URGENT - Bluegreen Timeshare Advice Needed!

[ArRzrbk]

It's been a long time. I missed you guys! Anyway...

My husband and I just got back from a trip to Big Cedar in MO. We got sucked in by the timeshare sales pitch and ended up buying in at the lowest possible Point purchase - 4000 Points per year. They offered us a few "specials" they said would never be offered again. As far as I know, Big Cedar is not one of our Disney Vacation Club options, but we definetly want to continue to vacation there. It is really close to home.

Are there any other Disney AND Bluegreen owners out there? What do you think of Bluegreen? Is it a good compliment to your Disney timeshare? FYI...Bluegreen timeshare never expires - lifetime ownership. What about Bonus Time? Have you really been able to get one of those ultra low price rooms on short notice (2 - 45 days out)? Did we make a mistake? Maybe we should just be saving up for more Disney Points?

We have 1 more day to take back our purchase. So, urgent replies are really needed. Thank you!

 

[CarolA]

Are you a member of TUG? I would head over there. I think it's www.tug2.net and see what I could find. They also list "resales" and that might be VERY eye opening!

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I agree with carolA, go to tug and see what advice you get over there. With a few exceptions, like DVC and Marriott and probably a few others, you can save tons!!!!! by buying resale. Check out the price per point for Bluegreen resales on ebay. Compare to what you paid per point. Make sure that the specials or incentives that they gave you was worth the cost differential. HTH!

Tammy

 

[dianeschlicht]

Not a Bluegreen owner, but when we took the tour of bluegreen locally, we were impressed with their product. It is a similar plan to DVC, but the thing that stopped us from buying was that they didn't have a huge number of properties when we toured a couple of years ago.

 

[Melynny]

I am a bluegreen owner and a DVC owner... It really compliments our DVC.. actually just upgraded our Bluegreen to 14000 points , we started pretty small also, at 7000 every other year. I have had GREAT luck with the bonus time, but it's just like everything else, you REALLY have to learn the system to get the most of the product. I am happy with it. We live in IL so we are closer to Big Cedar, we have used bonus time there, at the Falls village in Branson, Hammocks at Marathon, Fountains in Orlando, Daytonas Seabreeze.. Solara Surfside.. All of these are VERY nice.. It's a good deal! Sometimes we stay at the Fountains on weekends on Bonus time and stay at OKW during the week. I don't regret buying Bluegreen at all.

I am thinking that Bluegreen is putting some kind of restrictions on special levels of ownerships and bonus time stuff if you buy a resale, we purchased from bluegreen, paid more, but we were able to finance and got some other benefits too. So you may want to check out which works best for you.

 

[ArRzrbk]

Thank you to all who have responded thus far. And yes, Melynny, I think there are some restrictions if you buy resale. I can't find where this is, but I know they either said it or I read it... The "Charter Ownership" that includes Bonus Time is ONLY available if you buy the resale through a Bluegreen representative. And I know about financing...

When we bought into DVC, I wanted to do resale, but resale did not offer the financing that DVC did. Bluegreen (onsite purchase) didn't even require a credit check! It is actually not a good thing though. They are really letting people buy in who probably shouldn't, and the sales pitch at Big Cedar was really a very hard sell. We are actually a one income family right now, and that didn't deter them at all from making us four or five different offers...after we said no.

The timeshare does indeed seem to be a good compliment to DVC though. We'll see. We've got a day left to decide whether to cancel out or not. I look forward to additional responses, and thanks again to those of you who wrote me back thus far. You're very speedy!

 

[littlestar]

Post your request here, on the Bluegreen boards, on Timeshareforums. They know Bluegreen inside and out on the board below:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forums/bluegreen-resorts/

 

[Dean]

Cancel immediately. You can buy BG points resale for 40¢ per point. I have 72,000 points that likely weren't any more than your 4000. Given the way the BG system works, it doesn't matter where your home resort is. Your only home resort benefit is the actual resort and week your points are based in which likely isn't even Big Cedar.

As for whether BG is right for you, it depends. The Yahoo BG list is actually the best place for info and one of the people there asked me since I was used to DVC and Marriott would I be happy with BG since it is definitely a lower quality resort system overall. I'd say about 25% of their resorts are the ones I'd use. There's a good 25% of their resorts I would rather pay for a hotel than stay in. There are some advantages and disadvantages of their points system compared to DVC but overall it's harder to use.

 

[kimberh]

Post your request here, on the Bluegreen boards, on Timeshareforums. They know Bluegreen inside and out on the board below:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forums/bluegreen-resorts/

Thanks for this, I own at Charleston's Lodge Alley Inn. I did not even know this was available.

 

[dumbo71]

Bluegreen (onsite purchase) didn't even require a credit check! It is actually not a good thing though. They are really letting people buy in who probably shouldn't, and the sales pitch at Big Cedar was really a very hard sell.

Wait a minute. Hard sell and no credit check??????? You really need to ask if you should get out?

Seriously run for ther hills. That purchase will be worth pennies on the dollar now.

 

[Dean]

Wait a minute. Hard sell and no credit check??????? You really need to ask if you should get out?

Seriously run for ther hills. That purchase will be worth pennies on the dollar now.

I bet they did do a credit check, they usually do when you schedule and before you even tour. They don't really care what your credit is but more how to combat any objections you might come up with.

 

[Janet Hill]

On our last trip to Disney, I was having a weak moment and fell for the $125 to do a 90 minute presentation at the Fountains. I admit I did want to check out the product, as I would love to stay at Big Cedar and I own no timeshare that trades RCI.

