New Bluegreen Resort in Wisconsin Dells

[Tom52 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom52]

I think there have been some posts in the past about the deal between Bluegreen and the owners of Mount Olympus amusement park/Club Optima in Wisconsin Dells. I was at CMV this past weekend and was called by the sales group about going in for an "owner's update". I told them I just had an update this past July, so they wanted to know if I would be interested in being one of the very first Bluegreen owners to go over to Club Optima where Bluegreen has recently opened a sales office to see what was planned and to give my impressions. I was a little skeptical about the purpose, but I was curious to see what is going on so I could report it here.

The Bluegreen "salesman" Greg, greeted us in the lobby of what is now Club Optima. Greg said that we were the very first actual Bluegreen owners to be sent over from CMV to give our impressions and opinions. What I was told, as best as I remember it....

Bluegreen has signed an agreement with the owners of Mount Olympus to purchase half of the building that is known as Club Optima which is currently an RCI points resort. This is considered phase 1. Bluegreen plans to basically remodel the units into larger two bedroom units of approximately 1200 sq. ft. If I understood them correctly this will reduce the number of units from approx. 96 former Club Optima units into 62 Bluegreen units. As of now, the remodeling has not started. Phase 2, which is not yet a done deal,
is that Bluegreen would then take over the remainder of the Club Optima units and remodel them the same as planned for phase 1. There is also a plase 3 planned where there is 8 acres adjacent to the Club Optima building that will be built for a total of approx 200 Bluegreen units. It has not been finalized but the new name for the resort will likely be Captain's Lodge. The points required is expected to be 12,000 for all but 3 weeks per year, then the points value will be 15,000.

I was told that Bluegreen took a bashing by rolling out plans for new construction at CMV which has now been dropped in favor of the deal with Club Optima. Bluegreen was supposedly under pressure to offer a resort with the waterpark/amusement park atmosphere. This is apparently what Bluegreen owners have been asking for.

As it was explained to me, the owners of Mount Olympus know how to run an amusement park but were not very successful selling timeshares, so it was a good fit for Bluegreen who wanted to team up with a waterpark/amusement park which is not their expertise.

Owners staying at CMV will not have any priviledges at Mount Olympus. Bluegreen owners staying at the new resort will have the opportunity to save approx. 50% off the price of admission to the Mount Olympus facilities. There is also a chance that a 3, 5, or 7 pass can be purchased at discount prices.

I wish I had asked about what happens to the existing Club Optima owners, but didn't think of it. Maybe an offer to convert to a certain number of BG points????

I think this will be a popular BG resort and I am sure the units will be nice. The units they will be remodeling are already nice, we got to look at one.

Tom

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

A quick hint a summer week at club optima would have the trading power of the Galleon in Key west... I would buy if not already to far in... Cant wait I would visit anytime

[brucecz Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close brucecz]

Tom, the last two times we have been at CMV it has been our pleasure to meet you and your lovely bride.

On RCI both the 1 and 2 bedrooms are rated as sleep 4 units at the CO.

I would say that the 1 bedroom we stayed in last September was fairly nice. The unit was noiseyer than what we are used to at CMV, but that is to be exspected in a converted holet unit.

The veiw was the parking lot but the indoor water park was fun. We did not have to pay for the use of the indoor water park at that time. We are booked into OP Dec 30-Jan 2, 2007 Years and May 18 & 19, 2007 during the big Dells Automation car show.

The amusement park was not in operation during that Sept 12, 2006 weekend. None of the sales people I talked to over the phone last week seem to know what the usage policies(or charges) will be in regard to the indoor water park, the outdoor water park and the amusement park.

We did the owner update Monday morning and did not take the Points materials or coupons books as our gifts. We received two $40 Wal-Mart and one $25 Applebees gift certificates for our time. When they called us at home they first offered only one $40 Wal-Mart certifacate over the phone but we turned that down.

For some reason our saleslady seemed to give up after about 10 mintues. She had a printout that showed 6 of our 8 Bluegreen ownerships. She said she has owned a Bluegreen ownership for about 6 years but seemed a bit confused by how I use our ownerships for RCI Points, etc.

But she said we would be lucky to get one red week per ownership in a couple of years. I guess I will need to buy somemore Bluegreen ownerships to have enought weeks.

She then went away and talked tosome of her fellow workers for about 8 mintues, but I guess they did not give her any good helpfull ideas on how to have us "update our ownerships". All of this took about 28 minutes by my watch before we we "gifted" and out the door.

Bruce