Dave M
TUG Lifetime Member
I have copied and edited posts from the old BBS:
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gthorson 07-21-2004
I've seen reference to the Florida Club. What is it and what advantages does it offer?
Thanks!
Greg
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lweverett 07-22-2004
The Florida club allows you to reserve, directly from Marriott, a week in one of the sister resorts. This can be done with no exchange fee. The problem is that you can only request 6 months out instead of 12 months. This probably means that you cannot use it to get prime weeks, and if you wait until 6 months out, you may not be able to get the week you want at your home resort. When I owned at Beach Place, I was afraid to try it for this reason, and just considered it a fee Marriott was collecting that offered no benefit.
The annual Florida Club fee is $29 ($30, effective in 2005).
Larry
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pwrshift 07-22-04
I agree with Larry. If you want to use the Florida Club for a prime time reservation, forget it. I also feel it's simply a way for Marriott to fleece another $29 a year ($30 in 2005) from all owners whether or not you use it. Not only that, I believe they raised the price of the timeshares by $1500 because they thought it was a great benefit (for them).
Brian
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Beverley 07-22-04
Not only that; watch the seasons. The season you reserve has to match your season. The Florida resorts have different gold and platinum seasons so you are even more limited....
Bev
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JoePa 07-24-04
We used the Florida club and it worked out great. However, as some mentioned, you must be flexible. Also, we normally do not travel in peak seasons so, I'm sure this helped too.
We own a silver week a silver week at Legends Edge, which does not offer a L/O. We exchanged for a May L/O at Ocean Point through the Florida Club and then deposited both portions of the L/O with II. Through II, we exchanged the 1BR for St James Place in Beaver Creek this past April, the L/O for Ko 'Olina next Jan, and received a bonus week which we're hoping to use in HHI this Sept/Oct.
As I said, we're flexible with our plans and prefer to travel in the shoulder seasons. That being said we exchanged an OK Legends Edge silver week for 3 great vacations.
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mas 07-24-04
This is one area where I have to disagree with the majority. I've only used it once but when I did, I didn't have any problem with availability and the exchange I got was what I would consider high season. I got an exchange into Key West and wanted a second week in Florida so I used my Beach Place to request a week at Ocean Pointe on either side of the Key West week (first week in Feb) both weeks were available, the last week in Jan and the second week in Feb. Just for curiosity I checked OP availability in March and there was plenty of availability there as well. This was this past winter (2004) so my experience is that there is availability six months out, at least at OP.
As to the $29 charge ($30 in 2005), I think it should only be charged if you choose to use it but this is Marriott and they have never been shy about charging for extras. Other than that I like the idea. I only wish they would expand it to the entire Marriott inventory.
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dabtpa 07-25-04
As a former Marriott Vacation Club salesman at Grande Vista I can tell you that Marriott is not trying to cheat anyone out of their $29 ($30 in 2005). The Florida Club was designed to create more flexibility for owners who wanted to experience more Marriott resorts in Florida.
You can split your time between resorts (4 days at one, 3 days at another in a given week) and you would be amazed at the properties you can get into on short (6 month) notice. Also, if you happen to own a 1 bedroom and want to go to Doral or Legend's Edge that only has 2 bedrooms, then you get upgraded.
There really isn't anything "evil" about this program. It works well for most people.
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rfb813 07-26-2004
You can only use the Florida Club exchanges among the Florida Club resorts: Beach Place, Grand Vista, Legends Point, Villas at Doral and Ocean Pointe, if I recall correctly.
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dabtpa 07-26-04
rfb813 is right. Only Legend's Edge, Ocean Pointe, Grande Vista, Beach Place Towers and Villas at Doral are in the Florida Club. However, you can split time (4/3 or 3/4) at two of these resorts. No other day combinations (5/2 or 6/1) and no more than two resorts.
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gthorson 07-21-2004
I've seen reference to the Florida Club. What is it and what advantages does it offer?
Thanks!
Greg
-------------------------------------------
lweverett 07-22-2004
The Florida club allows you to reserve, directly from Marriott, a week in one of the sister resorts. This can be done with no exchange fee. The problem is that you can only request 6 months out instead of 12 months. This probably means that you cannot use it to get prime weeks, and if you wait until 6 months out, you may not be able to get the week you want at your home resort. When I owned at Beach Place, I was afraid to try it for this reason, and just considered it a fee Marriott was collecting that offered no benefit.
The annual Florida Club fee is $29 ($30, effective in 2005).
Larry
----------------------------------------------------
pwrshift 07-22-04
I agree with Larry. If you want to use the Florida Club for a prime time reservation, forget it. I also feel it's simply a way for Marriott to fleece another $29 a year ($30 in 2005) from all owners whether or not you use it. Not only that, I believe they raised the price of the timeshares by $1500 because they thought it was a great benefit (for them).
Brian
----------------------------------------------------
Beverley 07-22-04
Not only that; watch the seasons. The season you reserve has to match your season. The Florida resorts have different gold and platinum seasons so you are even more limited....
Bev
-----------------------------------------------------
JoePa 07-24-04
We used the Florida club and it worked out great. However, as some mentioned, you must be flexible. Also, we normally do not travel in peak seasons so, I'm sure this helped too.
We own a silver week a silver week at Legends Edge, which does not offer a L/O. We exchanged for a May L/O at Ocean Point through the Florida Club and then deposited both portions of the L/O with II. Through II, we exchanged the 1BR for St James Place in Beaver Creek this past April, the L/O for Ko 'Olina next Jan, and received a bonus week which we're hoping to use in HHI this Sept/Oct.
As I said, we're flexible with our plans and prefer to travel in the shoulder seasons. That being said we exchanged an OK Legends Edge silver week for 3 great vacations.
----------------------------------------------
mas 07-24-04
This is one area where I have to disagree with the majority. I've only used it once but when I did, I didn't have any problem with availability and the exchange I got was what I would consider high season. I got an exchange into Key West and wanted a second week in Florida so I used my Beach Place to request a week at Ocean Pointe on either side of the Key West week (first week in Feb) both weeks were available, the last week in Jan and the second week in Feb. Just for curiosity I checked OP availability in March and there was plenty of availability there as well. This was this past winter (2004) so my experience is that there is availability six months out, at least at OP.
As to the $29 charge ($30 in 2005), I think it should only be charged if you choose to use it but this is Marriott and they have never been shy about charging for extras. Other than that I like the idea. I only wish they would expand it to the entire Marriott inventory.
--------------------------------------------------
dabtpa 07-25-04
As a former Marriott Vacation Club salesman at Grande Vista I can tell you that Marriott is not trying to cheat anyone out of their $29 ($30 in 2005). The Florida Club was designed to create more flexibility for owners who wanted to experience more Marriott resorts in Florida.
You can split your time between resorts (4 days at one, 3 days at another in a given week) and you would be amazed at the properties you can get into on short (6 month) notice. Also, if you happen to own a 1 bedroom and want to go to Doral or Legend's Edge that only has 2 bedrooms, then you get upgraded.
There really isn't anything "evil" about this program. It works well for most people.
----------------------------------------------------
rfb813 07-26-2004
You can only use the Florida Club exchanges among the Florida Club resorts: Beach Place, Grand Vista, Legends Point, Villas at Doral and Ocean Pointe, if I recall correctly.
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dabtpa 07-26-04
rfb813 is right. Only Legend's Edge, Ocean Pointe, Grande Vista, Beach Place Towers and Villas at Doral are in the Florida Club. However, you can split time (4/3 or 3/4) at two of these resorts. No other day combinations (5/2 or 6/1) and no more than two resorts.
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