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Questions from a prospective newbie

suliabryon

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Hello everyone,

My husband and I will be going to disneyland in March with some friends who are Worldmark members (what is the difference between that and Wyndham?) This is the second time in three years we have done this, and it has us reconsidering our opinion of timeshares (we had a bad experience with an ill-fated cruise vacation some friends of ours invited us on years ago that soured us on them.)

We live in Oregon, and we love visiting Disneyland every couple of years. Our honeymoon was in Disneyworld, though, and we definitely want to go back. Other regular traveling we do consists of weekends at the Oregon coast, or over in Bend for skiing. We would like to do things like visit New York and DC, or go to Vegas (although the one time I went w/girlfriends, we enjoyed staying on the strip).

The other major travel that happens is the three week trip to Japan my husband takes every year, but this is very limited geographically (he needs to stay within half an hour by train to the people he is visiting), and unlikely to help him with that.

We prefer to stay in Disney at least a week at a time. My husband is a school teacher, and so we are limited to taking our vacations during the most popular times, unfortunately.

Do you think it matters where we buy? I know Wyndham points can be used anywhere they have hotels/resorts. How many points would be good? I'm currently in graduate school, so we are a little money poor. I would likely haunt the bargain forum until something fitting our needs popped up, as we are not in a particular hurry.

I have also seen resale offers for both annual points, or "even/odd year" points. What is the difference? Are there pros and cons to both?

Are the MFs and (I forget what the other fee is called...) taken out once a year, quarterly, or monthly? Everyone seems to list them as a monthly expense, but I get the impression they are a yearly payment. We would want to keep ours as low as possible, while still having usable points, at least until I am done with school. Are there any other expenses?

Our friends love their timeshare in part because they get to keep it forever and pass it on to family eventually. Is that true, or something they were grandfathered in with under TrendWest or WorldMark?

We will probably want to be able to trade points with RCI, or II, if they have more availability in Oregon that Wyndham.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks so much for any help. Researching this quickly became overwhelming and confusing!

Charity
 

Rent_Share

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In this forum there are articles that describe the differences between

Worldmark and Wyndham Vacation Ownership

http://tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=47


Similar to Hilton and Double Tree Hotels - Two completely different hotel brands run by the same corporation

With your Oregon location conventional wisdom says Worldmark would be a better choice than Wyndham Vaction Ownership

For more specific Worldmark information once your have reviewed the differences I would suggest wmowners.com
 

suliabryon

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Thanks! I've looked at a lot of threads on the link you provided, and it does indeed look like WorldMark is what I'm looking for. :) Sounds like it's a little more in up front cost, but works better with what we want.
 

Rent_Share

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I had to cancel this years reservation, I was able to rent the points to another user giving her enough to book a 2 Bedroom at Anaheim, and covered my maintenance fees with no risk.


Basically a 5,000 or 6,000 membership is the equivalent of an every other year allocation with 10,000/12,000 being an annual membership 1BR/2BR

WM has a higher upfront cost and a lower MF cost, Membership in an Exchange Company is optional with Wyndham it's "included"

WM's maintenance fees are an allocation of the costs of all 55 properties to the 220,000 - 250,000 members, Wyndham's are resort specific (with the exception of Club Wyndham Access) and could be subject to a special assessment for the underlying property

For the popular location be prepared to plan 13 Months out, or be able to be flexible to take advantage of last minute cancellations. WM has one of the most generous cancellation policies allowing cancellation up to 30 days before check in without risk, and methods to recover the associated points for cancellation less than 30 days if the the units are otherwise rented or occupied.
 
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