Update: Ranking the Top Seventeen Timeshares I’ve stayed at

A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post titled ” Ranking The Sixteen Timeshares I’ve Stayed At“.  Over the past year I had the opportunity to revisit two timeshares I stayed at before ( Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas and Harborside at Atlantis) and try one new timeshare (Grand Luxxe-Nuevo Vallarta).  I’ve updated the rankings below and added some commentary surrounding the changes.

1. Marriott Aruba Surf Club
2. Marriott Newport Coast Villas
3. Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas
4. Casa Dorada at Medano Beach
5. Grande Luxxe-Nuevo Vallarta– This resort has first class accommodations and great service. Grande Luxxe is part of a group of three resorts including the Mayan Palace and the Grand Mayan in Nuevo Vallarta.  Occupants of the Grand Luxxe can utilize the other resorts facilities. The Grand Luxxe has several great pools, while the Grand Mayan has a nice lazy river. The reason why the Grand Luxxe wasn’t rated higher is that it is located far away from most things and I felt stuck at the resort. In addition, the food sold in the restaurants is very expensive for the most part. The round trip cab fare to Puerto Vallarta was about $40. There is a Walmart nearby for food and sundries.  I would like to try the Grand Luxxe-Rivera Maya at some point in the future.
6. The Royal Sands
7. Harborside at Atlantis-I moved this ranking up one notch since the pool water was a very comfortable temperature this visit.
8. Marriott Frenchman’s Cove
9. Marriott Shadow Ridge
10. Marriott Beach Place
11. Villa Del Palmar
12. The Royal Carribean
13. Marriott Legends Edge
14. Marriott Cypress Harbor
15. The Royal Mayan
16. Marriott Sabal Palms
17. Marriott Manor Club–

Timeshare Users Group Membership Well Worth the Money

Timeshare Users Group (TUG for short) is a great community for people who own timeshare. The message boards are full of helpful people, who bring tons of experience and expertise to bear. You can register to be a guest of the site, which give you access to many of the different message boards. For $15, you can become a member of TUG, which gives you access to a private forum called the Sightings/Distressed forum. In this forum, participants post sightings of weeks in desirable resorts from Interval International and RCI. When I am actively looking to book a week via Interval International, I check the Sightings/Distressed forum at least daily, if not more often. Just this week, I took advantage of that feature of TUG membership and booked a week at Harborside at Atlantis for late January. I wasn’t really looking to go there, but it is a resort that doesn’t come up often and I was able to trade my 1 bedroom at Sheraton Desert Oasis for it. The major benefit of going to Harborside at Atlantis is that it comes with free admission to Atlantis each day you are there for every registered guest. Day passes are regularly sold for about $100 per person per day on the island. 

In summary, if you are a timeshare owner, a membership to TUG will probably be the $15 you’ve ever spent.