Vida Vacations

After check-in: Greeted by personal concierge, given potent drink, do not drink it until after you decline free breakfast and 1-hour presentation booking slot, even if they insist that you must attend.

If you attend breakfast your salesperson joins you for breakfast then takes you to the isolated sales area, note, no guest WiFi access. They will draw rectangles, acronyms, lines, a dollar sign and cross it out, etc. Ask for a standard contract to review while they are doodling. When they step away note the laptop camera is pointing towards you, they are waiting for you to discuss information to use on the sale closure. Make something up and watch them return to use that information to close the sale. You then meet the manager, taken outside to meet the unscrupulous used car salesman, then taken to a basement to meet the “closer” who actually is a used car salesman. Then told how to leave, unescorted, back to shuttles.

Time wasted: 4 hours.

Gained: Breakfast, tour of property, water view from best balcony, discount on resort fee (keep receipt.)

I have sat through sales pitches on timeshares, travel clubs and the like my share of times; but this one was over the top. The free breakfast buffet and one-hour sales presentation turned into far more than that. My wife was in serious physical distress going through the gauntlet; but little care was shown by several layers of sales people we interacted with.

Things at one pointed nonetheless sounded good; and I actually initially put a deposit down on one deal. Yet in the final, video-recorded close process, yet more things came to light that weren't prior. After another LONG process through a few last-minute pitch attempts, I was able to get these people to refund my money...and THEN finally get on with our honeymoon. Further, after added investigation, we found that most of what was promised was disingenuous (and in part, after visiting with other vacationers there, a couple of whom regretted their own prior purchase but were now making the best of things).

The part aggravating, part comical aspect of all this is that the property was most impressive (though not exactly cheap; we wondered how the families with small children did cost-wise). The grounds were beautiful and impeccably maintained, landscaped, etc. Pretty much to a person, the employees were wonderful and attentive to our every need. We ate some of the best meals we have had anywhere.

In the end, Vidanta's Founder Daniel Chavez has a mid-size Cadillac equivalent of a vacation experience to sell. How and why he sees fit to allow people to sell it as if they were trying to move an old Chevy on its last legs to an unsuspecting sucker I don't understand. So if you vacation to Vidanta, enjoy the experience...but refuse ANY and all attempts to hook you.

We own several timeshares in the states and have been to many sales presentations, but these folks take the cake. They are as smooth as slick Willie in a snake suit. We had to go thru 4 layers of snakes, sales people, to make it out of Jurassic Park. The whole process, from the 20-30 minute cab ride, twice, to the 3 hours of lunch and sales, put us at about 4 hours. We were glad to get back to our cruise ship and sail away, way away. So, please take our advice, us and the other reviews, stay clear and save your money.

To allow an example, I asked him to show me Lucerne Switzerland for August 2023. I knew how much a week's rental was running on Airbnb (where I often book) so this would be a fair test if the package would save me money. At $499 per week, I would be saving at least $1,000 per week in rental if the package was legit. He brought it up on his computer and showed me dozens of places. I asked if they were all available at the cost of $499 per week. He said yes, all of these would be available at $499 per week in Lucerne, Switzerland. So, thinking it was a good deal I bought it.

Then, after the rescind period passed I find out that NOTHING in the WHOLE country of Switzerland is available. For any date, let alone in August. Whatever Darryl showed all 6 of us was NOT the real deal. And the contract states that Limitless Vacations does not assume any promises made by their sales people. In other words, the sales people can demonstrate the product, you think you're going to get that product, but you won't. And you also won't get your money back. If you are reading this, and within your 5 days to rescind, do so!

The free stays they’ll pressure you to upgrade and spend an arm and a leg to do it. When you refuse all of it and ask how to cancel, they’ll either A) Put you on hold indefinitely so you can’t get through to talk to someone, B) Sound understanding and tell you to just stop paying the bank your Loan (horrible, dangerous advice), C) Try and ignore all your concerns and get you to book your “free” week or, D) Ignore you and all of your follow ups going forward. It’s horrible. It’s sleazy. It’s dishonest. The hotel isn’t even that nice and everything they say in the meeting is misleading. I could not have worse things to say. And I actually have parents and friends with timeshares that ARE good and helpful so I’m not a total timeshare hater. But this my friends… this is a flat-out scam.

