I whole heartedly recommend
DVC plus Marriott as good complements. As to what's best for any individual person depends on their situation, where they live, their family size, when they can/like to travel, budget, and sense of adventure. What is best for one could be totally wrong for another.
First, the only things you lose buying resale are two. You lose the points options as noted and you lose the option of a personal advisor. While you may hear other things that resale buyers don't get like the internal trading priority or the Marriott desk at II, both claims would be false.
Decide where you want to go most and how the above variables fit your situations. I will give some variables and thoughts for you to consider. Some resorts are fixed weeks and others are floating. Some are lockoff's and others not. Remember if you're looking off season, you might be just as well off with a non Marriott trading to Marriott, even with the fee being higher by $50.
Here are some thoughts:
- You could buy something closer to home like Williamsburg or NJ. Some of these units are lockoff's where you could trade for two weeks instead of one.
- You could go with a beach week like at HH, Ftl Lauderdale, Aruba or Ocean Pointe and combine with a DVC trip.
- You could look for a cheaper, older Marriott that has lower fees.
Some potential problems with MVCI floating weeks is that if you only own one week, half the units could be gone when you want to travel due to Marriott allowing multiple week owners to book at 13 months if using concurrently or consecutively. You MUST book at exactly 12 or 13 months out for anything that others also might want. Dues are still pretty high. You must pay to belong to II every year.
Fixed week resorts tend to be cheaper but not trade as well, at least for the top Marriott's. Resale tends to be cheaper, how much depends on the resort. Some of the fixed week resorts don't have points anyway so that negative drops out with Harbour Pointe and some of the Vail units. Many Marriott options have the same problem as DVC, too expensive and many trades are a down trade.
I hope my ramblings have been helpful, let me know if there is other info you'd like. If you want to give me more specifics as to you usual travel habits, family size, budget, and the like; I'll try to offer more specific suggestions.
