Cypress Point Resort Orlando and Timeshares in General

There are hundreds of pros and cons to owning a timeshare, mostly con. They are expensive, they have high annual maintenance fee’s, and if you trade them there are trading fee’s and you are locked into a specific date, time, and place every year if you don’t trade. So you have to ask yourself are they really worth the costs. 30 years ago we had friends who owned a couple and loved them. For them the cost was much less than renting an equivalent sized unit elsewhere and with trading they felt the flexibility was great. So we initially bought one at Vistana in Orlando right outside Disney on the busiest week of the year July 4th. But we followed what I would call the first rule of timeshares only buy one in the after market, not new, as the price differential is huge. Basically you can buy one from an original owner for around 10% or less of the original cost. We bought our first one from a widow’s estate at a fraction of the original cost. Over the years we have felt we have gotten our money’s worth out of it. Our original unit sleeps 10 people so we have been able to trade for larger units every year and this month we stayed at a 3 BR 3Bath unit at Cypress Point Resort in Orlando and liked it better than our unit at Vistana. The unit was large, comfortable, well equipped, and quiet. We were able to host a family dinner for 12 with a private chef who was able to cook in our large full kitchen which was a big plus. One of our family members had a 1BR 2Bath suite at a Disney property that was quite small and paid 10X for the week what we eventually paid for our unit(annual maintenance fee, trading fee, local resort fee) and our experience elsewhere has been similar. You basically get a much larger unit that can accommodate comfortably 2 or 3 couples at a much lower cost and with a full kitchen you save money on meals. In another case we were on a ski trip having traded our unit for a condo in ski country and while there were told by staff that there were a few units available for sale as the owners had either died or were too old to come and in the end we were given one for free only paying the transfer of the title and assuming the annual maintenance fee again. I cannot guarantee you can get one for free but I do recommend you contact the local management team of any unit you are interested in and see what they know is available. In addition many of the timeshare resorts have websites that have lists of units for sale or rent. In some cases you can rent the week you need from that owner and occasionally the rental fee is quite low. Some owners will rent to you to cover the cost of the annual maintenance fee. When you start looking you will notice thousands of units available. The industry overbuilt to a fault and the main con to owning one is you get stuck with it and cannot sell it. At some point due to age or illness a timeshare outlives it’s usefulness and there are thousands of units to every potential buyer. In many cases you may end up abandoning the unit and having it foreclosed on you. In our case our two have met our needs and provided large comfortable units that have allowed us to take family and friends with us on trips at no additional costs. We currently recommend Cypress Point Resort in Orlando directly across from the Disney Lake Beaune Vista area as an outstanding place to stay.