Blue Green--did we do the right thing?

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

I checked the contract and it looks like you may be right, there is a clause limiting us as to where we can go during the summer months(june, july, aug).

The thing with buying Bluegreen when you first meet with the salesperson is that there's so much to absorb -- they start with the biggest deal possible first, and then work down to what you're willing to buy, so when you actually sign on the dotted line it can be tough to remember what actually applies to that purchase. It took me some months to get bonus time and traveler's plus and the weeks for 3000 points and all down in the sense of remembering what was what, and even longer to get the right names applied (I'm really not there yet on that one ). So don't feel bad about missing that aspect.

Hershey is a pretty small resort and fairly popular; I would guess that's why you can't get there. Pity; we went there in March on our Sampler and it's a cool area. And we'd picked it out purely because the points roughly matched what we had left after we checked out the places that really interested us. We stretched our Sampler (9000 points) to five resorts, because we really wanted a feel for the system before we bought; mostly 2BR Monday check ins with Friday check outs for all seven of us, but the one weekend 1BR we got for just hubby and I cost more than any of the others. Some resorts are a great deal during the week and awful on the weekend; some have more balanced weekday to weekend prices.

Good luck on the wife negotiations. I'm the BG person in our partnership, but hubby pretty much just agrees to whatever I suggest, which I think is rare. Not the fact that one person mostly deals with BG and figuring out the points and all; that's pretty common. It's the other person going with the flow that's rare. So double plus good on the luck factor, I guess.

[kntb Member Find all posts View Profile Close kntb]

Hershey is a pretty small resort and fairly popular; I would guess that's why you can't get there. Pity; we went there in March on our Sampler and it's a

The thing with buying Bluegreen when you first meet with the salesperson is that there's so much to absorb -- they start with the biggest deal possible first, and then work down to what you're willing to buy, so when you actually sign on the dotted line it can be tough to remember what actually applies to that purchase. It took me some months to get bonus time and traveler's plus and the weeks for 3000 points and all down in the sense of remembering what was what, and even longer to get the right names applied (I'm really not there yet on that one ). So don't feel bad about missing that aspect.cool area. And we'd picked it out purely because the points roughly matched what we had left after we checked out the places that really interested us. We stretched our Sampler (9000 points) to five resorts, because we really wanted a feel for the system before we bought; mostly 2BR Monday check ins with Friday check outs for all seven of us, but the one weekend 1BR we got for just hubby and I cost more than any of the others. Some resorts are a great deal during the week and awful on the weekend; some have more balanced weekday to weekend prices.

Good luck on the wife negotiations. I'm the BG person in our partnership, but hubby pretty much just agrees to whatever I suggest, which I think is rare. Not the fact that one person mostly deals with BG and figuring out the points and all; that's pretty common. It's the other person going with the flow that's rare. So double plus good on the luck factor, I guess.

You are SOOOOOO right about that part! A lot of information in a little time. I still need to learn about the bonus time and travel's plus, that sounds like a good deal. I saw where this would be good for mon-fri stays as well, the points really go up once the weekend is involved.

I have a question for you, what determines where you are deeded once you buy? Is it simply where ever you sign your paperwork or do you get to pick?

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

I have a question for you, what determines where you are deeded once you buy? Is it simply where ever you sign your paperwork or do you get to pick?

If you are buying directly from Bluegreen, then they'll sell you points at whatever resorts are still "on sale." Christmas Mountain Village, for instance, has been sold out for some time I would guess, but they still have a sales center -- if you buy there, you'll be getting points from another resort. If you want a particular resort, you can ask, and they'll get it for you if they have it, but if it's sold out then they don't have it and you'd have to pick from what they do have.

Now if you are buying resale, whether from Pinnacle (where you can get "authorized points") or off of e-bay or wherever ("unauthorized points"), then you can pick your resort according to what's available on the resale market or you can just wait until someone sells points where you want to go.

For the most part, points are points. The exceptions are locations and times that are really hard to get, because you have first rights to the week you "own." Premiere owners -- people with a gazillion points -- can get on a wait list way before the average owner, but you can be a total peon and claim the weeks you own before they start handing them out to the wait list at eleven months (and then what's left over goes to the common pot). So at twelve months, say, you can tell Bluegreen, "I want the weeks I own," and you'll get them. But if you don't ask for them before the eleven months deadline, they'll go in the common points pool, and whoever asks for them first, gets them.

A fair percentage of the oceanfront summer weeks at ShoreCrest I are used by the same people year after year, either people who bought weeks there before Bluegreen was part of the picture or people who have tracked down the weeks they wanted with resales. Points at Big Cedar are more expensive on the resale market because people want to use a week they own there. And there are some weeks owners here and there who technically own at a Bluegreen resort, but don't own points, because Bluegreen bought out the resort after they bought from the original builder and they never transferred over.

Each resort has its own history and its own quirks, but as a points owner it really isn't that important unless you start getting wound up about why it's so hard to get a summer cabin at Big Cedar or something. Even the resorts where a lot of people own weeks they regularly use, generally you can get in without much trouble; you just may find it hard to get a particular unit type or holiday week.

If you are seriously considering buying into Bluegreen, there's a Bluegreen Owners subforum here you can join after you've posted so many times; Anita, another owner here, posted summer availability at bunches of the resorts to give you an idea of what's available at eleven months. At least I think they'll let you in if you're just considering a purchase; you have to request access.

Bonus Time is available at all the resorts to all people with authorized points (anyone who bought direct from Bluegreen or from Pinnacle and paid a minimum of $1.25/point, I think it is), and to people with unauthorized points only where they own. It's available 48 days out (on the Internet; 45 if you're calling in for a reservation), and you pay cash for those nights, but with weekends it's often less than the unit costs in points.

Traveler's Plus is only available to people who own authorized points, and it costs an extra fee ($50/year, last I knew), and it gives you access to some of the Shell resorts using your BG points, as well as a number of other deals that aren't as exciting. Usually you have to sign up with that when you buy your points and keep current; if you let your membership lapse you have to buy more points before they'll sign you up again. Which in practice means a lot of owners debate about that extra fee every year because they haven't used it yet. And most of them sign back in because they aren't willing to risk not getting it back if they want it sometime in the future, bound and determined to use it sometime this year.