# Dual member of both DRI Points & Amber Vacation Club



## DianeNYS (May 30, 2018)

I have been trying to get information from both clubs as to how my dual membership would work under DRI's new purchase of Amber Vacation Club. I have been a member of DRI since 1999 (when it was owned by Club Sunterra), owning at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas; Polynesian Isles, Phase I; & Coral Sands (now owned by Westgate, and called Westgate South Beach). All deeded properties, all in points.

I am also an Amber Vacation Club member, owning at Casa Del Mar in Ormond Beach, since 2003 or so. I am THRILLED that DRI has purchased AVC, and want VERY badly for my AVC points to be assimilated into my DRI points so that I can just use them now anywhere that DRI owns. Does anyone know how I can find out how this "merger" affects someone like me? Is there a person or special number someone knows about that I can call? I've tried for a couple of months now to get an answer (everyone at Amber and DRI are willing to help, but so far no one knows the information), and I really am anxious to know what's what...


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## DianeNYS (May 30, 2018)

Holy Moly!!!!   Right before posting this thread, I emailed the CEO of DRI (with his email address found on this site) just for the heck of it to see if THAT would garner a reply. I did NOT expect one, however.

I just got an email back from Michael Flaskey (ceo@diamondresorts.com):

_
Dear Ms. XXXXXX: 

Thank you for reaching out! I have appointed one of our customer service leaders to get in touch with you and answer your questions: we will contact you very soon. 

Allow me to also thank you for your loyalty through the years, and here’s to many more to come!

With best regards,

Mike _


Hopefully this will pan out, and I'll get a conversation with the right person/people  
_
_


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## dioxide45 (May 30, 2018)

DianeNYS said:


> I am THRILLED that DRI has purchased AVC, and want VERY badly for my AVC points to be assimilated into my DRI points so that I can just use them now anywhere that DRI owns.


You may not be trilled when your MFs start to go up significantly. This is how DRI seems to work. Buy smaller systems or properties and then get control of the board and start improving the property. Those improvements don't come cheap and they often also institute large management fees to DRI.

Unfortunately I can't help with your other questions, but I don't know that DRI assimilates the resort they buy in to their system. You own what you originally owned and can use that. To get them to work seamlessly, you usually have to buy new DRI points and convey your actual ownership back to DRI where they put it in to one of their trust collections. If I am wrong with that, I am sure someone will be along to correct me.


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## nuwermj (May 30, 2018)

I don't know what DRI has planned for the Amber Club. Typically Diamond will try to get deeded owner to convert their deeds into points in DRI exchange Club (THE Club). They will very likely do this with owners at Sunrise Ridge in Tennessee. But Diamond did not acquire the developer's rights nor the management contract at Casa del Mar. Those rights belong to Bluegreen, and there is no way Bluegreen is letting them go. So, can Diamond trade for a Casa del Mar deed and deposit it into the US Collection's trust fund? I don't know the answer, but I'm thinking the chances are very low. 

There are a few examples where Diamond purchased vacation clubs, although none are exactly the same as the Amber situation. Nevertheless, in those other cases, Diamond continued (and still continues) to operate those "mini" clubs. My guess is that Diamond will continue to operate the Amber Club with the five resorts. They might add some of the Diamond managed location to the that club, but only they can say for sure.


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## DianeNYS (May 30, 2018)

(this was in response to dioxide45)

It MAY be a bit different with Casa Del Mar, because it is being run by Blue Green, and the AVC units are a bit less in number than the ones Blue Green owns now...Not sure, really, which is why I want to talk to someone who knows what's what at Diamond Resorts. As for the MFs, I assumed they would rise, though right now I do pay them to Blue Green (though I never joined their system), and they raised them once THEY took over the management, too. Since DRI only purchased the AVC units at Casa Del Mar, I really don't have any idea about how it works.

