RCI weeks at DVC

[disneyworldaddict]

Have a membership with RCI and I can use my weeks at select DVC resorts. I was wondering if anyone knows if I'm entitled to things like use of DME service and the DDP?

 

[erionm]

In bound RCI Exchanges get DME and you can purchase one of the Disney Dining Plans. The confirmation letter that you would receive from RCI would have a phone number for DVC Member Services that can assist you with setting those up.

 

[Dean]

Have a membership with RCI and I can use my weeks at select DVC resorts. I was wondering if anyone knows if I'm entitled to things like use of DME service and the DDP?

You have the exchange fee plus an extra $95 fee to DVC. You get all of the general perks of staying on property like transportation, Early/late hours, free parking and the like. IF you do the DDP you must do everyone who's there for the entire 7 nights.

 

[WDW_Diane]

You have the exchange fee plus an extra $95 fee to DVC. You get all of the general perks of staying on property like transportation, Early/late hours, free parking and the like. IF you do the DDP you must do everyone who's there for the entire 7 nights.

Wondering if you were actually able to get a reservation with RCI on WDW property. The lady I just talked to the said she sees nothing available for 2015 or 2016.

 

[chalee94]

Wondering if you were actually able to get a reservation with RCI on WDW property. The lady I just talked to the said she sees nothing available for 2015 or 2016.

you'd need to plan well in advance and request an exchange ahead of time. (at least 8 months ahead.)

when DVC makes the deposits, they tend to get scooped up pretty quickly such that there's rarely any inventory just sitting out there. with that said, if you've got a high value trade week, DVC does not seem to be that tough a trade if you plan ahead and are flexible on resort and specific dates...

 

[WDW_Diane]

you'd need to plan well in advance and request an exchange ahead of time. (at least 8 months ahead.) when DVC makes the deposits, they tend to get scooped up pretty quickly such that there's rarely any inventory just sitting out there. with that said, if you've got a high value trade week, DVC does not seem to be that tough a trade if you plan ahead and are flexible on resort and specific dates...

Ok, that makes sense on why she wouldn't see any inventory sitting there. Have you been happy with RCI?

 

[Dean]

Wondering if you were actually able to get a reservation with RCI on WDW property. The lady I just talked to the said she sees nothing available for 2015 or 2016.

I've seen many units the past few months but nothing late enough in 2015 yet that works for me. to be successful you'll need to put in an ongoing search and for RCI points, check daily early am eastern time.

 

[summabreeze85]

theres been a lot of rci Disney trades popping up last minute for this holiday season. I definitely don't understand it...it's not available for DVC members to book but theres a whole week available for RCI. crazy. I even got a week at Aulani in December put on hold! With sadness I had to let it go...just couldn't make the travel plans work.
Like the previous poster said they get scooped up quickly so the weeks are never just sitting there.

 

[Msmithmd]

theres been a lot of rci Disney trades popping up last minute for this holiday season. I definitely don't understand it...it's not available for DVC members to book but theres a whole week available for RCI. crazy. I even got a week at Aulani in December put on hold! With sadness I had to let it go...just couldn't make the travel plans work. Like the previous poster said they get scooped up quickly so the weeks are never just sitting there.

Not crazy whatsoever. The week got deposited by a DVC member so they could trade out somewhere else in the RCI system. Therefore it is "owned" by RCI and not available in-system for a DVC member to book.

Thinking this is unfair is akin to co-owning a beach house with two siblings, and being upset if one of the siblings rented a different beach house they owned independently from you down the road to someone else.

 

[summabreeze85]

Not crazy whatsoever. The week got deposited by a DVC member so they could trade out somewhere else in the RCI system. Therefore it is "owned" by RCI and not available in-system for a DVC member to book.

I am still not understanding this lol. since DVC doesn't operate on weeks, do you know how it exactly works? I would venture to guess not THAT many dvc members trade into rci since its such a bad use of points. And since all dvc resorts are not the same point value, how do they determine which dvc trades to make available in the rci system? and why would a week at aulani pop up a month and a half before check-in when most dvc-rci trades are planned way in advance?

 

[Dean]

I am still not understanding this lol. since DVC doesn't operate on weeks, do you know how it exactly works? I would venture to guess not THAT many dvc members trade into rci since its such a bad use of points. And since all dvc resorts are not the same point value, how do they determine which dvc trades to make available in the rci system? and why would a week at aulani pop up a month and a half before check-in when most dvc-rci trades are planned way in advance?

