Starwood Just Called Me

[Jodi1980]

The lady said it was a courtesy call prior to our arriving on 30 Dec. It turned out to be a call asking if we would go on a 90- minute presentation to another Starwood resort in Orlando and in return get transportation there, a small breakfast and 10,000 points. I've never used points before - is it worth doing???


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Jodi

 

[Figaro]

Hi, Jodi! We did this a couple of years ago and the resort was the Vistana. It was a typical timeshare presentation with a fair amount of pressure to buy right now. We refused their transportation so that we could leave when we wanted to (after the agreed upon time was up). There was an okay breakfast, tour of the resort and then the sales pitch.

After the tour, it was pretty apparent that the resort wasn't going to work for the two of us because of my being in a wheelchair and the salesperson wasn't very happy about this. We had been very upfront about my using a wheelchair and that we weren't interested if the resort and unit wasn't completely wheelchair accessible when we spoke with them and were assured that it was all accessible. Which is wasn't(smile).

If you love the resort, I would suggest checking into the timeshare re-sale market, as you can get a week for quite a bit less that way than you would by buying from the timeshare place. We did get our 10,000 points, but it took about a month before they showed up in our starwood account. I love the points, as you can use them for upgrades to club level, for discounts on room prices and for meals at any starwood resort. At the moment I am just over 55,000 points and am shooting for 70.000, as we will get two frequent flyer tickets and five free nights(smile).

 

[Puffy2]

waste of your valuable vacation time.

 

[Canadian Tom]

Hello: Do you remember who contacted you, or do you know who I can contact so I can go on the tour for 10,000 points? Thanks

 

[Jodi1980]

Her name was something like Georgia

 

[Figaro]

Hi, Tom!

When they called us (at home before our trip) the guy on the phone said that we were called because we had a history of staying at Starwood properties and that they knew when we were going to be there because we had reservations at the Swan for that time period. He was very, very low key and there was NO pressure from him at all (didn't want to antagonize two almost Swan guests I think)(smile). We sure hadn't volunteered to be called and I'm not sure what their criteria were.

Since we were going to be in Orlando for 11 days, it didn't bother us to spend a little bit of our vacation time doing a timeshare and by making sure we had our own transportation, we kept the entire thing to just under two hours including travel time to and from the Swan. And I was kind of glad, as a friend of ours who has a daughter in a wheelchair wanted to know how accessible the Vistana was this gave me a chance to pre-view it for her.

 

[Canadian Tom]

Thanks Figaro

 

[jgates]

I know I plan on going if they ask!!! I figure I can spare 2 to 3 hours from our 14 day trip. However, I have a feeling I will be sunk since my DH never travels with us. When we went a couple of years ago, Marriott wanted us to tour (we were at Courtyard DTD) - I told them he was not with and they said that was not a problem - but I had other people with so I couldn't do it.

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by Figaro
Hi, Jodi! We did this a couple of years ago and the resort was the Vistana.

Hi Figaro...Was it the Sheraton Vistana Resort or the Vistana Village?

I am booked (with my Service Dog and electric scooter) for a two-week stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort starting next week. Is this the resort you found to be inaccessible? If it is, is this going to be a disaster? Will I be driving off curbs, or stuck without a dishwasher (because it's been removed for someone in a wheelchair to be able to do dishes by hand), worrying about where poor Cash is going to be allowed to ummm, well, you know, ....or spending a lot of time complaining about inaccessibility?

 

[Figaro]

Hi, videogal1!

It was the Vistana Resort and it was a fully ADA compliant (their words) two bedroom unit in the Lakes section (Cascades and Lakes are two of the newer areas). The second bedroom (with two full size beds) had the roll-in shower, but there was no flip down seat in the shower (normally I don't travel with my shower chair)(smile), and absolutely no place to put anything next to the sink, not even a towel bar. The only place to set anything in the handicapped bathroom was on the back of the toilet, which was in a different room than the room with the sink.

I have to admit that I started laughing when I saw the roll-in shower with nothing to sit on(smile). I ended up sitting on the floor of the shower and having my spouse lower the hand held shower to the lowest level so that I could get cleaned up, but I am lucky because he can lift me up and down. I wouldn't have wanted to stay there by myself, that's for sure!

The main door to the unit didn't have a peep-hole that was at eye level from the wheelchair, although there were levers instead of door knobs on all of the doors except for the folding door that the stacked washer and dryer sat behind.

The kitchen was a regular kitchen...no difference that I could see between it and the ones in the pictures. So, only a few of the lower cabinets and the drawers were accessible from the wheelchair. The dining room table was very nice, but had a large, solid pedestal base so you have to transfer from the wheelchair to a chair to use it.

The patio had a bump up where the sliding door was and two chairs in front of the door, so if you can move the chairs and pop up with your chair you can use the screened in patio (which was very nice). The master bedroom had a king size bed and a jacuzzi tub as well as a regular non-wheel-in shower.

It was very far from the worst resort we've stayed at as far as accessibility and we didn't have any major problems. But that is because my spouse could do the things that I couldn't manage from the chair and because I can still manage to walk a few steps. There were two handicapped parking spots outside near the door, with a wheelchair ramp. There was no significant bump up to get in the door of the unit. I could reach the washer just fine, but couldn't put the wet clothes into the dryer from my chair.

The people at the Vistana were very nice and tried to be as helpful as possible, it's just that they didn't quite understand how accessibility works(smile).

Hope this information is helpful!