"Refinement" of Concierge Collection

[flechette]

Is the Alaska Cruise option going away too then?

In the 2008 Point charts it says must be booked Jan 31 2008 and Cruise must start by May 31st 2008~


I am sorry to see the Charleston option go, but I wonder how much the new availablity for partial week II exchanges affected this "refinement"

 

[eva]

It looks like most of the Adventurer's Collection is going out the door too. When you open the point charts for those, check out the double asterisk comments at the bottom. It is saying the same thing about making reservations by January 31 and trips must begin by May 31s on all but a couple of tours. I wonder if DVC is taking the CC and AC exchanges out of the mix all together. Maybe it has something to do with adding Adventures by Disney and the two new cruise ships coming out in 2011 and 2012. It could be that they are trying to streamline things a bit by just offering Disney vacations or II trades. I do agree with most that the points are awfully high for both those collections. But the kicker is going to be what to do with reservation points, if you need to cancel a cruise or ABD. Before you could at least take a short vacation to hotel or resort close by if worse came to worse.

 

[LIFERBABE]

But the kicker is going to be what to do with reservation points, if you need to cancel a cruise or ABD. Before you could at least take a short vacation to hotel or resort close by if worse came to worse.
__________________

Another reason not to use points for the cruise. You may get stuck with reservation points with very few options.

Jim Lewis said on the Member Cruise 2006 (if you read between the lines) that he wanted to get rid of the exchanging. It seems he is getting his way with these new changes and then the $95 fee to trade into the Disney Collection.

I agree, that it seems he is opening us up to more competition with II by opening up the floodgates to allow them to trade in, when the majority of us dont trade out.

At this point, I would rather see all trading ceased than what is currently happening. DVC points for DVC stays only, nothing else.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We have our first exchange going out for July 2008 - we booked at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, DC. I was glad to see it was still there (whew) since we're planning to stay 6-nights. For us, we'd never be able to stay there if we had to spend cash directly out of our pocket (online rate was $790/night plus 14.5% tax for the time we're going), and with the $95 reservation fee, we only pay that the once for the reservation where if we were hotel-hopping, that would price us out. I can see where if you wanted to stay just a night or two, the $95 reservation fee plus the point-cost (I figured our value is $18/point for our stay) just doesn't make much sense for a short stay.

I am curious about how the online reservations will work for II that I saw mentioned... "Members will be able to make direct Interval International exchanges online beginning in spring 2008. "

 

[JimMIA]

This is not an option we've ever used, so we won't miss it. I do agree, though, that these changes will reduce the options for members stuck with a handful of points they can't use for some reason.

I am starting to get a mild allergic reaction whenever I hear words like "streamline" or "refine" from DVC.

 

[LIFERBABE]

I am starting to get a mild allergic reaction whenever I hear words like "streamline" or "refine" from DVC.

Add "simplification", "15 more magical years", "LIEN", Tapestry, and "stuffy, fever so you can rest medicine"

That's DVC's version of NyQuil

 

[DisDaydreamer]

No, it's still there.

Most of the options going away are in areas where timeshare exchanges are a reasonable option though there was one or two that are still on the list where that is likely true as well. Give that only 11 options will remain assuming no new ones are added and a number of the ones leaving have been on board a while, it makes me wonder if they are phasing out the CC. This would make sense to me as I know they've gotten a fair amount of complaints over the years about the number of points required and the utilization overall has been very low. I also wonder if they're having trouble getting the cash from cash rentals to pay for the options and figured it was time to put a stop to the bleeding.

Bingo... I think you are right. It is all business and some of it is just a lack of bookings and the other resort is no longer intrerested. Just not enough interest (or bookings) to keep the outside resorts interested. With that considered... why would Disney continue to subsidize.

 

[jodifla]

The Grand Hotel got refined away! 14 out of 25 of the Concierge Collection got refined away. This is not good!

Oh no! and we had wanted to try this!!

 

[jodifla]

OK, here's something pretty danged idiotic on the charts.

They say you have to have your travel completed by May 31, but then they list point values throughout the whole year for all the hotels.

What's up with that?????

 

[deerh]

I agree with JLS, an option that was "way out of line point wise" for us (my family) to use.. Why spend 60 pts a night, when you can easily 'rent out' points to stay at these places??

But, as a 9 year owner of DVC, do I like the way some things are going???
NO!!!

deerh

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

We have our first exchange going out for July 2008 - we booked at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, DC. I was glad to see it was still there (whew) since we're planning to stay 6-nights. For us, we'd never be able to stay there if we had to spend cash directly out of our pocket (online rate was $790/night plus 14.5% tax for the time we're going), and with the $95 reservation fee, we only pay that the once for the reservation where if we were hotel-hopping, that would price us out. I can see where if you wanted to stay just a night or two, the $95 reservation fee plus the point-cost (I figured our value is $18/point for our stay) just doesn't make much sense for a short stay.

I am curious about how the online reservations will work for II that I saw mentioned... "Members will be able to make direct Interval International exchanges online beginning in spring 2008. "

How many points will that stay take? I bought resale, finally closed 2 weeks ago, but still haven't received anything from DVC or The Timeshare Store other than notifying me it closed. I don't have the point chart or anything else. Is there a link on here somewhere so I can look at it?

 

[Dean]

OK, here's something pretty danged idiotic on the charts.

They say you have to have your travel completed by May 31, but then they list point values throughout the whole year for all the hotels.

What's up with that?????

It's simply a way to have one chart rather than two separate ones.

 

[jodifla]

It's simply a way to have one chart rather than two separate ones.

But why list points for June on half the hotels when you can't stay there after May?

 

[Dean]

But why list points for June on half the hotels when you can't stay there after May?

It's just one way of doing it. They aren't listing points for June on per se, just listing them for the entire year with a disclaimer they only apply as discussed. I'm guessing they simply took last years points charts they'd already done up and made the changes without trying to go through each resort and adjust individually. Or possibly that they hope something will change and those options will actually cont to be part of the program. You might want to ask DVC but I don't think any answer you'd get from a front line CM would give you anything you don't know now and I'd say would be likely to confuse the picture even more.

 

[mule714]

What a bummer. I just realized what happened as I went to book a vacation at Shutters.