What should I buy? Marriott Deeded Weeks (Grande Vista)

[LuvScience]

Hi All,
I've been researching as much as I can to determine if getting in to the Marriott Timeshare system is a good fit for us, but I definitely have some outstanding questions and would also welcome any feedback/insight you are willing to impart.

Here are my main questions, for those that do not want to read all the detail below:

1) Should I buy a Platinum 2BR or Platinum 3BR lockoff at Marriott's Grande Vista (I would get the Florida Club with either)?? Is the additional trading power of the 3BR LO (depositing a 2BR and studio instead of 1BR/studio) worth the extra MF? For example, would the 2BR side trade be more likely to get me in to OceanWatch Myrtle Beach during the summer (even late August) for example, or other desirable locations/times?

2) The idea of being able to buy a deeded week for <$2000 for GV and having the ability to trade in to places that have deeded weeks going for $10-20,000+ seems too good to be true. What am I missing here? It's the low capital buy-in that we are really interested in pursuing, and that makes it make sense from a cost perspective compared to rental/hotel prices. What's the catch?

3) Is there any reason I would consider a much higher purchase price of a "bundle" to be able to enroll this week in the points program? I am not really interested in points at all, but I'm just wondering about longevity and missing out if the system switches to favor points people or II becomes really limited and we are not able to trade as much. The upfront costs seem really high and I'm not convinced there is added value.


Background/details if you care to read further:

We have stayed in many Marriott timeshares and are comfortable with the quality of the resorts, etc, so we are only looking at Marriott properties. We are mainly looking at purchasing a resale week that we would be trading 75% of the time to go somewhere else. We like the idea of a lockoff not only to get the two week trade, but also because the number of people we are traveling with will change over the years and it will give us flexibility to travel by ourselves in a smaller unit if we wanted to. We want to purchase somewhere that we actually would like going to repeatedly (in case we ever get stuck not being able to trade), and mainly on the East Coast of the US. After researching everything, that narrowed it down to Marriott's Grande Vista in Orlando. We were also considering Marriott's Manor Club in Williamsburg because it is within driving distance for us, but we are really resort pool people and we wouldn't be excited about vacationing there all the time if we got stuck with it (although it's lovely and a great Spring destination if you ever want to go!).

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
We generally vacation up and down the East Coast - Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Bald Head Island, Outer Banks, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg once in a while, Maryland, Delaware and Jersey Beaches. I think we would want to visit Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head area a lot due to the number of timeshares there, but we would want to do that in the summer (even end of August is ok). And we would like to try lots of different places in Florida, but usually we go to Florida in April or October (we like Halloween at Disney).

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?
Trade more than half the time. Even when visiting Orlando, I think we would trade around and visit the different resorts versus always staying at GV. We just like variety.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
1) Marriott's OceanWatch in Myrtle Beach would be number one. We drove through it while we were staying at the Sheraton Broadway Plantation and would just really like to try it. What is realistic here? I see that a lot of the owners are trying to rent out (very high rental prices), but I see only half of those actually getting rented, so I'm hoping owners are still depositing in II probably at that 60 day mark when their rental doesn't work out.
2) Hilton Head
3) Florida, all over (Disney Animal Kingdom once or twice -hoping to try through the Florida Club to get an exchange that could be used for that)
4) Bahamas/ Virgin Islands maybe
5) Would like to try Canada, Spain, France - but these would be one offs.
We will never go to Hawaii. Not super interested in Aruba either.


4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
4 adults and 2 kids right now (why the 3 BR has some practical appeal so everyone gets a bed instead of a couch when a 3BR is available), sometimes 2 adults/2 kids

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
We are in a school schedule, but can also take a week during the school year to vacation usually in the Spring or Fall. Our school schedule is different than the majority so usually our spring break is a different week than most, and we also have off the last two weeks in August and don't start back until after Labor Day, when a lot of other places are back to school mid-August. We have done most of our summer vacations during those last two weeks in August when things aren't as crowded. I'm really looking to be able to trade into an East Coast Beach Summer week (Myrtle/Hilton Head/Virginia Beach) on a regular basis, but it could be the end of August - I just want to know what is realistic.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
Yes no problem.

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes.

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
4 or 5. We really only stay at nice resorts these days or luxury rentals.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
We won't finance anything. The appeal of the Grande Vista is the very low capital buy-in, which makes the MF worth it compared to the skyrocketing costs of luxury rentals/hotels. I don't think we would be interested in buying a week, say, at OceanWatch because the buy-in is really high and when the capital costs are spread out with the maintenance fees the purchase doesn't make sense over just renting each year.

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? We are ok with the current maintenance fees (1850 for 2BR LO or 2500 for 3BR LO) and the expected 5% annual rise in MF that seems to be the trend for the last 15 years (I downloaded all the historic data). I realize the last year or two is a blip for MFs, so I'm not sure if those big bumps will continue or if they will affect the long term increases. We can afford the increases, but we would want to make sure that the MFs are always cost comparative to the luxury rental market. Right now they are competitive with the places we would want to trade into compared to rental costs or booking through Marriott.

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Yes, I am a scientist. I like data

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes, I've been researching the various exit strategies just in case. I understand Orlando might be harder to sell/give away than other destinations- that seems true of the low capital costs weeks in saturated markets. Again, I'm ok with the ongoing fees as long as they are cost competitive with the luxury rental market. Right now they are very competitive! Hoping that is the case during the duration of ownership.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

 

[Pamplemousse]

Hi All,
I've been researching as much as I can to determine if getting in to the Marriott Timeshare system is a good fit for us, but I definitely have some outstanding questions and would also welcome any feedback/insight you are willing to impart.

