TradeWinds Cruise Club/TradeWinds Experience

[GregT]

Good afternoon TUGgers,

I know we have some Tradewinds Club Members here (@Sandy VDH , @klpca , @SciTchr , @RNCollins , to name a few) and I was hoping the information below could be clarified/corrected. I am not actively looking for more timeshares, but I love boats and I am interested in Tradewinds and hope to do an RCI trade into Tradewinds BVI or Bahamas in 2022. Can I ask our TUGgers to review the below? Note: I have now learned that Tradewinds Cruise Club is an older club, and what is currently being sold is called Tradewinds Experiences -- but I believe the rules below are the same. Thank you!

It is my understanding that someone joining TradeWinds will purchase PlusPoints, which are single use points with a fixed life (often 12-years, can be shorter). I saw a post where a TUGger was initially offered 1.2M points for $22K and 4.8M points for $67K. They ultimately purchased 600,000 points for $13.5K when an additional 100,000 points were added as an incentive (so 700K points for $13.5K)

Annually, the Club Member pays a fee to "unlock" some of their points (based on the length of the contract) and it is currently $815 to unlock 100K points. So a 1.2M contract with a 12 year life unlocks 100,000 points annually -- and the member pays $815. They can make reservations based upon the number of points that they have unlocked. If they want to make a reservation which will consume more points then they have already unlocked, then they pay the additional fee to unlock the needed points and can reserve accordingly.

Once unlocked, the points can be utilized to reserve based upon the category of boat and the season of travel, as follows:

Class High Middle Low

Flagship 200,000 150,000 100,000
Luxury 125,000 100,000 75,000 (see note immediately below on Luxury class)
Cruising 100,000 75,000 50,000

Note: per Sandy's note below, this Luxury point requirement is for the Luxury 59' boat and there is a Luxury 60' boat with a 25K higher point requirement. The Cruising category is for a 52' catamaran (there a couple of 50 footers that are being phased out), and the Flagship is a 70'+ boat. Sandy also has the seasons, which are January - April (High), May - July (Mid), Aug-Oct (Low), Nov-Dec (mid) except for the holidays, which are High.

I also understand there is some benefit for last minute travel, but not sure how that works.

There is an All-Inclusive Fee of [$1,075?] per person which covers all food and the booze that is on the boat. Note that when booking through RCI, the AI fee is higher, I believe it is $1,295 per person and RCI has a 1-in-4 restriction for Tradewinds reservations (covering all the different locations, not 1:4 for each location). There appears to be some discrepancy on how strictly Tradewinds is enforcing the 1-in-4 right now.

Locations (per their website at www.trade-winds.com):

• Abacos
• Antigua
• Belize
• British Virgin Islands
• Croatia
• Exumas
• Fiji
• French Polynesia
• Greece
• Grenada
• Guadeloupe
• Martinique
• Panama
• St. Martin
• Tonga
• St. Vincent & The Grenadines

I do apologize if I've missed some key items here and would appreciate correction. I love sailing and am currently a member of SailTime, which is a fractional interest in a sailboat here in San Diego. I hope to do a TradeWinds trip (likely an RCI exchange) in 2022 and always like to learn more about these things. Thanks very much!

Best,

Greg

Edited: Tried to clean up my post based upon initial feedback below -- thanks!

 

[TravelTime]

I am curious what the cost per cruise ends up being after paying the upfront purchase costs, maintenance fees and all inclusive fees.

 

[Rascalsmom]

I'm a TW member and I highly recommend giving it a try. Members are obligated to pay one "unlocking" fee each year even if you don't sail. There are also some intermediary time deadlines on your purchased points; you can't leave all the points until the last year of the contract. We have had some great vacations through TW.

 

[Sandy VDH]

It is a club which is more like a RTU than a deeded week. So the reason you "unlock" is you have paid the equivalent of a MF. Now since this is NOT a week a year type of deal, then you can pay 2 MFs in a year and unlock 2 weeks to use in that year. You will have to still pay a MF per year until your payments are completed, but either you accelerate that schedule, you use as you pay, or you pay and then you use in the future before your membership is up.

