When should I give upon on my Lakeshore Reserve ongoing search and book elsewhere?

For 3 summers now we have exchanged into a 2 bedroom at Lakeshore Reserve so DD can do SeaWorld camp. I love that resort! We have a Foxrun week 31 2 bedroom that we trade. It has always had strong trade power.

This year I deposited early as usual, put in our ongoing search at around the same time as always and...nothing By now we always have our match and have the camp booked. At what point should I give up and book a different resort? We are OK with staying at Grande Vista or even Cypress Harbour...I just prefer Lakeshore if possible. Right now I'm thinking it's not possible...and we are flexible with our dates too...we have a search for the entire summer.

I would give it a little more time, perhaps through the end of January. I am noticing this year that there are far fewer Lakeshore Reserve weeks sitting in instant exchange for 2014 than there were for 2013 and 2012. I would expect a bulk bank sometime after the new year, but nothing is guaranteed. Even if you wait a little longer you can still add Grande Vista later and have a great chance of still getting confirmed there.

Lakeshore isn't huge and many can and do lock off. Not as many developer weeks as before. There aren't a lot of Lakeshore weeks in the new Destination Club either unless you want off season. I'd grab either Grande Vista or Cypress Harbour now.

I think I would give it a month or two before hanging it up - unless you have to worry about camps selling out. There are a lot of great options by Seaworld. Could you tell me more about the camps? Thinking of taking my 6 year old someday. Kind of weird that I've been a mom so long now that I would have to look at Orlando differently to figure out how to keep myself busy all day while she's at camp. Hmmm...spa day, pool day.

Weimaraner said:

I think I would give it a month or two before hanging it up - unless you have to worry about camps selling out. There are a lot of great options by Seaworld. Could you tell me more about the camps? Thinking of taking my 6 year old someday. Kind of weird that I've been a mom so long now that I would have to look at Orlando differently to figure out how to keep myself busy all day while she's at camp. Hmmm...spa day, pool day.

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Oh trust me...the lazy river at Lakeshore can keep you busy all day DH and I dream of the day when our younger one will also do Sea World camp so we can spend a week floating around kid-free!

Big Matt said:

Lakeshore isn't huge and many can and do lock off. Not as many developer weeks as before. There aren't a lot of Lakeshore weeks in the new Destination Club either unless you want off season. I'd grab either Grande Vista or Cypress Harbour now.

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What is the Destination Club? Is that Marriott only? I don't really want off-season...and now I feel greedy not taking the 1 bedroom that I could have had in open inventory a while back. We have always gotten our 2 bedroom before...I didn't figure that this year would be any different.

Sorry to sound dumb, but what are developer weeks? I did notice that they had a TON of inventory available right after the resort opened...we took full advantage of that as traders Were those developer weeks?

DH looked at Cypress Harbour while we were on an exchange at Harbour Lakes in Oct. and he really liked it. He said that it looked older but well-kept and that there seemed to be a lot for kids to do there. Our 7 year-old LOVES Grande Vista because of the lighthouse ice cream shoppe...that alone makes her want to stay there lol. I just really love Lakeshore, but if it doesn't happen then I'll be content at either of the other 2.

Marriott started a Destinations Club a couple years ago as an incentive to buy directly from Marriott rather than on resale market. I have a developer week from Surf Club which means I can convert to points to use at Lakeshore rather than exchange thru II. DC plus the fact it's a small resort plus word is out that Lakeshore is a great resort probably has changed the dynamics.

Camps

Weimaraner said:

I think I would give it a month or two before hanging it up - unless you have to worry about camps selling out. There are a lot of great options by Seaworld. Could you tell me more about the camps? Thinking of taking my 6 year old someday. Kind of weird that I've been a mom so long now that I would have to look at Orlando differently to figure out how to keep myself busy all day while she's at camp. Hmmm...spa day, pool day.

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The Seaworld camps are fantastic. I would highly recommend. You are issued a toll booth pass and you drive right in and take a sharp right into the parking lot they use for corporate event parking. You walk with your kids into the corporate picnic area where they have the various age groups divided up (this age group under this shelter and that age group under another). It is HIGHLY organized chaos with all the kids. Activities vary based on ages but all get to go behind the scenes to some degree. In addition, they all go into the park and see the shows and rides (without waiting in lines). They also get a chance to interact with some of the animals (feed the dolphins for example). My wife and I bought the kind of ticket where you can go as many times as you want for seven days. So a couple of afternoons we picked up our boys after camp and they excitedly took us around and showed us places they had visited (they can into the park after camp).
I have to say, it's just like any other camp-- sometimes you have great camp counselors and sometimes you get a dud. Admittedly there are more girl counselors than boys. Thankfully, our oldest had a guy who understood how to interact with boys and avoided some of the "girly" camp cheers and crafts and treated the boys like boys (splashing contests and competition type events).

Typically you drop them off at nine and pick them up at 3:00 or 3:30. My wife and I drove over to Winter Park and had an excellent lunch at a trendy restaurant and took a boat tour of the canals and lakes and saw some HUGE private homes. Had a couples massage one day at the World Center Marriott. On another day we went into Seaworld a few hours before picking up our kids and happened to spot our boys with their groups without them realizing it and got some great candid shots of them. We also had an adult lunch at the shark grill (expensive) and took our time to soak in the atmosphere since we were not in a hurry. .

