See my Instagram post at the end to see pictures of the guest units. See the YouTube video above for a video around the resort.
Working at a full-service hotel nearby Disneyland that caters more towards the conference business guest with mostly standard 320 sq. ft. guestrooms & a handful of suites at a Marriott branded property. Of the parents with growing kids going to Disneyland & other Southern California attractions, many of them say that the rooms are too small. My family has been there with my sister & me growing up, staying in the cramped guest rooms while traveling for sports and vacation. Then one day in 2012, my dad got a call from Marriott Vacation Club for their timeshare preview, then later said to my mom, sister, & me, “You might be mad at me, but we accepted a timeshare preview of the Marriott Vacation Club in Newport Beach! Only 22 miles from Disneyland. With spacious units, it is perfect for us to have a lot more room while visiting Orange County.” He was right, however, it required taking out a second mortgage due better than buying a single vacation home. Now, I recommend guests complaining parents stay at the nearby Residence Inn or Spring Hill Suites for suites near Disneyland, or they should look into the Marriott Newport Coast if they want to bring their family or large group, and/or have more itineraries than just Disneyland.
Welcome to The Marriott Vacation Club (MVC) Newport Coast is a 75-acre resort, built on the bluffs in the most expensive areas of Orange County, Newport Coast, the multimillion-dollar neighborhood in Newport Beach, California. It is located across the Pacific Coast Highway to the Pacific Ocean and Crystal Cove State Park. MVC Newport Coast is the closest MVC resort to Anaheim & Disneyland at twenty-two miles away, in fact, my parents are members, and my family & I would stay here a lot when we went to Disneyland and Orange County before moving here as said in the intro. However, we would leave by 10 AM, so we did not have to fight the commute traffic up CA 55 & I-5 to Anaheim. From other points of interest in Southern California, it is nine miles from John Wayne Santa Ana Airport, 47 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, 52 miles from Downtown Los Angeles via Crypto.com Arena, and 86 miles from San Diego, you would stay at the MVC in San Diego at that point. If you are flying in, renting a car is highly advised since driving a car is required to get to most destinations due to the 1960s suburban sprawl of SoCal, ride-share fares would be well over $150 just to get to downtown Los Angeles.
The land of Newport Coast was carved in from a canyon bluff that was originally owned by the Irvine Company, the legacy company of James Irvine, one of the original ranchers of the land in the 1800s for what is now the neighboring cities of Irvine, Tustin, and a couple of parts of Newport Beach, including Newport Coast. Marriott Vacation Club bought the land to build the resort in the 1980s, at the time, the Irvine Company’s golf resort, Pelican Hill, was being built across the street from the resort on Newport Coast Drive. The Irvine Company built most of the housing in the neighborhood as well. To keep things consistent with the adjacent homes & Pelican Hill, the Marriott Vacation Club was built with Mediterranean architecture with darker beige colors, a stucco exterior, and red roof tiles.
The Irvine Company had requested for all units to be two bedrooms & two-bath units, the main bedroom with one king bed & bathroom, and the second room with a queen bed with sleeper sofas and a second bathroom. There is a full kitchen with a full-size fridge, microwave, oven, double basin sink, dishwasher, most cooking utensils needed to cook a meal, and dining ware for eight guests. The living room has a large sleeper sofa, large flat-screen TV, a dining table to seat six, and two bar chairs for the bar across the kitchen sink. In the main bathroom are a double sink vanity, an in-room hot tub, and a separate space for the toilet & shower. The second bathroom has a shower/tub combo with two doors to the bedroom and the living room. There is even an in-unit washer & dryer to clean your clothes from your day at the beach. Room size at 1248 sq.ft./112sq.m., about the same size as my sister & I’s apartment, everyone said it was really spacious and beautiful. There is a patio/balcony, with an outdoor table, and four chairs & views vary spending on the level you are on and which direction you are facing. We always requested ocean-view rooms and got them this time. However, when you first sign up for the timeshares, you face Newport Coast Drive with loud sports cars & motorcycles going up the steep road. The steep grade potion from the base, up the canyon, is 500 ft in elevation for 1.8 miles, 5.3% grade. It is also a brutal uphill climb for cyclists who are up for the challenge, with narrow painted bike lanes next to cars going 60+ MPH uphill. Wi-Fi and parking are at no additional charge, however, no oversize vehicles, please, as there are only standard parking spaces. How does it take to get into this fancy timeshare, and how does the Marriott Vacation Club of MVC work?
Marriott Vacation Club (MVC) is the timeshare arm of Marriott International (NYSE: MAR), via their parent company, Marriott Vacations Worldwide (NYSE: VAC), which is a separate listing on the stock exchange. MVC operates on a points system, owners buy points as a deed to their unit from a state-licensed real estate agent, instead of buying weeks when timeshares first started, to give owners more flexibility on dates and locations to stay. People who buy into the timeshare are called Owners, since they “own” their portion of their time in the unit. People who stay with the owners are their Guests, as they don’t have steak in the ownership. Points are bought from a state-licensed real estate agent via long presentation and bargaining with the agent. Points can be used at the owner’s main resort or other MVC and acquired timeshare properties such as MVC in Las Vegas, San Diego, Hawaii, Palm Desert, Florida, Boston, and more. Unlike Newport Coast, they have units ranging from studios with just a wet bar, to three-bedroom suites with grand living rooms. However, when your arrival dates get closer, an agent would always call you to see if you are interested in more bargaining for points, even if the owner is not going to be there for the reservation and a Guest’s name was added on. *Disclaimer: I work at a Marriott-branded property, I could get discounted timeshare points if I wanted to buy into Ownership if I want to.
