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Bonnet Creek

How should I buy points to stay frequently at Bonnet Creek?


  • Total voters
    11

hawkinsrv

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I'm not a Wyndham points owner yet but, once this pandemic is over, I'd like to get my Disney annual passes again and go to Disney World every three months for three or four days (my job has lots of long weekends). Since I want frequent short stays, what would be the best way to buy points? I've been reading that it's harder to get reservations for Bonnet Creek due to its popularity. I'm also totally confused about housekeeping. I would be grateful for any advice!
 

Jan M.

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
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Points
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Location
Tamarac, FL
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Presidential Reserve at Panama City Beach
Club Wyndham Access
Grandview Las Vegas and Discovery Beach Resort - Both in RCI Points
Woodstone and Summit at Massanutten - Both in RCI weeks used as Wyndham PICs
1. How many points will you need for those stays at the different Wyndham resorts in the size unit you need? See the point charts below.
2. How much will it cost you to get those points?
3. How much will the maintenance fees be on those points/how much will the stays cost you?
4. Will you need to buy extra housekeeping credits?
5. Will you need to buy extra reservation transactions?


I like to use Grand Desert for my examples because it has lower average maintenance fees and you can usually find someone selling points there pretty cheaply. So the 2020 maintenance fees at Grand Desert are $4.96 per thousand points for building 3 and I believe $4.87 for buildings 1 and 2. Add another $0.62 per thousand for the program fee or a minimum of $160. Cypress Palms and Star Island resorts because are the least number of points to book. I'll pick a 4 day weekend checking in on Friday in each of the three seasons in a two bedroom. I know you said 4 times a year but to keep it simple it's easier to go with three stays, once in each season. That means you'll need 293,000 points at both Cypress Palms and Star Island and 337,200 points for Bonnet Creek. The maintenance fees and program fee for Grand Desert buildings 1 or 2 on 293k points would be $1608.57. For Bonnet Creel 337,200 points, $1851.23. You'll get one free housekeeping credit for every 70k points so the free ones you would get will be enough for the three stays a year. But if you need more than that they will be $159 each. You get one free reservation transaction fee for every 77k points you own so again you'll have enough for your three stays. However if you do need more they're $19 online or $39 over the phone. You can deposit any points you won't be using into one of the next two use years and that costs $39 or $49 if you call in to do it. However if you're going to do that you must do it within the first three months of your use year. If you are making a reservation within 90 days of the check in date you can borrow points from your next use year and there is no charge to do that. The other alternative to carry over points is to deposit them into RCI. If you book a week with those points in RCI the exchange fee is $249. If you book less than a week the exchange fee is less but I believe you also pay a housekeeping fee. With your Wyndham ownership you get a free RCI weeks account.

Now I'm going to suggest something else. Take a look at a small number of points at Grandview at Las Vegas which will give you an RCI points account. A middle level week in a one bedroom every other year would get you 49,000 points every other year with 2020 maintenance fees of $208.75 per year. There are even triennial years available and that would get you 16,333 points every third year with 2020 maintenance fees of $139.67 per year. You can usually find someone giving away the middle level Grandview weeks. Sometimes they will pay or split the $250 resort transfer fee and the around $225 fee LT Transfers charges to handle things. Sometimes you will find the other person isn't keeping their RCI points account and that can also be transferred to you and the cost is $98. If you have to set up a new points account the fee is $222 but included the first year RCI membership worth $124. The current annual RCI membership fee for a points account is $124 but if you pay for more than one year there is a nice discount.

Grandview is a resort in the Vacation Village family of resorts which gets you two extra weeks a year with no points needed just the $249-$299 fee plus tax. You can only book these weeks within 45 days of the check in date but there is always plenty of inventory in Orlando that you can get. Another option is the last call weeks that have a little higher fee and also require no points. I find that there are more choices of what's availability with the extra weeks than the last call weeks but there's still plenty in Orlando with last call weeks. Just to give you an example that you can find some great stays in those Vacation Village extra weeks on September 9th I booked the week of October 23rd in a three bedroom/three bath unit at Reunion. Reunion has a great water park for the kids. Wyndham and Worldmark both have units there and it was a Worldmark unit that was available. The RCI exchange fee recently went up from $239 to $249 so the cost was the exchange fee and tax. Our granddaughters love the Vacation Village at Parkway resort and if I can only find a one bedroom in the extra weeks or last call weeks I've always been able to find a two bedroom when I needed it in the discounted point weeks you can find within 1-5 weeks of check in. At VV at Pkwy I get those discounted point weeks for 4900 points. I've also booked Star Island and usually see Cypress Palms available too in the extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted 7500 point weeks. However if I wanted a 2 bedroom at either I'd make sure I was looking at 45 days. RCI almost always has some type of sale going on. Right now it's a $199 exchange fee for weeks in Orlando through sometime in March. I think there is another sale currently going on that gives you $50 off the $269 for last call weeks that are available within 45 days of check in.

Because you pay a housekeeping fee for stays of less than a week with RCI I find it's cheaper to just book a full week and not use the whole week when you can get those extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted point weeks. Another thing to mention is that you can borrow points from your next use year however you do have to pre-pay the maintenance fees when you do that. If there's an increase in the next year's maintenance fees you will pay the additional amount at the end of the year. I believe there is a fee if you have points you want to carry over for a second year.

If you found a point week at Grandview that someone's giving away and you had to pay the resort fee of $250, LT Transfer's fee of $225 and $222 for your RCI account, your buy in would be $697 and include the first year membership in RCI.

