Bluegreen Vacation Club

[Tigger Woods]

This might not be the right place to post. If not, I'm sorry. I was just wondering if anybody has ever dealt with Bluegreen Vacation Club before. They just sent me a postcard offering a 5 day Carnival Cruise (1,698.00 value) if my wife and I will sit through a 90 minute timeshare presentation. I've never heard of them and no nothing about them. Any help would be appreciated. (If you know where this thread should be posted, can you let me know?) Thanks ..

 

[BillM]

I think I ran into them at a Nashville Mall in a Bass Pro
Shop. I think they are selling timeshares close to Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri.

 

[mooses41]

If you really each get a 5 day cruise with no extra charges, go to the presentation. Just printout resales for that timeshare and bring them along.

 

[Lisa P.]

Here's the website for Bluegreen's Resorts. Consider reading more about timeshares on Timeshare Users Group - TUG before you get serious about any timeshare purchase. Even by just reading the "Advice Articles," you will learn a lot and avoid some costly mistakes. Bluegreen has a points-based timeshare program.

There are a couple of Bluegreen resort properties with very good reviews, such as the Big Cedar Wilderness Club (near Branson, MO), Lodge Valley Inn (Charleston, SC) and Shorecrest (Myrtle Beach, SC). Others have less glowing reviews. Hope this helps.

 

[Dean]

I own at a resort that they bought the remaining inventory and are selling themselves. They have not rolled out the points options there but may in the near future. I have investigated it thoroughly and hope they invite current owners at the resort I own to join their point program. If the conversion fee is reasonable I will bite, if not, I will move on. I'm not sure that big Cedar is actually in their club yet, it doesn't appear so on their web site. I think if you look at their list of resorts, there is more to offer than the ones mentioned above. Two very nice resorts in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and 2 good resorts on Sanibel Island. While not the premier resorts, there is definitely value there though not a developer prices. One thing to note about BG is that the weekend vs weekday difference is even more than DVC, about 5 times the amount for Fri/Sat compared to weekdays. I seem to recall though that if you're scheduling a full week, you have a time priority much like our home resort priority. I have their membership book but haven't gone over it in a few months.

 

[OKWKirt]

I'm a member of the Big Cedar Wilderness Club (since May 2001) and they are part of the BlueGreen Vacation Club. They are not showing up yet because they are so new the inventory is low and not available for trading, my guess. I will be using my points for the first time staying at Big Cedar this weekend in a two bdrm cabin and then move to a two bdrm at Falls Village in Branson (another BlueGreen club) on points for another three nights. I can let you know how it was if you like but I know I'm going to love Big Cedar.

BlueGreen Vacation CLub has approximately 20 resorts in the southeast and has trading through RCI. Their points system is similar to DVC but they are based on a specific type unit and week versus a percentage of a unit. Mine is Cabin 2020, week 47, for 13,000 points. Their banking is 100 % by 90 days prior to the end of use year which is a little nicer than DVC. You can reserve "your unit" 12 months in advance and no one can beat you out of it. At 11 months it is open for anyone. That means I can have cabin 2020 Thanksgiving week every year if I reserve 12 months out. This weekend I will be in cabin 2022 but you can bet I will look at 2020 to see how it is. Any more questions just ask.

 

[gracelrm]

We went to a Bluegreen Presentation in Gatlinburg in return for a two or three night stay a few years ago during our Christmas vacation. We had our two children (at the time) with us and they were "entertained" in a room during our presentation. Our daughter became ill and was sick at her stomach and "hurled" in the childcare room. Our salesman wouldn't let us leave. He followed us to the room, told us not to worry about it and kept right on with his sales pitch. He followed us to our car with a screaming, smelly child. Needless to say, it was very high pressured and tried to get us to sign on the dotted line without even explaining cost, benefits, etc... I was turned off completely by this one high pressure representative of that company. Due to that experience, I was very skeptical of the DVC presentation, but I was pleasantly surprised and have never regretted it for a minute.

 

[OKWKirt]

Gracelrm, Sorry to hear about your experience. Our buy-in presentation at Big Cedar was very low pressure, lower than DVC, but it could be because I knew more about timeshares on points than they did. I called a couple times and faxed questions to my representative before
going down. I think I drove him crazy with "DVC works this way, how about the Wilderness Club". Once we got there we knew about everything we needed to know except how much to buy. We talked for about 15 minutes, mostly me asking more questions and him not giving a
presentation, and just talking about how much we loved Big Ceder. We left and told him we would call him, which we did once we got back to KC.