DVC has entered into an agreement with RCI which ultimately sets DVC members with a generic DVC points grid which is the same for all DVC members. RCI is sometimes a bad use, sometimes not, the issue is that the system isn't guaranteed so buying to trade is always a bad plan. As for the week, it was likely something canceled late b a DVC or another RCI member or could have been something from DVC owned inventory. About 3-4% of members trade out with RCI or II historically.

 

[JimMIA]

For an RCI exchange into DVC there are two strategies, depending on how your underlying timeshare exchanges in RCI. RCI has two inventories -- Weeks and Points. Some timeshares exchange only in Weeks, some only in Points, and some both ways.

For Weeks, you will want to use an Ongoing Search in RCI. Most recommend that you start the search a full year ahead of your preferred dates. The more flexible you are with dates, resorts, and villa sizes, the more likely you are to succeed. Having said that, though, I certainly would not list something I didn't want. If you get a match, you will be notified by email and/or phone and you will have 48 hours to either confirm or decline the reservation. I believe you can confirm during that period and then cancel within 24 hours with no penalty, but double-check that to be sure.

For Points exchanges, there is no ongoing search, so you have to search manually.

DVC tends to do bulk deposits 7-5 months in advance of arrival date. So far in 2015, they have deposited through the 3rd week of March. Ongoing searches are theoretically filled first (nobody is actually 100% sure about that, but it makes sense) and then the untaken inventory goes into either Points or Weeks. The vast majority of Weeks inventory is snapped up through Ongoing Searches, so it never shows in places like TUG's Sightings board unless folks post their matches.

Points inventory goes to alert people who know the system and work it. Most serious Points folks check the Points inventory 2-3 times a day from 7 months in.

From what I've seen on TUG, there seems to be a pretty high success rate for exchanging into DVC via RCI. I see people who do 4-5 DVC/RCI exchanges a year. I think the key is to understand the system and do what is necessary to make it work for you.

 

[JimMIA]

theres been a lot of rci Disney trades popping up last minute for this holiday season. I definitely don't understand it...it's not available for DVC members to book but theres a whole week available for RCI. crazy.

As others have said, not crazy at all if you understand that there are different pools of inventory. This is the same reaction we get when someone tries to make a DVC reservation and can't get it, but then sees availability through CRO for a cash reservation.

DVC points, cash, and RCI are three different inventories which have nothing to do with each other, and therefore the inventories are quite different.

RCI inventory is there because some DVC owner exchanged OUT using RCI. That availability has effectively been "spent" and now belongs to RCI. You will quite often see unheard of availability in RCI, just as you will in cash. For example, we got an OKW 2 BR last year for Dec 14-21 in late July; and right now, there is a full week in an SSR 1 BR in RCI for a Dec 14 checkin.

 

[summabreeze85]

Ok I think I'm starting to understand a lot more about how it works. Thanks for the replies.

I've always understood the cash reservation vs. dvc availability because I knew that DVC holds a certain % of rooms for ONLY cash reservations. So if it's along the same lines with RCI it makes sense. I was just getting lost at 'well this owner traded his week which isn't really a week its just points into rci which was only 120 dvc points but the rci week is worth 260 dvc points.' I guess the CRAZY part to me is how much cheaper the weeks are for RCI members than DVC owners.

That's an awesome score on the OKW 2BR for Dec! Has anyone has success getting a grand villa through RCI?

 

[crisi]

Disney doesn't hold rooms for just cash reservations. Cash (CRO) reservations come from:

1) Points Disney owns. Ideally, Disney would like members to own the whole resort, but we don't. Disney owns points because of foreclosure, or because the resort isn't sold out yet.

2) Points DVC members use to trade into Disney Collection offerings - use your points to pay for a cruise on DCL or take an ABD trip or book a non DVC resort on points - DVC pays for that by selling the points used to do that for cash.

3) Breakage inventory - this is the people who manage to not use their points during the year. And my guess is that its the smallest category - its also the only place where those points belong to the members - sometimes member services can pull back a room if it was breakage inventory. Breakage revenue goes to lowering our dues.

 

[JimMIA]

I guess the CRAZY part to me is how much cheaper the weeks are for RCI members than DVC owners.

That may or may not be true, depending on what you traded in, and how you purchased it. In our case, I traded in points at a low-MF Wyndham that I purchased for pennies, so my actual cost (including RCI fees and the DVC $95) was almost exactly half what it would have cost me with OKW points.

