Why to choose BlueGreen?

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

Well after a bunch of reading and searching and googling you sure can find alot of different opinions on Bluegreen VC.

Alot of the complaints are from people that try to book a certain time 3 months before they want to go or I balieve they bought from the developer and then found out what it costs for resale.

SO..... In my honest opinion (I do not yet own any timeshare)...

If you can plan close to a year in advance or you are flexible on the place and or dates you plan to go & you buy resale I believe you will enjoy bluegreen.

So instead of Go See Do.... It should be plan early, enjoy where you end up and buy resale...lol.... Oh yeah only believe half what the sales man shows you and 10% of what they tell you!

Sean

Oh yeah can anyone tell me why to choose Bluegreen over other point systems? I believe I want a point system... So I don't have to pay a fee every time we go somewhere different... (why not pick HGVC, merriot, rci, whyndam... Over BG?)

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

Oh yeah can anyone tell me why to choose Bluegreen over other point systems? I believe I want a point system... So I don't have to pay a fee every time we go somewhere different... (why not pick HGVC, Marriott, RCI, Wyndham... Over BG?)

I can't answer that but it's a most important question. In addition to the many factors you have already mentioned, here are some more questions I would ask myself.

1. Is there a system resort within several hours driving distance that I could go to for a weekend getaway? (Christmas Mountain is 87 miles from me.)

2. Do the resorts that I would visit in the system provide what I like for my vacations? If I like variety, does it provide variety (mountains, ocean, wilderness, tourist traps, etc.)? (I like all of the above and sometime I want luxury and sometimes I want just a plain, roomy place to stay.)

3. Are the fees in line with what the system offers?

4. Is the system growing, that is will it offer in 10 years what you might want in 10 years?

5. Are the employees friendly and courteous, in general?

Charles

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

Charles offers some excellent questions. Thought I'd offer a more personal perspective on why we picked Bluegreen, since it was just this past year we made the decision.

We started looking into Bluegreen when the Diamond deal was still a going thing, and between that and some general impressions I'd picked up in Fairfield Glade (a resort my parents built at), I decided I'd rather go for a smaller points system than larger. Smaller ones, or at least Bluegreen, seem more responsive to owner complaints. We were staying in a Bluegreen resort when we bought the sampler (hubby's boss gave us his RCI trade), so we knew we liked one resort close to us, then we checked out the other one relatively close and we liked that one right well, too. We bought at the first one (Christmas Mountain Village) and hope to get another unit at the second (Mountain Run) to get the number of points we want (also we got the CMV unit carrying 8000 points for $5 plus purchase fees, hard to resist!).

Bluegreen had places near everywhere we particularly wanted to go except New England (Bluegreen recently bought into resorts in New Hampshire and Cape Cod, so probably by the time we're wanting to head in that direction New England's covered), and if we'd wanted to go west there are the Shell resorts you can use points on through Traveler's Plus. I'm not a huge fan of RCI - everyone we know who has been using RCI has gotten so disgusted with it they're either sticking with their home resort or trying to sell - and we almost never stay anywhere for a week, so the Bluegreen system looks great to us.

There are some Bluegreen resorts that are tough to get into if you're not a Premiere owner - associate resorts, smaller Florida resorts that take fewer points - but all the ones in the Sampler are cake to reserve with so long as you plan ahead (this might not be so true in terms of holiday weekends, which I haven't checked much because don't want). And we like the ambiance. Bluegreen resorts have a "homier" feel to me than some of the bigger chains - they're not as fancy, but they're not as cold-feeling, either. The yearly cost is also lower - not the lowest out there, but the best price for what you get in terms of what we wanted.

Although Bluegreen is a points system, you have first dibs on the unit weeks you own twelve months out. I've seen people on the Internet complain that they bought in and they can't even reserve their own unit - yes, you can, but you must do it 12 months out. Otherwise it goes into the common pool and anyone can reserve it. You have to reserve the whole week, though, which will use up all the points that unit offers. But if you particularly want to get into Big Cedar in the summer, you could buy resold points there (I don't know if it's still the case, but Big Cedar units were running a touch higher than other Bluegreen units for just this reason).

