Questions about RCI resorts

[djpositivek]

We can get a coupon for a week at an RCI resort for a good price though a relative of my wife's.

She told us to check http://www.getawayweeks.com and see what was available for our dates.

Nothing is showing up yet but hopefully soon they will start popping up ? We're looking for something Feb. 2 or Feb. 3rd if the 2nd is not available.

I was looking at the RCI website to see the resorts available. Which resorts would you recommend and which ones should we stay away from. So far after reading some other posts I was thinking about Orange Lake, Sheraton Vistana or Hilton GVC at SW.

If I choose this resort, Orange Lake's River Island (#8881), does that mean it's in the new section close to the River Island ? There is also another one for OL listed as Orange Lake Country Club (#0670). Read some not so great reviews about the old section at Orange Lake. Would like to stay there if we could be booked in the new section close to the new water park.

We'll be going with our daughter and my parents so looking for 2 or 3 bedrooms. prefer something with pools and also children's pool/play area. Out daughter will be almost 1 yo. Close to Disney is good as we'll be going some days (if not all).

 

[pcgmom]

I don't have an answer for you, but your question has peaked my curiousity. We have reserved through RCI for Orange Lake, and I was not aware that there is another Orange Lake River Island listing. The RCI guide raved about OL, and I have read all kinds of reviews--some glowing and some awful--and I am a little nervous about our trip. We have stayed at Sheraton Vistana Villages, and it was really nice. I want to see what anyone else knows about OLRI, so please tell us someone!

 

[DianeV]

It's possible for those dates nothing will come up now..anything around Spring Break/Winter Break fills fast

 

[lawgs]

djpositivek

the likelihood of OLCC Vistana or HGVC showing up on getawayweeks .....is not very good....or slim to none...

RCI draws from different inventories for getawayweeks and it is also too early to be looking for Feb via that website ( there seems to be more inventory as you get closer to actual dates and/or shoulder seasons )


the one resort that might fill your needs would be a 3 bedroom at Cypress Pointe Phase I or II ( they have shown up on getaway weeks ) we just got back from florida and stayed in Phase I in a 3 bedroom

the second bedroom was a twin trundle bed lay out, the extra third bedroom was a "lock-off" but the tub/toilet area was not in a separate room just a continuation of the "lock-off" unit ( it did have a microwave/fridge setup ) guess since sometimes this is traded by owners as a one bedroom, it is more like a glorified studio room

thanks for posting the information about the "new number" designation for river island, that might be related to their new Global Access program which is points based and connected to RCI points which might mean it will not show up as a "week" exchange.....Orange Lake is designated as an RCI points resort on RCI 's website, but to this moment i have not seen any points chart relating to Orange Lake, maybe they made a change last week

on a side note where did you see the listing for #8881 Orange Lake River Island

they are in the process of "upgrading" the west village significantly ( we saw the model unit when we were there ) they started working on the upgrades beginning this september, but the timeline for the upgrades probably means it will be a while before the first 200 units they are working on will be offered ( they are starting with the 2000 numbered unit, the model was unit 2109 )

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We've stayed at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas and they were beautiful. The older section, Cypress Pointe, was just remodeled and the photos on their website make me want to return. It's very close to WDW.
We own a week at Summer Bay and it's just a little further than Orange Lake. It's very nice but there are plenty closer to WDW. I've heard Polynesian Isles is nice too. Bonnet Creek from Fairfield is very new and gets great reviews. If you're looking for something from RCI, have you checked their website? Before it was revamped, one could search resorts and get reviews without having to be a member. rci.com
Good luck

 

[lawgs]

pcgmom


if you are lucky/persistent, you might be able to convince them to put you into River Island, even though the word on the street is exchangers are placed in West Village usually.....

they seem to have some developer weeks open in River Island that they would put people into with the possibility of getting a sale if they take the sales presentation tour offered when you stay there

when we upgraded our ownership to river island, we were told it would be for RIver Island owners only, but that one has flown out the window now that OLCC has its own points program....if you get into Global Access and have enough points ....you can use them to "trade" into River Island ( our first stay at River Island will be next month, but when we toured the units last week while we were in florida, they looked very well appointed

river island is the first time that OLCC has ventured into 3 bedroom lockouts....the lockout bedroom has a full size fridge 2 burner hot plate washer dryer etc, but the "room" seemed big since the bedroom was a separate area as were the living/dining and kitchen ...it did not seem like a studio that you get with some "lock-offs"...one draw back with the lockout is they have no bath tub....just a shower ...that might be a negative for some ....

 

[djpositivek]

on a side note where did you see the listing for #8881 Orange Lake River Island

Just on the www.rci.com website under "resort directory". I searched under Florida - Orlando and it was on page 1 of 3 results.

