RCI trade into DVC questions

[postesf]

Ok... I hope someone can help me. I have a few questions.

I am an RCI member and have done an exchange into OKW in January. I have stayed there twice w/ my sister in a GV as she is a DVC member. I know a pretty good amount about how DVC works as I have learned much from her and also done some of the webcast.

I have called member services and made a few request for January. I am aware that these are just request and may or may not be fulfilled. I learned that recently the bldgs closest to the Hospitality House is now a booking category.

One of my questions follows... I called RCI today to find out if my exchange would be/could be in that booking category and they said that they could not see what rooms are available. My understanding is that they(RCI) have no control over whether it is a HH booking or not. I wanted to find out for future use if this booking was NOT HH how I could change that for the future and it appears I cannot. The rep said he could give me my room number and it was 28S. I told him that was not the Unit the number bc I know how they are numbered. He came back and said that was the UNIT TYPE. So... Does anyone have any idea was a 28S Unit Type is? Member services has not mentioned that when I have called.

The RCI rep went on to tell me that it depends on who deposited the week I booked. I told him that to my knowledge ALL of DVC is points. He said NO, that some of the older members are Weeks members and that is how I was able to get a week (I am an RCI Weeks member). I think he is wrong and has no idea what he is talking about, but maybe I am the one that is mistaken.

What do you guys think???

I know I am trading into DVC, but would like to have the opportunity for a HH area if possible. I understand if not due to trading power, but that is what I wanted to find out for future use...

Thanks!!
Stacie

 

[downontheBW]

Stacie,

I have an RCI trade into OKW for April 2011 in a 2BR and our "room number" is 28S, too. MS said it was not an HH room but I don't have any more info than that. Maybe 2 is for "2" bedroom, "8" is for occupancy and who knows what "S" would be. Oh, maybe Saturday arrival?? I don't know - just guessing.

 

[postesf]

Yeah... I was thinking S was Standard, but that doesn't really mean anything I guess. Who knows. I just want to know how we can get the Near HH Booking. I would really like to be in bldgs. 23-26. I understand we are not DVC members so somehow if we were able to get HH that takes something away from them? maybe?

I know this time it won't happen but was hoping that RCI could at least tell me that maybe trading power effects it, but it seems not. So, from what I have learned so far, it is completely out of our control and we have no chance of the near HH booking at any DVC resort.

I did ask Member Services if RCI trade-ins went to certain bldgs and they so no, it's just according to what is available.

I'm super excited to stay there again and share the resort w/ my husbands family and knowing them they want to be closer to the action up front and not in the back though I know some say they prefer the back because it is quiet...

I guess we will see how it works out this time since it's the first time trading into DVC. Again... I am SOOOOO excited we can trade into DVC!!! I can hardly stand it. I hope to make it an every other year thing.

Did you trade in w/ WEEKS or POINTS? It seems with WEEKS you just have to take what dates are available and there is not much flexibility...

 

[Brian Noble]

S is Saturday. (I believe the three 2BR codes are 28F, 28S, and 28U).

Member Services should be able to tell you what booking category your exchange was drawn from, but RCI generally cannot. The one exception: Weeks exchanges into AKV have unit codes with either STD (Standard) or SAV (Savannah). I am 99.9% sure it is General Resort, *not* Hospitality House. It has nothing to do with your trade power. DVC chooses which view categories to deposit. They are fixed at the time of deposit, assigned to specific deposited inventory, and cannot be changed. This is true both in Points and Weeks.

For what it's worth, these are the categories that are known to be deposited:

OKW: General Resort
BWV: Preferred Pool/Garden
AKV: Standard, Savannah

OKW-Hospitality, BWV-Standard, BWV-Boardwalk, AKV-Value, and AKV-Concierge have not been deposited, as far as I know. BCV, VWL, and SSR do not have views, so there it does not matter. I have not yet seen a BLT deposit, but am guessing they will (mostly) be drawn from Lake when they finally start to show up.

 

[Dean]

DVC exchange services can tell you for sure but my understanding is the same as Brian's, that the near HH booking cat is not generally deposited, I have not heard of an exception but I'm sure there will be one at some point just like there have been a couple of 3 BR units over the last couple of years. DVC can also give you the DVC reservation number but RCI cannot.

 

[postesf]

Thanks Brian! Very interesting. Good to know. I'm just one of those people who like to know how things work. I'm very involved w/ Disney planning so I want all the info I can get! lol. Some folks might be happy to exchange and that be it, but I know to come to the DIS and look up info and find maps and I know you can make request... Maybe it would be less stressful to be ignorate about these things and just go!

Thanks for helping us out!
Stacie

 

[Brian Noble]

I know you can make request..

Just to clarify, if your exchange is drawn from the General Resort category, you *cannot* request Hopsitality, and vice versa.

 

[JimMIA]

Although you can't get a guaranteed reservation for the Hospitality House area, that doesn't mean you can't ask for it at checkin. HH is the same number of points as anywhere else in OKW, so if you want that area, just ask.

The worst they can do is say nothing is available.

 

[Dean]

Although you can't get a guaranteed reservation for the Hospitality House area, that doesn't mean you can't ask for it at checkin. HH is the same number of points as anywhere else in OKW, so if you want that area, just ask.

The worst they can do is say nothing is available.

I would agree there is no harm in asking but DVC has been hard core in the past about giving the exact unit type and booking category that was deposited. To the degree that I don't know of them being willing to give a lockoff when a dedicated was deposited and vice versa. I know of several instances where they were asked for very minor changes even going from a 2 BR to a 1 BR and they said they had to give EXACTLY what was deposited.

