Big Cedar Lodge - outside Branson, MO

TonyS20

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I wanted to comment on our trip to Big Cedar Lodge. Several months ago, there was a posting about it. I visited their website and requested more information about their Wilderness Club. A few weeks later a salesperson called and offered us a 2 night/3 day stay at their lodge for $139. The catch was we had to attend their 90 minute presentation. However, we would get $100 in Big Cedar Bucks at the end of the presentation.

I thought it sounded like a good deal so we booked it for Dec. 17 and 18. Since it was just DH and I, we were upgraded to a honeymoon cabin (normally it is $319 with the presentation).

The resort is very beautiful and very relaxing. We spent quite a bit of time in our private cabin. There was a king size bed with a fluffy comforter that was nice and toasty. The couch looked to be a pull out, but I wouldn't want to share with another couple. It would be fine with your kids, but there is not a lot of privacy in the cabin. There was a fireplace and the wood was kept on the porch. It had a full kitchen with stove, microwave, oven, fridge, and dishwasher. There were complimentary sodas (coke) and juice in the fridge along with a gift basket of snacks on the table. The jacuzzi tub seated 2 and was kind of a heart shaped. There was a walk-in shower with an overhead faucet (kind of like being rained on) and 3 going down the shower wall. There was a seat in the shower as well. The bathroom also had double sinks and very nice soaps. There was also a walk-in closet in the bedroom area with a safe. The entire cabin had vaulted ceilings and stainglass windows. There were stuffed deer heads, squirrels, fox and fish on the walls. Our deck had a table for 4 and a gas grill and overlooked the marina.

All in all, we had a fabulous time. It was interesting to hear their presentation; however, we elected not to purchase anything at this time. Their 1 bedroom display model looked very similar to the 1 bedroom DVC room was stayed at in October. The presentation was low key and low pressure. Our sales guy was very nice and asked some questions about DVC.

If you have a chance to visit or live within driving distance of Branson (like us), it would be worth it to see what type of deal you can get. We were very surprised and had a wonderful time.

If you have any questions, please post and I'll answer them the best that I can.
 
Sounds nice. My husband and I are scheduled to do the 3 day/2 night tour in February. (We got it for $99.00 at the Bass Pro Shop right before Christmas.) Did you get the upgrade when you checked in or when you made your reservation on the phone? We have no plans to buy there right now, but might in the future since it is only about 4 hours from us.
 
I'm a member of the Big Cedar Wilderness Club and love it as much as DVC. Just to let you know the Honeymoon Cabin you had, and maybe the lodge room, is not part of the Wilderness Club but part of Big Cedar Lodge. The Wilderness Club has lodges with studios and one and two bedrooms and also two bedroom cabins. It is part of Bluegreen Vacation Club which I think is more flexible than DVC. If you have any questions let me know.
 
phawley said:
Did you get the upgrade when you checked in or when you made your reservation on the phone? We have no plans to buy there right now, but might in the future since it is only about 4 hours from us.

We were upgraded on the phone. Our package must have been noted with our guide because he asked how we got such an attractive rate. He thought it was a Bass Pro promotion, but hadn't seen it that low before. I guess we were just sprinkled with PD! Enjoy your time there! We had brunch at the Worman House and it was delicious. A little pricey at $28/each, but very good.

As OKWKirk pointed out, the honeymoon cabin and lodge rooms are NOT part of their timeshare. As a matter of fact, they do not rent out any of their timeshare rooms at any time. Our guide said they run at around 65% occupancy (excluding holidays/special events) and they don't ever rent them for cash. I asked why since I'm sure they could make money on the empty rooms and his reply was so that members could always have availability if possible. Doesn't make the best business sense, but that was what our guide told us.
 


OkieDisney said:
Actually, you can stay at the Wilderness Club for cash.
We stayed at a 2 bedroom cabin in November!

