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„Cheap“ deposits for last minute vacations

urbiman

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I know two ways to get cheap deposits for last minute vacations, one is the Christmas Mountain UDI contracts and the other one are Massanutten where you get deposits for paying your MF early and can get additional deposits for a small fee.
Are there other ways to get cheap/small deposits that can be used for last minute/flexchange exchange?
 

JulieAB

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Not sure if this fits the definition, but you can rent leftover blue weeks in MROP for $300 for deposit ($500 for white and $700 for red). I got some maui trades for cheap that way in trading places international, plus a bonus week for each deposit.
 

JudyS

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I also use Christmas Mountain UDI. Can you tell me more about the Massanutten deal? What is the specific resort name, and what are the costs involved?

Worldmark has last-minute exchanges for 4000 credits, which are about $280 in MFs. Of course, with the II/RCI exchange fees, it is still pretty expensive for a week.
 

urbiman

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Thanks JulieAB and JudyS for your replies. I was more looking more into 100-200 USD-ish opportunities. You can read more about Massanutten so called "Power Boost" here: https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/massanutten-trade-boost.290287/ .

I think Grand Crowne has also something that could work, however their model is pretty intransparent (at least to me) so I can not say for sure.
 

rapmarks

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Christmas Mountain udi has a cleaning fee of $138 per use, going up substantially each year, so it will soon be out of cheap category when you add in a proportional amount for maintenance fee and the exchange fee.
 

Eric B

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I also use Christmas Mountain UDI. Can you tell me more about the Massanutten deal? What is the specific resort name, and what are the costs involved?

Worldmark has last-minute exchanges for 4000 credits, which are about $280 in MFs. Of course, with the II/RCI exchange fees, it is still pretty expensive for a week.

The Massanutten deal is on a year-by-year basis without a guarantee that they'll keep doing it. They've been doing it for a while, though. I've gotten it for both their Woodstone and Summit units; you can find them in the free timeshare forum fairly frequently. They also come with a Vacation Village (the parent company) "extra vacation" certificate which is good for 2-45 days out for an RCI weeks trade with a value ~8 TPU. There are a few other resort names there; Mountainside Villas is dual listed with II/RCI and is a select resort, but all the rest only trade in RCI.
 

mdurette

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Just a thought - but you are looking for last minute vacations. Most of the time LM items via Getaway or Extra Vacation or Last Call are not much more than the exchange fee. If you already have a TS and belong to II or RCI, just use that outlet and not be tied into owning something.
 

JudyS

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Thanks for the information on Massanutten!

I find the II Getaways to be very good deals. But, availability is better with an actual deposited week.

One angle I haven't tried is the II "take two" (Choose 2?) deal. Trade one week, get a second with just an exchange fee.

Falcon Point (or maybe it's Eagle Point) in Colorado has very low-MF off-season studios. MFs were about $200, last I heard. Colorado is the only state that allows discounted MFs for off-season weeks. I know that TUG member Cindy (RickandCindy) owns at a another CO resort that has very inexpensive off-season weeks.

Christmas Mountain udi has a cleaning fee of $138 per use, going up substantially each year, so it will soon be out of cheap category when you add in a proportional amount for maintenance fee and the exchange fee.
Yeah, the cleaning fee was only$55 when I first bout my Christmas Mountain UDI, and that wasn't all that long ago! I still get very good value from my Christmas Mountain UDI -- it depends on what trades one is looking for.
 
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