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Bay Area Newbie Needs Help

duck_widow

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Hi,

I've recently returned from my Disneyland vacation with my kids, 8, 2, 2 (twins). I wasn't a Disney fan before, but am now. We would like to do an annual trip there for the next 5 or so years at minimum. I've been reading this board until my eyes blur, watching eBay TS auctions etc.

Please help me choose the best TS for my family of five. I'm looking for the best bang for the buck. We stayed on the cheap at the Marriott NCV and loved it, but even resale it's pricey and they only have a few locations in CA. Love the Marriott quality though. Should I just go for the Marriott quality?

Right now I'm leaning to either WorldMark or Shell. Both seem to have most CA choices than the others and are reasonable in price. There isn't much choice in TS near Disneyland as far as I can tell. WorldMark has Dolphin's Cove and Shell has Peacock Suites. We've stayed at the Shell Kona Coast as a guest and loved it there.

Are there other TS systems I should consider? If I go Shell do I need a home resort, or just be in the CA club? I've seen both weeks and points for both Shell and WorldMark. Which is better? I see some Shell eBay auctions going for $1 for points and $100 for a week at Kona Coast. Kona Coast has one of the highest points requirements so I wonder if buying a week there and then doing an internal Shell trade for points would be a good idea or allowed. I know there's a Shell thread, but mainly want to know if there are other better options for someone in CA wanting to timeshare in CA, a bit in HI and later on a few trips to Orlando.

Anyway, please help a newbie in California choose a good TS system that has a resort near Disneyland and other locations in CA and HI.

Thanks so much! You are all so knowledgeable here!!!
 

DeniseM

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Do you know that Disneyland is building a new DVC timeshare IN Disneyland? They won't be available for awhile, but it should be fabulous.

And Wyndham is building a new TS nearby.
 

duck_widow

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Yes. Thanks for bringing that up. I forgot to throw that in. At first I was interested in DVC, but they will only have the one in CA and only 50 units and I assume will be reserved decades in advance. I figured I'd need it as my home resort to have a chance at getting in there. Maybe I can buy a small amt of pts resale in the future for a couple of nights there in the future. I can only imagine it would be THE place to stay down there. Maybe it would trade like gold if I had it as my home resort? Maybe I should give that more consideration?

I called Disney and asked them to notify me when it's available for sale. One can dream right? :)
 

DeniseM

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DVC Anaheim is going to be one of those resorts that's too expensive to trade, because it will almost be impossible to get equal value back in an exchange. I'd buy Disneyland to use or rent, and a cheaper exchanger.

You might consider an inexpensive Starwood resale, because of their 3 day priority for other Starwood timeshares on II. And they have 3 resorts on the West Coast - Westin Kierland Villas, Sheraton Desert Oasis, and Westin Mission Hills. Since Starwood has 3 fabulous resorts in Hawaii, you could buy an inexpensive Starwood week and exchange in. The way it works, is that all Starwood resorts can see and access other Starwood resorts deposited with II for 3 days before anyone else can on II. So Starwood owners have priority for on-going requests and for online reservations as well. People have even been using 1 bdm. Sheraton Desert Oasis units to get into 2 bdm. units in Hawaii and the new resort in Cancun. You can pick SDO up on ebay for little or nothing and the MF is about $550.

Join us over on the Starwood board for lots more Info.
 

HudsHut

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WorldMark has a brand new resort (just opened in past 2 weeks) less than 1/2 mile from Disneyland.

With WorldMark, you are never locked into a single resort, or into a unit size. You can reserve the resort you want, in the size unit you want for every single stay.

From the Bay Area, our closest WorldMarks are in San Francisco, Windsor, Marina Dunes (Monterey), Angels Camp, Clear Lake, Bass Lake & SouthShore Lake Tahoe.

In Southern California, we have ten more resorts:
2 in Anaheim
2 in the Palm Springs area
3 in the San Diego area
Big Bear
Pismo
Solvang

Check out the list of resorts at:
http://www.worldmarktheclub.com/resorts/

Read the rules here:
http://www.worldmarktheclub.com/education/OwnerManual.shtml

Questions? Ask the experienced owners here on TUG
or at the WMOwners forum:
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/
 

hibbert6

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Is a TS really best?

Hello DW,

This may be sacriledge on this board, but you may want to consider whether or not a timeshare condo is your best bet for what you want.

Let's begin with the question "Do you really want to spend an entire week in Disneyland every year?" While it is the "Happiest Place On Earth", I take groups there every year and I'm pretty tired of it. In my experience, Disneyland is a great 3-4 day family vacation every 4-5 years, but every year is too often and I can't even imagine 5 or 6 days. It's just not that big a place, like DisneyWorld is. There are other things to do in SoCal, but still...

A Condo? Most motels offer breakfast, you eat lunch in the park, or off-campus (cheaper) and nap & swim all afternoon, eat dinner in a restaurant, again saving big $$, then go back into the park for the evening. Do that for 3 days, and you'll have time for everything once, and some things twice. Motels run $65-$100 per night, hotels $80-$150, they're all at least decent and most are walking distance to the park, or there's a cheap shuttle to many outlying hotels.

Or, I guess you could do the Marriott thing, and be in a "resort", but - it ain't Hawaii.

Just my 2 cents.

Dave
 

socal4me

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maybe Sheraton?

i saw some Sheraton Vistana units in Orlando on eBay that looked pretty nice.

Carol
 

Liz Wolf-Spada

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My thought is that if I lived in Northern California or Oregon, I'd want to sell what I had (if I could) and get Worldmark, they seem to have the most resorts in that area.
Liz
 

Denise L

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:hi:

We live in the Bay Area and love traveling to Maui, Southern California, Tahoe and Disneyworld.

We bought our first timeshare (Westin) so that we could go to Maui every year, then bought our second (DVC BCV) so that we could go to Walt Disney World every other year, then our next one (Hyatt) so that we could go to Lake Tahoe and Carmel every year :) . You can see where this is leading....:rolleyes:

If you are flexible with your travel, you could certainly trade into all the systems that we ended up buying into by purchasing a fairly inexpensive trader. If you are going to need to travel during peak times, then it will probably be better to own where you want to go.

Or rent. We've rented at NCV, Four Seasons Aviara, Grand Pacific Marbrisa, and Carlsbad Seapointe. I'll probably rent a place on Kauai and the Big Island in the future. And we are eyeing some CA DVC points so that we can take 3-4 night trips to Anaheim instead of flying to Orlando every other year.

If you like Worldmark, they seem to have a lot of resorts. I've been tempted to pick up a few points but have refrained. I have too many systems to learn and keep track of as it is!

Good luck with your search!
 
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