Back in Nov 2016 we used two privilege weeks to stay at Luxury Bahia Principe Sian Ka'an in Mexico. I kept meaning to post an update about that trip but never got around to it. I've decided I won't except for the fact that a reader of this blog ended up at the same resort at the same time so we met up for some drinks one night. I have to say that was a very cool experience. Thank you Frank!
During that trip they did ask us to sit in to another sales pitch and at some point I may write a post all about that but now that some time has past I'm not sure if I remember enough detail to do this.
The reason I'm not going to bother writing about my trip last year is we are booked in to the same resort for two weeks on Dec 3. I've decided I'll instead try to post daily during that trip ... For the next bit this blog will become a resort review in addition to being about the club. I think it may be helpful for anyone reading this to get an idea of what it's like to be a club member at this resort.
This year we booked way back in February. We asked for two membership weeks for the last two weeks of the year our gold membership would allow and got it no problem. This will be our first trip using official member weeks although last year we got some amazing upgrades so I think except for the price we experienced all that membership weeks have to offer. The reservation process went very smooth.
On November 9th however, I tried contacting the club to book our air transfers and could not get through. It took almost a week to get through. I did ask for an explanation and they responded that they were extremely busy as well as had a long weekend. This right after the US election ... Not sure if that is a coincidence. In the end all was well.
I received an email from our pre-checkin concierge last Saturday - exactly 2 weeks before our check-in date - asking about what a la carte reservations we wanted and room requests and such. This is an improvement over last year as they emailed me 5 days in advance then.
So my next updates will be live on location (in 11 days 😁). Since we were here before I can tell you this resort is amazing. It is an adult only resort so my posts won't be able to comment on family travel concerns. We have learned a few tips along the way that I will share so hopefully any future travellers will get a better idea of how the club works.
****** UPDATE Dec 10, 2016 ***** Google blogger is being nothing but trouble for me while I'm in Mexico so I will have to update after returning.
Tuesday 22 November 2016
Saturday 28 May 2016
Using RCI Exchange Weeks
Again I am way way behind in updating. So all this occurred back in 2015 .....
I had deposited a couple of our membership weeks in RCI and had one due to expire so we wanted to burn this week up rather than lose it. I was a little nervous about RCI. One of the benefits they advertise is discounted hotel rooms so I had tried this in the past and it didn't go well. The hotel I booked at didn't know I was coming and also expected me to pay for the room although I had paid RCI for the room at booking time. Because of this experience I was wary.
I have spent a lot of time searching what is available through RCI and I think for ourselves, exchanging into all-inclusive resorts doesn't seem to be a good value. In addition to your membership week and the exchange fee, you will still be paying an all-inclusive fee in addition to being on the hook for your airfare an airport transfers. As well, these all-inclusive fees are quite pricey. Bahia Principe all-inclusive fees to me seem pretty reasonable but at some of the other resorts I've looked at it's not unusual to see them ask for hundreds of dollars per day per guest for these fees.
So, that means I have focused my attentions on looking at exchanging into resorts that are just room charges where you'd be independently getting your meals. These resort suites that are available are quite attractive looking. For my exchange power its quite common to find 2 and 3 bedroom suites ... most have a kitchenette as a minimum while many have a full kitchen and some even laundry.
For instance, some time in the future I can see us going to Florida to do the Disney vacation thing. There are many resorts available in that area where I can get find pretty much anything I'd be looking for (suite size, amenities, distance from attractions) all for the 240ish exchange fee for a week. Another charge quite common I've noticed is an additional like 50 for housekeeping. You can pretty much find resorts participating in RCI at almost any vacation spot in the USA. There are also many international destinations like Europe and South America .... because of high airfare I haven't really seriously looked into these destinations. There are also a number of resorts in Canada that participate ... mostly in the Rocky Mountain area and in eastern Canada.
Unfortunately, since I am in Saskatchewan the pickings were pretty slim for anything close by. I did however find Elkhorn Resort and Spa at Riding Mountain National Park that was within a 4 hour drive for me so I decided to burn up that week there. I had found a week available starting on the May long weekend so I had decided on that.
A big bonus! RCI was offering a 1/2 price exchange sale shortly after Christmas so I booked myself into a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom chalet for a week at a price of about 120. Had I booked the chalet independently without going through RCI it would have cost about 2,300.
I got some of my family involved and we went there for that week. It was a fantastic getaway for us and with it being within driving distance we didn't have to worry about flights and more of my family was able to come along.
I would return to this resort however I'd want to go in summer and their availability for my points just aren't there for that so I'll just have to keep on the lookout for something.
The booking through RCI was simple and everything about it went without a hitch. Also, the resort seemed keen to get a good review through RCI so were very accommodating to us. My confidence in RCI has been restored.
I had deposited a couple of our membership weeks in RCI and had one due to expire so we wanted to burn this week up rather than lose it. I was a little nervous about RCI. One of the benefits they advertise is discounted hotel rooms so I had tried this in the past and it didn't go well. The hotel I booked at didn't know I was coming and also expected me to pay for the room although I had paid RCI for the room at booking time. Because of this experience I was wary.
I have spent a lot of time searching what is available through RCI and I think for ourselves, exchanging into all-inclusive resorts doesn't seem to be a good value. In addition to your membership week and the exchange fee, you will still be paying an all-inclusive fee in addition to being on the hook for your airfare an airport transfers. As well, these all-inclusive fees are quite pricey. Bahia Principe all-inclusive fees to me seem pretty reasonable but at some of the other resorts I've looked at it's not unusual to see them ask for hundreds of dollars per day per guest for these fees.
So, that means I have focused my attentions on looking at exchanging into resorts that are just room charges where you'd be independently getting your meals. These resort suites that are available are quite attractive looking. For my exchange power its quite common to find 2 and 3 bedroom suites ... most have a kitchenette as a minimum while many have a full kitchen and some even laundry.
For instance, some time in the future I can see us going to Florida to do the Disney vacation thing. There are many resorts available in that area where I can get find pretty much anything I'd be looking for (suite size, amenities, distance from attractions) all for the 240ish exchange fee for a week. Another charge quite common I've noticed is an additional like 50 for housekeeping. You can pretty much find resorts participating in RCI at almost any vacation spot in the USA. There are also many international destinations like Europe and South America .... because of high airfare I haven't really seriously looked into these destinations. There are also a number of resorts in Canada that participate ... mostly in the Rocky Mountain area and in eastern Canada.
Unfortunately, since I am in Saskatchewan the pickings were pretty slim for anything close by. I did however find Elkhorn Resort and Spa at Riding Mountain National Park that was within a 4 hour drive for me so I decided to burn up that week there. I had found a week available starting on the May long weekend so I had decided on that.
A big bonus! RCI was offering a 1/2 price exchange sale shortly after Christmas so I booked myself into a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom chalet for a week at a price of about 120. Had I booked the chalet independently without going through RCI it would have cost about 2,300.
I got some of my family involved and we went there for that week. It was a fantastic getaway for us and with it being within driving distance we didn't have to worry about flights and more of my family was able to come along.
I would return to this resort however I'd want to go in summer and their availability for my points just aren't there for that so I'll just have to keep on the lookout for something.
The booking through RCI was simple and everything about it went without a hitch. Also, the resort seemed keen to get a good review through RCI so were very accommodating to us. My confidence in RCI has been restored.
Monday 30 March 2015
An update after our trip
I meant to update much sooner but I knew it was going to be a long one so have procrastinated (grab a coffee before starting as this is a novella) . I apologize. Again, I'll summarize at the bottom so if you don't care to read my play-by-play just scoot there.
Booking drama
I called back to the privilege club as we never did receive our confirmation. They sent a confirmation immediately when I called but it had the wrong dates on it. I called back to get this corrected and again they immediately sent a new confirmation. When I reviewed the new confirmation I noticed it stated there were 2 adults and 0 children travelling. I called back yet again and this time they finally got it right so I was happy with my confirmation. I then called to book my airport transfers. They had me send them our flight itinerary and then they sent me a voucher we were to give to the driver when we used them. I noticed they had the original incorrect dates and some random bizarre flight details on my travel voucher so I called back again and they sent another copy with the corrected dates and flight details.
At this point I must say I did not have very much confidence with this organization. I am by nature a worrier and I had myself pretty worked up over everything but then decided to just go with it and hope for the best. I can't lie though that the thought didn't cross my mind at least a dozen times that there was a good chance we'd arrive, not have a ride, and likely not even have a room.
Airport Transfers to Resort
The charge for our airport transfers through the club was $78 US round trip prepaid. This rate was per traveler and we were a party of three. I asked how we find our driver and they said to just look for someone holding up a sign. We kind of expected someone to be holding up a sign with our last names or something like in the movies but saw no one holding up anything.
We got a little confused when we arrived because we were waving our transfer voucher around and trying to beat off all the drivers trying to grab our bags. They were offering $40 to take us so I'm guessing we might have been able to haggle a little lower. I kept saying we had a ride arranged and already paid for so no thank you. Hubby was saying there's no one here holding up a sign so we should just make arrangements with one of these guys but I said that I was told they would be there so I'm going to go looking first. I'm not sure at the Punta Cana airport why all these vultures are swarming you at the luggage unload points but if you go to the doors there is a much more orderly line of drivers all holding up their proper signs.
There were a few there that were very smartly dressed holding up very official looking privilege club signs (no specific names) so we approached one and showed him our travel voucher. He then took our luggage and set off at a very speedy clip away from the airport to the parking lot. We were speed walking to keep up but he did get quite a bit ahead of us. At this point I'm thinking "great! we just had our luggage stolen" but it was all good and he was just in a hurry. The vehicle he was driving was a very new mini-van that was all professionally labelled with whatever transport company he worked with.
