Scott is probably no longer monitoring replies to his inquiries, and he undoubtedly made the right decision to do nothing if he is unsure. However, I have to take issue with many of the naysayers in the replies to his inquiries. We have been owners at Lagunamar for several years now and we love it. It is a great place to vacation and the StarOptions are as good at any other Vistana resort as the StarOptions from St. John or anywhere else. And in fact, we have been to St. John using StarOptions and found we did not like it nearly as well as we like Lagunamar. In October, we are going to WKORV using those StarOptions. So, while it may be true that Cancun generally does not have a high resale value or good rental history, those considerations are irrelevant if you plan on using what you bought, which we do.
Another misconception relates to the MF. We recently upgraded from gold to platinum in order to get 81,000 StarOptions to use per year (vs. 44,000 for gold). However, our MF stayed the same (around $1000/yr) because MF are based on size of unit and number of weeks, not on StarOptions. The MF for a platinum 1BR are exactly the same as those for a gold 1BR.
The bottom line is that we are quite happy with our Lagunamar ownership and have no regrets. As my wife has said more than once, the worst case scenario is that we get to vacation at that beautiful resort once a year. And as any of you know who have been there, that is one of the best resorts in the Vistana program. All the rooms have great ocean views and La Isla shopping mall is directly across the street, so great location as well.
One other question that no one addressed is the Explorer option. We used it this year and it is a great deal to get a week at Lagunamar in a 1BR (not studio) unit PLUS 70,000 SPG points for less than $2800. The SPG points alone are worth about $1800 according to The Points Guy. And we can then use our StarOptions elsewhere, as we are doing this year in Maui.