Please help choose this Wyndham Vacation

[Merandab4]

Hi there,

Dh had purchased a Wyndham Club Vacation package for us and we decided to use it in Orlando. This would be our first time staying off WDW property ( we figured we'd finally take that visit to Universal)

Here are the options that we can choose from. Please let me know what you think of these and if you have any experience with these hotels.

1. Whyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek:
Is this the same as just "Bonnet Creek" that others are referring to on here?
I was told by our agent that Parking here is $16.88 per day and that there is no complimentary shuttle to the theme parks. ( I don't like this fact). I have read reviews of "Bonnet Creek" and it did have shuttles to the parks. Is there more than one Bonnet Creek?

2. Hawthorne Suites Lake Buena Vista:
Free breakfast
Free parking
Free transportation to theme parks

( I like all this) but I haven't heard anything about the Hawthorne and can't find much about it. How far is it actually to the parks, to DTD? Is it a nice property or is it off the side of the highway somewhere like a Super 8 motel?

3. Best Western Lake Buena Vista: Wasn't told anything about this.

4. Any comparable Hotel rated 3 stars or higher. ( this pretty much leaves it open don't ya think?) Any suggestions?

 

[sbd78]

I believe the Wyndham Grand Bonnet Creek is the hotel portion of the Bonnet Creek resort. (The other buildings are time share condos.) I don't know about shuttle service, although I know I've seen people here talk about shuttles from that resort.

If you go with the Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort, that hotel is part of the Downtown Disney hotels and has free transportation to the parks every 30 minutes if that is important to you.

 

[JimMIA]

The Wyndham Grand Hotel does have a shuttle. The timeshare side just instituted a fee for their shuttle, but I don't know if the HOTEL shuttle is free or paid. The hotel shuttle is a separate bus, and stops only at the hotel.

Although Bonnet Creek is beautiful and the hotel is brand new, I would stay in the DTD area if you will not have a car. Without a car, you will be able to walk to numerous dining options at DTD, which is a huge plus from being marooned at Bonnet Creek with only expensive hotel food to choose from.

The package you purchased probably requires you to attend a timeshare presentation at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. There are several things you need to know about Wyndham timeshare presentations, listed in order of their importance:

1. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING.
   The timeshare presentation will be high-pressure, and may resemble a hostage-taking. Wyndham's sales force is among the sleeziest in a sleezy industry. Do not believe ONE WORD they tell you - The old adage "If their lips are moving, they're lying" is very true of Wyndham timeshare salespeople.
   
   They will start out nice, very personable and friendly. But they are timeshare salesmen -- DO NOT believe one word they say.
   
   
2. IF you want to buy any timeshare, you should be aware that you can buy timeshare contracts literally for pennies on eBay. There is a large and very active resale market.
   
   They will be trying to sell you a $10,000 - $20,000 contract (or more) that you can buy any day of the week on eBay for less than $1,000 with all closing and transfer costs included.
   
   Wyndham timeshare sales personnel (and other systems) will try to tell you that resale contracts are worthless - that you can't use your points anywhere, etc, etc, etc. That is a flat-out LIE. There is no difference between resale points and points purchased direct from Wyndham.
   
   They will also talk to you about VIP status, Club Wyndham Access, and a whole bunch of other wonderful things that are only available (truthfully) if you purchase direct. None of those things are of any real value -- don't buy them.
   
   
3. When they become convinced that you are not going to buy, they will offer you a "Discovery" package. That's an allotment of one-time use points for a relatively low price. However, for that same price or less, you could buy a regular contract on the resale market. Don't buy the Discovery Package.
   
   If you are interested in Wyndham, say no, come home and do your research online (TUG and other unbiased sources), and then make a decision.
   
   
4. As bad as the sales personnel are at Wyndham, the timeshare system itself is quite good. It's very flexible, offers dozens of resorts (about 90 now, I think), and it's very easy to use. The resorts are great, staffs are great, owner services are great. It's just the sales operation that stinks.

 

[cinderellamom123]

Exactly what JimMIA said above. The time share takes forever. I set my phone alarm and started wrapping it up after the required time. My husbands draw dropped when I stood up in the middle of the pitch and started shaking hands. (we were interested but the numbers just don't work) I was pretty assertive. BUt Beware, they will shuttle you into to more rooms after you leave the first sale pitch which took another hour. At that point the kids were just flipping out. Also, get your prize in writing as what I was told I would receive and what they actually tried to give me differed. Any free trip prize has a 32 step process with so many restrictionsthat I just ended up throwing away.

 

[DCTooTall]

This sounds like the 3-day 2-night deal my ex-roommate used a few years ago.... So that being said, I don't know how much has changed.


1st. As Jim mentioned, You'll likely be required to take the Timeshare tour. Consider the day you do the tour to be only a 1/2 day since no matter what, They will likely eat up the entire morning. (and again, it'll be high pressure and don't agree to buy anything. Why spend $15,000 or $3,000 for a 'Discovery' package, when you can spend under $500 including closing on the resale market?)


