Anaheim Timeshares?

[OhioStateBuckeye]

My grandmother has given me one of her timeshare transfer weeks. I want to use it for roughly end of February/beginning of March. With this time share company, you can only call 45 days out to reserve a room, so I've pretty much given up any hope of getting the Grand Californian (won't stop me from trying though, you never know). The other 2 places I can trade for are Worldmark Anaheim on Katella and the Peacock Suites on Anaheim Blvd.

Has anyone heard of/stayed at my second 2 choices?

 

[nikkislaght]

We stay at the Worldmark...

And love it... they have everything you could need...

Pros....


the staff are friendly and willing to help with your needs...

There is a business center where you can get online and print tickets , maps etc free of charge.

a gym.

pool with a couple of hot tubs. BBQ area
from the roof you can see the fireworks very well.
and there is a roof top hot tub.

A nice waiting area with a fire place,
they have a comp coffee and tea area .
a little store that is very reasonable prices...

its close to Vons for groceries.. across the road is a 7/11 and the greyhound pick up bus stop if you are doing greyhound tours... although if you are up to it . you can walk to the greyhound depot from the hotel...

it is on Art route 8 or 9 cant remember, but they are the last pick up so you go straight from Worldmark to D/L..

and good underground parking that comes with the room..

they are happy to store your bags if you get in early on your check in day or departure day....

this hotel is very close to Bubba gumps. The Cheese Cake factory. and Smicks and cant think of the second part of the name..

The garden place ??.. shopping center is within walking distance too...

cons...

SOOOOOOOOO slow elevators.... they now have 3 but they are slow... so try and avoid busy times..

they WILL try and get you to buy into the time share.. if you tell them straight away that you dont have a credit card they will leave you alone ..

cant think of anything else at the moment.. Im sure others can chip in with more info....


Have a great trip.

 

[Jperiod]

Is this RCI? If so, there are easier, more effective ways to use it. VGC won't happen, and others might be hard too. Dolphin's Cove is in RCI too, which is where we own. Timeshares are usually used/reserved months ahead. I don't think there is anything in RCI for 2013the right now. I just booked December 2014 though!

 

[bcla]

We recently went through a timeshare presentation. We were almost on the way out when the last guy hit us with an offer for under $5000 for a week every other year which supposedly gave us enough points to book a vacation every year on discount RCI points if we booked 2 to 30 days in advance.

We figured that it was too good to be true since most places we would want to visit would probably have already been booked before anyone could come in on the discounted points plan.

 

[MillauFr]

Many people are giving away their timeshares for free. They just want to get out of paying the maintenance fees. Just look on red week . com if you are interested.

 

[Jperiod]

eBay! My week was? $127 and I pay about $800 yearly in maintenance fees for a 2 bedroom (that I rent out during holiday weeks). Buy resale or rent from an owner.

 

[bcla]

Many people are giving away their timeshares for free. They just want to get out of paying the maintenance fees. Just look on red week . com if you are interested.

I figured the freebies we were getting must be paid somehow. I understand that half the costs go into marketing and sales commissions for new timeshare sales. We looked up the one they were trying to sell to us for $41K, then $27K, then progressively cheaper and cheaper. I got curious and looked up a resale for the same timeshare. It was about $5K and I think we could have bargained it down even lower.

In the end we didn't want to worry about the maintenance fees as well as special assessments (the one trap that sales personnel never mention).

 

[pixiewings71]

We own with Shell so we stay at the Peacock a lot, rooms are spacious and recently remodeled, staff if friendly. If you have a car you must valet, no choice, I believe it's $10 per day, the valets are very nice. We walked a couple times when it was just DBF and I, I feel it's too far with the kids but we would do it if they wanted to. We don't do ART, we normally have an AP that has free parking so we drive and park, either in the M&F structure or the TS lot, both are easy but I think the TS lot is easier. It's walking distance from the GW so it's easy to walk over there for a quick bite if you want. We don't have too many complaints about the Peacock.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We stay at the Worldmark...

And love it... they have everything you could need...

