RCI timeshares?

[uncspin]

My husband and I have "convinced" a coworker of mine that she really needs to take her husband and girls (8 and 5) to WDW this summer. They are members of the RCI timeshare network and have already booked their week at the beach this summer. She is thinking about seeing if they can change to one near WDW. Anyone a member of RCI and/or have recommendations of resorts/hotels in their network?

 

[MerMom60_94]

Check out Orange Lake. We stay there every year and are about 15 minutes away from the parks. In fact, from certain locations at Orange Lake you can see fireworks from MK off in the distance.

Here is a link to their site:

http://orangelake.com/home.html

This resort has lazy rivers, beautiful pools with some slides, golf, putt-putt golf, activities, etc.

 

[Brian Noble]

The first choice for a Disney-centric vacation would be DVC. But, they will need a very strong trader (or a lot of points) to exchange there. There are still a few 1BR units in August here and there, but mostly it's getting to be late for this summer.

Bonnet Creek would be my second choice, but it is definitely too late for this summer---they only have Setpember-November on deposit right now. Other good choices include the Orange Lakes (except possibly West Village), and the Hilton Grand Vacation Clubs.

The next tier for me would include Silver Lake, Vistana, the Cypress Pointes, Westgate Vacation Village, and OL West Village. A "sleeper pick" is Orbit One. Nice spacious units, extremeley close to WDW property, but in an older resort with few on-site amenities.

 

[shoney]

The hilton @ sea world was very nice and we are staying at the hilton @ I drive this May.
We weren't crazy about Orange Lake for various reasons, but that was before they put in the new area. It is very big, so you need to drive to get to various ammenities.
We liked Summer Bay too. It had a cute sprinkler park for little kids. Our unit was nice. The front desk people were very helpful. We liked having the main pool with tiki bar and activities and the more quiet pool by the unit.
Silver Lake was okay, too. We had a bit dated unit...lots of mirrors...but clean. The pool was nice, but it was cold that January, so we only used it once...and we were the only crazy people there!
We don't mind driving a little bit to get to the parks. I would choose better resort over location, but that isn't important to everyone. You would need to know what their priorities are.

 

[Brian Noble]

We don't mind driving a little bit to get to the parks. I would choose better resort over location, but that isn't important to everyone. You would need to know what their priorities are.

This is a good point. I can exchange in to DVC and we own Wyndham (enough to stay at Bonnet Creek most years), so either way we can get both location and a top-quality resort. But, often it comes down to picking one or the other. We tended to worry more about location when the kids were younger and we had to go back and forth more than once each day. It's getting to the point where we don't really do that as much anymore, and we're also spending a bit less time at the parks overall, so resort quality is starting to become more important.