Great Information about the Florida Club

Here is some good information I found on Marriott's website about the Florida Club using an advanced Google search.

PDF showing participating resorts and also which buildings/units at MGV that are excluded from the Club.
https://www.my-vacationclub.com/common/vc/en-us/pdfs/xm_participatingfloridaclub.pdf

General Information - You need to be an owner and have a My-vacationclub.com account to access this.
https://www.my-vacationclub.com/en-us/owners/2_occupancyOptions.jsp#floridaclub

General Information
https://www.my-vacationclub.com/faq/default.jsp#stay_flaclub

Perhaps this can be added to the FAQ?

thanks for the information.

Something interesting in the second link:

There are no view type restrictions.

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It sounds like if you own at one of the resorts other than Ocean Pointe you can call and reserve ocean front at Ocean Pointe as long as there is a unit available at the 6 month mark?

I read the information you pointed to and still have a stradgy question.

Do you reserve the week at your home resort ( say Grande Vista) at 12 months and then call at 6 mth window and cancel only if they can give you different resort (say Ocean Pointe). That way you at least still have the week you want to take your vacation reserved even if it is not at your desired location.

Could you use this same stradgy on split week ( two different resorts in week)

fordchevyguy said:

I read the information you pointed to and still have a stradgy question.

Do you reserve the week at your home resort ( say Grande Vista) at 12 months and then call at 6 mth window and cancel only if they can give you different resort (say Ocean Pointe). That way you at least still have the week you want to take your vacation reserved even if it is not at your desired location.

Could you use this same stradgy on split week ( two different resorts in week)

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This would be a good strategy in case you can't get what you want through the FC. You may have to pay the $29 reservation change fee though to cancel the orginal reservation at your home resort and switch it it the FL resort.

Great Links!

Something else I read was that you can book your 1BR at one resort, say OP, and then book your studio at another resort like Beacplace. Two weeks split between two diifferent resorts! That would be nice.

Terry

P.S. - I have made two resevation changes within the last two years and was never charged the $29 fee.

Florida Club Reservations

As I understand it, you make the reservation up to 6 months out at the resort that you want to go to that's in the Florida Club. You must stay in the season that you have at your home resort.
ie: If you have Gold you must reserve Gold in the resort that you want to go to.
You do not make a reservation at your home resort.

Question about Florida Club

When using the Florida Club for an exchange does the Marriott policy of "trading like-for-like" apply? When using II you can often trade a studio for a two bedroom at certain times of the year. Obviously, you can get a trade for a two bedroom at Florida resorts where there are no lockoffs but I was wondering about the resorts with lockoffs. Also, if you lockoff your unit does it make any sense to use the Florida Club? The lockoff option gives an owner two weeks for the cost of one week's yearly maintenance fee.

If you can't get a two bedroom at the lockoff resorts because of Florida Club rules wouldn't it be a better idea to use II even though it costs more? There are enough questions about the value of the Florida Club already.

With Florida Club there is no "trading". If you own at one FC resort, you virtually own at all FC resorts.

There is no "like-for-like" per say. If you own a 2BR platinum at any FC resort you can reserve any 2BR at any FC resort at 6 months out. It is that simple. You can then rent, lock-off, trade or use your unit just like any other Marriott property.

Terry

PS - Remember though, most good weeks are already reserved at 6 months out.

kjd said:

When using the Florida Club for an exchange does the Marriott policy of "trading like-for-like" apply? When using II you can often trade a studio for a two bedroom at certain times of the year. Obviously, you can get a trade for a two bedroom at Florida resorts where there are no lockoffs but I was wondering about the resorts with lockoffs. Also, if you lockoff your unit does it make any sense to use the Florida Club? The lockoff option gives an owner two weeks for the cost of one week's yearly maintenance fee.

If you can't get a two bedroom at the lockoff resorts because of Florida Club rules wouldn't it be a better idea to use II even though it costs more? There are enough questions about the value of the Florida Club already.

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You are simply reserving the size you own or a sub portion there of (studio, 1 BR, 2 BR). Certainly if you are an II member and can trade a studio or 1 BR for a larger unit it's almost always worth it, not to mention getting an AC in some situations.

