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New Vida Resort fees when booking through II

rpennisi

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As T-Dot writes, those older MP 2 bedroom units have only a single MF transfer, and they come with a Vacation Fair trade bonus week. So for 2 MF's you can stay for 4 weeks by splitting the 2 bedroom units into 4 one bedroom stays. I met Canadian folks who were doing that for a number of years at NV MP. The only downside is 2 of the weeks don't have the kitchen available. Owners of MP do not pay the $11 per person per day charge. So for around $1400, you get 4 weeks in the sun. That was my plan before grandchildren and babysitting, lol. In a few years, hopefully, the original plan will continue.
 

travs2

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I notice that the discount for the sale only applies to weeks through June or July?


Yes, I see that! Maybe next time a Getaway sale is introduced there may be availability at the Mayan Palace in Nuevo for February 2018.
 

MuranoJo

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As T-Dot writes, those older MP 2 bedroom units have only a single MF transfer, and they come with a Vacation Fair trade bonus week. So for 2 MF's you can stay for 4 weeks by splitting the 2 bedroom units into 4 one bedroom stays. I met Canadian folks who were doing that for a number of years at NV MP. The only downside is 2 of the weeks don't have the kitchen available. Owners of MP do not pay the $11 per person per day charge. So for around $1400, you get 4 weeks in the sun. That was my plan before grandchildren and babysitting, lol. In a few years, hopefully, the original plan will continue.

Exactly. May not be the GL, but some relatively inexpensive bennies for sticking with the old contracts. They do have value. I just need to get with the program and exchange into GL like some of you folks, but don't belong to II.
 

MuranoJo

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I guess for most of the owners, since they have a "no stay no MF" provision, there is no real need to sell. They aren't stuck in a cycle of lifelong MFs. They have already lost 100% of their upfront purchase price. Are there ever any resales on the private market outside of EBay? I suspect for the most part, people don't even want or need to buy resale since it seems that exchanges are so plentiful.

I'm not sure 'most' owners have the 'no stay no MF' provision. If it was available, and they knew about it, and were able to negotiate it...yes. I'd definitely say some of us longer-term owners don't have it as it wasn't available. There was a short run for a Senior 'no stay no pay' deal for a brief while for certain ages, but I believe you had to be at the resort and physically go in and get it. Perhaps that was the start of the 'no stay, no pay' offer.

They also don't want or need to buy retail since exchanges are so plentiful. Therein lies the rub. I think Vida will eventually feel they've had enough 'fresh blood' that they'll make it more challenging to exchange in. Meanwhile, sure seems there are many who are regular GL exchangers. Can't blame them.
 

pittle

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I'm not sure 'most' owners have the 'no stay no MF' provision. If it was available, and they knew about it, and were able to negotiate it...yes. I'd definitely say some of us longer-term owners don't have it as it wasn't available. There was a short run for a Senior 'no stay no pay' deal for a brief while for certain ages, but I believe you had to be at the resort and physically go in and get it. Perhaps that was the start of the 'no stay, no pay' offer.

They also don't want or need to buy retail since exchanges are so plentiful. Therein lies the rub. I think Vida will eventually feel they've had enough 'fresh blood' that they'll make it more challenging to exchange in. Meanwhile, sure seems there are many who are regular GL exchangers. Can't blame them.

The Senior Certificate was available for about 18 months for folks who owned before November 2006. That said that when you were 75, the MF were 1/2 Price and at 77, they are free. They said you had to be the original owner of the contract, but we had 3 original weeks 1 MP and 2 GM (which were from an upgrade with resale weeks) and 2 other resale weeks we had purchased.

To our surprise, they gave us the Senior Certificates for all 5 weeks. We did this when on vacation at the Riviera Maya in February 2007.

A few months later we got letters for the no pay unless you go on all 5 weeks! (We had those on out 2 GM weeks but not the others.) At the time we did this, we were in the process of buying another MP week, but since it was not finalized we did not add the contract number for the Sr. Cert., so we always had one unit we needed to pay MF on until we upgraded to GL.

When we upgraded, they kept our Sr. Cert. and No Pay Unless You Go on our new contract. We felt that because we had so many weeks and had to pay a 5 year fee almost every year, the offer to upgrade to GL was almost a "wash".

The Senior Certificate, No Pay Unless You Go, and extra weeks DO NOT TRANSFER to someone who purchases resale.

The Senior Cert does not transfer to you Heirs, but the No Pay Unless You Go does transfer to your Heirs.
 