If you have a one bedroom every other year 49,000 point week with maintenance fees of $208.75 per year and pay the RCI membership fee just one year at a time so $124 in two years you will have paid $665.50 for those 49,000 points making them cost $0.01358 per point. If you booked a 4900 point week at Vacation Village at Parkway in Orlando that week with the exchange fee of $249 costs you $315.55. A 7500 point week like we just had a Reunion (our 4th or 5th time saying there with the discounted point weeks) or at Star Island those weeks would cost you $350.85. Though RCI we've also gotten the discounted 7500 point weeks at Silver Lake. We've stayed there a couple of times and love that it's so close to Animal Kingdom. You can find discounted 23,500 point weeks at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and there's a $190 fee you pay at check in. That makes the week at Saratoga Springs Resort $758.13. And don't forget those two Vacation Village extra weeks you will get every year and the last call weeks that are under $300. Those stays give you full weeks so you can decide to stay 3 nights, 4 nights, have a last minute change of plans to stay longer and if you aren't staying the whole week you can use the extra days to have a late check out and not have to worry about being out of the unit by 10am.

We live in Florida, have two granddaughters ages 4 and 9 and go to Orlando a lot. I've never not been able to find a week we could use through RCI. That includes holiday weeks other than Christmas. Since we've never gone to Orlando over Christmas I can't speak to that time being available in the discounted point weeks. I doubt it's in the extra weeks or last call weeks. In 8 or 9 years the only time I've booked a full point week in Orlando was for Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Lodge in a savanna view unit the first week of March. You only find one bedroom units at the Disney resorts through RCI. Animal Kingdom Villas are the only one bedroom units that have two full baths. The one bedroom units Animal Kingdom Villas and Old Key West both sleep 5. OKW is another one you can sometimes find in the 23,500 point discounted weeks. Saratoga Springs Resort sleeps 4. That's not counting the pack n play crib in the closet of the units at all three of those Disney resorts.

If you owned 293k Wyndham points need for the 3 four night stays at either Star Island or Cypress Palms with maintenance fees of $1608.57 the cost averages out to $536.19 a piece for each for just four night stays with a 10am check out time.

The one advantage with Wyndham is that you can cancel 15 days before the check in date without losing your points. When you book a reservation with RCI you have until 11:59PM of the following day to cancel with no penalty. RCI offers points protection for a fee but it doesn't cover the exchange fee which is a lot more than the value of the points with the discounted point reservations. However because of COVID RCI is currently giving credit for the exchange fee if you have the protection and cancel.

Cypress Palms
CP point chart.jpg
 

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Last edited:

dgalati

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1. How many points will you need for those stays at the different Wyndham resorts in the size unit you need? See the point charts below.
2. How much will it cost you to get those points?
3. How much will the maintenance fees be on those points/how much will the stays cost you?
4. Will you need to buy extra housekeeping credits?
5. Will you need to buy extra reservation transactions?


I like to use Grand Desert for my examples because it has lower average maintenance fees and you can usually find someone selling points there pretty cheaply. So the 2020 maintenance fees at Grand Desert are $4.96 per thousand points for building 3 and I believe $4.87 for buildings 1 and 2. Add another $0.62 per thousand for the program fee or a minimum of $160. Cypress Palms and Star Island resorts because are the least number of points to book. I'll pick a 4 day weekend checking in on Friday in each of the three seasons in a two bedroom. I know you said 4 times a year but to keep it simple it's easier to go with three stays, once in each season. That means you'll need 293,000 points at both Cypress Palms and Star Island and 337,200 points for Bonnet Creek. The maintenance fees and program fee for Grand Desert buildings 1 or 2 on 293k points would be $1608.57. For Bonnet Creel 337,200 points, $1851.23. You'll get one free housekeeping credit for every 70k points so the free ones you would get will be enough for the three stays a year. But if you need more than that they will be $159 each. You get one free reservation transaction fee for every 77k points you own so again you'll have enough for your three stays. However if you do need more they're $19 online or $39 over the phone. You can deposit any points you won't be using into one of the next two use years and that costs $39 or $49 if you call in to do it. However if you're going to do that you must do it within the first three months of your use year. If you are making a reservation within 90 days of the check in date you can borrow points from your next use year and there is no charge to do that. The other alternative to carry over points is to deposit them into RCI. If you book a week with those points in RCI the exchange fee is $249. If you book less than a week the exchange fee is less but I believe you also pay a housekeeping fee. With your Wyndham ownership you get a free RCI weeks account.

Now I'm going to suggest something else. Take a look at a small number of points at Grandview at Las Vegas which will give you an RCI points account. A middle level week in a one bedroom every other year would get you 49,000 points every other year with 2020 maintenance fees of $208.75 per year. There are even triennial years available and that would get you 16,333 points every third year with 2020 maintenance fees of $139.67 per year. You can usually find someone giving away the middle level Grandview weeks. Sometimes they will pay or split the $250 resort transfer fee and the around $225 fee LT Transfers charges to handle things. Sometimes you will find the other person isn't keeping their RCI points account and that can also be transferred to you and the cost is $98. If you have to set up a new points account the fee is $222 but included the first year RCI membership worth $124. The current annual RCI membership fee for a points account is $124 but if you pay for more than one year there is a nice discount.

