New Members - Please Introduce Yourself!

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

Old but New

Hi, I've been timesharing for years (10) but somehow never thought about checking the internet for timeshare forums until about 2 months ago. I bought through Marriott (Beach Place) and just recently bought on EBAY at Aruba Surf Club. We're still in the process of closing, the ROFR was waived and I sent in my check so I'm waiting for my signed transfer papers to come back. I am confused on all of the mostly negative comments that I've been reading about Marriott's new program. I guess I'll just wait and see. Best, Mike

[billymach4 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close billymach4]

Welcome to the TS4MS!

Don't let those silly Marriott rumors get to you. That stuff has been circulating for years now. However it seems that some deadline has been set, but Marriott has not made any formal announcement yet. As far as I am concerned it is a self perpetuated rumor that feeds on itself.

We will find out by the end of June for sure.

[pnappleprincess Member Find all posts View Profile Close pnappleprincess]

So excited to have found this board

Aloha Everyone!

My parents bought at Westgate in the 90's (own a 3BR lock off - week 9 at Westgate Town Center in Orlando). LOL - after reading the posts here i am sure I have everyone's condolences.

It actually has not been that bad for us as I am one of 4 children, and we have been going to the resort every year.

Of course the quality has gone down tremendously, but I am trying to figure out how to best maximize what we have! I am just trying to learn all I can.

Thanks for such a great forum!

[calebsam14 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close calebsam14]

Hello all my husband and i bought at Big Cedar at the end of May with BG, we havent recieved our stuff yet so nothing is booked, but we are hoping to stay there in sept/oct if we can find anything. We also got a week certificate thru RCI that we would like to use at myrtle beach maybe? havent decided yet. we are 27 and have one daughter that is 11mo old. Looking forward to lots of great vacations, we love to travel!

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

Hello all my husband and i bought at Big Cedar at the end of May with BG, we havent recieved our stuff yet so nothing is booked, but we are hoping to stay there in sept/oct if we can find anything.

As of right now there's plenty of availability at Big Cedar in September and October until you get near Halloween. As long as your points clear before the 48-day window opens up for Bonus Time, I think you'll be able to make reservations then. Once bonus time becomes available, a lot of those openings will probably disappear, but most people who can go off season will be looking for less points-pricey dates at first I'm guessing. If you post to the Bluegreen sub-forum here, people may help keep an eye on things for you. Or you can rent something if you have use for your points later.

Hope you enjoy Bluegreen as much as we do. Welcome to Timeshare Forums.

[gsjr77 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gsjr77]

New member from Miami

Hello all. Newly registered and getting familiar with the site. I had been referred by chriskre (who may or may or may not be a neighbor) at TUG. I 1st learned about timesharing when I worked at II. I may have spoken with a few of you While working there I took advantage of the resort priviledges once and stayed at Celebrity Resorts Orlando. Dont remember doing much at the resort except sleeping, since we'd be out at the Disney parks early and wouldn't get back til very late. We remember feeling very comfortable even in a studio unit in comparison to a standard hotel room. The only other TS we've stayed at was Orange Lake this past memorial day. Had lots of fun, kids loved... everything.
We now own at Star Island wk32 a 3bed unit and may be looking to sell it.After learning all that Ive learned, it seems as though a points based TS will suit us better. So if anyone is interested in this, feel free to pm me for details.

[bankr63 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bankr63]

Hello from Ottawa

Hello TS4MSers,

We are the Ross clan from Ottawa ON Canada. My partner and I have been TS owners for about 3 years now. Have been active on TUG for 2 years, but just stumbled across TS4MS recently. Enjoying all the interesting threads.

We came across Timesharing as a result of a Disney trip. My son has a food allergy, so we were looking for a place where we could cook our own meals and with more room for the kids. After choking on the price of renting a suite on Disney property, we came across a very reasonable vacation package at SVV and loved the place. We avoided the sales presentation; who has time to waste on vacation? But we had caught the bug...

About 6 months later, and after a lot of research, we bought our first unit at Silver Lake (3 BR LO, floating), and several months later again a 2nd unit at SVR (2BR Courts Town, fixed Ontario March break week - with SA prepaid). Both were on eBay for a good price (we were shocked how low!) I had read all the advice about avoiding overbuilt Orlando, but at the end of the day we wanted to buy where we want to vacation. We expect to return there at least every other year, and have had good trading power so far for the off years.

We are really enjoying the ability to vacation in such style for such low cost. I run an independent consulting firm, so owning makes it MUCH harder for me to avoid taking vacations. I now have them planned months in advance, and write the time off into my contracts.

Looking forward to expanding my knowledge (especially about Cabo, our next destination), and getting to know some of you, at least through your posts...

M Ross

[paul&fiona Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close paul&fiona]

Ice Hockey Crazy

G'day Everyone,

we are from Melbourne, Australia. We've been in Timeshare for about 9 years but we have only been overseas once, Hawaii and a cruise around the islands through RCI. We use Timeshare all the time in Australia and we've are familiar with the basics over here. We are virtually clueless how it operates in Canada and we have no idea about resorts in the Quebec area which is our target destination.

Our children 8 (nearly 9) and 11 have taken up ice-hockey in a big way and they are by far the best players in Australia however that's not really saying much because hardly anyone over here plays this fantastic sport. We are seriously thinking of applying to 'Harrington College of Canada' in Oka, Quebec and we have been in contact with the college. The enrolments gentleman suggested that we come over to Canada, as soon as possible, and have our children evaluated to see if our 11 year old would be accepted as a student in August, 2011 and they would possibly assess our 8 year old. We would have to spend about 2 weeks in Canada for this to be possible. Our 11 y/o would spend a week staying at the College (not sure yet about the 8 y/o) but in any case we, the 'open cheque book' parents would need to stay as close as possible to the college. Whilst we are there, we would also be looking at the possibility of moving to Canada permanently. We are both nurses and from what we understand, gaining employment is possible. We can't imagine sending our children off to another country and not being close by. We hope to be coming to Montreal in about October/November this year. We have asked today, the Australian administrators of Timeshare to e-mail us with some information about the resorts in Canada and we should here from them in a day or so.