We are chatty people so tried to talk up the driver a bit but he didn't seem too interested in any banter. He very efficiently drove us directly to the privilege club lounge doors at the Punta Cana main lobby and unloaded our baggage setting it along the wall outside along with a lot of other baggage that was waiting there. He did really need that travel voucher so we gave it to him and he was off.
Privilege Concierge "Pre Check In" Service
As a reminder from my last post, I was told a concierge would contact us about a week prior to our arrival. They told me they would provide me with information on available excursions as well as ask us for our a la carte preferences. As I waited for this contact I was busy researching away on our upcoming trip; mostly on tripadvisor. In the forums on tripadvisor there are some regulars to this resort that had a lot information such as email addresses to the hotel concierge to request room and a la carte preferences up to 10 days in advance. In fact, on the bahia principe resort website they make mention of this fact as well. I waited patiently for this pre check in to occur. At the 5 days before departure date mark I phoned in again asking for this. They then told me that the pre check in service doesn't usually contact you until 3 days prior to your arrival but if I want they could contact the resort to contact me right away. I said yes please.
Within a couple hours I received an email from the privilege club resort concierge(s) with a couple attachments asking fur us to provide names, birthdates and passport numbers for the travelers to aid in a speedy check in. I also stated that if there are any other requests or reservations to be arranged please let them know an they will do their very best to satisfy our needs and preferences.
One attachment contained specific member benefits for this resort:
Initial welcome
The privilege club lounge at the Punta Cana lobby was very professional looking but when we arrived it was also very busy. It did take a few minutes before we were greeted but not anything major. They have a kids lounge with a couple computers that my 9 yr old went to right away and the bartender brought him a virgin cocktail (a Mickey Mouse) that made him feel pretty special. The staff were busy attending to others but they did invite us to have a drink and relax until there was a staff member available to attend to us. While we waited, we happily grabbed a drink and took in the atmosphere both in the lounge and outside. The lounge is located very close to the main Punta Cana lobby and is quite majestic.
When it was our turn we were invited to sit at a table and a staff member brought out a package with all of our information. This package contained our wrist bands, a map of the resort, a kid's club brochure, our a la carte reservatiosn, keys to our room, and a copy of the club benefits the pre checkin concierge had sent. The reservations that were made for us were not for the time I requested with the pre checkin concierge and only for half the restaurants. I almost think they set things up on their own judgement and didn't even pay attention to my requests. She put on our wrist bands .... very snazzy black with gold privilege club lettering for the adults and a different color for our nine yr old. She explained our benefits as well as gave as a brief overview of the map. This resort is a complex of five resorts and is very large. She told us the club golf carts were available for us to use and gave a list of numbers to call if we needed anything. We did arrive before the official check-in time so they told us the cleaning staff was working away at getting rooms ready for new guests. She offered to take us to the main Punta Cana buffet to grab some lunch while we waited but we weren't hungry yet so opted just to wait at the lounge ... this is where I think we may have caused the next couple of bumps in our stay...
Our room
I didn't think of this until much after the fact but the club has a Saturday to Saturday booking schedule. Saturdays are their hell days! I learned later that the whole resort was pretty much at capacity so it was just a gong show for all the staff. Here we sat happily sipping on our bevies, not in any rush to do anything; but we were taking up one of their orientation tables and more and more guests were coming in. Their goal was to get the guests efficiently and happily expedited to their rooms.
The lady that had been looking after us came rushing up after about a half an hour and took back our package with a happy exclamation that a room had become available. She scratched out the room number on our package and switched out our original room keys for this one that was ready for us. She then walked to the door and had one of the many golf carts and drivers for the privilege club that were waiting outside load up our bags and send us on our way to our room. This driver was very friendly and chatted us up on the way there and did most of the luggage handling, escorting us and our luggage directly to our room. Our excitement got pretty high that we were on our way to being nicely settled.
The room was on the main floor (I requested not on the main floor) and had a single king size bed when we were travelling as a family. The main floor thing wasn't a deal breaker but we weren't at all pleased at having to share a single bed. Hubby quickly tried to rectify this by calling one of the many numbers given to us by our checkin gal. Within five minutes a lady from housekeeping came by with sheets that she put on the couch for the kid to sleep in. We tried to explain to her that that's not what we wanted ... we were needing two beds ... but her English was pretty poor. Instead of arguing with her when she just wasn't understanding we just let her do the task that had been assigned to her and let her carry on. I was thinking we may not be able to get this rectified for this day so we were set up just in case. By this time hubby was getting pretty irate. I had planned a terrible flight itinerary and we were tired and cranky, we had the stress at the airport with our transfers, and his finger had been stung by something and was swelling up something fierce. The bickering was getting high so I said I would just take care of it and told the boys to put on their swimming trunks and head for the beach - we'll meet up in two hours.
I located the privilege club lounge at Esmeralda. She was pretty busy as well so I did have to wait for a bit. I then explained the situation and she was very empathetic. She called to the front desk to ask for a room with the parameters we needed. We had to wait for a call back and 15 minutes later she got one. She had one of the other staff cover and went to the front desk to get the keys to this new room. She then took me to this room to inspect to make sure it was satisfactory and it was perfect. It was on the second floor, two beds and as an added bonus .... was wicked close to the beach!
So in the end ... we got a room, it was in a good location, and it accommodated all our requests. I can't say at all what our original room would have been like since that was changed. On tripadvisor I had been reading that people (non club members) would get a welcome mickey of rum and a couple t-shirts. We didn't. There was nothing to do with our room that was any different than any other vacationer would get so I saw no privilege with the room; mind you we weren't using an actual membership week but a preferred week. We were very happy with this room and with the Esmeralda resort. We did have a couple maintenance issues but they were dealt with very quickly and efficiently by the maintenance staff.
At booking time the person we talked to mentioned that we could request a PS3 if one was available but with all the other issues I didn't even bother going there.
Privilege Club Lounge
At the Punta Cana resort complex there were two club lounges; one at the main punta cana resort and one at the esmeralda. From what I hear they are also building one at the amber in the near future. To get from our room to the esmeralda lounge would maybe take 3 minutes. It was very convenient.
These lounges even look privileged from the outside. The wall from the outside is all glass but a dark, tinted, mysterious glass which is a very different look from the rest of the resort as there aren't very many walls anywhere.
You enter the lounge to a nice air conditioned coolness. Everything inside looks slick and modern.
The main punta cana lounge is quite a bit larger than the esmeralda one. There is a sitting area where you can visit or just sit with a book or your laptop. In the main lounge there is a situp bar ... in the esmeralda lounge there is a mini fridge and a liquor cart. Good coffee and all the fixings are available. There is also a kid's lounge area in the punta cana lounge with a wii and two internet connected computers ... as well as a few toys for the really young ones. Any time I popped in this room was pretty empty.
Both lounges have free wifi for guests to connect their devices to for internet as well as a number of computers. They also both offer free international long distance calling.
The resort itself provides one hour a day of internet per room when you are in the lobby and anything more is at a charge. At the esmeralda you were still in range of the club wifi if you were right in the front lobby and sometimes in the buffet that is located right above the lounge.
We found the free internet to be a big plus to our membership. The one hour a day offered by the resort wouldn't have been enough for us but we didn't have to go the route of paying more for internet as the lounge offered enough "online" for us.
There was always a snack tray available with pretty fancy looking hors d'oeurves as well as a fruit tray, perhaps some deserts, etc. Plus, they did have slightly better selections of alcohol. Technically, I would argue that some of their hard alcohol selections were a bit off from top shelf but it was of a better quality than offered at the resort bars for the most part. If you are reading from the USA I'm not sure your alcohol there but for example, a top shelf vodka in my mind would be Grey Goose. The lounge would have Smirnoff which in my mind is on the low middle. Overhearing from other guests though, some of the rums they had were of the very best and very expensive quality. Myself I am a beer drinker and they offered cans of presidente ... both light and regular. I came and grabbed a few quite often as the cans were very much preferable to the cups of draft from the resort bars.
The staff in the lounge was also very friendly and accommodating. They made you feel special. Any issues, reservation changes, arranging for rides ... they can help.
We ended up spending a significant amount of time in this lounge (maybe all total a couple-few hours a day). Gave us the opportunity to talk to other privilege members.
Privilege Club Beach
From my understanding there is also a privilege beach in the ambar area but we only saw the esmeralda one.
I have decided we are beach people over pool people. This is only our second trip but both times now we haven't chosen to be at the many available pools very much. While we were staying here we were at the beach a lot and in particular we pretty much stuck to the privilege beach area. Again in this area I was drinking canned beer rather than cups. As well, the bartenders in the area were very attentive and only rarely would you need to go fetch your own drink. Even when you did have to fetch a drink, the area is quite small so it's not very far. There were also staff going by with a broom sweeping of the loungers.
The location was pretty good. The esmeralda area is fairly large and then the privilege area is in between the esmeralda area and the main punta cana/bavaro area. Because it is in between it is fairly close to both of the event areas on both beaches. It is also extremely close to building 90 in the esmeralda complex if you are fortunate enough to stay there (we were in building 92 which is still plenty close).
Also it is less populated so you didn't need to fight for good seating nor play the towel game to be satisfied with your location.
We did see the staff chase out non-members on a regular basis.
Golf Carts
During the day if you wanted to go anywhere you could just go to the esmeralda lobby and there were privilege club carts and drivers readily available.
