At Marriott Maui Ocean Club - questions?

Hi -- I am at the MMOC enjoying beautiful weather and a brand new villa. I am meeting with my sales rep tomorrow. I will get the new pricing and post it. If anyone has any other questions they would like me to ask, just let me know and I will.
Tami

Glad to hear that you are having great weather and I hope that you are enjoying your stay in a new unit. What floor are you on and how is the view? There are not too many trees in the way, I believe.

How is the new pool? Is the water heated when it is colder and is it very busy or not too bad?

I read on our confirmation notice, on the Internet web site, that parking is $12 per day. Is that true because that is a surprise to us.

Pictures, lots of pictures!

We will be there the last week of September.

How is parking? Pool area? Housekeeping options?

can't wait to hear your comments and see your pics!

Mike

How dependant is a good Ocean View on what floor you are on? We have an Ocean View unit reserved for next February, I didn't indicate a preference for an upper floor when I made the reservation - my DW suggests we just take what we get and see how we do. Any insight would be appreciated. A couple of other questions, any difficulty parking two cars if your using the whole unit? What is the free parking policy (if there is a free parking policy), parking for one or two cars? As well, what is the availability of Ocean View units - called my sales rep with a question about closing in June of 2006 and was told at that time that something like 750 of the 1,000 or so Ocean View weeks in the Lahaina Tower had already been sold. I would be interested in hearing if Marriott still has Ocean View units available in Lahaina Tower.

Thanks in advance for the update, looking forward to pictures!

Jim

any more fires? during our stay june 28-july12 we got caught in three on the highways.

Hi, could you possibly ask which floors, of the ocean front villas, are both floating season and floating unit. I understand that a lot of the ocean front villas in the Lahania tower are fixed week, fixed units so it would be good to know. Thanks, and enjoy Hawaii!

Here is a brochure where you can see what floors are fixed or floating oceanfront villas. The color is darker blue for the fixed units.

If you point your mouse at the top right edge of the picture, you can download the brochure or print it too.

I am in an Ocean View room facing North – 10204, 10203 wonderful view of the pool and the ocean. I would say that any rooms in the XX204, XX203 will be nice and a higher floor is good. I would try to avoid the rooms that are end in 202 and 201 – those are up against the parking garage and I suspect the ocean isn’t as easy to see out the window. Their are two Lani's - the are not huge, but are wide enought for a table and four chairs.

My brother is in a room facing Lahania, and I will check it out in the next day or so.

The pool is nice, smaller, not too deep, but nice with a hot tub and another small section that is similar to a riverbed for laying in. Shallow, a little warmer than the main section, but bubbles, like the hot tub. It is fantastic to lie out and relax. There is a small playground and four barbeques tucked in the rear between the pool and the garage.

Parking is fine. Easy to find a spot, but the spots and corners of the garage are a little tight. One of the benefits is the Lahaina complex is fairly small compared to the mass amount of rooms in the main section. The benefit of this is it is like being at a small resort, with the benefits of a huge resort a few steps away. The pool, BBQs and ocean and parking are just a few steps away from the lobby.

Currently there are no fires, but the west side of the island does look dry. Their was a tropical storm that came through last week and dumped a little rain, which I hope is helping.

Tami

iconnections said:

Here is a brochure where you can see what floors are fixed or floating oceanfront villas. The color is darker blue for the fixed units.

If you point your mouse at the top right edge of the picture, you can download the brochure or print it too.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the great info!

MMOC update

Just back from the chat with my sales rep, John Morgan - nice low pressure sales rep (but perhaps that is an oxymoron).

Here is what he said, which may or may not be the complete truth--
Hyatt (on Lahania side of Marriott) has applied twice to build more units but they have been stalled by the County. John feels they will eventually get a permit for some building, but it will have a wide front setback.

Marriott Lahaina tower - they expect to sell out of the ocean view units within the next week or so, same for the garden view. They do have ocean fronts available. Floating weeks for the OV are $63,400(? might be off a few hundred) and they are going up $800 in the next few weeks.

The ocean fronts were originally all fixed weeks, but they demand for fixed weeks wasn't as high as they originally thought, so they reassigned some to floating weeks. I believe the price on those is $67,500 or somewhere there about.