MuranoJo

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Great info., Phyllis.
At any rate, I don't have Sr. Certs and couldn't have gotten them with my resale contract.
No worries, I have 'Elite' weeks and easily rent out a holiday week for 2-4x my m/f.
I always chuckle when I see posts warning new owners never to buy in MX. (Try to do this with most US, including HI locations these days.)
The nuance is holiday weeks and location.
 

judyp2530

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We returned from the Grand Mayan Riviera Maya last week. Love the resorts there and the setting. Loved GL a couple years ago. I traded through II in Nov for GM and was surprised that they actually charged the $11pp/day when we checked out last week. That's a little too rich for us considering the cost of WM credits, MFs, II membership fee, exchange fee have to be included. When we checked in, check in said we may be charged the $11pp and she put $1000 hold on my cc so I thought that it would be like a retainer for excess charges and/or damages but NOT. It's SOP. We were also charged $19/day for rm tax.
 

dioxide45

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We returned from the Grand Mayan Riviera Maya last week. Love the resorts there and the setting. Loved GL a couple years ago. I traded through II in Nov for GM and was surprised that they actually charged the $11pp/day when we checked out last week. That's a little too rich for us considering the cost of WM credits, MFs, II membership fee, exchange fee have to be included. When we checked in, check in said we may be charged the $11pp and she put $1000 hold on my cc so I thought that it would be like a retainer for excess charges and/or damages but NOT. It's SOP. We were also charged $19/day for rm tax.
What size unit did you have? The occupancy tax is based on unit size.
 

scootr5

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What size unit did you have? The occupancy tax is based on unit size.

We were there in March, and were charged about $4 per day (78 pesos) occupancy tax for a two bedroom.
 

dioxide45

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We were there in March, and were charged about $4 per day (78 pesos) occupancy tax for a two bedroom.
So why was the PP poster charged $19 a day? Or was that $19 peso?
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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We were there in March, and were charged about $4 per day (78 pesos) occupancy tax for a two bedroom.

Agree -

In Feb 2017 a one bedroom Mayan Palace was $ 1.97 USD per day / 265 pesos for the week .
RCI exchange to MP - PV Marina
 

rpennisi

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I remember once riding on an elevator at the MP, and a person was enraged about the tax until I told her that was in pesos not dollars per day.
 

post-it

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I just exchanged through II to GL for Jan 2018. My confirmation states:
Resort fee: USD 11 per person per day collected at check in. Not applicable for children under the age of 12. To schedule airport transfer to the resort,
https://precheckin.vidanta.com/shuttle/guest.

Is the shuttle to the resort included with the per person fee? Do I take taxi back to airport?
 

rpennisi

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I just exchanged through II to GL for Jan 2018. My confirmation states:
Resort fee: USD 11 per person per day collected at check in. Not applicable for children under the age of 12. To schedule airport transfer to the resort,
https://precheckin.vidanta.com/shuttle/guest.

Is the shuttle to the resort included with the per person fee? Do I take taxi back to airport?
Yes.
 

dioxide45

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You could also book a transportation service, like USA Transfers, back to the airport.
 

Mike S

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It’s now $30 pp per day
6 people= $1260
Ouch!
 

krj9999

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I take it II finally caught back up to RCI on this change.

Effective April 2, 2018: Resort Fee: USD 30 adult/daily. Children 5-12 years of age: USD 15 per child per day. Guests will receive 25% in resort credits from resort fee, which could be used at restaurants, spa, or golf services. Valet Parking: MXN100 Daily. A government imposed Environmental/Infrastructure. Impact Fee of MXN20 per unit, per night will be collected.
 

lorribarnes

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will this change apply to existing reservations? I pray to God not.. we have 10 people for 21 days in June
 

scootr5

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will this change apply to existing reservations? I pray to God not.. we have 10 people for 21 days in June

Generally they honor the fee at the time the reservation is made. Just be sure to have a copy of that confirmation with you.
 

amanven

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So with the Grande Luxxe resort fee for 2 people coming to $60US per day, How does that dailyfee compare to other comparable Mexican resorts and for those who have been to Grand Luxxe, is the resort worth the $60/day it will cost me and my husband especially if there are some facility exclusions for exchangers?
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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So with the Grande Luxxe resort fee for 2 people coming to $60US per day, How does that dailyfee compare to other comparable Mexican resorts and for those who have been to Grand Luxxe, is the resort worth the $60/day it will cost me and my husband especially if there are some facility exclusions for exchangers?

