Bluegreen Vacations Mountain Loft, Ascend Resort Collection

I have been coming here for 12 years now with my family. The units are very well maintained, clean and roomy. Perfect for a family getaway.
If you have the option, definitely book the townhome unit. It’s like staying in a cabin all weekend.
The resort itself is higher up towards the mountains, so you can enjoy beautiful views during your stay.
The resort has multiple pools, hot tubs, an arcade, gym and sauna. Definitely go down to the clubhouse and enjoy their indoor/​outdoor pool!
The staff is always very helpful and informative about the area and things to do while you are at the resort. If you do not want to participate in the owner’s meetings, just politely tell them no. They are only doing their job!
Also, if you plan on doing any «touristy» things while in Gatlinburg, make sure you ask them about discounted prices on tickets!
Coming back in July and I cannot wait!

The resort is well-​maintained, nothing is broken or is in disrepair. Updated furniture clean linen, plenty of towels and nice color scheme. The indoor pool and dry sauna a nice touch. Staff is very friendly. This resort is tucked away behind the hustle and bustle that is Pigeon Forge, yet close enough to all of the tourist attractions. J-​Dawg would approve.

We have stayed here 2 times now and it has been a great experience every time! The rooms are always clean and the staff is more than friendly! We will definitely stay here again!

Do not trust Bluegreen. We were connected to them via Choice Hotels because Choice wanted us to try their Ascend properties. We were offered 3 days and 2 nights for $ 99 and chose The Great Smoky Mountains. We paid our money, but had to put off our travel plans for awhile due to finances and my husband’s job. We finally were able to nail down a chance to go on our vacation, but were told that if we didn’t meet their income requirement (which we do not now and did not when we paid for the vacation), we would have to pay full retail price. I asked what that was and was told they didn’t know and we would be told when we checked in. They claim they told us in the initial phone conversation about the income requirement, but we would not have given them any money if we’d known about that. They claim it was in the paperwork they sent, but if it was in the initial paperwork, it was in the tiny print at the bottom of the back page. That’s where it was buried in the letter confirming the vacation when I booked it. This sort of bait-​and-​switch is reprehensible. They are now refusing to refund our money because they give 30 days for us to cancel. I checked the email they sent me the day we paid our money and there was nothing about any requirements for us to take advantage of this offer. All we want is our payment back. The $ 99 may not be much to them, but it would be a lot to us. We were told we could wait to see if we met the income requirement later (the offer expires in November 2016), or we could transfer the vacation to someone that does meet the requirement and that person could stay in the room with us. Neither of these options are acceptable as we know we won’t meet the requirement and don’t want to take someone with us on what is supposed to be a romantic getaway.

We are owners here, and after this experience I am seriously considering selling. We were put in a cabin in which we killed about 10 bugs in a 3 hour span after checking in. My wife woke up in the middle of the night with bugs, yes multiple bugs, crawling on her. The next morning we went to an owners meeting in which they tried to sell more stuff to us. We couldn’t afford too much more at the time and I expressed that, but was pushed in an incredibly rude and aggressive way to purchase more. The only saving grace is that the staff sent people to help move our luggage to a newer, nicer cabin. However, the other cabin had bugs as well (go figure). I suggest they check thoroughly for bugs everytime someone stays. I can never justify staying here again. For what we pay for it, it’s atrocious.