Here are my main questions, for those that do not want to read all the detail below:

1) Should I buy a Platinum 2BR or Platinum 3BR lockoff at Marriott's Grande Vista (I would get the Florida Club with either)?? Is the additional trading power of the 3BR LO (depositing a 2BR and studio instead of 1BR/studio) worth the extra MF? For example, would the 2BR side trade be more likely to get me in to OceanWatch Myrtle Beach during the summer (even late August) for example, or other desirable locations/times?

2) The idea of being able to buy a deeded week for <$2000 for GV and having the ability to trade in to places that have deeded weeks going for $10-20,000+ seems too good to be true. What am I missing here? It's the low capital buy-in that we are really interested in pursuing, and that makes it make sense from a cost perspective compared to rental/hotel prices. What's the catch?

3) Is there any reason I would consider a much higher purchase price of a "bundle" to be able to enroll this week in the points program? I am not really interested in points at all, but I'm just wondering about longevity and missing out if the system switches to favor points people or II becomes really limited and we are not able to trade as much. The upfront costs seem really high and I'm not convinced there is added value.


Background/details if you care to read further:

We have stayed in many Marriott timeshares and are comfortable with the quality of the resorts, etc, so we are only looking at Marriott properties. We are mainly looking at purchasing a resale week that we would be trading 75% of the time to go somewhere else. We like the idea of a lockoff not only to get the two week trade, but also because the number of people we are traveling with will change over the years and it will give us flexibility to travel by ourselves in a smaller unit if we wanted to. We want to purchase somewhere that we actually would like going to repeatedly (in case we ever get stuck not being able to trade), and mainly on the East Coast of the US. After researching everything, that narrowed it down to Marriott's Grande Vista in Orlando. We were also considering Marriott's Manor Club in Williamsburg because it is within driving distance for us, but we are really resort pool people and we wouldn't be excited about vacationing there all the time if we got stuck with it (although it's lovely and a great Spring destination if you ever want to go!).

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
We generally vacation up and down the East Coast - Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Bald Head Island, Outer Banks, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg once in a while, Maryland, Delaware and Jersey Beaches. I think we would want to visit Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head area a lot due to the number of timeshares there, but we would want to do that in the summer (even end of August is ok). And we would like to try lots of different places in Florida, but usually we go to Florida in April or October (we like Halloween at Disney).

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?
Trade more than half the time. Even when visiting Orlando, I think we would trade around and visit the different resorts versus always staying at GV. We just like variety.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
1) Marriott's OceanWatch in Myrtle Beach would be number one. We drove through it while we were staying at the Sheraton Broadway Plantation and would just really like to try it. What is realistic here? I see that a lot of the owners are trying to rent out (very high rental prices), but I see only half of those actually getting rented, so I'm hoping owners are still depositing in II probably at that 60 day mark when their rental doesn't work out.
2) Hilton Head
3) Florida, all over (Disney Animal Kingdom once or twice -hoping to try through the Florida Club to get an exchange that could be used for that)
4) Bahamas/ Virgin Islands maybe
5) Would like to try Canada, Spain, France - but these would be one offs.
We will never go to Hawaii. Not super interested in Aruba either.


4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
4 adults and 2 kids right now (why the 3 BR has some practical appeal so everyone gets a bed instead of a couch when a 3BR is available), sometimes 2 adults/2 kids

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
We are in a school schedule, but can also take a week during the school year to vacation usually in the Spring or Fall. Our school schedule is different than the majority so usually our spring break is a different week than most, and we also have off the last two weeks in August and don't start back until after Labor Day, when a lot of other places are back to school mid-August. We have done most of our summer vacations during those last two weeks in August when things aren't as crowded. I'm really looking to be able to trade into an East Coast Beach Summer week (Myrtle/Hilton Head/Virginia Beach) on a regular basis, but it could be the end of August - I just want to know what is realistic.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
Yes no problem.

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes.

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
4 or 5. We really only stay at nice resorts these days or luxury rentals.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
We won't finance anything. The appeal of the Grande Vista is the very low capital buy-in, which makes the MF worth it compared to the skyrocketing costs of luxury rentals/hotels. I don't think we would be interested in buying a week, say, at OceanWatch because the buy-in is really high and when the capital costs are spread out with the maintenance fees the purchase doesn't make sense over just renting each year.

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? We are ok with the current maintenance fees (1850 for 2BR LO or 2500 for 3BR LO) and the expected 5% annual rise in MF that seems to be the trend for the last 15 years (I downloaded all the historic data). I realize the last year or two is a blip for MFs, so I'm not sure if those big bumps will continue or if they will affect the long term increases. We can afford the increases, but we would want to make sure that the MFs are always cost comparative to the luxury rental market. Right now they are competitive with the places we would want to trade into compared to rental costs or booking through Marriott.

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Yes, I am a scientist. I like data

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes, I've been researching the various exit strategies just in case. I understand Orlando might be harder to sell/give away than other destinations- that seems true of the low capital costs weeks in saturated markets. Again, I'm ok with the ongoing fees as long as they are cost competitive with the luxury rental market. Right now they are very competitive! Hoping that is the case during the duration of ownership.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

1) a 2 br has more trading power than a 1br and will save you an upsize fee if you need a 2 bedroom.
But the real key to getting an east coast beach week is to deposit and request early- 12-13 months is best so you are already requested when owners can begin to deposit. The MVC priority also really helps.