Pros....


the staff are friendly and willing to help with your needs...

There is a business center where you can get online and print tickets , maps etc free of charge.

a gym.

pool with a couple of hot tubs. BBQ area
from the roof you can see the fireworks very well.
and there is a roof top hot tub.

A nice waiting area with a fire place,
they have a comp coffee and tea area .
a little store that is very reasonable prices...

its close to Vons for groceries.. across the road is a 7/11 and the greyhound pick up bus stop if you are doing greyhound tours... although if you are up to it . you can walk to the greyhound depot from the hotel...

it is on Art route 8 or 9 cant remember, but they are the last pick up so you go straight from Worldmark to D/L..

and good underground parking that comes with the room..

they are happy to store your bags if you get in early on your check in day or departure day....

this hotel is very close to Bubba gumps. The Cheese Cake factory. and Smicks and cant think of the second part of the name..

The garden place ??.. shopping center is within walking distance too...

cons...

SOOOOOOOOO slow elevators.... they now have 3 but they are slow... so try and avoid busy times..

they WILL try and get you to buy into the time share.. if you tell them straight away that you dont have a credit card they will leave you alone ..

cant think of anything else at the moment.. Im sure others can chip in with more info....


Have a great trip.

Wow that was some amazing info. One more question, do you know if there is a fee for parking?

I just realized this must be right next to where we stayed out first trip, the Super 8. So it'd actually be a shorter walk than we are used to.

Is this RCI? If so, there are easier, more effective ways to use it. VGC won't happen, and others might be hard too. Dolphin's Cove is in RCI too, which is where we own. Timeshares are usually used/reserved months ahead. I don't think there is anything in RCI for 2013the right now. I just booked December 2014 though!

It is RCI. What do you mean easier and more effective ways to use it? Like I said before, it is my Grandma's time share, she owns in Massanutten Virginia but I guess she also gets 2 bonus weeks now that she can trade for. I am not really familiar with the company or with timeshares in general and I am just going off the scant info she was able to provide me. Also talked to a rep on the phone who told me I couldn't book ahead more than 45 days in advance, how could you book a year ahead?

We own with Shell so we stay at the Peacock a lot, rooms are spacious and recently remodeled, staff if friendly. If you have a car you must valet, no choice, I believe it's $10 per day, the valets are very nice. We walked a couple times when it was just DBF and I, I feel it's too far with the kids but we would do it if they wanted to. We don't do ART, we normally have an AP that has free parking so we drive and park, either in the M&F structure or the TS lot, both are easy but I think the TS lot is easier. It's walking distance from the GW so it's easy to walk over there for a quick bite if you want. We don't have too many complaints about the Peacock.

That parking cost doesn't sound great, but probably whichever place we get to stay at will have parking costs. Thanks for the info.

 

[taaren]

Keep in mind also that there's some timeshares in Newport Beach you might be able to trade into if Worldmark doesn't have availability, and its not too long of a drive. The Marriott there is lovely, though it isn't RCI, its Interval International, but there are a bunch of others ... and its nice to combine a beach vacation with Disney. In fact, Disney Vacation Development at one time owned the land the Marriott Newport Beach sits on and sold it to them when they decided not to develop there.

 

[bcla]

It is RCI. What do you mean easier and more effective ways to use it? Like I said before, it is my Grandma's time share, she owns in Massanutten Virginia but I guess she also gets 2 bonus weeks now that she can trade for. I am not really familiar with the company or with timeshares in general and I am just going off the scant info she was able to provide me. Also talked to a rep on the phone who told me I couldn't book ahead more than 45 days in advance, how could you book a year ahead

It sounds like she might be dealing with RCI's program where they steeply discount the number of points needed if booked 2 to 45 days in advance. This is their program where one can get 45 day advance reservations on cash alone, but I remember hearing about a similar program with points during a timeshare presentation.

http://pgs.rci.com/landing/ptr/lastcall/index.html

They're basically dealing with inventory that they figure will probably go unused if they don't unload it soon. Most of the popular spots will be booked as soon as possible with full points. I can almost guarantee you that the Grand Californian Villas are gone within days of them being available on full points.

