Thank you Dean!

[Slakk]

Thanks to Dean we took the plunge to buy Marriott to compliment our DVC. I am typing in our 2BR oceanside condo at Aruba Surf Club and it is fantastic.

MVCI spoils you - as an owner here I got priority room request - we are top floor in the closest room to the beach. The room is very comparable to DVC although the living area is bigger.

Aruba itself is phenomenal - we just watch a 20 minute fireworks in celebration of OUR 4th of July. The people here are amazing. The hotel is amazing and I don't even have a nervous twitch that I am not at WDW.

Thank you Dean for the info - we are so happy for our purchase!

 

[Dean]

Thanks to Dean we took the plunge to buy Marriott to compliment our DVC. I am typing in our 2BR oceanside condo at Aruba Surf Club and it is fantastic.

MVCI spoils you - as an owner here I got priority room request - we are top floor in the closest room to the beach. The room is very comparable to DVC although the living area is bigger.

Aruba itself is phenomenal - we just watch a 20 minute fireworks in celebration of OUR 4th of July. The people here are amazing. The hotel is amazing and I don't even have a nervous twitch that I am not at WDW.

Thank you Dean for the info - we are so happy for our purchase!

Glad to help. Restaurants we enjoyed when we were there in Jan were Salt & Pepper, Smokey Joe's, Simply Fish, Linda's Dutch Pancake, Le Dolce Vita, LG Smith's and El Gaucho. Of those El Gaucho was the best. We also did Simply Fish but would not do so out of pocket (used the Marriott dinner for 2 certs. Enjoy your trip and make sure you get to the airport plenty early, like 3 hours ahead of your flight.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Two things I loved about Aruba was the real Amstel Beer from Holland and the butter. It's been over twenty years since we were there, but it was a nice trip to Aruba. I don't think our hotel there even has the same name anymore.

 

[momx2]

What is a good site to read to get information about Marriott's vacation club?

 

[WelcomeHome]

I also purchased a Marriott (Aruba Ocean Club in 2007) with the help of Dean's excellent expertise and advise. While we absolutely LOVE our DVC, the addition of a Marriott significantly enhances our timeshare experience in areas where DVC could use some improvement for it's DVC owners.

Specifically, Marriott offers excellent advantages for exchanges to other resorts outside Disney. The high trading power of Marriott through Interval International offers higher quality exchange resorts and much better selection than DVC offers through RCI.

As I said before, I love my DVC for trips at Disney Vacation Club resorts, but for exchanges to places outside Disney, Marriott cannot be beat. We love the Marriott quality at the Aruba Ocean Club, plus we have already exchanged into the fabulous Royal Islander in Cancun this past February (before the swine flu scare) and last month I exchanged my 2010 use year Aruba Marriott for Freshwater Pointe Resort on the Gold Coast of Australia as a gift for my daughter's honeymoon in 2010!

We're SO pleased with the highly superior exchange capabilities at Marriott that we just purchased our 2nd Marriott at Marriott Manor Club in Williamburg - we'll be taking our first vacation there with family later this month! We already have an exchange request in for our 2010 year usage - we placed our exchange request for Marriott' Newport Coast Villas at Newport Beach in California (only 30 minute from Disneyland) Now I can get to visit Dineyland in the busy month of August without needing the 11 month window advantage enjoyed only by the limited few DVC ownerships available at Disney' Grand Californian Hotel.

So far this combination has provided us with fantastic vacations inside DVC and unsurpassed exchanges through Marriott (in addition to the unsurpassed quality of our 2 home resort at Marriott).

Best wishes,
David

 

[wendy774]

Does Marriott work like DVC? In that you have points to use and not a specific week that you are buying? Did you purchase from Marriott or resale?

 

[WelcomeHome]

Marriott is purchased by individual vacation weeks, not points. Most Marriotts allow you to split your week in half (a Fri, Sat, Sun stay plus another Mon thru Thurs stay) for a nominal fee. You can also split a 2 bedroom unit into a 1 bedroom week and a studio week - also for a nominal fee - this gives you the flexibility of 2 vacation weeks if you purchase a 2 bedroom unit!

I purchased both my Marriott's via resale for about half of Marriott's original selling price. Once again, you can't beat DVC for Disney Vacations, but I also believe you can't beat Marriott (or several of the other big names like Hilton and Westwood) for exchanges.

Best wishes,
Dave

 

[Dean]

What is a good site to read to get information about Marriott's vacation club?

Timeshare Users Group is a great place. Also The regular Marriott site is not bad. Redweeks is a good location to get some info and The MVCI site has a lot of info. As well as the Marriott Vacation Club sales site.

