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New to club Wyndham

Another location to look at, especially with a little one - Glacier Canyon in Wisconsin Dells (6 water parks, 3 inside & 3 outside on site; very large lazy river and a large toddlers play area/splash pad plus much more).
Also, take a look at Last Calls in RCI - cash only, typically out of season locations but can be great values. We went to Massannutten (VA); booked for a week for something like $300 but only stayed for a long weekend (as we had planned). It was still much less than a decent hotel would have been.

Not to steal this post but glacier canyon sparked my interest as we are looking for some different and new places and this is only 15 hours from us driving.

Is there a time of year to avoid? I assume it’s pretty cold there in the winter. Are all the activities included with your stay (bumper boats, go carts, water parks, etc) or is there extra costs? The club looks great. There’s so many great places but I also like going back to our favorites, it’s so hard to choose.
 
I’m confident I’ll get my value out of the time share, and honestly it’s also incentive to stop and take a break every so often and it’s something we need to do like we used to do. As far as getting 2 bed room suites that’s only something I have to worry about for the next couple of years, then one bed rooms are all we need, which is why we thought 200k points was a good start, though I can see the value in having 300k points.

Again thanks for all the information, advice and incentive from everyone.
One thing that might be worth considering if/when you decide to add another 100k points is finding two RCI weeks based contracts and enrolling them into the PIC program. This would require another retail Wyndham purchase - but if PIC Plus contracts are still around and a valid option at that time - they count towards VIP levels. I did this when I initially bought into Wyndham back in 2018 - I picked up two resale RCI weeks based timeshares - one in Williamsburg, one in Outer Banks, and enrolled them via PIC Plus contracts. You can learn more about PIC Plus contracts here: https://wyndhamexperts.org/index.php/2019/07/27/wyndham-pic-program/

You can typically find two RCI weeks contracts for 3+ bedroom units for $1 third party resale, and then complete the deeded transfer and then work with Wyndham to enroll those PICs via another retail purchase for 100k points. I'd personally recommend finding RCI weeks that you and your family would actually use if you decided not to convert those weeks into Wyndham points each year. On two occasions for example, we have chosen not to convert our OBX week into points each year - we simply used that week in OBX since we own it. Taking this approach would give you 200k+100k+508k = 808k total points - and you would be permanent VIPG - they'd add a bonus contract - same as they did this time around - and that would give you temp VIPP for two years. It may or may not be worthwhile for you - obtaining VIP levels is very much perceived value from a decision making standpoint. We will see breakeven on our original 27k outlay in about 10 years or around 2028 based upon my numerical analysis - taking into account VIP discounts and free room upgrades. Just wanted to put this out there as an option if/when the time comes for your consideration. If not, you'd likely be able to find a 100k resale contract for little to no money as well.
 
Not to steal this post but glacier canyon sparked my interest as we are looking for some different and new places and this is only 15 hours from us driving.

Is there a time of year to avoid? I assume it’s pretty cold there in the winter. Are all the activities included with your stay (bumper boats, go carts, water parks, etc) or is there extra costs? The club looks great. There’s so many great places but I also like going back to our favorites, it’s so hard to choose.
All pools are included, but mini golf/go karts/bumper boats/etc are extra. You can pay for them individually or purchase a fun pass for them that includes one use each (and that can be upgraded to unlimited for an additional fee). It doesn't get super cold in the winter, but the outdoor pools are closed at that time (but then there is also snow tubing and skiing in the area). We like to go during the summer and in October.
 
So I’m having questions about RCI now. So I’ve been kinda looking around after using the link in club Wyndham to go to RCI and there isn’t much availability, and what is generally is a studio. Is this typical or do you deposit points then log into RCI direct? And if you log into RCI direct, how do you find your member number to create an account.

I have one more slight issue I’ve just become aware of and that is the inability to book a margaritaville resort thru Wyndham but I’m thinking maybe that was another “sales tactic” that turned out less then true. I was looking around at the resorts around pigeon forge because my wife got kinda excited about Dollywood and when I clicked on margaritaville island hotel pigeon forge it says unable to book this resort is not available for your membership type. I suppose it’s not a huge deal as there are 3 others I can choose from but it was the closest so I was looking at that one first only to be greeted with that message.
 