Grandview is a resort in the Vacation Village family of resorts which gets you two extra weeks a year with no points needed just the $249-$299 fee plus tax. You can only book these weeks within 45 days of the check in date but there is always plenty of inventory in Orlando that you can get. Another option is the last call weeks that have a little higher fee and also require no points. I find that there are more choices of what's availability with the extra weeks than the last call weeks but there's still plenty in Orlando with last call weeks. Just to give you an example that you can find some great stays in those Vacation Village extra weeks on September 9th I booked the week of October 23rd in a three bedroom/three bath unit at Reunion. Reunion has a great water park for the kids. Wyndham and Worldmark both have units there and it was a Worldmark unit that was available. The RCI exchange fee recently went up from $239 to $249 so the cost was the exchange fee and tax. Our granddaughters love the Vacation Village at Parkway resort and if I can only find a one bedroom in the extra weeks or last call weeks I've always been able to find a two bedroom when I needed it in the discounted point weeks you can find within 1-5 weeks of check in. At VV at Pkwy I get those discounted point weeks for 4900 points. I've also booked Star Island and usually see Cypress Palms available too in the extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted 7500 point weeks. However if I wanted a 2 bedroom at either I'd make sure I was looking at 45 days. RCI almost always has some type of sale going on. Right now it's a $199 exchange fee for weeks in Orlando through sometime in March. I think there is another sale currently going on that gives you $50 off the $269 for last call weeks that are available within 45 days of check in.

Because you pay a housekeeping fee for stays of less than a week with RCI I find it's cheaper to just book a full week and not use the whole week when you can get those extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted point weeks. Another thing to mention is that you can borrow points from your next use year however you do have to pre-pay the maintenance fees when you do that. If there's an increase in the next year's maintenance fees you will pay the additional amount at the end of the year. I believe there is a fee if you have points you want to carry over for a second year.

If you found a point week at Grandview that someone's giving away and you had to pay the resort fee of $250, LT Transfer's fee of $225 and $222 for your RCI account, your buy in would be $697 and include the first year membership in RCI.

If you have a one bedroom every other year 49,000 point week with maintenance fees of $208.75 per year and pay the RCI membership fee just one year at a time so $124 in two years you will have paid $665.50 for those 49,000 points making them cost $0.01358 per point. If you booked a 4900 point week at Vacation Village at Parkway in Orlando that week with the exchange fee of $249 costs you $315.55. A 7500 point week like we just had a Reunion (our 4th or 5th time saying there with the discounted point weeks) or at Star Island those weeks would cost you $350.85. Though RCI we've also gotten the discounted 7500 point weeks at Silver Lake. We've stayed there a couple of times and love that it's so close to Animal Kingdom. You can find discounted 23,500 point weeks at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and there's a $190 fee you pay at check in. That makes the week at Saratoga Springs Resort $758.13. And don't forget those two Vacation Village extra weeks you will get every year and the last call weeks that are under $300. Those stays give you full weeks so you can decide to stay 3 nights, 4 nights, have a last minute change of plans to stay longer and if you aren't staying the whole week you can use the extra days to have a late check out and not have to worry about being out of the unit by 10am.

We live in Florida, have two granddaughters ages 4 and 9 and go to Orlando a lot. I've never not been able to find a week we could use through RCI. That includes holiday weeks other than Christmas. Since we've never gone to Orlando over Christmas I can't speak to that time being available in the discounted point weeks. I doubt it's in the extra weeks or last call weeks. In 8 or 9 years the only time I've booked a full point week in Orlando was for Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Lodge in a savanna view unit the first week of March. You only find one bedroom units at the Disney resorts through RCI. Animal Kingdom Villas are the only one bedroom units that have two full baths. The one bedroom units Animal Kingdom Villas and Old Key West both sleep 5. OKW is another one you can sometimes find in the 23,500 point discounted weeks. Saratoga Springs Resort sleeps 4. That's not counting the pack n play crib in the closet of the units at all three of those Disney resorts.

If you owned 293k Wyndham points need for the 3 four night stays at either Star Island or Cypress Palms with maintenance fees of $1608.57 the cost averages out to $536.19 a piece for each for just four night stays with a 10am check out time.

The one advantage with Wyndham is that you can cancel 15 days before the check in date without losing your points. When you book a reservation with RCI you have until 11:59PM of the following day to cancel with no penalty. RCI offers points protection for a fee but it doesn't cover the exchange fee which is a lot more than the value of the points with the discounted point reservations. However because of COVID RCI is currently giving credit for the exchange fee if you have the protection and cancel.


View attachment 28866
Great information Jan. What if OP can travel last minute and is able to book reservations in the 60 day discount window. Any other options available to him that would be cheaper then buying? I would add buying a small 5k Worldmark account also at $562 in maintenance fees yearly. The Worldmark Bonus time cash option is a good value also.
 
Last edited:

Jan M.

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
4,486
Reaction score
5,844
Points
548
Location
Tamarac, FL
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Presidential Reserve at Panama City Beach
Club Wyndham Access
Grandview Las Vegas and Discovery Beach Resort - Both in RCI Points
Woodstone and Summit at Massanutten - Both in RCI weeks used as Wyndham PICs
Great information Jan. What if OP can travel last minute and is able to book reservations in the 60 day discount window. Any other options available to him that would be cheaper then buying? I would add buying a small 5k Worldmark account also at $562 in maintenance fees yearly. The Bonus time cash option is a good value also.

I know what you want me to say and I'm so not going there. I'll have a lynch mob after me if I repeat what you always say. Lol

We don't own any Worldmark, Hilton Grand Vacation Club, Marriott or Holiday Inn Club Vacations so I'm not knowledgeable about the different costs and ease of use with any of those systems. I have however booked a number of Worldmark and Hilton Grand Vacation Club stays through RCI.
 

