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Hello everyone! It's 5:30 a.m. and as you can see I am still not exactly on U.S. time....
We are back from our trip which was really nice except for the intense heat. (One day in London, temps topped 100, and it must have been at least that hot in our unit so a bit hard to sleep. That day, we just went to the movies and then found an air-conditioned Starbucks and read books all day!) We saw a lot of wonderful things and despite the heat, got quite a bit of sightseeing in. The location of Allen House is fantastic and the staff are really nice. The unit was clean and the bed in the master was very comfy, although the sofa bed was not as comfy! (My son ended up bunking in with me!)
We tried literally all of the suggestions for London dining near the resort and enjoyed every one of them, from the Kensington Tandoori to the pub down the road from it, to tea at Kensingon Palace. All were great. I also highly recommend Mary Poppins, which was a great show. (Can you believe that the theatre was not air-conditioned though? Obviously temperatures like we had are very rare.)
Cameron House was very nice but it is pretty remote (two hour train ride to Edinburgh which was my son's favorite location in Scotland) and there were some maintenance/cleaning issues with our lodge. and the grounds. (There are geese on the grounds and they are fun to watch, but there is poop literally everywhere...and no cleaning of it during the week we were there. We had a huge glob outside our doorstep all week.) Lots of bugs in the unit as well...the kind that come from outdoors like spiders, not the "roach" kind....
When we arrived, and I lay down on the bed in the master bedroom, I noticed it had springs coming out of it, so I called and asked for a topper. The response from housekeeping (and I quote) was "Well the last person to stay in the lodge didn't complain about it!". I was so floored by the response I didn't even know what to say. So of course, I didn't even mention any other issues all week as I didn't want to deal with the housekeeping attitude again.
This is a combined hotel/timeshare...and if you call the hotel to ask for anything, they immediately ask you if you are staying in the hotel or a lodge, and if you are in a lodge they refer you to the lodge services office. The hotel is very posh and you can use the facilities there, but you are made to feel somewhat like a second class citizen when asking for help with anything (or any housekeeping issues as above...lodge housekeeping is separate from hotel housekeeping).
Another fairly major issue: I was charged 25 pounds (50 dollars) for making a toll free call to Auto Europe from my room....they charge a very high amount per minute for any type of call including toll free ones....they actually charge 7 pounds (14 dollars) ***per minute*** for calls to the U.S. (Of course I did not use the hotel phone to do that, but that is some pretty amazing price gouging!) They do not have the prices posted or listed in the room anywhere (I looked); I only found this out after I reviewed my bill the day before checkout. The phone prices are posted in the lodge services office. And here's a good example of the lodge vs. hotel attitude: when I reviewed my bill, I called the hotel, and the phone operator told me they have had this problem before and they usually just take any toll free calls off the bill since it doesn't really cost the hotel anything; however she could not do that because I was staying in a lodge and had to go through lodge services. Lodge services claimed that they could not remove the charge from the bill because it is a hotel charge and it does cost the hotel money to connect my toll-free call. I called the operator from the lodge services offices and asked them to speak to each other, but the lodge services people would not get on the phone with the operator and said they would "look into it" which never went anywhere.
In summary, I think this timeshare is okay and in a pretty if remote area, but was probably expecting more given the stellar reviews. Our lodge in particular had a good location, but was probably (judging by the location) one of the first ones built and so has a lot of wear. They are also building an entirely new complex up the road with dozens of new units, so I imagine there will be more exchange opportunities in a year or so....
Thanks for all of your help and suggestions for our trip!
Sharon
We are back from our trip which was really nice except for the intense heat. (One day in London, temps topped 100, and it must have been at least that hot in our unit so a bit hard to sleep. That day, we just went to the movies and then found an air-conditioned Starbucks and read books all day!) We saw a lot of wonderful things and despite the heat, got quite a bit of sightseeing in. The location of Allen House is fantastic and the staff are really nice. The unit was clean and the bed in the master was very comfy, although the sofa bed was not as comfy! (My son ended up bunking in with me!)
We tried literally all of the suggestions for London dining near the resort and enjoyed every one of them, from the Kensington Tandoori to the pub down the road from it, to tea at Kensingon Palace. All were great. I also highly recommend Mary Poppins, which was a great show. (Can you believe that the theatre was not air-conditioned though? Obviously temperatures like we had are very rare.)
Cameron House was very nice but it is pretty remote (two hour train ride to Edinburgh which was my son's favorite location in Scotland) and there were some maintenance/cleaning issues with our lodge. and the grounds. (There are geese on the grounds and they are fun to watch, but there is poop literally everywhere...and no cleaning of it during the week we were there. We had a huge glob outside our doorstep all week.) Lots of bugs in the unit as well...the kind that come from outdoors like spiders, not the "roach" kind....
When we arrived, and I lay down on the bed in the master bedroom, I noticed it had springs coming out of it, so I called and asked for a topper. The response from housekeeping (and I quote) was "Well the last person to stay in the lodge didn't complain about it!". I was so floored by the response I didn't even know what to say. So of course, I didn't even mention any other issues all week as I didn't want to deal with the housekeeping attitude again.
This is a combined hotel/timeshare...and if you call the hotel to ask for anything, they immediately ask you if you are staying in the hotel or a lodge, and if you are in a lodge they refer you to the lodge services office. The hotel is very posh and you can use the facilities there, but you are made to feel somewhat like a second class citizen when asking for help with anything (or any housekeeping issues as above...lodge housekeeping is separate from hotel housekeeping).
Another fairly major issue: I was charged 25 pounds (50 dollars) for making a toll free call to Auto Europe from my room....they charge a very high amount per minute for any type of call including toll free ones....they actually charge 7 pounds (14 dollars) ***per minute*** for calls to the U.S. (Of course I did not use the hotel phone to do that, but that is some pretty amazing price gouging!) They do not have the prices posted or listed in the room anywhere (I looked); I only found this out after I reviewed my bill the day before checkout. The phone prices are posted in the lodge services office. And here's a good example of the lodge vs. hotel attitude: when I reviewed my bill, I called the hotel, and the phone operator told me they have had this problem before and they usually just take any toll free calls off the bill since it doesn't really cost the hotel anything; however she could not do that because I was staying in a lodge and had to go through lodge services. Lodge services claimed that they could not remove the charge from the bill because it is a hotel charge and it does cost the hotel money to connect my toll-free call. I called the operator from the lodge services offices and asked them to speak to each other, but the lodge services people would not get on the phone with the operator and said they would "look into it" which never went anywhere.
In summary, I think this timeshare is okay and in a pretty if remote area, but was probably expecting more given the stellar reviews. Our lodge in particular had a good location, but was probably (judging by the location) one of the first ones built and so has a lot of wear. They are also building an entirely new complex up the road with dozens of new units, so I imagine there will be more exchange opportunities in a year or so....
Thanks for all of your help and suggestions for our trip!
Sharon
At least this will prepare me for our trip to Sedona (we leave on Fri., the 4th).
My DH will still be green with envy about London. He's longing to go....
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