II search questions

[TXdeVille]

I really need to learn how to do all this stuff and figure out what I want to do. I only have a few years left to cram as much as I can before my oldest is off to college. Right now it is frustrating to try to figure all this out, make ressies, do searches, what about a back-up plan, etc. etc. Driving me to drink.....Anyone have any suggestions???

We just came back from WDW in January.

 

[Dean]

I really need to learn how to do all this stuff and figure out what I want to do. I only have a few years left to cram as much as I can before my oldest is off to college. Right now it is frustrating to try to figure all this out, make ressies, do searches, what about a back-up plan, etc. etc. Driving me to drink.....Anyone have any suggestions???

We just came back from WDW in January.

It's like anything else. There's a fairly steep learning curve early on but then it gets easier for those that actually put the effort into it.

 

[TXdeVille]

Thanks. Any pearls of wisdom from anyone would be great. Such as things that have been learned, found out, etc.

 

[tomandrobin]

To back-up what Dean is saying about the learning curve. I bought my first timeshare in Oct 05, and DVC in April 06. It took me a year to fully understand the timeshare system I had bought, about 6 months to understand DVC. I am still learning and trying to understand II. I have really progressed alot in the past year, but there are so many different aspects and levels to trading. Season, depositing, requesting, unit size, resort location, resort brand, resort priority, and so on.

Every now and then I peak at the Marriott's. Then that is another different whole system to learn about, and I quickly withdraw back to my Westin's.

 

[Dean]

Thanks. Any pearls of wisdom from anyone would be great. Such as things that have been learned, found out, etc.

From a DVC standpoint I've probably posted everything in the last few months. Given that it appears about to change, I'm not going to get very detailed today. My main words of wisdom are to plan well ahead, best for 2 years out, investigate the resorts thoroughly including likely availability, be realistic and be prepared to let the search run to at least 2-4 months before the possible travel before you give up. Make a backup plan like a DVC reservation or a cancelable rental. If you're using FF miles, book it and narrow your search and definitely get the cancelable rental in that situation. TUG (Timeshare Users Group) is a great place to investigate resorts but not the only one.