Family Reunion in Cabo - good RCI options? 2017

Hi all,

We are in the process of acquiring our first RCI points timeshare (closing now thanks to TUG ), and at the same time my sister and I are planning a family reunion for April or May 2017.

We really want to take them on a cruise - well, I'm not really a cruiser but it's cheaper and thus more family members would be more likely to make it - but our dad is adamantly opposed to / freaked out by ships. Barring a successful intervention to change his mind (unlikely)...

...that leaves Cabo. As you may know from other posts, we are Caribbean fans, but most family is in Alaska and Nevada and we are in Utah, so it's a relatively easy and affordable flight for everyone, plus with a variety of incomes, lower costs in Cabo again mean more family may make it!

Our questions for the wealth of TUGGER experience:

• Suggestions on good RCI exchange options?
• Best points value to quality ratio? We'll have about 190k if needed.
• Preferably IN Cabo vs way up the strip, and near the swimmable beach or the marina so that there are a variety of activity options to keep feuding family apart as needed. (Two of our SILs hate each other, to put it tactfully...)
• Parents will be paid for by sis and us, so how hard is it to book multiple rooms for sis/parents/us? Would we need guest passes or whatever the correct terminology is, or would we need to find a 3br with our points, and what are the cost penalties?
• All inclusive options that are reasonable costs to add on? With us paying for parents, AI is the easiest and least uncomfortable since no one pulls out a wallet...
• Any other comments/suggestions/things we're missing?

We stayed at the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica in 2012 for our wedding (took the parents), and they loved it, but it's a bit far out plus we'll have nieces and nephews around so adult-only isn't an option. The PB Sunset seems nice but also too far out. Stayed at the Marina Fiesta this spring with my sisters for a long-weekend "babymoon" since they are both expecting cheer, and it was solid, but looking for other options perhaps closer to the beach.

Thanks all!

If it was me I'd just book extra weeks at PBS or PB Rose if they allow you the number of rooms you need or get more for even less money on Skyauction. Studios are about 590 on RCI and about 320 on Sky auction. Maybe save your points for another trip or use some and rent some for your group needs. If exchanging, multi bedroom units are nearly impossible to find in April (Easter holiday in Mexico) but better in May as May is the beginning of the slow season.
Rent a car for one day from the airport and pick up beverages, snacks and breakfast needs on the way in and them return the car in town the following day. One day car rental from Alamo is about $35 which also takes care of your inbound airport transportation. Once at PBS you can take the free shuttle daily to Rose and Blanco which gives you tons of options for meals in town and on the beach. There are very few RCI exchange properties near Medano ( Casa Dorado and Marina Fiesta). Tesoro is an option but it's a dump compared to every other resort. VDP is not a bad location but it's showing it's age, Solmar and Cabo Villas are now II.
AI runs about $70/person/day and the food is marginal. You can eat like a king on about $40 day (or less) at nice places in town that offers more variety and it supports the town.
BTW If you end up at PBS as an RCI owner they will offer you about $400/couple in resort credit for attending a presentation on site. This would give your folks credit on account so they do not pay for anything they eat or drink at PBS and your main meals could be in town every day. Bus leaves the sunrise coffee location on the hour and returns from Blanco on the half hour. All PBS customers have room charging rights at the sister resorts.

RCI usually has lots of Cabo inventory for May, so I think you will have some good choices. Hopefully, the widespread hurricane damage from Odile will be long gone and forgotten by the time you get there! PB Rose and Blanco would be my first picks if I wanted to be on Medano Beach. They aren't as new and upscale as PBSB, but they are still very nice places to stay. My next choice for an RCI resort would be Playa Grande. It's on Solmar Beach (Pacific side), so the ocean is too rough to swim in, but it's an easy walk to the marina, town, and a short water taxi ride over to Medano Beach. All three resorts offer full or partial stay all-inclusive options, but I agree with oldbuyer that I don't think it's worth it. A better option might be to buy some vouchers for restaurants and use those.

Another possibility is staying in San Jose del Cabo at The Grand Mayan. The units are great (they just need to figure out how to heat their pools!), and San Jose has become a destination on its own in the last few years!

I agree with PamMo on Playa Grande but as an owner there it's difficult to get any extra rooms and there is very little exchange inventory as the Hotel side takes back anything that was traded. The Solmar beach club (next door and a little older) is sometimes available on RCI exchanges but not on Skyauction etc.
All resorts mentioned have been repaired and are up to form other than the Calima resturant at PG which was still shut as of last month.

PamMo said:

RCI usually has lots of Cabo inventory for May, so I think you will have some good choices. Hopefully, the widespread hurricane damage from Odile will be long gone and forgotten by the time you get there! PB Rose and Blanco would be my first picks if I wanted to be on Medano Beach. They aren't as new and upscale as PBSB, but they are still very nice places to stay. My next choice for an RCI resort would be Playa Grande. It's on Solmar Beach (Pacific side), so the ocean is too rough to swim in, but it's an easy walk to the marina, town, and a short water taxi ride over to Medano Beach. All three resorts offer full or partial stay all-inclusive options, but I agree with oldbuyer that I don't think it's worth it. A better option might be to buy some vouchers for restaurants and use those.

Another possibility is staying in San Jose del Cabo at The Grand Mayan. The units are great (they just need to figure out how to heat their pools!), and San Jose has become a destination on its own in the last few years!

