MOC Owner OF Assignment Experience

[TXTortoise]

Niche question...

If anyone is a single week 2BR OF Marriott Ocean Club owner and have reserved a late January or February week at 12 months, what level in the towers have you historically gotten?
(Or have you ever been unable to get that week?)

Love the original rooms, but debating paying a premium for a fixed week in the new towers to bypass the whole reservation and assignment drama. But a big premium.

 

[StevenTing]

I'm not an MOC owner but when I booked with points in 2011 I chose the Lahaina tower. The put me on the 2nd floor. I think it was 2208 was the room number based on this picture.

http://advantagevacation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/MMOC-Lahaina-Villas-Ocean-Front-Units11.jpg

 

[BocaBoy]

Niche question...

If anyone is a single week 2BR OF Marriott Ocean Club owner and have reserved a late January or February week at 12 months, what level in the towers have you historically gotten?

Middle level of the towers, floors 5-7 would be my experience. And that is high enough to have a great view of the ocean.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Here's been my experience and this year proved to be the same. If you need an exact day, like Sat Feb 17th 2018 or most likely any Sat late Jan to early April you may be disappointed at 12 months but Friday Feb 16 or Sunday Feb 18 will likely be there for you AT 12 MONTHS. I capped 12 MONTHS because if you wait and don't call at 12 months the prime winter weeks are gone for good.

It starts with the fact that there are only so many 2BD OF units, so you're fighting with a lot of individuals for only a few weeks. I feel sorry for the teachers or similar who really need a specific date to check-in because they have it tough but if you have some flexibility and can book at 12 MONTHS then it's likely you can get a nice winter week.

 

[JIMinNC]

Here's been my experience and this year proved to be the same. If you need an exact day, like Sat Feb 17th 2018 or most likely any Sat late Jan to early April you may be disappointed at 12 months but Friday Feb 16 or Sunday Feb 18 will likely be there for you AT 12 MONTHS. I capped 12 MONTHS because if you wait and don't call at 12 months the prime winter weeks are gone for good.

It starts with the fact that there are only so many 2BD OF units, so you're fighting with a lot of individuals for only a few weeks. I feel sorry for the teachers or similar who really need a specific date to check-in because they have it tough but if you have some flexibility and can book at 12 MONTHS then it's likely you can get a nice winter week.

This issue is what keeps causing me some pause about possibly acquiring an EOY 1BR unit at MOC sometime in the next year or two. Buying hybrid bundle built around an EOY 1BR OV/OF at MOC winds up being a fairly cost effective way for us to move up to Executive level, with the added benefit of a deeded week on Maui to use EOY. But the reports I keep reading on TUG about the difficulty people sometimes have booking their owned weeks at MOC in the late January and February time frame is concerning. DC Points availability in that same time frame is usually excellent, in fact, the entire month of February 2018 seems to be still be available with Points even now, 30-60 days inside the 12-month window. (Admittedly, right now I can only see 1BR Mountain/Garden view units, but I don't have enough points available in my account right now to see the OV or OF units; they may or may not be there, but in the past when I did have adequate points, I recall that OV and OF units were still available a month or two inside the 12-month window.) I'm beginning to wonder if a better strategy to get to Executive might just be to buy 4000 resale points and ditch the whole hybrid approach. The upfront cost of both options is very close to the same and the MF costs/year are within $100/year of being the same as well. The theory behind doing the hybrid is we would have a useable week instead of just points, but if we can't get what we want with the week, we'd be better off just playing in points.

 

[Thunder Up]

The short answer.

Marriott had availability for the weeks we requested for January 2017 usage, 12 month reservation window and January 2018 usage, 13 month reservation.

The long answer.

We purchased a 2 bedroom OF at MOC original towers in late 2015 with first usage in 2017. We have locked off so far, so we can get 2 weeks. 2017 usage was booked at the 12 month window, our usage in 2017 was the 2nd and 3rd week in January. The first week we stayed in a studio and had a terrible floor, the 2nd floor (first floor with rooms) with a very limited view because of trees but a nice large balcony. The front desk at checkin told us we had a great floor for the 2nd week but would not tell us until checkin on the 2nd week, which floor. Well they were right, the room was on the top floor (9th I believe) on the corner, so the balcony wrapped around two sides of the unit. Fabulous view.

For 2018, we locked off the unit again for 2 weeks, the 3rd and 4th weeks of January at the 13 month window at 9:00 am when reservations opened. Took about 20 minutes to get thru. We reserved another Marriott property for the 2nd week of January so we could get an earlier reservation for MOC. We subsequently deposited the 2nd week of January reservation to II. This allowed us to do the 13 month reservation for MOC.

I was surprised that there was no availability for a Saturday checkin for the third week of January 2018 even at the 13 month window plus one week. There was availability for a Friday check in, so we snagged it.

Thunder Up