In recent years, MVC bought several vacation club companies including brands now under Marriott International: Marriott: Westin, Sheraton, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and the Grand Residences by Marriott. They also bought non-Marriott timeshare companies: Hyatt, Interval International, & Aqua-Aston Hospitality in 2018. Points can be used to book rooms at Marriott International hotels via Vacations By Marriott Vacation Club.
An annual maintenance fee (similar to homeowner association fees, mandated by contract & law to pay) is assessed for each owner a year for the home MVC property. My parents would be at Newport Coast since it is their base resort. This is to upkeep maintenance of the property and furniture, as repaving and furniture replacement is done every few years or so to keep it fresh for the vacation club owners. I captured a picture of a building under renovation with all new furniture being replaced.
For my sister and I, staying here was like a preview of what was to come for my sister & I when we moved to Anaheim such as annoying-loud neighbors stomping on the floor unit above us, sharing the common area amenities, parking correctly, so we don’t park over into our neighbor’s parking spot, thin built unit walls, getting to know the area & Orange County, and living with each other in closer quarters than at home since our parent’s house is double the square footage of the unit.
With the mix of location and only having 2 bed/2bath units, points for here are costly, especially on the weekends which are usually sold out, so we usually during the week. When my family & I went for my sister’s birthday in mid-January, everyone was back to school and work, so rates were at the lowest if you are booking the best available rate at $408 + tax for Marriott Bonvoy Members if you are not an Owner. Owner points are discounted in comparison to the normal rate by 20%. Wi-Fi & parking are included in the rate and no resort fees.
The resort also boasts robust activities programs for the whole family, from painting while sampling wine, to morning yoga, mini kids camp, and more. If organized activities are not your thing, they have plenty of individual activities, such as three pools and activity locations due to the large size of the property, fitness centers, a movie screening room, and even an arcade. You can also get a message at the Spa by the Sea for a nominal fee.
Food and beverage are limited to a Marketplace café that serves select Starbucks coffee and also serves as a souvenir shop with Newport Beach and lifeguard-themed merchandise. There is a bar & grill in the main pool area called La Vista Bar & Grill to enjoy lunch while at the pool. However, since it was January when we were there, it was not the best condition to eat there. A part of the site that would have been space for the restaurants or meeting space is taken up by the timeshare selling space, which is likewise for many MVC properties. But who is here for meetings here besides the timeshare meetings anyway?
While filming around the resort, an older couple pulled me over and asked me this question & I stated the above answer. Even though I was in my workout clothing, they probably think it would not hurt to ask a fellow guest if they knew off the top of their head.
Due to the lack of on-site food & beverage options, owners receive a restaurant discount card to use at local & chain restaurants that sign up for the program. Otherwise, you buy stuff for meals at the grocery store and cook in the in-unit kitchen or grill at the outdoor grills. There is a Pavilion’s grocery store up Newport Coast Drive or Trader Joe’s down the Pacific Coast Highway at the Crystal Cove Shopping Center to buy groceries, water, and other essentials. Please note that the in-unit fridges don’t have a water dispenser, but do have an ice maker in the freezer.
One of the discount-eligible restaurants we loved was Javier’s (full review next post), at the Crystal Cove Shopping Center, about two miles from the resort. Javier’s is a high-end sit-down Mexican restaurant that got started in Laguna Beach, however, due to its popularity, it moved to this much larger location. We love it for the service, ambiance, people watching & their expensive exotic cars, and seeing the multimillion-dollar townhouses purchased above the bluff above the shopping center & dreaming the day we could somehow afford it. Many patrons can be overheard about this (people who say that cannot afford that). How expensive is the food? Let’s just say that it costs $30 for a combination plate of entrée, rice, and beans. However, the cost makes up an attentive wait staff, endless chips & salsa, and location, which I am sure rent is not cheap. We went there every time we stay at the MVC, and we still go there today for birthday celebrations or just to splurge. Some of the people that we bought along before said that the food was okay and a bit expensive, which is understandable, for example, this was the receipt from my sister’s birthday with twelve people. It was really expensive.
Want to head to the beach, Crystal Cove State Park is right down the street from Newport Coast Drive, it is owned & operated by the California Department of Parks & Recreation. The resort, the hillside, Highway 1, the parking lot off of the highway, and a portion of the land past the highway are built on a bluff before a vertical drop to the beach. James Irvine passed away in 1886 and gave the land to his son, James Irvine II, which was his favorite place to visit, so much so, he leased the land to build cottages there in the early 1900s. The cottages now are a historical site and are maintained by the state parks. The park cottages houses are under major renovations and soon can be rentable. Marriott has shuttles from the resort to the historic beach cottages for guests who are not able to walk the beach or if guests have a lot of stuff for their beach time. They also have parked ranger-led tours and a visitors center for park guests to learn about the area. There are two restaurants on-site, the Beachcomber, a sit-down restaurant, and Crystal Cove Shake Shack, a counter-service burger restaurant, not to be confused with the chain Shake Shack of the same name founded in 2001. On the other side of Highway One, is the El Moro Canyon with hiking trails for all difficulty levels in the backcountry of the state park, and see wildlife native to the area before all the housing development. It is definitely on my Hike OC list.
AntSol Travel 