New Members - Please Introduce Yourself!

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Hello - I am Babs from El Cajon, CA. We travel to our timeshares regularly. We have two weeks (2BR) at the Whaler in Maui, one week at (2BR) Westin Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, one week EOY at (4BR) Westgate Park City, and one week EOY at (1BR) Los Abrigados.
We are new empty-nesters and love the spaciousness of timeshares so our kids and their friends can join us.
Babs

Hey Babs I came close to moving to El Cajon some 20 years back. I have a ton of family there. Have you ever eatten at De Leone's? That is my Uncle Vito.

[Fletcher921 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fletcher921]

De Leone's on Jamacha?? Less than a mile away. Small world! They just re-opened about a year ago. Nice place.
Babs

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

De Leone's on Jamacha?? Less than a mile away. Small world! They just re-opened about a year ago. Nice place.
Babs

That's the place. My Cousin Frank was the cook there. I know my uncle had sold it and he bought another place not sure if he bought the same place back or not as I have not spoken to him in a year.

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

Hi

My name is Kevin and I live in Perth, Western Australia with my wife Ann. I have just retired and Ann is a school teacher still working part time (pays for our holidays).

We love travelling in Asia and usually do two trips a year. Usually go to Bali once a year and then somewhere else like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Japan and also spent a couple of weeks in Samoa last year where our daughter was married.

Not into timeshare yet but we are currently actively looking at acquiring something in Bali to get us into the concept.

Doing lots of research at the moment and hope to proceed with an acquisition shortly.

It's great to have somewhere to go and learn from the experiences of others.

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

Welcome, Kev. Don't feel like you are alone as you are not the only one here from down under. Don't rush into anything and take your time making that first purchase (hopefully resale).

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

Welcome Kev! Nice to have another Aussie here. Yes, as Tony says, there's no need to rush into timeshares. There are plenty of opportunities. Take your time and do all the research you need.

[In the Pink Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close In the Pink]

Hello

Newbie Marla (and DH Everett) from the Houston, TX area. Had been considering a TS but totally ignorant of the whole system. Recently took a cruise which stopped in Cozumel and were approached by TS and ended up buying. Still not sure if we did good or not, but at least we're in. We bought into the El Cid Vacation Club (ECVC) with the points equivalent of a studio. It exchanges freely into Fairfield, and also included an RCI membership. I'm a little concerned now since I can't seem to find anybody else who owns ECVC on any discussion forums. We were also given some bonus weeks, both ECVC and RCI.
Any tips and advice welcome!

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

New but excited!

Good day Ladies and Gents. Ken and Linda King from Kansas. We have 1 daughter. I had been looking at TS for a while. Finally purchased a float week at Sunterra Scottsdale Villa Mirage off E-bay last April. I had checked as much as possible and hoped I was not getting burned. It turned out fantastic. For $900 I got the TS and then found out it was available during Thanksgiving last year. We went. We loved it. The sales pitch convinced us that our sweet deal was good but not great. Only usable at Villa Mirage once a year. They could 'convert' our week to SunOptions if (big IF) we purchased as little as 3000 SunOptions for 10K. Because I had only paid $900 for 5500 Sunoptions, I rationaled purchasing the 3000 to get me to 8500 SunOptions. That gave us tons more options for vacations. We have booked a week at the Sedona Ridge Golf Resort for May, Cypress Point in Orlando for Christmas and just booked Super Bowl week back in Scottsdale in 2008. Not bad for being new to this TS thing! My SunOption points are all used up for this year and next but isn't that what they are for?!?
So we are new and excited and ready for suggestions to make this decision even better. thanks for your time.

[Transit Member Find all posts View Profile Close Transit]

New here

I'm a member over yonder .I just recently found over here.I own at Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando for just over a year now but I've been traveling to T/S's with family since the early 90's. There is lots of great info here. I'm happy to be aboard.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

WELCOME to all new members

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I guess since I've been posting for a couple of weeks now I should take the time to introduce myself on this thread.

We are Doug and Shelley from Wichita, KS. We got into timesharing by accident like a lot of people. We took an unplanned vacation and then an unplanned tour of a timeshare "just to get our opinion" at Polo Towers in Vegas back in 1998.

The vacation was unplanned as we had cancelled a couple of weeks vacation thanks to family members either going into the hospital with unplanned emergancy life theatening situations. One week was canceled when my mother passed away. The unplanned vacation part came when we had taken a week's vacation to pack my mothers belongings to put into storage when we sold her house. Unfortunately, the people that bought it wanted to be in it sooner than that week I had planned. We worked weekends to get everything out, closed on the house and THEN realized we had a weeks vacation coming up on short notice that we'd forgotten about. So, we went to Vegas on a last minute Charter flight and ended up purchasing our first unit at Polo Towers.

Up until this time we had been the typical American not taking vacations. In fact, this was the first vacation we had taken in 5 or 6 years and it was only for 4 nights. The concept of timesharing appealed to us and I knew that if I spent that much money, you could bet you back side we'd be going on vacation at least once a year.

The first year we took our daughter with us and her cousin (was supposed to be #1 son but he backed out at the last minute). The next year we took our daughter to Orlando and Disneyworld and things have just snowballed since that time.

Presently we own 7 timeshares. 6 are every year use timeshares and 1 is an EOY usage. Sometimes it's a challange getting all the units used in some fashion each year but somehow, we manage. It might not always be the most efficient usage of our MF's but we have traveled all around this country and across the pond a time or two.

At this point, I can't imagine a life without vacations and traveling. My co-workers have a hard time understanding how/why we travel so much. I have a hard time understanding how/why they want to work all the time and cash in their vaction time by working around the house or for $$ at 50 cents on the dollar.

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

resale market

Hi everyone,

My wife Tammy and I own 2 weeks at the Marriott Waiohai on Kauai on the odd years and 2 weeks at the Marriott Beach Club on Maui on the even years. If we add to these by buying on the resale market do we loose any of the advantages that Marriott gives when you buy direct from them?

[JimIg23 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimIg23]

I am from the Chicago area, having transplanted from the east coast. We are new to timesharing. Having a family of 5, we wanted to start using villas, and the idea of timesharing sounded better than always looking for rentals. We were days away from buying a Marriott directly a few months ago until we found TUG. We have actually been trying to buy a few Marriotts resale and have been ROFRed 3 times. We are waiting for a Surf Club Gold to go thru rofr. Hopefully 4th time is a charm.

[MUTUAL Member Find all posts View Profile Close MUTUAL]

Hi, my name is Maria and new to TS. We just got our timeshare this year (took over from MIL). She bought at FF Dolphin's Cove. I am trying to use our 2007 points for an exchange to HI for next year (as some of you probably know already). Thanks to everyone for all of their help and advice. I've used my Mom's TS (through RCI exchange) in Cape Cod 5 yrs. ago (Hyannis area) and will be using it this summer in Aruba (Divi Aruba Phoenix).

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Hi everyone,

My wife Tammy and I own 2 weeks at the Marriott Waiohai on Kauai on the odd years and 2 weeks at the Marriott Beach Club on Maui on the even years. If we add to these by buying on the resale market do we loose any of the advantages that Marriott gives when you buy direct from them?

Welcome to all the newbies!

I think I answered this someplace but the answer is no - the only thing you lose is the ability to trade every other year for Marriott reward points...no loss in my opinion!