So I’m having questions about RCI now. So I’ve been kinda looking around after using the link in club Wyndham to go to RCI and there isn’t much availability, and what is generally is a studio. Is this typical or do you deposit points then log into RCI direct? And if you log into RCI direct, how do you find your member number to create an account.

I have one more slight issue I’ve just become aware of and that is the inability to book a margaritaville resort thru Wyndham but I’m thinking maybe that was another “sales tactic” that turned out less then true. I was looking around at the resorts around pigeon forge because my wife got kinda excited about Dollywood and when I clicked on margaritaville island hotel pigeon forge it says unable to book this resort is not available for your membership type. I suppose it’s not a huge deal as there are 3 others I can choose from but it was the closest so I was looking at that one first only to be greeted with that message.
You DO have the ability to book Margaritaville resorts, just not that one at Pigeon Forge. It's a weird exception for some reason. But that being said, the Pigeon Forge location is just hotel rooms rather than condos (no living room/kitchens). The other Margaritavilles, which you CAN book up to 5 months out, are much nicer.

If going to that area, I would recommend taking a look at the Great Smokies Lodge. You get a free pass to the waterpark for booking there, which is very nice.
 
You DO have the ability to book Margaritaville resorts, just not that one at Pigeon Forge. It's a weird exception for some reason. But that being said, the Pigeon Forge location is just hotel rooms rather than condos (no living room/kitchens). The other Margaritavilles, which you CAN book up to 5 months out, are much nicer.

If going to that area, I would recommend taking a look at the Great Smokies Lodge. You get a free pass to the waterpark for booking there, which is very nice.
Thanks for the info, though I’m thinking late fall early winter, my wife loves fall decor so was thinking of maybe visiting then so I’m not sure water park tickets would be the best idea.

Also good to know about the rooms at that resort not having living rooms and kitchens, so I’ll explore the other options
 
You DO have the ability to book Margaritaville resorts, just not that one at Pigeon Forge. It's a weird exception for some reason. But that being said, the Pigeon Forge location is just hotel rooms rather than condos (no living room/kitchens). The other Margaritavilles, which you CAN book up to 5 months out, are much nicer.

If going to that area, I would recommend taking a look at the Great Smokies Lodge. You get a free pass to the waterpark for booking there, which is very nice.
It's because there's only a small handful of rooms available to Wyndham at Pigeon Forge, so it's limited only to MVC owners as a result. From a business standpoint Wyndham can keep occupancy rates high enough with only MVC owners at this resort without having to broaden the resort to other ownership types. This isn't the case for the other MVC resorts - so they keep them open to non-MVC owners to keep occupancy rates higher.
 
The four outdoor water parks at Glacier Canyon are open Friday of Memorial weekend through Labor Day. The four indoor water parks are open year round however after the summer season only three at a time are open as there's one closed for cleaning.

We're leaving Glacier Canyon tomorrow from a 6 night stay, Sunday-Saturday, over July 4th week. For our family group we have a two bedroom unit and a three bedroom unit. This is our third year of coming over the 4th and would have been our 7th year coming at the end of July for a longer stay. Sadly we're only doing the one stay this year. For this stay I pieced together each unit in two reservations within about 25-59 days of check in.

The granddaughters and great nephews get the $49 unlimited fun pass wristbands. DH calculated the cost of the activities individually and says with our crew the unlimited bands more than pay for themselves in just one afternoon or evening.

At Great Smokies Lodge there's only one indoor and one outdoor water park. I've heard the outdoor water park is open on several weekends after Labor Day. I don't know if they do that every year.
 
At Great Smokies Lodge there's only one indoor and one outdoor water park. I've heard the outdoor water park is open on several weekends after Labor Day. I don't know if they do that every year.

There are actually two outdoor parks at GSL.
 
would have been our 7th year coming at the end of July for a longer stay

Have you been attending the nearby EAA Oshkosh Airshow at all? (always end of July)

It's pretty amazing seeing almost 10,000 small planes in one spot.
 
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Have you been attending the nearby EAA Oshkosh Airshow at all? (always end of July)

It's pretty amazing seeing almost 10,000 small planes in one spot.

Thanks! We're only doing the one trip to Glacier Canyon this year but the air show is on our to do list for next year. DH said it's something he's wanted to do.

We're staying with my nephew before we fly home to Florida. He and his boys definitely want to go to the air show too! My Wisconsin geography needs work, lol. When I mentioned the air show just now the guys immediately looked and Oshkosh is only about 90 miles from the Dells.
 