Eric B

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Vacation Village, Wyndham, WorldMark, Vistana, Vidanta, Flora Farms, HGVC Max, and some independents
.... You can only book these weeks within 45 days of the check in date....

There are a few other Vacation Village properties that are worth considering, including Regal Vistas and Woodstone at Massanutten, which have a more generous extra vacation certificate usable within 180 days of the check in date and a lower cost per point if you get the right week, and the Williamsburg ones, The Colonies and Vacation Village at Williamsburg, which are dual affiliated with both Interval International and RCI.

.... You'll get one free housekeeping credit for every 70k points so the free ones you would get will be enough for the three stays a year. But if you need more than that they will be $159 each. You get one free reservation transaction fee for every 77k points you own so again you'll have enough for your three stays. ....

Maybe it's just me, but who in their right mind at Wyndham made the genius call to use different denominators for the housekeeping credits and the reservation transactions? As a legacy/grandparented VIPG with unlimited both, it doesn't matter to me for my usage, but it would seem much more logical to me for the system to have those aligned - every time you want to stay at a Wyndham resort using your Wyndham points, unless you're a legacy VIPG you need one of each. In fact, you would likely need more reservation transactions than you would housekeeping credits because there are a lot of transactions that don't need housekeeping. Just my off-topic rant for the day; sorry - hadn't noticed the difference until I saw them so close to each other in @Jan M.'s post.
 

Eric B

TUG Member
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Messages
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Resorts Owned
Vacation Village, Wyndham, WorldMark, Vistana, Vidanta, Flora Farms, HGVC Max, and some independents
Great information Jan. What if OP can travel last minute and is able to book reservations in the 60 day discount window. Any other options available to him that would be cheaper then buying? ....

It's always cheaper to just drive down there and sleep in your car - is that what you're getting at? ;)
 

Jan M.

TUG Member
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Tamarac, FL
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Presidential Reserve at Panama City Beach
Club Wyndham Access
Grandview Las Vegas and Discovery Beach Resort - Both in RCI Points
Woodstone and Summit at Massanutten - Both in RCI weeks used as Wyndham PICs
There are a few other Vacation Village properties that are worth considering, including Regal Vistas and Woodstone at Massanutten, which have a more generous extra vacation certificate usable within 180 days of the check in date and a lower cost per point if you get the right week

My bad for forgetting about those resorts. Do you get the VV extra certificate weeks within 180 days of the check in date with the point weeks or just fixed weeks? For people looking to get into owning a timeshare I don't recommend anything that gives someone an RCI weeks accounts; only something that gives them an RCI points accounts. You see a lot more available inventory with a points account than you do with a weeks account.

You're more than justified in your rant!. "Who in their right mind!" describes a lot of Wyndham decisions. We're now on the third website in four years and a number of owners still have accounts that are screwed up since they gave us the Voyager website in May 2017.
 

Eric B

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Vacation Village, Wyndham, WorldMark, Vistana, Vidanta, Flora Farms, HGVC Max, and some independents
My bad for forgetting about those resorts. Do you get the VV extra certificate weeks within 180 days of the check in date with the point weeks or just fixed weeks? For people looking to get into owning a timeshare I don't recommend anything that gives someone an RCI weeks accounts; only something that gives them an RCI points accounts. You see a lot more available inventory with a points account than you do with a weeks account.

You're more than justified in your rant!. "Who in their right mind!" describes a lot of Wyndham decisions. We're now on the third website in four years and a number of owners still have accounts that are screwed up since they gave us the Voyager website in May 2017.

Well, there is more flexibility with an RCI points account and generally more availability, but there are a few odd resorts that only show up in weeks (e.g., Solaz). I have that certificate on both sides.
 

dgalati

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It's always cheaper to just drive down there and sleep in your car - is that what you're getting at? ;)
Why sacrifice the quality of your stay if there are ways to travel for less then sleeping in your car? My objective is to stay at five star resorts along with using bonus miles for free air travel at a lower cost then driving and sleeping in ones car. I also personally would not drive with it being a 17 hour drive each way. IMHO driving isn't a very cost effective use of my vacation time with airfare at today's low prices.
 
Last edited:

dgalati

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(my job has lots of long weekends). Since I want frequent short stays, what would be the best way to buy points? I'm also totally confused about housekeeping. I would be grateful for any advice!
Before you buy check out link below. Buy the use of points as needed without the worry of running out of HK's. If you can travel last minute or in the 60 day discount window it maybe a more cost effective way to travel.
 

bendadin

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1. How many points will you need for those stays at the different Wyndham resorts in the size unit you need? See the point charts below.
2. How much will it cost you to get those points?
3. How much will the maintenance fees be on those points/how much will the stays cost you?
4. Will you need to buy extra housekeeping credits?
5. Will you need to buy extra reservation transactions?


I like to use Grand Desert for my examples because it has lower average maintenance fees and you can usually find someone selling points there pretty cheaply. So the 2020 maintenance fees at Grand Desert are $4.96 per thousand points for building 3 and I believe $4.87 for buildings 1 and 2. Add another $0.62 per thousand for the program fee or a minimum of $160. Cypress Palms and Star Island resorts because are the least number of points to book. I'll pick a 4 day weekend checking in on Friday in each of the three seasons in a two bedroom. I know you said 4 times a year but to keep it simple it's easier to go with three stays, once in each season. That means you'll need 293,000 points at both Cypress Palms and Star Island and 337,200 points for Bonnet Creek. The maintenance fees and program fee for Grand Desert buildings 1 or 2 on 293k points would be $1608.57. For Bonnet Creel 337,200 points, $1851.23. You'll get one free housekeeping credit for every 70k points so the free ones you would get will be enough for the three stays a year. But if you need more than that they will be $159 each. You get one free reservation transaction fee for every 77k points you own so again you'll have enough for your three stays. However if you do need more they're $19 online or $39 over the phone. You can deposit any points you won't be using into one of the next two use years and that costs $39 or $49 if you call in to do it. However if you're going to do that you must do it within the first three months of your use year. If you are making a reservation within 90 days of the check in date you can borrow points from your next use year and there is no charge to do that. The other alternative to carry over points is to deposit them into RCI. If you book a week with those points in RCI the exchange fee is $249. If you book less than a week the exchange fee is less but I believe you also pay a housekeeping fee. With your Wyndham ownership you get a free RCI weeks account.

