Using RCI for 52 Weeks

[rosco1e]

It looks to me that if I am flexible on destinations and dates that I should be able to stay in resorts using Last Call and Extra Vacations for $300 - $500 per week. My family could travel the country for less than I am currently paying for housing. When we are done we could settle down wherever we want.
Thanks for your input.

I sort of did this until I bought a condo in FL. I slowly purchased 15 weeks in a row at VICC in Brownsville. All 2 bedroom units. Great place, low Maint Fees. A few years we wintered there. Other years we banked and went to Spain for the winter. Bottom line on this (other than transportation to the next place(S): You can go pretty much anywhere for $600 a week (MF & RCI Trading fee)-$2400 per month all in. Or stay at your resort - $1600 per month all in.

Downside is it's more than your $3-500 per week. Upside is, you can go virtually anywhere (they trade great), at any time, in big units, and lock them in ahead of time so you don't get left in the cold.

[Deleted - buying/selling/renting are not permitted in the discussion forums]

 

[bankr63]

There are two Tuggers who live in timeshares full-time, and they both have blogs - I will find the links.

Mike & Edie: http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192761&highlight=full+time+timesharing

www.fulltimetimeshare.com

Ron and Joan: http://ronandjoanjourney.blogspot.com

I 100% agree with Denise in this. I haven't read about Mike and Edie (thanks for the tip) but have been in awe of Ron and Joan for several years. They have minimal ownership but leverage that into a full time timeshare lifestyle. It is worth the investment of time to read and learn about their experiences. I am willing to bet that M&E are just as interesting.

I think it is wonderful that you want to offer your kids this kind of exposure to their American heritage. I can only start to imagine the teaching opportunities that would arise for home schooled kids. Imagine living the civil war by visiting all the great battlefields, or understanding the forming of a nation by exploring historic sites along the northern or southern borders.

Can it be done? Of course! Will there be life lessons along the way? Probably several of them! Will you regret the decision? I highly doubt it!

Best of luck, and if you decide to blog about it as well, I'm in!

 

[Bxian]

Mike and Edie are our timeshare traveling heroes (and we are blessed to also call them our friends).
Go back and read through their archives-they do a terrific job of explaining how they do things. They have a separate section on the blog with itinerary and cost info. Right now, they are just back from a 3 week cruise and have been posting about that, but I am sure that their regularly scheduled timeshare programming will resume shortly (and by the way, the occasional random food recommendations/in-person meal meetups for meals with Beth and John are with my husband and me

 

[ann824]

I did this for my son a few years ago. He was in Orlando and needed a place to stay for about 4 months. I used RCI, II and Skyauction. The best deals were on skyauction. There are a lot of timeshare deals there. I was able to do as many as 6 weeks at a time at the same place so he only had to move about 3 times. Back then I did a lot of the Home and Away deals. I don't know if it is the same deal, but it was usually cheaper than last call or extra vacations.

 

[VegasBella]

My thoughts... take 'em or leave 'em.

First, what is your "flexible job"? if it relies on internet then figure that out because you won't be able to rely on timeshares for reliable, high quality internet access. Not a huge issue, but something you need to figure out before you get on the road full time.

I cant imagine doing it with kids.

I can't either.

While I think it's great for kids to travel regularly, I also strongly feel they need consistency. Are your kids going to have any strong friendships with this plan? And with all the moving, they won't be able to participate in competitive sports. Nor will they be able to work with an expert trainer, coach, or teacher for music, art, athletics, etc. for any significant amount of time. I think it could work for a few years when they're young or maybe the senior year in high school and a year before college.

having a trailer may assist greatly with that.

If you're going to get a trailer, RV, or travel van then it kind of defeats the purpose of timesharing. I looked into buying and traveling with an RV (my original plan was to travel all Summer every Summer) but we decided the costs were prohibitive. I think you're better off either timesharing or RVing. Booking a hotel as a backup when needed is probably cheaper than a trailer.

I would also suggest you join Platinum Interchange and DAE for additional options - their memberships are FREE so you are not losing anything by having their exchange and bonus opportunities available to you, even to look at now and start planning/dreaming.

This is good advice.

RCI has a yearly fee plus you have to own a timeshare to have a membership. Same for II. But some other smaller exchanges don't charge a yearly fee. You will still need to own a TS but you could choose the cheapest possible option.

Consider adopting a free timeshare on TUG, with a low maintenance fee:
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=55

Good advice, too. Don't fall for the sales pitch. If what you really want is an exchange membership, just plan for that. Don't buy from a developer.

 

[fatbullfrog]

It looks to me that if I am flexible on destinations and dates that I should be able to stay in resorts using Last Call and Extra Vacations for $300 - $500 per week. My family could travel the country for less than I am currently paying for housing. When we are done we could settle down wherever we want.

Hey, sorry to be so late to the conversation. My family and I do exactly what you're asking about.

We have 3 sons (ages 8, 5, and 3) and we put everything into storage in July of 2014. We've been travelling ever since (8 months now). It's totally doable.

Here's the short version of how we do it ... let me know what questions you have.

80 - 90% of our stays come through RCI Extra Vacation sales for $209/wk. Most of the rest comes from Trading Places or DAE. We haven't yet found anything that meets our criteria from Platinum Interchange, but I check there from time to time. We are currently shopping for a low maintenance fee resort that's affiliated with II so we can join there as well.