 

[postesf]

Thanks for the info. I called today, but will have to call back on Monday as the system was down.

I am hoping they can check to see what exactly was desposited so at least I will know if I am supposed to get a dedicated 2 bedroom. I would rather have that than a lockkoff unit. I want it to feel more "homey" and think the 2nd entrace into the unit (1 in the 1 bedroom and 1 in the studio part) would effect that.

I'm sure it is not the HH Booking catergory so I will just request something close by like bldg 27, 16 or 62 and cross my fingers they will be renovated by January. We'll see. I know we have a good time wherever we end up.

Thank again!
Stacie

 

[ekm]

The RCI rep went on to tell me that it depends on who deposited the week I booked. I told him that to my knowledge ALL of DVC is points. He said NO, that some of the older members are Weeks members and that is how I was able to get a week (I am an RCI Weeks member). I think he is wrong and has no idea what he is talking about, but maybe I am the one that is mistaken.

I'm one of the "older members" (1992), and I can confirm that DVC has NEVER sold weeks. It has always sold points only. The RCI rep does not know what he is talking about.

 

[Dean]

I'm one of the "older members" (1992), and I can confirm that DVC has NEVER sold weeks. It has always sold points only. The RCI rep does not know what he is talking about.

The RCI reps, as are almost all timeshare sales staff, are especially unfamiliar with DVC and how it works. This is often true even for those that compete with DVC in sales such as other Orlando timeshares like Marriott and Bluegreen. Of course the reverse is true even more so, the DVC reps (unless they were in sales with other companies) also tend to be very unaware of the competition. Unfortunately they're often unaware of the realities of how DVC ACTUALLY works in some areas as well such as the realities of certain options including exchanges.

 

[Cee]

You can always call the resort itself approx. 3 days out to confirm the reservation and make a request. That's what I always do.

 

[hjgaus]

I'm one of the "older members" (1992), and I can confirm that DVC has NEVER sold weeks. It has always sold points only. The RCI rep does not know what he is talking about.

We are DVC members AND NEW RCI WEEK members. We have never used our DVC to trade through RCI but HAVE noticed we CAN trade our RCI WEEKs INTO DVC if we want to. I talked to an RCI rep and asked as well . He said it was fine & you do not need to trade ONLY points for points resort. I have 3 weeks @ a Southern California beach front timeshare with different room types which usually makes the difference in room choices. When I match my trade with DVC choices it depends on season availability. I can ALSO BUY a week stay as an EXTRA RCI vacation but have not done that either. Since our weeks are the easier trade power we will only use our DVC for Disney.

 

[Dean]

We are DVC members AND NEW RCI WEEK members. We have never used our DVC to trade through RCI but HAVE noticed we CAN trade our RCI WEEKs INTO DVC if we want to. I talked to an RCI rep and asked as well . He said it was fine & you do not need to trade ONLY points for points resort. I have 3 weeks @ a Southern California beach front timeshare with different room types which usually makes the difference in room choices. When I match my trade with DVC choices it depends on season availability. I can ALSO BUY a week stay as an EXTRA RCI vacation but have not done that either. Since our weeks are the easier trade power we will only use our DVC for Disney.

We had 9 units in Sept between BCV & BWV, of those, 3 were from the weeks side and 6 from the points side IIRC. They are different inventory and while early it looked like the RCI weeks side was getting the most inventory, it looks like it's been more the RCI points side the last number of months.

 

[tomandrobin]

We had 9 units in Sept between BCV & BWV, of those, 3 were from the weeks side and 6 from the points side IIRC. They are different inventory and while early it looked like the RCI weeks side was getting the most inventory, it looks like it's been more the RCI points side the last number of months.

And since I only own II affiliated resorts, I get shut-out from exchanges now.

Hoping the go back to II when the RCI contract expires, but I am not so sure that will happen.

 

[Dean]

And since I only own II affiliated resorts, I get shut-out from exchanges now.

Hoping the go back to II when the RCI contract expires, but I am not so sure that will happen.

Doubtful, even though there are a number of advantages for members with II, RCI is a better fit with the points system. Plus RCI seems to be giving DVC members more credit for the demand than did II. I wouldn't be surprised to see either II develop a points system fairly quickly (they've long been rumored to be doing so) or that Marriott (and possibly others) might also jump to RCI over the next few years.

 

[tomandrobin]

Doubtful, even though there are a number of advantages for members with II, RCI is a better fit with the points system. Plus RCI seems to be giving DVC members more credit for the demand than did II. I wouldn't be surprised to see either II develop a points system fairly quickly (they've long been rumored to be doing so) or that Marriott (and possibly others) might also jump to RCI over the next few years.

I pretty much agree.

Even though I was disappointed with the change back to RCI (mostly looking at it from a personal level) I think RCI works better for DVC, and DVC for RCI.

I know this is a generalization, but I don't think II members have the same appreciation or like of Disney as RCI members.

 

[Dean]

I know this is a generalization, but I don't think II members have the same appreciation or like of Disney as RCI members.

I haven't seen any difference. In general, hard core timeshare members tend to not think very highly of DVC and actually more DVC members. Some feel that DVC members are aloof, uneducated and have unreasonable expectations, in short, think they are better than everyone else and there is some truth I think to those impressions. I guess it comes down to the issues of are you better than everyone else or just think you are, again, some of both.

 

[Brian Noble]

it looks like it's been more the RCI points side the last number of months.

That could be due in part to the fact that Weeks has ongoing search, but Points does not, combined with what appears to be a slight reduction in trade power required to obtain DVC on the Weeks side.