Interval International Questions

[soozaay]

Has anyone ever used the Interval International program? We were considering using it for a week long stay in St. Maarten. The program seems great, but I'd like to hear if it's worth it to use your points or just pay out of pocket to stay at another resort. Is it worth it? And how exactly does it all work?

Thanks!

 

[Dean]

Has anyone ever used the Interval International program? We were considering using it for a week long stay in St. Maarten. The program seems great, but I'd like to hear if it's worth it to use your points or just pay out of pocket to stay at another resort. Is it worth it? And how exactly does it all work?

Thanks!

IMO, trading with II in general is not a good idea with limited exceptions. There are NO resorts on St. Marteen/Martin that are comparable to DVC but there are some fairly nice resorts. If you want a 1 BR it's likely reasonable if you've done your homework, an additional 110 points for a 2 BR is a bit much and I'd look at either renting a week or getting an exchange from one of the smaller independent exchange companies. Either way looking into the cost of renting vs using points and comparing head to head is always a good approach. In part it depends on when you want to go as Week 51-16 will be much tougher than the rest of the year including summer. One should be able to rent a 2 BR from $700 to easily under $2000 depending on the week.

 

[soozaay]

IMO, trading with II in general is not a good idea with limited exceptions. There are NO resorts on St. Marteen/Martin that are comparable to DVC but there are some fairly nice resorts. If you want a 1 BR it's likely reasonable if you've done your homework, an additional 110 points for a 2 BR is a bit much and I'd look at either renting a week or getting an exchange from one of the smaller independent exchange companies. Either way looking into the cost of renting vs using points and comparing head to head is always a good approach. In part it depends on when you want to go as Week 51-16 will be much tougher than the rest of the year including summer. One should be able to rent a 2 BR from $700 to easily under $2000 depending on the week.

Thanks Dean!
After reading the info on the dvcmember website, I was a bit confused and after looking at some of the resorts offered, it definitely wasn't the same as anything at Disney! I'm leaning towards just paying $$$ towards a stay in St. Maarten & use my points for something that's actually Disney.

 

[Dean]

Thanks Dean!
After reading the info on the dvcmember website, I was a bit confused and after looking at some of the resorts offered, it definitely wasn't the same as anything at Disney! I'm leaning towards just paying $$$ towards a stay in St. Maarten & use my points for something that's actually Disney.

Trading can be a good option but St. Marteen simply has lessor resorts that are cheaper and easier to get. You can likely rent something from an individual or one of the sites that excess inventory from the exchange companies ends up with. One thing you might consider is talking to the independents and see if you can trade a studio for a 1 BR or 1 BR for a 2 BR. Then you could reserve HH or OKW during slower times for less points. Trading DVC makes more sense for places like Aruba, Cancun, HI and the like if you already own DVC points.

 

[JudyS]

Has anyone ever used the Interval International program? We were considering using it for a week long stay in St. Maarten. The program seems great, but I'd like to hear if it's worth it to use your points or just pay out of pocket to stay at another resort. Is it worth it? And how exactly does it all work?

Thanks!

I use II tons and I love it, but I have never traded my DVC through them -- instead, after I bought DVC, I bought other timeshares specifically for II trading. I feel that my DVC points are too valuable to use for II trading. The only exception might be if I wanted to trade to an extremely high-quality resort that accepts DVC weeks as a trade, but will not accept the other resorts that I own. I know of only 3 resorts in this category -- Four Seasons Aviara, Four Seasons Troon North, and Franz Klemmer Lodge.

Dean knows his stuff! I agree with him, and would suggest either a direct trade for a St. Martin resort (maybe one-time use of 80-100 DVC points in exchange for a week in a nice 2 bdroom at St. Martin) or that you just rent what you want in St. Martin with cash. You could rent out/transfer out some points on the rent/trade board to generate the cash for the rental, if needed.

I don't know if you've been to St. Martin before or not, but my opinion of it is: great beach, good air connections to US, but way too crowded with lots of traffic. If it were me, I'd probably try to do a direct trade for the Marriott on St. Kitts. (St. Martin has way more nightlife/restaurants though, and nicer beaches, too. But St. Kitts is fascinating and unspoiled, plus they've got a Marriott.)

 

[tidefan]

We own a 2 Bdrm at the Royal Palm Beach Club in St Maarten and really like the resort. I think that Dean hit the assessment head on in that it is not quite as nice as DVC, but it is very nice (especially compared to some of the other ones on St Maarten) and is in the middle of all of the restaurants on Simpson Bay. Also, the rooms at the Royal Palm have been recently renovated and the whole place has been spruced up quite a bit. We own Week 45, but we usually go during that time. We bought this resale and paid less than 1/3 of our DVC payment for this timeshare and this year will make our 6th trip, so this is our "other" travel indulgence, however, once DD gets into school, this may become our II trader...

I also agree with JudyS that St Maarten is one of the more crowded islands, but it is not quite as bad as St Thomas in that regard. One nice thing about St Maarten is that Anguilla is just a 15 minute ferry ride away and makes for great day long beach trips where you truly feel like you have gotten away from everything, and no one has nicer beaches than Shoal Bay East on Anguilla.

If you do want St Maarten, I'd look to renting or a direct trade. Avoid the Atrium or Pelican (this would be OK, but they just built a new addition that blocks the ocean view from some of the units. I wouldn't want to trade into one of those). Flamingo would be OK, but we like Royal Palm better. Don't know about Oyster Bay.

Here is the view from our unit at Royal Palm taken a couple of years ago. Note that the Palapas are done now. Also, see the big green hillside area across the bay. Those are now taken up by Pelican Marina towers and those Pelican timeshare units on the hill are the ones with no ocean view):

Pinel Island, St Martin

Front Street, Philipsburg

Plane landing at SXM. Taken at Sunset Beach Bar on Maho Beach.

 

[soozaay]

Thanks everyone!

Tidefan....LOVE the photos! We've been to St. Maarten a couple of times, but only for a day at a time (stopped there on a couple of cruises), and loved it. Thanks for the suggestions on day trips off the island! I think we'll look into other trading options other than using our DVC for this island.