Thanks weird I have never heard any of this before. We are owners at SSR and AKV. I thought we could trade with others. Thanks for the help.
You can trade through Interval, but as a Disney Vacation Club member you have to call Member Services because DVC members aren't direct members of II (Interval International). DVC has a corporate membership. DVC picks what resort to deposit with II (not you). That's why you'll see a lot of off season weeks in Interval at Vero and Hilton Head and usually off season units at Saratoga and Old Key West for the Walt Disney location. Disney controls what gets deposited with II. Rarely do I ever see larger units in II for Beach Club or Wilderness Lodge. Disney usually saves prime time (holidays) to be used by the members.
As far as resorts on par with DVC in Interval, right off the bat I would mention the Royal resorts in Cancun, the Sheraton/Westins, Marriott, Hyatt, and well managed independent resorts in hard to get locations. If you join tugg, you will be able access the resort reviews.
I think the best points value for a trade using DVC points in II would be a one bedroom. It takes 160 points for a 1 bedroom in prime season.
Another place to access resort reviews would be tripadvisor.com - but I always take trip advisor with a grain of salt since anybody can post there. Some posts I think are bogus, but I can usually wade through the troll reviews and get a pretty decent idea about a resort. The pictures on trip advisor help a lot.