Thanks for the info, I won't get my hopes up. I didn't see it listed under any other dates but thought maybe if I checked everyday it might show up. I'll look into Cypress Pointe. There are a few listings under the Cypress Point name, are they all good ? I see at least Cypress Point Grand Villas and Cypress Point Resort.

It appears that even though some of those resorts are available for RCI points that they are also available for weeks. They may never show up on the getaways website though

Here's the availability for the River Island according to the RCI site:

Check-in
Weeks: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Points: Sunday, Friday, Saturday
Check-in 16:00
Check-out 10:00

 

[U2_rocks!]

Just on the www.rci.com website under "resort directory". I searched under Florida - Orlando and it was on page 1 of 3 results.

Thanks for the info, I won't get my hopes up. I didn't see it listed under any other dates but thought maybe if I checked everyday it might show up. I'll look into Cypress Pointe. There are a few listings under the Cypress Point name, are they all good ? I see at least Cypress Point Grand Villas and Cypress Point Resort.

It appears that even though some of those resorts are available for RCI points that they are also available for weeks. They may never show up on the getaways website though

Here's the availability for the River Island according to the RCI site:

Check-in
Weeks: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Points: Sunday, Friday, Saturday
Check-in 16:00
Check-out 10:00

Cypress Pointe is smaller than Orange Lake and Vistana, but nice. We've exchanged into there for April/May next year, and I stayed there in March this year on a rental.

 

[lawgs]

djpositivek

thanks for the information, looked this afternoon but could not find it.....but with your excellent instructions will check now....i was actually "loggin in" on our accounts and the resort directory seemed different there ....go figure

the point requirements are different for river island, that is why they had to probably separate the numbers .....0670 and 8881

the cypress pointe resorts would be a good catch.....

polynesian isles is under the same sunterra banner ( a smaller resort just off of 192 and just a short distance from the new superwalmart on 535 at polynesian isle blvd ), the resort has been newly refurbished .....the only downside was you had to share the washer/dryer between two units since it was located OUTSIDE the unit....

if you can get cypress point go with it.....

your timelines are just before president's weeks if i am not mistaken and probably is a "shoulder" season, which is good

 

[djpositivek]

http://www.rci.com/RCIW/RCIW_index?body=RCIW_resortItemBody&layout=RCIW_layout&i_resort_id=8881&pageTitle=%20Resort&action=resortdir&orgPage=resortdetail

Is Cypress Pointe just 1 resort ? It shows up as Grand Villas and just "resort". Bonnett Creek is looking pretty nice too. I need to research these 2 a little more. Hopefully I'll get lucky and one of these will show up for my dates.

 

[lawgs]

djpositivek

thanks for the link....makes sense they would split this one out since the points needed are a bit higher than west, north and east villages in the global access point structure ( River Island is in the East Village area but set aparot by a woods area )



there are two phases to Cypress Point

Phase I which has just undergone total refurb ( they are replacing roof on all buildings now ) and Phase II which is the Grandvillas section ( working on roof but do not know what they have done to the interiors )

the phase one has three levels with no elevators....we were fortunate enough to get a ground floor unit....very easy to get luggage/groceries into ....the stairs would have been a hassle

the phase II Grandvillas have elevators

Phase I has regained or maintained its Gold Crown due to the renovations, Phase II is listed at Silver Crown, the managing company is VRI

Phase I is sold out not sure about Phase II

now to bonnet creek, it is very slim to none with regular RCI exchanges since most fairfield owners would have first crack at getting the units that come up, thus they are very rarely if ever "banked" into RCI inventory

wish they would point this out in the RCI inventory catalogue instead of "pumping" people up at sales presentation.....saying " look at all the resorts you can exchange into"....it just ain't so ....there are some resorts in that book that never have deposits

it would be almost impossible to find bonnet creek on getawayweeks, although early on when the resort was just "coming online". they did have availability through the Ready Set Go auctions on skyauction....that did not last very long......it would be a "very very very" good catch if you can do it

 

[gjw007]

lawgs;

Just a guess on my part, but I think OLCC is going to have the sections of the resorts as different resorts as it switches over to RCI Points. I could be wrong. The latest documents that I have from Orange Lake refer to the Orange Lake Family of Resorts and list the West Village, East Village, North Village, and River Island as the resorts. It could be doing the same as Vistana Resort which on II has different codes for the different sections of the resort. As I said, I could be wrong but time will tell. I've seen the listing for River Island under RCI's directory but no points total or availability. I haven't looked recently to see if this has changed. I would be curious to see what the availability of units are available for RI as I think most owners will be using the units the first few years with few available for exchange. I saw Bonnet Creek come on RCI about 2 years ago but I haven't seen it since (I'll admit that I don't check that often so there could have been some weeks listed but I missed them) and I think that RI might be just as difficult to get. Again, I could be wrong.

