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PARADISE HUNTER

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Michigan
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My wife and I are thinking about buying a one or two week time share somewhere in the Caribbean. We have been considering a couple of places. It would most likely be during Christmas break for school reasons. We have travled to numerous islands over the years, but there is certainly much left for us to see. Great diving is definately a must. We also have kids so the saftey of the island is important and a few out of water activities would be nice. A foreign language is not an issue for us.

I was hoping to get some feed back from SB time share owners on their experiences and any advice they might have for me.

Thanks in advance.
 
Look around. Buying from the developer is the most expensive option. There are tons of re-sales out there are usually cheaper.
 
Paradise Hunter - I don't own a timeshare at this place, but I have looked at it, and have spent my best dive vacations right up the street from there. I have also spoken with others who own timeshares there. It's called Morritt's Tortuga on the East End of Grand Cayman. It is reasonably priced, large with children's activities, right on the beach, has their own dive op, and is approx. 40 minutes away from Cayman's major city, Georgetown. Check it out - I think it is ideal for a family.:14:
 
Shares in Cancun. Don't know if you are interested there, we have three weeks and LOVE IT!

http://www.omcancun.com/sale.html

However, also know that US holidays are going to be a premium. Another idea might be Dominican Republic. They are building like crazy and have some pretty decent pricing and the diving is getting better.

Good luck!
 
I don't own a timeshare but I've thought about it, and decided there's few to none that I would normally choose to stay and dive at once, let alone every year. I also like to go to different places and couldn't count on trading to someplace I'd want to dive either. And it seems like the annual fees alone are usually half of what it would cost me to rent the same place anyway, so doesn't seem like a very good deal even if I bought the place dirt cheap on a resale, and I give up a lot of flexibility. My inlaws own 2 and all they ever talk about is dumping them.

Anyway Morritt's does seems like one of the better timeshare choices for access to quality diving and is part of RCI for exchanges. (Parts of Morritt's still aren't rebuilt from Ivan last I knew, and I've read about some angst among owners, which may or may not mean some good deals on resales.)

I've only wandered around Morritt's a bunch but not stayed there, however I've stayed at the Reef next door and think I like it better. It's also a timeshare, part of Royal Resorts - I don't know how that works for exchanges but there is another Royal Resort in Curacao that looks pretty nice. Curacao is another good place to dive, though unfortunately that particular resort however nice is again not the place I would choose to stay on Curacao for diving. The location might be a good place for kids though.
 
Don't forget to calculate annual maintenance fees. They can be as high as the cost of a weeks stay at a less fancy room (well, almost).
 
Hi, just thought I'd mention....Caribbean timeshares in those weeks are THE MOST expensive weeks to buy & some resorts, as mentioned above, have high maintence fees & add "emergency" add on fees to cover damage due to storms & upgrades....the initial fees are the only "guarantee" but yearly fees can & will change as the resort ages.....you may be better buying a quality resort in the US & trading into the resorts you desire...this gives you variety of dive locations & cheaper initial investment as well as lower yearly fees but it may restrict where you can go - meaning, some resorts you can only trade into every 2-4 years if you are trading in but then you can experience another area.....but owning Caribbean in week 51 & 52 will probably allow you almost anything else but you'll still find areas you can't trade into for 2-4 yrs if you've been in recently - example I own a 4 bedroom unit in Williamsburg & traded into Stow Vt. & can't do so again for 4 years & same goes for the Camens as I booked Morritt's Tortuga Club for this fall, so I might be forced to trade into Fiji, Mexico, Australia or something like that.....bottom line if you're gonna invest some serious coin into a resort it might be worth an initial trip to see if it's where you want to be before you buy.....also there are 2 trading groups - RCI & Interval, see which has the most value for you as most resorts belong to one or the other...not both...hot right now are the units associated with the Atlantis development in Paradice Island (Nassau) Bahamas....pricy, but I understand good trade value. I agree to the earlier post, look for a resale it'll save you huge & try to get a deeded unit, it can be left to to someone if you chose, a lot of resorts are now selling "Points" & I'm unsure how this works but I'm sure it's not in our favour!

Hope that helped......Darryl.

One Quick Note:I've got a unit booked in the Camens for November 10-17 that sleeps 4 & has a full kitchen, the cost will be about $250-300/pp for the week for accomodation - diving fees, airfare & food will be extra - the resort link is - http://www.morritts.com/tortugaclub/ - email for more info....
 
I currently own a timeshare in the Caymans. One reason we bought in the Caymans was because there are no property tax. Although our maintainence fee has risen, it is not tied in with a raise in property tax like those in the U.S. Another reason that we purchased when we did was we can bank our week and if we don't use it this year we pay no mainainence fee. At the end of 40 years the gov't is supposed to buy it at market value.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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