Click to expand...

I understand that you have RCI points, but I might also seriously look at the Skyauction site. They sell leftover timeshare inventory very reasonably priced, and for Cabo, lately I've been seeing Pueblo Bonito Rose and Villa del Palmar a lot, both of which are on Medano beach and would work well for a group. Nice pools, good location, swimable beach, can walk to town. I know that at Villa del Palmar they do have an All-Inclusive option. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's there. Plus what is nice about their AI option is that one doesn't have to buy it for a full week.

OK, this goes another direction, but do you have an Interval International membership or know someone that does? I only say this because getaways in Cabo through II are very inexpensive. Under $500.00 for a week-sometimes well udner at top properties. We are using this instead of exchanges because the exchange fees nearly equal getaway costs.

Just a thought.

Gaozhen's quandary is having a brand new timeshare with RCI points, and wanting to use those points efficiently for a family reunion. It's always a good idea to check rentals against the cost of exchanging, but you want to make sure you have a plan to use your points, or you're throwing money away on MF's.

Gaozhen, there's no guarantee it will be the same in 2017, but for May 2016, there is lots of availability in Cabo. To compare points/rental costs on RCI, a 1BR at Rose is 36,500 points (or $513-549/wk), studios 25,000 ($450-504). Blanco 1BR's are 41,500 points ($513). Sunset Beach 2BR's are 72,000 points ($954-1205), 1BR's are 46,000 ($801-873), and studios are 33,000 ($549-558). Playa Grande 1BR's are 49,000 points, studios 34,500 - no rentals on RCI. In San Jose, a Grand Mayan 2BR is 58,500 points ($756), 1BR is 39,500 ($666), and hotel unit is 22,000 ($567).

The trick is knowing how many units are available for the same week. You should "hold" reservations until you can book all you need for your family.

Good luck! Our family gets together every year in Cabo, and we have a great time!

We discovered Cabo on a whim a few years ago. We've returned every year-sometimes twice-since. The weather is fantastic.

Thanks all for the input & help!

PamMo is correct that we have points and want to maximize them. We are also totally happy to pay for units via last call or Skyauction, however we are fortunately or unfortunately inviting extended family (cousins, aunts, etc.) that don't have timeshare options, so can't wait to pick a resort until the last minute so they can plan early.

One more question: since we haven't booked with RCI yet, and are waiting for the actual RCI transfer to occur (got deed yesterday and just need RCI to set us up), how does it work with booking multiple units? Can we take our 98,000 points (probably more if we borrow from the next year) and break it into 3 1BRs or 4 studios?

(All this said, we're also looking at St. Maarten, but the same questions and issues apply...can't do last call or getaways since we have to pick a location early enough for the non-timeshare crowd, and need to book extra room(s) for our parents.)

Thanks again!

When you get your account set up, you can simply 'spend' the points like currency. Say you have 90,000 points, and find a 1 BR for 40,000, and 2 studios for 20,000 each, then within a month of move-in, you find another 1BR for 9,000 on 'Instant Exchange', you'd still have 1,000 points to carry over to the next use year. Or you can borrow, or you can buy points for an exchange from RCI. BUT REMEMBER- there is an exchange fee of $209 EACH online or $219 on the telephone. The above example has 4 exchanges so you'll pay RCI over $800 in exchange fees. Plus 2 years' membership ($180) if this is going to happen in 2017. And 2 years of MF at your resort.

Welcome to the world of RCI. Oh, and did I mention that those ae just current prices. They WILL go up.

Jim

Don't get hung up on trying to book RCI exchanges as stated it's expensive. Consider extra weeks that can be booked a year in advance for about the cost of a MF with mainly studios available at about $600/week and NO exchange fee. As a PBS owner you can book up to 4(?) extra weeks/year and there are no guest certificate fees IF you are there at the same time.
Skyauction typically allows bookings 6-9 months in advance and the PBS studios typically auction for $1 plus $299 in taxes plus the $20 auction fee and are date specific. If your date is NA then it's not available on Skyauction. Book your points weeks to anchor your dates then start filling in with Skyauction first then extra weeks on RCI. If you get in a jam there are rentals available on TUG and Redweek. You can even buy studio contracts for a few dollars and add them to your RCI portfolio. If you do, try and buy weeks not points as the points contracts have the extra (refurbishment)MF every 5 years. (see the small print on the back of your contract-SURPRISE)

BTW early May gives you maximum availability as this is the first of the summer (off season). Weather is typically the same as in April but w/o Easter week (Mexican Holiday week) and the last of spring break crowd which you do not want to be around for.

Thanks everyone, great info!

We will check to see if we can book extra weeks a year out with lower prices, but if that doesn't work then the points & MF & exchange fees may still work. Looks like that would still be less than booking through Expedia etc (more reliability than SkyAuction for extended family) or through the resorts themselves, for the immediate family members we are covering at least. They couldn't afford a regular booking, but could pay us back for the exchanges (which is a win-win: it'd make them feel better to pull some weight as they are a bit proud, which I totally understand as I've inherited that from them!) and we can cover the rest since we've already budgeted for annual MF & membership fees.

Either way, we have a plan that should work out well, thank you!

Anyway, cheers to TUG. You all are the best.