If you want to buy into a particular resort and see it on sale somewhere, right now it's sometimes possible to use Jim (BocaBum) as your purchase agent, essentially, and thereby kick up that purchase to authorized points (costs extra, of course). I dunno if that's the case with someone who is selling through a system where you already pay processing fees, but you could ask. Rumor has it Bluegreen may soon change their resale policies, which I'm finding unnerving (we weren't planning to buy the rest of our points until next spring), but hopefully the word on that will come out before you buy.

Certainly check out the Yahoo Bluegreen group before you buy, and you might ask this question there. There are a lot of people who hit both sites but I think the Yahoo group is more active.

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

Why I bought Bluegreen

I originally bought Bluegreen because I live within driving distance to Big Cedar and wanted to be able to vacation there frequently and without great expense.

After I bought, I realized that the other BG resorts are not all like Big Cedar and went through a bit of panic thinking that I should have done more research into other systems first.

Once I started doing the research, I again was very glad I'd bought Bluegreen and upgraded to Platinum. My main reasons:

1) My main vacation timeshare location is Big Cedar. We go there a lot, so I can use the majority of my points that way. I definitely agree with the above poster who says to buy where you'll vacation most, esp if it is within driving distance.

2) BG has very reasonable maintenance fees. That makes BG vacations a more reasonable cost, but also is of value if you're depositing BG into one of the exchange companies for a non-BG vacation.

3) BG allows vacations of less than a week.

4) BG charges no fees to book your vacation, no fees to put a trip into another person's name (great for treating friends & family or if you decide to do some rentals).

5) Generally speaking, aside from the standard "don't believe a salesperson" stuff, BG employees seem to be polite, helpful, and truly focused on providing good service.

The only concern I still have about BG is that I'm a quality hound. I want to have very nice accommodations when I'm traveling, especially if I've paid for all five of us to fly somewhere. BG has a few top tier resorts and lots in the middle and a few real dogs from what I've heard.

However, I've also realized that I can get very good quality trades by understanding the exchange system and by leveraging that relatively low cost MF Bluegreen has. I have a trade into a week at Hilton's new resort in New York (W 57th) which cost me $732 assuming that every dime of my RCI ownership and all the fees are burdened onto this one exchange. If I make a 2nd exchange for next year, the cost drops to $432 by splitting those costs between the weeks.

Anita

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Marriot is week system.

RCI is exchange program, subject to change.

So the only mini point system in your example is HGVC, BG, Wyndham.

Some people may own enough to tell you the difference.

IMHO, as long as they have enough inventories to cover your interest, and the level of room is close to the same standard, and MF is in the range you can afford, and you know what you need to do to get the inventory you want, you can not be too much wrong with any one of them. They all give you certain degree of flexibility.

Most people buy one system because they first introduce to that, or they fall into love of one of the resort in that system.

Then after a while, they can decide what they want to get, and buy either in the same system so they can enjoy more, or buy into different systems so they can have some different choice or complimental.

Jya-Ning

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I think your physical location or the locations where you want to travel to is a big part of the consideration regarding any system. BlueGreen is weighted towards the central and eastern part of the US. WorldMark the west coast, etc.

Pick the one that will serve your purposes for MOST of what you want. There are exchange companies that can be used the 1 year out of 3 or 4 where you would like to vacation that your system does not include.

There is a large learning curve. Take your time to make an educated decision

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

Jya-Ning reminds me to point out that you get a membership with RCI weeks along with your Bluegreen points (i.e., whether you have authorized points or not). The RCI points system is more flexible, though, and that doesn't come with your Bluegreen points. So any RCI trades you make will be a week for a week. But you do get the opportunity to trade out of Bluegreen and I understand Bluegreen trades okay (however, which resort and unit trades best is subject to constant debate).

