That is my observation too. Alternative is SVV Prime 2BR or 2BR l/o (Key West and Bella) for under 1K. 81K / 95.7K and with lower MF than WKV.
If your vacation time is not very flexible then I wouldn't buy WKV to go to Hawaii. You are going to want the 12 mos window to book. My vacation schedule is very flexible so I am able to use SVV weeks to book Hawaii during shoulder seasons. JMO YMMV.
This year there was a lot in June but middle of the summer looked tough. In the southwest when school is out the end of May it is very doable but for areas where school ends the later part of June it is more difficult to exchange at 8 mos out
Maybe I'm missing your point but as long as someone has enough staroptions for the week they are requesting why would it be harder for them to make a trade outside of the location they own then you? Your WKORV ownership doesn't give you any special priority outside of WKORV.
I will be looking for week 48-50 in 2019. Is that a doable time frame using SO at 8 months?
A StarOption is a StarOption. It is not about trading power. If you have enough SO to book and there is availability, then you get to book it.
I did not mean some resorts with StarOptions have more trading power than others. What I meant is if you have the a lot of StarOptions, you have the best chance to book at other places since you need 178K StarOptions to stay oceanfront in a 2 bedroom at the other Kaanapali resorts and at Westin St. John. You can also split up StarOptions into smaller units and stay at many other places. I probably should not have used the word "trading power" since that is a standard term used to refer to II and RCI. I probably should have said "exchanging opportunities" or something like that. I will go back and edit my post to be more accurate.
I went back and edited how I wrote this. I mistakenly used the word "trading power" and should have said more StarOptions allow for more opportunities to exchange - not because any single resort has greater trading power - but because if you buy at a mandatory resort worth more SOs, you have more opportunities to exchange because you get more SOs. As far as I know, all SOs are equal in value. You just need more SOs to stay at specific locations, bigger unit size and for ocean views / ocean front views.
Yes. Weeks 48-50 are low demand weeks almost everywhere -- even WKORV/N.
Lol Thanks
Hello GrayFal- We are considering purchasing a 148,100 annual from Westin Kierland. I am checking to see if you've had any problem getting into the Westin North or South or Nanea with star options 8 months out? And- do you get a choice of view category? This post that I'm responding too is an older post- and I know since Marriott bought out Starwood or have destination points they may have moved over powered the system. Thanks for your assistance
I do this and no problem at eight months, though I tend to travel outside school holidays. When ocean front is available, I can book it…but I don’t count on it. With SOs you can’t reserve ocean view vs island - unit location is based on how early you reserve, so if you do it as early as possible you’ll likely get a good unit.
You may be able to now. In one of the recent website outages, when it came back up the ability to see the break out of island view and ocean view is now there. We don't know if the resorts will honor these views on a reservation, but I suspect there will be some upset owners if they don't.
It's always nice to see improvements at Vistana!
I am sure they are just changing it so Marriott can come along and mess with it.
I guess it gives them the flexible interface to work with if/when they decide to introduce SO differentiation for various views/levels.
I’m anticipating a complete overhaul to the SO chart. People will have to buy more to book those ocean views lol
I too anticipate an increase in StarOptions for Ocean Views. They did this several years ago for the Oceanfront. If you own those Ocean Views, you will get more SOs. Those that don't will have to buy more or use more to book those.