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Signed up Sunday, decided to rescind

rickandcindy23

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
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Location
The Centennial State
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Founder; Disney OKW & SSR; Marriott's Willow Ridge,Shadow Ridge,Grand Chateau;Val Chatelle; Hono Koa OF (3); SBR(LOTS), SDO a few; Grand Palms; WKORV-OF (2),Westin Desert Willow.
We may do Hawaii a couple of times but we definitely don't require a Hawaii every year type of thing. The view isn't huge for me either as we don't spend that much time in the room. I know we would like to do Kuaui and Honolulu in the next 3-4 years but I really like to change it up a lot and check out new places.
You should consider a Sheraton Desert Oasis 2 bedroom lockoff, deposit each side separately to II, then enter ongoing searches for trips. If you don't care about view, it's easy to get something with island view on Kauai, Maui, the Westins are very easy to get. There are other resorts on the various islands. I have been very ecstatic with my trades. Fees of less about $1,400, two deposits, great trading power.

Views do matter to me. We go during whale season and spend our mornings and afternoons on the balcony at our home resort. Turtles are fun to watch as well as whale behaviors. February cannot get here fast enough for me.
 

andtlie

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We are currently in Maui at the Kaapalani Beach Club. We attended a presentation today. They were very nice. We own two Kauai timeshares through RCI and did an exchange. I did ask for an updated unit when we checked in. She gave us a room we are satisfied with, and an ocean view. At the presentation I was told they gave us this unit in good faith that we would consider buying something. They took us to their show unit and it looked just like the unit we have, only an even better ocean view. It's dated, but we're comfortable. One thing that attracted me was belonging to Intervals International. He showed me the Marriott Ko'a'lina and the Westin and some resorts RCI doesn't have. Then I thought maybe I could switch from RCI to Intervals International and not buy in. I told him I could not make a decision today that I wanted to research what I have with what's being offered. They told me legally the offer is only good today and not any other day. I don't understand this. They kept asking my husband why we would pass the offer up. Our timeshares are long paid for. We love our home unit and Maui is nice but Kauai remains my favorite. I looked at Intervals International today, and that inventory he showed me may or may not be available depending what we would buy. I want to better understand how to maximize what we have with RCI.
 

SML123

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Jul 15, 2021
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Resorts Owned
Meriweather Resort, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida
Garza Blanca, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
My husband and I were in the timeshare sales side of the biz for over 40 years. We have also owned timeshare weeks for many years and use them intermittently when appropriate. We are heading to Garza Blanca in Puerto Vallarta in a week on an exchange. We returned from Paris a month ago, where we used Hyatt points (not timeshare points, but business points) to reduce the rate of the Hotel du Louvre. Sometimes we swap and sometimes we rent, it depends on the scenario.

Having read this entire thread something jumps out at me. POINTS. The points seem to always be the issue as you own NOTHING and must trust the club to not only simply exist but give you a vacation that you can use. Whereas years ago you bought week 14 at the Merriweather on Fort Lauderdale Beach and that is where you could show up and vacation every year if you wanted to. You actually owned something and thats where you began. I have two week 14's on Fort Laud Beach because they are either Easter week or in the zone and I get more from them if I wanted to trade them versus a week in September. However I could use them without having to ask someone for something. The resort is an old resort from the late 70's but its run as a well oiled machine, super clean and even remodeled - great management can be rare! My mf is $675 a week so when I trade for two weeks at Cliffs Club, I can easily justify the money.

IF you like Hawaii, FIND A LOVELY OLDER RESORT THAT IS WELL MAINTAINED that is in RCI with WEEKS for sale and buy a resale week that works for you. DO NOT rely on trading to get what youd like. Not sure if this animal exists these days but on paper thats what I suggest. Are there fixed weeks in Hawaii?

I used to live 20 minutes from my resort in Fort Laud so trading was my intention, BUT I also vacation via WILD CARD. Meaning that I dont care where I go as much as what the resort is like. Ill go anywhere that offers a nice resort and dont care that much about where it is. I never decide on a location and date, I type in a location and leave the dates blank, so I can see what comes up. Type in Hawaii and hit SEARCH, in RCI. I trade with maximum flexibility. OR if we want to go somewhere in May, I type in a date range and hit SEARCH to see what in the world is available in May. Broad based exchanges yield happy results.

In places like Florida, Hilton Head Island, California, HAWAII, there are such strict or even regulations for building and the insane price of land has limited new construction as there are height restrictions, that there are likely older resorts from the 80's that have been sold out for years and are run well by the management company. I would not hesitate to buy an old resort resale unit in a nice location if I wanted a place to return to. But to give people many tens of thousands of dollars of my money to hold UP FRONT and hope they give me what I want each year, is truly getting into bed with an unknown entity.

Back in the day, we begged people to buy a timeshare week for 7500 but they actually got to use a lovely resort for 20 or more years. These days with people giving Disney or Vidanta fifty thousand plus dollars for NOTHING seems insane to me. I was always a top salesperson back in the day but I dont know HOW anyone sells anything to people at todays prices or justifies a $1800 mf on top of the price. I can always find a $500 night hotel - pay my $3500, and walk away. I dont need a condo that badly that I would ever pony up fifty grand up front. I have friends who lost over 150k on the Solaz debacle with Marriott - I vacationed there three times on RCI exchange, which is three times more than they got to stay there. Please dont give these developers these big numbers - I cant see paying more than 20k for even a fixed week somewhere I liked for 10 years - even though that math isnt that bad.
 
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