It’s a nice place, and our family has had a good time here each of 3 times over the last year we have been fortunate enough to have been given points by some good friends of ours. Still, there are some oddities:
We stayed in a newly renovated building this time, and here are a few mostly minor quirks:
1.) There is plenty of pressure in the sinks and bathtub, but the shower is very weak. This is due to the fact that they have installed water saving shower heads. Of course, it takes 10 minutes to wash the soap out of your hair, and you have to cup water in your hand and splash it on your groin and rear to get these under-​areas washed off. Forget about your feet. By the time the water gets down there, it’s almost nothing more than a mist. So, it takes twice as long to get a shower. How are they saving water? At the price they charge for these rooms, shouldn’t they be able to afford to pay the water bill?! I suggest bringing along with you a wrench and your own shower head. ;)
2.) They have gone with those weird spaghetti bulbs in the bedrooms. So, it gives off a glow like a communist stairwell (a gulag or something). It makes you feel kind of sick, during the day, especially. Imagine those irritating people with the halogen headlights in your rear-​view mirror on a long and late drive at night. I much prefer the standard incandescent, but thanks to Bush and Obama, those cost almost as much as the fluorescent types these days!
3.) This is a newly renovated room, as I stated, but the pilot light on the fireplace had to be lit, and the spatula, cookie sheet, and kitchen sink plug were all missing. The staff was plenty nice about fixing these things. LIke the rest, it’s only a minor nuisance (well, except for #1 and #6, which are more moderate annoyances).
4.) The suction hole for the new hot-​tub is concerning. Rather than having a filter-​guard over it, it is just an open hole with a VERY powerful suction! I cannot overstate this! Even an adult has to be careful about getting ANY body part near this hole, even the back of a hand. Think about a child (and we had a 19-​month old in there as well as a 6 year old)! It doesn’t make any sense why there is not a guard over it like the one we have at home (Jacuzzi brand).
5.) The checkout time is 10:00 AM! Now, in the past, they have been pretty good about letting us have a nice extension. Again, the responsiveness of the staff corrects many mistakes.
6.) UNEXPLAINABLY, the WIFI costs $ 7.95 PER NIGHT, unless you opt for the LIMITED «complimentary» version! Why would you purposely LIMIT Internet service for your high-​paying customers when much lesser and much cheaper motels provide full access for «FREE»?! Aren’t the customers paying enough already to keep the Internet bill paid?! This is the second biggest quirk, next to #1, maybe tied with it. I dare ANYONE to defend this one!
This place does a lot of things RIGHT! I probably should spend time listing them, but I’ll just say it’s pretty much everything else! I am not writing this from the standpoint of someone paying for it, so my view might would be different one way or the other if I were. At any rate, this place deserves a good rating. I just wish they would REPLACE THE WATER-​SAVING SHOWER HEADS with full flow heads more than ANYTHING else (and make FULL Internet access «complimentary»)! It’s being more than paid for, and guests deserve an EXCELLENT shower, and those heads are just weak and pitiful, a limp stream coming out that makes you ask, «Why bother?!».
OVERALL: THUMBS UP! To the staff: THANKS for making a nice and pleasant and enjoyable and relaxing stay for our family, THREE TIMES now! :)

What a hole in the wall! We noticed they are doing renovations on the other side of the building. I’m sure our villa will get a face lift within the week. The villa we stayed in was very very dated. It was dingy. Paint is peeling off the walls, washer was broken and the floors (both carpeting and tile) were stained. I’m glad I don’t invest in these timeshares or i would have to raise hell

We were suckered into a time-​share «sampler» with Bluegreen after sitting through their «1-​hour» sales pitch (turned into more than just 1 hr). Thank GOD we didn’t buy into this God-​awful timeshare. We came to Mountainloft in Gatlinburg because there was no week-​long availability at any of the other resorts. Unfortunately, they only had a standard 1-​bedroom «villa» at Mountainloft. We had to take what we could get because we only have a couple months left to use up 13,000 points (we’ve had these points for almost 2 years). Ok, on to the review of this less-​than-​luxurious place… When we arrived at Mountainloft the front desk person was working alone and had way too much going on so she couldn’t sufficienty attend to us, though she was a nice person, she was way to busy. We asked for an upgrade, so she handed us a key that worked in two different units. She told us we could pick the unit we liked better. We went into the «Deluxe» unit first — «Deluxe» means that it is bigger than the standard 1-​BR. It was not clean. The bed was all disheveled and there were dirty towels on the floor and in the bathtub. Yuck. There was also a weird smell in the room, sort of like bleach and chemicals and mustiness. We went to the other room and the key didn’t work. We went back to the front desk and told her we’d take the room that is clean. It was already 10pm and we just wanted to relax. Our room was in the bottom floor of building 4, very much like a dungeon. It was very small and cramped, but at least it was relatively clean. The bathroom floor tiles had ZERO grout and you could see all the dirt and grime in between the tiles. The bathroom vanity has water damage at the bottom and the wood is discolored and rotting and the vanity door was warped and falling off. The walls of the bathroom have some gross outdated yellow popcorny looking wallpaper stuff that is bubbled up in places. The bathroom and kitchen are circa 1990 and have never been updated. There was a fake plant in the bathroom that was covered in dust. Why bother putting a nasty looking dusty plant in an outdated bathroom? The dining room table was crammed into the living room up against the sliding glass door. The screen door was falling off and the green painted metal railing on the patio was all peeling and rusty. The patio was is on the same level as the pool where we get to see the unmatching, falling-​apart deck furniture. We were also laughing at the wild green onions that are about 3 feet tall around the flower bushes, along with the clusters of weeds among the mulch and landscaping. We also had a good chuckle about the lifeguard sign that was laying in the bushes. We didn’t expect luxury, but this place is pretty bad. We considered paying $ 119/​night down the street at the Hilton, but decided to tough it out at Mountainloft since we already paid for for this scam 2 years ago. I would not recommend this place AT ALL.