 

[nikkislaght]

Wow that was some amazing info. One more question, do you know if there is a fee for parking?



Most welcome... and are far as I recall. there is no parking fee for the parking . although we were only overnight.. so I dont know if they would charge for longer..

the other thing I forgot to include as a Con..
you have to pay for WI-FI

here is a link to Worldmark

https://www.worldmarktheclub.com/resorts/aa/#parking

 

[Brian Noble]

Deposits at WorldMark and Dolphin's cove have already come and gone for this winter/spring in RCI. You will be lucky to find anything, and should also make backup plans.

 

[starshine514]

Deposits at WorldMark and Dolphin's cove have already come and gone for this winter/spring in RCI. You will be lucky to find anything, and should also make backup plans.

I agree. We trade through II, not RCI, but I think I once saw a week at Peacock Suites available (in February), but normally when I go in and check, the closest I can get to Anaheim is Escondido! I hope you are able to get a resort, but I also recommend a backup plan.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Deposits at WorldMark and Dolphin's cove have already come and gone for this winter/spring in RCI. You will be lucky to find anything, and should also make backup plans.

I second that. I'll be staying 2 nights at Dolphins Cove at the end of the month (we own in Worldmark). Grand Californian is a pipe dream, I've only seen it on RCI once EVER!.

I just looked at RCI and Dophin's Cove has nothing available until 2014 and Peacock has 1 available unit in October. Nothing in Worldmark Anaheim.

 

[bcla]

I second that. I'll be staying 2 nights at Dolphins Cove at the end of the month (we own in Worldmark). Grand Californian is a pipe dream, I've only seen it on RCI once EVER!.

I just looked at RCI and Dophin's Cove has nothing available until 2014 and Peacock has 1 available unit in October. Nothing in Worldmark Anaheim.

And of course our timeshare sales guy didn't tell us that about the Grand Californian.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I probably should have guessed or figured this stuff out for myself sooner. Just reinforces my view that timeshares are probably not for me. Not sure why a company would offer the bonus weeks if no places have availability (well, you guys told me why they do that so I guess I do know, to move little used inventory and pass it off as a perk).

Ah well, maybe HOJO's will put out those retro rates. I haven't seen any dates for February or March...maybe I missed em.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

And of course our timeshare sales guy didn't tell us that about the Grand Californian.

It only gets deposited if an owner trades out. And there are so few rooms at VGC, that it just doesn't happen very often. I have gotten WDW onsite.

Also its about where you own and your trading power. I know some timeshares have to trade 2 red weeks of theirs to get 1 week at WDW.

 

[hjgaus]

I second that. I'll be staying 2 nights at Dolphins Cove at the end of the month (we own in Worldmark). Grand Californian is a pipe dream, I've only seen it on RCI once EVER!.

I just looked at RCI and Dophin's Cove has nothing available until 2014 and Peacock has 1 available unit in October. Nothing in Worldmark Anaheim.

We use our La Jolla timeshare to trade w/RCI & I have NEVER seen Grand Californian available with RCI! ONLY WDW Resorts which would MOSTLY be Old Key West or Saratoga Springs. & has not yet matched any of our dates needed. Although good to know it CAN be possible to trade INTO DVC without using MY present DVC! That's okay cuz I already own @ VGC!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We use our La Jolla timeshare to trade w/RCI & I have NEVER seen Grand Californian available with RCI! ONLY WDW Resorts which would MOSTLY be Old Key West or Saratoga Springs. & has not yet matched any of our dates needed. Although good to know it CAN be possible to trade INTO DVC without using MY present DVC! That's okay cuz I already own @ VGC!

It was a couple of years ago. I lucked out and got 2 consecutive weeks in a 2 bedroom at BCV (originally had BCV and OKW, but the OKW week came up at BCV so I switched)...of course I also went in early September. WDW usually only shows up in the summer. Though last June they had a 2BR at AKL for the week of XMAS!!!