Now I'm going to suggest something else. Take a look at a small number of points at Grandview at Las Vegas which will give you an RCI points account. A middle level week in a one bedroom every other year would get you 49,000 points every other year with 2020 maintenance fees of $208.75 per year. There are even triennial years available and that would get you 16,333 points every third year with 2020 maintenance fees of $139.67 per year. You can usually find someone giving away the middle level Grandview weeks. Sometimes they will pay or split the $250 resort transfer fee and the around $225 fee LT Transfers charges to handle things. Sometimes you will find the other person isn't keeping their RCI points account and that can also be transferred to you and the cost is $98. If you have to set up a new points account the fee is $222 but included the first year RCI membership worth $124. The current annual RCI membership fee for a points account is $124 but if you pay for more than one year there is a nice discount.

Grandview is a resort in the Vacation Village family of resorts which gets you two extra weeks a year with no points needed just the $249-$299 fee plus tax. You can only book these weeks within 45 days of the check in date but there is always plenty of inventory in Orlando that you can get. Another option is the last call weeks that have a little higher fee and also require no points. I find that there are more choices of what's availability with the extra weeks than the last call weeks but there's still plenty in Orlando with last call weeks. Just to give you an example that you can find some great stays in those Vacation Village extra weeks on September 9th I booked the week of October 23rd in a three bedroom/three bath unit at Reunion. Reunion has a great water park for the kids. Wyndham and Worldmark both have units there and it was a Worldmark unit that was available. The RCI exchange fee recently went up from $239 to $249 so the cost was the exchange fee and tax. Our granddaughters love the Vacation Village at Parkway resort and if I can only find a one bedroom in the extra weeks or last call weeks I've always been able to find a two bedroom when I needed it in the discounted point weeks you can find within 1-5 weeks of check in. At VV at Pkwy I get those discounted point weeks for 4900 points. I've also booked Star Island and usually see Cypress Palms available too in the extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted 7500 point weeks. However if I wanted a 2 bedroom at either I'd make sure I was looking at 45 days. RCI almost always has some type of sale going on. Right now it's a $199 exchange fee for weeks in Orlando through sometime in March. I think there is another sale currently going on that gives you $50 off the $269 for last call weeks that are available within 45 days of check in.

Because you pay a housekeeping fee for stays of less than a week with RCI I find it's cheaper to just book a full week and not use the whole week when you can get those extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted point weeks. Another thing to mention is that you can borrow points from your next use year however you do have to pre-pay the maintenance fees when you do that. If there's an increase in the next year's maintenance fees you will pay the additional amount at the end of the year. I believe there is a fee if you have points you want to carry over for a second year.

If you found a point week at Grandview that someone's giving away and you had to pay the resort fee of $250, LT Transfer's fee of $225 and $222 for your RCI account, your buy in would be $697 and include the first year membership in RCI.

If you have a one bedroom every other year 49,000 point week with maintenance fees of $208.75 per year and pay the RCI membership fee just one year at a time so $124 in two years you will have paid $665.50 for those 49,000 points making them cost $0.01358 per point. If you booked a 4900 point week at Vacation Village at Parkway in Orlando that week with the exchange fee of $249 costs you $315.55. A 7500 point week like we just had a Reunion (our 4th or 5th time saying there with the discounted point weeks) or at Star Island those weeks would cost you $350.85. Though RCI we've also gotten the discounted 7500 point weeks at Silver Lake. We've stayed there a couple of times and love that it's so close to Animal Kingdom. You can find discounted 23,500 point weeks at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and there's a $190 fee you pay at check in. That makes the week at Saratoga Springs Resort $758.13. And don't forget those two Vacation Village extra weeks you will get every year and the last call weeks that are under $300. Those stays give you full weeks so you can decide to stay 3 nights, 4 nights, have a last minute change of plans to stay longer and if you aren't staying the whole week you can use the extra days to have a late check out and not have to worry about being out of the unit by 10am.

We live in Florida, have two granddaughters ages 4 and 9 and go to Orlando a lot. I've never not been able to find a week we could use through RCI. That includes holiday weeks other than Christmas. Since we've never gone to Orlando over Christmas I can't speak to that time being available in the discounted point weeks. I doubt it's in the extra weeks or last call weeks. In 8 or 9 years the only time I've booked a full point week in Orlando was for Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Lodge in a savanna view unit the first week of March. You only find one bedroom units at the Disney resorts through RCI. Animal Kingdom Villas are the only one bedroom units that have two full baths. The one bedroom units Animal Kingdom Villas and Old Key West both sleep 5. OKW is another one you can sometimes find in the 23,500 point discounted weeks. Saratoga Springs Resort sleeps 4. That's not counting the pack n play crib in the closet of the units at all three of those Disney resorts.

If you owned 293k Wyndham points need for the 3 four night stays at either Star Island or Cypress Palms with maintenance fees of $1608.57 the cost averages out to $536.19 a piece for each for just four night stays with a 10am check out time.