Check out

Wilderness Club Rentals

Interesting! Our guide swore to us they never rented rooms on cash. I asked twice and stated that I didn't think it was good business practice to leave vacant rooms. I don't like deception! :scratchin
 
TonyS20 said:
Interesting! Our guide swore to us they never rented rooms on cash. I asked twice and stated that I didn't think it was good business practice to leave vacant rooms. I don't like deception! :scratchin
If you don't like deception, never go on another timeshare tour. This was mild "white lies" in comparison to many. Always question what you hear in this type of situation and never buy initially, no matter what they tell you and what you give up by waiting. One can buy BG points for less than 40¢ pp easily and the way their system is set up, there's not really any home resort priority unless you actually use your own week you own.
 
Dean said:
If you don't like deception, never go on another timeshare tour. This was mild "white lies" in comparison to many. Always question what you hear in this type of situation and never buy initially, no matter what they tell you and what you give up by waiting. One can buy BG points for less than 40¢ pp easily and the way their system is set up, there's not really any home resort priority unless you actually use your own week you own.

I knew it didn't make sense and questioned him on it. This was only our 2nd timeshare presentation. We have not bought at either one. We own DVC but have never done that presentation. I had researched BG somewhat so I was at least familiar with how much I could get their points for. Based on our travel habits, it was not for us. It was nice to have a fairly cheap get-away for the weekend and the tactics were low pressure.
 
My wife and I traded DVC points for the Big Cedar Lodge last Spring. We stayed in the 2 bedroom cabin with my brother and his wife for 3 nights. Upon arrival there were 8 sodas in the refrigarator and a basket of snacks (chips, nuts, etc.) on the table. In the evening the "cookie ladie" knocks on the door and hands out freshly baked cookies to everyone. If you are not there she leaves them on the table. Great place to stay, lot of things in the area to do and we even ordered the bar-b-que special from room service. They will deliver uncooked chicken, steak, hamburger,hot dogs and corn on the cob that you can cook on the gas grill on the deck. Of course sides include salads with thr blueberry dressing, slaw, bread and a blueberry cobler for dessert. Makes a great evening after spending a busy day in Branson.
People were very friendly and in the evening don't miss the country signer in the Buzzard Bar. Funny and talented.

Great use of points if your looking for something different.

Dale pirate: pirate:
 
OKWPA, you are correct. Clay, who performs at the Buzzard Bar, is fantastic. Anytime we go to Branson (not staying at Big Cedar) we still drive down for an evening at the Buzzard Bar.

I just received a letter from BlueGreen yesterday and they are changing their rules on saving (banking) points that I'm sure we all wish DVC would do. They have always allowed saving 100% of your points 90 days before the end of UY but you can still use them in the current year. Now, because they don't want you to lose your points, any points that are not used by the end of your use year are automatically saved for you. The other change I don't like is you can't use saved points for Peak times. I'm not sure that will affect me anyway.

I still love Big Cedar Wilderness Club as much as DVC. Can't beat those two bedroom cabins.
 
What is there to do in the winter at Big Cedar? We will be there in February.
 
OKWKirt said:
OKWPA, you are correct. Clay, who performs at the Buzzard Bar, is fantastic. Anytime we go to Branson (not staying at Big Cedar) we still drive down for an evening at the Buzzard Bar.

I just received a letter from BlueGreen yesterday and they are changing their rules on saving (banking) points that I'm sure we all wish DVC would do. They have always allowed saving 100% of your points 90 days before the end of UY but you can still use them in the current year. Now, because they don't want you to lose your points, any points that are not used by the end of your use year are automatically saved for you. The other change I don't like is you can't use saved points for Peak times. I'm not sure that will affect me anyway.

I still love Big Cedar Wilderness Club as much as DVC. Can't beat those two bedroom cabins.
This is going to be far more a negative than a positive. They will bank them automatically but if you want to use points after they bank, you can't unbank them. And not being able to use the points for high red, ultra red or leaf season. This means one is limited to shoulder season or lower using banked points. It also means one will need to pay the fees early to make many high demand reservations as I understand it.
 