I've been a member of DRI's points club since it was Club Sunterra, so I don't need to buy into it at this point, just convert my AVC value to theirs (I hope). I'll see...Once someone gets back to me, I can update


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## DianeNYS (May 30, 2018)

nuwermj said:


> I don't know what DRI has planned for the Amber Club. Typically Diamond will try to get deeded owner to convert their deeds into points in DRI exchange Club (THE Club). They will very likely do this with owners at Sunrise Ridge in Tennessee. But Diamond did not acquire the developer's rights nor the management contract at Casa del Mar. Those rights belong to Bluegreen, and there is no way Bluegreen is letting them go. So, can Diamond trade for a Casa del Mar deed and deposit it into the US Collection's trust fund? I don't know the answer, but I'm thinking the chances are very low.
> 
> There are a few examples where Diamond purchased vacation clubs, although none are exactly the same as the Amber situation. Nevertheless, in those other cases, Diamond continued (and still continues) to operate those "mini" clubs. My guess is that Diamond will continue to operate the Amber Club with the five resorts. They might add some of the Diamond managed location to the that club, but only they can say for sure.



Yes...What I want to do is see if I can deed my AVC unit to DRI and have the value changed to DRI points that I can use like usual with them. Tall order? Maybe...But I'm going to try at least to get that done   My points with DRI are the original, non-trust type, and I don't want to get involved with the Trust if I don't have to. I just want to talk to someone at DRI who knows something


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## nuwermj (May 30, 2018)

@DianeNYS: Please let us know when you get an answer.


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## DianeNYS (May 30, 2018)

nuwermj said:


> @DianeNYS: Please let us know when you get an answer.



Absolutely


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## DianeNYS (Jun 1, 2018)

Mr. Flaskey tasked a top Customer Service representative with knowledge of what's going on with the Amber Vacation Club acquisition to contact me, and I just got off of the phone with her (our conversation was for 30 minutes). Right now, the fact that Casa Del Mar is managed by Bluegreen DOES complicate my situation, and the fact that we are already DRI points club members ALSO complicates things. She was VERY friendly, gracious and helpful, and took my personal information so she can call me again once they formulate some sort of plan for people like us 

I have her name, number and extension, and encouragement to call her whenever I have questions or just to check in on the progress of their takeover of AVC. It may take up to a year for those of us who are dual owners who want to roll their Casa Del Mar ownership into DRI points; right now they are getting their call center/s set up and their program put together that will encourage AVC-only members to upgrade to DRI. She said to check in every few months or so to see if there are any updates, and if she gets any information that would help me, she will call me with that. She was very nice


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## chemteach (Jun 1, 2018)

When DRI purchased Monarch Grand Resorts, they offered a conversion into the club for around $2000.  When they purchased the Virginia Beach Gold Key Resorts, they did something similar - but I'm not certain what their deal was.  I know a lot of Gold Key members were very upset with Diamond...


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## smtundra (Jun 15, 2018)

Yes. Gold key members are not happy with Diamond.  Very few have given up their deeded weeks.  If you have a deeded week, you own something.  Owning points is like owning air.  With a deeded week, you are able to sell and rent, because it is real estate.  Points are not allowed to be rented or sold on the secondary market.  With that said, besides II or RCI, there is a way to exchange Diamond deeded weeks.  DRI luanched an internal exchange network for DRI weeks owners similar to THE Club for DRI points members but with only DRI resorts access for now (no affiliated resorts access).

https://destinationxchange.com/


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## CHRH (Jun 16, 2018)

DianeNYS said:


> I have been trying to get information from both clubs as to how my dual membership would work under DRI's new purchase of Amber Vacation Club. I have been a member of DRI since 1999 (when it was owned by Club Sunterra), owning at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas; Polynesian Isles, Phase I; & Coral Sands (now owned by Westgate, and called Westgate South Beach). All deeded properties, all in points.
> 
> I am also an Amber Vacation Club member, owning at Casa Del Mar in Ormond Beach, since 2003 or so. I am THRILLED that DRI has purchased AVC, and want VERY badly for my AVC points to be assimilated into my DRI points so that I can just use them now anywhere that DRI owns. Does anyone know how I can find out how this "merger" affects someone like me? Is there a person or special number someone knows about that I can call? I've tried for a couple of months now to get an answer (everyone at Amber and DRI are willing to help, but so far no one knows the information), and I really am anxious to know what's what...


