Ontopic Timeshare experiences.

i don't like feeling like i'm obligated to go to specific places. that's one of the reasons i sold the lake house.
 
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Is anyone else having a heart attack at this #?

I vaca pretty well, but to me, that's Pimp $.
When I rented points to my dad he was curious how much he saved so I told him. Then for shits and giggles I priced out our stay for just the 3 of us (myself, Dom & Luis) and about died. The over the water bungalows go for $2989/night. Yes just shy of $3K a freaking night.

No way in hell I'd pay that rack rate, or even a discounted rate sucks royally. So at least for us DVC allows some awesome rooms at a fraction of the cost.
 
When I stayed at Disney I was in the polynesian village. It's right on the monorail so there was no bus/car needed and gives you perks of getting into the park before the general public, etc.

We overlooked the lagoon, but, tbh, we were only in the room to rest. It was nice to see the lagoon, but we never thought, let's spend extra $ at disney so when we're at the room we can see the lagoon instead of the gardens. We were there for the parks.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/polynesian-resort/rates-rooms/
garden room: 429/night
lagoon room: 576/night


Also, when we were there in 1999, they tried to sell us on a 30 year membership but at the end you had nothing but memories. You literally were committing to paying for your weeks for 30 years. At the end you 'owned' nothing. And during you just 'owned' the right to occupy a room for X weeks/year. We decided that there was no way in hell we wanted to make a commitment to Disney for that long because 'what if' we wanted to go to a different theme park altogether 5-10 years down the road instead?
 
I wasn't looking at purchasing. I was offered a possible job at a resort selling timeshares. While commission based, some of the agents do make crazy money. Personally I always felt that they were a marketing scam. Like, if someone has to use such shady sales incentives to get you to listen to their pitch, how can the product really be that great? If it was a value, I'd think it would sell itself. Add on top of that, there are so many laws against what timeshare sales agents can and can't do that it's obvious the public has had problems with deceptive sales practices in the past.

The curve ball is that almost everyone I talk to who owns a timeshare, or whose parents own a timeshare, doesn't share this same opinion. In fact a few of them were insulted that I felt they were a scam. As if I was suggesting that they or their loved ones were duped. Most of the people I talked to who do have timeshares do so through RCI. And maybe it makes a difference on what timeshare family you're a part of.

Interesting responses, guys. Thanks.
Some do use shady marketing. It really varies. Some companies are more legit than others and have a better reputation.

However generally speaking timeshare sales people have a worse reputation than a used car sales person.
 
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When I stayed at Disney I was in the polynesian village. It's right on the monorail so there was no bus/car needed and gives you perks of getting into the park before the general public, etc.

We overlooked the lagoon, but, tbh, we were only in the room to rest. It was nice to see the lagoon, but we never thought, let's spend extra $ at disney so when we're at the room we can see the lagoon instead of the gardens. We were there for the parks.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/polynesian-resort/rates-rooms/
garden room: 429/night
lagoon room: 576/night
We stayed there for our honeymoon even in the concierge at the time and it was about $500/night. Right now the same stupid concierge room costs $1000ish/night. I also stayed as a kid, but I want to say the room cost was around $100/night - we just found the receipt a few years ago so I'd have to look at it again.

However now a lot of the lagoon views is taken up by those bungalows at beach level. If you are on an upper floor you have a decent shot of seeing the castle. On the ground floor you can see the castle maybe if you move side to side. No problem seeing the fireworks though.

We don't do just the parks though... we actually relax on vacation and spend a lot of time at the resort and in our room, so a nice room is important to me. Views are nice too if we can swing them. Before DVC I stayed at the Swan and Dolphin on good discounts, but those have dried up :(
 
Checking into a resort at Disney is key because you get up and go early in the day, then get tired so you hop on the bus and go back to the room and take a nap or go to the pool for a couple hours and a couple drinks, then go back to the parks nice and refreshed.
 
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Having a kid has altered the way I go to parks now. Last trip we stayed at AKL and came back to rest and do the pool thing at 2pm. We never went back to the parks in the evening because the bus can take freaking forever. I like being near Epcot or Magic Kingdom so even if we do go back after spending hours at the resort, we can hop over more easily for an hour or two. At the bus only resorts we added in an hour for transport and by the time he was ready to back at 7pm it was pretty much too late (we keep his regular bed time on vacations).
 
When I rented points to my dad he was curious how much he saved so I told him. Then for shits and giggles I priced out our stay for just the 3 of us (myself, Dom & Luis) and about died. The over the water bungalows go for $2989/night. Yes just shy of $3K a freaking night.

