RCI Is anything every available???

[Dean]

Oh Boy!!!
This may be a big, big problem for me. My father (and I) just signed contracts on a BLT resale my dad bought the DVC fully believing that my brother and I could share it, see the problem is my brother despises Disney and will never set foot there again and my father thought the DVC would work out great for us so DH and I can take my kids to WDW and my brother and his wife can go other places. This is very concerning to me. When we took the DVC tour we were assured that this was not an issue. I seriously may have to pull out of this contract and scrap the DVC!
Thanks for starting this thread. This is invaluable info I got here tonight!!!!

If you're within your cancelation window, back out until you further understand what you're getting into.

 

[ssawka]

If I wanted to stay only at Aulani, I might do that, but I never do that kind of vacation. When we vacation (yes, even in the islands), we spend most of our time touring and exploring. We aren't sit by the beach and do nothing type people. Since Aulani is quite remote, it makes exploring the rest of the island difficult. Add to that the fact that Oahu is our least favorite island, and I just can't see spending the amount of points it takes to stay there.

This trip we have 4 days where we MUST be on Oahu because one of our group is doing a conference in Honolulu. Aulani is not an easy access to Honolulu, and traffic on Oahu can be awful during the week at the times we would need to be getting there. I'm looking at a couple of places that will accommodate all 6 of us for those 4 nights that would be walking distance to both the conference center AND Waikiki and The Bus.

Either way, Aulani points are too rich for my blood. I can even exchange into a different Ko'Olina resort for less points than I can stay for the same length of time at Aulani.

I'm with Diane, we spent 3 days on Oahu and rented a car one day to do Pearl Harbour. Yikes on the traffic! We stayed on our Wyndham points at Waikiki Walk, good location.

Couldn't wait to get on the plane and get to the Big Island. We did a week there and the following week on Kauai.

Noticed at both the Wyndham Kona Hawaiian and the Westin Princeville(yes both exchanges, 2br units, used non-DVC TS's) that people took off in the am and didn't return till late afternoon. Lots to see and do to. We are an active outdoorsy family, so both locations worked for us.

If we go back to Hawaii, doubt if we would stay at Aulani, as we really enjoyed Kauai and the Big Island and would like to try Maui. If we came in mid week, we'd prefer to stay in Honolulu itself.

You know, I've thought about what Aulani will be like. Having never been to Hawaii, I have no idea about the islands or where anything is located. We would like to visit Aulani in a few years, but we'd also like to see other things on the islands since we may not return given air fare prices. When we took a Disney cruise in February, one of the DVC CMs said that the resort borrowed a lot from the cruise line. I wonder if they will have "excursions" to some of the attractions on the islands, just like the cruise line does.

 

[Alexander]

I think most problems with exchanging are based on lack of knowledge and lack of flexibility of the DVC member. Things like requesting short notice or being far too restrictive on choices. IMO, anything under 10-12 months is short notice, esp for high demand times. Flexibility is hard to define but it often includes multiple weeks for multiple resorts excluding top peak times. I think it's unreasonable and unrealistic to expect a salesperson to understand, much less spend hours and hours making sure the buying understands the exchange process. DVC clearly sells DVC making sure you know what isn't guaranteed even including the idea that DVC may not have ANY exchange options going forward. If you truly want to exchange, spend some time learning the process, investigating potential resorts and planning ahead.

This is a true problem for some people. I am a teacher and I don't have the flexibility of taking any random week for vacation. I am limited to those peak times, Presidents Week, Easter Week, Christmas Week, and summer. I can't call and ask for any ol' week in March or April, I have very specific weeks I can travel. I don't use the exchanges and likely never will due to the difficulty getting the right place at the right time. I am always baffled by those the buy into DVC with intent of doing a lot of exchanges. We bought into DVC for DVC resorts and DCL.

 

[Daisy5115]

How do you search for RCI availablity on the web? Must you call on the phone or is there another way?

 

[Brian Noble]

I am a teacher and I don't have the flexibility of taking any random week for vacation. I am limited to those peak times, Presidents Week, Easter Week, Christmas Week, and summer.

I have the same constraints.

For times when I can only do specific weeks (e.g. my mid-winter break), I try to be as flexible as possible about *resorts*. For summer, it's pretty easy to specify a range of weeks you could accept.

 

[Deb & Bill]

How do you search for RCI availablity on the web? Must you call on the phone or is there another way?

You have to call Member Services. You can't find out any DVC related inventory on line.