2) No catch really.
But remember it’s not guaranteed that you will get your exchange and views are not guaranteed and exchangers may get the least desirable views at the resorts discretion.

I have owned a gold season MVC Orlando at a premiere resort for 15+ years and exchanged very well to higher related resorts, often better season, many times larger units- Hawaii, Paris Disney, Hilton head, Myrtle beach, Aruba, St Thomas. I request very early to MVC brands.

3) The advantage to having an enrolled week is access to points if you choose so you can vary stay length and choose view, enrolled weeks get an II account with free lock off and exchange to other MVCs included in the dues.
There are many, many unenrolled MVC week owners and their option for exchange is II so that option is not going away.

@LuvScience I’ll add that I didn’t read your full post, just the bold- I’m out of coffee so time to walk the dogs.

 

[wuv pooh]

In your situation I would look to purchase Platinum MMC in Williamsburg. Think they go for ~ $500 a week now and provide 2 trades for 1 MF. Would not purchase in FL now since the Surfside condo law is raising costs for all timeshares. Williamsburg has done a good job managing costs and the MF/point is now below the trust if you ever enroll the week. That way you have no problem trading into DVC, can always trade into Orlando, and can easily get Hilton Head late August to October and more peak weeks with some effort. Not sure about Oceanwatch, since it is a single resort.

 

[wuv pooh]

In your situation I would look to purchase Platinum MMC in Williamsburg. Think they go for ~ $500 a week now and provide 2 trades for 1 MF. Would not purchase in FL now since the Surfside condo law is raising costs for all timeshares. Williamsburg has done a good job managing costs and the MF/point is now below the trust if you ever enroll the week. That way you have no problem trading into DVC, can always trade into Orlando, and can easily get Hilton Head late August to October and more peak weeks with some effort. Not sure about Oceanwatch, since it is a single resort.

To be clear the lock off side (Sequel) is resort code MSE, so that is the one you want. The original side of Marriott Manor Club is code MMC and is 2 bd only.

 

[LuvScience]

In your situation I would look to purchase Platinum MMC in Williamsburg. Think they go for ~ $500 a week now and provide 2 trades for 1 MF. Would not purchase in FL now since the Surfside condo law is raising costs for all timeshares. Williamsburg has done a good job managing costs and the MF/point is now below the trust if you ever enroll the week. That way you have no problem trading into DVC, can always trade into Orlando, and can easily get Hilton Head late August to October and more peak weeks with some effort. Not sure about Oceanwatch, since it is a single resort.

Thanks for this- When I was comparing the TDI charts from interval, I noticed that Williamsburg has 13 weeks that are TDI 135-150 compared to Orlando with 8 weeks in the same TDI. And Williamsburg had far more straight TDI 150 weeks than Orlando. I thought this meant that Manor Club Sequel would "trade better" than Grande Vista, but everything I've read here and elsewhere people are saying that GV "trades better" for some reason. I don't know if this is due to Elite vs Premium rating of the two resorts, or what difference is equating to "better trading". Not sure what I'm missing
I agree with you about the MF being more consistent over the years for Manor Club, given the historic data I have compared.
I do think we have a fear that the trading system could fail/collapse somehow over the next 30 years and we would get stuck going to our home resort every year- if that's the case we would definitely prefer to be in Florida vs Virgina. I am not sure how rational/irrational that fear is though, as I don't have any access to II and don't know any historic issues with inventory, etc, or how the evolution of Abound Club points will effect trading.

 

[jwalk03]

If you don’t mind traveling in those late August weeks I think you will be very successful getting trades at that time to Myrtle, Hilton Head, and Florida. Late August is not a high demand time since most schools have started by then. There are 2-bedroom weeks at Barony & Surfwatch just sitting there for instant exchange for several days in interval for those late August dates.

It’s hot of course; but personally I’m not sure it can ever be too hot spending time at a resort pool and on the beach! (I know some will disagree!)

Personally I would buy the 2-bedroom GV. (I own several of these) and have been very happy with the trade power. I also own HL & WR too.

I have traded my Orlando weeks for Aruba Surf, Myrtle Beach (love love OceanWatch!), Ocean Pointe, Beachplace Towers, Summit Watch, France, Newport Coast, etc.

Ps- on the TDI you can’t compare them across destinations. So a 150 TDI in Williamsburg may or may not be better than a 135 TDI in Orlando. The TDI only tells you which week in a given destination is the highest and lowest demand.

 

[Pamplemousse]

Thanks for this- When I was comparing the TDI charts from interval, I noticed that Williamsburg has 13 weeks that are TDI 135-150 compared to Orlando with 8 weeks in the same TDI. And Williamsburg had far more straight TDI 150 weeks than Orlando. I thought this meant that Manor Club Sequel would "trade better" than Grande Vista, but everything I've read here and elsewhere people are saying that GV "trades better" for some reason. I don't know if this is due to Elite vs Premium rating of the two resorts, or what difference is equating to "better trading". Not sure what I'm missing
I agree with you about the MF being more consistent over the years for Manor Club, given the historic data I have compared.
I do think we have a fear that the trading system could fail/collapse somehow over the next 30 years and we would get stuck going to our home resort every year- if that's the case we would definitely prefer to be in Florida vs Virgina. I am not sure how rational/irrational that fear is though, as I don't have any access to II and don't know any historic issues with inventory, etc, or how the evolution of Abound Club points will effect trading.