Hi not sure if this helps but we owned a week at mystic dunes from 2008, diamond bought them out in 2011 and our week was converted to points automatically however we still held the deed for these points our week, we at the time bought 2000 points from diamond to take us up to silver membership and have since vacated through out America and Europe including the uk were we live with no bother at all. The only bother is that diamond continuously want us to "transfer" our original points(deed) to the "trust" the last quote in June 18 whilst on Holliday at Grand Beach Fl, was $12000!!!!!. Which I Laughed at. we have both types of points, deed and trust and have no bother visiting any of diamonds or affiliated resorts but boy do they hard sell the transfer.


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## DianeNYS (Jun 16, 2018)

Thanks, CHRH   We also own all deeded properties with DRI that are in points, and our property with AVC at Casa Del Mar is also a deeded week--but it has always automatically changed into points if we don't book our owned week 6 months prior to that week. I'm not sure what will happen with DRI regarding that; when I go to the DRI website for AVC owners, it now shows my deeded week as a booked vacation with the opportunity to cancel it without losing the points. I'm going to an AVC property for a 2 night stay next week, and will stop in at Sunrise Ridge in Pigeon Forge (we are staying at Oakmont in Pigeon Forge) where DRI is set up for reservations to find out what I should be doing with that week since we don't want to stay at Casa Del Mar in June 2019. I know I should cancel it, but am not sure if a year out is fine...I'm sure it is, but since I have plenty of time to do it, I want their input. I also am hoping they will have new, up-to-date information for me on how things are going with the transfer.

We do love the way DRI works for us, and like you, have no interest in changing over to the Trust--which is something that will probably influence how we end up using our AVC week. I fear the only way we can roll that owned week into our DRI points will be to change ALL of our owned weeks into the Trust, and we won't do that. But, I believe we can make this work for us somehow, without having to invest all sorts of money to do so (the last Owner Update we attended a couple of years ago ended up with their "offer" for us to pay them $17,000 to transfer our 3 DRI deeded properties + our then AVC-only deeded property into the Trust. Uh...No thanks!). The only solution for us to avoid their hard-sell for the Trust has been to not set up those Owner Updates


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## CHRH (Jun 16, 2018)

DianeNYS said:


> Thanks, CHRH   We also own all deeded properties with DRI that are in points, and our property with AVC at Casa Del Mar is also a deeded week--but it has always automatically changed into points if we don't book our owned week 6 months prior to that week. I'm not sure what will happen with DRI regarding that; when I go to the DRI website for AVC owners, it now shows my deeded week as a booked vacation with the opportunity to cancel it without losing the points. I'm going to an AVC property for a 2 night stay next week, and will stop in at Sunrise Ridge in Pigeon Forge (we are staying at Oakmont in Pigeon Forge) where DRI is set up for reservations to find out what I should be doing with that week since we don't want to stay at Casa Del Mar in June 2019. I know I should cancel it, but am not sure if a year out is fine...I'm sure it is, but since I have plenty of time to do it, I want their input. I also am hoping they will have new, up-to-date information for me on how things are going with the transfer.
> 
> We do love the way DRI works for us, and like you, have no interest in changing over to the Trust--which is something that will probably influence how we end up using our AVC week. I fear the only way we can roll that owned week into our DRI points will be to change ALL of our owned weeks into the Trust, and we won't do that. But, I believe we can make this work for us somehow, without having to invest all sorts of money to do so (the last Owner Update we attended a couple of years ago ended up with their "offer" for us to pay them $17,000 to transfer our 3 DRI deeded properties + our then AVC-only deeded property into the Trust. Uh...No thanks!). The only solution for us to avoid their hard-sell for the Trust has been to not set up those Owner Updates


Hi I am not a legal attorney  neither do i profess to actually understand the compete "bull S" that they tell us. All i know is that they are desperate for us to transfer our deeded points that equate to "real estate" to "the club that equates to thin air. as far as my family are concerned we still vacate any where at our convenience, have NEVER used my original week at mystic dunes but go back when and where we want subject to availability.As for Diamond who i'm sure read these posts " are you for real!!!!! $30 per point but a one off discount to $9 per point are you are having a laugh! I cannot believe that any body is bying in at this level. It is totally un sustainable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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