# RCI now has OLCC showing 5 resorts.



## gjw007 (Jan 27, 2007)

The long-awaited and expected RCI listing of 5 resorts for OLCC has now happened.  The RCI directory now shows each section of OLCC at Orlando as a separate resort and a resort at Lake Geneva.


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## timeos2 (Jan 27, 2007)

*What are the rankings if any?*

Are they all Gold Crown? If so there are still some games being played as at least two should be Silver Crown or possibly even unranked. I suppose for now they are still living off the combined scores of the old and new so all will remain GC for at least one more ranking cycle. It will be interesting to see what happens once each designated resort area has to stand on its own.


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## gjw007 (Jan 27, 2007)

When I looked they were all Gold Crown but some of them didn't have the points value associated with them yet.


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## JLB (Jan 27, 2007)

We knew it was coming since five RCI resort ID numbers have been listed on the Resort Information page online, the page where it gives you the details about resort policy when you are making an exchange online.  The five resort IDs numbers were listed in regard to the 1-in-3 policy.  The numbers that had not been assigned previously were for the East Village and the North Village.

Now they are all listed in the online Resort Directory:

Orange Lake's East Village (#8896) 
Orange Lake's North Village (#8897) 
Orange Lake's River Island (#8881) 
Orange Lake's West Village (#0670) 

As long as OL honors exchange confirmations, and does not continue to try to move guests to other _resorts_, as has been reported, this is a move that should be welcomed by all.

I don't recall anyone who has said that they would prefer to not know where they will be placed, that they enjoy that crapshoot.   

This should lead to greater satisfaction from guests as they can set their expectations to the appropriate level.

They can *almost* pick an era that they would to revisit--The 80's, the 90's, the turn of the Century, and today.


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## Mel (Jan 27, 2007)

Each section will indeed have its own points value, with West Village being the lowest, and River Island the highest.  That is already set out in the Global Access literature (I don't have the numbers handy, so sorry I can't post them).

It will be interesting to see what happens now.  I don't see West Village having problems keeping the Gold Crown status because enough people who visit are very happy with the accomodations.  If they downgrade West Village, I would expect many other resorts to be downgraded as well.  I just don't see RCI downgrading 20-30% of the Gold Crown resorts all at once.

It will also be interesting to see what happens trade-wise.  After the novelty wears off, will people be willing to spend the extra points to stay at River Island?  I wouldn't.  I would spend extra to be in West Village, away from the crowds.  

What will be even more interesting is the part points plays in all this.  Many RI units were presold as weeks, and I don't know how many of those owners will want to fork over another $3000 to convert, we'll see.  If they don't, much of the RI inventory will still be in Weeks, and will be deposited directly to RCI.  If it's deposited before a full year out, all the weeks members will have first shot at it, and if RI is that popular, between early deposits and ongoing searches, not much will be left for Points owners to reserve at 10 months out.  Further, if the OLCC owners who joined points want to stay in RI, they get first shot, further depleting any inventory that could be deposited directly into points.


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## timetraveler (Jan 27, 2007)

timeos2 said:
			
		

> Are they all Gold Crown? If so there are still some games being played as at least two should be Silver Crown or possibly even unranked.



I have no idea about Lake Geneva John.   But I do expect the 4 OL villages to remain GC.   If you are referring to the west village golf villas not being GC, they actually are and are becoming second in interior quality only to RI.

The new golf villa redesign has granite counter tops, radiant cooking surfaces, very high end appliances, lighting and plumbing fixtures, electronics, furniture, etc.  This will continue thru the resort as time progresses.   

OL is aggressive with upgrading.  

It also has a very very healthy reserve.  The associations meet quarterly with management to ensure owner's are not blindsided with  some horrific assessment surprise.   Unlike many resorts, OL has cash flow outside of developer sales, and owner maintenance fees.  This is one of the reasons OL has some of the lowest maintenance fees in Orlando .


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## timeos2 (Jan 27, 2007)

*Guest responses are the base not Developer clout*



Mel said:


> It will be interesting to see what happens now.  I don't see West Village having problems keeping the Gold Crown status because enough people who visit are very happy with the accomodations.  If they downgrade West Village, I would expect many other resorts to be downgraded as well.  I just don't see RCI downgrading 20-30% of the Gold Crown resorts all at once.