View attachment 94300 View attachment 94301

@jwalk03 explained the TDI part.
I want to caution you on reading something “trades better” than something else.
Rarely if ever is there a controlled experiment to see what trades better.
Success in trading depends not only on what you are offering but what you are targeting and how early you request.
I never delay requesting so I can reserve a week with a TDI that is 10 points higher.
Maximum exposure to deposited units is key.

 

[Hindsite]

Please also remember that the ability to exchange in II and/or the trading power is a discretionary benefit.
There are some very grumpy Sheraton, Welk, Hyatt and Diamond owners as well as independent resort owners who got very used to relatively easy exchanging into larger units, higher TDI, more popular locations which has been curtailed. What was excellent or exceptional trading power is now just good.
Have an exit strategy in case you don't get what you hoped for or your needs change.

 

[Hindsite]

Forgot to mention something that doesn't come up much on TUG about traders is home resort exchange priority. As well as MVC to MVC preference there's a preference for exchanging back in to the resort that you are depositing.
As the general TUG advice is to buy a high season at the usual suspects, it usually doesn't feature. But it does mean that you have the option to consider a lower season at your preferred resort and that may have the same effect as a high season at another resort.
I routinely trade up at least 1 and often 2 seasons at one of my home resorts which works well as I can leave my higher season deposits for external exchanging such as to Hyatt in high season.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Hi All,
I've been researching as much as I can to determine if getting in to the Marriott Timeshare system is a good fit for us, but I definitely have some outstanding questions and would also welcome any feedback/insight you are willing to impart.

Here are my main questions, for those that do not want to read all the detail below:

1) Should I buy a Platinum 2BR or Platinum 3BR lockoff at Marriott's Grande Vista (I would get the Florida Club with either)?? Is the additional trading power of the 3BR LO (depositing a 2BR and studio instead of 1BR/studio) worth the extra MF? For example, would the 2BR side trade be more likely to get me in to OceanWatch Myrtle Beach during the summer (even late August) for example, or other desirable locations/times?

2) The idea of being able to buy a deeded week for <$2000 for GV and having the ability to trade in to places that have deeded weeks going for $10-20,000+ seems too good to be true. What am I missing here? It's the low capital buy-in that we are really interested in pursuing, and that makes it make sense from a cost perspective compared to rental/hotel prices. What's the catch?

3) Is there any reason I would consider a much higher purchase price of a "bundle" to be able to enroll this week in the points program? I am not really interested in points at all, but I'm just wondering about longevity and missing out if the system switches to favor points people or II becomes really limited and we are not able to trade as much. The upfront costs seem really high and I'm not convinced there is added value.


Background/details if you care to read further:

We have stayed in many Marriott timeshares and are comfortable with the quality of the resorts, etc, so we are only looking at Marriott properties. We are mainly looking at purchasing a resale week that we would be trading 75% of the time to go somewhere else. We like the idea of a lockoff not only to get the two week trade, but also because the number of people we are traveling with will change over the years and it will give us flexibility to travel by ourselves in a smaller unit if we wanted to. We want to purchase somewhere that we actually would like going to repeatedly (in case we ever get stuck not being able to trade), and mainly on the East Coast of the US. After researching everything, that narrowed it down to Marriott's Grande Vista in Orlando. We were also considering Marriott's Manor Club in Williamsburg because it is within driving distance for us, but we are really resort pool people and we wouldn't be excited about vacationing there all the time if we got stuck with it (although it's lovely and a great Spring destination if you ever want to go!).

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
We generally vacation up and down the East Coast - Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Bald Head Island, Outer Banks, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg once in a while, Maryland, Delaware and Jersey Beaches. I think we would want to visit Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head area a lot due to the number of timeshares there, but we would want to do that in the summer (even end of August is ok). And we would like to try lots of different places in Florida, but usually we go to Florida in April or October (we like Halloween at Disney).

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?
Trade more than half the time. Even when visiting Orlando, I think we would trade around and visit the different resorts versus always staying at GV. We just like variety.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
1) Marriott's OceanWatch in Myrtle Beach would be number one. We drove through it while we were staying at the Sheraton Broadway Plantation and would just really like to try it. What is realistic here? I see that a lot of the owners are trying to rent out (very high rental prices), but I see only half of those actually getting rented, so I'm hoping owners are still depositing in II probably at that 60 day mark when their rental doesn't work out.
2) Hilton Head
3) Florida, all over (Disney Animal Kingdom once or twice -hoping to try through the Florida Club to get an exchange that could be used for that)
4) Bahamas/ Virgin Islands maybe
5) Would like to try Canada, Spain, France - but these would be one offs.
We will never go to Hawaii. Not super interested in Aruba either.


4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
4 adults and 2 kids right now (why the 3 BR has some practical appeal so everyone gets a bed instead of a couch when a 3BR is available), sometimes 2 adults/2 kids

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
We are in a school schedule, but can also take a week during the school year to vacation usually in the Spring or Fall. Our school schedule is different than the majority so usually our spring break is a different week than most, and we also have off the last two weeks in August and don't start back until after Labor Day, when a lot of other places are back to school mid-August. We have done most of our summer vacations during those last two weeks in August when things aren't as crowded. I'm really looking to be able to trade into an East Coast Beach Summer week (Myrtle/Hilton Head/Virginia Beach) on a regular basis, but it could be the end of August - I just want to know what is realistic.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
Yes no problem.

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes.

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
4 or 5. We really only stay at nice resorts these days or luxury rentals.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
We won't finance anything. The appeal of the Grande Vista is the very low capital buy-in, which makes the MF worth it compared to the skyrocketing costs of luxury rentals/hotels. I don't think we would be interested in buying a week, say, at OceanWatch because the buy-in is really high and when the capital costs are spread out with the maintenance fees the purchase doesn't make sense over just renting each year.