Dean, the last part of your message is correct and concerned me about not using saved points in high red but we have never gone during this period anyway. The saved "banked" points are not done automatically until the last day of your use year so there would never be a need to unsave them. The saved points is actually extending the use by another year and you still have them available in the current year. In the past one January (May use year) I made an April reservation and saved my remaining points during the previous deadline. Afterwards I needed to change my reservation which needed more points. Per DVC rules I asked to borrow points and they thought I didn't know what I was talking about and told me the saved points are still available.

Phawley, you might check out Bigcedar.com or Branson.com to see what is going on in Feb. Most things are closed for the winter. Maybe call Big Cedar and ask them.
 
OKWKirt said:
Dean, the last part of your message is correct and concerned me about not using saved points in high red but we have never gone during this period anyway. The saved "banked" points are not done automatically until the last day of your use year so there would never be a need to unsave them. The saved points is actually extending the use by another year and you still have them available in the current year. In the past one January (May use year) I made an April reservation and saved my remaining points during the previous deadline. Afterwards I needed to change my reservation which needed more points. Per DVC rules I asked to borrow points and they thought I didn't know what I was talking about and told me the saved points are still available.

Phawley, you might check out Bigcedar.com or Branson.com to see what is going on in Feb. Most things are closed for the winter. Maybe call Big Cedar and ask them.
Something I saw had the auto banking date about 3 months prior to the end of the use year, maybe it was wrong.
 
I'm glad to hear you had a nice stay! We are thinking about staying there on points (looking for something to drive to from Texas) the drives to Florida are getting Long and old. I think Branson may be only 5 hours from DFW.
Anyone with kids stay lately? Did they enjoy it?
Steph
 
We're thinking about ttrading to Branson in a couple of years, too.
 
We have mostly done it all....
Used cash to stay on the Big Cedar side
Used DVC points to stay on the Big Cedar side
Used cash to stay on the Wilderness Club side.

Now we just need $$$ to buy Wilderness Club points....soon.

It is a great resort all times of the year. We have been
in January, March, July, and November. Jan and March
are good times to just enjoy the resort and to go
outlet shopping (don't miss the Sunday Brunch at the
Worman House). July is great for swimming. In Nov.
we do all of the Christmas shows. This has become
a tradition for us (we even take the kids out of school
for a day to do this!!!!). Love the Andy Williams show
and the kids love the Dixie Stampede.

You will not regret a trip here.
 
brandip22 - We enjoy Big Cedar in early December. It's beautiful any time of the year, but at Christmas it really shines - with Christmas decorations and lights and lots of holiday activities. We love this resort. If you give it a try, you won't be sorry.

dyingtodisney- it's a great place for kids. We've been taking our son to Big Cedar for years. He's now an adult and it's still one of his favorite places. On our trip last month, we saw scads of kids. They all looked happy - especially while waiting in line to see Santa. We're currently looking forward to taking grandchildren to Big Cedar. :D

DisFlan
 
Thanks for posting about this offer. We live about 7.5 hours from Branson and decided to give this a try since we aren't going to WDW for quite some time. I did the same thing that you did and requested info on the club. The person who contacted us was very friendly and didn't mind when I asked if we could call him back with a final decision. We went ahead and upgraded to the Honeymoon Cabin while making the reservation. It cost us an added fee per night, but we are going the end of June (high season) and wanted to make sure that we got the cabin. We are even extending the stay by a couple of nights and they are only charging us $100 per night for extending. We don't mind sitting through the sales pitch. We have sat through a number of them and are pretty good at getting out completely intact. I am going to do some research on BlueGreen before we go. It sounds pretty odd that you have no home resort priviledges. When I called I did ask about their point system and it seemed pretty straight forward. But maybe I didn't ask the right questions. Thanks again!
 
I just wondered where you can get BG points for 40 cents a piece? We bought the $129 special and have not yet booked our vacation, since Branson is so close it would be great to have a ts there also! Where is the best place to buy resale? Thanks!!
 
















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