Hawaii exchanges

[gillie]

Just wondering if any DVCer's out there have exchanged points
for a vacation in Hawaii. If so, what island and what hotel
would you recommend. Thanks.

 

[njzieglers]

this past summer we used points for 2 rooms at the kapalua bay resort on maui. it's a beautiful resort and everything went perfectly, almost disney-like.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We did a full week exchange to the Big Island at the Kona Coast II for this spring, but have not yet gone on the trip.

 

[travelbug]

We are using points for 8 nights at Mauna Lani Bay resort on the Big Island. We leave 4 weeks from today!

I'll post a report when we're back. We're getting very excited!

 

[gillie]

Thanks so far for the replies to my first post. If someone could
tell me how many points you have to use for these exchanges
to Hawaii, I would appreciate that info also. My husband and
I are planning to let our son use our points next year for his
honeymoon in July. They want to go for two weeks so we
were going to try and see if it would work out to split the
honeymoon at two different resorts for each week. We don't
know how difficult that would be. Also did you get your first
choice of a resort when you made the exchange?

 

[Ukladmok]

My wife and I used our DVC points for our Honeymoon at Kapalua Bay Resort this past November. (We bought into DVC the week after we got engaged in WDW.) Off the top of my head I believe it was 53 points a night (for ocean view, garden views were around 50. But the ocean view was definitely worth the extra points.) Kapalua Bay had a deal that if you stayed 5 nights you got a 6th night for free. Not sure if they still are doing this but considering how desperate the travel industry is right now, I would assume it still is in effect (or maybe even something better!!)

We ended up staying there for 12 days because of this deal and enjoyed every minute of it. The Kapalua Bay is a BEAUTIFUL hotel with an excellent staff. It’s located about ten minutes north of Laheina, which is the central location for just about everything on that side of Maui. You could do as much (or as little) as you wanted to every day.

As far as having any difficulty getting the exchange I think it took all of one phone call and about ten minutes. That was it.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by gillie
Thanks so far for the replies to my first post. If someone could
tell me how many points you have to use for these exchanges
to Hawaii, I would appreciate that info also.

There are two ways to use DVC points to stay in Hawaii:

• Concierge Collection (CC). The point requirements are published in the Member Guidebook. These are full-service, deluxe resorts such as the Kapalua Bay Resort. You get all the services of a deluxe resort, such as daily (or even twice daily) housekeeping. The points per night are high, but you can stay any number of nights.
• Interval International (II) exchanges, arranged by DVC Member Services. These are timeshare resorts. DVC only lists the top tier of II-affiated timeshare resorts, but that still doesn't mean they're as good as DVC resorts (although some are). As at DVC resorts, you don't get daily housekeeping. Stays are always for 7-nights. The number of points is based on a comparable week at a DVC resort. This can be a good use of DVC points if you're lucky enough to get an exchange into a top timeshare resort, such as one of the Hawaiian Marriotts or the new Westin that's under construction on Maui. Successfully getting an exchange is a matter of timing and luck. As a DVC member you may have an advantage over owners of lower-demand timeshares, but you're still at a disadvantage compared to owners of other timesshares managed by the same company -- such as Marriott owners who have a priority when trading into Hawaiian Marriotts and Starwood (Sheraton, Westin) owners who will enjoy a priority trading into the Westin.

Originally posted by gillie
My husband and
I are planning to let our son use our points next year for his
honeymoon in July. They want to go for two weeks so we
were going to try and see if it would work out to split the
honeymoon at two different resorts for each week. We don't
know how difficult that would be. Also did you get your first
choice of a resort when you made the exchange?

I'm not sure I'm reading this right. If you mean a full week at each of two different resorts, then two II exchanges could work. If you really mean two different resorts for each week, then you couldn't use II, but Concierge Collection might be an option -- except that their aren't four different CC resorts in Hawaii -- only two.

 

[Dean]

What Werner said! But I would add a couple of thoughts. First is that the CC options can be scheduled directly but are a lot of points. For a full 2 weeks, your looking at somewhere around 700 points the two hotels. For a full 2 weeks with II, it depends on what unit size but somewhere around 200 points for studios and about double that for 1 BR and tripple for 2 BR units. Generally, studios are the easiest to get for the resorts that have them but some have NO kitchen and most have a partial kitchen similar to the DVC studio.

It all depends on you priorities and need for control. II will be a gamble that might or might not work out. A backup plan with a hotel reservation would be a good idea if one choses the II route. That way you could go ahead and make air line reservations.

There are a couple of other options though. One is direct exchanges with members at one of the resorts there. The other is the use of independent exchange compnaies like San Francisco Exchange and Trading places. Frankly, this may be your best option and your cheapest option. You can likely get a bonus week and therefor get 2 weeks for the price of one thorugh SFX.

The resorts I'd consider as an EVEN exchange for DVC are Sands of Kahana, Embassy, Marriott, Westin, One Napili, Whaler and possible Maui Lei on Maui. For Oahu, I'd only consider the new Marriott (when it opens) and the Hilton. For Kauai, it's be the Embassy, Hanalei Bay, Puhio at Shearwater, Marriott's (two when the second opens). For the Big Island, it's be Kona Coast and Bay Club. I'd also ad a few other resorts for an uneven exchange, bonus weeks, direct rentals and the like to include the Lawaii Beach, Schooner, Makai Cottages, several other Pahio resorts. Intrawest, Papakae, Imperial in Waikiki, Maui Vacation Club come to mind.

Many of these are not available through a direct II DVC exchange and a few are not even with II. SFX gets a lot of Embassy weeks and TP get Maui Lei, Schooner, Bay Club and Lawaii Beach.

Of course if you're looking at July, 2002; you are way behind using exchanges but I would still give it a try.