Mel - This is going to be an issue for a couple reasons. Specifically for the Gold Crown ranking vs downgrading it shouldn't matter to RCI if 30% of the resorts fall off the chart or 30% climb up if the results are really based on the comment rankings from guests. They do seem to be except in the cases of new resorts which are granted the awards based on potential not responses. There is no minimum or maximum number of resorts that could qualify. But hopefully guests are keen enough to realize that not every resort is an across the board "5".  In fact few are. And all it takes is a drop to an average of 4.4 in a few areas and the resort is a Silver Crown. Go a bit lower and your resort is an almost meaningless Hospitality or unranked.  It is very hard, especially for older resorts or older areas of massive resorts, to get a Gold Crown level report from most guests. The comparisons to the newer, better units they are shown (often by the very sales people at the mega resort they are staying at!) are meant to make them feel that the old areas just don't cut it and they should "upgrade".  It is not a good way to get high numbers when your own resort personnel (they try to make the sales team seem like they are a part of the management) talk the resort area you happen to be in down for sales reasons. 

Beyond that RCI has changed the scoring for 2007 and reaching Gold or Silver Crown levels will be harder than ever before. They say they have also altered the comment system such that higher number may be given but that won't be known for sure until the results are actually in. If it isn't so it will be too late. It is a bad time to be trying to improve the scores as right now it may be a challenge just to maintain what they used to be.  My first thought was that RCI was looking to get many Gold Crown resorts down to Silver (and that may not have been a bad approach as too many GC waters down the value of that rank - see the virtually II meaningless 5 Star rating for the harm that can do) but they kept the difference between the two rankings so close that if a Gold Crown was to drop it is likely they wouldn't remain a SC either.  The ranking requirements differences are that small. It doesn't make sense to me unless the goal was to cut the number of both types and leave the vast majority of resorts at Hospitality or unranked. Maybe that is the goal, I sure can't say.


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## rkd (Jan 27, 2007)

What are the 5 in OLCC?  I only see 4: North, East, West & River Island.

Regina


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## timeos2 (Jan 27, 2007)

*Older resorts are at a big disadvantage*



timetraveler said:


> I have no idea about Lake Geneva John.   But I do expect the 4 OL villages to remain GC.   If you are referring to the west village golf villas not being GC, they actually are and are becoming second in interior quality only to RI.
> 
> The new golf villa redesign has granite counter tops, radiant cooking surfaces, very high end appliances, lighting and plumbing fixtures, electronics, furniture, etc.  This will continue thru the resort as time progresses.
> 
> ...



Vickie - I hope you are right and they all maintain GC.  The owners deserve that as that is what they bought.  But my experience at a similar resort group (the infamous Westgate) is that the older sections do deteriorate faster than the incestuous management cares to fix them up no matter how much money they are sitting on.  The focus there, and seems to be at OLCC as well, is the new and sales. The old is tolerated and gets a few bones thrown at them but certainly aren't the focus.  

It is very positive to hear of the improvements you mention as those are exactly what it takes to keep an older resort competitive. I'm with you in hoping that the upgrades are made quickly enough to avoid too many bad report cards. It doesn't take many to hurt the overall scores a lot and the reviews I see posted are mixed enough to make me nervous about how the RCI scores will look at the ranking year end. In the past I'm sure some sections of OL would have not been ranked GC had they had to stand away from the other areas.  It is very hard to predict what the guest will say.

We prefer the resorts with non high (or mid) rise buildings as they seem more Central FL like than the tall ones do.  It is nice if they can be kept competitive with the newer units.  So far I know Westgate hasn't managed that but maybe OL can.


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## timetraveler (Jan 27, 2007)

I much prefer mid rise buildings as well John.  If it were my decision alone, OL would not have a single high rise building.  OL's original concept was a country club.  High rises and country club seem to me to mix...oh about as well as oil and water.   But as we all know....the highrise building brings in way more owners....uhmmm and oh yeah, let's not forget.....the timeshare developer chant......."show me the monnnnnneeeeeyyyy".


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## timetraveler (Jan 27, 2007)

Hi Regina.  OL has acquired part of Lake Geneva Resort.  That's the 5th resort ID.


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## rkd (Jan 27, 2007)

But of course....

And since we are talking about it, when I was at OL a few weeks ago a sales person said that it was the old Playboy Mansion.  Is this true?

