Only a couple months after joining UVC, I got a call from a woman who wanted me to buy more travel products. She told me I could get cruises, hotels, rental cars and other travel products through her and that my UVC membership wouldn't be complete without it. She told me she would be my personal concierge to make sure I was getting all the services I needed. She wanted, if I remember right, a couple thousand dollars for me to get my "full benefits." I had just plunked down way more than that for my UVC contract and was still trying to learn how to get the most out of that. I was only interested in my all-inclusive UVC resorts and didn't think I even had time to add the cruises, car rentals and hotel stays she was peddling. I told her "no" and hung up.
Soon after, I noticed people in my FB groups describing receiving similar pitches over the phone. I learned that this was the modus operandi of Lifestyle Collection. They strike within a month or two of a new member joining and present themselves as UVC even though they are a separate company selling a separate membership. Before you understand what you have with UVC, they're trying to get you to spend thousands more for their products. The woman who called me never mentioned Lifestyle Collection. She did mention UVC and wanted me to believe that what she was selling was a necessary part of a complete UVC membership.
Look at the Lifestyle Collection Enrollment Application on page 3 of 44 included in the 2019 UVC contract found here:
This is the Lifestyle Collection agreement in the contract, but it's hard to recognize it as that. You quickly notice the big UVC logo and name in the upper left of the document. Under that logo, you'll see, in much smaller letters, "Lifestyle Collection." This is Lifestyle Collection's approach to sales. They scream "UVC" in their sales materials and phone calls to get new members to think they are UVC and then whisper "Lifestyle Collection," probably to retain plausible deniability to later accusations that they misrepresented themselves.
Lifestyle Collection is one of those "additional benefits" that comes free for two years with a UVC membership. Paragraph 13 on page 4 of 44 in the contract linked above explains the benefit:
13. UVC Lifestyle Collection Membership - Member will receive free of charge an affiliation covering the first two years with UVC Lifestyle Collection, which provides exclusive benefits and services that can be consulted at www.unlimitedvacationclub.com/members/partners. Member(s) are eligible to take advantage of promotional offers to extend their UVCLC membership benefits for an annual or multi-year billing plan at substantial savings off the then current annual extension price, which are separate from the UVC Renewal Fee.
A one-time Activation Bonus of Saving Credits will be credited to the member's UVCLC account upon enrollment, also receive an Anniversary Credit of Saving Credits that will be credited to the members UVCLC online account on the anniversary date of their initial enrollment into the UVCLC Program. Savings Credits that can be used as a partial payment, dollar-for-dollar, to buy down the total purchase price of qualified travel and lifestyle transactions, including cruises, non-AM resorts and hotels, tours, vacation packages, wine and merchandise (depending on member residence).
If
for any reason member chooses not to extend the UVCLC membership member
will forfeit all access to the UVCLC membership benefits, the UVCLC
website, any available Saving Credits in their UVCLC account or the
ability to earn any future Saving Credits.
I never used Lifestyle Collection in the two years I had it free. I did look at their pricing for hotels and car rentals and found I could get similar or better pricing through conventional online travel websites (e.g. Expedia, hotels.com, Costco, etc). I saw little value in Lifestyle Collection -- certainly not enough to warrant a $2,000 membership fee.
Their calls and other attempts to get me to buy have been relentless over the years. That last part in the language quoted above about forfeiting all access to the Lifestyle Collection benefit if you choose not to purchase a Lifestyle Collection membership I wish was true, but it isn't. I still get calls and junk mail from Lifestyle Collection, more than seven years later, presenting themselves as UVC and inviting me to buy a Lifestyle Collection membership.
In addition to their deceptive and aggressive sales tactics, a common complaint of members who have tried Lifestyle Collection is that the value of the cruise credit they give you isn't what it's presented to be. Apparently, Lifestyle Collection doesn't provide reduced cruise pricing. They provide credits to be applied to the total cost of of a cruise. Their package might include, for example, a $1,500 credit. On its face, someone might think, "If it costs $2,000 to buy in, I'll make my money back on just a couple cruises."
