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Diamonds in the rough still exist (RCI)

chellej

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I find at the nice smaller resorts that are not high end, the people seem to be more relaxed and friendly.

Soon after 911, I went into Magens Point on St Thomas...I owned it at the time and is the only time I did a solo timeshare trip. While waiting for our rooms they had drinks around the pool and there were 3 or 4 other single travelers and one couple and we ended up hanging out and exploring all week as a group...it was a blast. I can't imagine that happening at one of the mega resorts
 
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vacation village parkway and links golf and raquet
I was looking for a low-cost escape during the third week of August. I grabbed an extra vacation at the Inn @ Silvercreek in one of their studio loft units. Less than $350 all-in (including the Platinum 10% discount), less than 30 minutes from the Western entry to Rocky Mountain National Park in Granby. Still in peak season. The resort is on the basic side, and reading the reviews it seems pretty clear that I'll need reasonable expectations going in. But, I'm looking for a good base camp for hiking, kayaking, and getting out and about in nature. This seems perfect for that!
I love Mountainside at Silver Creek. Inn at silver creek had some great amenities but, I heard the units are tired. If you can get to Mountainside at Silvercreek it is a higher quality exchange.
 

Jan M.

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Wyndham Presidential Reserve at Panama City Beach
Club Wyndham Access
Grandview Las Vegas and Discovery Beach Resort - Both in RCI Points
Woodstone and Summit at Massanutten - Both in RCI weeks used as Wyndham PICs
I was looking for a low-cost escape during the third week of August. I grabbed an extra vacation at the Inn @ Silvercreek in one of their studio loft units. Less than $350 all-in (including the Platinum 10% discount), less than 30 minutes from the Western entry to Rocky Mountain National Park in Granby. Still in peak season. The resort is on the basic side, and reading the reviews it seems pretty clear that I'll need reasonable expectations going in. But, I'm looking for a good base camp for hiking, kayaking, and getting out and about in nature. This seems perfect for that!

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the resort and how your week went.
 

OldGuy

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Yeah, we liked it, too.

Your timing is bad. We could have given you our last week, a prime Spring-break ski week.

Come to think of it, PM me if you are interested, and I'll let you know what week and unit. They got the 2020 fee from us, and an exit fee, so they are already ahead of the game. Heck, you could just tell them you know me, and you know they are ahead on that week, and you will be glad to take it off their hands. Maintenance fee is still under $400, and they have an Owners' Rental Program to get you some of it back.

We found out about the place in 1992, when we exchanged into Winter Park, and got a foreclosure held by Elk Horn Realty, who used to do resales in that area.

In those Trading Power tests of almost 20 years ago, ISC and Mountainside were always #1.

Funny, we owned there, at the Western Entrance, and used it to trade to those hard-to-get Estes Park weeks, at the Eastern Entrance. But, that was back in the day, when timesharing was much simpler.

:cool:

This is almost as fun as a Goodwill store in SW Florida!
 
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rapmarks

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We stayed at Lehigh resort for six weeks in 2003. We went to a real estate office the mirning after check in, and he actually told us, you don’t want to buy here. He set us up with an agent in estero. But we enjoyed our time there, enjoyed the activities and the people. Two incidents that cast a bad light, one persons truck was stolen between five and five thirty in the afternoon right out of the parking lot. The other time we went to the movie theatre in the evening. When we came out, kids were panhandling in the lobby,and it looked like gangs loitering in the parking lot. We had actually moved on to another area when the real estate agent called us on a Thursday about a property. We called a Rci and were able to book a studio for thanksgiving week and when our offer was accepted the next Wednesday evening, we were able to get a unit at Lehigh for the following week to take care of business. We got those weeks for between $129 and $189, which was very significant savings for us.
However I have nothing nice to say about Sea Oats, dirty towels, dirty dishes, smoky room, moldy bathroom.
 

OldGuy

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How did Lehigh and Sea Oats come up?

We've been talking about a Colorado resort.
 

bnoble

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There is a flyer on the bulletin board outside the real estate agent's office here at ISC; two of the first-floor studios are being sold "as-is" for $80K (facing the parking lot) and $85K (the other side).
 

OldGuy

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There is a flyer on the bulletin board outside the real estate agent's office here at ISC; two of the first-floor studios are being sold "as-is" for $80K (facing the parking lot) and $85K (the other side).

That's because ISC is not all timeshare. There is full ownership, fractionals, and intervals. The full ownership HOA is the predominant one, and the IOA is subordinate. The history is that the couple who controlled the HOA attempted to purchase as many units as they could to be in majority control, and things got out of control instead.

Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, the association(s), not sure which ones, have instituted a program of taking back fractionals and intervals, and combining them into full-ownership condos, which is what you are seeing for sale.

I just looked at the QCD I saved on my LT, and we deeded it to the IOA.

They also attempted to turn that big convention room into a casino, it being an inconvenient drive to Black Hawk and Central City.

All that, and a lot more in the 27 years we owned there.
 
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bnoble

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This was a good week, but probably one that required a certain sense of adventure.

First, the not-so-good. The physical plant is worn. It was clean for the most part, but worn. I'm not sure if it is because the week was maybe just one week past prime summer season, or because there are a lot of whole-ownership units, but the place didn't really have that "people on vacation" vibe. Then there were the two different people working on their cars in the parking lot, and the camper van that appeared to have people sleeping in it on the edge of the lot for three days. The swimming pool only has one entrance; through the changing rooms, and all the gates along the outside of the fence are padlocked. I assume that is because not all the whole-ownership units pay for the resort amenities, and this is how they enforce it.

But, the good parts: the unit was comfortable, and reasonably equipped. The staff is friendly. The location is a good home base for hiking RMNP, with most any trailhead between 30 minutes and 1.5 hours away. There is a Kroger-affiliated grocery story right across US-40, and Grand Lake is much less of a tourist magnet than Estes is, though there is enough of an infrastructure that you can have a good week. Winter Park is just 25 minutes in the other direction if you need a better slate of restaurants---I was in the kitchen most evenings so I didn't really bother.

Would I go again? Yep. $350 for a studio in that location during the summer is a pretty good deal, and the scenery on the trails I hiked was awesome. It was a fantastic vacation, and well worth it. Would I own there? I don't think so. And, if I were to go back to the area, I might try Mountainside next time so that I can bring the kids and maybe a friend or two of theirs.
 

wackymother

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We trade through RCI bc if you want to stay within driving distance of north Jersey and you don't mind somewhat run-down places, they have many more options than II. So we have a string of dumpy places in the Poconos and the Northeast that we like and go back to over and over.
 
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