There was an older club call TW Cruise Club, that was the original club and was cheaper to purchase into, most of those memberships have already or are very shortly coming up against those 12 years. A few were allowed to convert to the new club TW Experience, if they bought a bunch more points, then some deals might have been struck. My original TWCC expired in 2016. My TWE currently expires in 2024. If I purchased additional time those NEW points purchased would expire at a later date. I have purchased TWCC twice and TWE twice now.

Although most purchases were for 12 years, some were for 6 years if you bought a small points package.

Season is pretty typical and this is for the Caribbean basin, all other areas DO NOT have seasons. Some bases DO NOT Operate year round they relocate boats farther south to avoid hurricane season or colder temperatures (Mediterranean).

Some bases have been tried and closed, like Turks & Caicos, Red Sea, Panama Las Perlas, and Turkey. Either because of demand, weather, or political climate.

I don't think that is all the current bases nor all of the boats in those bases that is on your list. Fiji and French Poly are not listed. Fiji has both Cruising and Luxury and French Poly has only luxury, but that could change in the future, as they shuffle boats and bases around.

High season is all of Jan through Apr. May, June and July are Mid season, Aug to Oct are low season. Nov and Dec are back to mid except for holiday weeks (Thanksgiving and Christmas and NYE weeks) which are high season. All other bases outside of the caribbean are HIGH season year round. There is one exception in that the Luxury 60 are a slightly higher points (25K) than the luxury you listed. That point value is for the Luxury 59 yachts we have.

 

[Rascalsmom]

Hi Sandy. You're the TW expert! I think our first TW trip was a full boat we rented from you.
We've bought two 1.2M contracts since then.

I wanted to comment on your statement "My TWE currently expires in 2024. If I purchased additional time those points would expire at a later date. ". When we sailed in March 2020 , we were promised this type of time extension on our original TWE contract if we bought more points. We would not have purchased if that hadn't been promised because we didn't need any more points. But when we got back to the dock.... Front office said it wasn't allowed and the on boat staff denied offering it, which was especially disappointing. In hindsight we wish we had declined finalizing the deal at that time. Then covid hit adding insult to injury. Bottom line, we love TW and will use up our points but I don't think they are changing timelines any more. If they are.... they owe me an extension as promised on the boat. Happy Sailing.

 

[klpca]

We didn't join, we essentially did an "encore" deal. It wasn't the best financial move that I've ever made but there was a slight language barrier between us and the captain which caused a small misunderstanding of the deal. It's water under the bridge but I wouldn't bother buying any points in that manner, fyi.

The least expensive way to use Tradewinds is definitely with an RCI rental, next would probably be an RCI exchange. Tradewinds has a 1 in 4 rule with RCI. If you dive (we don't) and love sailing (we do) I think that owning would be the way to go. I haven't spent a lot of time investigating ownership as going every other year would probably be enough for us - so one RCI exchange and then one rental from an owner. One of the factors that gives me pause is the travel time to a lot of the locations. Some of them are pretty complicated to travel to, and hence pretty pricey. It just is what it is, but I am getting less flexible about how much time I want to spend "just getting there". There is a very active Facebook group and renting is my plan for the future, although we haven't done it yet. Our BVI trip in May was (of course) rescheduled for late 2021 and we will be able to use RCI again in 2022, so we will do nothing differently for the next few years.

As far as trips go, even though it is expensive compared to a regular timeshare trip, our trip was about the most fun that we have ever had. We are still in touch with a couple of folks from our sailing, and we are going with one of the couples on our rescheduled BVI trip, covid willing. We can't wait to get back on a boat.

 

[klpca]

dreaded double post.

 

[chemteach]

GregT - I'm not sure if it was my post you read, but I had a similar purchase you mentioned in your original post. My husband and I decided to purchase because we wanted to be able to go to places not available on RCI. We figured we might travel every other year on Tradewinds and if we wanted to go more often, we could go on a cruise through RCI (the 1 in 4 restriction does not apply if you are a Tradewinds member. One of the nice things that happened for us is that for our (hopefully) first trip this summer, we were able to invite 2 couples to join us - they are paying half the regular price for their cabins. And then we are using an RCI exchange for a second week with Tradewinds after the trip with our friends. It was a splurge, but after our first cruise with Tradewinds, we couldn't resist. We even got to meet Sandy on our first trip!

We are happy we made the purchase because now we are "forced" to go on a cruise every other year for 12 years. And we get to pick the trip we are taking instead of only being able to go to a place offered via RCI.