In the evening when you were trying to get to your reservations and especially the shows it was less convenient. Talking to the staff they'd get on the phone right away to call someone to take care of you but sometimes there was a bit of a wait. We learned after the first time not to leave it to the last minute but the public trams are actually quite an acceptable alternative if your having any troubles.
After the shows or your supper reservation it was more of a problem. We were told there were phones located everywhere that we could call for a ride but we didn't notice any - not that we looked very hard. On the way back we ended up walking sometimes and other times being picked up by a cart. It is a large resort complex but a 15-20 minute walk for us wasn't too much of a biggy.
Other Benefits
The unlimited a la cartes probably would have been a bigger benefit at most the other resorts but at the esmeralda you get that anyways.
I've never gone to a resort spa before but decided to splurge on myself. With the discount it ended up being some really high end services for the same price you could get a questionable massage at home. Very pleased :)
The store discounts you do need to mention it. Also, I learned a good lesson for future trips. Since we stuck to the esmeralda portion for the most part, I saved up my souvenir shopping for the bigger shop at the main punta cana lobby when we checked out. We checked out a bit early and headed there. I did my shopping and when I mentioned my discount was sad to learn that the shops need to key the discounts against the appropriate room. We had already checked out of the room so the system wouldn't allow the discount. Personally I think this is a flaw in the system but it's an easy enough one to work around.
We actually were happy to mostly stick around the esmeralda area so we didn't avail ourselves of any excursions or watersports this trip so I can't comment on that benefit.
That pretty black wrist band let us go anywhere we wanted to in the whole resort complex. The staff do pay attention to what wrist band you have on and I witnessed them having to argue with many other guests to leave the area they were not allowing in. Not for us. We could go wherever the heck we felt like and there was no problem. That in itself made a person feel "Privileged".
Airport Transfers from Resort
This part wasn't as smooth in my mind as getting to the resort but not really bad either. Probably the worst of it is my own nerves. We were there well ahead of time as we were going to do our shopping at that location before leaving. This was another of their "hell days" as they have a lot of people leaving in close proximity to each other being the club is a Saturday to Saturday booking. When it started getting to within two and a half hours of our flight I was ready to go but there weren't any cars available. There was however a co-ordinator in the front of the main punta cana lounge that had everyone's names with when they needed to go. Again my worrying probably got the better of me. When it got to be to about 2:05 before our flight and a 30 minute ish drive to get to the airport I started feeling a bit panicky but then a driver showed up and got us there. It ended up being in plenty of time so I'm thinking these guys probably know what they are doing since they do it all the time. We made it on the plane and home with no troubles after that so all in all ... stress for nothing.
In Summary
I'm going to give a rating out of 5 (5 being the best and 1 being the worst), as well as a very brief overall review, and finally a recommendation to the privilege club for remedy for each of the categories I listed above just in case they read this.
Booking drama rating (1/5)
I'm not sure where the disconnect is happening but the people doing the booking don't seem to know what's actually going on so inaccurate information is being given. As well, I see no excuse to not send a promised confirmation after I've given them a sizable amount of money and then when they do to have the dates wrong.
I have no specific recommendations other than "GET IT TOGETHER". I'm giving a 1 rating rather than a 0 on the pure fact that we did end up having a vacation. The time I spent figuring out our travel itinerary was enough of my personal time to spend on this trip. I shouldn't need to spend multiple phone calls and emails to double check your work as well. You start adding up the cost of my time to the cost of the package and this is turning into a very expensive vacation!
I am not berating my booking agents here either as I'm guessing they are informing us on only what they have been told. Some big changes need to happen here!
Airport Transfers to Resort rating (4/5)
Although this didn't happen as smooth as I would have liked, had the booking people told me what to expect a little better I think it would have gone perfectly.
Now that I know what I know, I would highly recommend booking your air transports through the club. Everything else aside we got where we needed to go quickly and our driver was courteous. Should we have gone private there is always the concern you could be victimized and I was quite happy to not have that concern,
As a specific recommendation to the club ... if someone hasn't traveled to a location before and is asking questions please don't give them vague information. While your there it's relaxing but getting there doesn't need to be stressful.
Privilege Concierge "Pre Check In" Service rating (1/5)
I liked the information they sent as well as the wording in the we are so excited you are coming email but after seeing the result I'm thinking this is only words with no actions nor accountability to stand behind them.
As a person that has invested in this resort chain whether that investment is through a partnership or whatever I expect the money I spent to be for high priority service. When the general public that hasn't given you $10,000 can book their a la carte reservations and room requests before I am offered, I think that is a problem. When I came, the one restaurant I wanted to for sure try was the Don Pablo. I didn't get that reservation and when I tried to get a reservation into it I was told it had been booked up for weeks. How does this even happen? As a club member I feel our requests should be given the highest priority!
When you think of it, we invested in this resort. We could go and book vacations with other resorts and not be a member but since we invested we aren't even looking at other options. I think this should be respected and appreciated.
Initial welcome rating (4/5)
The staff member that attended us was very friendly and informative. I am going to give this initial rating as 4 and hold off on any other comments for our next trip as there were many contributing factors that didn't make this go 100% smooth.
Our room rating (3.5/5)
Hmmm. This one I'm having a hard time with. I was very happy with our room but it could have been better. Also I was rushed into a second room (not sure what the first room was like but it was in building 93) into a room in building 93. Then I changed to a room in building 92 and that's the one I am very satisfied with. The thing is, I was under the impressions that the most sought after rooms were in buildings 90 - 91 ... should those ones be given preference for club members?
Doing some math on the number of rooms and what I witnessed for intake throughout the day I'm thinking we could have been treated a lot better.
As a recommendation for the club, I would prefer to wait for the perfect room rather than be rushed into the quickest room ... and as a club member I think I deserve that.
Privilege Club Lounge rating (4/5)
This I think they got pretty good. The lounges are great from my perspective in staying in esmeralda.
My only critique would be for there to be more computers as there was a queue for them a good number of the times I was in the lounge.
Privilege Club Beach rating (5/5)
This was our favorite place! As it pertains to the esmeralda I feel the location and size and service are appropriate. It's not the absolutely best spot on the beach but I feel it's a perfectly adequate compromise for all the other beach sections.
Recommendation ... keep up the good work!
Golf Carts rating (4/5)
I appreciated these but I think there could be a bit more coordination.
My biggest complaint was with finding a cart after an event or reservation but we didn't look very hard for a phone to call for one so I'll reserve judgement until a later trip. Also, now that I'm home I see the carts are available on the books for up to 10pm. I'm now wondering if maybe the shows ended after their published hours
For a recommendation ... have a couple cart at the entrance to the events for when they end. If the shows are ending after 10 pm, maybe consider extending these hour on the popular nights (Michael Jackson & Circus).
Other Benefits rating (3/5)
As we took little advantage, I don't have a full rating. I was very impressed with the spa discount. I was unimpressed that I couldn't use my shop discount after I checked out ... that one I can adjust for though easily.
Airport Transfers from Resort rating (4/5)
We got there in time but it would have been nicer had it been stress free.
As a recommendation perhaps that wonderful coordination guy with all our names and flight times could have made himself known to us a little earlier to reassure us we weren't simply forgotten rather than when in a panic I start talking to everyone for a ride.
Overall Value rating (3.5/5)
We are not worldly travelers by any means so don't have much to compare to, however when I think of what I hope to get out of a vacation that we save very hard all year to afford to do we have expectations. This investment is more than an investment in the club, it's an investment into the resort chain. I think the partnership and acknowledgement of this could be improved upon.
Also, there are some definite gaps in service which seem to be mostly focused with the pre-arrival process. In my opinion this needs to addressed as a priority as it just makes your whole club look unprofessional and sloppy. These people are our first contact when we are planning a vacation and should be able to highlight the wonderful time we will have, not cause us to second guess our investment into this club. After arrival I think all parties did an exemplary job but the front line staff booking and arranging everything beforehand didn't.
I am pleased with our membership and benefits.
Should any Bahia Principe Privilege Club staff wish to discuss, I would be happy to. I'm locked into you and want to make it better.
Booking drama
I called back to the privilege club as we never did receive our confirmation. They sent a confirmation immediately when I called but it had the wrong dates on it. I called back to get this corrected and again they immediately sent a new confirmation. When I reviewed the new confirmation I noticed it stated there were 2 adults and 0 children travelling. I called back yet again and this time they finally got it right so I was happy with my confirmation. I then called to book my airport transfers. They had me send them our flight itinerary and then they sent me a voucher we were to give to the driver when we used them. I noticed they had the original incorrect dates and some random bizarre flight details on my travel voucher so I called back again and they sent another copy with the corrected dates and flight details.
At this point I must say I did not have very much confidence with this organization. I am by nature a worrier and I had myself pretty worked up over everything but then decided to just go with it and hope for the best. I can't lie though that the thought didn't cross my mind at least a dozen times that there was a good chance we'd arrive, not have a ride, and likely not even have a room.
Airport Transfers to Resort
The charge for our airport transfers through the club was $78 US round trip prepaid. This rate was per traveler and we were a party of three. I asked how we find our driver and they said to just look for someone holding up a sign. We kind of expected someone to be holding up a sign with our last names or something like in the movies but saw no one holding up anything.
