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Booking times for trips

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  • Booking times for trips

    I am new to timeshares and to Bluegreen. I have noticed that a lot of threads say you should really book 11 months out. Can that be true? Do we need to really start that far out? We have kids that are into several activities and sometimes(read a good bit of the time), cannot plan that far out. Is 11 months the norm or does that just increase our odds of getting what we want? Has anyone had success trying to book 60-90 days, or shorter, out or is that just unrealistic of me?

    I see Jim(bocabum99, i think) is the resident Bluegreen expert so I warn you now Jim, I am going to have a bunch of questions, hope I don't get on your nerves.

  • #2
    You may need to book that far out for really in-demand locations, but all the vacations we have taken were booked no more than a few months out. We have stayed at Club 36, Laurel Crest, Mountain Loft, The Fountains, Patrick Henry Village, and Shorecrest all on short notice and often with bonus time. We do have a trip booked to Fantasy Island II in August that would use the remainder of our saved points before they expire that was booked 11 months out and is now rented out. If you are flexible on where you want to go, I do not think you will have a hard time finding something you would enjoy. I would recommend checking availability on the BG website to get a sense of what seems to book up quickly and what places have a lot of short notice availability.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by shockwave7_7 View Post
      You may need to book that far out for really in-demand locations, but all the vacations we have taken were booked no more than a few months out. We have stayed at Club 36, Laurel Crest, Mountain Loft, The Fountains, Patrick Henry Village, and Shorecrest all on short notice and often with bonus time. We do have a trip booked to Fantasy Island II in August that would use the remainder of our saved points before they expire that was booked 11 months out and is now rented out. If you are flexible on where you want to go, I do not think you will have a hard time finding something you would enjoy. I would recommend checking availability on the BG website to get a sense of what seems to book up quickly and what places have a lot of short notice availability.
      Thanks for the quick reply. I will have to let my wife know this. Glad to find this out ahead of time. I know she would be more than a little miffed if she didn't get someplace she had her heart set on with no backup choice.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by kntb View Post
        Is 11 months the norm or does that just increase our odds of getting what we want?
        It's not the norm but if you're tied to a school schedule it's often a good idea. If you travel off season you'll have a lot more flexibility than if you're going summer and school holidays. If you're fine with Harbour Lights you can dawdle considerable with making your Myrtle Beach reservations; if you "must" be on the beach, best to do it 11 months out. And so on. There are always options for months after the eleven month point, but they won't necessarily be where you want to go.

        We've never had any problem getting reservations much later than eleven months out but we hate crowds, so we're never trying for 4th of July weekend at Big Cedar or anything like that. The longer you wait the less choice you'll have, though. A lot of resorts that are quiet during the week are suddenly mobbed over the weekend, and a lot of those weekenders waited until Bonus Time was available at 48 days out -- dawdling past that point, even if it looks like there's tons of availability 50 days out, is a bad plan.

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        • #5
          Kids at school have fixed holidays so why not book as soon as you can ?
          Also school holidays are usually peak weeks so waiting till the last minute isn’t a good idea.

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          • #6
            Thanks to you both Hobbitess and Stevec. Still trying to figure out what we can and can't do since we only have the sampler package. As I said before in another post I think, we really want to make the most of these two years and learn as much as we can about Bluegreen and the system, that way we can make an informed and smart decision come buying time.

            If anyone has insight to what we can't do, I know not all facilities are available to us since we only have the sampler, please let me know. I know we were really hyped about getting the package, then I got home and started researching Bluegreen(I know, bassackwards). I was scared cause I found a site with nothing but unhappy people, but kept on searching and found this place.

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            • #7
              most unhappy owners are those that do not know how to use what they bought.

              Flexibility and planning ahead are the keys. If you can't plan ahead, then you need to be as flexible as possible. Maybe you wanted to be on a certain beach, but accept a different one instead. Maybe you wanted a whole week but can live with getting only 4 days. Maybe you can't get a 3 bedroom but can squeeze into a 2BR, etc etc.

              Forget teh notion of "perfect vacation" and decide that any vacation in a nice resort is a great vacation.

              I have scored some great last-minute availability, it's just that odds aren't in your favor. People do cancel, so if you don't find what you want, try again later.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by BoardGirl View Post
                most unhappy owners are those that do not know how to use what they bought.

                Flexibility and planning ahead are the keys. If you can't plan ahead, then you need to be as flexible as possible. Maybe you wanted to be on a certain beach, but accept a different one instead. Maybe you wanted a whole week but can live with getting only 4 days. Maybe you can't get a 3 bedroom but can squeeze into a 2BR, etc etc.

                Forget teh notion of "perfect vacation" and decide that any vacation in a nice resort is a great vacation.

                I have scored some great last-minute availability, it's just that odds aren't in your favor. People do cancel, so if you don't find what you want, try again later.
                Thanks for the reply. I am learning that planning ahead and flexibility are key to making this system work. Hopfully we can get most of the kinks worked out before it's time to buy.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by kntb
                  I know we were really hyped about getting the package, then I got home and started researching Bluegreen(I know, bassackwards).
                  I don't think it's bassackwards to get a Sampler and then research. I don't know what Samplers cost any more, but when we bought ours (2008) it was still under $1000 (just!), which was a price we could pretty easily absorb at that point. If it had turned out to be a bad deal, wouldn't have cost us much, and would have forced us to vacation (which is part of the reason we were interested in the first place -- we needed a boot to get vacationing!).

