Well, I'm home.
As I posted before, Fort Lauderdale was beautiful, and the weather was unbeatable - sunny every day and in the 80's.
But after this trip, I sure do realize how fabulous being a DVC member is! My son and I tried to do the "plusses" and minuses" of this timeshare compared to DVC and this was what we cameup with.
For "Plusses":
1. The Marriott Beach Place Towers is a beautiful resort in a fantastic location - all units have a balcony view of either the intercoastal with the mansions and yachts, or the beach. Ours had the beach.
2. Clean, spacious units. I would say that our one bedroom was as big as OKW. We had a double Aero bed in a corner as well as using the pull out couch.
3. For my boys, there was the "girl and car watching" on the strip. Some awesome cars drove by! They sat on the wall of the beach and watched for hours!
Okay, now the "Minuses":
1. The Marriott Beach Place Towers, which is a Marriott Vacation Club timeshare, starts on the 5th floor. What I mean by that is that there are 5 floors of parking below the lobby, then 19 floors above the lobby. So, to get into the resort, it is a 5-10 minute drive up the parking garage. Once you are parked (4th or 5th floor for Marriott guests), you walk to the center of the floor, where there is a door (you need a room key to get into it) and there are 4 elevators to take you to the Marriott. When we checked in the first day, we had to lug all of our stuff to these elevators and then go up to the lobby. I didn't see any bellman anywhere.Once we checked in, no one asked if we needed help with our bags.
2. We were staying on the 5th floor. The only staircase was one at the end of the hall which only exited at the street level - 10 floors below. So, if we wanted to go to the lobby we had to wait (and wait and wait!) for the elevator. There are definitely not enough elevators to accomodate such a large resort.
3. Ice machine located ONLY on the lobby level. AGAIN, you had to wait for the elevator to get there.
4. While being on the beach is great, it is still a public place. There was a homeless man who slept on the beach right next to where we sat every day. There were kids who looked like transients and were stopped and questioned one day by a policeman right in front of us. The bathrooms were across the street in the marketplace below the Marriott, and, since they were public, let's just say they were nowhere NEAR Disney standards.
5. The restaurants were okay, but not great like those at WDW.
6. There was very little to do except for the beach, eating and drinking and shopping at the tacky souvenir shops. I guess if you wanted to get in your car and drive 10 minutes from the 5th floor of the parking garage to the street, you could then drive another 15-60minutes and find stuff to do. I'm just not sure what!
Okay, it really does sound like I'm trashing the place. Honestly, I'm not trying to. I guess I'm just spoiled with the "near perfection" of DVC and WDW. All I can say is heaven help the next person who asks me how I can stand to go to WDW 2-3 times a year and not be bored!!!!!!!!!!
As I posted before, Fort Lauderdale was beautiful, and the weather was unbeatable - sunny every day and in the 80's.
But after this trip, I sure do realize how fabulous being a DVC member is! My son and I tried to do the "plusses" and minuses" of this timeshare compared to DVC and this was what we cameup with.
For "Plusses":
1. The Marriott Beach Place Towers is a beautiful resort in a fantastic location - all units have a balcony view of either the intercoastal with the mansions and yachts, or the beach. Ours had the beach.
2. Clean, spacious units. I would say that our one bedroom was as big as OKW. We had a double Aero bed in a corner as well as using the pull out couch.
3. For my boys, there was the "girl and car watching" on the strip. Some awesome cars drove by! They sat on the wall of the beach and watched for hours!
Okay, now the "Minuses":
1. The Marriott Beach Place Towers, which is a Marriott Vacation Club timeshare, starts on the 5th floor. What I mean by that is that there are 5 floors of parking below the lobby, then 19 floors above the lobby. So, to get into the resort, it is a 5-10 minute drive up the parking garage. Once you are parked (4th or 5th floor for Marriott guests), you walk to the center of the floor, where there is a door (you need a room key to get into it) and there are 4 elevators to take you to the Marriott. When we checked in the first day, we had to lug all of our stuff to these elevators and then go up to the lobby. I didn't see any bellman anywhere.Once we checked in, no one asked if we needed help with our bags.
2. We were staying on the 5th floor. The only staircase was one at the end of the hall which only exited at the street level - 10 floors below. So, if we wanted to go to the lobby we had to wait (and wait and wait!) for the elevator. There are definitely not enough elevators to accomodate such a large resort.
3. Ice machine located ONLY on the lobby level. AGAIN, you had to wait for the elevator to get there.
4. While being on the beach is great, it is still a public place. There was a homeless man who slept on the beach right next to where we sat every day. There were kids who looked like transients and were stopped and questioned one day by a policeman right in front of us. The bathrooms were across the street in the marketplace below the Marriott, and, since they were public, let's just say they were nowhere NEAR Disney standards.
5. The restaurants were okay, but not great like those at WDW.
6. There was very little to do except for the beach, eating and drinking and shopping at the tacky souvenir shops. I guess if you wanted to get in your car and drive 10 minutes from the 5th floor of the parking garage to the street, you could then drive another 15-60minutes and find stuff to do. I'm just not sure what!
Okay, it really does sound like I'm trashing the place. Honestly, I'm not trying to. I guess I'm just spoiled with the "near perfection" of DVC and WDW. All I can say is heaven help the next person who asks me how I can stand to go to WDW 2-3 times a year and not be bored!!!!!!!!!!
