For those who love to "pile on Marriott" or bash them as developers for selling to customers, I still maintain that because of them, our (family) lives have been enriched one hundredfold. In recent years we added several resale weeks, for which we are also grateful.
Because of our "stupidity" in initially jumping into Marriott, we have enjoyed over 15 years of traveling around the USA, Caribbean, and Europe, which we may have never done. Not only that, but we enjoy doing so while staying in 2-BR and occasionally 3-BR villas, rather than in single hotel rooms as we did "pre-Marriott". The hotel stays using Rewards Points (never turning-in for points, only acquiring our points via tours/retail purchases/bonuses,etc)
have been phenomenal too, with no cash outlay.
We've met many new friends (some dear friends) with whom we've actually spent time, and I also have something to do in-between patients all day long---i.e., participate on TUG, perhaps my chief addiction. So for me, I applaud Marriott. They are, after all, a for-profit corporation which has done pretty darn well for their shareholders, so I neither begrudge them for anything nor accuse them for pulling the rug over ANYBODY'S eyes. I certainly understood the whole deal going in.
We have many more years to benefit from our involvement, and I dare say we'll do it at a HUGE discount. Pursuing all we enjoy WITHOUT Marriott would have been more expensive. We simply CANNOT rent the same villas in the locations or high seasons anywhere near the prices we're paying now. MF's are a drop in the bucket for what we now get.
Our kids have enjoyed each and every trip. They're now Grad students and plan on continuing their own involvement with Marriott, and are quite excited to do so. They've learned well, and the world will continue to open up for them---probably even more so for them. We now have access to several additional inexpensive weeks each year via the perks of XYZ and lockoff weeks, and those are equally enjoyable with minimal cost. Since we are enrolled in DC, should we ever take advantage of that flexibility, we have 18,000 points annually to play with-----not too bad. And we're a couple months away from lifetime platinum elite, so our stays at hotels get better and better. If need be, future rentals of a few of our weeks can generate enough to offset other multiple endeavors, so I'm cool with everything. When somebody bashes Marriott, I just laugh. Somebody must have screwed up-------but we didn't.
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