The one advantage with Wyndham is that you can cancel 15 days before the check in date without losing your points. When you book a reservation with RCI you have until 11:59PM of the following day to cancel with no penalty. RCI offers points protection for a fee but it doesn't cover the exchange fee which is a lot more than the value of the points with the discounted point reservations. However because of COVID RCI is currently giving credit for the exchange fee if you have the protection and cancel.

Cypress Palms
View attachment 28866

Or if you find a really good friend, you can stay at AKV 1 bedroom cheaper than the price of MF.
 

cbyrne1174

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You have to spend on average more than 70,000 points per reservation in order to not run out of housekeeping credits. To make 4 reservations a year, you need at least 280,000 points or else you will have to pay the $150 something for housekeeping. Most of my deeds actually are Grand Desert like Jan's example, but Bonnet Creek is the resort I use the most since it's only an hour away. If you have the money, the 1 bedroom presidential reserve are really nice and are guaranteed to be on the 16th-19th floor in Tower 6. They cost the same are 2 bedroom deluxe units.

Also, exchanging into Saratoga Springs is pretty easy and uses 105,00-126,000 points for each week.
 

Braindead

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If I was the OP I’d be lost-dazed & confused!!
I give up on posters keeping it simple for OPs coming here to the WYNDHAM forum looking for info on WYNDHAM!!
cbyrne1174 thank you for your post! Your info is spot on!

Some giving their opinion must think every OP is a seasoned veteran TS owner when most are not
 
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hawkinsrv

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Thanks so much for the advice everyone! I'm not sure I understood everything, but I'm not in a rush so I'll be learning! I'm looking at 2 bedrooms. I'm able to do way in advance or last minute without issue.
 
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dgalati

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Thanks so much for the advice everyone! I'm not sure I understood everything, but I'm not in a rush so I'll be learning! I'm looking at 2 bedrooms. I'm able to do way in advance or last minute without issue.
If last minute works for you then find a VIPP owner to do business with. Most VIP owners pass along their 50% discount and room upgrades when booking in the 60 day discount window. If you buy a small ownership to start out with it will also give you the knowledge and information needed to determine if using your own points or renting in the 60 day window is a more cost effective way to travel. This of course depends on your travel needs and if you desire to buy developer up to VIP. Take your time to learn the system and make it work for your travel needs.
 

Lisa P

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Weekend use is the most expensive way to use points. But assuming you really want to do this, if you wanted 3BR or 4BR units or to travel mostly during holiday weekends, you'd probably need to own with ARP at Bonnet Creek, and reserve within the ARP window. This would mean the best contracts for you would be either resale Bonnet Creek deeded or CWA deeded. However, it seems like you're most interested in 2BR Deluxe units during various times of the year. You would not need ARP. Therefore, you could own any Wyndham points and should look for a cheap resale (or free, for the price of closing) contract with a home resort that has lower maintenance fees.

If you use most of your points for 3 night weekends and/or longer stays, HK likely won't cost you anything extra. 3-night weekends in a 2BR Deluxe at Wyndham Bonnet Creek will "cost" 116K points in Prime season, 98.6K points in High season, and 60K in Value season. If your ownership provided 280K points, you'd have 4 HK's per year. 4 reservations with free included HK would use up nearly all of those 280 points. For 3-night weekends, 1 High w/e plus 3 Value w/e = 278.6K of the 280K points. Getting 300K or 308K (more commonly found) points would pay for more Prime or High season visits. Maintenance fees on ~308K may run you ~$2K per year or more. So those long weekends are PRICEY in a points system. HTH.
 

hawkinsrv

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1. How many points will you need for those stays at the different Wyndham resorts in the size unit you need? See the point charts below.
2. How much will it cost you to get those points?
3. How much will the maintenance fees be on those points/how much will the stays cost you?
4. Will you need to buy extra housekeeping credits?
5. Will you need to buy extra reservation transactions?


I like to use Grand Desert for my examples because it has lower average maintenance fees and you can usually find someone selling points there pretty cheaply. So the 2020 maintenance fees at Grand Desert are $4.96 per thousand points for building 3 and I believe $4.87 for buildings 1 and 2. Add another $0.62 per thousand for the program fee or a minimum of $160. Cypress Palms and Star Island resorts because are the least number of points to book. I'll pick a 4 day weekend checking in on Friday in each of the three seasons in a two bedroom. I know you said 4 times a year but to keep it simple it's easier to go with three stays, once in each season. That means you'll need 293,000 points at both Cypress Palms and Star Island and 337,200 points for Bonnet Creek. The maintenance fees and program fee for Grand Desert buildings 1 or 2 on 293k points would be $1608.57. For Bonnet Creel 337,200 points, $1851.23. You'll get one free housekeeping credit for every 70k points so the free ones you would get will be enough for the three stays a year. But if you need more than that they will be $159 each. You get one free reservation transaction fee for every 77k points you own so again you'll have enough for your three stays. However if you do need more they're $19 online or $39 over the phone. You can deposit any points you won't be using into one of the next two use years and that costs $39 or $49 if you call in to do it. However if you're going to do that you must do it within the first three months of your use year. If you are making a reservation within 90 days of the check in date you can borrow points from your next use year and there is no charge to do that. The other alternative to carry over points is to deposit them into RCI. If you book a week with those points in RCI the exchange fee is $249. If you book less than a week the exchange fee is less but I believe you also pay a housekeeping fee. With your Wyndham ownership you get a free RCI weeks account.

