We really enjoyed that stateroom and the location. The cabin steward we had was one of the best we’ve had on RCI. Hopefully he’ll be yours as well. Thanks for watching.

Everything didn’t suck. However, the food in general on our sailing was substandard for what we expected from RCI. To not be able to get a drink refilled during a meal service that lasted greater than 90 minutes is unforgivable at ANY restaurant, cruise ship or land based. Thanks for watching

The train took approx 37 minutes from the airport to Union Station downtown. Thanks for watching

Once onboard you can sign up on the Royal Caribbean app. Guests on our cruise were limited to one ride in order to give all guests an opportunity to ride Thanks for watching

Perhaps the tower rooms are nicer. The three story wings looked like a very old Homewood Suites that hadn’t been maintained. It was very disappointing for a Hilton brand hotel. Thanks for watching

Based on several friends I have that cruise other lines, the quality has declined considerably since we had cruised last. I feel our expectations based on experiences from 14 years ago was unrealistic. That said, we were disappointed. We have one more cruise booked with Royal on a smaller ship. If the experience isn’t any better we’ll be done with cruising. Thanks for watching. I hope your experience is better than ours

I’m not paid to review cruises so I can be brutally honest. In a restaurant where I can’t get a refill over the course of a 90 minute meal, I’m not going to give a glowing review. A 4 to 6oz cut of prime rib that has brown gravy on it is a few steps lower than Applebee’s IMHO. A piece of pepperoni pizza that has one thin slice of pepperoni isn’t going to impress me either. I could gloss it all over, but that would t be honest.

As a Diamond status member and having only sailed on Royal Caribbean, I’d say we’ve been just the opposite up to this cruise. Just because we’ve been “Loyal to Royal” doesn’t mean I’ll on;y look at RCI through rose colored glasses. When it’s not good IMHO, I’m going to say it’s not good. Thanks for watching

I laughed when he said the fish and chips tasted horribly fishy. 😂

@@dianebrooks1889 it might be difficult to believe, but fish should not have that “fishy” taste. That’s often a sign the fish has turned bad or is poor quality. Thanks for watching

Fixed it! Thanks for Watching

It’s the one resort where having the bellman bring your luggage to your room is the best option. Thanks for watching

We really enjoyed the corner unit, but we were also in the very end building. Views may vary based on the building. We felt fortunate to get that specific unit. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching. As of right now I don’t have a part two as we aren’t traveling to Branson this year. Perhaps we’ll return and update the video in 2025

It some ways yes. The shower in the guest bath is nicer than the tub/shower in most MVC units. The subzero refrigerator is a big upgrade. The walk in closet and separate laundry room (I forgot to add to the video) are nice. The accordion door for the balcony was great. Other than that, everything else seemed to be standard fare for an MVC timeshare. The unit are due for renovation beginning in August per the front desk. It will be interesting to see if MVC maintains these units to the current standard or downgrades where it can.

The resort itself is lovely and it has a great location. So long as you use the bell hops to bring your luggage up to the room it’s not as big of an issue unless you’re mobility impaired. OTOH, Marriott’s Kaua’i Lagoons is just down the street, but it’s all 2 and 3 bedrooms rather than a mix of studio, one and two bedrooms like KBC. Thanks for watching.

That makes sense, but it’s still the smallest bathroom I’ve seen in a MVC resort, even for a lock-off. Thanks for watching

We were able to exchange for it and were given both rooms. It was really a lot of room. Beautiful room and view! We had a great time!

We were only there 2 nights, and it was basically a spot to store our luggage and use the resort as a place to relax before our red eye flights home. I didn’t see any construction going on during our time there. The entire set up as it stands is one of the absolute worst of any resort or hotel we’ve been too. We visited the resort 14 years ago and the main lobby was the same then as it is today, but I don’t remember the long walk. What I recalled was entering the beautiful main lobby and walking right out to the Koi Ponds. With MVC’s current situation and the smaller hotel conversion rooms coupled with all the resorts acquired in the ILG acquisition, it wouldn’t surprise me to see MVC remove its name from this resort in the future. IMO the only thing KBC has going for it is the location and the pools. After that it’s the last resort I’d consider when staying on Kaua’i in the MVC family of resorts.

@@dougstimesharetravels9378MVC can't exactly remove their name when there are over 12,000 deeded owners holding weeks there.

