New Members - Please Introduce Yourself!

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

Welcome Sam. Snoop around the forums. There is a lot of information that you can read to learn all about timeshares and how to buy and use them. We're glad you came.

[pascal Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pascal]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Is there such a thing as timeshare for dummies?

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Is there such a thing as timeshare for dummies?

Actually I think there is a book out called that. Here's a good place to hang out with all your questions. Are you looking to buy?

[Bama Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bama]

Brand New after 64 years

Hi i`m Herschel my wife Darlene OF 43 years and I Just jumped in to this while staying with Friends at Grand Mayan in Quintana Roo, We took there tour, they were just to spread out. We just though it was not for us . then we were invited to Sunset Fishermen`s Village in Playa Del Carmen
,boy was it just what we were looking for , very nice beach, bar restaurant walking distance to town , shopping restaurants . Walk down the beach to Pier. short taxi ride to wall mart . This is an V.I.P. Travel club . has any one done business with them or sunset Resorts .

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

Sunset Resorts are about the worst timeshare group in Mexico.

[Bama Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bama]

IS it just me

Tonyg after looking at your links it appears that you are selling competitors time share or rental if this is the case I would take your opinion with a grain of salt , if not My Deepest apologies

[Bama Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bama]

Tug

IM very new what and where is tug ? websight?

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

Don't sell or rent any more, just link to a quality friend's site. If you bought at the Sunset Group, rescind or suffer.

[Bama Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bama]

?

I wish you could give examples , I stayed at the Grand Mayan Did not like it at all Especially the service Like i said i am very new at this .

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I wish you could give examples , I stayed at the Grand Mayan Did not like it at all Especially the service Like i said i am very new at this .

Realy whaich GM?

[Miss Understood Member Find all posts View Profile Close Miss Understood]

Hello,
I hang out at other timeshare sites as well, and have "lurked" here a bit, so just decided to register. We toured our first timeshare in 1995 and that began our interest in the timeshare concept, and set us on a course to buy resale timeshares. By the end of 1996, early 1997 we closed on the three timeshares we now own: Westgate Vacation Villas, Maui Lea at Maui Hill, and Kona Coast 1. All are one bedroom units. Generally we trade our units, but do occassionally use them. The Maui property has an in-house rental program and we have been renting that week out for the last few years. Fees have gone up, of course, and the industry has changed a lot in the last 10+ years, but we still enjoy all three of our ownerships.

[hliw Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close hliw]

New to TS4MS

Hey! I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this site! We have had a timeshare since 1998 or 97, I can't remember exactly. We started with Eagle Trace at Killy Court at Massanutten which is with RCI. We gifted Eagle Trace to my sister last year. We now have 2 weeks at the Marriott Ocean Watch in MB. I'm happy to answer questions about either place. We are just a couple of years new to the Marriott system and are still learning some tricks of the trade with Marriott and II, but couldn't be happier. Within Marriott, we have traded into or used bonus weeks for: Marriott's Fairway Villas at SeaView, Ocean Club Aruba, Horizons Orlando (twice!), Ocean Watch Myrtle Beach (of course), and are heading to St. Thomas for Thanksgiving. With RCI, we have been to Kilconquar in Scotland, Hever Country Club in England, Arroyo Roble in Sedona (wonderful!), Sheraton Vistana in Scottsdale, Big Sky MT (can't remembe the name of the place), Smugglers Notch, VT.......we LOVE to trade and look forward about learning of some new gems in the system.

Cheers to all and Happy 2008!
HLIW

[Manifest Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Manifest]

Hello from the Land Down Under - Australia

[I]Hi to you all....