We typically only book a condo if we can stay there for at least 3 weeks. Our target is to stay somewhere for 4 - 6 weeks. That gives us enough time to really enjoy a place and explore it with our kids from an educational perspective. Less than 3 weeks and we feel like we're moving out right after we check in, plus the first and last days of any stay when you have kids are lost to packing/unpacking/groceries/etc.

When we're planning our stays, we usually keep each stay within 500 miles from the previous one. That way, we can travel the distance in a day without too much trouble. Occasionally, though, we'll want to change regions and that's not as much of an option. For example, right now, we're in the midwest and in April, we'll be heading to Steamboat Springs, CO for a month. It's 800 - 900 miles, so we'll sleep in a hotel one night and check in a day late to our condo in Colorado. Keeping locations close to each other simplifies our life, so we don't cruise across the country more often than once every 3 months.

Everything we need fits comfortably in the trunk of our car. You've got more kids, so you might need a little more room than we do, but I've got to tell you ... there's something incredibly freeing about simplifying your life to what can go in your trunk (especially when you've got your homeschool curriculum and scooters for the boys packed in there too).

What questions do you have ...?

 

[JudyS]

This is totally doable! But, to alleviate the issue with constant moving, having a trailer may assist greatly with that. One that you can park at most resorts.....

Fwiw, at none of the timeshares where we own (or have owned or have stayed in the past) would a separate trailer be allowed to be parked on the premises....

If a "timeshare nomad" wanted to bring more stuff than would fit in their car trunk, getting a small trailer (not a travel trailer, just one that hauls stuff) would probably work. I was checking for trailer storage in Orlando, and it is possible to park a trailer in a storage lot there for maybe $60 a month. I'd expect other resort areas to have storage lots available, too.

This would be an option for hauling warm clothes, chairs for the beach, and such. On the negative side, towing a trailer makes driving more difficult, requires more fuel, and requires a car/truck that has sufficient towing capacity. Many travelers do it, though.

You'd want a place where access is easy, so you could get at your stuff, and you'd also want to make sure storage lots were available in the areas where you wanted to stay.

... My family and I do exactly what you're asking about....

Wow, that sounds great!!!

 

[JudyS]

I think II offers one of the best options for people who want to stay long-term in timeshares. With their "E-Plus" plan, you pay $49 and can change your reservation up to three times for no additional fee. You can change the reservation until the day before check-in. (Be aware that if you change a reservation less than 60 days before check-in, there are some restrictions what new dates you can book, but they are not all that severe.)

So, you could book a reservation, add E-Plus to it, and be assured of having a place to stay,while still looking around for whatever last-minute deals you can find. If you find a last-minute deal, you would change your II exchange to something further in the future.

I believe with II, you can also cancel an exchange, pay another exchange fee, add E-plus to the new exchange, and change your reservation yet another three times.

Another useful plan that II offers is the "XYZ" plan. This allows members to get a second exchange, for one deposited week, at very low cost. I have never used "XYZ" (I have more weeks on deposit than I need) but it is discussed extensively on the Sightings board. (Only paying TUG members can see the Sightings board.) I'm not sure if E-Plus and XYZ can be combined, but I'm sure someone on the Sightings board can tell you.

If I were staying 52 weeks a year in timeshares, I would want to own something that traded in II and could produce weeks for relatively low MFs. Some of the lock-offs in Branson might work. A Christmas Mountain Village UDI ownership would work quite well, but these are hard to find.

 

[got4boys]

It is doable, you would just really need to take into account and trade the holiday weeks or have fixed holiday weeks and use last call or cheap getaways for the rest.

When I retire in the future, I hope to live in timeshares about 6 to 9 months a year and visit the "boys" with their families the rest of the time.

You can technically stay in one location if you have consecutive weeks. Most resorts are accommodating in not moving you (less housekeeping).

 

[ronandjoan]

Hey, sorry to be so late to the conversation. My family and I do exactly what you're asking about.

We have 3 sons (ages 8, 5, and 3) and we put everything into storage in July of 2014. We've been travelling ever since (8 months now). It's totally doable.


When we're planning our stays, we usually keep each stay within 500 miles from the previous one. That way, we can travel the distance in a day without too much trouble. Occasionally, though, we'll want to change regions and that's not as much of an option. For example, right now, we're in the midwest and in April, we'll be heading to Steamboat Springs, CO for a month. It's 800 - 900 miles, so we'll sleep in a hotel one night and check in a day late to our condo in Colorado. Keeping locations close to each other simplifies our life, so we don't cruise across the country more often than once every 3 months.

Everything we need fits comfortably in the trunk of our car. You've got more kids, so you might need a little more room than we do, but I've got to tell you ... there's something incredibly freeing about simplifying your life to what can go in your trunk (especially when you've got your homeschool curriculum and scooters for the boys packed in there too).

What questions do you have ...?

Welcome to fulltime timesharing! And it looks like you have it figured out.

Some of our best memories were when we were homeschooling the kids and
spent months on the road, whether it was on a Road trip, or an extended air vacation (anyone else remember Eastern Airlines when you could go anywhere for one price for 3 weeks?)

I have a question: How do you manage "everything fits comfortably in the trunk of the car?" Maybe you can give us a list of the items you carry. There is a list on TUG that I found very helpful in our planning, but it was quite long and would not fit "comfortably" in a trunk. We, ourselves have a van stuffed to the top! And it's just us.

All the best!