One year living in our timeshares: 2 1/2 year update

[OhioDVC]

I retired from the military in 2010 and convinced my wife to quit work and run away with me. We sold our home, gave the kids half of the furniture and put the rest in storage. We started living out of our timeshares full time starting May 31, 2012.

Over the last year we spent about 48 weeks in timeshares, 3 weeks on the Disney Cruise Line and 1 week moving our son from Ohio to Mississippi.

In those 48 weeks I feel I've experienced over 15-20 years of vacations that the average timeshare owner has experienced. Below is my opinion on how Disney Vacation Club stacks up against other timeshares.

Where we stayed: (approximately)

DVC
2 weeks at Vero Beach
6 weeks at Aulani
2 weeks at Grand California Villas
12 weeks at Disneyworld at every DVC except for Bay Lake Towers

3 weeks Fiesta Americana Vacation Club (FAVC) Los Cabos MX

2 weeks Ft Myers - HGVC - Seawatch
1 week Sanibel Island HGVC

About 10 weeks at Wyndham
Kona Hawaii - Big Island
Kauai Hawaii
Bonnet Creek - Disneyworld Fl
Pompano Beach, Fl
San Antonio, TX

Club Intrawest
Sandestin Fl
Zihuatanejo , MX
Blue Mountain, Canada

Marriott - Barony Beach Hilton Head Island - 1 week

Spinnaker -Waterside Hilton Head Island - 2 weeks

Hyatt - Bonita Springs, FL

Overall Best Service
Fiesta Americana Vacation Club
Extremely friendly staff and very helpful - they try to anticipate and
fulfill your needs before you ask, perfect grounds.

Best Housekeeping
Fiesta Americana Vacation Club
For a timeshare FAVC gives you DAILY room cleaning plus turn down
service with a chocolate on your pillow. Totally blows away any
timeshare's housekeeping.
Wyndham is the WORST - often skipping housekeeping on multiple week
stays

Best Front Desk Service

Aulani Spa & Resort
Very helpful and great attitude
DVC's worst - Grand California - they act like you are interfering
with their day, extremely slow
Worst Overall
Bonnet Creek's front desk is unbelievably terrible
-It is not unusual to have to wait 20 minute for them to answer
your phone call
-Routinely screws up your keys
-Set up room keys for 1 day less than your stay and locks you
out (happened twice)
-Rude, slow
-VERY pushy on attending timeshare presentation


Best On-line Reservation System

Club Intrawest has the most accurate and easy to use online
reservation system
DVC -every update brings another list of things that doubt work
anymore

Most flexible timeshare system

Club Intrawest by far has the lest restrictions on banking, borrowing,
canceling reservations
Wyndham is the WORST - way too many restrictions/cost to list

My favorite resort - just the resort itself

Grand California Resort and Spa - I just love the place
Aulani is a very close second

Best beach resort

TIE
Aulani and Hyatt at Bonita Springs, FL

Best food

Disney Cruise Line - but it is not a timeshare
Any Disneyworld DVC because of the options at the parks

Most Unique Experience

Sunset Dinner cruise on the intracostal waterway on 80' yacht
Bike tour of the Everglades - yes we saw alligators

Best Maintenance Staff
Club Intrawest - Sandestin has the best MX staff by far. They are quick, friendly and helpful. Very, Very responsive!!

Best Resort on a Rainy Day
Club Intrawest - Sandestin Over the July 4th holiday it rained in Sandestin for 4 days. CI has a movie theater inside the resort (74 units at CI) so you didn't have to go
outside and get wet.
They also have a small gym and organized bingo and other games for the kids when it was raining. During brief periods when the rain stopped the CI pool deck is only steps
away from the lobby.

Of course every one is entitled to their opinion and yours will likely be different from mine. I would purchase any of the timeshares listed above over again except for Wyndham. They really give timeshares a bad name.

We are planning on doing this for another two years or so. Next year we plan on spending several months in the Caribbean and Europe and a whole month cruising.

 

[myxdvz]

I have been following your posts about this -- I'm really inspired!

I hope one day, we can do the same thing -- but that would be a long way to go, and we don't have enough TS to do it... yet.

 

[mom2rb]

Wow! Your year sounds great. Have you owned all of these timeshares for a while or did you just start collecting them?

 

[OhioDVC]

Wow! Your year sounds great. Have you owned all of these timeshares for a while or did you just start collecting them?

We've owned DVC for 20 years but not all at once. Started with 250points and end-up with 2670.

The other timeshares I'll purchased (on the resale market) over the last 3-4 years. We rented out excess inventory and gave weeks to friends and family until we were ready to go.

 

[vicki_c]

Sounds like a great year!

