TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #96 Nov/Dec, 2007 | Page 36

TimeSharing Today Page 38 Nov/Dec, 2007 Two Resorts, Two weeks, Two States By Bill and Jane Betts, Weiser, ID We own five and one-half weeks of various kinds of timeshares, and are usually able to make good use of them. However, this year, I had to settle for two different weeks which weren’t our first choice (or third, for that matter!). One was through RCI, and I was at fault there for not requesting earlier. The one we took through Interval International was not though, because I had requested over a year in advance. Our first exchange was to Celebrity Resorts in Reno, Nevada. It was a RCI exchange for our Rock-a-Way beach week in Rock-a-Way, Oregon. It is very near downtown Reno, but is a very old converted motel. There is parking on site and check in was fast and friendly. We did have to pay a daily fee for parking and a mandatory fee for the safe in the unit, whether we used it or not. Our unit was on the second floor in the back. We did have a hotel cart available for our use. There is a very old, kind of scary elevator, but also [email protected] a lot of walking to get to the unit. The back of the unit faces two apparently abandoned houses with old cars out front. I was worried about safety, but no one ever seemed to be around. Two old motel units are put together to make a “condo.” The entry door is through the bedroom. There is a good-size closet and a bathroom at the entry, and the bedroom has two queen-sized beds, a dresser, TV, two chairs and a sliding glass door to the deck where there is a bar-b-que set up and a small mini golf area. The second part of the unit has a sofa, TV, coffee table, end table sliding glass doors, a bathroom, and small kitchenette where the entry to that unit would have been. The kitchenette has a small bar sink, stove, mini fridge and a microwave on a cart. There are adequate cooking supplies. Air conditioning units were built into a ceiling extension in each room. They are noisy and one didn’t work very well. We were bothered by the noise and constant blowing air. There were lights by each bed and one on either side of the sofa, plus overhead lighting in the entry area and kitchen. Cleaning was adequate, but the toilet was broken in one bathroom and the tub had no stopper. We never figured out how to plug the bar sink either. Noise wasn’t much of a problem, but could have been if many had made use of the areas right outside our units. There was a welcome “breakfast” in the second floor recreation room, but no talk or intro to Reno or the resort. We talked to a couple who had owned there for quite some time, and they are trying to sell. There used to be more services, parking was free and the maintenance fee was much lower (currently $600, they said). Although we were pretty disappointed in the unit, we made good use of our time. We attended two shows, ate some wonderful meals, went out to Pyramid Lake and the Paiute Peoples’ museum there, took a boat ride at Lake Tahoe, and walked through all of the casinos. As we were out and about, we found out about some good specials on m