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? We are ok with the current maintenance fees (1850 for 2BR LO or 2500 for 3BR LO) and the expected 5% annual rise in MF that seems to be the trend for the last 15 years (I downloaded all the historic data). I realize the last year or two is a blip for MFs, so I'm not sure if those big bumps will continue or if they will affect the long term increases. We can afford the increases, but we would want to make sure that the MFs are always cost comparative to the luxury rental market. Right now they are competitive with the places we would want to trade into compared to rental costs or booking through Marriott.

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Yes, I am a scientist. I like data

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes, I've been researching the various exit strategies just in case. I understand Orlando might be harder to sell/give away than other destinations- that seems true of the low capital costs weeks in saturated markets. Again, I'm ok with the ongoing fees as long as they are cost competitive with the luxury rental market. Right now they are very competitive! Hoping that is the case during the duration of ownership.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

I think a Two or Three Bedroom Platinum week at Grande Vista would be a good pick "if" it is a member of the Florida Club. Grande Vista is always in demand because of all the stuff going on in and around Orlando.

Assuming your purchase is a Florida Club member then you can trade into one of the other four members of the Florida Club at the six month mark, or you can trade into Interval International at the 12 month mark.

Thinking out loud, would a 3 Bedroom Grande Vista fetch a 3 Bedroom Crystal Shores on Marco Island if you put the request via Interval International at the 12 month mark? I think it may.

There is a lot of flexibility with a 3 Bedroom Florida Club Grande Vista purchase in my opinion. It should also be pretty easy to unload if you decide to sell at some point.

Think about spending $15 by becoming a TUG Member. Click on the blue bar above where it says "Join TUG".










.

 

[Dean]

Hi All,
I've been researching as much as I can to determine if getting in to the Marriott Timeshare system is a good fit for us, but I definitely have some outstanding questions and would also welcome any feedback/insight you are willing to impart.

Here are my main questions, for those that do not want to read all the detail below:

1) Should I buy a Platinum 2BR or Platinum 3BR lockoff at Marriott's Grande Vista (I would get the Florida Club with either)?? Is the additional trading power of the 3BR LO (depositing a 2BR and studio instead of 1BR/studio) worth the extra MF? For example, would the 2BR side trade be more likely to get me in to OceanWatch Myrtle Beach during the summer (even late August) for example, or other desirable locations/times?

2) The idea of being able to buy a deeded week for <$2000 for GV and having the ability to trade in to places that have deeded weeks going for $10-20,000+ seems too good to be true. What am I missing here? It's the low capital buy-in that we are really interested in pursuing, and that makes it make sense from a cost perspective compared to rental/hotel prices. What's the catch?

3) Is there any reason I would consider a much higher purchase price of a "bundle" to be able to enroll this week in the points program? I am not really interested in points at all, but I'm just wondering about longevity and missing out if the system switches to favor points people or II becomes really limited and we are not able to trade as much. The upfront costs seem really high and I'm not convinced there is added value.

It would seem that you are an excellent candidate for a timeshare purchase for exchanging and within the Marriott system.

1. I'm not a huge fan of the 3 BR options at GV for exchanging, at least not as much so as some here. I tend to prefer two 2BR over a 3 BV for this situation. But I think a 2 BR only will get you what you need. For Orlando, you won't have any trouble getting an exchange in so even if you buy there, I'd recommend you visit Orlando through II exchanges using a studio if applicable, upsizing the unit size and paying the difference. Since I don't believe you'll have any trouble getting Orlando outside of Easter or Xmas (will be difficult to reserve even if owned as well), I'd suggest you reconsider other options including Branson, Manor Club, Grand Chateau and possibly Harbour Lake. I do believe that a good week at GV will trade slightly better than the others then for your situation, GC will likely be next due to resort quality. GC will also have lower fees and if later enrolled, come with more Abound Points. The 3 BR at GC trade as a 2 BR & 1 BR though often the price difference to get the 3 BR doesn't justify the end points. WR (Branson) will likely be the cheapest with the lowest fees.
2. If you can do week 33 & 34 (last 2 weeks of August) and play the exchange game correctly, you should be fine even using a 1 BR for HHI & MB. The catch includes the added other fees, long term commitment including that fees may go up, and that there are no guarantees so planning and being proactive a year OR MORE out is imperative. It seems like you have done a lot of research and have a good feels for the ins and out. I don't see a downside given what you've posted.
3. I don't see a reason for you to start with a bundled. Even if you decide later to enrolll, starting with resale will put you in a better situation.

You may want to reconsider for more control and somewhat of a guarantee of locking in a reservation. Since it seems you largely want to visit HHI/MB, buying something there might end up being a better options for some looking at the options you are. Remember, any exchange may. not come through until at or after 2 months out for what you're looking for even if you get what you want.

 

[wuv pooh]

Thanks for this- When I was comparing the TDI charts from interval, I noticed that Williamsburg has 13 weeks that are TDI 135-150 compared to Orlando with 8 weeks in the same TDI. And Williamsburg had far more straight TDI 150 weeks than Orlando. I thought this meant that Manor Club Sequel would "trade better" than Grande Vista, but everything I've read here and elsewhere people are saying that GV "trades better" for some reason. I don't know if this is due to Elite vs Premium rating of the two resorts, or what difference is equating to "better trading". Not sure what I'm missing
I agree with you about the MF being more consistent over the years for Manor Club, given the historic data I have compared.
I do think we have a fear that the trading system could fail/collapse somehow over the next 30 years and we would get stuck going to our home resort every year- if that's the case we would definitely prefer to be in Florida vs Virgina. I am not sure how rational/irrational that fear is though, as I don't have any access to II and don't know any historic issues with inventory, etc, or how the evolution of Abound Club points will effect trading.