You can split a lockoff or do a 3 day/4 day stay but you cannot do both. And from what I understand, you can deposit and exchange a FL Club reservation with II, a very cool option for those that own at lessor trade value resorts like Legends Edge, Doral or Orlando (GV only so far), esp if you miss the best weeks reserving at your home resort. I'm curious if Lakeshore and Crystal reserve will be part of the FL club? I'm guessing not given the disparity between those resorts.

Dean said:

You are simply reserving the size you own or a sub portion there of (studio, 1 BR, 2 BR). Certainly if you are an II member and can trade a studio or 1 BR for a larger unit it's almost always worth it, not to mention getting an AC in some situations.

You can split a lockoff or do a 3 day/4 day stay but you cannot do both. And from what I understand, you can deposit and exchange a FL Club reservation with II, a very cool option for those that own at lessor trade value resorts like Legends Edge, Doral or Orlando (GV only so far), esp if you miss the best weeks reserving at your home resort. I'm curious if Lakeshore and Crystal reserve will be part of the FL club? I'm guessing not given the disparity between those resorts.

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I don't believe there will be any new resorts brought in to the Florida Club. This includes Crystal Shores, Lakeshore reserve and Oceana Palms.

I guess all of the Florida Club resorts are "lesser" except for Ocean Pointe or Beach Place Towers?

dioxide45 said:

... I guess all of the Florida Club resorts are "lesser" except for Ocean Pointe or Beach Place Towers?

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Sssshh don't tell anyone, but....
The "lesser trade value" of my Legend's Edge traded into a 2BR '09 week 27 at Ko Olina months ago.

Terry

dioxide45 said:

I don't believe there will be any new resorts brought in to the Florida Club. This includes Crystal Shores, Lakeshore reserve and Oceana Palms.

I guess all of the Florida Club resorts are "lesser" except for Ocean Pointe or Beach Place Towers?

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I wonder if Oceana Palms might be added. From a trade power standpoint I think there is a definite and wide gap between the two you stated and the other 3.

thinze3 said:

Sssshh don't tell anyone, but....
The "lesser trade value" of my Legend's Edge traded into a 2BR '09 week 27 at Ko Olina months ago.

Terry

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Which illustrates the benefit of the internal trading preference, not necessarily the trade power of LE. Besides, I didn't say it was bad, only that there was a definite difference, good weeks are still better than GV, bad weeks are worse.

Dean said:

I wonder if Oceana Palms might be added. From a trade power standpoint I think there is a definite and wide gap between the two you stated and the other 3.

Which illustrates the benefit of the internal trading preference, not necessarily the trade power of LE. Besides, I didn't say it was bad, only that there was a definite difference, good weeks are still better than GV, bad weeks are worse.

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I wouldn't underestimate the trading power of any of the FC resorts. We recently stayed in a MBP 2BR using our gold MGV studio. This was confirmed outside of flexchange.

dioxide45 said:

I wouldn't underestimate the trading power of any of the FC resorts. We recently stayed in a MBP 2BR using our gold MGV studio. This was confirmed outside of flexchange.

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I suspect we're looking at the same things from different ends rather than truly disagreeing. I don't think I'm underestimating at all, only saying there is a difference between certain resorts. No doubt a high quality Marriott resort during red time will have a certain amount of reasonable trading power plus you get the Marriott internal preference which may be the most important issue overall in this discussion. Some resorts will have more trade power than others and I feel that there is a substantial difference between certain resorts in the FL club. Think of it as a plus for Ocean Pointe and BPT rather than a cut to the other 3. You are free to disagree. Still, planning ahead and depositing early enough are important factors that affect the trade power and likelihood of an exchange as well, likely more than which resort for a similar season for the FC. All should do fairly well if used appropriately. And I'll concede that being able to pick your week for your home resort vs taking leftovers at a different resort will even the playing field somewhat, and possibly outweigh home resort issue for all but possibly GV. One other point I'll make is that the occurrence of a given exchange means little, you need much more info than "I got X resort with Y deposit" to judge relative trade power. Unfortunately II and RCI don't give out a lot of that info so we have to come by this type of info in a vicarious nature and make certain assumptions at times. I do think it's usually worth making a home resort reservation and chancing the $29 change fee if one does use the FL club options.

Dean, it's OK. I too would venture to place the higher demands at Ocean Pointe and BeachPlace than the others. Heck, we (dioxide and I) paid much less from the developer than similar platinums at those resorts would have cost.

