How do I rent DVC with my Wyndham points?

[JocelynG]

My husband and I bought a Wyndham Club timeshare on a recent vacation. We were told we could book Disney resorts with it, but when I plug “Disney” in to Wyndham Club, it says it doesn’t exist.
How does this work?
Do I go through DVC directly? If so how? or do they come up occasionally when I plug Disney in?
Thanks!

 

[spackler]

When you were doing a bit of online, independent research on timeshares prior to your purchase, did you ever come across information that suggested timeshare salesman always tell the truth?

 

[paxsarah]

DVC is often available as an exchange through RCI. Specifically, 1BR units at Saratoga Springs come up fairly often, OKW is not unheard of, and the other DVCs haven’t really been sighted in over a year.

 

[Braindead]

You have to deposit your Wyndham points into RCI pay an exchange fee and pay a DVC fee.
You make your DVC reservation in RCI

That’s the rest of story the sales didn’t tell you!

 

[Braindead]

My husband and I bought a Wyndham Club timeshare on a recent vacation. We were told we could book Disney resorts with it, but when I plug “Disney” in to Wyndham Club, it says it doesn’t exist.
How does this work?
Do I go through DVC directly? If so how? or do they come up occasionally when I plug Disney in?
Thanks!

When did you make the purchase ? Are you still in your rescission period?

 

[Pathways]

Sure. You can book a "Disney" resort. It's called Bonnett Creek, and it actually is on WDW property, so they can get away with the sleight of hand.

But you can't book DVC with Wyndham

 

[paxsarah]

Sure. You can book a "Disney" resort. It's called Bonnett Creek, and it actually is on WDW property, so they can get away with the sleight of hand.

Bonnet Creek is inside the Disney gates, but is not on Disney property.

But you can't book DVC with Wyndham

As explained above, Wyndham points can be used for RCI exchanges into DVC. We just got back from one.

 

[tschwa2]

The other point they forgot to mention is you will pay an RCI exchange fee around $240 plus a $195 dvc resort fee plus your points and you will have to be flexible about your dates and may want to put in the request 1 year or so in advance of when you want to stay.

 

[Pathways]

Bonnet Creek is inside the Disney gates, but is not on Disney property.

When Bonnett Creek was first built, the property was owned by WDW/reedy creek. That and the Hilton across the street were advertised as "The first non-Disney owned hotels to be built on Disney property." (Disney always had an underlying ownership in the previous ones)

Maybe they have since sold it to the resort? Or the Hilton and Wyndham marketing was bogus?

 

[BillyBob444]

Sure. You can book a "Disney" resort. It's called Bonnett Creek, and it actually is on WDW property, so they can get away with the sleight of hand.

But you can't book DVC with Wyndham

Yea Bonnet Creek is AT least 4 miles from DW. A long trip

 

[ecwinch]

The other point they forgot to mention is you will pay an RCI exchange fee around $240 plus a $195 dvc resort fee plus your points and you will have to be flexible about your dates and may want to put in the request 1 year or so in advance of when you want to stay.

And that you are pretty much limited to 1BR units if booking thru RCI. Which means 2 units for a family larger than 4. Add it all up, and for a family larger than 4, you probably are better off renting a reservation or swapping a reservation with a DVC owner.

 

[paxsarah]

Yea Bonnet Creek is AT least 4 miles from DW. A long trip

??? Bonnet Creek is basically across the street from Epcot’s exit, and two stoplights from the entrance to Hollywood Studios. It’s a bit farther from the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, but so are all the Disney hotels but the monorail resorts (for MK) and the AK Lodge (for AK). It’s ridiculously conveniently located.


Also, as I understand it from this detailed history, Disney has never owned the property. http://www.yesterland.com/bonnet.html

 

[paxsarah]

And that you are pretty much limited to 1BR units if booking thru RCI. Which means 2 units for a family larger than 4. Add it all up, and for a family larger than 4, you probably are better off renting a reservation or swapping a reservation with a DVC owner.