 

[com_op_2000]

This is interesting....................we were hoping for a week or two on the gulf coast (Fort Myers, Sanibel, Captiva) in July or August, but is this realistic?!! Has anyone swapped into any of those resorts? Would love to hear your experiences!
Debsx

I have gone to a resort on the beach in Ft Myers, in July several years ago. We booked at like 14 months early to get it.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I'm with Diane, we spent 3 days on Oahu and rented a car one day to do Pearl Harbour. Yikes on the traffic! We stayed on our Wyndham points at Waikiki Walk, good location.

Couldn't wait to get on the plane and get to the Big Island. We did a week there and the following week on Kauai.

Noticed at both the Wyndham Kona Hawaiian and the Westin Princeville(yes both exchanges, 2br units, used non-DVC TS's) that people took off in the am and didn't return till late afternoon. Lots to see and do to. We are an active outdoorsy family, so both locations worked for us.

If we go back to Hawaii, doubt if we would stay at Aulani, as we really enjoyed Kauai and the Big Island and would like to try Maui. If we came in mid week, we'd prefer to stay in Honolulu itself.

The Big Island and Kauai are our favorites too!

 

[Starr W.]

I have the same constraints.

For times when I can only do specific weeks (e.g. my mid-winter break), I try to be as flexible as possible about *resorts*. For summer, it's pretty easy to specify a range of weeks you could accept.

I tend to use my DVC and Wyndham points for those school break vaccations when I need to be very specific for dates. We have quite a few 4 day weekends, which the point systems work well for.

I use summer for my trades, easier to do trading in either II or RCI.

I have an ongoing search in II, put in last summer for summer 2012. I'm not trying for a specific resort, have about 5 different areas and a range of weeks.

I've never done an ongoing with RCI when I've deposited there. I've seen the units I've traded for sitting there.

 

[moepanz]

If you're within your cancelation window, back out until you further understand what you're getting into.

OP
Thank You!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!! For starting this thread it saved me a HUGE headache!!

I just got off the phone with my resale company and had them explain the RCI exchange to me because I have seen so many people complaining about it and I was told this:" You need to transfer you DVC points into RCI to use them and do it as far in advance as possible to get your preference and you need to be flexible ie: request Vegas for one of the 1st 3 weeks of April and you will have a better shot at it." I said well my brother is a cop and can't tell his boss 7 months in advance he may be taking off 1 of the first 3 weeks in April off, he needs specifics, so then I asked what happens if no weeks open up? I could not believe his response "well if your points were transfered to RCI and your weeks do not come up you lose them" WHAT??? So you are basically gambling your points. OH HELL NO!!!

I am devastated to say but I will be pulling the contract within the hour. I am totally shocked and angry on how Disney was so deceptive with this. I can not believe people have not flipped out over this and after all the the extensive research I did I just found this out now. OP, THANK YOU!!!!

 

[Brian Noble]

Perhaps next time you should read the disclosure guides that come with your purchase; the information you were shocked to learn is all in there.

 

[moepanz]

Perhaps next time you should read the disclosure guides that come with your purchase; the information you were shocked to learn is all in there.

Brian,
Lesson learned there, but my issue with Disney is there not even a hint of how difficult it to use the RCI points. I explained at the Door Way to Dreams the exact situation and I was told by the guide that my situation was a common one among many families and she had never heard of any issues. (took the tour last year)

Now fast forward to 3 weeks ago and I come across a DVC kiosk at my local mall and asked the same questions to the guide there (who actually turned out to be a family friend of my husband..HA!) and she assured me there would be absolutely no problem using the points the way we would like to. I was mislead twice by two different guides.

Bottom line Disneys sale pitch when it comes to RCI is not honest. The whole gambling with the points is just plain crazy. I am sad that this did not work out but I am not turned off by DVC completely it just does not meet our needs right now. I will be booking my flights tomorrow when Southwest releases their Dec. flights and we are booked at POP. The DVC will be there maybe for another time, just not now.

 

[PMDR59]

OP
Thank You!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!! For starting this thread it saved me a HUGE headache!!

I just got off the phone with my resale company and had them explain the RCI exchange to me because I have seen so many people complaining about it and I was told this:" You need to transfer you DVC points into RCI to use them and do it as far in advance as possible to get your preference and you need to be flexible ie: request Vegas for one of the 1st 3 weeks of April and you will have a better shot at it." I said well my brother is a cop and can't tell his boss 7 months in advance he may be taking off 1 of the first 3 weeks in April off, he needs specifics, so then I asked what happens if no weeks open up? I could not believe his response "well if your points were transfered to RCI and your weeks do not come up you lose them" WHAT??? So you are basically gambling your points. OH HELL NO!!!

