Looking for Feedback - HIVC Orange Lake

[SPCteam]

Experienced Tuggers,
I would highly value any feedback that could be shared concerning the Holiday Inn resort at Orange Lake (West Village). Anything would be appreciated (positive & negative) about the resort specifically and Holiday Inn Vacation Club in general.

We own a few timeshares and have considered trading (RCI) into the Orange Lake resort before. We simply don't understand the limitations that would apply to us as purchaser's on the resale market.

One specific question would be whether we would have the ability to freely allow our family who live in Florida to use our week without a fee or a special certificate, etc.

Thank you all for anything you can add to our research!!!!
Steve & Penny

 

[Tank]

I'm a points owner, can't answer your questions about resale use, others will.

Here is the link you will find Orange Lake stuff in for your research under "All other timeshare systems"

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=30

Good luck
Dave

 

[SPCteam]

Thanks Dave.
I did find a good deal of that reading helpful. Just looking for as many pros & cons as possible.
Thx again, Steve

 

[silentg]

We own a week at Orange Lake and live in Florida. Are you looking to buy resale? Or are you wanting to exchange into Orange Lake? Not sure if they still have the 1-4 rule. What that means is you can only exchange into Orange Lake once every four years. If you could be more specific I may be able to answer your questions.
Silentg

 

[tschwa2]

If you own a deeded week at Orange Lake in Orlando then there is no fee to change the name when you have a guest. You just need to call and let them know.

MF are on the higher end for a 2 br unit ($950 is with tax) and they are fixed. I wouldn't buy a specific week that you don't think you would use most of the time as you would have to go through RCI to exchange and that would be another $200-$300 fee. Since Orlando has many nice timeshares it is hard to rent out to cover MF let alone make a profit for most weeks. I believe the 2 br and the 3 br's have the same MF so you may want to look into getting a 3 br for the week you want. Another thing that isn't bad for owning to use but isn't the best for owning to exchange or rent is the rooms don't lock off. With RCI you get more TPU (trading power units for depositing 2 smaller units vs 1 larger mainly because they make 2 exchange fees rather than 1).

HICV is nice and flexible but if you want your home resort to be Orlando, you can't get it resale without an additional purchase of $8000 or up.

 

[elaine]

assuming you are trading in via RCI, you must have a guest certificate from RCI in the guest's name if the RCI account owner is not present to check in. W Village has both tennis villas (5 stories) and single story drive-up duplexes, and also some quads (2 story duplexes). Pros/cons--park in front vs in parking lot. Low vs. high density=noise level. Tennis villas you can walk to pool, others might be a longer walk. The new pools have big crowds and parking can be an issue. Also finding shade. OLCC has a nice location to WDW, as you can use the back road to avoid a lot of traffic. OLCC is a decent, larger resort with lots to do onsite. We prefer a smaller footprint like HGVC or Marriott, but that's just our preference.
No info re. HIVC program.

 

[SPCteam]

Thank you all for your time sharing info with us!! We will probably trade into (RCI) the resort this spring and check it out before possibly buying something there (resale). I've concluded that any resale purchase would put us out of some benefits of the HIVC, but I'm still 'fuzzy' about exactly what we'd be missing & if it would even matter to us. We will probably try to use an 'extra vacation certificate' for the 'exchange' which I believe will not be affected by the 1-in-4 rule (I may be wrong... it has been known to happen) ---- Thanks again for the feedback!!

 

[Scott W]

Thank you all for your time sharing info with us!! We will probably trade into (RCI) the resort this spring and check it out before possibly buying something there (resale). I've concluded that any resale purchase would put us out of some benefits of the HIVC, but I'm still 'fuzzy' about exactly what we'd be missing & if it would even matter to us. We will probably try to use an 'extra vacation certificate' for the 'exchange' which I believe will not be affected by the 1-in-4 rule (I may be wrong... it has been known to happen) ---- Thanks again for the feedback!!

It would appear that if your family members are also on the deed they would have access to the resort on a daily basis. Scroll down to the questions under Reservations & Visting:

http://orangelake.com/owners/faq

 

[silentg]

Hi again SPC, We purchased a studio at OLCC and used it mostly for trades. We upgraded to a two bedroom points week that allows us to be members of HIVC. We usually put our points into IHG hotels so we can add hotel nights to some of our timeshare stays. We have also used the points to exchange into other HIVC resorts. We have stayed at Myrtle Beach and Cape Canaveral. We live in centralFlorida so we use the facilities at Orange Lake, for golf and also River Island. We bought a fixed week from another tug member, but we sold it to a friend. Having one week at Orange Lake is enough. We make use of this week, more flexible than other weeks we own. I am going to send you a PM with more info.
Silentg