 

[lawgs]

gjw007

it seems the new point chart on RCI for #8881 Orange Lake River Island. reflects the "additional" points needed in Global Access to get into that section ( the points posted on RCI are exactly half Global Access Points )

the points requirement in Global Access for West North and East villages seem to be the same, only difference between the areas ....all do not have studio/one bedroom offerings

will be interesting to see if owners trying to exchange into River Island using either RCI points or Global Access points will be able to manage a "trade/exchange" if the inventory is "limited"

the sales manager we spoke to last week on our courtesy tour, stated they were about to put the shovel in the ground for the new buidlings ( 82000 series maybe ) and that it might or is going to be three and four bedroom units ( not sure if he meant the whole buidling or that each buidling will have a mix of those type of units on the ends like the present configuration...silly me should have thought to ask .....but then again we are there next month, will clarify that then )

 

[gjw007]

lawgs;

It will be interesting to see what happens. I was told that Spence Wilson has a different philosophy than did his father. I think some of the changes reflect that difference. I read somewhere that they just upgraded their computer system and promised certain deliverables at specific times. I think this was why they introduced the GoGlobal product before it was ready as there was the promise to management that certain things would happen at certain times and they wanted to honor that commitment even if they were not truly ready. I was told that they are going to be remodeling the clubhouse in the West Village starting in the fall so I would be curious to see if they actually got started. It needs a renovation. It wasn't designed for the doubling the size of the resort.

The last time I looked under RCI, there were no points in the points list but I don't check it out everyday. It will be interesting to see how difficult or easy it is to exchange into the RI area. When I visited OLCC a couple weeks ago, it was emphasized to me that they were still going to implement as much as possible the RI-owners policy in RI but I think this was just a bunch of croc as they violated that policy before the area even opened with the first guests in the area being exchangers (good for them). It is an integrity issue for me that they do what they state that they say they will do.

I stayed in the RI units in May. Of the styles at OLCC, I like this one the best. When I compare the West Village golf villas and the North/East Village units, there are things in both that I like that it makes it a toss-up (I like the larger living room area, being on the ground level unlike the East Village hires, the balcony that covers the width of the unit rather than just the bedroom area but I do like the larger master bedrooms and baths of the North/East Villages better).

Enjoy your trip.

 

[lawgs]

gjw007

he did state there was going to be renovations started for the studios/one bedroom ( which i thought he said were in the clubhouse area ) also when we asked about the west village model unit 2109 ( it is in the same cul de sac as our week 52 )

when we queried the sales manager about being told in january that OL would probably not being going to points by our sales person, he stated they have been "planning" this points change at the highest management levels at OL for over 4 years...which would seem to add credence to the "spence wilson" remark and why they brought in personnel from HGVC and Fairfield...along with their knowledge of the points systems operated by both ( the global access yearly fee is very similar to HGVC's ....and the way you access RCI is very similar with Global Access and HGVC, since on the first level of "exchange" you are not dealing with RCI directly

he said the west village remake to the model unit standards started september 1 with units 20xx being the first group being done, perhaps our unit will be one of the first 200 to receive the updating....

 

[gjw007]

lawgs;

I was told they were going to start with Kemmon's Place and the basement area. I didn't ask or press for further details as much as I wanted to comment that the clubhouse needed renovation done and see if they would acknowledge it. I was told that the decision for the transision from Weeks to Points had been going for over a year. It would make sense that this occured with the changing of the guard. Still, in this time period I had been told that OLCC would not be going to Points. Sales people will say anything!

I did end of going GoGlobal (I upgraded my week 50 to week 52 which brought all my weeks into the program) but I still wish they were more upfront with information.

 

[lawgs]

gjw007

how do they handle the "timeshare" leap year when you buy week 52

do they give you week 53 when it is applicable?

once every 5 years with our week 52 we get the week 53 for no cost to us, one of the reasons we would not want to give it up ( they did say it will count as Global Access points though which is not a bad option )

when we upgraded in january, there were not offering any week 52 upgrade or any high season for that matter, guess those things change as time goes along too....

the upgrade program was very generous to our way of thinking, a win win for both sides

on another side note, the sales manger said when asked about bringing other ownership weeks into the program that the fee was 75$ and they would take any RCI points resort...which would double into Global Access points,

at one point thought we had heard or read somewhere that they would take weeks resorts too ...sorta like PFD in RCI ....of course, now, if you have a week and try to use it in the RCI ....PFD program, it is not allowed anymore since RCI now considers Orange Lake to be a points resort


guess this aspect will need more clairification too...

how did you make out with respect to the tier LeVEl.....we would be just shy 2000 points to move into the second level, the sales manager seemed to suggest we could accomplish that by buying 2000 points from Global Access...an interesting possibility if they have not closed the door on that venue...

and apologies to OP .....since we have sorta got off tangent in directing our posts to OLCC .....but it is nice to get some feed back...

til then

smilawgs

 

[gjw007]

lawgs

Again sorry to the OP for getting this off subject.