 

[GregT]

Good morning All,

Continuing to add some of the information I have learned (thx TUGgers!). As before, please clarify if I am incorrect.

Scuba diving is permitted on TradeWinds, but they may not have a dive master for your charter. RCI Exchangers are prevented from scuba diving however, and I believe only Tradewinds club members (or their guests can dive). Equipment is available for your use, but in the COVID world, you now need to provide your own regulator.

Air conditioning is also an important factor on certain classes of the boats, and members often discuss which yachts have (or don't have AC). I believe Luxury and Flagship all have AC, and Cruising Class is hit-or-miss, and even if it is present, it is Captain's discretion on whether or not to run the AC.

There is a very thin/non-existent resale market for PlusPoints. I believe you can purchase/transfer another member's points into your name, however there is a transfer fee associated with the resale ($2,000?) which I suspect depresses the resale value. Additionally, TradeWinds will not combine your accounts, so if you are already a member, you may end up with two accounts and when booking a reservation, I understand it needs to come entirely from one of the two accounts, so points management is important. Some members have reported buying more PlusPoints under the expectation that it will extend the expiration date on their original contract, but the original contract was unchanged, so be alert to this.

I understand the more common way than buying resale is for an existing member to make a reservation for you and they arrange a private transaction for the value of the PlusPoints utilized. As an example, a TradeWinds member might reserve a 100K reservation in BVI for me, and we agree on a reservation value (I have seen $1,200 - $1,500 as a hypothetical range for 100K PlusPoints). The TradeWinds member paid $815 to unlock those 100K points, so there is a modest premium over fees for that reservation. And then the Guest (me) needs to pay the All-Inclusive fee for the reservation, at the members rate of $[1,075] per person, This also helps the existing Club Member if they have points that may expire before they can be personally utilized.

Finally, I see a pattern where a Club Member reserves an entire boat (typically 5 cabins) even though they do not have occupants for all cabins. Then they post the availability of excess cabins and fill the boat with other parties. I see members of the Facebook page traveling together and collaborating on occupying a boat, especially if it is a desirable/rare reservation.

I have also learned that there is reasonable availability via RCI (even with modestly priced GetAways) perhaps because RCI members are reluctant to embrace the All-Inclusive Fee. But do recall the 1-in-4, and klpca has a pattern of renting from a member EOY and then using RCI in 1-in-4 to be able to cruise every other year.

It is not clear to me what the policy is regarding children -- RCI indicates it's adults only, defined as 21 or older. I believe children (or anyone under 21?) are only allowed on whole boat charters, but not sure.

I hope this is helpful to others, thx especially to those TradeWinds members who have PM'd me or commented above, please do continue to add any comments or observations about this very unique timeshare program. Thank you!

Best,

Greg

 

[klpca]

Good morning All,

Continuing to add some of the information I have learned (thx TUGgers!). As before, please clarify if I am incorrect.

Scuba diving is permitted on TradeWinds, but they may not have a dive master for your charter. RCI Exchangers are prevented from scuba diving however, and I believe only Tradewinds club members (or their guests can dive). Equipment is available for your use, but in the COVID world, you now need to provide your own regulator.

Air conditioning is also an important factor on certain classes of the boats, and members often discuss which yachts have (or don't have AC). I believe Luxury and Flagship all have AC, and Cruising Class is hit-or-miss, and even if it is present, it is Captain's discretion on whether or not to run the AC.

There is a very thin/non-existent resale market for PlusPoints. I believe you can purchase/transfer another member's points into your name, however there is a transfer fee associated with the resale ($2,000?) which I suspect depresses the resale value. Additionally, TradeWinds will not combine your accounts, so if you are already a member, you may end up with two accounts and when booking a reservation, I understand it needs to come entirely from one of the two accounts, so points management is important. Some members have reported buying more PlusPoints under the expectation that it will extend the expiration date on a different contract, but the original contract was unchanged, so be alert to this.

I understand the more common way than buying resale is for an existing member to make a reservation for you and they arrange a private transaction for the value of the PlusPoints utilized. As an example, a TradeWinds member might reserve a 100K reservation in BVI for me, and we agree on a reservation value (I have seen $1,200 - $1,500 as a hypothetical range for 100K PlusPoints). The TradeWinds member paid $815 to unlock those 100K points, so there is a modest premium over fees for that reservation. And then the Guest (me) needs to pay the All-Inclusive fee for the reservation, at the members rate of $[1,075] per person, This also helps the existing Club Member if they have points that may expire before they can be personally utilized.

