# Grand Pacific Palisades Purchase Question



## cmi (Sep 2, 2007)

If I purchase a resale week for this Grand Pacific Palisades Carlsbad Resort am I purchasing points or a week?  Not being familiar with RCI does depositing the week with RCI translate to RCI points?   Or since this resort is a Hilton Affiliate am I purchasing Hilton Points, thus I am able to use Club Points to trade into a Hilton??  Thanks in advance.

chris


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## rhonda (Sep 3, 2007)

GPP is a weeks-based timeshare.  Resale weeks will either be _fixed week_ (all summer weeks and select holiday weeks) or _floating week_ (non-summer).  GPP trades via _RCI Weeks_, SFX and Grand Pacific Resort's own "Grand Pacific Exchange" (GPX) programs.

Other advantages to owning GPP:
Float weeks may be taken as "split weeks" at the resort.  
Fixed weeks may be deposited in RCI up to 2 years out.  No need to prepay the MF provided your account is current at time of deposit.
Day use of the resort.  (Great if you live nearby)
Grand Pacific Resort owners are exempt from RCI's 1-in-4 GPR-Family-Block.  Trade into all the GPR resorts as often as you'd like. 
GPP owners are treated "as owners" regardless of how they got there.  (I receive full "owner" benefits even when I trade in using a non-GPR deposit.)
GPR owners receive a $15 discount on their exchange fees when trading into any GRP property.
Free "owner-level" membership in ResorTime for rental weeks.

While the new Grand Pacific Marbrisa is a Hilton affiliate -- I don't believe this extends to the Grand Pacific Palisades.


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## Cathyb (Sep 3, 2007)

rhonda is correct -- Marbrisa is Hilton-affiliated but Palisades is not.

Rhonda, re split weeks -- is that open to all Grand Pacific owners?  We own at Carlsbad Inn and didn't hear about this.


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## rhonda (Sep 3, 2007)

Cathyb said:


> Rhonda, re split weeks -- is that open to all Grand Pacific owners?  We own at Carlsbad Inn and didn't hear about this.


Sorry, Cathy -- I'm not sure.  We own a fixed summer week (eoy) ... but the "split week" feature was pushed as the strong advantage to their float weeks and I see it mentioned in various resale ads.

A quick call to Owner Services tomorrow should provide a good answer?


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## JustPlainBill (Sep 15, 2007)

I am not sure you should purchase at GPP. Our first timeshare purchase was a cheapo winter week at Carlsbad (I have no idea why people pay premium prices for a summer week, when you can always trade a winter week for a summer week). As a Grand Pacific owner, you get priority on trading into any of their resorts through RCI. I do not know if this is still possible (we now bank our Carlsbad week with another company), but I used to able to pull a 3BR (the size of a small house) summer week at GPP with a 1BR Carlsbad winter week.

We bought that Carlsbad week through the on-site resale agent, who gave us an RCI certificate for three free timeshare weeks. At first glance, it was so limited that it seemed useless (West Virginia in November?). Then I noticed that it was good in Mexico from September through December. We used it to spend one December week at Pueblo Bonito Rose (Cabo), another at Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan, and another at a decent resort in La Paz, where you can snorkel with sea lions. La Paz is real Mexico, not a tourist trip like Cabo. Those three trips more than paid for the Carlsbad week we bought.


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## cmi (Sep 23, 2007)

JustPlainBill do you mean I should purchase resale GPP or not purchase GPP at all.  I'm being told that although Marbrisa is Hilton Affiliate at this time they are selling X number of GPP units as Hilton Affiliate too.  If I understood correctly, this is being done because they are late in opening MarBrisa and Hilton people want to vacation in Southern Cal. Therefore by selling some GPP units as Hilton affliate they will get priority.  Don't know if this makes sense.  Thanks to everyone for your input on my original question.


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## JohnnyO (Sep 26, 2007)

There are now a limited number of units available at GPP via the developer that are selling as GPP with HGVC point values and points attached.  My understanding is that you can choose to use the HGVC points in the HGVC program for HGVC resorts or use your GPP week as a regular 'week' and opt to not put it into the HGVC points program.  You need to research if HGVC is right for you.  They are charging developer prices for these units but they are negotiating.

My understanding is that you will not get day use at Marbrisa via this program...only at GPP.  Also you will be just like any other HGVC member when trying to make your reservations outside of your home resort.  Your home resort will be GPP and not Marbrisa so you will not have any real advantage for getting Marbrisa reservations vs any other HGVC member.

Some of the above may be wrong so you need to do your due diligence and be sure you know what you are buying.

If it is GPP or any other GPR resort that you would be happy with or are interested in then there are plenty in the resale market which are priced well below the developer prices.  The vast majority of them will be the non-HGVC program units.  There may be some limited number of combined hybrid GPP/HGVC resales in the future but I am not sure what is in the fine print regarding the future resale and transfer of the 'new' hybrid offering of GPP/HGVC units. That is another issue you will need to research with the developer as it will affect the value of your unit if you decide to sell your timeshare in the future.





cmi said:


> JustPlainBill do you mean I should purchase resale GPP or not purchase GPP at all.  I'm being told that although Marbrisa is Hilton Affiliate at this time they are selling X number of GPP units as Hilton Affiliate too.  If I understood correctly, this is being done because they are late in opening MarBrisa and Hilton people want to vacation in Southern Cal. Therefore by selling some GPP units as Hilton affliate they will get priority.  Don't know if this makes sense.  Thanks to everyone for your input on my original question.


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