Sheraton Vistana Pricing

I am mulling over purchasing either a 2-BR Lockoff or a regular 2-BR unit at Vistana's Cascades phase. What is the going resale price for such units?

Since this is a voluntary resort I'm guessing you could pick one up farily cheap. Check ebay to get a good idea of the lowest prices.

cheap cheap cheap.....

Just a FYI, RCI downgraded VR from a Gold Crown Resort.

You can buy anything in the country with lower maintenance fees and trade into Vistana Villages easily, along with Cascades and a number of really great resorts that would be preferable to this purchase. I can trade into so many great places, I would never choose Vistana (Fountains was where we were placed last time) over HGVC, Disney, all of the Marriotts, Summer Bay, which are all nicer than Vistana Fountains.

I have no idea whether Cascades will remain a nicer part of the resort, or if it will succumb to the total lack of care that the other parts have. Cascades is still GC, but Fountains is below SC, in my opinion.

I own at the Lakes, which books with the Cascades and think owning here is a real nice start to timesharing. You can get a 2br on ebay pretty cheap, floats all year and I have had pretty good trades through II. The Lakes and Cascades sections are nice. You can not beat their location on I 535 off I4 between Downtown Disney and World Center Drive (WDW), supermarket, Walmart, restaurants etc. And then if you want to upgrade, either buy another week from the developer at a mandatory SVN resort and get Starwood to re-qual so you can combine the options or just sell it on ebay.

As I bought resale on ebay, I am not in SVN. So I do not know how easy it is to exchange into Lakes/Cascades through SVN. I do read quite often if you try to exchange through RCI/II you may be placed in the older less desireable sections.

To me, the Lakes/Cascades is a minimal investment to see if timesharing is for you with some potential for growth in SVN.

I bought a resale week at WKORV, and am thinking of buying a weekat Vistana Cascades from Starwood and having my Maui week "requalified." A 2BR Lockoff in Cascdes is worth 81,000 StarOptions and can be exchange for 44,000 StarPoints. I have no intent to ever visit Orlando except maybe once in next 10 years, so this is for trade within Starwood resorts or swap it each year for the StarPoints. My 1BR in WKORV has same value, so when I am done I will be 3* Elite with Starwood (which lets me swap annually for hotel points) with 162K Options and can also exchange for 44K (Vistana only) or 88K (Vistana + WKORV) StarPoints each year. I would pay no more than $7,500 for the Vistana unit (or I won't do it), which I know is more than pure resale on eBay etc, but I would get my WKORV week retro'd. I am leaning toward saying yes, but am not 100% sure.

j4sharks said:

I would get my WKORV week retro'd. I am leaning toward saying yes, but am not 100% sure.

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Since the WKORV is already a mandatory resort, I don't see much value in this. Exchanging your week for Starpoints is usually not a good deal, and the other 3 Star "perks" are pretty meaningless. Just get a Starwood AMEX and use it for everything to rack up the Starpoints for free!

j4sharks said:

I bought a resale week at WKORV, and am thinking of buying a weekat Vistana Cascades from Starwood

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Starwood is not selling at Vistana Cascades. You can purchase at Vistana Village, but the newest phase appears to be a voluntary resort.

Starwood is selling at Cascades -- they are actually acting as broker for resales by existing owners! They may not be public about this fact, but when I called and asked, this was the deal I was able to work. Price is flexible -- subject to what the sellers will accept. But the transaction is considered a Developer sale since Starwood is brokering. This may be only Starwood property offering such resales.

I purchased a lakes 2bdrm Lock of for 4k resale. Have been there twice with 3 kids. Excellent facility and location to disney. I used to pay 3500 to 4500 per week at hotels.

John

A Possible Interesting Twist

If you can retro a previously purchased week through a developer resale at Vistana Cascades, then a possibly rewarding strategy would be to first purchase, say, a voluntary Desert Oasis 2bdrm L/Oweek (at 148,100 or 81,000 staroptions) at low cost, then the Cascades week.

I'm guessing you might get both at well less than $15K and end up with 162K to 239.1K staroptions, 3 star elite status, and the ability to trade for starpoints if you are so inclined. Of course, I would only put this plan in motion if you knew you could get the Cascades unit under the terms described.

malex2