Need help choosing a purchase

Hello

I am looking at purchasing but am a bit confused as what would be the best plan. I'm leaning towards Glacier Canyon in Wisconsin Dells as it's a reasonable drive (live in Minneapolis) and it's a nice place. We would be using the timeshare for either shorter stays at Glacier Canyon (2-3 nights) or warm winter vacations to Florida or Colorado for skiing. We love to travel and would also like to use this to possibly explore places we haven't been to.

I'm completely at a loss if I should be looking for a purchase using just points, fixed week, deeded, Right to Use, etc or if I'm better off trying to buy into a resort that would give better trading power. It's not really our style to stay an entire week in one resort with the possible exception of Orlando due to the number of attractions there.

Any suggestions to the differences would be appreciated as I really don't want to make a purchase only to regret it later for not doing my homework...

Well you're starting the right way, by thinking about how and where you like to travel. One thing you didn't mention but that you'll need to consider as well, is how far in advance you can plan your vacations. For some locations at certain times, you will need to plan more than 6 months in advance.

And at many places, you will need to have "Advanced Reservation Priority", or ARP, in order to book during peak demand timeframes. This would include must summer weekends at Glacier Canyon, for example.

If Glacier Canyon is on your wish list, you can scratch off fixed weeks. GC is only sold as UDI deeds (points) and CWA. Based on your need for flexibility, going with points sounds like the best fit for you. There are a few exceptions, but most weeks are exactly that - fixed or floating weeks that have to be taken as full weeks.

If you plan to stay within Wyndham, you don't really need to think about "trading power". It's really just about the points and ARP. Whether your deed is based at Glacier Canyon, National Harbor, Bentley Brook, or Panama City Beach makes no difference when you go to make a reservation at Bonnet Creek. The only thing that matters is that you have enough points to book the unit you want for the time you want. You don't have to "trade in" your right to your underlying resort - you just use your points. It's a very flexible system.

Glacier Canyon has pretty high maintenance fees, but it is a location where ARP is quite important. Weekends and summer are usually booked during the ARP window. On the other hand, while Bonnet Creek usually sells out (eventually), there is often availability as little as 3-4 months from check-in except for the highest demand timeframes. Some areas will absolutely require ARP such as Myrtle Beach in the summer; ski locations during Christmas; NOLA during Mardi Gras; South Florida during snowbird weeks; etc.

The only "right to use" that I am aware of within Wyndham is really a set of affiliate resorts (El Cid) based in Mexico where it is illegal for non-citizens to own real estate. They are typically 25-year RTU contracts. They are relatively rare and expensive to transfer, as there is an additional $500 transfer fee from El Cid as well as the $299 Wyndham transfer fee.

So in short - based on your described use, a points contract, either UDI/deeded or Club Wyndham Access (CWA) (membership in a trust that owns a portfolio of Wyndham properties) sounds like the best fit for your needs.

There is a lot to learn and you may want to experience some of the resorts before you buy in to it. Renting from a platinum owner would give you the opportunity to "try before you buy". It would also give you the opportunity to see if you have what it takes to get past the parking pass person without being accosted to attend a timeshare presentation.

Hello Eric

Thanks for the response and for spelling thngs out so well. After posting this I actually stumbled across another post of yours which was also very helpful. I almost pulled the trigger on a resale of 210,000 points at Glacier Canyon but decided not to as the MF seemed quite high ($123 month) and I didn't like the pattern of bidding on EBAY for that particular auction.

I am leaning towards looking at finding a resale that gets me 231k or 308k at a decent MF. I'm not really willing to pay extra for summer at Glacier Canyon anyway and would be more likely to use GC for a few weekend getaways during the off-season. I do tend to be a planner when it comes to vacations and often get teased by my family for planning in advance, although nobody seems to complain about the results As far as trading ability...as long as the points can be used within the Wyndham Resorts I would probably just use RCI as a last resort since there appears to be alot of nice places to choose from within the Wyndham Vacation Club.

Thanks again for the help. It's VERY appreciated!
Byron

One last question... Does it complicate things or add a bunch of unnecessary fees to purchase points in more than one resort to achieve the number of point desired? The same question could be asked of bi-annual usage. One option I'm considering is purchasing two alternating bi-annual at 210k points or above.

Any thoughts?

There's a minimum of around $500 somebody is going to pay per contract , around $ 200 for preparing and recording the deed and $299 for Wyndham. Two resorts or two biannual will incur that cost X2

It will also impact ARP since that will be limited to each underlying contract

You might also consider not purchasing at a resort at all, I see Club Wyndham Access points on Ebay all the time. You have ARP at 50 something resorts. Technically CWP (owners at that resort) have a different bucket of ARP available to them than CWA, but it is unknown whether the persons taking the reservations can see or even care about these buckets. People will CWA seem to have no trouble ARPing into Glacier Canyon in the summer.

At any rate Glacier Canyon has higher maintenance fees and some day you'll tire of it and want to go somewhere else. Then ARP privileges restricted to there will be a waste of the extra maintenance fees.

persia said:

Technically CWP (owners at that resort) have a different bucket of ARP available to them than CWA, but it is unknown whether the persons taking the reservations can see or even care about these buckets.

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IMHO this is one person's opinion

Rent_Share said:

IMHO this is one person's opinion

Click to expand...

Unknown is not an opinion, have you seen the computer screens that the reservation people see or written the software? Maybe they do see, maybe they don't. It's an unknown.

At any rate, Glacier Canyon Summer is definitely ARPable with CWA points, so does it make a difference if they are strictly getting specifically marked CWA rooms or not?

persia said:

Unknown is not an opinion, have you seen the computer screens that the reservation people see or written the software? Maybe they do see, maybe they don't. It's an unknown.

At any rate, Glacier Canyon Summer is definitely ARPable with CWA points, so does it make a difference if they are strictly getting specifically marked CWA rooms or not?

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I believe it has been determined that the agents do see different availability based on CWA versus UDI deeds from an ARP perspective. TUGGERS have reported being told there is no availability (when looking via CWA) and then that there is availability (when looking based on UDI deeds). Been reported more than once, so I think there is enough evidence to conclude that what had been suspected - that there is a separate set of CWA inventory for ARP purposes and it can be separately seen and reserved by VC's - has been confirmed.

Having said that, the amount of CWA inventory at each resort remains an unknown, but resorts that have sold from the beginning as both such as Glacier Canyon would certainly have more CWA inventory than resorts relying on a few trade-ins and foreclosures for inventory, such as Westwinds. For most, CWA would probably be a better buy than Glacier Canyon for this reason - ARP at more resorts, and lower MFs.

bphawk64 said:

One last question... Does it complicate things or add a bunch of unnecessary fees to purchase points in more than one resort to achieve the number of point desired? The same question could be asked of bi-annual usage. One option I'm considering is purchasing two alternating bi-annual at 210k points or above.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I think Rent_Share said it well, more smaller contracts have higher entry and exit costs. The advantage is being able to size to your vacation needs, but there is a cost in doing so. I would probably recommend a larger CWA contract which should be easier to sell down the road if it comes to that, gives you ARP at multiple resorts, and you always have the option to credit pool your points if for example you want to take a large vacation in a future year that uses more points than you own.

Thanks so much for all the answers and advice. I think I will be looking at finding a larger CWA contract or a decent contract with reasonable MF.

It's unreal how much help you guys have provided in just a day or so. I really appreciate everyone's help!