Napili units will be ocean front and garden view, no ocean view. This building is set back a little further from the ocean so as not to block the view of the existing MMOC units. The pool will be directly in front of the building parallel to the ocean.


Also - I believe there was some concern about the pool being crowded -- yes the main pool is very crowded and by 7 am people have reserved 85% of the lounge chairs near the pool. According to the sales rep, you are only allowed to have your towel on a chair unattended for 45 minutes -- then the pool staff come by and remove it. Haven't seen any of this in the two days I've been at the pool.
Aloha!

tmcasey said:

Hi -- I am at the MMOC enjoying beautiful weather and a brand new villa. I am meeting with my sales rep tomorrow. I will get the new pricing and post it. If anyone has any other questions they would like me to ask, just let me know and I will.
Tami

Click to expand...

Ask him about the outrageous increases in the maintenance fees over the past few years? He will be speechless!

Photos

iconnections said:

Here is a brochure where you can see what floors are fixed or floating oceanfront villas. The color is darker blue for the fixed units.

If you point your mouse at the top right edge of the picture, you can download the brochure or print it too.

Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to post all those photos & captions

The ocean fronts were originally all fixed weeks, but the demand for fixed weeks wasn't as high as they originally thought, so they reassigned some to floating weeks. I believe the price on those is $67,500 or somewhere there about.

Click to expand...

The price for Ocean Front in mid June was $69,000.

The original brochure that was mailed out in January of '06 for the Villas showed all the floors for the Lahaina tower that were designated as fixed weeks. At that time they said that it was unclear if the remaining ocean fronts would be fixed or floating. In January of this year they announced that they would be floating and that owners of ocean front Lahaina could also be placed in ocean front Napili.

I was at maui Ocean Club last week for a tour. I am a owner at Grande vista.
They offered me an equity upgrade with or without adding an additional week.

2BR Ocean front $69000 occupancy 2008
2 BR Ocean View $62700 Occupancy 2009

equity for Grande Vista: 2 BR/Platnum/lockout
if add a week $17500
only swap for OC Front $16450
only swap for Ocean View $15500

Incentive
swapping: self referral 40000 points
adding a week 150000 + 40000 points.

pay the maintainace fees for 2007 : get marriott points.

I havent had great success getting good marriott exchanges with Grande Vista, will it change with Maui OCean club as it is top on the list.

If i dont intend to go to Maui every year, is it crazy to spend $69000 or stupid to spend $138000 for 2 weeks.

I am confused, and the prices go up next week

any words of wisdom greatly appreciated

Dr Manny

There are some re-sales available already plus you would qualify for making reservations 13 months out instead of 12 so your chances would be better for reserving a good week at the MOC. Before you decide, also read this thread here in case you have missed it.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=48http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=48

The High Country Club may be cheaper and qualifies you for more vacation time than just one week at quite a few places too in the best locations. You do not get a deed so there is risk involved.

If the price goes up tomorrow at the MOC, it won't be by much so take your time to make a decision.

drmanny said:

I was at maui Ocean Club last week for a tour. I am a owner at Grande vista.
They offered me an equity upgrade with or without adding an additional week.

2BR Ocean front $69000 occupancy 2008
2 BR Ocean View $62700 Occupancy 2009

equity for Grande Vista: 2 BR/Platnum/lockout
if add a week $17500
only swap for OC Front $16450
only swap for Ocean View $15500

Incentive
swapping: self referral 40000 points
adding a week 150000 + 40000 points.

pay the maintainace fees for 2007 : get marriott points.

I havent had great success getting good marriott exchanges with Grande Vista, will it change with Maui OCean club as it is top on the list.

If i dont intend to go to Maui every year, is it crazy to spend $69000 or stupid to spend $138000 for 2 weeks.

I am confused, and the prices go up next week

any words of wisdom greatly appreciated

Dr Manny

Click to expand...

Regarding trading, Maui will trade as go or better than everything in the system, and much greater than GV, which is average at best.

It sounds like you made the mistake I made, and many others, when they believe the speil about buy low, trade high. Now if you can travel short notice and don't mind shoulder season travel, you may be OK, but if you want to go to the prime resorts during prime season, you need a platinum week at a top tier resort to get into other similar resorts.

Now you can forego ownership to just rent, because there are alot of rentals out there, but if you plan on going regularly it makes sense to buy, mostly resale, and start your own ROI.