So a small update on our ownership, first we took a trip to Branson and stayed at the club Wyndham at the meadows. The room and resort were very nice, and was able to easily decline the sales update. The wife seemed satisfied and was put a bit more at ease. One side note there was a guy at a desk at a restaurant we were eating at that my wife asked for directions to something or another while I was paying the bill, it was another timeshare host. Boy they sure tried hard to get us to attend, offered us 600 bucks in gift cards, 6 show tickets and a wristband to some amusement park place with go carts if we would trade out of our club Wyndham. I said no….I didnt even ask what timeshare it was.

I did meet some pretty great owners in the pool area who had positive use experience and shared their thoughts on some other club Wyndham resorts in the area. Seemed that the consensus was pretty universal about the sales teams, they are all bad, but overall timeshare use was positive.

I did have one other thing that just came up though that im confused about. At the time we signed up I was aware we were also getting the Wyndham credit card thru Barclays, which we did get in the mail however I just got a letter in the mail about some comernity credit card that is being canceled attached to club Wyndham that I was not aware of nor that I ever received. Is this normal? I intend to call the number on the letter to get specifics but I did just check my credit and it indeed shows both a Barclays and a comernity card thru Wyndham.
 
One thing that might be worth considering if/when you decide to add another 100k points is finding two RCI weeks based contracts and enrolling them into the PIC program. This would require another retail Wyndham purchase - but if PIC Plus contracts are still around and a valid option at that time - they count towards VIP levels. I did this when I initially bought into Wyndham back in 2018 - I picked up two resale RCI weeks based timeshares - one in Williamsburg, one in Outer Banks, and enrolled them via PIC Plus contracts. You can learn more about PIC Plus contracts here: https://wyndhamexperts.org/index.php/2019/07/27/wyndham-pic-program/

You can typically find two RCI weeks contracts for 3+ bedroom units for $1 third party resale, and then complete the deeded transfer and then work with Wyndham to enroll those PICs via another retail purchase for 100k points. I'd personally recommend finding RCI weeks that you and your family would actually use if you decided not to convert those weeks into Wyndham points each year. On two occasions for example, we have chosen not to convert our OBX week into points each year - we simply used that week in OBX since we own it. Taking this approach would give you 200k+100k+508k = 808k total points - and you would be permanent VIPG - they'd add a bonus contract - same as they did this time around - and that would give you temp VIPP for two years. It may or may not be worthwhile for you - obtaining VIP levels is very much perceived value from a decision making standpoint. We will see breakeven on our original 27k outlay in about 10 years or around 2028 based upon my numerical analysis - taking into account VIP discounts and free room upgrades. Just wanted to put this out there as an option if/when the time comes for your consideration. If not, you'd likely be able to find a 100k resale contract for little to no money as well.
Im pretty new to this
I bought 486,000 wyndham points on a resale
They are deeded to Canterbury in ,SF CA.. Is it worth it to upgrade to VIP ? What is the best way? If I add 100k points will all 586k be VIP? Thanks ,James
 
Is it worth it to upgrade to VIP ?
Probably not.

If I add 100k points will all 586k be VIP?
No. Resale points never count.

What is the best way?
The best way is probably to use PIC Plus (not PIC Express). The short version: you buy two non-Wyndham RCI-affiliated weeks, and then buy some developer Wyndham points. In the process, those two non-Wyndham weeks will count towards your VIP qualification tier. However, even this is going to cost a minimum of about $16K and that only gets you to Silver. Silver VIP is a nice thing, but not something I would value at $16K.

Getting from Silver to Gold will cost another $32K, or about $48K total. IMO, that's definitely not worth it.
 
No, it is not worth updating to VIP until the rental situation is finally cleared unless you are rich and can afford it. I would have never bought VIP if I was not allowed to rent. I was in the program long enough before they changed the rules, so my rents covered my VIP purchases.

You need 300,000 non resale points to get the 15% discount. 500,000 to get the 25% discount. 800,000 to get the 35% discount 1.1 million to get the 50% discount and 1.4 million to get the 60% discount.

It used to be that once you had the VIP level your resale points were treated the same as VIP but they changed those rules. Your best bet is to buy resales at resorts with the lowest maintenance fees.

