El Cid Vacation Club
We originally owned El Cid/FF points which is basically the same other FF points contracts except it is RTU with an expiration date. We converted to ECVC points for several reasons.
We usually stay at the Marina El Cid every year at Xmas and our points gave us VIP with the 13 month reservation window and 25-50% discounts on all restaurants, golf courses etc. Saved us about $100 last year on some meals, drinks etc and if we played golf it would have been considerably more.
We also like the idea of banking our points up to the last day of the year which we just did-no the FF rule of banking prior to the year.
Another advantage is the plan provides the short day reservation of RCI points for just a few days vacation with the same rates as normal for RCI points program and as such we are RCI points members just have to go through special RCI operator for El Cid. For 3-4 days at El Cid resorts there is
no fee just use your El Cid points and even get discount on points required at 90 and more at 30 days.
Although we do not have the luxury of all FF exchanges on the internal trade we do have basically all the top FF resorts without an exchange fee. If we want to go to any other timeshare location we basically contact RCI special operator and have the appropriate points deposited and pay the normal RCI exchange fee. The only disadvantage is the ability to use small amounts of points to get great deals-we basically have to deposit full value but am sure we get an advantage over someone depositing lesser FF points.
Another advantage is that in our case the maintenance fees were $50-70 cheaper each year.
El Cid also now has several resorts in Europe and is expanding more and these all are availabel without exchange fees.
Guest certificates are not required if you are also at the El Cid resort when the guests arrive-so it always saves us some money since we usually reserve for three families.
As with some other programs you can also use the points for ocean cruises and seems to be is a good program providing the ability to use the points or combine points and cash.
One point is that you must remember is that almost all Mexican timeshare units are RTU and usually 20-30 years and some reorts can be renewed and some cannot, but 20 years is long enough for me and in reality the resale value is fairly low for almost all timeshare units.
This ECVC points program may not be for everyone but for us is much better than the El Cid/FF points based on the above.
Hopefully, this will help folks make a better decision for their particular life style. Incidently, just bought another 300,000 ECVC points contract last month-now I just have to have enough time to enjoy them all.
We originally owned El Cid/FF points which is basically the same other FF points contracts except it is RTU with an expiration date. We converted to ECVC points for several reasons.
We usually stay at the Marina El Cid every year at Xmas and our points gave us VIP with the 13 month reservation window and 25-50% discounts on all restaurants, golf courses etc. Saved us about $100 last year on some meals, drinks etc and if we played golf it would have been considerably more.
We also like the idea of banking our points up to the last day of the year which we just did-no the FF rule of banking prior to the year.
Another advantage is the plan provides the short day reservation of RCI points for just a few days vacation with the same rates as normal for RCI points program and as such we are RCI points members just have to go through special RCI operator for El Cid. For 3-4 days at El Cid resorts there is
no fee just use your El Cid points and even get discount on points required at 90 and more at 30 days.
Although we do not have the luxury of all FF exchanges on the internal trade we do have basically all the top FF resorts without an exchange fee. If we want to go to any other timeshare location we basically contact RCI special operator and have the appropriate points deposited and pay the normal RCI exchange fee. The only disadvantage is the ability to use small amounts of points to get great deals-we basically have to deposit full value but am sure we get an advantage over someone depositing lesser FF points.
Another advantage is that in our case the maintenance fees were $50-70 cheaper each year.
El Cid also now has several resorts in Europe and is expanding more and these all are availabel without exchange fees.
Guest certificates are not required if you are also at the El Cid resort when the guests arrive-so it always saves us some money since we usually reserve for three families.
As with some other programs you can also use the points for ocean cruises and seems to be is a good program providing the ability to use the points or combine points and cash.
One point is that you must remember is that almost all Mexican timeshare units are RTU and usually 20-30 years and some reorts can be renewed and some cannot, but 20 years is long enough for me and in reality the resale value is fairly low for almost all timeshare units.
This ECVC points program may not be for everyone but for us is much better than the El Cid/FF points based on the above.
Hopefully, this will help folks make a better decision for their particular life style. Incidently, just bought another 300,000 ECVC points contract last month-now I just have to have enough time to enjoy them all.