Regina


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## timetraveler (Jan 27, 2007)

rkd said:


> But of course....
> 
> And since we are talking about it, when I was at OL a few weeks ago a sales person said that it was the old Playboy Mansion.  Is this true?
> 
> Regina



:whoopie:   You got me on that one Regina.   I have no idea.


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## JLB (Jan 27, 2007)

There have been some amazing, unexplainable downgrades in SW Florida resorts.  Some of the better HGVC resorts (Eagles Nest, Surf Club, Charter Club) have lost their Gold Crown status, while Club Regency, which generally runs behind at least two of those in opinion _polls_, kept their GC.   

Lovers Key Resort has fallen from Gold Crown to Hospitality or no rating at all  depending on whether you look online or at the lastest hard copy Resort Directory.

Of course, I have a soft spot in my heart for SW Florida, but Lovers Key is a wonderful, newish resort in an absolutely beautiful natural setting, and it certainly is difficult to imagine the 25-year-old West Village being a Gold Crown if Lovers Key is not rated at all and Eagles Nest, Surf Club and Charter Club are not Gold Crowns.

Another point that Jenny mentioned earlier today, which I am amazed has escaped our many discussions, is that the West Village is the only _resort_ that has units on the very busy main drag, OL Blvd, and she said she would not want to have a unit on it.  I agree, the traffic is heavy and not often obeying the stop signs and the 23 mph speed limit, even OL vehicles.  Just an added concern ifn ya have youngins with ya.   

Being a realist, it would be hard to rate all of the four OLCC _resorts_ the same.  It would be logical for the OLCC amenities to be considered part of all four of the resorts, regarding of where they are physically, so it will come down to whether the units are of the equal quality in all four resorts, in the opinion(s) of whoever it is that really counts.  We already know from experience that that call can be all over the place.  

We all know that ratings appear to be directly related to suckupedness, and OL is certainly good at that. 

It will be interesting to see when the North Village and East Village actually are available on-line, or has someone seen that yet?  I would think they could do that fairly quickly for dates further out.



Mel said:


> I just don't see RCI downgrading 20-30% of the Gold Crown resorts all at once.


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## Mel (Jan 27, 2007)

I just ran a search for 2BR or better starting 1 OCT 2007

The first 10 week, only West Village shows up.
Changed to 1 Dec, West Village and River Island show up
(RI only has check-in January 26,27)
West Village has almost everything except the weeks before and after Christmas
All the way through August 10 (I stopped after that) only West Village is showing.  Of course, since I'm searching with West Village, I suppose it could be a trading power issue, but not terribly likely, as I'm seeing summer weeks as 10 other resorts as well, and NO non-west village weeks at OLCC other than the 2 in January at RI.


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## Miss Marty (Jan 28, 2007)

*How much will it cost owners to trade within the 4 resorts*

*
How will this change from 1 ID to 4 IDs effect the 
Orange Lake Country Club Timeshare Owners?*

Orange Lake's West Village (#0670) 
Orange Lake's River Island (#8881) 

Orange Lake's East Village (#8896) 
Orange Lake's North Village (#8897) 

Example: 

If someone owns a week in the originial sections and now wants to
exchange to a different id section - Will OLCC do an internal exchange 

Does OLCC Owners have to trade his/her unit for a different 
OL ID using RCI 

If so, how much will the OL/RCI trades cost owners to exchange
within the new Orange Lake Resort Four ID`s


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Speaking of Orlando resort architecture, since it has been brought up:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26047


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Setting:  Native American on horse, holding hand to brow, staring into the distance.

_"As far as I can see, no North Village or East Village, Kemo Sabe."_

 
- - - - - - 
Can you imagine the mess?!   

It was a big enough job assigning a gazillion units every week when it was just one resort, but it *was* just one resort, so shuffling could be done, and was/is.

Everything that was Spacebanked until last year's split was for just one resort.

Then, since then and now, has everything been Spacebanked to two resorts?

And now, will everything be Spacebanked to Four resorts?

And is it worth the effort to go back and reassign all the Spacebanks that were done as one resort, and separate them into four, and two resorts, and separate one of them into 3?

Wow!

It would make more sense to just draw a line in the sand and say, from this day forward Spacebanks will be to separate resorts, and keep playing the shuffling game until then.

But even then, there will be overlapping of Spacebanks, some already having been made when there was one resort and some having been made when there were two, and, really, it would take a full two years to sort itself out.

