OLCC/exchanges by owner

I recently returned from a two week trip to OLCC. We are owners and had exchanged one of our units for a 3 bedroom unit starting 2/10 and another one of our units for a two bedroom unit starting 2/17. I had also grabbed an extra vacation week in a 2 bedroom unit starting 2/9 for some family members. The units we own are in the West Village and we like them. I requested that the extra vacation unit and the 3 bedroom unit be as close as possible since we were sharing transportation. I didn't request a certain village. They did grant the request, putting us in building 86100 and 86200 in the East Village. This location worked quite nicely because it was about a 5 minute walk to the back of River Island. The two bedroom starting 2/17 ended up being in the North Village and that was fine too. I found that it does not matter to me which village we are in. We did not hear noise from any other guests during our stay and all of the units were clean upon check-in. I did find it interesting that although we own in the WV, the units we were given were in the EV and NV. I am aware that they are supposed to be placing owners in the area they own in, but for us, this was not the case.
I'll be posting more about our trip later.
Lisa

We are owners and both times that we exchanged and one time that we rented they put us in the East Village which is where we own.

parents own in West Village--they put them in East Village

even though they called and requested West (tennis) and own in West--they were put in East---they had no record of call, but graciously switched to Tennis Villas (west) at check-in and gave them the closest bldg to the lake/pools--so they were happy in the end--go figure!

own a tennis villa, requested that last time and got it.

Since they have broken up Orange Lake, I would assume now one would need to reserve an exchange in the village they wanted - North, East, West, River Island.

riverdees05 said:

Since they have broken up Orange Lake, I would assume now one would need to reserve an exchange in the village they wanted - North, East, West, River Island.

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True, it seems to be something that many people had wanted. I can't help but think of the expression, "Be careful of what you wish for".

I guess I fail to follow your logic. I can't think of why knowledge and certainty, as opposed to a crapshoot, would be bad.

But, then, I confuse easily.

gjw007 said:

True, it seems to be something that many people had wanted. I can't help but think of the expression, "Be careful of what you wish for".

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I read that threads that Jim/JLB provided. I guess I've never paid much attention and somehow missed it but, geez, people really get fired up about OLCC. I've stayed there twice already--once 3 years ago in the North Village and once last month in the West Village. Apparently I was really lucky because I was happy both times even though the units were WAY different. North was nicer but West was just fine too. It was clean and served it's purpose. I'm sure glad not to have had the experience Jenni did!!

JLB said:

I guess I fail to follow your logic. I can't think of why knowledge and certainty, as opposed to a crapshoot, would be bad.

But, then, I confuse easily.

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Jim;

I don't think that selecting a section is bad but it now opens up other questions such as are you able to use the other amenities such as River Island, golf course, etc. Even before the ability to selection sections, these questions have popped up. Since the ability to make the selection of the sections was important to many people, the fact that they can now do so may be anti-climatic.

I would have felt empty inside had you not returned to reply, as would you of me, no doubt.

Oh, so that's what you meant? I really didn't see your point before.

I've paid attention to this topic just about as close as anyone, and I never noticed an overwhelmingly concern about whether anyone could use all the amenities. In all the bajillion Tripadvisor reviews I haven't seen it either. And, since we all know that the answer to that is Yes, and that answer is readily available here or by contacting OLCC, that was really a non-concern.

Perhaps it is just my familiarity with OLCC, going back the the early days, so that I knew, and assumed most knew, that if you could finaggle your way passed the guard shack(s), which anyone can, then you have a run of the entire resort. Heck, we know that non-guests can even do that under the present system, with hundreds of vehicles going in and out every day.

OTOH, the question as to where you were going to be placed on an exchange did not have an answer, either here or by contacting OLCC, not until you faced the check-in person eyeball-to-eyeball. (notice eyeballs)

To give those two concerns fairly equal weight is unfair, IMHO, since is not really a concern at all.

As for the anti-climactic part, for me it is almost surreal, almost as if OLCC was reading our posts and did something many of us thought made sense, something equally fair to owners and non-owners alike. Perhaps they did it exactly because it does make sense, in addition to making them a Family of Resorts without changing much at all.

(I believe I just saw the ghost of Rod Serling).

We all know that being a Family of Resorts makes a lot of $$$ and sense for them.

If they really are reading/listening, what might be next? :whoopie:

gjw007 said:

Jim;

I don't think that selecting a section is bad but it now opens up other questions such as are you able to use the other amenities such as River Island, golf course, etc. Even before the ability to selection sections, these questions have popped up. Since the ability to make the selection of the sections was important to many people, the fact that they can now do so may be anti-climatic.

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JLB said:

If they really are reading/listening, what might be next? :whoopie:

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Jim,

That is a good question. For the most part, I think that the resorts listen to the little, easy-to-resolve issues (although at times I wonder - as an example, DVC has a members' presentation on Wednesday for owners staying at the resorts that is totally fluff with items like DVC Jeopardy), but there may be a difference between the goals of the owners and exchangers compared to developers on the larger issues (profit for the developers and cost for owners/exchangers). Yes, it will be interesting to see what they do next and the reaction to the next step.