Finally, I see a pattern where a Club Member reserves an entire boat (5 cabins) even though they do not have occupants for all cabins. Then they post the availability of excess cabins and fill the boat with other parties. I see members of the Facebook page traveling together and collaborating on occupying a boat, especially if it is a desirable/rare reservation.

I have also learned that there is reasonable availability via RCI (even with modestly priced GetAways) perhaps because RCI members are reluctant to embrace the All-Inclusive Fee. But do recall the 1-in-4, and klpca has a pattern of renting from a member EOY and then using RCI in 1-in-4 to be able to cruise every other year.

It is not clear to me what the policy is regarding children -- RCI indicates it's adults only, defined as 21 or older. I believe children (or anyone under 21?) are only allowed on whole boat charters, but not sure.

I hope this is helpful to others, thx especially to those TradeWinds members who have PM'd me or commented above, please do continue to add any comments or observations about this very unique timeshare program. Thank you!

Best,

Greg

Kids are allowed. I know that the other boat on our French Polynesia sailing had a toddler. They put up a netting all around the boat. One person on our boat saw that and said that they would have been upset to be on that boat - they did not travel all that way to "spend a week with a toddler", so it is definitely a YMMV thing. When you reserve online the booking site indicates if children are on board already.

Btw our FP boat had three cabins of RCI members and at least two of them dove, although FP is a base where they have to use a local divemaster, so I am not sure if that is the reason.

One other thing to mention was that if you are a member you can sail last minute without using any of your points, just paying a fee of some sort. I used to know the details but I am rusty on that right now. Our friends do that all the time. Maybe @Sandy VDH can fill in the blanks.

 

[GregT]

All,

This is the cancelation/rescheduling policy for TradeWinds:

For Our TradeWinds Cruise Club Elite and Platinum Members, rescheduling is free. For all other TradeWinds Cruise Club, there has always been a rescheduling fee of $100 USD. TradeWinds Experience Members have free rescheduling. In all cases, rescheduling is not possible less than 90 days prior to embarkation date. A rescheduled cabin will incur loss of Plus Points and associated Maintenance contribution if cancelled/rescheduled, regardless of whether in or outside of the 90 day cancellation period. (GT Note: I think you get your All-Inclusive Fee refunded)

You can cancel a reservation at no cost, up to 12 months before the embarkation date. For cancellations within a 12- to 6-months period prior to embarkation date, there will be a US$100 cancellation fee payable. For cancellations within a 6- to 3-months period prior to embarkation date, there will be a US$250 cancellation fee payable. No cancellations are allowed after 90 days prior to embarkation date, and to do so will incur loss of all associated Maintenance Contributions and Plus Points used for the booking.

GT Notes: Not sure what TWCC Elite and Platinum are, but since this is the old program, I don't think it matters. Also, I currently understand the booking window now is open for 2021 and 2022, and 2023 is expected to open "soon".

Best,

Greg

 

[Sandy VDH]

Children
No children under 16 are allowed UNLESS the cruise is considered a Family Cruise and is designated that by TW. There are a handful designated that way, but it is not widespread. However you can book a whole boat then you are allowed to do want you want. That is most often the way you see younger kids onboard.

I have booked the whole boat before to take my entire family, youngest was 10 at the time. So my guess was the toddler was on a whole yacht booking.

Late Breaks
Members are allowed to book late break cabins. These require only a payment of AI fee and a MF of the point usage but NO points are used. These late breaks are anything that is considered open 45 days prior to sail date. In my old TWCC membership I used 9 of these late breaks. It allows you to bring down your $ per point if you can pick up and use late breaks.

I did go on one late break, then there was a cancellation for the following week, so I changed my flight and stayed on another boat at the same base for another week. As a member, you must have at least 100,000 points and time remaining on your membership to use a late break.

