• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $23,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $23 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

MVC Insider 1/11/12

SueDonJ

SueDonJ

Moderator
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
16,741
Reaction score
6,029
Location
Massachusetts and Hilton Head Island
Resorts Owned
Marriott Barony Beach and SurfWatch
The latest edition of this e-newsletter came today; here is the Premier Plus web version. The "Owner Benefits" link in the column on the left will take you to that nifty little chart that I like so much, that condenses many of the usage rules and options. :)

The new Owner Cruise option looks interesting. If it's anything like the maiden voyage of the DVC Owner Cruises that Disney offered, it could be worth looking into. The only "Important Date" for Weeks and Enrolled Weeks is that MF are due in January. Other than that, nothing much new and exciting to see.

(If you're still not getting these and should be, it might help to know that the email is generated from >>marriottvacationclubATemail1.marriott-vacations.com<< Most likely that's an email address that doesn't accept incoming mail but it may help them find the problem if you have to call in to ask. Good luck!)
 
good morning

Sue..

How many points to do you think they will charge for this? Do you think they will throw their Premier members a "bone" or make it in line with some of the other cruises???

We shall see...
 
puckmanfl said:
good morning

Sue..

How many points to do you think they will charge for this? Do you think they will throw their Premier members a "bone" or make it in line with some of the other cruises???

We shall see...
Click to expand...

Looks like the bone that Premier members would get is a one week booking priority where they can book before other owners.
 
I wonder how popular the cruise will be. With the few details we have, it doesn't look like there will be a cash payment option. Will have to use DC points. I wonder what kind of sales push there will be on the ship to sell new DC trust points. Do you really want to go on a cruise and be stuck in a 24/7 sales presentation?
 
Thank you Sue for posting. I had taken a look only last week at their cruise offering trying to decide if I should bank my points for this year (2013) to use the following year (2014) for a cruise. The cruise line that I use depending of course on the length and itinerary was anywhere between 7500-13000 points for a balcony and not all bookings offered a choice of view. Anyway, I decided not to do it this year. I have not done the math but I did at first glance think that there was value in at least taking a closer look at the availability to exchange for this option. With your posting I am wondering if Marriott will offer a special incentives for an "owners cruise" other than being able to book a week in advance for premier owners. I do think though it would take some planning on an owners part to manage the use of their points to accumalate enough for a cruise. So my thinking is Marriott would have to plan well in advance to enable owners use of points. Your thoughts?

bob
 
good morning....

If it looked like a good deal with some "bones" thrown to the Premier plus owners, I would consider it. With my Phd. from the University of TUG I don't think they would want me around potential new Trust point purchasers. Please don't misunderstand, I love Legacy points and the weeks they come from, but purchasing new Trust points just doesn't make sense. The draconian restrictions on resale make it a tough sell...

If it is overpriced like some of the Premium "events"like the masters and US open I will pass...
 
dioxide45 said:
I wonder how popular the cruise will be. With the few details we have, it doesn't look like there will be a cash payment option. Will have to use DC points. I wonder what kind of sales push there will be on the ship to sell new DC trust points. Do you really want to go on a cruise and be stuck in a 24/7 sales presentation?
Click to expand...

Forget Blue Heron Blvd. This sounds scary!!!!!!!!!!:eek:
 
In general, the cruises offered by MVC are not a bad deal IMO. If you are not trying to spend a boat load of point and not particular about the view, you can get some nice itineraries for like ~ 3400 points. Only out of pocket costs are the taxes and port fees. I priced a 7 day western Caribbean cruise on one of the major cruise lines offered through MVC and out of pocket would be ~$400 per couple for 7 days. You are not going to get a cruise anywhere for $400 out of pocket for 7 days.

I know some folks will run the math and compare the costs against the MFs and the points/week(s) you are giving up and say you can get something cheaper via the discount sites, but we are stuck paying the MFs no matter how we choose to use our week.
 
CashEddie said:
In general, the cruises offered by MVC are not a bad deal IMO. If you are not trying to spend a boat load of point and not particular about the view, you can get some nice itineraries for like ~ 3400 points. Only out of pocket costs are the taxes and port fees. I priced a 7 day western Caribbean cruise on one of the major cruise lines offered through MVC and out of pocket would be ~$400 per couple for 7 days. You are not going to get a cruise anywhere for $400 out of pocket for 7 days.