WOW 3 hours later we made it to the door. Must admit this is probably the hardest sell, I've ever been to. At least it's the only time a salesperson followed me to the bathroom and kept on talking. lol

 

[starbox]

We've done sales presentations with various "free vacations" offers at just about every timeshare and our experience with the whole Bluegreen deal was awful. They were extremely unflexible (the only tour time they'd offer was
mid-afternoon on the only full day of our vacation) and lied to us about what was being offered (accomodations were sub-standard, Universal tickets were not what was originally offered).

I was not even tempted after seeing how they treated a potential owner that they were trying to convince about how great their product was.

 

[OKWKirt]

I knew Dean would jump into this conversation and I was going to mention his name. I own at the Winderness Club at Big Cedar and have done two upgrages to the Gold level (35K points). Most recommend, like Dean said, to buy resale and save money. There has been a lot of talk on the Bluegreen timeshare forum that Bluegreen may start restricting some of the benefits you receive when buying through them versus resale but to our knowledge that has not happened yet, I think it will. I love Bluegreen and they have 40+ resorts in their system, including Hawaii. Living in Kansas City we take several long weekend trips there. My wife and daughter just had a mother/daughter trip there with another m/d and I'm planning the father/son trip there in April with another couple father and sons. Their three bedroom cabins are fantastic, so are the two bedroom cabins. The times we couldn't get into the Wilderness Club we stayed at the Falls Village in Branson and are very happy with that resort.

The point system is not as flexible as DVC. You have certain restictions on partial week reservations (five months out) and saved points (banked points for DVC) cannot be used for high red weeks. I think it is a great fit with our DVC. We have four timeshares and Bluegreen is second to DVC and I wouldn't give up either one of them. I somewhat disagree with Dean on only one item (and I usually never disagree with him). I believe it does matter where you own if you like your unit and time you're deeded to you can reserve that unit 13 months out and no one can take it away from you. One of our four deeds there is the three bedroom cabin Thanksgiving week. I can have that unit every year if I want it and reserve it 13 months out. There are only 3 - three bedroom cabins so they could be hard to reserve. One of our deeds is a two bedroom cabin the week of the 4th of July and I can have that unit every year. Other than that it doesn't matter where you own.

Sorry if I have gone on too much but I love talking Big Cedar as much as I do DVC. Such a FANTASTIC place.

 

[ArRzrbk]

I know you're right. We should run for the hills and buy resale later...when we can truly afford it. They really did such a hard sell on us. If we didn't like Big Cedar as much as we did, I would have probably been offended and left. They did not care one bit that we were a single income family - current income is a teacher's salary!

They even called us on our way home and said we'd won the drawing that weekend. Said we got 4000 Points to use...this in addition to the one week RCI vacation they'd given us for buying in at the "lowest possible level." The Point price turned out to be about $2.00 per Point.

I will tell my husband we need to cancel. We will most likely buy in at a later date, since Big Cedar is so close to our home...once we can afford it. Till then, I guess we'll just have to do some more Disney Dreaming! Poor us

Thanks to all!

 

[Dean]

I somewhat disagree with Dean on only one item (and I usually never disagree with him).

No disagreement and I alluded to that issue above. However it's very difficult to get something that is worth paying retail for as your only benefit is that one week and no other weeks at that resort. So yes if you find a Daytona Race week it may be worth paying a little more but not $2 a pt when you can easily get them for 40¢ per resale and if you know a little more, far less. Mine were about 12¢ a pt.

 

[Dean]

I know you're right. We should run for the hills and buy resale later...when we can truly afford it. They really did such a hard sell on us. If we didn't like Big Cedar as much as we did, I would have probably been offended and left. They did not care one bit that we were a single income family - current income is a teacher's salary!

They even called us on our way home and said we'd won the drawing that weekend. Said we got 4000 Points to use...this in addition to the one week RCI vacation they'd given us for buying in at the "lowest possible level." The Point price turned out to be about $2.00 per Point.

I will tell my husband we need to cancel. We will most likely buy in at a later date, since Big Cedar is so close to our home...once we can afford it. Till then, I guess we'll just have to do some more Disney Dreaming! Poor us

Thanks to all!

I can put you in touch with a couple of people if you need to buy in resale. Ebay can also be a good place to look.

 

[ArRzrbk]

We canceled. The policy required we mail a letter, which is better than us calling. I am sure they would have put the pressure on again to keep us from backing out. It was hard, but it was the right thing to do. Dean, I may take you up on that offer, as soon as the hubby gets his job and we're in a better position. Thank you so much.

 

[larrytau]

Very good decision to cancel, OP. We started Bluegreen by buying at Shorecrest in Myrtle Beach. It was a small contract at about $1.10 a point. Your $2 a point is definitely too high!

We have since bought resales for three contracts, and then bought one more from Bluegreen to get us to Gold status. Resale is the best way to go, but I have not seen many $.12 a point contracts like the one Dean bought. Much more likely to be in the $.40 to $.50 per point range.

I will agree with several other posters: BG is a perfect complement to our DVC! Certainly a lot cheaper for both purchase and annual dues at this time, and you have a much more diverse location selection. I think their stars include Big Cedar, Fountains in Orlando, Lodge Inn in Charleston, Hershey Suites in PA, and Shorecrest at MB. I am sure there are other favorites, but these fit our travel needs perfectly.

Good luck in hunting for resales in the future. I could also recommend some folks to guide you in your search, but they probably would be the same as Dean! Also, check out that link that was posted on page one. Excellent advice on BG there!

 

[Dean]

I think their stars include Bid Cedar, Fountains in Orlando, Lodge Inn in Charleston, Hershey Suites in PA, and Shorecrest at MB. I am sure there are other favorites, but these fit our travel needs perfectly.

I would ad Golf Village, Marathon, Surfside Solaris and likely Carolina Grande and possibly Mountain Loft to that group. Soon you can likely add Los Vegas and hopefully Williamsburg as well.