I assume "trade better" means that there are 3x the number of Grande Vista owners, so more reports. Never had a problem depositing early with either Manor Club or Harbor Lake in Orlando. Any difference is miniscule IMHO. Again, Manor Club is inland, not subject to severe weather, building collapse, and staff can live affordably within 1/2 hour of the resort so expenses have historically been lower. Plus it is cheaper to purchase.

If you are worried about exchange then buy one of the 4 Marriott Hilton Head beach front properties, but you will pay a lot more. With MSE or one of the other options Dean mentioned you are buying a throwaway, so what difference does the future make anyway?

 

[LeslieDet]

2) The idea of being able to buy a deeded week for <$2000 for GV and having the ability to trade in to places that have deeded weeks going for $10-20,000+ seems too good to be true. What am I missing here? It's the low capital buy-in that we are really interested in pursuing, and that makes it make sense from a cost perspective compared to rental/hotel prices. What's the catch?

The catch is that trading via Interval is simply an exchange platform that requires other owners to participate so that you have something to exchange into. You may or may not find what you want at locations where you hope to exchange into. The owners of those more expensive weeks may perhaps own enrolled weeks, and if they don't want to stay where they own, they will elect Club Points and use those to book somewhere. Or, if the weeks are valuable from a rental perspective, (ie HHI in the summer) folks who aren't using their week themselves are more likely to rent it out because HHI in summer has high rental value. You may very well be able to get to HHI in the spring time or in the fall, in an exchange, because the rental value is lower. If you do purchase a resale week, make sure you buy the season you want to book if you intend to lock off and stay at some or all of your owned week.

 

[Dean]

The one thing I'd add about exchanging is that you'll be at the bottom of the ladder for villa assignments so assume you'll have the worst building & views.

 

[wuv pooh]

The one thing I'd add about exchanging is that you'll be at the bottom of the ladder for villa assignments so assume you'll have to worst. building & views.

Good point, especially if you only have one week or a small Marriott relationship. I find that as a MVC Executive and Lifetime Titanium with Bonvoy that I am usually #3 in the pecking order after owners using their week and owners trading in. That is a bigger advantage at Marco Island (fewer weeks owners) where I usually get a high corner room if I pay for Gulf Front vs. Grande Ocean where I get a lower level or "side" ocean view room if I am front side or a turtle lagoon view if I am back side.

 

[dioxide45]

Forgot to mention something that doesn't come up much on TUG about traders is home resort exchange priority. As well as MVC to MVC preference there's a preference for exchanging back in to the resort that you are depositing.
As the general TUG advice is to buy a high season at the usual suspects, it usually doesn't feature. But it does mean that you have the option to consider a lower season at your preferred resort and that may have the same effect as a high season at another resort.
I routinely trade up at least 1 and often 2 seasons at one of my home resorts which works well as I can leave my higher season deposits for external exchanging such as to Hyatt in high season.

I'm not sure there is any specific priority for home resort. Not in the sense of how Marriott to Marriott priority works. Home resort doesn't get any additional lead time over any other Marriott II resort owner when trading in to new Marriott deposits in II. What could happen though is that in the event of identical relinquishment (trade power), the person trading back in to their home resort may get the exchange before the non home resort trader.

Trading up in season isn't necessarily due to any home resort priority, but rather just a nature of how II assigns trade power to your deposit/week and the requirements they assign to deposits. They want to fulfill as many requests as possible as fees equal revenue. Allowing a silver week owner to trade into platinum season helps facilitate more trades. II doesn't really care too much if that silver week leads to breakage as they earned a fee when the silver traded for platinum.

 

[Hindsite]

I'm not sure there is any specific priority for home resort.

I don't know how it works relative to the preference period, or even how much difference at all it makes, as it comes after the usual factors, but below is the wording. The upshot is that I seem to get unexpectedly good trading power for a low season week when using my home resort to home resort II exchanging. I've not done any kind of testing, and I don't push my luck with what I use it for, but is been that way for decades. Perhaps I'm ahead with the other factors and they dominate what I get, no way to be sure. Just another thing to throw into the mix when making a purchase decision.

While the numbers direct someone to a typical plat trader, that doesn't exclude very decent performance from other weeks and locations. For how I use my ownership it works, which is the ultimate test for any individual user.

 

[dioxide45]

I don't know how it works relative to the preference period, or even how much difference at all it makes, as it comes after the usual factors, but below is the wording. The upshot is that I seem to get unexpectedly good trading power for a low season week when using my home resort to home resort II exchanging. I've not done any kind of testing, and I don't push my luck with what I use it for, but is been that way for decades. Perhaps I'm ahead with the other factors and they dominate what I get, no way to be sure. Just another thing to throw into the mix when making a purchase decision.

View attachment 94315

While the numbers direct someone to a typical plat trader, that doesn't exclude very decent performance from other weeks and locations. For how I use my ownership it works, which is the ultimate test for any individual user.

This is ultimatly why I don't think the season matters as much as people think and the TDI of the week booked for deposit isn't that important. Too much importance is put on booking the highest trade power for deposit. In general our gold Orlando week trades well. While we try to reserve higher TDI weeks, we don't always do that and often make a reservation early to get a trade vs wait to book a higher TDI. We can often secure platinum season 2BR units with our studio deposit. Even at resorts that are not our home resort. That isn't necessarily because of any real priority.

What you quoted is really what I was speaking to. In the event two different comparable weeks are vying for the same week, then the home resort owner will get priority. I was just mentioning that it doesn't work the same as Marriott to Marriott priority in that Marriott owners get a lead time to trade in to other Marriott resorts ahead of all other non Marriott owners.

 

[LuvScience]

If you don’t mind traveling in those late August weeks I think you will be very successful getting trades at that time to Myrtle, Hilton Head, and Florida. Late August is not a high demand time since most schools have started by then. There are 2-bedroom weeks at Barony & Surfwatch just sitting there for instant exchange for several days in interval for those late August dates.

It’s hot of course; but personally I’m not sure it can ever be too hot spending time at a resort pool and on the beach! (I know some will disagree!)

Personally I would buy the 2-bedroom GV. (I own several of these) and have been very happy with the trade power. I also own HL & WR too.

I have traded my Orlando weeks for Aruba Surf, Myrtle Beach (love love OceanWatch!), Ocean Pointe, Beachplace Towers, Summit Watch, France, Newport Coast, etc.

Ps- on the TDI you can’t compare them across destinations. So a 150 TDI in Williamsburg may or may not be better than a 135 TDI in Orlando. The TDI only tells you which week in a given destination is the highest and lowest demand.

I'm curious, what did you trade for OceanWatch (eg, a full 2BR, part of a LO?) and what time of year did you go? We do really want to try that resort, it looked lovely when we did a drive by. When you exchanged through II for OceanWatch, did you get a garden view? One of the previous posters mentioned II giving the least desirable view, which would be garden view in the back two building there, so I am just curious if that happened in practice.

Also, about TDI, I have been thinking about this and looking at the TDI charts. I am not seeing how they wouldn't be comparable across destinations (eg. why wouldn't a 150 in Williamsburg = 150 in Myrtle Beach), as it looks like they are being somehow standardized. A screenshot of an example fom the II buyers guide is copied below. There is also a chart for "Club Interval" points too. I am not sure what falls under each of these categories or if they are even relevant to deeded weeks owners, but for trading power purposes in general it looks like the TDI ranges are not tied to a specific location, and hypothetically both a Williamsburg studio and a Myrtle Beach studio with a TDI 150 would both pull 5720 points from this chart. If I am reading this incorrectly or there is something else to it, please let me know.

With MSE or one of the other options Dean mentioned you are buying a throwaway, so what difference does the future make anyway?

Is it considered a throw away if it's not easy to dispose of? I'm not convinced it would be easy to get rid of it in the future if it wasn't working for us. I see a lot of resales up right now and I'm sure we will have our pick of many. Who knows if there will be any buyers in the future, if we can sell or gift away, or if Marriot would ever want to take it back.

 

[Pamplemousse]

I'm curious, what did you trade for OceanWatch (eg, a full 2BR, part of a LO?) and what time of year did you go? We do really want to try that resort, it looked lovely when we did a drive by. When you exchanged through II for OceanWatch, did you get a garden view? One of the previous posters mentioned II giving the least desirable view, which would be garden view in the back two building there, so I am just curious if that happened in practice.

Also, about TDI, I have been thinking about this and looking at the TDI charts. I am not seeing how they wouldn't be comparable across destinations (eg. why wouldn't a 150 in Williamsburg = 150 in Myrtle Beach), as it looks like they are being somehow standardized. A screenshot of an example fom the II buyers guide is copied below. There is also a chart for "Club Interval" points too. I am not sure what falls under each of these categories or if they are even relevant to deeded weeks owners, but for trading power purposes in general it looks like the TDI ranges are not tied to a specific location, and hypothetically both a Williamsburg studio and a Myrtle Beach studio with a TDI 150 would both pull 5720 points from this chart. If I am reading this incorrectly or there is something else to it, please let me know.
View attachment 94410

Is it considered a throw away if it's not easy to dispose of? I'm not convinced it would be easy to get rid of it in the future if it wasn't working for us. I see a lot of resales up right now and I'm sure we will have our pick of many. Who knows if there will be any buyers in the future, if we can sell or gift away, or if Marriot would ever want to take it back.

In 2022 I exchanged the 1 br part of my gold Harbor Lake into OceanWatch 2 br for April 24.
My II exchange indicated Ocean view and that is what we had which meant the tree buildings in back higher floor.
We were high enough to qualify as ocean view but not one of the top floors- we did enjoy our view.
I believe OceanWatch typically gives the view indicated on the exchange but as I indicated in post 2 of this thread the II view is not guaranteed and you are likely to get one of the lesser units in the view category.

Once you exchange on II you can look up your view code here on tug and also often find comments on if the resort usually honors the code and what the code really indicates in terms of actual view.
You can cancel your exchange without penalty within 24 hours of confirmation on II if you are not happy with what you find.

The trees area is great if you have kids, the fitness facilities are there and they are storage binds up,near the ocean if you have gear you want to store and not have to carry back and forth to your room.

 

[Pamplemousse]

I'm curious, what did you trade for OceanWatch (eg, a full 2BR, part of a LO?) and what time of year did you go? We do really want to try that resort, it looked lovely when we did a drive by. When you exchanged through II for OceanWatch, did you get a garden view? One of the previous posters mentioned II giving the least desirable view, which would be garden view in the back two building there, so I am just curious if that happened in practice.