Does Marriott work like DVC? In that you have points to use and not a specific week that you are buying? Did you purchase from Marriott or resale?

To add to what Dave said. Marriott is mostly a fixed season full week system. That means you reserve a full week, often in the full unit. Some are lockoff's and allow you to reserve and use (or trade) smaller components of the unit, say a studio and 1 BR instead of a 2 BR. A large portion don't have this option though A few offer split week (3 and 4 days) but most don't. Marriott has reward points that work like FF miles. I've purchased a total of 9 Marriott weeks over the years, and sold one of those. 3 of those purchases are actually in the process of happening right now at very good prices. One is to trade giving me two trading units and the others to use. I'll actually likely resale one of the new purchases in a year or two after I use it one or two times. There are other systems that work on points but most don't give you the flexibility of less than a week stays that DVC does. Bluegreen is one exception where you can reserve at 11 months out for as few as 2 days at a time.

 

[momx2]

Thanks for the info.!

 

[logan115]

Just saw this thread mentioned in another thread and wanted to throw some more kudos Dean's way.

Appreciate all the insight you provide.

Chris

 

[Ramsfan28]

I am also a DVC owner (BLT) and MVCI owner (Aruba Surf Club). I have yet to use my DVC timeshare but am thrilled with what I have gotten with Marriott.

It was an incredible purchase when we bought pre-construction about 5 years ago. The good news is Marriott got the message that the rooms at the Surf Club needed to be "refreshed" and are going to start room enhancements in time for my stay next May.

 

[toniosmom]

Just curious -- what kind of cost is involved in a Marriott timeshare?

My uncle told me to look for timeshare foreclosures. Has anyone had any luck with that?

 

[Ramsfan28]

Just curious -- what kind of cost is involved in a Marriott timeshare?

My uncle told me to look for timeshare foreclosures. Has anyone had any luck with that?

Not sure what you mean by cost, but with Marriott you buy a week (or weeks) based upon "seasons". For example the Platinum season would include a week around Christmas, spring break, etc.

What I paid was determined by the season, and view I wanted at the resort. In addition as you do with DVC, you have annual fees to pay.

 

[Dean]

Just curious -- what kind of cost is involved in a Marriott timeshare?

My uncle told me to look for timeshare foreclosures. Has anyone had any luck with that?

To do foreclosures you must have someone in place physically in most cases or find someone willing to act as a go between. Marriott prices will be all over the place. There's the inherent difference in value of a given resort, week, location and unit size which is relatively constant with some minor variability over time, esp lately. Then there's the personal issue of what a given seller is willing to do in negotiations. One option may be a bargain at $30K and another over priced at $1K or not even worth a free week for the underlying fees. Think if you were buying DVC HH for a specific week, how variable the prices would be. Specific to Marriott there are good units to own to trade and good units to own to use with not a lot of overlap in between unless you just happen to want to travel to one of the places/times that work out best as trading units (lower fees, lower prices, usually lockoff's and often Gold or Platinum time). For those just getting started I think it's best to buy something you'll use yourself but if you're looking at trading, maybe compromise on season, unit size or specific resort. Even if you pay more for the right thing, that may be best as a start. For example, buying a 3 BR unit at Crystal Shores for $125K for a 3 BR is unlikely to be a good choice for trading. However, a Gold Aruba or FL week is likely to be a good compromise between demand, cost and possibly fees.

Everyone's situation is different. Look at your needs, flexibility, where you like to go, expectations and the like and spend the time to investigate. Make a trip there if need be to know that's a good choice for you. The variables are almost infinite.

 

[Slakk]

We did the MVC tour with a really clueless sales guy (I knew more than he did) we did get info on a EOY special they are running. They are selling existing EOY owners another EOY at half of the full week price (versus the ususal 60%) then taking another 25% off.

Looking at the price for the upper resorts I think it looks like a good deal. We are seriously thinking about doing it. Have narrowed it down to Canyon Villas, St Thomas, St Kitts...was hoping for HHI but nothing is available.

It is beautiful here - no humidity and compared to our summer WDW trips not crowded LOL.

We are really enjoying it down here and the Surf Club is gorgeous

 

[Slakk]

Ended up purchasing the EOY at St Kitts from MVCI. We got a two balcony Ocean Front 2BR Villa EOY Even Years. They only offered 10 Even and 10 Odd weeks total for the island and we got the final even.

They started out at 22K then MVC lowered them to 18 and since we own EOY we ended up purchasing it for 11K - there are no resales for these as there are only a few.

Looking forward to trying out St Kitts!

 

[rentayenta]

We haven't bought Marriott yet but wanted to also thank Dean for patiently answering my endless barrage of questions regarding DVC/RCI.