Just funnin' with you.

Terry

thinze3 said:

Dean, it's OK. I too would venture to place the higher demands at Ocean Pointe and BeachPlace than the others. Heck, we (dioxide and I) paid much less from the developer than similar platinums at those resorts would have cost.

Just funnin' with you.

Terry

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I drove down to OP and looked at it when it was just a hole in the ground, early in preconstruction pricing. Looking at the location and area, I didn't think it was for us overall and having stayed there twice, it really doesn't grab us. OTOH, I don't think anyone realized how well it would trade for Silver and Gold weeks. Likewise, I got the info on LE the first few weeks it was selling actually expecting to buy a week since we are only 1.5-2 hours away, the thing that stopped me was not having the L/O feature. Given the reduction from 4 to 2 buildings and affect that'll have on fees over time, it's likely good we didn't. I have looked at couple of Plat plus resales over the last few years at LE in the $7K range but passed on them.

Dean said:

I drove down to OP and looked at it when it was just a hole in the ground, early in preconstruction pricing. Looking at the location and area, I didn't think it was for us overall and having stayed there twice, it really doesn't grab us. OTOH, I don't think anyone realized how well it would trade for Silver and Gold weeks. Likewise, I got the info on LE the first few weeks it was selling actually expecting to buy a week since we are only 1.5-2 hours away, the thing that stopped me was not having the L/O feature. Given the reduction from 4 to 2 buildings and affect that'll have on fees over time, it's likely good we didn't. I have looked at couple of Plat plus resales over the last few years at LE in the $7K range but passed on them.

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It is my understanding that buildings 3 & 4, which were built and sold as full ownership Grand Residences, are all part of the same home owners association.

I do not expect there to be any budget problems.

Terry

thinze3 said:

It is my understanding that buildings 3 & 4, which were built and sold as full ownership Grand Residences, are all part of the same home owners association.

I do not expect there to be any budget problems.

Terry

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We were told on our tour that they were built to be part of the TS property and sold as TS, though with the slow sales and the fact that real estate values skyrocketed they were selling them as whole ownership.

Dean said:

I drove down to OP and looked at it when it was just a hole in the ground, early in preconstruction pricing. Looking at the location and area, I didn't think it was for us overall and having stayed there twice, it really doesn't grab us. OTOH, I don't think anyone realized how well it would trade for Silver and Gold weeks. Likewise, I got the info on LE the first few weeks it was selling actually expecting to buy a week since we are only 1.5-2 hours away, the thing that stopped me was not having the L/O feature. Given the reduction from 4 to 2 buildings and affect that'll have on fees over time, it's likely good we didn't. I have looked at couple of Plat plus resales over the last few years at LE in the $7K range but passed on them.

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There really isn't a huge benifit of owning Plat Plus vs just platinum at MLE. While the plus weeks are two prime summer weeks they aren't holiday weeks (not even July 4th). It is my understanding that they are plat plus because there is a large fishing tournament there those two weeks, people buy these weeks so they can lock in those dates. Trading value wouldn't be much different from a regular platinum week in the summer, in fact according to the II demand index, they are all the same at 150

thinze3 said:

It is my understanding that buildings 3 & 4, which were built and sold as full ownership Grand Residences, are all part of the same home owners association.

I do not expect there to be any budget problems.

Terry

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But they were originally planned as part of the timeshare and thus the change consolidates some of the common expenses to a smaller group of people. I would expect about $100 a unit difference in maint fees long term give or take with a variable amount of less activities, options, hours, etc.

dioxide45 said:

There really isn't a huge benifit of owning Plat Plus vs just platinum at MLE. While the plus weeks are two prime summer weeks they aren't holiday weeks (not even July 4th). It is my understanding that they are plat plus because there is a large fishing tournament there those two weeks, people buy these weeks so they can lock in those dates. Trading value wouldn't be much different from a regular platinum week in the summer, in fact according to the II demand index, they are all the same at 150

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Weeks 27 & 28, I think that's the Bay Pointe Billfish Tournament. While I'd agree that there are several other weeks that trade as well, maybe even better for week 26, what the platinum plus does do is gives you guaranteed reservation for one of those 2 higher weeks which locks in a good trading week AND a good week to rent out for the same closing cost and yearly fees. Plus an extra 15K points if you bought retail and are into points. The Platinum season there is pretty broad and some of those platinum weeks are relative low in demand compared to others. Besides the fact that the TDI will max out at 150 doesn't mean there isn't a difference between those weeks, there is a significant difference between some of them. The question in this discussion though I suppose is whether that difference will truly affect your trade power and chances of getting a given exchange. My guess is no, assuming your talking week 22-30 as there are relatively fixed factors in trading power (resort QRS & resort demand given it's the top II resort in comparable areas) in addition to the variables of demand of the week.

