Hello out there. I am currently at Grand Luxxe, building 2. I went through the “shark attack” (owners information session!) yesterday and would like to share some observations. I read this forum daily and it has helped me considerably with my choices. I really appreciate this forum and the updated info that it provides. I will repeat a theme that others have reported: How can you tell when a sales person is lying? When his/her mouth is moving! And, BE SURE TO GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. Every contract and every offer is unique and different.
When we registered I produced a letter that said that because I am a charter member with a membership number in the low 140’s we qualify for a sea view room. Then we were assigned a room on the back of building two with no sun on the deck all day and partial sun on the lockoff deck later in the day. So much for the guarantee letter. Later a sales person told us that those rooms in the back are reserved for II exchange people (Interval International) and she speculated that we were given them because some of tower 2 is not finished yet and they were the only ones available.
The pools are nice. The one furthest from the shore is supposed to be the heated one and the outside one is the colder. They are both cold. Right now there is plenty of space and no scramble for open seats like we experienced at GM. We got down to the pool by 7:00 a.m. to reserve seats at GM and sometimes that wasn’t early enough. No problem at GL so far.
The services are top notch here. The people are unbelievably helpful and nice. A person circulates and cleans your eye glasses at the pool! Another distributes popsicles. Another, cold face towels. There are no towel cards. Just pick up at towel at the kiosk or use the one that has been placed at every chair. Quite a change from the GM towel card policy.
The shuttle service SUCKS! As they keep building these buildings further and further apart on this sprawling campus, those of us who have trouble walking will need more and more transportation. The campus is large and beautiful. But not walkable by some of us.
Now on to the “owner information session” – now known as the “shark attack.” Supposed to be one hour. Meet with a person who is a member of a “special unit only for Luxxe members”. Took 4 and ˝ hours with three different sales people and we almost had to fight our way out of there. They took my credit card and would not relinquish it without one last word from one last person, again and again. Absolutely relentless. All done with a smile.
I learned some new terms. “Full Share” vs. “Half Share”. Apparently my two residence weeks and one registered week is a half share. A full share is four weeks. That is what they are selling now. My half share has some restrictions that were not explained to me at all when I upgraded last January. The biggest one for me is that the months of February and March have different rules than the other months. The lead time for January and the other months other than Feb. and March is 8 months for me but in prime time (Feb. and March) it is 45 days. Not much of a chance of picking up a GL unit with a 45 day lead time, I would think.
Vacation Fair weeks, the term, has vanished, to be replaced by Registered Weeks. I consider that to mean “Bonus Weeks.” The ones you purchase as basic weeks are called Residence Weeks. Four Residence Weeks gets you 12 months of lead time on each with no restrictions on months. Bonus Weeks are usually of a ten year lifetime.
“Running Costs”. Running costs are the extra maintenance fee every five years and a renewal of your contract with ten maintenance fees ($15,000+!) at 25 years. Some contracts (including mine) have a waiver of running costs. I have a 100 year contract and the aforementioned waiver, IN WRITING.
“Senior Certificate.” I have, IN WRITING, a document that guarantees me that at age 75 I pay only one half the maintenance fee, and at age 77 the fee vanishes and I can attend for free for the rest of my life. The sales person told me that because so many elders are taking advantage of that offer, it is no longer being made to new enrollees. I’m 70. I hope I make it.
Negotiation. I wanted to upgrade again. The original offer was $42K to upgrade. I counter-offered $10K. They countered with $14.5K with some restrictions and changes. My purpose in relating this is to tell you that “everything is negotiable.” They can make it work by chopping five years off the back end of my 100 year guarantee and reducing the cost by the value of those five years, or reducing the number of bonus (registered) weeks and deducting their value from the contract. Many other ploys from many different levels of sales people. They can make it work if you want to.
The plans for the future are pretty mind-boggling. A shopping mall (village) with 40 restaurants and 80 stores. A water park better than the GM. Five more GL towers, one (Punta) now under construction on the point (punta) of the river entry into the sea, a prime location. That will be for Mansions of the World owners (full share owners, from above.) It will be the prime location on the campus with panoramic (270 degree) ocean view. All of this IN TWO YEARS (her mouth was moving rapidly!)
I hope some of this helps. My thanks to Bob and Mary Anne for this blog. I read it daily and have learned a lot. I think the GL is a good place and a good place for my meager funds. I want to be here no matter what the cost.
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