We got a little confused when we arrived because we were waving our transfer voucher around and trying to beat off all the drivers trying to grab our bags. They were offering $40 to take us so I'm guessing we might have been able to haggle a little lower. I kept saying we had a ride arranged and already paid for so no thank you. Hubby was saying there's no one here holding up a sign so we should just make arrangements with one of these guys but I said that I was told they would be there so I'm going to go looking first. I'm not sure at the Punta Cana airport why all these vultures are swarming you at the luggage unload points but if you go to the doors there is a much more orderly line of drivers all holding up their proper signs.
There were a few there that were very smartly dressed holding up very official looking privilege club signs (no specific names) so we approached one and showed him our travel voucher. He then took our luggage and set off at a very speedy clip away from the airport to the parking lot. We were speed walking to keep up but he did get quite a bit ahead of us. At this point I'm thinking "great! we just had our luggage stolen" but it was all good and he was just in a hurry. The vehicle he was driving was a very new mini-van that was all professionally labelled with whatever transport company he worked with.
We are chatty people so tried to talk up the driver a bit but he didn't seem too interested in any banter. He very efficiently drove us directly to the privilege club lounge doors at the Punta Cana main lobby and unloaded our baggage setting it along the wall outside along with a lot of other baggage that was waiting there. He did really need that travel voucher so we gave it to him and he was off.
Privilege Concierge "Pre Check In" Service
As a reminder from my last post, I was told a concierge would contact us about a week prior to our arrival. They told me they would provide me with information on available excursions as well as ask us for our a la carte preferences. As I waited for this contact I was busy researching away on our upcoming trip; mostly on tripadvisor. In the forums on tripadvisor there are some regulars to this resort that had a lot information such as email addresses to the hotel concierge to request room and a la carte preferences up to 10 days in advance. In fact, on the bahia principe resort website they make mention of this fact as well. I waited patiently for this pre check in to occur. At the 5 days before departure date mark I phoned in again asking for this. They then told me that the pre check in service doesn't usually contact you until 3 days prior to your arrival but if I want they could contact the resort to contact me right away. I said yes please.
Within a couple hours I received an email from the privilege club resort concierge(s) with a couple attachments asking fur us to provide names, birthdates and passport numbers for the travelers to aid in a speedy check in. I also stated that if there are any other requests or reservations to be arranged please let them know an they will do their very best to satisfy our needs and preferences.
One attachment contained specific member benefits for this resort:
PRIVILEGE CLUB MEMBERS EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS:
LBP ESMERALDA
LBP AMBAR
GBP PUNTA CANA
- Personalized Privilege Concierge Services (from 8am to 10pm)
- Privilege Lounge, located closed to the Punta Cana and Esmeralda lobby (from
8am to 10pm): Private check-in; Concierge services; Unlimited Internet
Connection; Free international calls; Daily newspapers; Games and Library.
- Privilege Beach, Ambar and Esmeralda, with exclusive services from 9:30am to
5:30pm.
- Premium Drinks included in the Privilege Lounge and the Privilege Beach.
- Access to all the complex facilities and services: Ambar, Esmeralda, Punta Cana
and Bávaro; including pools, bars, restaurants and any other facilities.
- Unlimited a La Carte restaurant dinner reservations with reservation.
- Private transportation through the hotels with our Privilege Club golf carts
(from 9am to 10pm).
- 20% discount on Spa services, massages and treatments (not applicable to
water systems, braids, product retail, special promotions or wedding services)
- 10% discount on excursions (Soltour)
- 20% on photo packages does not apply to individual sessions and wedding
photos.
- 20% discount on motorized water sports and excursions with Scubaquatic (not
applicable for Parasailing and Speedboats). Reservations must be made
through the Scubaquatic office at your hotel.
- 15% discount in the Bahia stores does not apply to internet and calling cards
(attached listing of stores in which the discount is applied).
- 20% discount in cash & 10% discount by credit card at the store “Cosita Linda”
Located at the Punta Cana Lobby & “7 Camicie” Located at the Bavaro Lobby
- Safety deposit box free of charge.
- 24 hours room Service.
- Late check-out (subject to availability).
Another attachment contained a list of the available a la cartes at the resort.
I replied right away with a reiteration of my room requests that they asked me for when I booked the room as well as our reservation requests. Beyond the above list stating the discount I could receive on excursion no info was provided for this like I was told it would be. I did try to search on the internet what may be available through this Soltour company but was unsuccessful.
The privilege club lounge at the Punta Cana lobby was very professional looking but when we arrived it was also very busy. It did take a few minutes before we were greeted but not anything major. They have a kids lounge with a couple computers that my 9 yr old went to right away and the bartender brought him a virgin cocktail (a Mickey Mouse) that made him feel pretty special. The staff were busy attending to others but they did invite us to have a drink and relax until there was a staff member available to attend to us. While we waited, we happily grabbed a drink and took in the atmosphere both in the lounge and outside. The lounge is located very close to the main Punta Cana lobby and is quite majestic.
When it was our turn we were invited to sit at a table and a staff member brought out a package with all of our information. This package contained our wrist bands, a map of the resort, a kid's club brochure, our a la carte reservatiosn, keys to our room, and a copy of the club benefits the pre checkin concierge had sent. The reservations that were made for us were not for the time I requested with the pre checkin concierge and only for half the restaurants. I almost think they set things up on their own judgement and didn't even pay attention to my requests. She put on our wrist bands .... very snazzy black with gold privilege club lettering for the adults and a different color for our nine yr old. She explained our benefits as well as gave as a brief overview of the map. This resort is a complex of five resorts and is very large. She told us the club golf carts were available for us to use and gave a list of numbers to call if we needed anything. We did arrive before the official check-in time so they told us the cleaning staff was working away at getting rooms ready for new guests. She offered to take us to the main Punta Cana buffet to grab some lunch while we waited but we weren't hungry yet so opted just to wait at the lounge ... this is where I think we may have caused the next couple of bumps in our stay...
Our room
I didn't think of this until much after the fact but the club has a Saturday to Saturday booking schedule. Saturdays are their hell days! I learned later that the whole resort was pretty much at capacity so it was just a gong show for all the staff. Here we sat happily sipping on our bevies, not in any rush to do anything; but we were taking up one of their orientation tables and more and more guests were coming in. Their goal was to get the guests efficiently and happily expedited to their rooms.
The lady that had been looking after us came rushing up after about a half an hour and took back our package with a happy exclamation that a room had become available. She scratched out the room number on our package and switched out our original room keys for this one that was ready for us. She then walked to the door and had one of the many golf carts and drivers for the privilege club that were waiting outside load up our bags and send us on our way to our room. This driver was very friendly and chatted us up on the way there and did most of the luggage handling, escorting us and our luggage directly to our room. Our excitement got pretty high that we were on our way to being nicely settled.
The room was on the main floor (I requested not on the main floor) and had a single king size bed when we were travelling as a family. The main floor thing wasn't a deal breaker but we weren't at all pleased at having to share a single bed. Hubby quickly tried to rectify this by calling one of the many numbers given to us by our checkin gal. Within five minutes a lady from housekeeping came by with sheets that she put on the couch for the kid to sleep in. We tried to explain to her that that's not what we wanted ... we were needing two beds ... but her English was pretty poor. Instead of arguing with her when she just wasn't understanding we just let her do the task that had been assigned to her and let her carry on. I was thinking we may not be able to get this rectified for this day so we were set up just in case. By this time hubby was getting pretty irate. I had planned a terrible flight itinerary and we were tired and cranky, we had the stress at the airport with our transfers, and his finger had been stung by something and was swelling up something fierce. The bickering was getting high so I said I would just take care of it and told the boys to put on their swimming trunks and head for the beach - we'll meet up in two hours.
I located the privilege club lounge at Esmeralda. She was pretty busy as well so I did have to wait for a bit. I then explained the situation and she was very empathetic. She called to the front desk to ask for a room with the parameters we needed. We had to wait for a call back and 15 minutes later she got one. She had one of the other staff cover and went to the front desk to get the keys to this new room. She then took me to this room to inspect to make sure it was satisfactory and it was perfect. It was on the second floor, two beds and as an added bonus .... was wicked close to the beach!
So in the end ... we got a room, it was in a good location, and it accommodated all our requests. I can't say at all what our original room would have been like since that was changed. On tripadvisor I had been reading that people (non club members) would get a welcome mickey of rum and a couple t-shirts. We didn't. There was nothing to do with our room that was any different than any other vacationer would get so I saw no privilege with the room; mind you we weren't using an actual membership week but a preferred week. We were very happy with this room and with the Esmeralda resort. We did have a couple maintenance issues but they were dealt with very quickly and efficiently by the maintenance staff.
At booking time the person we talked to mentioned that we could request a PS3 if one was available but with all the other issues I didn't even bother going there.
Privilege Club Lounge
At the Punta Cana resort complex there were two club lounges; one at the main punta cana resort and one at the esmeralda. From what I hear they are also building one at the amber in the near future. To get from our room to the esmeralda lounge would maybe take 3 minutes. It was very convenient.
These lounges even look privileged from the outside. The wall from the outside is all glass but a dark, tinted, mysterious glass which is a very different look from the rest of the resort as there aren't very many walls anywhere.
You enter the lounge to a nice air conditioned coolness. Everything inside looks slick and modern.
The main punta cana lounge is quite a bit larger than the esmeralda one. There is a sitting area where you can visit or just sit with a book or your laptop. In the main lounge there is a situp bar ... in the esmeralda lounge there is a mini fridge and a liquor cart. Good coffee and all the fixings are available. There is also a kid's lounge area in the punta cana lounge with a wii and two internet connected computers ... as well as a few toys for the really young ones. Any time I popped in this room was pretty empty.