We would appreciate any information at all, e.g. what is the closest Timeshare resort to Oka, Quebec? Is it possible to get 2 weeks at resorts? We have more than 2 weeks of Timeshare saved up. Of course we can always stay in a motel if we have to even if it's for a few days or more. Is it possible to stay one week at one resort and then another week at another and still be within a reasonable distance from Oka?

We don't really know much about ice-hockey except that by Australian standards, our children are exceptionally talented. So anyone that could give us some tips e.g. the best places to buy equipment that are near some of the possible resorts we hope to be staying in. Would it be possible to see a hockey game whilst we are there? Obviously, we would love to see an NHL game but any division would do. Are there any other ice-hockey DVDs besides "The Mighty Ducks", "Miracle" and "Mystery Alaska" which we could purchase either on-line or whilst we are over there? We have seen these movies about 100 times each!! There virtually is nothing ice-hockey related information etc. here in Australia.

Bye for now,

We are sure this won't be the last time we visit/post on the forum.

Paul and Fiona.

[glypnirsgirl Member Find all posts View Profile Close glypnirsgirl]

Hi - I am Elaine. I was introduced to this site by Cruisin.

I purchased my first timeshare directly from DVC in 1994. Second timeshare directly from DVC in 2007 (and it actually made sense for the purchase to be made from the developer - by then I knew about resales).

About a year ago I acquired one of Scott Riddle's Dikkhololo/Rayburn County Club packages. Although more expensive than I could have purchased the same property on ebay direct from another seller, it was worth it to me to have someone teach me how to use it. I have gotten many awesome trades with Scott's help. So I am happy with it.

My husband and I are mid-50s. Looking to acquire more timeshare weeks as we approach retirement. I no longer feel that I need as much hand-holding as I did for my first acquisitions, so I am ready to learn more.

elaine

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

Aussie - Introduction

Hi All!

I'm Tanya - new to the forum and hoping I'll get loads of advice and be able to assist others in return.

New to the timeshare world, my husband and I purchased a 20 year 1 x bedroom studio at the Peninsula Beach Resort, Nusa Dua - Bali.

Albeit that we have not yet actually utilised our yearly (week) allocation, we have "banked" with DAE and exchanged to the TriTrang Resort in Phuket and the Beach House Seaside Resort in Queensland. It's a very painless process - all online and any queries answered promptly!

Aside from our timeshare experience - we live in Alice Springs / Northern Territory - smack bang in the middle of Australia. If anyone would like any information on the Red Centre, Northern Territory or Australia in general - I'd be happy to help.

So, howdy! I look forward to reading about the fabulous wordly experiences of other members on this forum.

Cheers ~ Tanya

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

Hey All

Hello everyone

My name is Jaaz.I am travel enthusiast and advisor for accommodation like cottage and resort in Muskoka Lake, Ontario. I found CedarWoodResort.Ca which offers Muskoka cottage rentals and Bracebridge rentals with full of luxuries and nightly room accommodation.

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

Hi All:

My wife and I have been in Marriott TS since 2003 and have really enjoyed and benefitted from using II to trade to various locations throughout the US and the Carribbean. We've enjoyed the flexibility II gives us splitting our two bedroom / lockoff ownership into two weeks and often being able to gain back a full one bedroom or even a two bedroom through diligence in watching the availability at locations and times we want to visit. This is our first forum entry and in fact we haven't even ventured onto forums of any kind for TS issues until now... We just went through a Marriott presentation while staying in Hilton Head and learned of the new points system... we are NOT impressed and feel very slighted by the company and almost like we are under attack for using the II system the way we have. At any rate, we'll now be watching these forums and seeking information on what everyone is hearing and experiencing relative to Marriott's new system. At present, we don't like it and will be looking for alternatives.

Thanks

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

New to Timesharing

Hi All,

My name is Yvonne and I live in Tucson, AZ. In May I purchased a 2brm timeshare at the Vegas Grandview. So I am on here just trying to pick up some tips and tricks to this whole thing since this is all new to me.

One tip I wish I new was to look on Ebay before I bought but oh well, no use crying over it, I am ready to enjoy it and hopefully make it through exchanging relatively unharmed..LOL

Yvonne

[swestrngrl@msn.com Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close swestrngrl@msn.com]

New member..

still trying to figure out the system..can't even get the avatar uploaded!
Been going to Cabo for over 30+ years-from the Finisterra, to Solmar (old school Solmar) to Playa Grande-The Ridge. With family all over the place and too many timeshares between us now, we are trying to learn how to rent the ones we can't use. Hope to make friends on this site who love vacationing as much as we do and to trade/rent for great places when we can't all make it to Cabo.

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

Hello all. I'm Robyn and am in the very beginning phases of learning about timeshares. About 10 years ago my husband and I took a vacation to Florida after getting a phone call where we could get a great rate at a Ramada property if we went on their timeshare presentation. It was a horrible experience. The salesman and I did not get along and my husband was just trying to stay out of the middle. I vowed never to look at timeshares again.

We vacation at Disney about once every 9 months, though, and I really wanted to stay in their deluxe resorts. I never allowed myself to since they were so darn expensive. After about 3 years of debating, studying, thinking, and re-thinking, we bought into DVC about a year ago. DVC seems so simple compared to other timeshares. Maybe it's just that I know and understand it and haven't studied other programs as much.

Anyways, looking forward to learning lots on these boards!