We are Bluegreen owners and really enjoyed our weekend here and will certainly be back for a longer stay. The layout is excellent and would be very comfortable for a week long stay.
The view from our balcony was amazing and the location is perfect for us, since we enjoy hiking and exploring the artists shops of Glade road more than the tourist stuff and traffic of the main strip.
Everything in the room functioned properly though the décor is VERY dated and the furniture is getting pretty frayed. Huge renovation in progress based on the dumpsters and work crews on the parking lot.
Looking forward to bringing the kids up for a long weekend. Deducted a star for the frayed furniture, look forward to seeing it post renovation

We stayed here a week in late August, and I’d be happy go back if we return to Gatlinburg.
Pros:
The location is beautiful. My family loved swimming in the pools, surrounded by mountains. We had a car, so found the short drive into Gatlinburg no problem at all. Plus, we stayed during after the peak summer season but before the peak fall season, so traffic and parking weren’t troublesome. But that might be a problem at a different time of year.
The master suite in the two-​bedroom villa we stayed in has its own balcony, which was a definite bonus. The balcony does overlook the other villas, so it’s not as private as I would like. But it was nice.
Showers were nice and hot, although the water pressure was lower than I prefer.
Our villa was clean and fully updated — stainless steel-​look kitchen appliances, flat-​screen TVs, etc. The washing machine washed and the dryer dried, which we haven’t always gotten at other resorts.
My kids, husband and mother-​in-​law absolutely RAVED about the swimming pools. They tried the one at the main lodge and the one near our villa. (I didn’t go swimming.) They said the water was wonderfully warm.
Cons:
We exchanged for this resort through Interval World, and when we arrived, the resort didn’t have our reservation. They found us a very nice villa. But in peak season, that might not have been possible. We may have arrived all the way from Wisconsin with no place to stay.
The villas were a little small. The living area was probably 13×20 or so, which is not a lot of room for the six people (including three small children) that we had staying there. The second bedroom is only big enough for two single beds. We made it work, but a little more space would have been nice.
Wi-​Fi was spotty. Sometimes it worked well. Other times it didn’t. I don’t know why.
Overall, we weren’t bowled over by our experience at the resort. But we went to Gatlinburg for the mountains and the entertainment in the area. Our villa was clean and comfortable. We’d go back.

Overall, this was not a good place to stay. We stayed 1 week here and another week in Pigeon Forge. This was a total disappointment after the first week. We had a small one bedroom unit with a full kitchen. I would give the unit 1−½ stars, but can’t.
Pros
1. We had a good view of the mountains on the balcony. This was the best thing about the unit.
2. TV in master bedroom
3. Small washer/​dryer in unit.
4. Gatlinburg is close to the smokies, but resort is not within walking distance to Gatlinburg
5. Free wifi. It was fairly fast.
6. We needed a baking pan and they brought it to us quickly.
Cons
1. Dishwasher was broken.
2. Couch was horrible to sit on. Totally worn out. Pull out bed was crap too. We went out and bought a blow up mattress for our boys to sleep on.
3. Other furniture was in poor shape also, but was adequate.
4. The staff is not friendly at all when checking in.
5. The kitchen was very small. If you open the fridge door, you can’t get by.
6. Toilet area smelled bad.
7. Only enough plates/​glasses/​silverware for four. You need to constantly wash dishes.
8. Odd placement of light switches.
9. There were no activities planned for the week which is very unusual for timeshares.
10. There are no basketball or tennis courts on property.
It could be a good place but management has really let it go. We still had a great time but the unit was uncomfortable.