I am devastated to say but I will be pulling the contract within the hour. I am totally shocked and angry on how Disney was so deceptive with this. I can not believe people have not flipped out over this and after all the the extensive research I did I just found this out now. OP, THANK YOU!!!!

And since you mention contacting your "resale" company... FYI there were some chages recently to "resale" contracts and what they can or can not trade out to. You may want to look into that as well. I cant recall the specifics since we bought direct from Disney and have no plans on trading, but if you search the forums about it I'm sure you can find more details.

 

[moepanz]

And since you mention contacting your "resale" company... FYI there were some chages recently to "resale" contracts and what they can or can not trade out to. You may want to look into that as well. I cant recall the specifics since we bought direct from Disney and have no plans on trading, but if you search the forums about it I'm sure you can find more details.

I was aware of all the changes that were made to the resale contracts, RCI was not one. I have nothing at all against the resale company they really were great and when I asked them about the RCI resale issues (after hearing about how difficult it was here) They explained it to me in great detail and when I told them the reason we were looking for the DVC in the 1st place to share the points my sales guy told me himself that would not be the best choice for us and completely understood why we needed to cancel. My issue is with DVC sales and how misleading they were on two separate occasions.

 

[Brian Noble]

my issue with Disney is there not even a hint of how difficult it to use the RCI points

It's not Disney's job to tell you why you *shouldn't* give them $20K.

First, most of the kiosk people aren't actually Guides---they do not sell DVC directly. In industry parlance, they are "body snatchers". Their job is to get you on the tour. It's likely that they have no idea at all how RCI works, even a little.

I don't know if the Doorway person you spoke with was a Guide, or a "body snatcher", but even there, the Guides can "paint a picture" for you as long as they don't out and out lie. And, "out and out lie" is a tricky thing. "You can get that exchange in Washington DC for the cherry blossoms" is factually true. You can...subject to availability. "You *will* get that exchange..." that's a different story entirely.

If you listen to Guides very carefully, you will noticed that they paint a lot of pictures, but they almost never out and out lie.

Would it be better if they used a little less paint? You bet. But, at the end of the day, they are salespeople. Their job is to sell stuff, and that's why they get paid.

As to "gambling with points": I have exchanged plenty of non-DVC timeshares via RCI, and been very happy with the results. For example, my wife just came back from 10 days on Oahu at a conference, one week of which was booked as an exchange at one of the Hilton Hawaiian Village towers. She *loved* the stay there. And, I didn't even get it via ongoing search. But, I was looking every few days for something in May just in case. Lo and behold it turned up---in April of 2010 for a May 2011 stay. You have to plan in advance to make this work.

 

[moepanz]

It's not Disney's job to tell you why you *shouldn't* give them $20K.

First, most of the kiosk people aren't actually Guides---they do not sell DVC directly. In industry parlance, they are "body snatchers". Their job is to get you on the tour. It's likely that they have no idea at all how RCI works, even a little.

I don't know if the Doorway person you spoke with was a Guide, or a "body snatcher", but even there, the Guides can "paint a picture" for you as long as they don't out and out lie. And, "out and out lie" is a tricky thing. "You can get that exchange in Washington DC for the cherry blossoms" is factually true. You can...subject to availability. "You *will* get that exchange..." that's a different story entirely.

If you listen to Guides very carefully, you will noticed that they paint a lot of pictures, but they almost never out and out lie.

Would it be better if they used a little less paint? You bet. But, at the end of the day, they are salespeople. Their job is to sell stuff, and that's why they get paid.

As to "gambling with points": I have exchanged plenty of non-DVC timeshares via RCI, and been very happy with the results. For example, my wife just came back from 10 days on Oahu at a conference, one week of which was booked as an exchange at one of the Hilton Hawaiian Village towers. She *loved* the stay there. And, I didn't even get it via ongoing search. But, I was looking every few days for something in May just in case. Lo and behold it turned up---in April of 2010 for a May 2011 stay. You have to plan in advance to make this work.