I have stumbled upon this forum whilst doing a Google search .....Peter and I had our 20 year wedding anniversary a few months back, so it is now more than 20 years since we have been out of Australia, we went to Thailand for 9 days and Singapore for 3 days for our honeymoon and Peter had been to USA and Mexico and Malaysia a few years earlier before we married. I also went to Bali when I was 18 ever since we have always wanted to travel more but had the kids fairly quickly, Damien 19, Elisha 17 and Shanice 8 almost.... so I am not very well traveled as every opportunity we had financially to think about going overseas it seems that we spent the money on everyday life and the kids very expensive musical instruments, of which it feels like we have half an orchestra.......I am new to timeshare ownership......I shopped around and found a wholesale reseller of timeshare here in Australia and we have bought 3 weeks worth in the Granada unit which is a 2 bedroom/sleeps 6 people at the Nepean Country Club about 1 hour away from my home so we drove down and checked it out before we bought, if we had bought these weeks from the resort direct it would have cost A$2,800 per week ownership fee to buy the timeshare and get the title BUT thankfully I love using Google for research and I paid only $1500 per week including all legals plus we have paid up front $572.00 per week for the fees for next year so we now have a RCI resort ownership in a points affiliated resort I now plan to join the points program with RCI they will give me 38,500 points for each week I deposit for transfer/exchange worldwide, so I now have fully paid up 6 weeks worth which is equivalent to RCI points 38,500 x 6 weeks = 231,000 it has cost me A$6216 as I have bought 3 weeks and paid for next years maint fees, and booked weeks 24,25,26 & 52, 2008 and weeks 1 & 2 for 2009 to bank..... with the points system this very really could turn into double the weeks we have bought and provide 6 weeks plus car hire etc.... or even 10 weeks or more????.....accommodation because it depends when, where, what time of year and what type of unit you need as to how many points they cost per week.......as we would only need a 1 bedroom/sleeps 4 to travel most of the time with our youngest daughter it is less points per week......the beauty of the bonus weeks is that the older kids will alway have access to cheap holidays through our membership, or could come with us at no extra cost for accommodation which is HUGE savings given that conventionally we would have 4 adults to pay for plus 1 child........in July 2009 we are due for the next lot of maint fees around $1800 for the 3 weeks buying us another 115,500 points.....this many RCI points every year for such a small cost.....

......I had heard bits and pieces about timeshare but always was a bit wary of it, more because I just plain didn't understand and had put it into the too hard basket, then a couple of years heard about some people getting ripped off so we decided it was no good.......luckily I met someone else who absolutely loved the holidays they were taking with the RCI exchange program so Peter and I went to a presentation by a developer at a resort and that is how we learnt a fair bit about how it works BUT this developer was wanting us to buy into his resort for A$26,000 for one weeks ownership, people are doing this every day all over the world as I have found plenty of web sites selling for these hefty amounts......what I have discovered, thankfully.......if you truly love to have holidays and travel around there is absolutely no need to pay that sort of money at all, I am thrilled at what I have managed to buy for such a small amount that will enable us to really start affordable traveling, without needing to worry also what the exchange rate for our currency is as the points are universal no matter what country and currency you have paid your timeshare in......I wish I had found out about this years ago......please feel free to correct me on any of this......like I said I am new.....but did do a LOT of research before committing to buy...... ......time I went to bed...it is now almost 2.00am in the morning......but I just really wanted to say hi to you all.....I am excitted about what holidays we can begin to plan.....any suggestions would be most welcome.....we intend to travel overseas later this year......

All the best, Nicole



[I]

[Arline Member Find all posts View Profile Close Arline]

Nicole, welcome to our forum! Be careful...some of us around here are timeshare fanatics. Speaking for myself, I now have 13 weeks (no points) in Florida, Las Vegas and Hawaii. We can still double our vacations with bonus weeks when depositing at Trading Places, even though we belong to I.I. and R.C.I. We now own where we want to go to avoid trading fees and frustration waiting for quality trades. Enjoy your family holidays!

[neash Member Find all posts View Profile Close neash]

Hello All,

I have posted here before and only now saw this thread, so thought I would officially introduce myself.
I live in Virginia, married, have one stepson and one daughter; though my daughter and I are the only ones who are excited about travelling. Thanks to TS4MS and TUG, I am the proud owner of Royal Caribbean in Cancun, Maasanutten and Rayburn Country (for entry into RCI points), all bought within the past 6 months.
We have planned a great 2 week vacation in Royal Caribbean (my own week) and an exchange into HGVC Orlando. We will be going with my sister and Dad. I'm really looking forward to it. Couldn't have done this without timeshares.
DD and I have already decided where we want to go in each school break until 2010
It's exciting.

Thanks for the great board, and also a big thanks to all those people who work so hard to post sightings everyday.

Neash