What to buy?

[VAlegacy]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where? Orlando

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

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Orlando, East Coast, Gulf Coast

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 6

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? Locked in

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? Yes

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? 2+

9) How much do you want to spend upfront, without financing? $0-$1000

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? $800

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? Yes

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

Note: Would not likely use timeshare every year. Instead, would probably combine points every other year and possibly trade. 2 Wyndham resorts exist in my town so as an added benefit I would have access to pools for children, gym, etc.

 

[JudiZ]

I have looked at this post several times and am surprised no one has weighed in yet. But perhaps they are as confused as I am by the note at the end. I have no idea about day privileges at Wyndham resorts or if you have a preference for the resorts close to you. I do not have the wealth of knowledge that some of my colleagues on TUG have but I am wondering if Wyndham points are what you are considering. I think that, particularly if you are planning on using them every other year, you will most likely be able to find something at your price point and maintenance fee. There are, according to the Wyndham map, 69 timeshares in the area you listed and certainly a couple in and near Orlando. There are good sound financial considerations regarding the amount of points and where you buy them but you would want to do some research on that as well.

Even though you are locked into the school schedule, if you can plan a year in advance (since all districts set a calendar for the year), you should be able to get what you want. There are a few issues to consider about where you buy because you get to reserve there 13 months in advance as opposed to 10 months for virtually every other Wyndham resort. In addition, since I am assuming that 6 people might mean 4 children, maintenance fees for Wyndham are paid monthly, which was, for me when my children were small, a far better alternative than one big amount once a year.

There is a dedicated Wyndham board here on TUG as well as information on the Club Wyndham web site. Since you are here, I am assuming you are planning to be resale so won't spend much time warning against retail. Good luck.

Judi

 

[SabresFan]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where? Orlando

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

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Orlando, East Coast, Gulf Coast

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 6

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? Locked in

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? Yes

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? 2+

9) How much do you want to spend upfront, without financing? $0-$1000

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? $800

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? Yes

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

Note: Would not likely use timeshare every year. Instead, would probably combine points every other year and possibly trade. 2 Wyndham resorts exist in my town so as an added benefit I would have access to pools for children, gym, etc.

One general suggestion I hear from people is that if you want to travel to Orlando, don't buy in Orlando. The reason being that there are a TON of timeshare resorts in Orlando, so it is usually easy to trade into there. However, trading does have its own additional costs (membership fees in RCI or II plus the trade charge itself). Also, trades usually cannot be cancelled, so they have much less flexibility than an internal point-based mini-system where you might be able to change plans 30 days or 60 days in advance without penalty.

Which two Wyndham resorts are near you? And do you know if they give day privileges to owners there? And if they do offer day use, do they differentiate between resale owners versus people who bought from the developer? If you want day use privileges, and if it is offered, I assume your ownership would have to be deeded at that resort, so you couldn't by CWA (Club Wyndham Access), although you could probably get a point-based contract that was deeded at the resort you wanted.

Lastly, DVC trades only in RCI, and also has a restriction that they will not trade at all with resorts within 30 miles of Orlando, so keep that in mind when at an Orlando property. And if you are aiming for DVC, you should expect to only ever get a 1 BR in Saratoga Springs Resort, as that is 90% or more of the inventory that DVC makes available to RCI.

Also, if you want to go to Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head Island in the summer, you pretty much have to own there. Outside the summer months should be easy to book.