Looking forward to next timeshare vacation?

[Steve Fatula]

Hi
We have a timeshare exchange vacation coming up soon. I still get excited about going to a different resort and usually not disappointed. Do you feel this way too?
There are so many timeshares and so many different kinds. I like my home resorts but going to stay someplace else is an adventure.
Silentg

Totally agree with you, that's us. The 'ol own where you want to stay is terrible advice when you want to go all over. We've started to like ones where you have your own standalone building. But going to new places, countries, whatever is always exciting.

Like vacationforever though, we do have a tiny list of places we do return, but that's the exception. Desert Springs 2 mostly.

 

[MrockStar]

It always amazes me I never get tired of Key West or Marco Island. Just like you we still look forward to it. We sprinkle in new places but most are what we love. Hilton Head is very nice but I love going to Marriotts Oceanwatch in Myrtle Beach. You will like both.

I agree with both of you, we like Marathon Key alot and go there a least once a year, also Ana Marie Island we own a week there.

 

[WinniWoman]

Totally agree with you, that's us. The 'ol own where you want to stay is terrible advice when you want to go all over. We've started to like ones where you have your own standalone building. But going to new places, countries, whatever is always exciting.

Like vacationforever though, we do have a tiny list of places we do return, but that's the exception. Desert Springs 2 mostly.

Ummm....Not really. Owning where you like to stay is great advice. Just because you own where you like to stay does not mean you can't exchange to go elsewhere. We spent many years exchanging our home resort and went all over the country with the limited vacation time we had on our jobs. We used one week to exchange and the other one we used to stay at our home resort during prime summer time.

At least if you like the resort you own at- and it is within driving distance-more good advice- if you suddenly experienced a lack of funds and could not pay airfare or whatever- you could still take the drive to get away for a week or so.

Now we most always use our timeshares at our home resorts- just once in a while exchange- but we also rent to go other places since we now have more vacation time and a little bit more money to do so.

Best of both worlds.

 

[Steve Fatula]

There are all kind of users of timeshares. We simply don't like to stay anywhere, except one place. I realize many people do. But not everyone, for us, it's impossible. We would trade, other than the one place, ~100% of the time. Of the 79 days vacation scheduled thus far this year, only DSV2 remains as an owned week. Every other stay is either best served via getaways, or, is a first time there via exchanges or points. And this year is not unusual for us. Week vacations do not work for us for the most part as well.

I didn't disagree at all that it could be good advice. It's certainly not for us. That being said, happy to hear it is working for you.

 

[WinniWoman]

There are all kind of users of timeshares. We simply don't like to stay anywhere, except one place. I realize many people do. But not everyone, for us, it's impossible. We would trade, other than the one place, ~100% of the time. Of the 79 days vacation scheduled thus far this year, only DSV2 remains as an owned week. Every other stay is either best served via getaways, or, is a first time there via exchanges or points. And this year is not unusual for us. Week vacations do not work for us for the most part as well.

I didn't disagree at all that it could be good advice. It's certainly not for us. That being said, happy to hear it is working for you.

What I was meaning was not only applicable to fixed week owners, but also for RCI points owners- or other people who own other point- type timeshares with an underlying deeded week where they like going, but do not necessarily use every year. As opposed to strictly a points ownership.

Certainly a strictly points ownership works for a lot of people. I get it. I am just saying that is not "terrible advice to own where you like to stay" and the ONLY way to "go all over" as you stated.

 

[mdurette]

I’m really looking forward to my next 3 since they are all a bit different than our “normal” trips


DVC Orlando - we haven’t done an on-site Disney trip since DVC left II.
Hyatt Coconut Plantation Resort- for no other reason than the hype this resort gets.
Suites at Hershey - summer. It will be a nice change of pace since we are usually travel to NH in the summer.

 

[missyrcrews]

And you know you've "won" when your kiddos are excited, too. Driving to NH yesterday, Edward (my homebodiest child!) says, "I'm just so excited about this vacation. We can relax, and I don't have to leave the unit for a week if I don't want to!!" Of course, he'll leave at least for our traditional one meal "out" during the week, and then we'll do an escape room, too, which he loves.

I love that we ALL look forward to these time share breaks. Before we leave, he'll tell me the countdown of days to the next one (Smuggs...another favorite!). This family is a timesharing family!

 

[Steve Fatula]

What I was meaning was not only applicable to fixed week owners, but also for RCI points owners- or other people who own other point- type timeshares with an underlying deeded week where they like going, but do not necessarily use every year. As opposed to strictly a points ownership.

Certainly a strictly points ownership works for a lot of people. I get it. I am just saying that is not "terrible advice to own where you like to stay" and the ONLY way to "go all over" as you stated.

I guess I take this literally. You cannot use points if you are a own where you want to stay person imho. Maybe there are variants of the own where you want to stay crowd (a revelation for me), and you remain flexible. On Tug, I've seen many of them say never exchange, i.e. only stay where you own, and, own where you want to stay. That is worthless advice if you like to travel all over. That's all I was saying. It may indeed still work for them, and that's great. It obviously cannot possibly work for someone like me. If you want to view points backed weeks as own where you want to stay, I would agree with you but I am too literal for that connection.

 

[Panina]

I guess I take this literally. You cannot use points if you are a own where you want to stay person imho. Maybe there are variants of the own where you want to stay crowd, and you remain flexible. On Tug, I've seen many of them say never exchange, i.e. only stay where you own, and, own where you want to stay. That is worthless advice if you like to travel all over. That's all I was saying. It may indeed still work for them, and that's great.

I own where I love to stay and have a few great traders to go to new places. Whereas the weeks, destinations and resorts are highly desirable I figured out I will never go to the timeshares I have as traders.

So my new goal is to still trade at times but to get traders at resorts I love and timeframes I could go if I decided not to trade in the future. To me its an insurance policy. Prior my insurance policy was to have great desirable traders that I can easily find new homes for, now its that plus something I could use if I didn’t trade.

That is why I say buy where and when you like to go but you can also have the ability to trade and have variety.

 

[Lisa P]

I guess I take this literally. You cannot use points if you are a own where you want to stay person imho. Maybe there are variants of the own where you want to stay crowd (a revelation for me), and you remain flexible. On Tug, I've seen many of them say never exchange, i.e. only stay where you own, and, own where you want to stay. That is worthless advice if you like to travel all over.

We fall into this category. We own Club Wyndham points converted from two fixed home resort weeks, neither of which we have ever used. We like to travel all over and most of our vacations are spent at Wyndham resorts, reserved directly through Wyndham without added reservation fees or the use of an external exchange company like RCI. We have pretty much gotten whatever resorts and reservations we wanted. So even though we travel to many different places, we still feel as though we "own where we want to stay" - i.e., we own in a points system that has a wide variety of resorts in locations that interest us. Because we own with the company managing our the points trust under very specific bylaws, it's different from owning at resorts that exchange externally through RCI Points, where RCI may arbitrarily change the rules.