I received a phone call from Hawaiin Vacations last week to find out that in order to receive what we were promised we would have to pay an additional $3000 & they do not SELL our current timeshare. They can only have us deposit our points with them. We were verbally told that I would be able to get everything that the platinum package provides but they omitted to tell us it would cost us an additional $3000.

After paying the $3000, the platinum package includes a reoccurring fee of $99 a year instead of $299 a year for basic plan, 100% inventory, 40 weeks on the platform that never expire, 4 authorized users on the account, 2 free cruises a year, airfare, prorated nightly room rates, gain full access to Hawaiian Vacations Maintenance fee Protection & Platinum Rental Program which means Hawaiin Vacation would be our property manager, small brokerage fee, to advertise and rent out our units for us for the units we don't use to receive money back to make a profit.

I also thought and was told that if we don't use our timeshare, we would be able to rent out our units on our own, to get cash back, through VRBO or Airbnb using Vidanta website pictures and descriptions BUT to do this there is a $3000 fee to initiate rentals through those websites and the lowest I can go to rent for a week is $850 - $1900 BECAUSE I'M NOT PLATINUM, which means NO PROFIT! Platinum for a week is $699 to $899 and I am currently $850 - $1900 for a week in the basic plan. Under the platinum plan at additional $3000 if we chose to rent out our units, we would make a profit ... that one's a kicker because without the platinum package our weeks will cost is $850 for a room and $1900 for a suite for a week!

Here is another issue I have and that's the Ambassador Program. We were told we were chosen because we live in Washington State, and they wanted more people from our State to check out the Vidanta properties. We were given 10, 8-day 7-night accommodation certificates which include ground transportation from airport to resort. They stated for us to donate these 10 certificates to Make a Wish Foundation in Washington State and when Make a Wish Foundation auctions them off, we get paid for each certificate auctioned off. We could get up to $5000 a year if all 10 are auctioned off and any money collected gets put on a Vidanta visa which we would collect when we go on a vacation at a Vidanta property. We are supposed to get 10 certificates this year and an additional 10 certificates next year which could bring in $10,000 in 2 years.

In the paperwork, there is no directions on how to donate these certificates to Make a Wish Foundation in order for us to get our certificate credits. I contacted Vidanta and requested help on the process to get a return email that states the following "Make a Wish Foundation & Vidanta Resorts are two separate and independent companies. Therefore, to receive accurate information regarding my request to donate certificates, I should contact Make a Wish Foundation in Washington State directly." WHAT!!!! Vidanta is who signed me up for the Ambassador Program and now that I have questions, they can't help me!!!? Nowhere in the paperwork does it tell you how to donate certificates to charities nor is there any contact information for questions. We are left in the dark on how to donate and make sure that we get financial credit for the certificates we are donating.

We don't want to donate and take the chance that Make a Wish Foundation doesn't know anything about the program, and we do not receive the $5000 as was stated to me once all 10 certificates have been auctioned off. The welcome package for the Ambassador program does not mention CHARITIES. It only mentions friends, family, colleagues and also states that guests only pay the usage fee for the room type in our contract which without platinum it's $850 (room) to $1900 (suite) for a week depending on if they want an entire suite or a bedroom. That's a rip-off for a week!!!! Nobody is going to want a certificate for a week for that price, therefore, we won't get any money back.

When we were sold this Ambassador package, we did the math and thought to ourselves that there was no way we could lose but this is farthest from the truth! We feel that we were frauded for their gain. We signed the contract, after being there 6 hours and wanting to leave, TRUSTING that what we spoke about was what we're receiving. Shame on us for trusting them!!! We will be going all over the internet to let everyone know to steer clear of purchasing ANYTHING with Vidanta properties because we feel we have been ripped off!!! We DEMAND ALL OF OUR MONEY BACK otherwise we will be very vocal about your lies on ALL PLATFORMS!!!

I just found out that club freedom is another type of luxury timeshare with prices out of my pocket. That club freedom is useless unless you are a millionaire. We wasted our hard earned money on this crap. My mother is retired and is living out of his pension, part of her money went there. It's so shameful. The park was supposed to be opened this month and did not happen. They also sold us a suite in the Kingdom of the sun which is still under construction. It was too much information and we were already tired of being there. Hopefully, this helps someone save their money.