Both lounges have free wifi for guests to connect their devices to for internet as well as a number of computers. They also both offer free international long distance calling.
The resort itself provides one hour a day of internet per room when you are in the lobby and anything more is at a charge. At the esmeralda you were still in range of the club wifi if you were right in the front lobby and sometimes in the buffet that is located right above the lounge.
We found the free internet to be a big plus to our membership. The one hour a day offered by the resort wouldn't have been enough for us but we didn't have to go the route of paying more for internet as the lounge offered enough "online" for us.
There was always a snack tray available with pretty fancy looking hors d'oeurves as well as a fruit tray, perhaps some deserts, etc. Plus, they did have slightly better selections of alcohol. Technically, I would argue that some of their hard alcohol selections were a bit off from top shelf but it was of a better quality than offered at the resort bars for the most part. If you are reading from the USA I'm not sure your alcohol there but for example, a top shelf vodka in my mind would be Grey Goose. The lounge would have Smirnoff which in my mind is on the low middle. Overhearing from other guests though, some of the rums they had were of the very best and very expensive quality. Myself I am a beer drinker and they offered cans of presidente ... both light and regular. I came and grabbed a few quite often as the cans were very much preferable to the cups of draft from the resort bars.
The staff in the lounge was also very friendly and accommodating. They made you feel special. Any issues, reservation changes, arranging for rides ... they can help.
We ended up spending a significant amount of time in this lounge (maybe all total a couple-few hours a day). Gave us the opportunity to talk to other privilege members.
Privilege Club Beach
From my understanding there is also a privilege beach in the ambar area but we only saw the esmeralda one.
I have decided we are beach people over pool people. This is only our second trip but both times now we haven't chosen to be at the many available pools very much. While we were staying here we were at the beach a lot and in particular we pretty much stuck to the privilege beach area. Again in this area I was drinking canned beer rather than cups. As well, the bartenders in the area were very attentive and only rarely would you need to go fetch your own drink. Even when you did have to fetch a drink, the area is quite small so it's not very far. There were also staff going by with a broom sweeping of the loungers.
The location was pretty good. The esmeralda area is fairly large and then the privilege area is in between the esmeralda area and the main punta cana/bavaro area. Because it is in between it is fairly close to both of the event areas on both beaches. It is also extremely close to building 90 in the esmeralda complex if you are fortunate enough to stay there (we were in building 92 which is still plenty close).
Also it is less populated so you didn't need to fight for good seating nor play the towel game to be satisfied with your location.
We did see the staff chase out non-members on a regular basis.
Golf Carts
During the day if you wanted to go anywhere you could just go to the esmeralda lobby and there were privilege club carts and drivers readily available.
In the evening when you were trying to get to your reservations and especially the shows it was less convenient. Talking to the staff they'd get on the phone right away to call someone to take care of you but sometimes there was a bit of a wait. We learned after the first time not to leave it to the last minute but the public trams are actually quite an acceptable alternative if your having any troubles.
After the shows or your supper reservation it was more of a problem. We were told there were phones located everywhere that we could call for a ride but we didn't notice any - not that we looked very hard. On the way back we ended up walking sometimes and other times being picked up by a cart. It is a large resort complex but a 15-20 minute walk for us wasn't too much of a biggy.
Other Benefits
The unlimited a la cartes probably would have been a bigger benefit at most the other resorts but at the esmeralda you get that anyways.
I've never gone to a resort spa before but decided to splurge on myself. With the discount it ended up being some really high end services for the same price you could get a questionable massage at home. Very pleased :)
The store discounts you do need to mention it. Also, I learned a good lesson for future trips. Since we stuck to the esmeralda portion for the most part, I saved up my souvenir shopping for the bigger shop at the main punta cana lobby when we checked out. We checked out a bit early and headed there. I did my shopping and when I mentioned my discount was sad to learn that the shops need to key the discounts against the appropriate room. We had already checked out of the room so the system wouldn't allow the discount. Personally I think this is a flaw in the system but it's an easy enough one to work around.
We actually were happy to mostly stick around the esmeralda area so we didn't avail ourselves of any excursions or watersports this trip so I can't comment on that benefit.
That pretty black wrist band let us go anywhere we wanted to in the whole resort complex. The staff do pay attention to what wrist band you have on and I witnessed them having to argue with many other guests to leave the area they were not allowing in. Not for us. We could go wherever the heck we felt like and there was no problem. That in itself made a person feel "Privileged".
Airport Transfers from Resort
This part wasn't as smooth in my mind as getting to the resort but not really bad either. Probably the worst of it is my own nerves. We were there well ahead of time as we were going to do our shopping at that location before leaving. This was another of their "hell days" as they have a lot of people leaving in close proximity to each other being the club is a Saturday to Saturday booking. When it started getting to within two and a half hours of our flight I was ready to go but there weren't any cars available. There was however a co-ordinator in the front of the main punta cana lounge that had everyone's names with when they needed to go. Again my worrying probably got the better of me. When it got to be to about 2:05 before our flight and a 30 minute ish drive to get to the airport I started feeling a bit panicky but then a driver showed up and got us there. It ended up being in plenty of time so I'm thinking these guys probably know what they are doing since they do it all the time. We made it on the plane and home with no troubles after that so all in all ... stress for nothing.
In Summary
I'm going to give a rating out of 5 (5 being the best and 1 being the worst), as well as a very brief overall review, and finally a recommendation to the privilege club for remedy for each of the categories I listed above just in case they read this.
Booking drama rating (1/5)
I'm not sure where the disconnect is happening but the people doing the booking don't seem to know what's actually going on so inaccurate information is being given. As well, I see no excuse to not send a promised confirmation after I've given them a sizable amount of money and then when they do to have the dates wrong.
I have no specific recommendations other than "GET IT TOGETHER". I'm giving a 1 rating rather than a 0 on the pure fact that we did end up having a vacation. The time I spent figuring out our travel itinerary was enough of my personal time to spend on this trip. I shouldn't need to spend multiple phone calls and emails to double check your work as well. You start adding up the cost of my time to the cost of the package and this is turning into a very expensive vacation!
I am not berating my booking agents here either as I'm guessing they are informing us on only what they have been told. Some big changes need to happen here!
Airport Transfers to Resort rating (4/5)
Although this didn't happen as smooth as I would have liked, had the booking people told me what to expect a little better I think it would have gone perfectly.
Now that I know what I know, I would highly recommend booking your air transports through the club. Everything else aside we got where we needed to go quickly and our driver was courteous. Should we have gone private there is always the concern you could be victimized and I was quite happy to not have that concern,
As a specific recommendation to the club ... if someone hasn't traveled to a location before and is asking questions please don't give them vague information. While your there it's relaxing but getting there doesn't need to be stressful.
Privilege Concierge "Pre Check In" Service rating (1/5)
I liked the information they sent as well as the wording in the we are so excited you are coming email but after seeing the result I'm thinking this is only words with no actions nor accountability to stand behind them.
As a person that has invested in this resort chain whether that investment is through a partnership or whatever I expect the money I spent to be for high priority service. When the general public that hasn't given you $10,000 can book their a la carte reservations and room requests before I am offered, I think that is a problem. When I came, the one restaurant I wanted to for sure try was the Don Pablo. I didn't get that reservation and when I tried to get a reservation into it I was told it had been booked up for weeks. How does this even happen? As a club member I feel our requests should be given the highest priority!
When you think of it, we invested in this resort. We could go and book vacations with other resorts and not be a member but since we invested we aren't even looking at other options. I think this should be respected and appreciated.
Initial welcome rating (4/5)
The staff member that attended us was very friendly and informative. I am going to give this initial rating as 4 and hold off on any other comments for our next trip as there were many contributing factors that didn't make this go 100% smooth.
Our room rating (3.5/5)
Hmmm. This one I'm having a hard time with. I was very happy with our room but it could have been better. Also I was rushed into a second room (not sure what the first room was like but it was in building 93) into a room in building 93. Then I changed to a room in building 92 and that's the one I am very satisfied with. The thing is, I was under the impressions that the most sought after rooms were in buildings 90 - 91 ... should those ones be given preference for club members?
Doing some math on the number of rooms and what I witnessed for intake throughout the day I'm thinking we could have been treated a lot better.
As a recommendation for the club, I would prefer to wait for the perfect room rather than be rushed into the quickest room ... and as a club member I think I deserve that.
Privilege Club Lounge rating (4/5)
This I think they got pretty good. The lounges are great from my perspective in staying in esmeralda.
My only critique would be for there to be more computers as there was a queue for them a good number of the times I was in the lounge.
Privilege Club Beach rating (5/5)
This was our favorite place! As it pertains to the esmeralda I feel the location and size and service are appropriate. It's not the absolutely best spot on the beach but I feel it's a perfectly adequate compromise for all the other beach sections.
Recommendation ... keep up the good work!
Golf Carts rating (4/5)
I appreciated these but I think there could be a bit more coordination.
My biggest complaint was with finding a cart after an event or reservation but we didn't look very hard for a phone to call for one so I'll reserve judgement until a later trip. Also, now that I'm home I see the carts are available on the books for up to 10pm. I'm now wondering if maybe the shows ended after their published hours
For a recommendation ... have a couple cart at the entrance to the events for when they end. If the shows are ending after 10 pm, maybe consider extending these hour on the popular nights (Michael Jackson & Circus).
Other Benefits rating (3/5)
As we took little advantage, I don't have a full rating. I was very impressed with the spa discount. I was unimpressed that I couldn't use my shop discount after I checked out ... that one I can adjust for though easily.