[Tom in GA Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom in GA]

Why Bluegreen

We bought Bluegreen to replace our timeshare condo in Navarre Beach, FL which went the way of two big hurricanes. We did two samplers (Mountain Loft and Lodge Alley) before we bought two years ago. Bluegreen has provided us with very good accommodations at the requested times. There have been a few bumps in the road in understanding the system (a thank you to Bocca Jim for his help), but now we are on our way to some nice vacations. The people at the resorts (four visited so far) have been excellent in guest relations. We had a problem with a dinner show discount offer at Mountain Loft. Renna of guest relations to the rescue....WOW! A very nice evening was had by all. We measure how well things are going at resort by how they have to handle the problems (which have been few with Bluegreen).

Many buyers have good intentions of vacationing, but some have trouble planning what they are going to do the next day. They then complain they could not get into a resort over the 4th of July weekend when they called to make the reservation in June. You have to know your travel habits and do good planning to use Bluegreen to full advantage....otherwise book yourself into a Holiday Inn. All in all, most buyer complaints have been self-inflicted. As far as sales people, we have had three nice sales reps and one from hell. You just have to learn to deal with the one the devil sends you. By the way, we are at bronze level at the moment.

[vacation_family99 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vacation_family99]

We started off going to Bluegreen resorts with my sister and her family. We really enjoyed the resort atmosphere. When we were at Big Cedar, we did a sales presentation to "help" my sister. We said we would think about it and decided to call the sales lady back the next day. She was out of the office ... which turned out to be a good thing for us. We came back home, started researching and found the resale market.

We like the flexibility with BG as well as having to plan ahead. It "forces" to take vacations. If we didn't plan ahead, our work schedules would get in the way. This way we can say that we already have vacation planned and I can block off my calendar 11 months early!!

[silly_stitcher Member Find all posts View Profile Close silly_stitcher]

I know I'm late to this party, but my $0.02...

We purchased BG in 2000 from the developer in CMV, then upgraded at LAI in 2002. Years later, I discovered TUG and this forum. C'est la vie. Despite the premium we've paid for our ownership, we're still delighted BG owners and we're very happy with our usage.

Initially, we only used BG for trades in RCI and SFX. That got us to most of Western Europe (England, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, and France) as well as Western USA (Napa, Sonoma, Oregon). Trading has worked out pretty well for us, although I'd say we've benefited HUGELY for being ridiculously flexible over the years. We're a child-free couple who can travel during the off-season, so we favor trips doing the shoulder seasons (April-May, Sept-Oct) and we can accept any unit size.

Now, we're getting interested in actually exploring BG resorts, especially as they add more urban ones. We've been to LAI, we're going to CLP, and C36 has also caught my eye. We're history buffs, so the St. Augustine and Williamsburg properties are also likely going to be visited in the near future.

As far as availability goes, I've never had a problem getting happy. Booking our vacation next spring in Charleston and New Orleans was ridiculously easy and we made ZERO compromises on dates or unit size even though I didn't book it until about 7 months in advance. (In fact, we were originally only going to go to Charleston and I checked New Orleans availability on a whim, only to find that the dates and the points worked out perfectly for a two-part vacation over 8 days.) Booking weeks for trade has also been quite easy and the trading power has been quite satisfactory. Even BC white week studios can pull something interesting!

Like someone else said, we love timesharing because it does force us to take a vacation regularly. Given our professions and our pace of life, that's something that we can't take for granted. It's also taken us to places we never dreamed of exploring, such as Charleston or Austria. Because we're staying in timeshares with kitchens, we find ourselves learning about local cuisine when we're abroad and we take home with us new recipe ideas.

We like BG in particular because we like the flexibility of the points system, we like the resort locations, we're comfortable with the MF costs, and the RCI weeks membership is fine for now, as we're still pulling OK trades, but the value of the RCI membership is waning and we're looking to stay in-system for a little while once we use our banked weeks.

Finally, I like the fact that our BG ownership is anchored by a deed. If the worst happened and everything went sideways, we genuinely like the week we own (LAI in April) and we could quite happily live with just that.

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

Its never to late to join the party.... Unless the kegs are floating....

We would probably stay mostly in system as we can go alot of places we've never been!

I think instead of buying a small package now & upgrading a year later I might just wait till spring & buy a 20-35k points package....

Anyone have much/any experience with the other points clubs?