They must be anticipating generating a lot of new money from their owners from the conversion, to make all this worthwhile.

Or, do you think someone really is sitting somewhere, pouring over computer printouts, sorting out deposits into four piles?

My guess is that the shuffling will continue for a long time, from _resort_ to _resort_.


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## freechoice (Jan 28, 2007)

*What OLCC villages to choose?*

HI ALL! According to RCI Orange Lake's East Village (#8896) 
Orange Lake's North Village (#8897) 
Orange Lake's River Island (#8881) 
Orange Lake's West Village (#0670) 

 WHICH UNITS ARE MORE PREFERABLY SUITED TO TEENS ? I know that RIVER Island is closer to the pools?

West village I am hearing that its old and poor maintenance ? 


just like to get the facts straight if anyone can explain. I know that the WEST Units are single stories  but closer to the highway and noisy but more private then the multi units in the East and River units? 

thanks for your replies:whoopie:


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Mr. Seagull must not listen to you.  Have you seen his new low/midrise at Westgate?



timeos2 said:


> We prefer the resorts with non high (or mid) rise buildings as they seem more Central FL like than the tall ones do.  It is nice if they can be kept competitive with the newer units.  So far I know Westgate hasn't managed that but maybe OL can.


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## gjw007 (Jan 28, 2007)

freechoice said:


> HI ALL! According to RCI Orange Lake's East Village (#8896)
> Orange Lake's North Village (#8897)
> Orange Lake's River Island (#8881)
> Orange Lake's West Village (#0670)
> ...



Not necessarily closer to the highway and noisier; they may be in fact be some of the quietest units on the resort as they are spread throughout the West Village and away from all the traffic.  In addition, you don't have units above or below you plus no common hallways.  The West Village is the oldest section but I would disagree with the notion of poor maintenance (there are those who would support the suggestion as well).  The argument being presented by some is that as the units get older, they will require more maintenance and they may not have more modern features such as Internet connections and oversized whirlpool bathtubs.  If you like it quiet, the West Village Golf Villas really are the way to go although there are sections, like the Tennis Villas, where you can be in the thick of the activities as it is next to the clubhouse and the various activities.  Some people like the quiet areas but other prefer to be located where there is a lot of activities.


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Depends on the teens or non-teens.

The only _pool_ that the RI building is closer to is the RI pool complex.  All the villages have a pool relatively close, but not necessarily within comfortable walking distance for little ones in bathing suits.

We were just there again Christmas week and the only time we spent at RI is the couple of hours after our early checkin.  After that, the 11 in our party preferred the relative privacy of the pool and hot tub nearest to us in the East Village.  Every time we had RI _inked in_, all were in favor of the nearby pool instead.

In my pool temp thread, I may have commented about the other pools, but if I didn't, they varied in temp and most of them were relatively deserted.  Splash Lagoon was a ghost town and it appeared it has been de-emphasized.  I don't believe the big slide as there any more and it was the coldest heated pool, almost to the point of not being heated.  The was also construction/destruction going on at Splash Lagoon.



freechoice said:


> WHICH UNITS ARE MORE PREFERABLY SUITED TO TEENS ? I know that RIVER Island is closer to the pools?


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Another thing to keep in mind is something Jenny said this morning, "I never want to stay on a golf course again.  Those mowers starting at 5:00 AM right outside your window is not fun."

Although it did tend to balance out my MIL's snoring.


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## gjw007 (Jan 28, 2007)

JLB said:


> Another thing to keep in mind is something Jenny said this morning, "I never want to stay on a golf course again.  Those mowers starting at 5:00 AM right outside your window is not fun."
> 
> Although it did tend to balance out my MIL's snoring.


Jim;

I agree with you on that.  When I was there 2 weeks before you in 86400 building, I had the same thing happen.  Twice during the week I woke up to the sounds around 6:00 AM that I ultimately determined to be lawn movers.   I can understand starting early to get out of the summer sun but haven't they heard of mufflers?  This was the first time that this had ever happened to me during all my stays there.  If this is a recent practice, I think it is a practice that should stop!


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## timeos2 (Jan 28, 2007)

*Mid rise belongs in NYC or Miami not Orlando*



JLB said:


> Mr. Seagull must not listen to you.  Have you seen his new low/midrise at Westgate?