Now I'm going to suggest something else. Take a look at a small number of points at Grandview at Las Vegas which will give you an RCI points account. A middle level week in a one bedroom every other year would get you 49,000 points every other year with 2020 maintenance fees of $208.75 per year. There are even triennial years available and that would get you 16,333 points every third year with 2020 maintenance fees of $139.67 per year. You can usually find someone giving away the middle level Grandview weeks. Sometimes they will pay or split the $250 resort transfer fee and the around $225 fee LT Transfers charges to handle things. Sometimes you will find the other person isn't keeping their RCI points account and that can also be transferred to you and the cost is $98. If you have to set up a new points account the fee is $222 but included the first year RCI membership worth $124. The current annual RCI membership fee for a points account is $124 but if you pay for more than one year there is a nice discount.

Grandview is a resort in the Vacation Village family of resorts which gets you two extra weeks a year with no points needed just the $249-$299 fee plus tax. You can only book these weeks within 45 days of the check in date but there is always plenty of inventory in Orlando that you can get. Another option is the last call weeks that have a little higher fee and also require no points. I find that there are more choices of what's availability with the extra weeks than the last call weeks but there's still plenty in Orlando with last call weeks. Just to give you an example that you can find some great stays in those Vacation Village extra weeks on September 9th I booked the week of October 23rd in a three bedroom/three bath unit at Reunion. Reunion has a great water park for the kids. Wyndham and Worldmark both have units there and it was a Worldmark unit that was available. The RCI exchange fee recently went up from $239 to $249 so the cost was the exchange fee and tax. Our granddaughters love the Vacation Village at Parkway resort and if I can only find a one bedroom in the extra weeks or last call weeks I've always been able to find a two bedroom when I needed it in the discounted point weeks you can find within 1-5 weeks of check in. At VV at Pkwy I get those discounted point weeks for 4900 points. I've also booked Star Island and usually see Cypress Palms available too in the extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted 7500 point weeks. However if I wanted a 2 bedroom at either I'd make sure I was looking at 45 days. RCI almost always has some type of sale going on. Right now it's a $199 exchange fee for weeks in Orlando through sometime in March. I think there is another sale currently going on that gives you $50 off the $269 for last call weeks that are available within 45 days of check in.

Because you pay a housekeeping fee for stays of less than a week with RCI I find it's cheaper to just book a full week and not use the whole week when you can get those extra weeks, last call weeks and discounted point weeks. Another thing to mention is that you can borrow points from your next use year however you do have to pre-pay the maintenance fees when you do that. If there's an increase in the next year's maintenance fees you will pay the additional amount at the end of the year. I believe there is a fee if you have points you want to carry over for a second year.

If you found a point week at Grandview that someone's giving away and you had to pay the resort fee of $250, LT Transfer's fee of $225 and $222 for your RCI account, your buy in would be $697 and include the first year membership in RCI.

If you have a one bedroom every other year 49,000 point week with maintenance fees of $208.75 per year and pay the RCI membership fee just one year at a time so $124 in two years you will have paid $665.50 for those 49,000 points making them cost $0.01358 per point. If you booked a 4900 point week at Vacation Village at Parkway in Orlando that week with the exchange fee of $249 costs you $315.55. A 7500 point week like we just had a Reunion (our 4th or 5th time saying there with the discounted point weeks) or at Star Island those weeks would cost you $350.85. Though RCI we've also gotten the discounted 7500 point weeks at Silver Lake. We've stayed there a couple of times and love that it's so close to Animal Kingdom. You can find discounted 23,500 point weeks at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and there's a $190 fee you pay at check in. That makes the week at Saratoga Springs Resort $758.13. And don't forget those two Vacation Village extra weeks you will get every year and the last call weeks that are under $300. Those stays give you full weeks so you can decide to stay 3 nights, 4 nights, have a last minute change of plans to stay longer and if you aren't staying the whole week you can use the extra days to have a late check out and not have to worry about being out of the unit by 10am.

We live in Florida, have two granddaughters ages 4 and 9 and go to Orlando a lot. I've never not been able to find a week we could use through RCI. That includes holiday weeks other than Christmas. Since we've never gone to Orlando over Christmas I can't speak to that time being available in the discounted point weeks. I doubt it's in the extra weeks or last call weeks. In 8 or 9 years the only time I've booked a full point week in Orlando was for Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Lodge in a savanna view unit the first week of March. You only find one bedroom units at the Disney resorts through RCI. Animal Kingdom Villas are the only one bedroom units that have two full baths. The one bedroom units Animal Kingdom Villas and Old Key West both sleep 5. OKW is another one you can sometimes find in the 23,500 point discounted weeks. Saratoga Springs Resort sleeps 4. That's not counting the pack n play crib in the closet of the units at all three of those Disney resorts.

If you owned 293k Wyndham points need for the 3 four night stays at either Star Island or Cypress Palms with maintenance fees of $1608.57 the cost averages out to $536.19 a piece for each for just four night stays with a 10am check out time.

The one advantage with Wyndham is that you can cancel 15 days before the check in date without losing your points. When you book a reservation with RCI you have until 11:59PM of the following day to cancel with no penalty. RCI offers points protection for a fee but it doesn't cover the exchange fee which is a lot more than the value of the points with the discounted point reservations. However because of COVID RCI is currently giving credit for the exchange fee if you have the protection and cancel.

Cypress Palms
View attachment 28866


Okay, so I didn't understand half of your post when I first read it. This made me realize that I needed to learn A LOT more before buying, and so I've taken a deep dive. I just reread it and understood. Great deal! Thank you!
 

hawkinsrv

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Before you buy check out link below. Buy the use of points as needed without the worry of running out of HK's. If you can travel last minute or in the 60 day discount window it maybe a more cost effective way to travel.