No way in hell I'd pay that rack rate, or even a discounted rate sucks royally. So at least for us DVC allows some awesome rooms at a fraction of the cost.

i'd sell those nights to someone for $2k and pay for your plane tickets and extras.
 
i'd sell those nights to someone for $2k and pay for your plane tickets and extras.
If we didn't stay in those rooms we wouldn't be using the points like that - I'd just save them for next year if that makes sense. Renting out to my dad allowed us to get our APs for all 3 of us which will cover 2 trips (maybe 3 if I can get away myself LOL) and covered a week long science camp this summer for our son.
 
I thought most timeshares you're not allowed to rent out.
I know that for RCI timeshares you are not. A forum I am a member of prohibits certain types of rentals to keep RCI trades into DVC out of the forum because those are not allowed.

DVC allows it and there are sites out there that are really just a business of matching up those wanting to rent points out to those who want to pay for a rental.
 
When I rented points to my dad he was curious how much he saved so I told him. Then for shits and giggles I priced out our stay for just the 3 of us (myself, Dom & Luis) and about died. The over the water bungalows go for $2989/night. Yes just shy of $3K a freaking night.

No way in hell I'd pay that rack rate, or even a discounted rate sucks royally. So at least for us DVC allows some awesome rooms at a fraction of the cost.

Why would anyone ever pay even close to that for a faux bure that's built over a man made swamp pond? I've done them in Fiji, Bora Bora, and Moreno for a fraction of that cost on real water you can enjoy. Glass floors with water so clear you can see so much sea life just happening right under you.
 
Why would anyone ever pay even close to that for a faux bure that's built over a man made swamp pond? I've done them in Fiji, Bora Bora, and Moreno for a fraction of that cost on real water you can enjoy. Glass floors with water so clear you can see so much sea life just happening right under you.
These are the places I want to see.
 
Why would anyone ever pay even close to that for a faux bure that's built over a man made swamp pond? I've done them in Fiji, Bora Bora, and Moreno for a fraction of that cost on real water you can enjoy. Glass floors with water so clear you can see so much sea life just happening right under you.
Why would anyone try to compare a bungalow at Disney to the locations you mentioned? Seriously they aren't at all the same. I have zero desire to go to Bora Bora or Fiji simply because it will cost at least $3K per person from here to get there as well as 2 days of travel time. No thanks. There are places closer to me that have beautiful clear water that won't cost that and only take about 8 hours or less to get there.

I don't confuse the two places and I doubt anyone would - I just find the comparison silly.

Why would someone pay that much at Disney? Who knows - people pay loads for private tours of the parks because they can. Others easily pay $1000/night per room. All can be costly, but who cares?
 
Why would anyone try to compare a bungalow at Disney to the locations you mentioned? Seriously they aren't at all the same. I have zero desire to go to Bora Bora or Fiji simply because it will cost at least $3K per person from here to get there as well as 2 days of travel time. No thanks. There are places closer to me that have beautiful clear water that won't cost that and only take about 8 hours or less to get there.

I don't confuse the two places and I doubt anyone would - I just find the comparison silly.

Why would someone pay that much at Disney? Who knows - people pay loads for private tours of the parks because they can. Others easily pay $1000/night per room. All can be costly, but who cares?


I'm the opposite...
I can't wait to go to Fiji and bora bora and super exotic places like that.
The flight time and price would never deter me from exploring locations I have always dreamed of going to

But ya you can't compare Disney to those places lol Disney was fun and awesome but it's no Fiji

Floptical is dum dum. He's still rusty. He's only been back for like 10 minutes
 
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Why would anyone try to compare a bungalow at Disney to the locations you mentioned? Seriously they aren't at all the same. I have zero desire to go to Bora Bora or Fiji simply because it will cost at least $3K per person from here to get there as well as 2 days of travel time. No thanks. There are places closer to me that have beautiful clear water that won't cost that and only take about 8 hours or less to get there.

I don't confuse the two places and I doubt anyone would - I just find the comparison silly.

Why would someone pay that much at Disney? Who knows - people pay loads for private tours of the parks because they can. Others easily pay $1000/night per room. All can be costly, but who cares?

Well I would say since they are called Bora Bora Bungalows there is some intent to compare them
 
I'm not saying anything about the choice in the name I'm just saying at a Ploynesian resort why would you not compare the prices you're paying for a mock up to the real thing.
a logical question on the interwebs?

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