You’d like to think that but it’s happened more than once with MVC. Once with Swallow Tail on Hilton Head Island and then again in Vail with one or two of the buildings there. In Vail those building were Bluegreen, which has now become Hilton Vacation Club. I believe Swallow Tail remains an I dependently managed resort. MVC also threatened to take its name off Beachplace Towers several years ago before coming to an agreement with the HOA and is now in a battle with the Lake Tahoe Grand Residences HOA and May remove its name from that resort. It’s not unprecedented for a resort to change management companies/brands without the owners consent. Sunterra became Diamond which has now become Hilton as a for instance. Any resort which does live up to Marriotts “standards” will always be at risk of losing the Marriott brand. Thanks for watching

@@dougstimesharetravels9378 Interesting! Thanks!

I hope you enjoyed your stay at Willow Ridge Lodge. It is one of the nicer resorts in Branson, although February is definitely off season for that area. Thanks for watching

Thanks for watching, even though it’s usually open when we are there, I can’t say we’ve ever dipped a toe in the pool.

We’ve only toured the ocean side units, but my impression was the center balcony units were essentially the same. Every 4th floor there’s an extended balcony the goes out a little further from the building. Those are really. Ice in that your view of the beach is unobstructed when standing by the railing.

Its a nice little park with great views. Reasonably priced. If nothing else the mountain coaster they have is one of the best.

I’m not a big fan or arriving late either. This time it was a flight delay that got us in late. We’ll, that and stopping to eat on the way from the airport to Vail. I was a little surprised that the unit set up was nearly identical to the 2 bedroom, unit in SF. I guess when Marriott designed its timeshares, the cookie cutter design worked for high end as well as regular resorts

The Marriott SF Pulse has a really good location if your a tourist in SF. It’s within walking distance to a lot of things SF has to offer, public transportation and a lot of good restaurants. The Pulse is a good choice if your looking for a hotel room and a great location but don’t need a lot of the extras offered at many timeshare locations.

I had always assumed they closed the Gondola in the Sprig/Fall seasons because it was slower. This past trip one of the resort employees also mentioned it was closed due to the Elk migration in the fall.

Oddly enough, we never spent the night. We were staying at the Ritz Carlton Club and Residences on Market. I had a studio unit exchange that was about to expire and decided to us it to exchange for a unit at the Pulse, just so we could see what it was like. Since it was a Marriott to Marriott exchange there was no cost.

Yes. I bought shortly after you suggested one.

Thanks for watching, and I agree. In the last few videos I’ve eliminated the intro.

If you’ve never been to Branson before, learn the alternate traffic routes. The traffic can be extremely slow on the main drag.

@@dougstimesharetravels9378 Not the driver, been once, many years ago. I trust the driver to know. First road trip in years for me.

No. We’re HGVC owners and we reserved this through their owner website

Thank you for watching. We’re mid-westerner and mostly own in the Marriott system. We only own one standard two bedroom co tract with Hilton. The majority of our timeshare ownership is with Marriott and the two traders we have are in II. Generally speaking, we stay around the Midwest, Rocky Mountains and western US. Our next videos will be from Branson, MO in July, Breckenridge, CO in August, Vail, CO in July, Riviera Beach in December, Kauai, Hawaii in Feb and an Alaskan Cruise next May. We travel a lot by average standards, but our channel doesn’t compete with the monetized channels that do this to earn money. You’ll have a better chance of seeing Hiltons new Charleston resort with Cliff’s channel, Timeshare Travler. Cliff is an Elite HGVC/Max owner and spends most of his time touring various resorts. He does a lot with Hilton and Wyndham. Jeremy has Destination Timeshare and posts weekly about the timeshare industry. Destination; Timeshare covers the entire industry and what’s going on, but his resort tours are mainly Marriott or Vistana resorts as, like us, that’s where he owns most of his timeshare portfolio, he and his wife will use II getaways, but that doesn’t cover Hilton properties.

Parking was still free when we were there this past March. No resort fees for timeshare owners. I don’t know about those who book nights through Hiltons hotel site

@@dougstimesharetravels9378 Thanks for replying. Hopefully that's still the case. Info is very vague... Saying that you must park in mile shops garage and basically pay full price. And Hilton has fees, around $28 per day, however I'm doing Timeshare Exchange. Not Hilton owner directly.

@@Vlad2277 At check in make sure they know you have a car and ask for a garage pass. They’ll give you a room key or card with a barcode. You’ll scan the barcode to both enter and exit the garage. On our trip the year before I didn’t ask and they didn’t give me a garage card. I did ask about the parking charges the next day. They took the charges off my account and gave me a barcode. You don’t have to use the card to enter if you don’t want to, but you do have to use it to exit unless you want the charge added to your folio with Hilton

@@dougstimesharetravels9378 Thanks again for your help