SCUBA Diving
RCI Inbounds can pay a fee for scuba diving it is just NOT included in your AI fees, last I checked it was $75 but it could have gone up. If you are a member and you are at a base that diving is allowed it is INCLUDED in the AI. You are guaranteed 3 dives unless there are circumstances that prohibit it. (There are bases with EXCEPTIONS where they are current restrictions like French Territories (French Poly, St Barts, SXM), Anguilla and locations with a protected area that require you to pay additional fees (Tobago Cays in SVG and Jacque Cousteau park in Guad. ). If you take the whole boat you may be able to arrange some additional dives as you have more control over the itinerary of the charter, but that is up to you and the captain to ascertain.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Hi Sandy. You're the TW expert! I think our first TW trip was a full boat we rented from you.
We've bought two 1.2M contracts since then.

I wanted to comment on your statement "My TWE currently expires in 2024. If I purchased additional time those points would expire at a later date. "

I wanted to clarify that the additional points purchased would have a NEW expiration date, the expiration date for the points already purchased does NOT change.

@Rascalsmom and I both enjoy are TW trips. They are my most relaxing vacations ever.

 

[Sandy VDH]

This is the NON member site that has info on bases and what the price per trip is if you are NOT a member and are not trading in. People can just book a week through this or via a broker who rent out weeks for TW. https://www.trade-winds.com/

The members site is a little different, but the inventory is the same on both the member site and the site listed above AFAIK.

At least on that site you can see yacht and bases. They have videos and a lot of info related to the TW onboard experience.

 

[chemteach]

Sandy is definitely the Tradewinds guru!! She is also fun to go on sailing trips with! And Tradewinds is one of the few "timeshare" companies where buying direct is actually worth it (in my opinion). I had never been on a sailboat trip before going on a French Poynesia weeklong boating trip with Tradewinds summer of 2019. It was worth the AI fee, and now I'm looking forward to a decade of getting to sail every other summer. I suppose whenever I retire, I may want to go more often, but that is not for at least another 12 years. (Just in time to buy another membership )

 

[SciTchr]

Sorry, I “missed the boat” on this discussion, but you have been offered a ton of correct information. We are TWE members. Our contract expires in 2023. While we LOVE our Tradewinds charters, we won’t be buying more points. My sister in law and I share our contract. She did buy another contract, but they are younger than us.

There is a Facebook page called Tradewinds Cruise Club Cruisers that you can request to join. There folks sell cabins, as described above. We bought two cabins a few cruises ago to extend our membership. It worked out great. I know that I can buy a trip there when we want to go again. The bummer about doing an RCI trade is that you will usually be placed on a Cruise Class boat. You might be lucky if there is an unsold luxury cabin they need to fill. But, typically you will be Cruise Class. We prefer the 60 foot Luxury boat over all the others, although we have not yet seen the brand new TW7.

Tradewinds is weathering the Covid mess and they have been supportive with a couple of cancellations we had to make in May 2020 and February 2021 due to Covid. They are not letting us extended our contract, so we have to be sure to get all of our points used up by 2023. Tradewinds is a great company and we can’t wait for our July 2021 cruise coming up. Hoping for the vaccine by then!

 

[Rascalsmom]

I wanted to clarify that the additional points purchased would have a NEW expiration date, the expiration date for the points already purchased does NOT change.

@Rascalsmom and I both enjoy are TW trips. They are my most relaxing vacations ever.

Oh I understand now. Thanks for clarifying Sandy!

 

[GregT]

Hello TUGgers,

TradeWinds remains an interesting club and I am trying to continue to learn more. Can TUGgers ( @Sandy VDH ?)who have been on the different classes of boats (Cruising/Luxury/Flagship) comment on if the extra points are "worth it"? I'm trying to buy a modest package of points as a "starter package" from an existing owner and will report back on the process. Just curious how people feel about the 52' catamarans (Cruising) versus the 59'/60' Cats (Luxury).

Thank you!

Best,

Greg

 

[klpca]

Hello TUGgers,

TradeWinds remains an interesting club and I am trying to continue to learn more. Can TUGgers ( @Sandy VDH ?)who have been on the different classes of boats (Cruising/Luxury/Flagship) comment on if the extra points are "worth it"? I'm trying to buy a modest package of points as a "starter package" from an existing owner and will report back on the process. Just curious how people feel about the 52' catamarans (Cruising) versus the 59'/60' Cats (Luxury).

Thank you!

Best,

Greg

Find out from your wife how important AC is, lol. As I have gotten older that is the deal breaker for me.

