brianfox
TUG Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2007
- Messages
- 796
- Reaction score
- 445
- Points
- 423
- Location
- Thousand Oaks
- Resorts Owned
- Marriott Waiohai x3
I'm a newbie that's learned a fair amount in the past week. My wife and I just got back from Ko Olina and their sales pitch, and I've just discovered how inflated the Marriott prices are from resales.
My wife would buy a unit immediately just because she loved the property. I'm a little more reserved, because I am wondering if Ko Olina would be buying way more trading power than we need.
Here is a realistic picture of our travel plans over the next 7 years (IF we owned the timeshare):
2008: Hawaii (1 week)
2009: WDW/Harborside Atlantis (1 week at each, WDW being a DVC property)
2010: Hawaii (1 week)
2011: Paris (2 weeks)
2012: Hawaii (1 week)
2013: Tokyo (1 week)
2014: WDW/Harborside Atlantis (1 week at each, WDW being a DVC property)
etc.
Aside from those destinations, there's always Vegas since we live in California, but we rarely stay a week, and I think it's a huge waste to trade a timeshare week for Vegas when room deals abound. If it were a bonus week from II, maybe we'd go.
If we DIDN'T buy the timeshare, the next 7 years would probably be a few days in Vegas here and there.
My wife is a teacher, so the weeks we'd want would be mid to late March for 1 week trips and anywhere from mid-June to Late August for 2 week trips.
Listening to our Marriott sales rep, it seemed as if we could actually make the WDW/Atlantis thing happen by trading the 1 Bedroom for Atlantis and the Lockoff for WDW. He made it sound as if we'd end up with 1 Bedrooms at each (possibly 2 bedrooms at each). Is this doable? Would it take luck? Should the guy be forced to take a drug test?
{EDIT: After reading how nearly impossible it is to trade into Harborside, I'm leaning toward "drug-test"}
Based on our realistic travel destinations, is Ko Olina way more trading power than we'd need? Could we realisticaly trade for a different Hawaiin island some years?
I don't see us going to any of the other high power locations. And I certainly am not interested in owning a DVC, which I couldn't pass on to my kids in 30 years. We're not at the mental level of buying a location purely for trading value, never expecting to actually stay there....
On a slightly different tangent, how does Ko Olina (the "crown jewel" of Marriott) compare to DVC's "crown jewel" in terms of trading power? Can Ko Olina owners trade for DVC as easy as DVC can trade for Ko Olina?
My wife would buy a unit immediately just because she loved the property. I'm a little more reserved, because I am wondering if Ko Olina would be buying way more trading power than we need.
Here is a realistic picture of our travel plans over the next 7 years (IF we owned the timeshare):
2008: Hawaii (1 week)
2009: WDW/Harborside Atlantis (1 week at each, WDW being a DVC property)
2010: Hawaii (1 week)
2011: Paris (2 weeks)
2012: Hawaii (1 week)
2013: Tokyo (1 week)
2014: WDW/Harborside Atlantis (1 week at each, WDW being a DVC property)
etc.
Aside from those destinations, there's always Vegas since we live in California, but we rarely stay a week, and I think it's a huge waste to trade a timeshare week for Vegas when room deals abound. If it were a bonus week from II, maybe we'd go.
If we DIDN'T buy the timeshare, the next 7 years would probably be a few days in Vegas here and there.
My wife is a teacher, so the weeks we'd want would be mid to late March for 1 week trips and anywhere from mid-June to Late August for 2 week trips.
Listening to our Marriott sales rep, it seemed as if we could actually make the WDW/Atlantis thing happen by trading the 1 Bedroom for Atlantis and the Lockoff for WDW. He made it sound as if we'd end up with 1 Bedrooms at each (possibly 2 bedrooms at each). Is this doable? Would it take luck? Should the guy be forced to take a drug test?
{EDIT: After reading how nearly impossible it is to trade into Harborside, I'm leaning toward "drug-test"}
Based on our realistic travel destinations, is Ko Olina way more trading power than we'd need? Could we realisticaly trade for a different Hawaiin island some years?
I don't see us going to any of the other high power locations. And I certainly am not interested in owning a DVC, which I couldn't pass on to my kids in 30 years. We're not at the mental level of buying a location purely for trading value, never expecting to actually stay there....
On a slightly different tangent, how does Ko Olina (the "crown jewel" of Marriott) compare to DVC's "crown jewel" in terms of trading power? Can Ko Olina owners trade for DVC as easy as DVC can trade for Ko Olina?
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