New DVC owner wants to trade week off-site for points -- any reasonable offer!

[Sharper]

Help! We are brand new DVC owners. Last year, before we had a clue we'd be buying in to DVC, we traded time to Interval International from another timeshare in the hopes of staying at Disney. It has not worked out that we can vacation at the few times onsite accommodations have been available, so now we have two separate exchange weeks which must be used by April 4, 2003 (they can definitely be used separately for different dates and locations.)

I was on the verge of making reservations for spring break at a one-bedroom near Disney (such as Mariott's Grande Vista or Sheraton Vistana, both of which appear to be wonderful resorts) DH is absolutely having a fit about this. According to him he would rather spend less time in a studio than a week off-site in a one bedroom with full kitchen, jacuzzi, washer and dryer, etc. I had a light bulb go off and thought I would check to see if other DVC owners, less onsite Disney obsessed, might be amenable to a trade. If anyone would be interested transferring points for one or both weeks that would be great. I am VERY negotiable on the amount, because I realize that at this point we could select the most wonderful offsite resort and he would grumble regardless!

Again, besides the Grande Vista and the Vistana, there are many five-star resorts available between now and April 4th. (If anyone is a member of II already you can search the site - our exchange unit sleeps four, full kitchen, and they will upgrade one step, to a 2 bedroom, at the time of making a reservation if the larger unit is available.) If you don't have access to the II site, I can check availability at other resorts also, and these include the Westgates, Club Orlando, The Seasons, Marriott Cypress Harbour, Imperial Palms, Spas at Resort World, Isle of Bali, Blue Tree at Lake Buena Vista, Fairfield Star Island and many more just in the Orlando area. Also, the exchange would not even have to be an Orlando resort. II exchanges are available for all parts of the USA and internationally, so if you want me to check availability in the USA (maybe the mountains or out west or ??) or even Europe or Tunisia, I am willing! Perhaps you have a small number of points which will expire before you can return to Disney, but your family would enjoy a week at a five-star resort nearer to home?

Thanks and maybe we can work out a trade that makes everyone, including my grumpy, stubborn DH, happy!

 

[Sharper]

ttt

Maybe cheap separate accommodations for those tag-along relatives?

 

[SeaWitch]

Sorry, I am using my points in a few days! But a suggestion... If you don't get any takers soon, you might try going ahead and reserving a busy/high value week (like you mentioned Spring Break) or maybe Easter week and then you could offer it up for trade to someone with a studio at DVC... "your studio for my 1 bedroom" ???

You could even sell the week outright (you could even put it up for sale on Ebay).. then just use the money to 'borrow' points from another DVC member.

Just a suggestion...

 

[Sharper]

The reason I wanted to wait to make a reservation was that with Interval International once the reservation is made it can't be changed. I was trying to leave someone leeway if their spring break was a different time, or they preferred to travel Valentine's week or whatever. I know that lots of people really like the flexibility and travel options of II, but for us, in our current Disney excitement, it doesn't work well.

I think that I will give it a short time to see if someone needs another date or location then make Sheraton Vistana reservations. We can keep one and surely locate someone to take the other.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion!