# Christmas Mountain Village



## urbiman (Jul 31, 2014)

I read many things about the Christmas Mountain Village UDI. I think I got the UDI principle so far. 

However I wonder why the trading power of the CMV should be so high (or at least pretty good). I understand that the location is a very important factor, but when I look at the quality of the resort it seems to be not that high. And while wisconsin is not overbuilt my understanding is that wisconsin is not a dream vacation location either.

They seem to have no rating/badge at the exchange companies any longer and also have bad tripadvisor ratings. 
Is it just the location here or am I missing something else very important?

Does anyone know if these are still easy to get? As far as I read here there will be still one special assessment next year and at least the HOA has no further UDIs available.


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## rapmarks (Jul 31, 2014)

Wisconsin Dells is a huge attraction, getting about three million visitors a year and bringing in over a billion dollars.
population about 2500 so that is a pretty good draw

Christmas Mountain is very nice, 27 hole golf course, very beautiful, ski hills, lots of activities, in a beautiful wooded setting.  
the cottages are way too small, 600 square feet, and I imagine anyone who traded a lovely two bedroom for one would write a bad review, many of the other types of housing here are excellent, and deserve a good rating.

The Dells, besides the huge waterparks, amusement parks, Duck rides, bot rides, and water sports, has three state parks near by , the International Crane Center, Circus World Museum, and a little drive to House on the Rock, and Taleisin, Madison is an hour away with lots to see.  

Blame Bluegreen for not insisting on better management, complaints of cottages not clean, and things not in working order led to poor ratings, the resort has more than most resorts have.

and Wisconsin is a beautiful state, with lots of great vacation spots.  Tourism is huge in Wisconsin.


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## chriskre (Jul 31, 2014)

urbiman said:


> I read many things about the Christmas Mountain Village UDI. I think I got the UDI principle so far.
> 
> However I wonder why the trading power of the CMV should be so high (or at least pretty good). I understand that the location is a very important factor, but when I look at the quality of the resort it seems to be not that high. And while wisconsin is not overbuilt my understanding is that wisconsin is not a dream vacation location either.
> 
> ...



You can still buy them from people selling theirs but the HOA no longer is giving them away.  There are a few owners retiring and selling them for around 3K.
You can find them on the timeshare sale and rental sites.  

The special assessment was for 3 years for around $3000 payable $1000 per year.  It was because of years of deferred maintenance.  Now that bluegreen has been finishing the remodeling the quality of the resort and the ratings should improve.  I have one year left on my special assessment.  I've more than gotten my moneys worth in wonderful vacations with my UDI.  

I own one but have never been, so can't really tell you what the appeal is of the place, only that it gets medium trading power for me.  It's enough to pull many of the good things in both II and RCI but much harder to pull the great stuff in II since you can't combine points and the trading power is hidden.   I usually just want the good stuff, it doesn't have to be the great trades like Harborside but I do wish I could see the Hyatts.  But for what it is, it's a great ownership.  I'm glad I own one.


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## urbiman (Aug 1, 2014)

rapmarks said:


> Wisconsin Dells is a huge attraction, getting about three million visitors a year and bringing in over a billion dollars.


Thanks for explaining, as I do not live in the US I am not familiar with vacation spots other than florida.




chriskre said:


> There are a few owners retiring and selling them for around 3K.



Wow, 3K is a price. 
As far is I understand you can get up to 4 red weeks out of a UDI (given you want to deposit it 90 days before checkin) for a MF of $1,201.29 + 4 times the Housekeeping fee (50 USD if I am not mistaken) of 200 USD so all in all round about 350 USD per 2BR deposit (of medium to good trading power) + a big number of white weeks. Is my assumption correct so far?


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## rapmarks (Aug 1, 2014)

I have never heard of anyone getting three thousand for a cottage in recent times, and I tough for the Timbers too.


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## chriskre (Aug 1, 2014)

urbiman said:


> Thanks for explaining, as I do not live in the US I am not familiar with vacation spots other than florida.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Well everything in life is negotiable. 

No you don't have it right.
You get one red week. Two white or blue weeks and a 45 day last minute for around $1000 in MFs.
then for each week you reserve to deposit you pay $80 housekeeping fees.
That's around $1320 for 4 weeks.  
But as your check in dates pass you can reserve another like week.
So for example once your 45 day check in date of say June 1 st passes you can make another 45 day
Reservation for up til July 15th and pay another $80 and get a fifth week and so on and so on. 

Many owners just reserve their 4 weeks or less which leaves the rest of the available inventory for
Us timeshare junkies.  
My first year of ownership I booked 18 weeks to deposit.  
I now have a surplus of deposits for a while so I slowed down with my reservations which leaves
More for the others.  

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## urbiman (Aug 1, 2014)

chriskre said:


> So for example once your 45 day check in date of say June 1 st passes you can make another 45 day Reservation for up til July 15th and pay another $80 and get a fifth week and so on and so on.



Ok, my idea was that the flex weeks don't really count as redweeks (in terms of trading power only, onbviously technically they are/can be redweeks). 

Don't you get a massive gradation for depositing them 45 days before checkin? I read somewhere that CMV weeks have around 20 TPUs, would that be for the "full" redweek that could be deposited well in advance or for this short-notice deposits, or isn't there a difference at all?

I came up with the idea of 4 redweeks per year with UDI because I assumed that you have to deposit them at least 90 days in advance to get a significant number of TPUs.

However it seems to me that the UDI principle works much better with RCI where TPUs can be merged as opposed to II where you are stuck with the very trading power the week has you are depositing.


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## rapmarks (Aug 1, 2014)

over thirty in the summer, but usually need to book pretty far out to get them, and then you might get another summer red with the 45 day week, spring and fall around 18.  
some weeks are only 12.
say you use your white week for May, then the next white week is late September, so that is 4 months out and you must rely on your 45 day out to get any more weeks between weeks 21 and 37.  likewise some weeks  in winter are red, so you have a time period where you book some time out.  Bluegreen calls 5 thru 8 red, but RCI doesn't give them much.


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## chriskre (Aug 1, 2014)

urbiman said:


> Ok, my idea was that the flex weeks don't really count as redweeks (in terms of trading power only, onbviously technically they are/can be redweeks).
> 
> Don't you get a massive gradation for depositing them 45 days before checkin? I read somewhere that CMV weeks have around 20 TPUs, would that be for the "full" redweek that could be deposited well in advance or for this short-notice deposits, or isn't there a difference at all?
> 
> ...



Rci and CMVs definition of redweek differs.

Its not that you do better in rci its just that you have the option to combine to upgrade.
but I do quite well in ii with white weeks.  Even better with summer reds. 
Not subject to combine fees and most deposits get me an AC.
I am doing more exchanges in ii lately and getting better and cheaper stuff in ii.
Unfortunately one of my yearly favorites only deposits to rci.
CMV also does well in rci points with pfds 


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## urbiman (Aug 3, 2014)

I had a quick look at the calendar and came to roughly about 4 "real" red weeks (deposited at least 90 days before travel) and 6 additional short notice red-weeks (45 days deposited before travel) that should be do-able with the CMV UDI.

If I would like to calculate the PFD power of CMV I would calculate 4*36500
points for the "real" red weeks and additional 6*27375 points for the sort notice deposits (75% of points). Coming to a total of 310250 points that could be done with redweeks a year (I see that there are some tweaks using a white week for red season, but that should be it roughly).

The costs that would occur are 1000 USD for the MF + 260 USD for 10 PFDs + 800 USD for 8 Housekeepings, so a total 2060 USD for all deposits including conversion.

If my assumptions are right and I done the math correctly that should be 0,006639807 USD per point (maybe a bit better when tweaking a little). Does that sound about right?


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## rapmarks (Aug 3, 2014)

I think you have an extra zero or something.  But I don't see how you can get 4 reds 90 days in advance, as you can only have one red at a time that far out, you might get three, but you would have to take the first red week in May and a late one in September, and they only get a small tpu from RCI, like 19 or 20  you could do Christmas or New Years after that, the Feb weeks are too close to book 90 days out


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## urbiman (Aug 3, 2014)

The red intervals are as follows:

Red February 01, 2014 March 01, 2014
Red May 17, 2014 October 04, 2014 
Red December 20, 2014 December 31, 2014

So the middle red week timeslot should be able to accomodate 2 red weeks, one at the beginnign and one about shortly after the mid, what ever works best.

When I see things correctly TPUs shouldn't matter with PFD, the points should always be the same as long as you honor the rules.

My calculation was : 2060/310250 = 0.006639807
Total cost: 260+800+1000=2060 
Total points: 4*36500 + 6*27375 = 310250

Rule of thumb is that 1 cent cost per RCI point is a good value so 0.66 cent per point should be somewhat realistic.


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## rapmarks (Aug 4, 2014)

they must have changed some designations, as my notes have red 5-8, 21-37, and weeks 51 and 52. mid September switched back to white. but that is  still three 90 days out.   I never did points for deposit, so can't comment


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## AllenWoodruff (Aug 14, 2014)

I have owned CMV UDI for 8 years and I just wanted to point out something you may have overlooked when it comes to PFD.  You can only do PFD 4 weeks per calendar year per resort.  Meaning, you can only deposit 4 weeks per calendar year of CMV into RCI Points.  If you owned another resort you could deposit 4 weeks of it into RCI Points. This was a change that RCI made several years ago.


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## urbiman (Aug 14, 2014)

Thanks for pointing that out. It the meantime I figured out that TPUs must be the best way to use CMV UDI. Even if you were able to do the PFD like I explained above the price per point is pretty good but not "unmached".


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## AllenWoodruff (Aug 14, 2014)

urbiman said:


> Thanks for pointing that out. It the meantime I figured out that TPUs must be the best way to use CMV UDI. Even if you were able to do the PFD like I explained above the price per point is pretty good but not "unmached".



I also find myself using TPUs more that PFD.  I own a points resort in Destin, FL every other year and I use PFD to allow me to go every year.  I too have found very good trading power with summer red weeks in II.  However, I have not had much luck with white or blue in II.


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