But that cost could have been much higher if the exchanger in had purchased a high-MF timeshare direct from the developer, had low TPU and therefore had to combine a couple of weeks to get DVC, etc, etc. etc. There are MANY variables.

That's an awesome score on the OKW 2BR for Dec! Has anyone has success getting a grand villa through RCI?

1BRs are pretty gettable; 2BRs are less so, but still doable...especially if you're okay with OKW or SSR. (We prefer OKW) Grand Villas are very rare, but have happened.

 

[JimMIA]

When you start talking about the relative cost/value of timeshare exchanges, things get very complicated. There are no universal answers, and often the "value" is in the eyes of the beholder, rather than in dollars and cents.

 

[Dean]

Ok I think I'm starting to understand a lot more about how it works. Thanks for the replies.

I've always understood the cash reservation vs. dvc availability because I knew that DVC holds a certain % of rooms for ONLY cash reservations. So if it's along the same lines with RCI it makes sense. I was just getting lost at 'well this owner traded his week which isn't really a week its just points into rci which was only 120 dvc points but the rci week is worth 260 dvc points.' I guess the CRAZY part to me is how much cheaper the weeks are for RCI members than DVC owners.

That's an awesome score on the OKW 2BR for Dec! Has anyone has success getting a grand villa through RCI?

I've seen a couple of GV's and know of a few others but it's not usual, nothing I'd count on. Here's the way I think of the DVC, RCI link. I imagine DVC has an account they name RCI with unlimited transfers in and it has all DVC resorts and UY listed and other than the unlimited transfers, use it just like any member who owned all resorts and UY's. They simply transfer those points to that account then they have a specific person who is responsible to find appropriate villas to deposit to RCI taking into account the 7/11 month windows, availability/demand, the points available and what the DVC members received. I'm guessing the DVD/RCI contract has parameters that insist that all DVC resorts be represented once they are actually members (VGF wasn't last I looked, usually takes about 2 yrs), various unit sizes and seasons. Again, my thinking but the end point has to be the way I'm describing it even if the process isn't.

As for cheaper, it depends. For many it is, for others it's not. One component is you have far less choices and options as an RCI owner. For me it's much cheaper but largely due to the way I've positioned myself and the economy of scale. I recently did a comparison of buying BG points using them to trade to DVC. In that exact example it was a lot cheaper up front and modestly more expensive yearly, overall it was cheaper but not enough to justify the hassle if DVC was the ONLY thing one wanted to use it for. The benefit of buying something else to use for DVC is to use it for other things too. In essentially every case it's cheaper to buy non DVC and use for Disney (?DVC) AND off if both are a significant component of the plan. The first question in any timeshare purchase is whether a timeshare of any type makes sense, they often do not. OTOH, there are many who would be better off with a non DVC timeshare or both that will not consider a non DVC timeshare for any reason.

 

[a742246]

How does DVC determine what weeks to deposit into RCI ? To me it doesn't seem right that DVC deposits holiday weeks into RCI unless DVC has no choice.

 

[Dean]

How does DVC determine what weeks to deposit into RCI ? To me it doesn't seem right that DVC deposits holiday weeks into RCI unless DVC has no choice.

I've discussed this info in the past with several DVD execs as well as the idea of what they take for rental as well which is a similar thought process. Realize this is a function of DVD, technically they can take anything available under the same rules as you or I make reservations, it's their points to do what they want with. I doubt RCI is going to consistently be satisfied taking OKW/SSR May/Sept or off season HH units so the question is where does the balance lie. Given the volume (roughly 4% of members from what I can tell) which is a lot more than it seems on the surface and my assumption that the agreement with RCI requires a mixture of seasons, unit sizes & resorts, I don't think they'll have much choice but to give RCI all resorts over time and all times of the year. My info suggests DVD historically holds back somewhat favoring the members who want to reserve directly to the detriment of those who want to exchange, a reasonable balance IMO. The alternative would be to shut down all exchanges including DCL, DC, CC, RCI, ABD & BVTC.

Remember that while most people think of DVC as a single club with a home resort, technically we only have legal access to the owned resorts, all else is just an internal exchange to another resort we don't own at. Thus any exchange done further than 7 months out really should and often does come from home resort anyway no matter the demand of the resort. After that their only taking available inventory. All sold out resorts really should be completely reserved which means that no matter what they take they have the possibility of shutting out someone.

IMO those that try to reserve something that's not available but that is seen in RCI or CRO simply don't understand how the system works and/or else they're not being reasonable.