hooterbif

OK, I live in upstate New York, and I like vacations at ocean resorts. My vacations are always free because of Starwood points that I accrue, but I can usually only access regular hotel rooms (not 1 or 2 bedrooms). Should I buy a timeshare at Lagunamar?

pokeable

http://www.tug2.net/advice/Starwood_...on_Network.htm

Fantastic resource. I think it really depends on your travel plans, how many people you travel with, who you buy from, etc.

Starwood, Marriott place restrictions on timeshares bought as a resale (*wood, Marriott doesn't let you redeem your unused timeshare weeks to *points, MR points to be used throughout their hotel systems, *wood also restricts access to their in-house week trading system for resales excluding the AZ, HI, and USVI St John property).

If you can find one at Westin Kierland, the Hawaii properties, or the St John property on the cheap, I personally would consider it.

leisure32

Does anyone know if wireless internet is available? In the rooms, pool area, beach?

Thanks!

pjp65

Rooms - yes
pool area - yes
beach - not sure, didn't try

concierge told us it worked everywhere in the resort.

leisure32

Thanks for the information so far on this place.

How big are the balconies? Can you have a couple of lounge chairs and a table and hang out there during the day/evening or is it cramped?

Thanks!

pjp65

somewhat cramped. there is just enough room for 2 regular chairs and a table, which is what they have. 2 lounge chairs would not fit.

Boraxo

WiFi is theoretically available in the rooms but as a practical matter the service is mediocre or nonfunctional in many rooms. Fortunately all rooms have a DSL line though regrettably the cable is pretty short which will restrict where you can surf the 'net.

jnswinnipeg

The one-bedrooms have four chairs and the studios have two.

leisure32

So the 1 bedroom balconies are bigger that the studio? By about how much 50%? more?

TIA!

jnswinnipeg

25% bigger maybe, but not 50%. They are an ok size, but a little tight with four chairs.

US1@ORF

Wife and I will be staying for 4 nights in May of this year. Can you tell us more about the shopping mall across the street. Is it really close? Easy to walk to, i.e. traffic not a problem crossing the street? What are the dining options? Is there a grocery or wine store where we could pick up some things that are probably more reasonably priced than at the convenience market at the resort? Any other tips that you can share would be helpful.

Thanks,
James

Boraxo

Yes - across the street.

Yes - across the street. And on the last visit there were traffic cops stopping traffic for pedestrians during early evening.

Yes - across the street. But the prices in the resort market are pretty competitive - unusal but true. There is also an XO market about 10 minutes walk up the street that has even cheaper prices on certain items.

Try reading the prior posts and the tripadvisor reviews which answer all of these questions.

pjp65

It is very close - right across the street- and traffic was not really a problem. You cross over 2 lanes at a time. Cars seem to slow down for pedestrians.

From what I can recall, some of the dining options were Chili's, Johnny Rockets, Senor Frog's, a few ice cream shops, Starbucks and Planet Hollywood.

We walked around looking for a grocery store, but couldn't find anything more than a couple of deli's. I thought the little market at the resort was reasonably priced for the basics. if you are looking for ingredients to cook a meal i think your best option would be Walmart.

TL2000

Mrs. TL2000, Baby TL2000 and I just returned from a great vacation here. The Mrs. is going to post a great detailed review of our stay, but I'll just say that it is perfect for families.

That being said, we did have an issue with the ATM that dispenses USD. We made a withdraw from the ATM, accepted their roughly $5 US fee and knew we were going to pay another 3% to our bank.

I didn't think anything of this until we got home and I checked our account. The ATM network was trying to charge us roughly another 12% on the transaction, that wasn't noted anywhere on the receipt.

We obviously filed a claim with our bank's fraud department and they sent us a letter saying that they couldn't help us because it was a foreign ATM network and they were claiming that the charges were valid.

My local branch resolved the issue by just crediting the money back into our account, but I'm guessing this has happened to others. They said they would probably just end up eating it b/c it would cost them more than the amount to deal with the foreign bank.

Other than that, it was a great property.

Does anyone know the appropriate group to contact at Starwood to let them know about this? I'm guessing they would want to know that this ATM network is trying to rip their guests off.

Sam P. Goodman

There's a great taco shop on the bottom floor of La Isla near the water. It's a great non-chain option.

As for grocery shopping in town, you might try Soriana or Mega. We preferred Soriana. Kind of a Mexican Wal-Mart, but not actually Wal-Mart. Costco had amazing pre-marinated Arrachera that grilled up nicely.

Sounds shady. We withdrew pesos (pesos in Mexico, crazy I know) at their ATMs and didn't have any such problems. I know that everyone in Cancun takes USD, but pesos generally go a lot further (and take a little bit of the ugly out of ugly American) so I'd definitely recommend going that route in the future. Regardless, I hope they get that sorted out.