Our boys have begged to do it again.

If you are going to do, you may want to become a member for the discounted rate. Our membership lasted two years and we made a return visit a year and a half later for the Christmas lights.

Swice said:

The Seaworld camps are fantastic. I would highly recommend. You are issued a toll booth pass and you drive right in and take a sharp right into the parking lot they use for corporate event parking. You walk with your kids into the corporate picnic area where they have the various age groups divided up (this age group under this shelter and that age group under another). It is HIGHLY organized chaos with all the kids. Activities vary based on ages but all get to go behind the scenes to some degree. In addition, they all go into the park and see the shows and rides (without waiting in lines). They also get a chance to interact with some of the animals (feed the dolphins for example). My wife and I bought the kind of ticket where you can go as many times as you want for seven days. So a couple of afternoons we picked up our boys after camp and they excitedly took us around and showed us places they had visited (they can into the park after camp).
I have to say, it's just like any other camp-- sometimes you have great camp counselors and sometimes you get a dud. Admittedly there are more girl counselors than boys. Thankfully, our oldest had a guy who understood how to interact with boys and avoided some of the "girly" camp cheers and crafts and treated the boys like boys (splashing contests and competition type events).

Typically you drop them off at nine and pick them up at 3:00 or 3:30. My wife and I drove over to Winter Park and had an excellent lunch at a trendy restaurant and took a boat tour of the canals and lakes and saw some HUGE private homes. Had a couples massage one day at the World Center Marriott. On another day we went into Seaworld a few hours before picking up our kids and happened to spot our boys with their groups without them realizing it and got some great candid shots of them. We also had an adult lunch at the shark grill (expensive) and took our time to soak in the atmosphere since we were not in a hurry. .

Our boys have begged to do it again.

If you are going to do, you may want to become a member for the discounted rate. Our membership lasted two years and we made a return visit a year and a half later for the Christmas lights.

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The camps are great aren't they? Our week there is the absolute highlight of our summer every year. DH likes to go right to the "big rides" after dropoff...there is usually no line and he can ride by himself as YDD and I aren't going on Kracken or Manta:rofl: We also bought the 2 year pass. It is worth it for the camp discounts alone, but we only live an hour away and we're huge SeaWorld fans also...it's a win/win for us.

That boat tour of the huge homes sounds intriguing! It was in Winter Park? I want to look into that. I've seen some houses around Isleworth that are too!

Thx for the great SeaWorld camp info. I've checked out the Annual Pass idea. Not sure how much of a camp discount. I wonder if the cheaper Super Grover Sesame Place pass would include the camp discount. Sounds like it's treated as a Platinum pass to all of the parks with discounts and parking. Only negative is it's for 1 year instead of 2. My daughter is crazy about sea life and animals (ie Wild Kratts) so this camp is her thing.

Update!

Just wanted to update and say I got what I was looking for! First I had an OGS match about a month ago that was Thurs-Thurs, the first week in June, 2 bedroom. I was OK with that, although we would have needed a hotel for that last Thurs. night so not ideal.

Today I checked just after 6AM and they had bulk-banked 2 and 3 bedrooms for May and June! I used my AC and got a THREE BEDROOM Fri-Fri for the first week in June. I then re-traded my OGS-matched week for a Fri-Fri Memorial Day week. That cost me $164, but I intend to call at 9AM to ask for this to be adjusted as there was no option to pay the flat $39 retrade fee when I started that OGS more than a year ago. Overall I'm very excited! We've never had a 3 bedroom there before. My husband is elated! The kids will have their own rooms We are going to get spoiled on this I think!

Great news, congrats! Did you exchange into townhouses or flat 3 bedrooms for your stays? All units there are great, but a townhouse would be real nice. Definitely on my list of future timeshare goals. Either way, enjoy your stay.

sb2313 said:

Great news, congrats! Did you exchange into townhouses or flat 3 bedrooms for your stays? All units there are great, but a townhouse would be real nice. Definitely on my list of future timeshare goals. Either way, enjoy your stay.

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Actually, I'm not sure! We've had a 2 bedroom townhouse there twice and it was SO nice! I would flip if this were a 3 bedroom townhouse!! The 2 bedrooms in the regular buildings have always been gorgeous too so a 3 bedroom in the regular buildings would be oustanding too! We are going to be so spoiled after this

FLDVC Family Did you check the sightings board today? If you did not get a match in the last few hours and what you want is not in sightings then you may well be out of luck.

SMHarman said:

FLDVC Family Did you check the sightings board today? If you did not get a match in the last few hours and what you want is not in sightings then you may well be out of luck.

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I think FLDVCFamily got what they wanted based on what they said. FLDVCFamily was also the one that started the thread in the sightings forum

FLDVCFamily said:

Actually, I'm not sure! We've had a 2 bedroom townhouse there twice and it was SO nice! I would flip if this were a 3 bedroom townhouse!! The 2 bedrooms in the regular buildings have always been gorgeous too so a 3 bedroom in the regular buildings would be oustanding too! We are going to be so spoiled after this

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Check out the Unit code on the My History page of your II account and then compare it to the Marriott II Unit Codes list to see the type of 3BR unit you have.