSB I would get a marlin trip. So we went. I didn't want to buy anything but they kept adding things on to the point that I told the guy I would agree to buy but I would cancel. They brought out a form that I signed that stated I could not cancel so I signed it, took their promised massage and marlin trip, Because I bought this timeshare the resort also gave me a three year membership to RCI, $500 of resort gift certificates to use at the 3 PB resorts in Cabo, 4 bottles of decent Tequilla, 4 Mexican blankets made in China and a sunset cruise.

I went back to the sales office after I went marlin fishing while my wife was having her massage and tried to cancel. I was escorted to the reservation desk and was suppose to meet with some guy who didn't show so we proceeded to spend the gift certificates. Every day I went to the sales area to cancel , every day I was told to go to the reservation desk and ask for some guy that never showed up and every day I spent their gift certificates.

I did let visa know I was at the resort trying to cancel a couple of times. I even put the reservation guy on the phone to let visa know that the cancellation guy wasn't in. Anyway it was canceled and I ended up with the 3 years of RCI + 2 extra vacations. I almost felt sorry for PBSB but because they actually got what they deserved for being dishonest.

About a month later I bought my first VDP Cabo ts resale. I bought about 9 of these as they were almost free. I rented and then sold 6 and kept 3. I use these 3 every year. I also bought a few Worldmarks, a couple of Eagle Crests and a few years ago I bought a 190 point vacation international that had 8 years left. I use the vi for Hawaii.

Without ts's I doubt that I would have traveled much. I was going to stop because of recent health concerns but my wife kicked my ass and made me reserve 2 weeks in an Oregon beach house for all of the family this August , 10 nights in Loreto , 2 weeks in Maui, 2 weeks in Nuevo Vallarta and 2 weeks in Cabo. I also made reservations for her favorite hang out in Leavenworth for a couple of 3 day weekends.

All of this is happening because we went to Cabo, lol.

Bill

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Where in Eastern British Columbia? I lived there in Windermere BC from the age of 8 to 14. My wife and I lived in Spokane WA for 6 month in 1996 where I was a consultant at Kaiser Aluminum in Trentwood. We took some time off to travel up through Eastern BC and visit my old stomping ground. Boy what a change.

It was a terrible year for skiing. We wanted to ski Red Mountain, and the motel we stayed at was in Rossland. But after one day on Red Mountain we gave up because most of the mountain was closed and the areas that were open were terrible. So we ended up skiing at Whitewater.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

We became victims when DW and I took our first vacation together. It was a working vacation in the Tampa area the first weekend and we went on to Orlando for the next week. There was an OPC booth at the Denny's next to our Motel 6, and things just went downhill from there. By the end if the week, we were getting comped nights at the eventual dump we bought at.

[shorts Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shorts]

Ours started in 1994 with a presentation at the RCI building in Indianapolis for Morritts Tortuga Club in Grand Cayman. We bought a poolside studio without even seeing the resort. Over the years we upgraded that unit several times and have purchased others on the resale market to where we now have our "winter " second home with 9 weeks in an ocean front 2 bedroom.

We also have some Wyndham points we use a lot for trips with the kids and grandkids and for weekends. We've also bought and sold quite a few weeks over the years but have it just down to Morritts and Wyndham now.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

We are obviously a bunch of really, really old people.