In mid-May, we spent at week at Wyndham Kingsgate Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia as part of a special promotion by RCI, the timeshare trading company. Our Trip Report on that trip is divided into three segments: travel and activities, accommodations, and restaurants. This is the segment on our accommodations.
Through a special promotion by the timeshare trading company RCI, we took a week in a one-bedroom unit at Wyndham’s Kingsgate Resort, just a short distance from the Williamsburg Historic District.
The resort is about half a mile off the US Route 60 Bypass, which is far enough away that you don’t hear the traffic noise or feel the hustle and bustle or sense of urgency you can feel at other US 60 locations. The property itself is attractive and appeared to be well-maintained. An on-site pond was serving as home to two separate families of Canada geese and a family of mallard ducks during our stay.
Check-in was easy and efficient with a good resort map and good directions to our unit, one of 600 or so on the property. The multi-unit buildings are patterned after colonial-style construction and are spaced in a way which makes the resort seem far more intimate than the number of units would suggest.
Our one-bedroom unit with a mini-kitchen lived up to the RCI advisory that “units with mini-kitchens are best suited for an adult couple or a couple with small children.” It was “snug” at best. The “kitchen” table had only two chairs; the sink was approximately ten inches on a side (making washing larger pots and pans a challenge); and the counter top provided a foot-square or less area not already taken up by the coffee-maker or toaster – not enough room to prep any substantial kind of meal, even for just two people. The bedroom was equally “snug” with room for a nightstand on one side of the bed but not the other (I always get nervous when the only place to put my eyeglasses overnight is on the floor beside the bed!). The “living room”, immediately adjacent to the kitchen table, consisted of a sleep-sofa, upholstered chair, coffee table and entertainment unit supporting the flat-screen television. The built-in sound system seemed nice, but required an I-pod, which we don’t have. In contrast to the rest of the unit, the bathroom was modern and spacious.
All of the kitchen appliances worked well and there was a generous supply of dishes, cups, glassware, flatware and utensils – to the point that there was literally no unoccupied drawer or cabinet space for groceries or other storage! We were most thankful we’d planned to keep our in-unit meal prep to a minimum.
Overall, the unit seemed a bit “dark”, with just one standard-sized window each in the living room and bedroom to provide outside light – and the living room one was tucked in under the overhang for the porch providing access to the front door of our half of the building.
The resort staff was friendly and helpful. A call to the front desk regarding a burned out bulb in one of the lights brought a maintenance person with a replacement bulb, which he happily installed for us, in less than half an hour from the time we called.
The Activities Center was as good as we’ve seen at other timeshares -- with an indoor pool, an outdoor pool (not yet open for the season), a miniature golf course, a multi-station computer center, and a large, modern arcade which included a Wii game set-up, complete with special hours set aside for “senior” users. The resort does charge a mandatory $5 per day per unit activities fee whether you use the activities center or not. And their only access to the Internet other than their computer center (included in the activities fee) is through a local, contracted Wi-Fi provider whose fees make the computer center (or one of the local sandwich shops or fast-food outlets) a better economic choice.
All told, Kingsgate provides a clean, centrally-located, convenient base for a multi-day visit to Colonial Williamsburg and the surrounding area. Next time though, we might ask about the cost of an upgrade to a slightly larger unit.
Unfortunately, our experience with the on-site Wyndham timeshare sales staff completely overshadowed the more positive portions of our visit. Don’t confuse the sales staff and resort staff – the resort staff was terrific; the sales staff abysmal!
It began at check-in, where the “Welcome Desk” (separate from the registration desk), invited us to a free “RCI 35th Anniversary Breakfast” at another Wyndham resort nearby “to discuss your RCI opportunities and experiences.” When we declined, saying we’d had previous bad experiences with Wyndham sales representatives and suggested it would turn into a sales presentation, they declined to say it wasn’t a sales presentation and continued to press their “free breakfast” offer, stopping only when we declined more firmly and walked away. They then phoned our unit on three successive mornings (waking us up on two of them) to repeat their invitations, despite our repeated responses that we were not interested in their breakfast or their presentation. It was only after some forceful language on our part that they agreed to stop calling. A similar experience with the Wyndham timeshare sales folks in Williamsburg last year suggests that they have no problem being less than truthful to get you to one of their sales presentations and no respect for your responses as a potential customer!
Apparently it hasn’t occurred to their sales staff that potential customers aren’t likely to be in the mood to buy anything whatsoever if they’ve been lured to the sales presentation under false pretenses or attend only to stop the harassing phone calls from ruining their vacation. Accept their invitations at your own risk and believe their assertions at your own peril!
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