                  Whatever your Sampler cost, it was a one-time price with no long term obligations. Very different than signing on to an ownership for tens of thousands of dollars and then researching it! And even that is common enough there's a grace period so people can back out if they get to researching soon enough. I think a lot of people underestimate their vulnerability to that kind of high-pressure salesmanship. Including us, maybe, since we'd agreed not to buy anything.

                  But really we both knew we wanted in once we heard about the points system; all we'd known about going in was weeks (we were in an RCI rental hubby's boss had gifted us with, and weren't able to use the full week, which latter is why weeks ownership didn't interest us). But the most sensible thing would have been to go home and see what other points systems there were and whatnot; instead we signed up for the Sampler and then started researching. Sheer luck that Bluegreen was such a good fit for us. OTOH, we hardly ever take the most sensible approach with anything, so maybe it wasn't sales pressure after all. It was sensible enough not to worry about it.

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                  • #10
                    Thanks for the kind words, but if you knew me, you would agree it was infact bassackwards. I have 21 years in the military and all of that time has kinda trained me to be a bit anal retentive about reseaching things and to be very list and detail driven. So much so, it drives my wife crazy. When we went down for the "weekend getaway", we kinda knew it was going to be a sales pitch, but never having done anything like this before we didn't know quite what to expect. The day before I was reading the back of the confirmation letter and there is a clause about Maryland residents not having to sit through some of these presentations. For a second I thought "great, let's just hit them with that and be on our way". But then the rational side took over and said that would be a real pr!ck move on my part, this is how these folks make a living and I wouldn't want that done to me.

                    The only real complaint I had about the sales pitch is the letter said it would be 90 minutes and it was closer to almost 3 hours. The team that we had were really pleasant and very professional. They tried to sell us a nice package, but when we said we were not sure we were ready to take that big a step they switched to presenting the sampler package. I don't think there was a lot of high pressure sales tactics used on us(not sure why, but glad there wasn't). The team we had explained everything, asked if we had questions AND answered the ones we did have, and they gave us a couple of POC phone numbers if we had questions later.

                    I would really like to get a decent package when it's time to buy, but I got to be able to work the system, for lack of a better way to describe it.

                    By the way, we were pitched at the Patrick Henry in Va.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by kntb View Post
                      The only real complaint I had about the sales pitch is the letter said it would be 90 minutes and it was closer to almost 3 hours.
                      Yeah, I think they always do unless you essentially set out a stop watch and time them and then insist on going when the time's up. Ours went overtime as well, but I'd set aside the whole morning so that wasn't a big deal for us. And I think our salesperson had pegged us as a non-sale fairly early; got the impression he was just going through the motions in offering the Sampler and was honestly surprised when we took him up on it. We'd always liked the idea of condos but hated the weeks thing; also knew we wouldn't want to stay the same place but didn't want the hassle of trading through RCI or whatever. As soon as we heard about points systems, we knew we wanted one.

                      So our sales experience was okay, as well. It's kind of the luck of the draw; some salespeople are great, but there are a couple of horror stories floating around. Overall, Bluegreen's kind of mid-range in that department; not as nasty as some, not as nice as DVC.

                      We were at Christmas Mountain Village in Wisconsin Dells, a place I wasn't interested in until we were gifted with a week there -- now I love it. Well, I love Witches Gulch and the area CMV is in; downtown Dells is only okay, except for that park overlooking the river.

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                      • #12
                        Thanks.

                        What does "gifted a week" mean? I thought since this was a points based system you weren't tied to "weeks/the same week every year at one location". That was the beauty of the points based system. I probably am missing something in there, so please don't be too harsh on me.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by kntb View Post
                          Thanks.

                          What does "gifted a week" mean?
                          We got an RCI week, not something someone had reserved on points. Hubby's boss was trading into a BG resort with his week through RCI. He ran out of vacation time, so gave us his week. Then he got all flustered and worried and regretted it when we came back and said we were buying into Bluegreen, because he has no time for points systems and he felt like he'd led us astray!

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Hobbitess
                            We got an RCI week, not something someone had reserved on points. Hubby's boss was trading into a BG resort with his week through RCI. He ran out of vacation time, so gave us his week. Then he got all flustered and worried and regretted it when we came back and said we were buying into Bluegreen, because he has no time for points systems and he felt like he'd led us astray!
                            O......K......that sounds like it is above my level right now. I think that will only muddy the waters in trying to understand how Bluegreen works. Once I learn more then I can delve into that area of this, for now it seems to me that I know even less than a little bit, BUT thanks to this site and people like you, I am well on my way to learning the in's and out's. Thanks for all of your help so far.

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                            • #15
                              It just means that the "hubby's boss" gave them the week to use since he couldn't go. Since he gave it, it was a gift.

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