RCI travel, which is actually run by ICE, does sell cruise packages combined with resort certificates, so I think you’re on the right track, Phyllis. They do a fair amount of telemarketing. If you book a cruise that way, you wind up using a different website that they run; I think it's something like RCIcruiser.com or something like that. I did one of those about ten years ago, but never wound up using the resort certificate. ICE is well connected with Vidanta, so may have low or no resort fees with those certificates if that's what it is. I believe they still have the $75 resort fee for booking Vidanta through them otherwise. They seem to have a lot of access to Pueblo Bonito resorts as well.
Yeah, sounds like the SFX Travel store "package" deals they sell.
$3k for a week (timeshare) and a week cruise isn't very good, IMO.
They had (once, long time ago) 1 week cruise (I forget what category it went up to, I *think* ocean view --not balcony), for a week, a timeshare week (well via the ICE/SFX Travel store, so the resort quality is all over the place), and they gave me another bonus week plus 4 free exchanges (which saved me $150x4 since I'm SFX Platinum) for like $2300.
That wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. The downside is that you cannot use the Cruise Certificate (uses ovs search which Hilton actually used to partner with before they switched to CruisesOnly) with any other cruise offers. So like if Carnival was offering $50 OBC, no can't use that with the cert.
Although on *select* NCL cruises, you could use the "get 3 free" thing.
I vaguely recall I ended up using both weeks on the timeshare side. I think one we used at Vidanta, and were able to snag a Grand Luxxe. The other I used for El Cid Marina in Puerto Morelos, as it gave us a discounted AI rate for 2 people for $350, (we went in May), so not bad. El Cid was OK, not a 5* resort. Probably a 3.5*, but we had a good time even with some seaweed and windy weather.