As for hotels.... The Wyndham Grande is the Wyndham Hotel which shares it's location with the Timeshare resort you hear everyone here talking about. It's a hotel however, so you will have a standard hotel room, not the large villas people mention when talking about Bonnet Creek. You will however have access to all the pools at the Timeshare resort. The Grande has a daily self parking or Valet parking charge. There is also a Resort fee which I'm not sure would be covered by your package (It might be.... but often they don't include 'incidentals' like resort fees). The last time I was there, the Wyndham Grande had a shuttle, but I don't know if they charge for it.


For the other hotel options they gave you, why not look on google maps to see if you can get an idea of the locations?



Now.... Based off my experience with one of these package deals back in 2008. again, I'm not sure if things have changed with the way they are handled since then....

when you arrive in the Florida area, You have to go to their "Welcome Center" which (at the time) was located off 192 near the Star Island area. It was at this location where we basicaly checked in for the package, where told where we were staying (don't recall a choice being given, but do remember the list of examples of potential accommodations places), And scheduled our time share tour time and tour gift. We were then given the instructions on where to go for the tour at the appropriate time we had scheduled.

The Hotel we were given was the Crown Plaza over off Universal Blvd. It was near the corner of Sand Lake and Universal BLVD, about a block from I-drive. Honestly, The hotel was AMAZING and we loved it. No complaints there.

For the Timeshare tour day, We knew the morning would be a waste, so we scheduled it for the day we had a 'Twilight' swim scheduled at Discovery Cove (during the Summer Months, Discovery Cove [at one time?] had a 2nd experience you could sign up for. it was slightly cheaper, and you didn't get there until 3-4ish when the normal day people were leaving. ). It worked out for us since our existing plans had the empty morning people so we didn't feel like the tour was causing the day to be wasted.... but we also knew the tour wouldn't be a simple "2 hours and out" experience.

Utlimately, We felt what we got was a good deal since we got several nights in a REALLY nice hotel in the area much cheaper than what we would've been able to get the same place for on our own, and since we were expecting the required tour to take awhile, it didn't cause too much stress for us. That being said, If we went in expecting to stay at a certain location, didn't have the freedom of a car, and were on a time crunch where the tour time was more valuable to us... we could've easily felt a lot different about the experience

 

[Merandab4]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond and for being so detailed!

I know we DO NOT plan on buying ANYTHING!!! ( I guess that might be pretty rotten of us to have bought this package when we already know going into that we are not going to be interested, But my husband bought the package without my knowledge. I don't know why, but we got two of them. One in Orlando and one in another location ( he chose Branson, MO, but we were told we could change it at anytime). I think these things always sound shady and I personally wouldn't have bought the package, but I don't think it cost very much so we will see how it goes.

Cinderllamom: I don't know how long the "Sales Session" is suppose to last, but if they give us a set time ( say 2 hours) and they go over that time can we just get up and walk out? When I was teaching, some of my collegues would do that a faculty meeting if it went over the time and I thought that was so rude. However, I think it is hillarious that you were "wrapping it up" and I would do the same thing if I knew there was no penalty if I left early. Good for you for sticking to your time frame!

We may or may not have a car, so shuttle service to the parks isn't crucial, but it is nice. How much does it cost to park your car at a Disney theme park for a day?

And do they shuttle everyone to one specific resort/hotel to do the "sales Pitch"?

Thanks Again!

 

[DCTooTall]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond and for being so detailed!

I know we DO NOT plan on buying ANYTHING!!! ( I guess that might be pretty rotten of us to have bought this package when we already know going into that we are not going to be interested, But my husband bought the package without my knowledge. I don't know why, but we got two of them. One in Orlando and one in another location ( he chose Branson, MO, but we were told we could change it at anytime). I think these things always sound shady and I personally wouldn't have bought the package, but I don't think it cost very much so we will see how it goes.

Cinderllamom: I don't know how long the "Sales Session" is suppose to last, but if they give us a set time ( say 2 hours) and they go over that time can we just get up and walk out? When I was teaching, some of my collegues would do that a faculty meeting if it went over the time and I thought that was so rude. However, I think it is hillarious that you were "wrapping it up" and I would do the same thing if I knew there was no penalty if I left early. Good for you for sticking to your time frame!

We may or may not have a car, so shuttle service to the parks isn't crucial, but it is nice. How much does it cost to park your car at a Disney theme park for a day?

And do they shuttle everyone to one specific resort/hotel to do the "sales Pitch"?

Thanks Again!

You COULD potentially just get up and walk out at the end of the time limit for the 'tour'.... but you won't get the gift they promised you. The problem is that in order to get the promised "gift", you have to have the little piece of paper signed off on by the sales people that they gave you the tour.

Your best bet if you are keeping time, is to let the sales person know they only have you for the set time period..... then let them know when the time is almost up... and keep on letting them know you are ready to go and that their time is up. It'll still go over, but you might be lucky and only get stuck there 30min after the promised leave time.