I know some folks will run the math and compare the costs against the MFs and the points/week(s) you are giving up and say you can get something cheaper via the discount sites, but we are stuck paying the MFs no matter how we choose to use our week.
Click to expand...

That's true, but in many cases you might be better off renting and then booking the cruise on your own. It is a good alternative and easy way to use your week/points, but in most cases it is not a bargain. Of course, the convenience may be worth the cost.
 
See, I knew that Owner Cruise looked interesting! :)

The reason I mentioned Disney's maiden DVC Owners' Cruise is because on the disboards the folks who went on that raved about it. Of course it was an opportunity for DVC to pitch new purchases to a captive audience, but for those who were looking to buy there were some very nice discount incentives, and for those who weren't the pitch wasn't obnoxious or constant. They were able to combine cash and Points for the cruise, which wasn't a bargain by any means but also wasn't overpriced into ridiculousness, and they were also able to choose their cabin view/type. Every day "gifts" were left in their cabins and surprise!, some of those weren't tacky, cheap timeshare trinkets that you wouldn't re-gift to your worst enemy. :D But reading the disboards I'm getting the impression that a whole lot of what made the maiden voyage so nice, doesn't happen anymore on Owner Cruises. I guess we'll see what happens if a DC Owner's Cruise actually happens once, nevermind continues.

I'm a terrible TUGger in one respect in that we don't usually do cost analyses for our trips. We look at where we want to go and then figure out if our Weeks/Points will cover it. :eek: Blasphemy, I know. But the whole renting our Points to get cash to cover a similar cruise itinerary, or comparing the MF's for converted Weeks with the Points requirements, or simply booking a cruise as another trip on top of wherever our Weeks would take us in that same year? We probably wouldn't do all that finagling. About the only finagling we do, is taking advantage of any discount reservation windows. So if the cruise looks good and we have enough Points we'll consider it.

We don't do sales presentations, either. If ever we're in the mood to buy again, we'll meet with our sales rep and discuss it. Like Puck's guru, she's never steered us wrong. So, I'm sure we'd do our best to avoid whatever sales stuff would be happening on a cruise. Or we'll listen once to see if they've gotten their acts together yet, and say no.

I think it's great that Marriott is at least continuing to think about different ways that DC Points can be used, and we remain open-minded about whatever opportunities they offer. This one, an Owner's Cruise, is one that we'll look at very closely. I don't necessarily expect good financial value to be a top priority for whatever they come up with. More important to us, is that our limited vacation time fits in with whatever schedule they offer, and that we're not "paying" for a whole lot of extras which wouldn't interest us.
 
Last edited:
m61376 said:
That's true, but in many cases you might be better off renting and then booking the cruise on your own. It is a good alternative and easy way to use your week/points, but in most cases it is not a bargain. Of course, the convenience may be worth the cost.
Click to expand...

I guess the math works for some people that have the super prime weeks that can pull 2x the MFs and still have a good portion left over to put toward a cruise and possibly pay for the entire trip. I guess it would also depend on if you can actually rent the week for what you need to in order to make the math work as well. Lots of "what ifs" there... And I guess as you say it may be worth the peace of mind of knowing you can just use your points to book this cruise without having to factor in all of the other "what ifs."
 
Good morning...

Props and kudos to the successful renters out there. I don't have the stomach for it. Here's why I timeshare....


For 4700 dc points ,just had 3 concurrent park city 5 nite stays in a 2 bedroom.. In other words for less than $2000 in mfs, I snagged 15 bites in a unit with a rack rate of $800/nite in a ski in ski out joint...

Last summer had a 3 bedroom OF at lagoons followed by 2 units(2bedroom at koolina) for about $3000 mfs...
 
puckmanfl said:
Good morning...

Props and kudos to the successful renters out there. I don't have the stomach for it. Here's why I timeshare....


For 4700 dc points ,just had 3 concurrent park city 5 nite stays in a 2 bedroom.. In other words for less than $2000 in mfs, I snagged 15 bites in a unit with a rack rate of $800/nite in a ski in ski out joint...

Last summer had a 3 bedroom OF at lagoons followed by 2 units(2bedroom at koolina) for about $3000 mfs...
Click to expand...

Now thats some math I can understand, Puck. Nice play.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top