Brian,
I understand what you are saying and I am not sure if I explained correctly. I was told without a doubt by both guides (the woman at the kiosk was a guide) that is was so simple to book RCI with DVC. One told me that me she just got back from a trip to San Fran 'that her and her boyfriend decided to take last minute and that they do RCI trips like that all the time and never had a problem booking what ever place she wanted to go to and to give him (my brother) the book tell him to pick out where he wants to go and when and just book it, it is that simple" I feel, and I stress "feel" Disney was deceptive regarding RCI. I did my research I asked my questions and was mislead on one of my major points of buying DVC. I am not anti DVC I would still love to own it some day because I know it would be a great value to my family but not a value for my fathers situation. 50% of the time the points would be used for RCI and it is just too much of a chance to take and it would not be fair to my brother for him not to be able to use it like he would like too. Too much money for dad to spend for anyone to be left out. The resale salesman was upfront and honest when I asked him about the use of RCI,(even though he knew he was going to lose the sale) I just wish Disney would have been as upfront form the start.

 

[Lynne M]

Brian,
I understand what you are saying and I am not sure if I explained correctly. I was told without a doubt by both guides (the woman at the kiosk was a guide) that is was so simple to book RCI with DVC. One told me that me she just got back from a trip to San Fran 'that her and her boyfriend decided to take last minute and that they do RCI trips like that all the time and never had a problem booking what ever place she wanted to go to and to give him (my brother) the book tell him to pick out where he wants to go and when and just book it, it is that simple" I feel, and I stress "feel" Disney was deceptive regarding RCI. I did my research I asked my questions and was mislead on one of my major points of buying DVC. I am not anti DVC I would still love to own it some day because I know it would be a great value to my family but not a value for my fathers situation. 50% of the time the points would be used for RCI and it is just too much of a chance to take and it would not be fair to my brother for him not to be able to use it like he would like too. Too much money for dad to spend for anyone to be left out. The resale salesman was upfront and honest when I asked him about the use of RCI,(even though he knew he was going to lose the sale) I just wish Disney would have been as upfront form the start.

I see your point, and I understand your disappointment. What I'm about to say isn't a defense of DVC salespeople, just pointing out that you need to walk into a situation like this understanding that they ARE salespeople, and that they're going to paint a rosy picture. They're not going to tell you the downside, any more than you'd expect a car salesman to tell you about the 37 recalls that the car you're looking at has had in the last year, or that many owners are complaining that the leather seats fell apart 6 months after they bought it. It's not in their interest to tell you that. That's why you politely listen to what Mr. Car Salesman has to say, and then you hit the internet and do some research.

What they told you may not have been strictly untrue - but you were only getting one side of the story. Would it be nice if they also told you all the negatives to using RCI? Well yeah, but it's also rather unrealistic to expect a salesperson to talk you out of buying a product they're getting a commission to sell.

What I'm getting at here is....when you're buying something, especially something as expensive as a timeshare....you look out for yourself and your money. Don't expect to hear all of the good and all of the bad from the person whose paycheck depends on your buying their product.

 

[JimMIA]

My issue is with DVC sales and how misleading they were on two separate occasions.

Welcome to the wonderful world of developer-direct timeshare sales! And for what it's worth, DVC tends to be among the more nearly-ethical timeshare companies.

Want a horror story? Here's one posted yesterday on the DIS Orlando Hotels and Attractions board:

We had a horrible experience with Westgate in Orlando. My DH is about as calm as they come and he completely lost his cool with the salesman/men. Then when we didn't buy, they refused to have the shuttle (that brought us across the resort) back to our car and made us walk and find our own way.

 

[Kathymford]

I am learning some great RCI info from you guys! Thank you.

I had a questions though. In the book they show rates for "daily" stays, but every time I call, I have yet to find any of the RCI or the other one for that matter, available for daily. Is there a way to find out which resorts will allow you to book daily vs a whole week? Or is it just a call to MS?

Thanks!

 

[Cierese]

I recently traded IN to DVC using RCI... by recently I mean sometime in March I think. We originally wanted to go in Oct, but there wasn't a 2br available AT ALL anytime (not just in Oct) for almost 4 weeks of searching several times a day. Then suddenly one morning BAM! several were open but during different times of the year. I just figured the heck with it, if I want to go that bad I will just go when there is an opening. That's what we did... So instead of Oct, we are going in July.

I'm sure we could have put in for the 'ongoing search' but it wasn't my RCI I was going through, it was a friends and I was just about to settle in but then everyone else going with us was ok about the date change.

I would say the best thing to do is just be very flexible with when you vacation dates that way you won't get too bummed that you get to move your vacation UP 3 months!! LOL I admit that Fall and Winter are my fav months to go, but I'll get over it this time, I'm sure!