The DVC resorts will allow a fifth person in most 1BRs but you have to provide your own bedding for the 5th person. Whether you’d want to do that or not is a case of personal preference - as 4 we barely make it a week in that close quarters, but if you’re comparing to one hotel room or studio (e.g. the ones with Murphy beds), others might be okay with 5.

 

[Lisa P]

If you are still within your rescission period, I'd STRONGLY suggest that you rescind NOW! Follow the directions on your contract to the letter.

We love our Club Wyndham points, purchased resale for a small fraction of the developer pricing. If you are able to rescind, do it and save many thousands of dollars! But if it's too late to rescind, welcome to the club - there are many here who have made developer purchases and overpaid. If that's the case for you, learn to make the most of it, beyond the fun, well-appointed Wyndham resorts. To try for a trade into DVC via RCI...

Go online through Wyndham's website and access the Wyndham portal to RCI.
Click on "MyOwnership" > "Exchanges" > "Search..." > Click to acknowledge and "Continue" (to RCI).
Join TUG ($10?) so you'll have access to the Sightings board where people regularly report seeing availability at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resorts (DVC SSR). That will give you an idea of what to expect for availability.

Developer Wyndham points may be used to book available stays at a DVC resort via RCI - either in RCI Points or RCI Weeks, you'll see both (my resale points can only trade via RCI Weeks). As mentioned, RCI availability is sporadic and it's mostly for 1BR at DVC SSR for a full week. You can place an OnGoing Search (OGS) request and only inventory in RCI Weeks will match to the OGS. The "cost" of an RCI trade into DVC is higher than to some other area timeshares because Disney charges a $190 resort fee to incoming exchangers. But depending on your home resort maintenance fees, it may still be a decent deal for Wyndham owners because it only requires 77,000-126,000 Wyndham points to get a good 1BR week via RCI.

Unlike most other timeshare owners, Wyndham owners do not have to deposit any points with RCI, just to search for an exchange or place an effective OGS request. This "search first" feature is very helpful. If a match to your OGS is found, you'll see an email. Then you accept the trade and they move the needed Wyndham points from your account over to RCI.

We've entered an OGS for DVC resorts and simultaneously made back-up reservations at Wyndham Bonnet Creek (WBC) which is a beautiful, close by resort. If the OGS matches and we still want it, we cancel our WBC reservation and check that the points have gone back into our Wyndham account. Then we confirm the RCI DVC exchange. Sometimes we prefer WBC, depending on who's traveling and how much we plan to visit the Disney parks on that trip. Hope this help!

 

[Lisa P]

Yea Bonnet Creek is AT least 4 miles from DW. A long trip

Do you mean Magic Kingdom, one of the four theme parks in Disney World? All of Disney World is hugely spread out. Even riding a bus, boat, or monorail between the four theme parks is a relatively long trip.

Wyndham Bonnet Creek is located directly next door to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort and across a bridge from Disney's Old Key West Resort. Distance to the parks is not the issue. Onsite resort benefits and resort theme are the issues, for some people. Not always for us since we generally like the resort rooms at other resorts better than those at DVC resorts. Everyone's different.

 

[Jan M.]

The other point they forgot to mention is you will pay an RCI exchange fee around $240 plus a $195 dvc resort fee plus your points and you will have to be flexible about your dates and may want to put in the request 1 year or so in advance of when you want to stay.

The exchange fee is $239 and you pay the $190 Disney resort fee when you check in. Your advice to be flexible about the dates is excellent. If this person can only go one or two specific weeks, especially if they are high demand weeks, they might get really lucky and find what they want but I wouldn't hold my breath. I haven't seen a two bedroom available at an Orlando Disney resort in the last couple of years. Maybe OP are getting them with advance searches so they are gone before we see them.