That being said, are you listening Wyndham. Today I purchased a guest pass and points protection for one of my renters. That puts me over $500,000 I have paid you all with rental income. Not a dime out of my pocket but not a dime in my pocket. Just savings on trips I take because my maintenance fees were paid by rentals.

So, do you want me to continue to tell the world how I listened to your sales agents and bought VIP to rent them out to cover the costs or do you want me to tell people not to buy VIP because it is not worth it if owners are not allowed to rent.

Don't forget there are other owners who brag how they beat you by buying resale or taking the gift and leaving. To me common sense says for me to continue your praise. But after watching Disney, Bud Light, Target and Dove, I have to wonder if there is still common sense in the corporate world.
 
That being said, are you listening Wyndham. Today I purchased a guest pass and points protection for one of my renters.
That’s really interesting that you would mention on a public forum that you put points protection on a reservation you’re renting, since the terms and conditions for points protection are very specific:
IMG_6421.jpeg
 
How do you know my renter is not a family member? Since I have been reimbursed in the past I guess I am not consider using it for commercial reasons.

That’s really interesting that you would mention on a public forum that you put points protection on a reservation you’re renting, since the terms and conditions for points protection are very specific:
View attachment 81785
 
That’s really interesting that you would mention on a public forum that you put points protection on a reservation you’re renting, since the terms and conditions for points protection are very specific:
View attachment 81785
By the way, thank you for reminding me of this. I forgot about it since Wyndham was not enforcing it. So now I will no longer pay Wyndham for it and will get travel insurance elsewhere for them which is cheaper. Which will benefit me. If they cancel and the travel insurance kicks in, I do not have to give them a refund. I can then rent out the room again or use it for myself.
 
By the way, thank you for reminding me of this. I forgot about it since Wyndham was not enforcing it. So now I will no longer pay Wyndham for it and will get travel insurance elsewhere for them which is cheaper. Which will benefit me. If they cancel and the travel insurance kicks in, I do not have to give them a refund. I can then rent out the room again or use it for myself.
What other company offers CFAR insurance on timeshare points? I’ve never heard of anything like that. Travelex requires a covered reason, doesn’t it?
 
For the host of an Airbnb reservation??
For the renter. The hosts set up their cancellation policy. It can be very forgiven or strict. There are certain levels and each level has a certain time period the renter can cancel to get a full or 50% refund. There is insurance thru Aircover they can buy that covers what they will not get back from the host if they cancel after that time period. There are certain conditions that must be met. Major ones such as illness, weather and if flights are delayed or canceled. So when they cancel the host still gets paid for the reservation. It is much cheaper than points protection. But points protection covers minor issues such as if they have a fight with their boyfriend or girlfriend and they cancel because they break up which Aircover does not cover. But with points protection I refund them their money except for the $149 they paid for the points protection. With Aircover, I keep it because they have been refunded in full by the insurance company. With points protection, I cancel the room. With Aircover I keep the room since it is already paid for and I will try to rent it or give it away to someone I know or use it myself. I explain both options to them and let them choose.
 
No, it is not worth updating to VIP until the rental situation is finally cleared unless you are rich and can afford it. I would have never bought VIP if I was not allowed to rent. I was in the program long enough before they changed the rules, so my rents covered my VIP purchases.

You need 300,000 non resale points to get the 15% discount. 500,000 to get the 25% discount. 800,000 to get the 35% discount 1.1 million to get the 50% discount and 1.4 million to get the 60% discount.

It used to be that once you had the VIP level your resale points were treated the same as VIP but they changed those rules. Your best bet is to buy resales at resorts with the lowest maintenance fees.

That being said, are you listening Wyndham. Today I purchased a guest pass and points protection for one of my renters. That puts me over $500,000 I have paid you all with rental income. Not a dime out of my pocket but not a dime in my pocket. Just savings on trips I take because my maintenance fees were paid by rentals.

So, do you want me to continue to tell the world how I listened to your sales agents and bought VIP to rent them out to cover the costs or do you want me to tell people not to buy VIP because it is not worth it if owners are not allowed to rent.

Don't forget there are other owners who brag how they beat you by buying resale or taking the gift and leaving. To me common sense says for me to continue your praise. But after watching Disney, Bud Light, Target and Dove, I have to wonder if there is still common sense in the corporate world.
 
I guess the sales lady lied to me
She told me my 486000 points would recieve 15% bonus and an automatic unit upgrade if i upgraded to vip
 
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