Airport Transfers from Resort rating (4/5)
We got there in time but it would have been nicer had it been stress free.
As a recommendation perhaps that wonderful coordination guy with all our names and flight times could have made himself known to us a little earlier to reassure us we weren't simply forgotten rather than when in a panic I start talking to everyone for a ride.
Overall Value rating (3.5/5)
We are not worldly travelers by any means so don't have much to compare to, however when I think of what I hope to get out of a vacation that we save very hard all year to afford to do we have expectations. This investment is more than an investment in the club, it's an investment into the resort chain. I think the partnership and acknowledgement of this could be improved upon.
Also, there are some definite gaps in service which seem to be mostly focused with the pre-arrival process. In my opinion this needs to addressed as a priority as it just makes your whole club look unprofessional and sloppy. These people are our first contact when we are planning a vacation and should be able to highlight the wonderful time we will have, not cause us to second guess our investment into this club. After arrival I think all parties did an exemplary job but the front line staff booking and arranging everything beforehand didn't.
I am pleased with our membership and benefits.
Should any Bahia Principe Privilege Club staff wish to discuss, I would be happy to. I'm locked into you and want to make it better.
Tuesday 14 October 2014
Finally another update! First booking!
So sorry for not posting an update in so long but really I have had nothing to say more than what I already have. We have not done any travelling since back in February 2012. A few have emailed me asking for more information and I apologize for not responding but everything I have posted on this blog is everything I know. Now however I will have new material for you. This post will cover my booking experience and relate additional information I learned as a result. I will then probably make a post regarding research I will do on my specific destination (I am one of those over-research anything kind of people). I have been informed a concierge will be contacting us a week or so before our travel so will post on that experience and finally I will likely have a few posts regarding our experiences during our stay.
To recap ... I have a week deposited with RCI that we have not yet taken advantage of and we are continuing to pay our RCI membership, I believe I have until June of 2015 to either use this week or pay for an extension. I have no updates on RCI at this time except to say I am still enthused about being a member to this and am looking forward to using them.
So on to my booking experiences ...
WARNING: I am trying to relay all I learned as well as my experiences and this post is very long. I will summarize at the end a few key points for those who don't want to read all my ramblings.
We procrastinated, debated, hummed and hawed, changed our mind numerous times, and finally decided we were going to try and use one of our membership weeks for our vacation plans this year. I went reading through the agreements and discovered that one of the restrictions of this membership is it is limited to a Saturday to Saturday booking so given hubbie's vacation window that meant we could take one week from December 6 - December 13. From my understanding if you want to travel outside of a Saturday to Saturday booking it will result in multiple membership weeks to do so. I cannot confirm or deny whether the privilege club is willing or able to be flexible on this as we decided to just work within the Saturday to Saturday restriction.
For a destination that was another debate. Hubby seemed unwilling to want to use our membership to travel to Mexico as he sees many last minute and good deals on travelling to that country. Also, since we were already at the Jamaica resort where we purchase our membership we were leaning to travelling to the Dominican Republic. For this trip we will be taking our 9 year old along so we were looking at a more "family friendly" destination. An acquaintance of ours that lives in the Dominican recommended that probably the best family destination would be at Punta Cana. We decided we would like to try a resort in the Don Pablo Collection. Most of these are adult only so that left the Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda as our first choice. The membership guide recommends having a few preferred destinations and dates in mind when calling for our reservation. Our dates were pretty fixed so we decided we would try for Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda with a second choice of Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana. We finally decided on all this the morning of October 13th; this was really short notice in my mind so had fingers crossed.
We called in at 2:30 pm mountain time. Their published hours of operation are Mon - Fri 8:30 - 5:30 eastern. A recording answered asking our preferred language ... there were lots. #1 for English. Then I listened to elevator music for a couple minutes. I had read how difficult it is to get a hold of anyone to book a reservation so was pleasantly surprised when I connected to a real person within minutes. I stated I wanted to make a reservation and the person I was talking to (who I will further refer to as "the rep") asked for my contract #. Tip #1 when calling in ... have your contract number handy. This poor guy was very patient while I went digging to be able to provide him with my number.
I asked for my first preference of Dec 6 - 13 at the Esmeralda. The rep did the search and said no membership week bookings were available but he can put in a request with the resort for a preferred rate room; they would respond within 24 - 48 hours of this request. I then asked for a search to be done at the Punta Cana ... none available. We searched for some more of the Dominican resorts and again ... denied. I then asked if Jamaica had an opening and again fail. He said he knew a cancellation had come in earlier that day for Jamaica so hunted down that cancellation and unfortunately it was for the Luxury Jamaica which is adults only so that was out. He explained that there are a number of rooms set aside for membership week bookings and they are offered on a first come first serve basis. By putting in a request at the resort for a preferred week, this gives the resort the option of honoring a club member preferred week if they have the inventory available. As I am trying to book a week only 7.5 weeks before travelling I totally believe this is an understandable predicament. At the end of all the searches I asked him to put in the request for a preferred week at the Esmeralda. He said he would either email me the results of the request or to call him the next day and gave me a good time to get a hold of him.
He did ask if I'd looked at the Privilege Collection airfare and if I'd be looking at booking our flights through them. I had said that I had looked and had found more appealing choices elsewhere. He congratulated me on this and didn't pressure me at all.
After this call I was a little crestfallen. Thinking some more on it this didn't totally mean we wouldn't be going on a fabulous vacation. It opened up the possibility of using our RCI week or not planning anything and just booking a last minute vacation. Lesson learned ... leaving things to the last minute is not the best idea. It's just that we spent a good deal of money on this membership and have had it for 2.5+ years and can't say if we think it's worth it or not. I was feeling pretty blue.
Fast forward to the next day and I hadn't received an email. I called back and even faster my call was answered by a different service rep. I asked to speak to my rep to follow up on a reservation. She asked for my contract # (I had it handy this time) and put me on hold for the rep. I waited maybe 5 minutes this time to be speaking to him directly. This was a peasant surprise because I was thinking if he was tied up with a call like mine from the day before I would be waiting forever ;). He pulled up my file right away and said the resort was willing to honor my request.
I had a big conversation with the rep at this point. I had so many questions as this would be our first trip using our membership. He talked with me about all of my questions very patiently and willingly. He said after a few trips I'd be an old hat and would be a pro at this.
My Q&A session with the rep:
Preferred week vs membership week ... what are the differences: My assumption going in to this question was using a preferred week we would be experiencing a standard room experience and we would not be entitled to the membership benefits a membership week gave us. He told me that as a club member we would always be entitled to the membership benefits whether we were staying with a membership week or a preferred week. Upon our arrival we would be given a VIP bracelet straight away. The only differences are related to the room and the rate. In the room with a membership week there is a surround stereo system and either a playstation or a blueray. Also, these membership rooms sounded like they were the absolute best locations (this I kind of inferred). The rate difference is $72/day vs $91/day which really is not a big deal for us and this leaves my membership week for 2013 that I haven't used yet available to be transferred to RCI which opens up even more doors with them.
For those that aren't members and are curious, here are the membership benefits:
Airport transfers: I raised a concern that when booking through a travel agency they provided your transfers to the resort so what would I need to do to get to and from the airport to the resort. He said for $80 US round trip they would send a private taxi for us and just make sure they get the details of our air transport so they know when to get this arranged. I didn't ask for other options as I think this is likely what we will do but I got the feeling that when the concierge contacts us prior to our arrival this will be finalized. At that time I may ask what other options are available.
Travel Agency Orientation: Again when booking through a travel agency there is typically the orientation the morning after arrival where all the excursion companies show what is available so I asked what will be available for us as we aren't going through a travel agency. The rep said the concierge will provide us with all the info about a week prior to our arrival and we can book them ahead of time at a discount (20% off I believe he said).
Other miscellaneous items: The rep asked if we had a preference for which floor we'd be on as the resort will try to accommodate club member requests. I specified we would prefer to not be on the ground floor but I'm thinking room preference will be more identified with the concierge contact. The room booked does have our preference for two beds rather than a single king though. I asked if we could check back sooner to the travel date to see if a membership room had become available ... since I am travelling with a 9 year old, having a playstation in the room does have it's appeal. He said we could check but seeing as December is the start of the busy travel time he doesn't think it's likely but it wouldn't hurt to try as you never know. He did add a request to my reservation that if a playstation was available during our stay we would like to have it. He also said when the concierge contacted us they will ask our a la carte preferences and we have access to all 15 a la cartes for the entire bahia resort complex group so many choices would be available.
I am out of steam now so will wind this one up. Come back for some more updates on our trip in the near future.
In Summary
Called the office during their published business hours and got through very quickly.
The reservation representative was exceedingly patient and answered all questions.
Was not able to book a membership week but did book a preferred week however we were only booking 7.5 weeks ahead of our travel date so lack of availability wasn't a surprise.
Bottom line ... cost of trip for the 3 of us (two adults, one 9 yr old) is $3714 US (works out to $1238 a piece). I need to make mention that we really get soaked on airfare as we are flying out of Regina Saskatchewan. One perk on the club's all inclusive fee pricing is the first child stays for free where generally it appears they charge 50% of the all inclusive fees for children. I did do some checking what my vacation priced out to using some of the popular vacation sites and the pricing I came up with from there came at a minimum of $5000 ... and that would not include any of our membership benefits.
To recap ... I have a week deposited with RCI that we have not yet taken advantage of and we are continuing to pay our RCI membership, I believe I have until June of 2015 to either use this week or pay for an extension. I have no updates on RCI at this time except to say I am still enthused about being a member to this and am looking forward to using them.