Stayed here 2 nights. Loved the room. Only downfall was the walls are paper thin. We could hear man next room over clear his throat all night. 1 bd villa was perfect for us. Also close by a grocery store

My family has been with Bluegreen for a long time now and this has been the worst experience we’ve ever had. I will start with the goods since there are very few of them…
1) Location. Its nice that the resort isn’t right in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge so its not crowded .
2) The main resort pool is great. It always feels good. They did however fail to mention the maintenance that was going to be going on that would block off sections of the pool for a few days.
Now onto the bad…
1) Terrible WiFi. They say the WiFi is FREE but you can hardly use it unless you are in the check in building.
2) 3 weeks before leaving for vacation we called to check to make sure the rooms were still good to go. They tried to say we only paid for 1 room and we had to prove that we paid for 2 of them. Then on our arrive at the resort they once again tried saying we only paid for 1 room and we had to prove we paid for two.
3) Somewhat goes along with #2. Since they failed to record that we paid for both units, our units weren’t connected like they promised they would do since we had 8 people going.
4) Terribly insulated walls. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if the unit connected to us wasn’t filled with 7 kids and parents that wouldn’t control them. These kids would get up at 6 in the morning and run around making a bunch of noise. This could have been avoided if they followed through on their previous promise.
5) Keys constantly stopped working. They say keep them away from your phone so I kept my phone in my front left pocket and the key, in my wallet, in my back right pocket. It managed to deactivate twice and I still have a few more days at this place.
6) Half of the outlets won’t hold a plug. Only 2 of the outlets in the living room would hold a plug.
7) Balcony door was broke.
8) Barely any silverware. Everywhere else we stayed at gave plenty enough silverware but this place gave about 4 plates, spoons, forks, knives, and glasses. I don’t know about you, but I rather not spend my time doing dishes everyday.
9) Sink was leaking. We called on Saturday to tell them and they said hopefully someone will be sent to fix it on Monday. Umm… Okay…
Bluegreen has really gone to shit it seems and I will be happy to stop using them after this trip.

I have a mountainloft Timeshare to give away. Only pay Taxes and fees for the yr 2014 and have deed put in your name. Email for more info,

We did not enjoy our 4 nights here in January 2015 for several reasons:
1. Broken drain in the whirlpool tub so we couldn’t actually use it for a bath
2. Outdated box tvs, both of which had an issue (either lines across the screen of all channels or a terribly loud buzzing sound)
3. Broken fireplace
4. We did not have hot water the last day and a half
5. When we expressed these issues, we were told they would not come in to make repairs unless we were present. We were on vacation — we couldn’t hang out in the room waiting on someone to fix these things that should not be broken in a property like this.
6. The walls are thinner than anything we’ve ever experienced, and we travel a lot both domestically and internationally.
7. Everything is just terribly outdated, which wouldn’t matter in general but doesn’t help when almost everything is broken.
When we checked out and were asked how our stay went, we expressed all of the above. The lady at the desk told us we should have called multiple times until someone arrived to make repairs. We expressed that we should not have to do that, especially when we are on vacation.
The hilarious thing is we only stayed here because we were doing the BlueGreen presentation and got a good deal. The presenters/​sales people were nice, but I can’t believe they sell people points to use for properties like this one. We were not impressed, and we certainly did not have to think twice to say no to the sales pitch.