 

[SciTchr]

Greg, We do not cruise on Cruise Class. Our first RCI cruise was on a cruise class and it was one of their original boats - Coral Dreams. Many issues, a wet head being a big one, but we had such a great time that we bought in. We also bought from a second party = cheaper. The luxury boats are perfect! We much prefer the 60 foot for high season 150K PP vs the 59 foot 125K PP boat. The difference is that the flybridge on the 60 foot is huge - very much like the Victoria edition Flagship boats. I don’t think you need to take a Flagship. We have and it is great, but for the extra All Inclusive price we are very happy with a 60 foot luxury.

Have you ever done a referral? It is a very good price and you could try it out and extend your membership. I wonder if you completed your deal and bought in, if you could do a referral before your first “owner sail”? You can only do a referral once.

Tradewinds is such a wonderful experience. I just today booked our airfare for a July Flagship Antigua trip (mid season-cheap price). We had two trips cancelled due to COVID. Good luck and keep asking questions.

 

[SciTchr]

Greg,
I forgot to include one detail about the 52 foot Cruise Class boats. They are pretty nice. They are kind of like a mini 59 foot Luxury boat, except they don’t always provide AC, as noted above. When they first came out, we thought they would be great, since the points are less to book them. Then we toured one at the dock. While nice, there is one cabin that is very small with the bed against one wall. We decided not to ever sail CC in case we were the unlucky recipient of that cabin. If that would not be a problem for you, then CC might work for you.

 

[GregT]

Hello TUGgers,

TradeWinds remains an interesting club and I am trying to continue to learn more. Can TUGgers ( @Sandy VDH ?)who have been on the different classes of boats (Cruising/Luxury/Flagship) comment on if the extra points are "worth it"? I'm trying to buy a modest package of points as a "starter package" from an existing owner and will report back on the process. Just curious how people feel about the 52' catamarans (Cruising) versus the 59'/60' Cats (Luxury).

Thank you!

Best,

Greg

All,

From various sources, I gather some of the differences in the yacht classes are as follows (excluding the Flagship class):

Cruising Class -- virtually all yachts are 52' in length and have six cabins (of which one is taken by the crew), leaving five available. One of the five is smaller than the others, and the other four are "normal" size. I understand that AC is a major differentiator from the Luxury Class, with many Cruising Class yachts not reliably running AC (which is run at Captain's discretion). I also understand that the generator can be noisy when they do run AC.

Luxury Class (59') -- this appears to be a very popular boat class, again with six cabins (of which one is taken by the crew), leaving five available. All five are comparable in fit and function. I understand that the AC is reliable and each cabin has it's own AC.

Luxury Class (60') -- I understand that this is substantially identical to the Luxury 59', except that the area on top of the catamaran's "roof" (that they call the flybridge) is covered, offering superior shade from that venue. I believe this area has sunbeds and lounge chairs and that the flybridge is a very popular place to be on the yacht (all three classes have a flybridge, but only the 60' is covered). This appears to be a major differentiating item, however I suspect there are other amenities as well that I've not yet uncovered.

This is what I've been able to decipher about the different types of yachts, and as always, I welcome corrections and clarifications from TUGgers on these points. Thank you!

Best,

Greg

 

[RNCollins]

I’ve only sailed with Tradewinds on the ‘59 Luxury catamarans.
The captain has turned on the AC before dinner for an hour or two to make it comfortable to get ready in your cabin. And the captain has also ran the AC at bedtime through the night until about 6 am.

 

[Sandy VDH]

There are a few boats that offer a owners cabin, these are in every class, however they are not on every yacht, obviously.

These owner cabins are usually the 2 smaller cabins combined into 1 larger cabin. In most cases they are the mid and rear cabin on the port side. that are combined into a single cabin. So it does get rid of the smaller or less desirable cabin.

The crew's cabin is usually the mid ship cabin on the starboard side.

When you book these on TW website they show up a Premium cabins.

 

[amycurl]

If any TW TUGgers want to do a whole boat and need paying peeps to fill it out, please let me know! Has TW ever been part of II? I think I remember seeing something like TW in the II catalog back in the late 90s when we first purchased our timeshare, and it always intrigued us. I think a TUGger TW cruise would be a great way for me to experience it for the first time.