So on to my booking experiences ...
WARNING: I am trying to relay all I learned as well as my experiences and this post is very long. I will summarize at the end a few key points for those who don't want to read all my ramblings.
We procrastinated, debated, hummed and hawed, changed our mind numerous times, and finally decided we were going to try and use one of our membership weeks for our vacation plans this year. I went reading through the agreements and discovered that one of the restrictions of this membership is it is limited to a Saturday to Saturday booking so given hubbie's vacation window that meant we could take one week from December 6 - December 13. From my understanding if you want to travel outside of a Saturday to Saturday booking it will result in multiple membership weeks to do so. I cannot confirm or deny whether the privilege club is willing or able to be flexible on this as we decided to just work within the Saturday to Saturday restriction.
For a destination that was another debate. Hubby seemed unwilling to want to use our membership to travel to Mexico as he sees many last minute and good deals on travelling to that country. Also, since we were already at the Jamaica resort where we purchase our membership we were leaning to travelling to the Dominican Republic. For this trip we will be taking our 9 year old along so we were looking at a more "family friendly" destination. An acquaintance of ours that lives in the Dominican recommended that probably the best family destination would be at Punta Cana. We decided we would like to try a resort in the Don Pablo Collection. Most of these are adult only so that left the Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda as our first choice. The membership guide recommends having a few preferred destinations and dates in mind when calling for our reservation. Our dates were pretty fixed so we decided we would try for Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda with a second choice of Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana. We finally decided on all this the morning of October 13th; this was really short notice in my mind so had fingers crossed.
We called in at 2:30 pm mountain time. Their published hours of operation are Mon - Fri 8:30 - 5:30 eastern. A recording answered asking our preferred language ... there were lots. #1 for English. Then I listened to elevator music for a couple minutes. I had read how difficult it is to get a hold of anyone to book a reservation so was pleasantly surprised when I connected to a real person within minutes. I stated I wanted to make a reservation and the person I was talking to (who I will further refer to as "the rep") asked for my contract #. Tip #1 when calling in ... have your contract number handy. This poor guy was very patient while I went digging to be able to provide him with my number.
I asked for my first preference of Dec 6 - 13 at the Esmeralda. The rep did the search and said no membership week bookings were available but he can put in a request with the resort for a preferred rate room; they would respond within 24 - 48 hours of this request. I then asked for a search to be done at the Punta Cana ... none available. We searched for some more of the Dominican resorts and again ... denied. I then asked if Jamaica had an opening and again fail. He said he knew a cancellation had come in earlier that day for Jamaica so hunted down that cancellation and unfortunately it was for the Luxury Jamaica which is adults only so that was out. He explained that there are a number of rooms set aside for membership week bookings and they are offered on a first come first serve basis. By putting in a request at the resort for a preferred week, this gives the resort the option of honoring a club member preferred week if they have the inventory available. As I am trying to book a week only 7.5 weeks before travelling I totally believe this is an understandable predicament. At the end of all the searches I asked him to put in the request for a preferred week at the Esmeralda. He said he would either email me the results of the request or to call him the next day and gave me a good time to get a hold of him.
He did ask if I'd looked at the Privilege Collection airfare and if I'd be looking at booking our flights through them. I had said that I had looked and had found more appealing choices elsewhere. He congratulated me on this and didn't pressure me at all.
After this call I was a little crestfallen. Thinking some more on it this didn't totally mean we wouldn't be going on a fabulous vacation. It opened up the possibility of using our RCI week or not planning anything and just booking a last minute vacation. Lesson learned ... leaving things to the last minute is not the best idea. It's just that we spent a good deal of money on this membership and have had it for 2.5+ years and can't say if we think it's worth it or not. I was feeling pretty blue.
Fast forward to the next day and I hadn't received an email. I called back and even faster my call was answered by a different service rep. I asked to speak to my rep to follow up on a reservation. She asked for my contract # (I had it handy this time) and put me on hold for the rep. I waited maybe 5 minutes this time to be speaking to him directly. This was a peasant surprise because I was thinking if he was tied up with a call like mine from the day before I would be waiting forever ;). He pulled up my file right away and said the resort was willing to honor my request.
I had a big conversation with the rep at this point. I had so many questions as this would be our first trip using our membership. He talked with me about all of my questions very patiently and willingly. He said after a few trips I'd be an old hat and would be a pro at this.
My Q&A session with the rep:
Preferred week vs membership week ... what are the differences: My assumption going in to this question was using a preferred week we would be experiencing a standard room experience and we would not be entitled to the membership benefits a membership week gave us. He told me that as a club member we would always be entitled to the membership benefits whether we were staying with a membership week or a preferred week. Upon our arrival we would be given a VIP bracelet straight away. The only differences are related to the room and the rate. In the room with a membership week there is a surround stereo system and either a playstation or a blueray. Also, these membership rooms sounded like they were the absolute best locations (this I kind of inferred). The rate difference is $72/day vs $91/day which really is not a big deal for us and this leaves my membership week for 2013 that I haven't used yet available to be transferred to RCI which opens up even more doors with them.
For those that aren't members and are curious, here are the membership benefits:
- Early Check-in, subject to availability
- Privilege Concierge "Pre Check In" Service
- Exclusive member identification
- Welcome drink during check-in
- Access to Privilege Beach, a reserved beach area for members only *
- Privilege Lounge for the exclusive use of members *
- Complimentary Internet at the Privilege Lounge
- Complimentary long distance phone calls at the Privilege Lounge
- Premium Alcohol at Privilege Lounge and Privilege Beach
- Privilege Concierge
- Discount on Excursions (the rep said 20% discount ... probably varies)
- Reservation Priority at a la carte restaurants
- Unlimited reservations at a la carte restaurants
- Discount at nearby golf course
- Discount at Bahia Spa (the rep said 20% discount ... probably varies)
- Member-only events
- Late check-out, subject to availability
- Private airport transfer **
- Discount at Bahia lobby shop
- Access to Chauffeured Golf Carts ***
- Complimentary Safety Deposit Box
* Available at the Bahia Principe Punta Cana/Bavaro complexes, the Bahia Principe Riviera Maya complex, and the Bahia Principe Jamaica resorts - (the rep said they used to have a privilege beach for our resort but not any longer)
** Subject to exclusive member fee
*** Available at the Bahia Principe Punta Cana/Bavaro complex and the Bahia Principe Riviera Maya complex
Airport transfers: I raised a concern that when booking through a travel agency they provided your transfers to the resort so what would I need to do to get to and from the airport to the resort. He said for $80 US round trip they would send a private taxi for us and just make sure they get the details of our air transport so they know when to get this arranged. I didn't ask for other options as I think this is likely what we will do but I got the feeling that when the concierge contacts us prior to our arrival this will be finalized. At that time I may ask what other options are available.
Travel Agency Orientation: Again when booking through a travel agency there is typically the orientation the morning after arrival where all the excursion companies show what is available so I asked what will be available for us as we aren't going through a travel agency. The rep said the concierge will provide us with all the info about a week prior to our arrival and we can book them ahead of time at a discount (20% off I believe he said).
Other miscellaneous items: The rep asked if we had a preference for which floor we'd be on as the resort will try to accommodate club member requests. I specified we would prefer to not be on the ground floor but I'm thinking room preference will be more identified with the concierge contact. The room booked does have our preference for two beds rather than a single king though. I asked if we could check back sooner to the travel date to see if a membership room had become available ... since I am travelling with a 9 year old, having a playstation in the room does have it's appeal. He said we could check but seeing as December is the start of the busy travel time he doesn't think it's likely but it wouldn't hurt to try as you never know. He did add a request to my reservation that if a playstation was available during our stay we would like to have it. He also said when the concierge contacted us they will ask our a la carte preferences and we have access to all 15 a la cartes for the entire bahia resort complex group so many choices would be available.
I am out of steam now so will wind this one up. Come back for some more updates on our trip in the near future.
In Summary
Called the office during their published business hours and got through very quickly.
The reservation representative was exceedingly patient and answered all questions.
Was not able to book a membership week but did book a preferred week however we were only booking 7.5 weeks ahead of our travel date so lack of availability wasn't a surprise.
Bottom line ... cost of trip for the 3 of us (two adults, one 9 yr old) is $3714 US (works out to $1238 a piece). I need to make mention that we really get soaked on airfare as we are flying out of Regina Saskatchewan. One perk on the club's all inclusive fee pricing is the first child stays for free where generally it appears they charge 50% of the all inclusive fees for children. I did do some checking what my vacation priced out to using some of the popular vacation sites and the pricing I came up with from there came at a minimum of $5000 ... and that would not include any of our membership benefits.
Wednesday 20 February 2013
A couple updates: payment plan, RCI exchange power, member site
Well, it's been a few months since I last posted and I do have a couple updates. No, I will still not be doing any travelling so I can't give you any feedback on that for a while yet.
First, regarding the payment plan. We did take the payment plan and were contacted by the privilege club back in Octoberish with an offer of 5% off if we were to pay everything up by the end of the month. It was still bad timing for us cash-wise so I turned them down. The rep was very speedy in her contact with me as well as accomodating since she extended the offer for me for a while in case we could set anything up.
I also have an update to report on the RCI exchange power my week received. My last post I mentioned that I was a little disappointed that I received 10 exhange points for my deposited week. This has now increased and is currently worth 15 exchange points. This does open up quite a few more options for exchanging through RCI. When I look at how many exchange points it takes to book into my home Jamaica resort, that has also increased to anywhere from 9 to 13 points.