Seagull listens to nothing but his own ego.  In fact it is the incredibly ugly and cramped Westgate Lakes that proved to us we don't like tenements in FL.  Now they are bringing the same mid-rise, maudlin buildings to the original Westgate development. Because they need more units? Because they look better? Because there was too much parking?  No, because they can sell more suckers per square foot of land. At least the original area around it should offer some variation until they tear those down and replace them with the hulks.


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## timetraveler (Jan 28, 2007)

on both of our fall visits....I was abruptly brought to a sitting position in the bed due to the loudest leaf/grass blower I've ever heard in my life at 7am.

He was right up against our lanai landscaping.  And if you are occupying the MBr, we are talking up close and personal.   

But the rest of the family were all up anyway.....and totally ignoring it.

I was the only one sitting in the bed, in a total daze wondering if a prop plane had just landed outside my bedroom.   They all got quite the chuckle out of my expression, as I staggerd out into the living room.


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## timetraveler (Jan 28, 2007)

Marty Giggard said:


> *
> How will this change from 1 ID to 4 IDs effect the
> Orange Lake Country Club Timeshare Owners?*
> 
> ...



Marti, what your asking has a two fold answer.  How it's handled depends on whether the OL owner is in Global or remaining in the weeks program.

If your in global points....it depends on size, when and where.  But their internal exchange fee is lower than if an OL owner within the weeks program does an RCI internal exchange back into OL.  The weeks owners have to pay RCI going exchange rate.


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## djyamyam (Jan 28, 2007)

JLB said:


> It will be interesting to see when the North Village and East Village actually are available on-line, or has someone seen that yet? I would think they could do that fairly quickly for dates further out.


 
Both East and North Village are already online.  I did a search and found 1st week of 2009 available for both East and North Village.


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

That is consistent with my guess, that a line would be drawn and deposits to those villages would start at that time, to show up two years out.  No one seems to have seen anything for earlier.  But, everything with OLCC is wait-and-see game.



djyamyam said:


> Both East and North Village are already online.  I did a search and found 1st week of 2009 available for both East and North Village.


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Noise has been addressed in this thread, some referring to noise and some referring to quiet.  I sense sometimes _quiet_ is used in a context not relating to noise, but relating more to being less busy.

Anyway, I addressed noise, which began for us outside our master bedroom window every morning at 5:00  here:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26262


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Sho' nuff, they are there.  I didn't see them this morning but I'm not sure I looked at '09.

I'm seeing up to 3-bedrooms in the East and North Villages and 2-bedroom in the other two.

That's already a help for exchangers.  If you wanted a three bedroom on the ground level you could select the North Village, and in a midrise youcould select the East Village.

That narrows it down.  If you wanted to avoid the Golf Villas, but wanted a 2-bedroom unit, you could select the North Village and get lowrise 90's-style apartmants, or if you wanted a midrise you could select the East Village or River Island.

The crapshoot is if you selected a 2-bedroom in the West Village.  It could be midrise, lowrise, or ground level Golf Villa.



djyamyam said:


> Both East and North Village are already online.  I did a search and found 1st week of 2009 available for both East and North Village.


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## JLB (Jan 28, 2007)

Now I am seeing them for earlier dates.

Fascinating.


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## JLB (Jan 29, 2007)

It seems the date that four are available is creeping backwards, from two years out back toward the present.  Perhaps someone *is* sitting in a cubicle somewhere, making four piles.  Or, perhaps they are making guestimates based on historical figures.  Hopefully not the latter.    

I haven't been following all of these OL sightings, but this morning I saw 3-bedroom units at RI.  Is that something new, or just new to me because I hadn't look for those dates before?


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## Walt (Jan 29, 2007)

*No Playboy Mansion!*



rkd said:


> But of course....
> 
> And since we are talking about it, when I was at OL a few weeks ago a sales person said that it was the old Playboy Mansion.  Is this true?
> 
> Regina




This Resort began as the LG Playboy Resort.  The Resort had a Hotel, golf course, tennis courts, and a small hill they used for skiing, plus Playboy Bunnies.   There never was a Playboy Mansion here.  The timeshare units were built after the Resort was sold to the Marcus group.

PS.  Check this link for more information on the old Playboy Club and the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa.

http://www2.jsonline.com/news/sunday/travel/0615grand.stm

Walt


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