Wow. This place is a piece. PIECE ‘O JUNK. Crap didn’t work, stuff was falling apart, the walls were PAPER thin, the décor was 1980’s at it’s finest. Nothing has been «renovated» as they declare happens every year in January and February since this place was built in the early 90’s. Proof you ask? We still had 19″ tube tv’s in the living space and bedroom. Of those, neither worked properly. We notified the front desk of these issues only to have nothing repaired or even anyone come to our room whatsoever in the entire 5 days we were there. To top it off, 2 days before we departed, the hot water went out. I mean OUT, no luke warm water… it was ICE COLD. This is January, in the mountains… we were freezing. All while hearing every snort, sneeze, and whisper from the rooms to our left, right, and above us. We heard EVERYTHING.
Keep your money, go ANYWHERE else, and you will have a better experience than here. I am SO SORRY for anyone who got duped into «buying into» this horrible rip-​off of a company.

We stayed here for Christmas vacation, 2014. Overall, the unit was nice, with the one major drawback being poorly insulated walls, so, we could hear nearly everything our neighbors did; which was part-​and-​parcel of Christmas with, what sounded like, 2 young children. The good news is that OTC sleep aids make that much easier to deal with.
Outside of that, our unit was great; full kitchen, dual-​head shower, whirlpool garden tub, and a king-​sized bed. We even made a blanket fort out of the couch to read and nap, because, why not? The place is pretty well kept, and, as we were leaving, they were embarking on a pretty major renovation project, I’d like to see how that turns out…
The shining star of the trip was the support staff. The front desk folks were just great at check-​in and during our many trips to hang out at the lodge, and the housekeeping staff were there, on the double, to deliver dish soap.
Make sure to remember to bring your swimsuits, too. The pool is heated, and ready to swim, even in 30 degree weather!
If the thin insulation gets fixed, I’d be happy to bump this to a solid 4 stars…

This resort is only for bluegreen owner exclusively. Off course, you can rental a owner have not use the point and want to rent it out.
The resort have heated indoor and outdoor pool, sauna, hot tub, games room, BBQ grill, fitness center.
They day activity such as bingo, spa day, story time, movie time, photography scavenger time.
Our room this selection is a one bed room unit. The have full size kitchen and sitting room. They also have the jacuzzi. The back drop of the balcony is mountain view.
It is very comfortable here, if you travel with larger number of family, you can select the chalet with 3 bedrooms.
Love it this time when the leave is changing the color. The concierge have deal to the activity of the nearby attraction.

1. Paper thin walls
2. Stove drawer was broken
3. Fireplace was broken
4. Washer and Dryer was hooked up wrong so we shrunk all our clothes,
5. Torn carpet
6. Took forever to get hot water for the shower
Would not recommend this property, it was an awful visit for the 4 days we were there.

We are on the other side of the coin on this trip. Last year, we stayed in the two bedroom half of one of the townhomes on the side of the mountain. This year, we stayed in the single bedroom part.
Makes me wonder about us, last trip. All we have heard were stamping kids, on the upstairs floors, and stairs. And lots of adult voices discussing their lives.
We were given the obligatory sales pitch, and after multiple trips back to ‘my manager’ we declined their offer to buy in more to Bluegreen. And, as it has turned out to be the case in every trip to a Sales Center, what we learned and were told, on one trip sometimes contradicted what we were told at another Sales Center. I like Buegreen. The concept. What we can do with it. But, as I have told the Sales people before, I would not recommend their product to anyone; at least until I feel comfortable with what we are being told by the Sales force. Having the feeling that one has been thrown overboard into a pool full of sharks does not bolster my confidence. Or my thoughts of sending them other clients.
Our townhome is showing it’s age. We were told it was ‘partly’ remodeled. Which I would take it to mean new furniture? We had a maintenance issue, which was resolved with a simple phone call. The indoor whirlpool in the clubhouse is down for repairs. The activity center (cookies and the like) was closed due to member abuse (people taking entire trays of cookies with them…).which is a shame. Having milk and cookies at night there was charming.
I like this place. it has a certain charm to it. Being on the fringe of the tourist area, it was quiet and dark at night. The momma bear and her 3 cubs stayed busy with the dumpsters just down the road at night (I saw one of the cubs running along) and the squirrels in the morning kept me amused.
I am sure that we will return. In between that time, we’ll wait for the remodel to come to Gatlinburg.