1) You pay the resort fee at check in / at check out the front desk applies 25% against restaurant , spa etc charges so your net = $ 45 . ( 7 x $ 45 = $ 315 ) Add this to your exchange cost and determine if the total $ cost is good value for a Luxe unit with daily full housekeeping and towel replacement and other amenities .

2) Vidanta is non AI but has many restaurant choices on the NV & RM properties .
A comparison resort in NV could be Grand Velas , which is all inclusive . It has an excellent reputation for quality and amenities . The base price for 2 including daily AI fee would be more .

3) The recent ( and somewhat fluid ) change to owners only : for one pool and it’s associated beach club restaurant in RM is unfortunate . It is a small part of the entire properties .
If you exchanged into Grand Mayan you never had access to it . Lots of folks are very happy with Grand Mayan .

Examples
Last week (April 2018) Vidanta listed Grand Luxe NV on the RCI weeks system , with many units available into 2019 ( studios , 1 & 2 bedrooms) The TPU cost was generally under 20 .
At $30 per TPU this would place the net cost for an exchange in the range of $ 1200 or better .

We prefer Vidanta’s smaller footprint property in Puerto Vallarta - ( Mayan Palace PV - Marina - 200 units approx. ) that has easy off resort access .
I recently booked a 2 bedroom for Feb 2019 for 17 TPU’s . At check in the resort fee will be $20.
We own a 1 bedroom - but if family join us having the 2 bedroom confirmed is worth it .
 
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Eric B

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Tom, I don’t think they actually charge the fees at check in; we haven’t been there as an RCI exchange under the current scheme of $30 pppd, but under the old one, the $11 pppd showed up as a charge to the room each day. Otherwise, I completely agree with your analysis.

For us, in RCI points, getting a GL NV 2 BR week would be 52,000 points for most of the year, though there are some weeks that are listed at 45,500. With a decent points trader it costs us just under $6 for 1,000 points, which makes the week cost $300 MF + $239 exchange fee + $315 resort fee less the rebates credit, for a total of $854. If I give up half a day for an update, I can get it down to ~$700 with the typical resort fee discount for doing those. Of course, that doesn’t get us there between January and March, but is between 1/3 and 1/2 the usage fee for a week I own there. I can be pretty happy going down there in the off season, which strikes me as a good move for the Mayan World since this lets them manage there capacity better through differential pricing without actually setting different usage fee prices. I can see why they’re getting a bit of bad publicity from some other owners for exchangers being treated so well for less $ or from exchangers in RM not being treated as well as owners. I’m hoping they find additional ways to sweeten the pot for owners (e.g., offer senior certificates again), but can live with monitoring what changes they make and adjust my choices to them.
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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... I don’t think they actually charge the fees at check in; we haven’t been there as an RCI exchange under the current scheme of $30 pppd, but under the old one, the $11 pppd showed up as a charge to the room each day. .

.
Possibly a recent change .

When we checked in Feb 2018 the resort fee was charged at check in .
In 2017 it was (likely) at check out - ( & I wasn't charged since I may have listed as an owner on the computer ) Missed fees may have been why the change to upfront .

Both RCI exchanges were at the Mayan Palace PV- Marina and it was $ 7 pp/pd based on when I booked a 2 bedroom for 2018 .

They did do it pp/pd since our 2 sons left on Thurs ( having joined us mid week prior at the Sea Garden NV)
so it was 2 x 6 x $7 + 2 x 7 x $7 = $182 USD
The front desk also offered to charge it in pesos to our Canadian Credit card . The peso rate was the resort fee x their posted USD exchange rate ( not the bank rate )
 
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hellolani

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Oh geez that's going to hurt. We usually do 2 weeks down here so that's $840 US in charges just for the adults. We'll have one kid over 5 but she looks younger. Do they require passports to verify kids ages?

We have our 2019 reso so at least we can ride that for one more year on $11 pp pd. After that we may need to adjust back down to Flamingos or Sirena del Mar.
 

rpennisi

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I asked II to resend my reservations for GL NV for Jan 2019 and for GB RM for Feb 2019. They did and both showed the $30 pp/pd. I was surprised bec I made the reservations months ago. I only printed the first page when I made the original reservations which didn't show the pp/pd fees.

I just did an email search and fortunately had those original email confirmations for those exchanges. I printed all of the confirmations out and they both have the $11 pp/pd. So, I am glad about that.

I will bring those with me and hopefully "only" get the $11 pp/pd (and not $30 pp/pd) as others have reported they honored the lower rate.
 
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