You won't.
What they don't tell you is that you can use only a small portion of that $1,500 credit on each cruise. You might be able to reduce the total cost of a $5,000 cruise to $4,700, for example, using only a portion of the total credit they give you. You have to take many cruises, spending many thousands of dollars, to use the full credit. Many members who have priced cruises through Lifestyle Collection claim they get similar or better pricing dealing directly with the cruise lines.
There are a few members in my Facebook groups who have found some value in Lifestyle Collection, but a large percentage of members, including me, will have nothing to do with them.
Around June 2025, members started reporting that new UVC contracts were including a membership in an outfit called "UExperiences" rather than the Lifestyle Collection membership that had been in older contracts for years. UExperiences seemed to be offering similar products to Lifestyle Collection. I did some investigation into who UExperiences is and if the two companies are related.
They are two different companies, but there is a common link between them. Lifestyle Collection was started by the husband and wife team of John and Marcia Rowley. That's the same couple that currently owns and manages the UExperiences brand.
The Rowleys' first venture in the travel industry was a company called International Cruise & Excursions (ICE) which they founded around 1997. ICE initially provided only cruise vacations but slowly expanded to other travel services, including travel clubs. The heart of ICE's travel club operation was the online user interface and database of resort vacations they developed. By partnering with various resorts, vacation clubs and timeshare operators, ICE sold an inventory of vacation products to the members of the vacation clubs of many well-known resort brands: Marriott, Bluegreen, Hilton, Westgate, UVC and others. UVC was one of ICE's earliest vacation club partners.
If you look in the first paragraph under Member Acknowledgement of the Lifestyle Collection Membership Application in the photo and link above, you'll see that Lifestyle Collection is a d.b.a of ICE.
International Cruise & Excursion Gallery, Inc. (“ICE”), d.b.a. Our Vacation Center (“OVC”) and d.b.a. Lifestyle Collection (“LC”), a Delaware, United States Company, located at 7720 N Dobson Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85256, is the administrator and redemption fulfiller of the Unlimited Vacation Club (“UVC”) with LC Program under contract with UVC.
In 2018, the Rowleys sold a majority interest in ICE to a UK investment firm which changed the company name to arrivia. Arrivia continues to operate today selling travel services to many different travel clubs, including UVC members under the Lifestyle Collection brand. The Rowleys remained with arrivia for a short time after selling, but around 2020, they left to form a new company, Open Network Exchange (ONE).
ONE is the company behind the UExperiences brand. The ONE logo can be found beneath the UExperiences logo at the top of the UExperiences website and Open Network Exchange's name is at the bottom of the same website. ONE seems very much like arrivia in appearance, products and business model. In fact, they seem to be a direct competitor of arrivia's.
You can see the current UExperiences by ONE brochure here. It's colorful, glitzy and full of photos of vacation-loving people loving their vacations. It shows all the products and services a UExperiences membership brings. The consensus of the UVC members in my Facebook groups who have tried UExperiences is that, just like Lifestyle Collection, it's short on value. The savings you get with each purchase through UExperiences are small relative to the price you pay to join. It will take many years to recover your initial purchase price.
Members in my Facebook groups report there's not much difference in prices, value or experience between Lifestyle Collection and UExperiences. They both use the same aggressive and deceptive sales tactics and sell similar products and services at similar prices. Savings in both programs comes largely through the "credits" you're given as a member, which aren't as good as their salespeople present them because they're regulated in how they can be applied to each purchase.
UExperiences has begun selling memberships to older UVC members whose contract includes Lifestyle Collection, including me. UVC has taken an active role in UExperiences' marketing by sending out email blasts to all members announcing UExperiences products, offers and membership opportunities. Unfortunately, some members have reported getting competing phone calls from both Lifestyle Collection and UExperiences each claiming to be UVC's "real" partner.
A business organization that resorts to the deceptive sales tactics used by Lifestyle Collection and UExperiences conveys to me that they don't believe in their own product. I won't enter into a business relationship with an organization that doesn't believe in what they're selling. I don't care what the product is.