Parking at the parks I believe is currently around $14 per day. You only pay once per day, and can use your parking ticket/receipt to park hop or reenter the parking lot if you decide to go someplace mid-day (back to your room, to eat lunch, resort hop, DTD, etc).


They usually won't provide transportation to the sales speil. i THINK that all the sales are still being done at Bonnet Creek, in which case you'll be told where to go. You'll be responsible for your own transportation to the resort. Since WBC is the"flagship" resort in the area, and one of the newer and "nicer" resorts in the Wyndham system, it would make sense that they have their sales there instead of the older I-Drive, Star Island, or Cypress Palm locations. Reunion MIGHT be a worthwhile sales location, but it's a bit further from the majority of the tourist crowds and with it being exclusively 3bdrm units it likely wouldn't provide the same kind of sales potential as WBC does.

 

[JimMIA]

I know we DO NOT plan on buying ANYTHING!!!

My guess would be that less than 50% of the people who buy timeshares go into the presentation planning to buy.

I guess that might be pretty rotten of us to have bought this package when we already know going into that we are not going to be interested,

Nonsense. You're getting a discounted room in return for attending a sales presentation. They make the offer expecting that a reasonable percentage of participants will purchase; they don't expect everyone to purchase. You accepted the offer and you will uphold your end of the deal. Please don't feel sorry for the sales weasels!

When I was teaching, some of my collegues would do that a faculty meeting if it went over the time and I thought that was so rude.

Your sales presentation will not be a faculty meeting, and with luck, you will never see any of those people again in this lifetime. Don't worry about being rude to timeshare salesmen!

Just don't try to out-rude them. You won't stand a chance; they are in a league of their own.

 

[JimMIA]

If I were going to attend a Wyndham timeshare presentation rotfl2:)

... I would do several things:

1. I would let the salesman know right up front that I'm not going to buy anything. I'd say that I will listen to what they have to say, but I don't want to waste their time or mine and I'm going to hold them to the agreed timeframe.
2. As the time approached, I would follow DCTooTall's suggestion -- tell them "15 minutes."
3. When the time is up, the time is up. You listened politely and respected the salesperson. Now they need to respect your decision and give whatever they promised without further discussion, stall, or stunts.

One of the stalls they will try is to get you to "complete a survey on your Wyndham experience" to help them improve. That's nothing but an additional sales presentation, possibly by a different salesman. Just a stall, don't fall for it -- demand your goodies.

 

[Merandab4]

I actually thought just getting the vacation package at a discount was the "goody". I didn't realize that we were "promised" something else after the presentation. Is this customary? Is the free gift something worth while, ( Like a free park ticket), or is something we probably wouldn't need, like a toaster or something?

 

[JimMIA]

I actually thought just getting the vacation package at a discount was the "goody". I didn't realize that we were "promised" something else after the presentation. Is this customary? Is the free gift something worth while, ( Like a free park ticket), or is something we probably wouldn't need, like a toaster or something?

It varies from resort to resort. At Bonnet Creek, when the body-snatchers at the "parking pass" desk sign you up, the gift is usually a gift card for $75-$100.

I have never participated in a discounted stay deal like you got, so I don't know what, if any, gifts you will get.

It might be that your gift is the discounted stay, and you need some verification of attending the presentation to actually get that rate at checkout from your hotel. They've obviously got to have some control mechanism or everyone would book their deal and not show up for the timeshare presentation.

I would sure check on that. Find out exactly what your obligations are and what, if any, other incentives there are.

I would also check on the second trip he doesn't know he bought. That may be a mistake, or they may have actually sold him more than he thought. Be sure to pin down all those loose ends.

 

[DCTooTall]

I actually thought just getting the vacation package at a discount was the "goody". I didn't realize that we were "promised" something else after the presentation. Is this customary? Is the free gift something worth while, ( Like a free park ticket), or is something we probably wouldn't need, like a toaster or something?

Again.... in our case, When we actually scheduled the tour we were promised something like a $75 gift certificate for a restaurant or something (I forget the details, and since it was my roommate who purchased the package, I wasn't entirely involved in the details).

Since I've been doing the Member's Updates for the past several years when I've stayed at a Wyndham Property, I usually get a $100 Amex Gift Card. I don't know what the current non-owner "gift" is, but if I remember how things 'traditionally' worked, You were sometimes given a choice between things like Gift Certificates or Discounted/Free tickets to area attractions. [example: a set of free tickets to a local dinner show. 2 'free tickets' to Sea World. A 'decent' discount off a pair of Disney/Universal multiday tickets.... etc]. It may not hurt to ask when you schedule your tour if there are choices on what kind of 'gift' you get, rather than just automatically assuming that what they assume you'll want is actually what you want.


With the owner's updates, my $100 Amex Gift Card is basically $100 cash since it's one of those preloaded Amex debit cards which I can use anyplace that accepts AMEX cards. I've used them on various things, from Disney Tickets, to Souvenirs, to Food/drink, to even getting Subway fare on the DC metro.

 

[Merandab4]

Yes, You are right. Our gift is a gift card. I didn't realize that was the gift for going to the presentation.