Hawaii - Maui Ka'anapali Beach Club points question

[JoRo]

Hi I am a newbie contracts in the mail so thanks for the help.

Our guide said to look at the book for RCI exchange rates and for mid season (no dates in catalog) a studio is 15 pt and one bedrom is 16 sun - thurs. Does this sound correct?

Also looks like there are only two resorts on Maui through RCI for 2009. Or the Concierge Grand Wailea but its more then we want to use we want to save for DL/WDW.

We only need 2 nights because we are tacking the nights onto a free trip we have

I did approx point to $$ value based on other threads I saw so if points are worth approx $106/50=2.12 plus MF (approx. $6) then is would be $6 * 16 = $96 a night approx - which seems like a great RCI exchange point value?

Thanks for the time.

 

[Dean]

KBC is fine, not great, but fine. It's unlikely you'd get that resort and essentially impossible to get it for 2 days. Plus if you did get it for only 2 days you'd end up with an exchange fee AND a housekeeping fee ($35-50 usually). Exchanging to good resorts is difficult, exchanging to good resorts that work with RCI points for only a few days is almost impossible and exchanging to RCI non points resorts for less than a week truly is essentially impossible.

 

[Neriberi]

I was speaking with MS and they said Hawaii and NY hotels were always high season, among some other locations...

 

[Belle & Ariel]

If you are a beach person, you would be much happier in the Kaanapali area than Wailea. Wailea is prime real estate, but the beach in not nearly as nice. It is very windy and not as pretty. If you snorkel or dive, the Black Rock area at Kaanapali cannot be beat. It is close to a lot of great beaches and Lahaina too.
I'm jealous!

 

[Dean]

I was speaking with MS and they said Hawaii and NY hotels were always high season, among some other locations...

I would be surprised if this were true. HI is RED time year around but that does not mean it's DVC HIGH season all year. With II, HI was HIGH season about 60% of the time MID for most of the rest and LOW for a few weeks. Expect Xmas to the last week of Dec to be HIGH, early Dec LOW and the rest MID. It might vary by resort and if it does, only the Hilton would be the one to expect a longer HIGH season as a possibility.

 

[TnRobin]

When DVC was with II, we stayed at the Westin Ka'anapali Resort. We loved it and the location. I have to agree with everyone about the locations. We drove down to see the Wailea resort, but it seemed like it was in the middle of no-where. Ka'anapali is a great location -near plenty of restaurants, shopping, etc.

 

[Anal Annie]

I am so sad about the choices offered thru RCI for Maui. When we had II and could book either the Marriott or the Westin THAT was a good deal... I don't know about the RCI seasons for HI but think with the limited choices offered I'd just book something on Maui with cash.

We have stayed in both Wailea and Kaanapali... Wailea has more "upscale resort types" and Kaanapali has a little more going on and from Black Rock you can walk to shopping & restaurants in Lahaina. I agree that the beach in Wailea is not quite as nice (it's rockier) but it's a nice area, it's just got a different "feel" than Kaanapali.

OP - if you belong, you can get some decent cash rates thru Costco for places like the Sheraton at Black Rock in Kaanapali...it has a really nice beach, offshore snorkeling, nightly torch lighting ceremony etc. It is about a 10 min. walk to the shopping center in Lahaina. I forget the name of the place, but we stayed in a condo in Kaanapali once that was sub-par (a bit sceevy actually) so I am leary about staying at some of these places again and will only go to properties that I"m familiar with. We discovered that individually owned units varied in maintenance & furnishings so now I won't rent a condo like that again.

Do some research on Trip Advisor before booking anything if your not familiar with the properties.

 

[JoRo]

Thanks for much for all the feedback - I love this site.

I am a little disappointed however do understand that we probably wont be able to just book two nights - we wanted to be able to take advantage of our points, even if its not the best trade its better to save the cash for happy hour HAHAHA.

It does sound like a nice place to stay in that area - then we get to go to the fairmount Marriot for free for the rest of the week - down near Wailea. DH bonus for slaving I mean working really hard for the last year at work.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

I would try vrbo.com. if you are going the cash route. I would maybe try the Whaler. I would definitely spend a few nights in West Maui before heading south to the Marriot.