We go to Orlando and the Disney Parks so often that I'm a little jaded. Until our granddaughter started school last Fall we took her to Orlando 3 times a year for 1-3 weeks at a time. And we sometimes went by ourselves. Now we just go by ourselves until next year when our second granddaughter will be three or close to it and can start having her vacations with Grandma and Papa. Last year my husband, our then 5 year old granddaughter and I loved staying at Animal Kingdom Kidani Village in a savanna view unit. I had stayed there before by myself and was thrilled to finally find a week during one of her visits. When our granddaughter was 3, she and I stayed at Saratoga Springs just to have the use of the Disney buses because my husband wasn't with us to give my then 63 year old self help or a break with keeping up with a very active 3 year old. In January my husband and I stayed there again over Martin Luther King week. Unfortunately this year it was too cold to be able to enjoy the pools. We've been in Orlando other years that week and it was warm enough that we never needed jackets and long pants and only wore shorts.

None of the Disney resorts or even Wyndham Bonnet Creek are convenient to a Walmart, a Publix grocery store, or restaurants. We enjoy the Bonnet Creek resort and just spent 10 nights there over Memorial Day week. There are 3 other resorts we really like too. They are great if you are going with kids and much more convenient to Walmart, shopping and restaurants. When we stayed at Star Island I requested and always got a unit in one of the buildings close to the pool and playground. The balconies in our units overlooked the miniature golf course. We were close enough that I could hear our granddaughter telling me to watch her take her shot at some of the holes and call out encouragement to her. I could also see our granddaughter as she was running around at the playground. It is a very nice playground. too. The 2 bedroom lock off units at Star Island function wonderfully as a 3 bedroom unit because of the layout. You enter the smaller side of the lock off through a foyer which separates the bedroom and living room/kitchen both of which have doors that can be closed. So if you are putting kids or especially teens on the sofa bed in the living room/kitchen you can close the door for privacy and quiet. Many people use that second living room/kitchen as the kids TV room and stock the refrigerator with drinks and snacks. One family I know told me their kids told everyone when they got home that they had their own private apartment on that vacation. And the parents loved that they could let their teens take the younger kids to play miniature golf or the playground and they could sit on their balcony enjoying their coffee or a drink and be able to keep an eye on them. The units at Reunion are all 3 bedroom/3 bathroom masters. The balconies are huge with a decent sized table and chairs and lounges too. The waterpark at Reunion is really nice and great for adults and kids. We've stayed in building 3 every time we've stayed at Vacation Village at Parkway. The buildings 2-6 section has a nice playground, a pool with a kids water play area and is convenient to the activities center. There are several grills with picnic tables around them in the pool/playground area. Our granddaughter especially but my husband and I too, enjoyed the free sno-cones at the pools. The pools are all different so having to go to the different ones if she wanted a sno-cone made us visit each of them rather than just stay at our pool. She really enjoyed the activities and games at those pools. One afternoon one of the activities was dance lesson. I could see from our balcony that there were just kids, no adults participating, so I told her to ask Papa to take her. I thought he would just sit and watch but no he participated because it made her happy. She discovered what I've known for 40 years, Papa can't dance worth a darn. When we called our son and DIL that night we all got a laugh out of her telling them that Papa isn't a good dancer and he should get more lessons. She also loved the free face painting at the activities center. We enjoyed the movie nights at the pool with the $1 bags of freshly popped popcorn.

In case I sound like I'm a slug and make my husband do all the work when we go with our granddaughter that isn't the case. I take her to the Disney Parks and he takes her to do the different things at the resorts. Sometimes I do those things with them especially on days we don't go to the Parks. He just retired this year and didn't always go with us to Orlando or stay the whole time we stayed so when he was with us he tried to give me more a of a break.

 

[Pathways]

Also, as I understand it from this detailed history, Disney has never owned the property. http://www.yesterland.com/bonnet.html

AWESOME article. (I have saved it) It looks like it took Reedy Creek's agreement for access and utilities to move the development forward, but they didn't actually own it.

So much for their sales pitch!