 

[edith76]

You'd be my husbands hero if I told him about your lifestyle. LOL. We spend at least 1/3 of the year in some type paid accommodations. Glad to see I'm not the only one with housekeeping issues with Wyndham. In Feb we stayed at 2 of them and had no problems but just spent 3 weeks at Bonnet Creek. Despite my best efforts our bathroom was never cleaned. Did manage to get sheets and towels changed on day 10 - but it took 3 days of trying and me working my way up the ladder. My comment was that they could certainly find me to try and sell me their timeshare but not to clean my room...

Had a different problem at the Wyndham in Kona several years ago. I had washed all our towels, folded them and put them in the closet. Housekeeping came in and took them.

 

[nunzia]

Wow..very interesting. Thanks

 

[dianeschlicht]

Managing all those timeshares and bookings sounds like a planning nightmare to me! I envy you doing it though!

What do you estimate your maintenance fees were to live that year in timeshares?

 

[WolfpackFan]

All I got to say is Wow!!! I am so envious.

 

[rutgers1]

I am not only curious about the maintenance fees for the year, but also what you plan on doing with them down the road....as in wayyy down the road when you are either no longer able to use them or, unfortunately, pass away.

Your situation with so many timeshares sounds like it could be a real nightmare down the line, as it could be hard to sell them, and most likely your relatives won't want to take on that many.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Awesome 48 weeks.... I'm hoping to spend 3 months in Hawaii when we retire. With banking and borrowing at both DVC and Marriott it might be possible...

 

[OhioDVC]

Managing all those timeshares and bookings sounds like a planning nightmare to me! I envy you doing it though!

What do you estimate your maintenance fees were to live that year in timeshares?

Maintenance fees run about $40,000 per year. This is not the cheapest way to live but we think it is awesome. It is a lot cheaper than paying rack rates. for example: 3 weeks at Aulani in an ocean view one bedroom cost about $6,000 in MX fees. If I paid retail for the room, it would have been around $20,000 with tax.

Overall costs run around $10-12K per month.

Planning isn't that bad. If you plan one to two weeks each week it take less than an hour a week to plan ahead. I'm usually making reservations 9-12 months out. When we travel by air their are more reservations for flights and rental cars, but it is not bad if you keep up with it. Plus with wireless connections I make a lot of reservation sitting at the beach or the pool. Right now I am booked up until June 2014 except for two weeks in March.

 

[OhioDVC]

I am not only curious about the maintenance fees for the year, but also what you plan on doing with them down the road....as in wayyy down the road when you are either no longer able to use them or, unfortunately, pass away.

Your situation with so many timeshares sounds like it could be a real nightmare down the line, as it could be hard to sell them, and most likely your relatives won't want to take on that many.

Long term I am keeping DVC and Fiesta Americana. My kids (23/25) are more than willing to take them off my hands. I am only 55 so I hope I have at least another 20 years to use DVC/FAVC. When we do settle down I will keep 4 months of timeshares for traveling.

I bought the rest of the timeshare off the resale market and I should say I stole them. I can dump all the rest for $1 a piece and still save money over a 4-5 year ownership. When the economy was at its worst recently I purchased timeshares very, very cheaply. If I have trouble selling I will rent them out. When I started collecting timeshare, I rented out extra inventory and had no problem covering MX fees plus a little extra.

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

WOW what a year This is the kind of thing people dream about doing or say they would love to do someday. Kuddo's to you for actually doing it!

Just a silly curious question... Did you eat in your villa's most of the time?

 

[AnnaS]

Loving your lifestyle - I think I can get used to it.

Thank you for sharing - very interesting

 

[tjcj]

Maintenance fees run about $40,000 per year. This is not the cheapest way to live but we think it is awesome. It is a lot cheaper than paying rack rates. for example: 3 weeks at Aulani in an ocean view one bedroom cost about $6,000 in MX fees. If I paid retail for the room, it would have been around $20,000 with tax.

Overall costs run around $10-12K per month.

Planning isn't that bad. If you plan one to two weeks each week it take less than an hour a week to plan ahead. I'm usually making reservations 9-12 months out. When we travel by air their are more reservations for flights and rental cars, but it is not bad if you keep up with it. Plus with wireless connections I make a lot of reservation sitting at the beach or the pool. Right now I am booked up until June 2014 except for two weeks in March.

Wow, and quite jealous of your lifestyle. So are you saying you need about 10-12K per month to cover everything (fees, transportation, food....)? Do you generally drive or fly?
Please keep us up to date, it's so interesting to hear this is possible.

 

[granmanh603]

Amazing. Love hearing your story. I remember when you first posted. I could never do bot love your story.

 

[parlay]

WOW! I am in awe! The planning and forethought! Thank you for sharing your adventure!

 

[Bellecruiser]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts. Please keep them coming! And thank you for your service!!

 

[TosaTrio]

Love your story! What was the longest you stayed in one place without moving? While it sounds like an awesome adventure, just thinking of the packing and unpacking had me tired.