I think there is a break even point in the rent or own question, and based on what you are saying, it sounds like you don't want to go to Maui enough to make ownership the best approach for you in my opinion. But to that I would say, plan on going to Maui more, because its paradise and find a good Maui resale or two to buy.

Good luck with your decision.

Regards.
Joe

For anyone living on the west coast Maui is a wonderful destination for holidays, but for me in the east it takes two 5 hours flights plus change of plane time. Every year. Ouch.

Don't base your decision on points - they aren't paying you enough incentive and it's unlikely that you'll ever trade for points because you could buy them from Marriott for less cost per point than your MF and fee and loss of use would cost.

Own where you want to go and go as often as you can. If you have the 'right' resort you don't even need to belong to II.

Prime time flights to Hawaii are expensive ... and seats on points difficult to get. Flying families there is an annual cost of maintenance IMO.

One of the reasons I like Manor Club is that I can drive to it in one long day, don't have to rent a car, don't have to pay for flights and it's an easy escape to a resort area I really enjoy - I could retire there.

Only you can decide if you made the right decision. Owning a week at any resort, with floating weeks, doesn't guarantee you'll be able to book it, especially if it's a highly desired week. But it is paradise.

btw...a 2 bdrm lockoff (converted hotel) Kauai went on Ebay last week for $15,000 - oceanfront too. Seemed very low and MAR may use ROFR.

Brian

MMOC - some 2 bedrooms, not lockoffs

Well I am now back home and wishing I was still in MMOC. It was a wonderful trip and I can't wait until next year to return.

I mentioned that I would be visiting a unit facing Lahaina. My brother was staying with a friend in a two bedroom, unit 12211. The view facing Lahaina was wonderful with no buildings in the way. While the unit was a two bedroom it was not a lock-off. I asked his friend about it and she recall ever being told about the lock-off with the two bedrooms.

Does this mean there are folks that bought non-lock off two bedrooms in the Lahaina tower? I don't recall that option and wanted to point it out so people that buy resale can be sure to ask if the unit locks off.

As for trading with II, I am not sure I will ever trade my unit -- we will spend most of our time in Maui. And in the years where I don't use my unit it seems to make more economical sense to rent it out directly than to trade with II. That way I take the money and use it to get exactly the room I want at another location.

I did take some photos and will post those in a day or two.
Tami

tmcasey said:

Well I am now back home and wishing I was still in MMOC. It was a wonderful trip and I can't wait until next year to return.

I mentioned that I would be visiting a unit facing Lahaina. My brother was staying with a friend in a two bedroom, unit 12211. The view facing Lahaina was wonderful with no buildings in the way. While the unit was a two bedroom it was not a lock-off. I asked his friend about it and she recall ever being told about the lock-off with the two bedrooms.

Does this mean there are folks that bought non-lock off two bedrooms in the Lahaina tower? I don't recall that option and wanted to point it out so people that buy resale can be sure to ask if the unit locks off.

As for trading with II, I am not sure I will ever trade my unit -- we will spend most of our time in Maui. And in the years where I don't use my unit it seems to make more economical sense to rent it out directly than to trade with II. That way I take the money and use it to get exactly the room I want at another location.

I did take some photos and will post those in a day or two.
Tami

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Tami, the new Lahaina tower are 2 or 3 br condos and they lock-off. I am looking forward to see your pictures. Our fixed time is in March next year but we got too curious so booked a cheap flight to go and see what is going on.

Exchanging with II is not a good idea because the maintenance fees are too high for many trades and the fees keep climbing too. Do a direct exchange or rent it privately. This is what we are planning to do from now on.

The cheap fares are still available for a day or so but I have a feeling that more will be added because the economy isn't as strong as the airlines and timeshare developers would like to wish for. We got a better deal yet with Hawaiian Air with a Sr. discount.

tmcasey said:

Well I am now back home and wishing I was still in MMOC. It was a wonderful trip and I can't wait until next year to return.
Tami

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Tami, you and me both! It was great meeting you and your family. I've sent you a private message with my e-mail.

Aloha,
Elena and family

Hi Tami,

Thanks for taking the time to post, we really appreciate the information on the room allocation and resulting view!

Thanks,

Jim