The rentals at Bonnet Creek right now are at fantastic prices, but was it harder to rent pre-covid? I looked at some earlier rental threads, from around 2017. Bonnet Creek 2 bedrooms were about $700/week. Is that a reasonable expectation for prices post-covid?
 

bendadin

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The rentals at Bonnet Creek right now are at fantastic prices, but was it harder to rent pre-covid? I looked at some earlier rental threads, from around 2017. Bonnet Creek 2 bedrooms were about $700/week. Is that a reasonable expectation for prices post-covid?

It depends on the season. Back in 2015 before we bought I could rent WBC in early December for $55/night. But that was when owners got stuck with reservations and just wanted something. It appears that the Bonnet Creek fire sale seems to be the same issue though a perceived loss. Owners are just trying to get something to offset their maintenance fees. I see it happening really bad for DVC as well. People are pretty much demanding prices so that owners subsidize their vacations. Personally I think that after this pans out and the overabundance of points settles down, owners are not going to be taking a loss and prices will reflect the recapture of the losses that they took in past years.

I would have to agree that what Jan M outlines with the RCI points account is what you might need.
 

Jan M.

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It depends on the season. Back in 2015 before we bought I could rent WBC in early December for $55/night. But that was when owners got stuck with reservations and just wanted something. It appears that the Bonnet Creek fire sale seems to be the same issue though a perceived loss. Owners are just trying to get something to offset their maintenance fees. I see it happening really bad for DVC as well. People are pretty much demanding prices so that owners subsidize their vacations. Personally I think that after this pans out and the overabundance of points settles down, owners are not going to be taking a loss and prices will reflect the recapture of the losses that they took in past years.

I would have to agree that what Jan M outlines with the RCI points account is what you might need.

If they have their hearts set on staying at Bonnet Creek every time or even most of the time then they will need to own Wyndham points to do that.

Correction on my earlier long post with the amount of points I said they will need to own. For 3 four day long week ends I used in my example I said they would have enough free housekeeping credits and reservations transactions to do that. However they would actually get 4 free housekeeping credits on either amount of points I used in my examples. The amount needed in the example for Star Island and Cypress Palms would only get 3 free reservation transactions but those are only $19. The amount needed for Bonnet Creek in the example would get 4 free reservation transactions.

I can't remember but I'm sure you know. With the free RCI weeks account everyone gets with their Wyndham ownership, resale or developer, do you have access to the RCI's Last Call weeks?
 

bnoble

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The rentals at Bonnet Creek right now are at fantastic prices, but was it harder to rent pre-covid? I looked at some earlier rental threads, from around 2017. Bonnet Creek 2 bedrooms were about $700/week. Is that a reasonable expectation for prices post-covid?
As with all things, it is supply and demand. Right now, there are a lot more Disney-area hotel rooms than there are people who want to fill them. I would also not necessarily assume anything prior to about mid-2017 is predictive---Wyndham made a change to their booking systems around that time that significantly changed how some folks doing a lot of renting operated. As a result, some got out of the game and others found their costs had gone up.

With the free RCI weeks account everyone gets with their Wyndham ownership, resale or developer, do you have access to the RCI's Last Call weeks?
Yep!
 

liquidmas

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Just got back from Bonnet Creek. Awesome time. They did a great job of making me feel comfortable in the Covid era. They want to operate and keep people safe. They keep the common touch areas wiped down. There are no scheduled activities like Trivia or shows, but you can reserve a time for mini golf, corn hole, shuffle board, and billiards. You do this via a QR reader on your phone. No tubes in lazy rivers but you can bring your own if 44in or smaller. Pools open 8am to 9pm. They have good spacing between chairs. The chairs are ziptied together so you cannot move them. Helps with keeping social distance. Each chair has a flag on top that reads Ready. You select a chair and put flag down. When you leave a pool attendant cleans chair and raises flag so another guest knows that chair is available. Parking pass given when you check in at front desk, but you have to go to second desk to get your wristband. They program wrist band to open your tower door and your unit. It is waterproof so we wore it all the time. No need to carry a card, Very convenient. They did ask me to attend a presentation on THE NEW WEBSITE, that will allow you to select available towers and rooms for your stay when you book. I declined but had to go back to get real information on this. I was told by sales that they are developing a virtual tour of the rooms for each property so you can have a 360 degree look at each style unit. Was offered an opportunity to look at foreclosed contracts and buy them for the remaining balance but declined. Said Wyndham has gotten alot of foreclosed contract recently and they are looking to sell them with full VIP benefits even though they would be resale. No pressure. They thanked me and sent me to gifting.
 

dgalati

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The rentals at Bonnet Creek right now are at fantastic prices, but was it harder to rent pre-covid? I looked at some earlier rental threads, from around 2017. Bonnet Creek 2 bedrooms were about $700/week. Is that a reasonable expectation for prices post-covid?
I personally never had a problem booking a discounted room but you have to be flexible on when or where you want to go. If you can't be flexible and you have to travel to resorts during busy high demand travel dates you will have a hard time finding a discounted room for the specific dates and location. It is all based on supply and demand. Last minute rentals will more times then not be priced at a discount. If you need to plan 10-12 months in advance and want to book a high demand weekend during spring break you will pay a premium. Key is to identify the trends or busy times and travel around them. Usually I will travel the weekends before or after a holiday when rooms can be booked inside of the 60 day discount window.
 
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