I was told with week 52 I would be getting an extra week about every 6 years. Again at no additional cost but the purchase price of the week was a little higher (about $1300) than other high season weeks. By upgrading my week 50 into week 52, it brought all my weeks into the GoGlobal program. A little costly but if I had upgraded all three of my weeks it would have been almost $4000, not small change. I have three weeks all at RI during prime weeks so I end up in the premium level. Since I don't normally travel during prime weeks and one of the weeks I do go is a low week, I end of with 4 weeks of 2-bedroom units (1 low week, 3 medium demand weeks). I could get up to 8 weeks in a 1-bedroom depending on the season. I don't have enough vacation time to use all the weeks that I could but I have friends visiting me so the 2-bedroom units work well. I found no information in the packet about the upgrades or view guarantees that the salesperson stated so when I make my first reservation, I will find out. Although slighly more costly than just purchasing the GoGlobal entrance fee, the exchange from week 50 to week 52 in the long term this will work out but it is a hit in the short term.

In my view, the GoGlobal system is still working the bugs out of their system (it wasn't ready for prime time when it was announced) and my exchanging from week 50 to week 52 happened just before they got a notice that they couldn't make the change (the sales person called me to tell me that this went through just in time as they had a new directive) is an example of this. Now this could have been a sales ploy but the paperwork had already been sent out and returned via fax so the offer had been accepted at that point. I don't think there will be any further exchanges into week 52. Like you, I had been told earlier that I couldn't exchange into week 52 but that was during an onsite visits. But I don't think there is any problem exchanging into a high season, at least that was my impression.

Low weeks exchanged into a points system are worthless as you lose the ability to exchange (limited only to other low weeks while high weeks can choose any week they like as they have the points necessary) and it was the GoGlobal salesperson who suggested the exchange from my low week to a high week. The initial proposal was to purchase another week. I balked at that. I picked week 52 and he went along with it but as noted above, he did receive information that these were not be done in the future. All these issues should have been resolved before they introduced the program. I suspect further changes but the basic program is modeled after RCI Points.

I had been told about bringing in other resorts but I didn't inquire too much on the program. It was never mentioned about the resorts being in RCI let along weeks or points, so I just don't know much about it. I do have an RCI Points resort, Vacation Village at Parkway, that I use to exchange into other locations. Next summer I'm looking to go to Williamsburg and I've used it in Orlando to try different resorts. I did try to pin them down on the GoGlobal program as the information seems different depending who you get the information from. The best I got was that they have 40 pages of instructions but wanted to talk directly rather than just post information. I guess this sort of makes sense as it gives them an opportunity to sell the program and correct any misunderstandings.

 

[bunny213]

Hi...I hope you both don't mind, but I've been here in the background trying to understand..you both seem pretty knowledgeable about what is going on at OLCC. We own four weeks ...24,25 and 44,45. Are we going to be required to purchase "points" now? We usually use our weeks and don't exchange to other resorts - but we do usually exchange the 24 and 25 weeks for the first two weeks in May because of the weather and our children are grown now. Our trip is coming up the end of October and we usually do the sales meeting to get the golf deal - I think I would feel better about doing it if I understood a bit about it before we go down there. We did the tour of RI last May...it was beautiful, but we weren't interested buying...expecially after the prices they quoted...we bought our weeks when OL first opened at far less! Anyhow...thank you for posting everything that you have....in all the meetings that I've been to with those sales people...I always come away more confused than before.
Barb in Texas

 

[lawgs]

barb

no one is going to be required to join Global Access, you can continue doing as you do now

however, since OLCC is trying to take back control of the inventory from RCI, it might be harder to trade those early weeks ( not saying it is gonna be, just might be )

one of the reasons they gave for going to Global Access was the complaints from owners who were not getting exchanges through RCI and who were wanting to get back into OLCC on an internal exchange at a cheaper cost

according to the sales manager we spoke to last week, conversion of resale weeks will cost more than if you were "upgrading" to River Island, but as mentioned by gjw007, there are probably all sorts of "peculiarities/incentives" in who gets what, depending on the time you pursue the matter

in your situation it might pay to look at upgrading one week ( the upgrade price they offered us was very fair in our opinion win win for both sides ), bringing one week along with it into Gobal Access and leaving your weeks in october as they are.... of course, there are downsides to this ...since you would still have to maintain a weeks account and would only have access to RCI via Global Access layer .... this is presuming you do not have a RCI points account with other points in which case you would have "weeks" connected to that account ....

the program seems to be "evolving" and we will probably hear different things ( either present now and not disclosed or new features added ) when we are there next month

gary may have some other perspectives to add to this too....