For a single week owner I'd think Platinum Plus would be a big factor due to the locked in good week, not as much for one reserving multiple weeks using the 13 month rule and it's likely actually better not to be plat plus in that scenario as it limits which weeks you can reserve too much.

dioxide45 said:

I don't believe there will be any new resorts brought in to the Florida Club. This includes Crystal Shores, Lakeshore reserve and Oceana Palms.

I guess all of the Florida Club resorts are "lesser" except for Ocean Pointe or Beach Place Towers?

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It is correct that Oceana Palms will not be a part of the FC. I have never been a fan of the FC since I'm an Ocean Pointe platinum owner who does not benefit at all from paying that $30 per unit FC fee. If I had any interest in using FC, it would have been for Crystal Shores, which of course is not part of the equation either. It makes more sense for an Ocean Pointe plat owner to use get aways for the other Florida resorts and to keep their Ocean Pointe weeks for strong trades to places like platinum weeks in Spain or Hawaii ( which is of couse year round plat ). Now for the folks coming in from those other Florida resorts, the FC is indeed a really nice perk to have if you're trying to get to an ocean side resort like Ocean Pointe or BPT.

We ourselves are slowly transitioning our ownership from Ocean Pointe to Oceana Palms, and the lack of FC at Oceana Palms was a minor factor in our decision to make the move ( we're going from ocean view to ocean front villas which is a big reason why we make the move as this is a huge gain over what we have at Ocean Pointe ).

It's hard to get a good read on what Marriott intends for FC in the more distant future. They could continue it as is, or conceivably de-emphasize FC if their own internal trading scheme and the experiments with a points system picks up steam in the murky timeshare future. I don't envision any change for quite a while in any case, so take my remark as thinking out loud more than being based upon anything substantive.

Barry

jerseyfinn said:

It is correct that Oceana Palms will not be a part of the FC. I have never been a fan of the FC since I'm an Ocean Pointe platinum owner who does not benefit at all from paying that $30 per unit FC fee.

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That $30 fee actually contains a $26 fee that all Marriott owners pay. The FC only costs you $4.

dioxide45 said:

That $30 fee actually contains a $26 fee that all Marriott owners pay. The FC only costs you $4.

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Interesting.

Careful scrutiny of our documents reveals that the latest invoice statements MVC mails us continue to list Florida Club seperate from all other items as a $32 flat charge per week.

Our annual resort financial statements likewise listed "club dues" as a single $30 line item without any break down. This all changes with the 2008 financials statement which broke the "Club fee" into "club dues ($4) & "owner services fees ($26 now $28 in the 2009 financials statement).

Neat ! ( although FC remains of little utility for us ).

Now it looks like we owners can pare down that $28 service fee by pushing for e-mail delivery of documents and confirmations ( and an opt out for paper confirmations which become moot as one becomes versed in the MVC process ).

thanks for the info dioxide.

Barry

dioxide45 said:

Here is some good information I found on Marriott's website about the Florida Club using an advanced Google search.

PDF showing participating resorts and also which buildings/units at MGV that are excluded from the Club.
https://www.my-vacationclub.com/common/vc/en-us/pdfs/xm_participatingfloridaclub.pdf

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Interesting, I call Marriott today because my unit number was on the list of non-participating units from MGV, and they have never heard of this list. The said all units at MGV are part of the Florida Club. Any thoughts?

RLOGO said:

Interesting, I call Marriott today because my unit number was on the list of non-participating units from MGV, and they have never heard of this list. The said all units at MGV are part of the Florida Club. Any thoughts?

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You may need to talk to a different rep. There are definitely units at MGV that are not in the Florida Club. Charles (AKA, CMF) owned a 3BR unit that was not in the FC. There was no way possible to get it added either.