Finally, I'll add a quick update on the membership site (www.bpprivilegeclub.com). At the club website, there is a link for a member logon in the upper right of the page. I had no success in the past getting into this member area but this is now working. There is some worthwhile information on this site including this year's all-inclusive rates, updated member guides and such. There is an account status link that has a separate logon that I didn't have success with so I think one of these days I'll call in and get that worked out. Back when we signed up the salesperson was talking about a referral program and it just so happens the nephew just bought into a package so I want to check out if there is any merit to the referral program or if this was just additional BS.
That will be it for now. I just wanted to through in a super quick update since it's been a while.
PS I would love to hear about your experiences if you've actually used any of your package.
First, regarding the payment plan. We did take the payment plan and were contacted by the privilege club back in Octoberish with an offer of 5% off if we were to pay everything up by the end of the month. It was still bad timing for us cash-wise so I turned them down. The rep was very speedy in her contact with me as well as accomodating since she extended the offer for me for a while in case we could set anything up.
I also have an update to report on the RCI exchange power my week received. My last post I mentioned that I was a little disappointed that I received 10 exhange points for my deposited week. This has now increased and is currently worth 15 exchange points. This does open up quite a few more options for exchanging through RCI. When I look at how many exchange points it takes to book into my home Jamaica resort, that has also increased to anywhere from 9 to 13 points.
Finally, I'll add a quick update on the membership site (www.bpprivilegeclub.com). At the club website, there is a link for a member logon in the upper right of the page. I had no success in the past getting into this member area but this is now working. There is some worthwhile information on this site including this year's all-inclusive rates, updated member guides and such. There is an account status link that has a separate logon that I didn't have success with so I think one of these days I'll call in and get that worked out. Back when we signed up the salesperson was talking about a referral program and it just so happens the nephew just bought into a package so I want to check out if there is any merit to the referral program or if this was just additional BS.
That will be it for now. I just wanted to through in a super quick update since it's been a while.
PS I would love to hear about your experiences if you've actually used any of your package.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
RCI Weeks Deposit
Hey all,
I finally got around to depositing a week of our membership into RCI. As the hubby just got a new job we aren't too sure if we will be able to do any traveling any time soon so we just kept it to the single week.
I phoned the privilege club this morning. They have an answering system where you pick your language and wait on hold until a representative is available. I was anticipating a long wait and was pleasantly surprised by a very short wait. I had my privilege club membership number ready for the rep but didn't have my RCI number ready so I caused a delay while I went online to look it up.
The representative was very pleasant and helpful.
I confirmed I wanted to deposit one week and was told the week would show up in my RCI account in the next 24-48 hours.
I had tried calling a few time prior to this call and always received a message that they were closed and listing the times they were open but not mentioning what time zone. The answering machine had stated they were open Saturday morning but I didn't have any success reaching anyone. Before leaving this call that did go through I confirmed their business hours and was told 9-6 Mon-Fri eastern time.
Six hours later, I checked RCI and the week was there. It was quite exciting to have the exchange offerings opened up to look at rather than being restricted to the Last Call and Extra Vacations.
I had used RCIs deposit calculator previously and was expecting around 18 points for my deposit so was a little disappointed with the 10 points it was assigned although it's looking like those 10 points can get me almost any vacation I would want. On a whim I looked up my home Jamaica resort and it's exchange points are 5 so ironically I think I could use my one deposited week to stay at my home resort for 2 weeks.
Over the last few months I have looked around the RCI website quite a bit but I see I need to train myself up on how exchanging actually works. There is a lot of info on their site, it's just going to take some time to go through it. Once I figure all that out I'll post a bit of a cheat sheet/quick start on this blog.
I'm pretty disappointed that I won't be able to post any actual travel experiences on the plan for quite some time but with hubby's new job both finances as well as time are at too much a premium these days. If anyone out there can share their experiences I would be happy to post them on here.
*Note about RCI. So far I have received 2 sales calls from them which is 2 too many in my opinion. The first call was an RCI cruise special and the second was a deal on extending our membership. During the membership call the sales person made a comment that hadn't occurred to me. The sales lady pointed out that my membership will be running out in less than a year and a half so I'm limiting my search window. It hadn't occurred to me that I may need to buy into RCI even more before even using their services but this may be a possibility.
I finally got around to depositing a week of our membership into RCI. As the hubby just got a new job we aren't too sure if we will be able to do any traveling any time soon so we just kept it to the single week.
I phoned the privilege club this morning. They have an answering system where you pick your language and wait on hold until a representative is available. I was anticipating a long wait and was pleasantly surprised by a very short wait. I had my privilege club membership number ready for the rep but didn't have my RCI number ready so I caused a delay while I went online to look it up.
The representative was very pleasant and helpful.
I confirmed I wanted to deposit one week and was told the week would show up in my RCI account in the next 24-48 hours.
I had tried calling a few time prior to this call and always received a message that they were closed and listing the times they were open but not mentioning what time zone. The answering machine had stated they were open Saturday morning but I didn't have any success reaching anyone. Before leaving this call that did go through I confirmed their business hours and was told 9-6 Mon-Fri eastern time.
Six hours later, I checked RCI and the week was there. It was quite exciting to have the exchange offerings opened up to look at rather than being restricted to the Last Call and Extra Vacations.
I had used RCIs deposit calculator previously and was expecting around 18 points for my deposit so was a little disappointed with the 10 points it was assigned although it's looking like those 10 points can get me almost any vacation I would want. On a whim I looked up my home Jamaica resort and it's exchange points are 5 so ironically I think I could use my one deposited week to stay at my home resort for 2 weeks.
Over the last few months I have looked around the RCI website quite a bit but I see I need to train myself up on how exchanging actually works. There is a lot of info on their site, it's just going to take some time to go through it. Once I figure all that out I'll post a bit of a cheat sheet/quick start on this blog.
I'm pretty disappointed that I won't be able to post any actual travel experiences on the plan for quite some time but with hubby's new job both finances as well as time are at too much a premium these days. If anyone out there can share their experiences I would be happy to post them on here.
*Note about RCI. So far I have received 2 sales calls from them which is 2 too many in my opinion. The first call was an RCI cruise special and the second was a deal on extending our membership. During the membership call the sales person made a comment that hadn't occurred to me. The sales lady pointed out that my membership will be running out in less than a year and a half so I'm limiting my search window. It hadn't occurred to me that I may need to buy into RCI even more before even using their services but this may be a possibility.
Sunday 11 March 2012
Contacting BPPC and RCI and a small update
Just because there are so many reviews stating the club is difficult to reach, I sent off an email to the club asking about wholesale airfare. I used the email address listed in the package documents. I kind of expected this may have been an exaggeration from our sales pitch so wasn't really expecting much.
It took about a week and a half for them to respond but what the guy told me was that their Air Department re-opens in April but until that time, they are quoting the lowest market value. He said that I'd need to call their service desk with exact dates to get their airfares. I'm quite interested in finding out just what kind of flight pricing they can get us.
On tripadvisor I got in touch with someone who bought the package last April. They used one of their Bahia weeks in November with another coming up in April and they are very pleased with the service they are finding from being a member of this club. They haven't used their RCI membership at all yet so they had nothing to comment regarding it. It sounds like they booked their own air as well. This person also made comment to the fact that in the beginning they had no trouble getting in touch with any club staff but now it's pretty tough. They were thinking that the uptake may have been unexpected and they aren't properly staffed right now.
I also sent an email off to RCI to ask for our membership info prior to receiving the package and in a few days they sent it to me. I spent quite a bit of time fooling around on their site now in the member section and there does seem to be some pretty interesting vacations available. In particular, I am liking their Last Chance Vacations. It appears the trade in value for our weeks are pretty good so that's reassuring. We still have another 5+ months until I can actually throw a week in though so we'll see what happens then.
Since the scoop on the timeshare scene is pretty new to us, I've also found a pretty good time share user group where I'm learning all about the ins and outs of timeshare exchanges and stuff. It's the Timeshare Users Group (www.tug2.com).
I can't believe we bought into this on our first ever trip but am so optimistic for how this will shape our vacationing future!
It took about a week and a half for them to respond but what the guy told me was that their Air Department re-opens in April but until that time, they are quoting the lowest market value. He said that I'd need to call their service desk with exact dates to get their airfares. I'm quite interested in finding out just what kind of flight pricing they can get us.
On tripadvisor I got in touch with someone who bought the package last April. They used one of their Bahia weeks in November with another coming up in April and they are very pleased with the service they are finding from being a member of this club. They haven't used their RCI membership at all yet so they had nothing to comment regarding it. It sounds like they booked their own air as well. This person also made comment to the fact that in the beginning they had no trouble getting in touch with any club staff but now it's pretty tough. They were thinking that the uptake may have been unexpected and they aren't properly staffed right now.
I also sent an email off to RCI to ask for our membership info prior to receiving the package and in a few days they sent it to me. I spent quite a bit of time fooling around on their site now in the member section and there does seem to be some pretty interesting vacations available. In particular, I am liking their Last Chance Vacations. It appears the trade in value for our weeks are pretty good so that's reassuring. We still have another 5+ months until I can actually throw a week in though so we'll see what happens then.
Since the scoop on the timeshare scene is pretty new to us, I've also found a pretty good time share user group where I'm learning all about the ins and outs of timeshare exchanges and stuff. It's the Timeshare Users Group (www.tug2.com).
I can't believe we bought into this on our first ever trip but am so optimistic for how this will shape our vacationing future!
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