Vistana Resort tour - What to expect?

[slindamood]

We will be staying at VIstana Resort in December and are signed up for an ownership tour. The tour itself is at the Vistana Villages.

Has anyone done this tour? Is it hard sell? Is it really only 90 minutes? Do owners find it a value?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[kilee]

I haven't done this tour. We'll "bump" this back to the top and see if anyone can help you.

 

[JenDaveBrendan]

We did the Vistana Resort tour about 2 years ago. I told the woman flat out that we were not interested in buying and just there for the freebies. She was fine with that, and took only about 30 minutes of our time (I think it was around $100 check they were giving for the freebie). However, she then called some guy over to talk to us, and he was alot more aggresive and went through the whole thing with us, we told him we would think about it because he made us uncomfortable -- he then called over someone else and he said if we didn't tell them what we wanted to do within a day, the deal was off. Whatever - we just left saying we needed to "talk about it", got our freebie, and that was it. Not too bad and only about an hour and a half of our time. However, my husband said he would NEVER do it again (I talked him into it for the freebie).

 

[MiaSRN62]

We did 3 tours in all over the past 11 years. Our last one in 2000 was very hard-sell. The freebie was $50. Not much, but the salesman dragged our 90 min tour out to 2 1/2 hours when we told him we'd like to "think about" for a day or two. We had to press him hard to give us our $50 and release us. There were moments when we felt he was somewhat rude to us and dragged the talk past the 90 minutes on purpose. It sealed our decision to buy additional time with DVC. I will not ever do a tour with Vistana again. They bug us every year though to do it (even though we avoid the back "welcome" desk in the lobby like the plague). This past August we got no less than 4 phone call petitions to join them for the owner's breakfast. I practically had to hang up on the woman after the 4th phone call and told her we just wanted to vacation with our family and please do not call back again. Next year I'll be disconnecting the phone.

 

[Praise2Him]

When we called we were told that we could do the tour and receive $100 or skip the tour and forfeit the $100. We are only staying there for the great rate we received and don't want to do the tour, but I'm worried that they will insist on it. Is it true that we don't have to do the tour?

 

[Del]

We were there last Dec. and never did a tour nor were we approached. We head back down tomorrow, so I'll find out if something has changed.

Del

 

[suezyq50]

My sister has a week at this resort and actually arrived today. We bought at another resort and belong to RCI, where we exchange for a fee. We are checking into Sheraton's Vistana on Sunday. Both of our ownerships are gold crown, exchange once every four years, sleep 8. The biggest difference is maintance fees. She bought directly from the resort. We bought resale from a realator. It would be worth your rime to check it out.

By the way, we are sold on our timeshare. We feel it was one of our best investments. Out of 15 years of ownership, if have not used it only once. Than the resort rented our week out for us. We have given our week to our kids for their honeymoon use. It has been great.

 

[slindamood]

Thanks for all the help!! We want to approach this with an open mind, but really hate pressure sales. After reading the responses, DH says we will take the tour, get any written information and after 90 minutes, leave.

We bought into DVC about 8 years ago, and it was such a low-key tour. We took the paper work home and spent about 3 months to come to a final decision.

The resort looks very nice in the photos some of you have posted. Thanks for sharing!!

Suzanne