Also, about TDI, I have been thinking about this and looking at the TDI charts. I am not seeing how they wouldn't be comparable across destinations (eg. why wouldn't a 150 in Williamsburg = 150 in Myrtle Beach), as it looks like they are being somehow standardized. A screenshot of an example fom the II buyers guide is copied below. There is also a chart for "Club Interval" points too. I am not sure what falls under each of these categories or if they are even relevant to deeded weeks owners, but for trading power purposes in general it looks like the TDI ranges are not tied to a specific location, and hypothetically both a Williamsburg studio and a Myrtle Beach studio with a TDI 150 would both pull 5720 points from this chart. If I am reading this incorrectly or there is something else to it, please let me know.
View attachment 94410

Is it considered a throw away if it's not easy to dispose of? I'm not convinced it would be easy to get rid of it in the future if it wasn't working for us. I see a lot of resales up right now and I'm sure we will have our pick of many. Who knows if there will be any buyers in the future, if we can sell or gift away, or if Marriot would ever want to take it back.

Re points on II-
club interval points/ point exchange charts have nothing to do with exchanging weeks!
there are some owners on different brands that exchange club interval points or Abound points owners can do points exchanges to non abound properties.
Points exchanges are straight up transactions- this size in this season cost this many points. That is what the chart is showing- points needed to make the exchange (Not how points Williamsburg studio is worth- you can’t convert MVC weeks into club interval points).

What you want to take away from looking at TDI charts is to select the highest TDI week in your season that you can you while still placing you request far in advance.
And looking at the TDI chart for your desired location can give you and idea as to how many others will be competing for your same stay. That’s about it.

 

[hangloose]

Go for 3BR at Grande Vista. It provides more size, flexibility and trading power….at just a little extra in maintenance fees. I wish my GV weeks were 3BR vs 2BR. Get 3BR with Florida Club, as it adds more options as well. Grande Vista does trade well in II, just reserve a high TDI week and request early with some flexibility in dates/resorts. Good luck. Just remember not to get stuck in analysis paralysis. Start making the memories now .

 

[jwalk03]

I'm curious, what did you trade for OceanWatch (eg, a full 2BR, part of a LO?) and what time of year did you go? We do really want to try that resort, it looked lovely when we did a drive by. When you exchanged through II for OceanWatch, did you get a garden view? One of the previous posters mentioned II giving the least desirable view, which would be garden view in the back two building there, so I am just curious if that happened in practice.

Also, about TDI, I have been thinking about this and looking at the TDI charts. I am not seeing how they wouldn't be comparable across destinations (eg. why wouldn't a 150 in Williamsburg = 150 in Myrtle Beach), as it looks like they are being somehow standardized. A screenshot of an example fom the II buyers guide is copied below. There is also a chart for "Club Interval" points too. I am not sure what falls under each of these categories or if they are even relevant to deeded weeks owners, but for trading power purposes in general it looks like the TDI ranges are not tied to a specific location, and hypothetically both a Williamsburg studio and a Myrtle Beach studio with a TDI 150 would both pull 5720 points from this chart. If I am reading this incorrectly or there is something else to it, please let me know.
View attachment 94410

Is it considered a throw away if it's not easy to dispose of? I'm not convinced it would be easy to get rid of it in the future if it wasn't working for us. I see a lot of resales up right now and I'm sure we will have our pick of many. Who knows if there will be any buyers in the future, if we can sell or gift away, or if Marriot would ever want to take it back.

I exchanged a 1-bedroom Harbor Lake for a 2-bedroom at Ocean Watch Memorial Day week last year. The exchange was even for an oceanfront unit! And that is what they gave us! (actually 2 oceanfront units as I exchange a GV 1-bedroom as well for some friends that joined us) It was a fabulous trip! The giant balcony on the middle units of Conch and Scallop are amazing!!

as for the TDI its just that TDI is not the only factor in trade power. So a 150 TDI in Williamsburg is unlikely to have as much trade power as say a 150 TDI in Hawaii. Resort rating also plays a factor in trade power as well as the deposit date. So you can't just compare TDI across the various regions to establish if a week has more or less trade power.

 

[LuvScience]

I exchanged a 1-bedroom Harbor Lake for a 2-bedroom at Ocean Watch Memorial Day week last year. The exchange was even for an oceanfront unit! And that is what they gave us! (actually 2 oceanfront units as I exchange a GV 1-bedroom as well for some friends that joined us) It was a fabulous trip! The giant balcony on the middle units of Conch and Scallop are amazing!!

as for the TDI its just that TDI is not the only factor in trade power. So a 150 TDI in Williamsburg is unlikely to have as much trade power as say a 150 TDI in Hawaii. Resort rating also plays a factor in trade power as well as the deposit date. So you can't just compare TDI across the various regions to establish if a week has more or less trade power.

Are all of the pools and activities open that early in the season? I heard some places don't fully open for the summer until June 15th. Also, did you hear about the couple who contracted Legionnaires' disease while traveling through Myrtle Beach around that time, and the health dept has shut down the hot tubs in the front of the resort just in case and they haven't opened back up yet. It's crazy.

 

[jwalk03]

Are all of the pools and activities open that early in the season? I heard some places don't fully open for the summer until June 15th. Also, did you hear about the couple who contracted Legionnaires' disease while traveling through Myrtle Beach around that time, and the health dept has shut down the hot tubs in the front of the resort just in case and they haven't opened back up yet. It's crazy.

Yes everything was fully open. We stayed there the year before in March for Spring Break and all of the pools were open then as well. (Though the weather was chilly too be sure- we still managed to swim some in the heated pools- not in the ocean.)