Timeshare Recommendation

[tiberius]

I am looking for an off-site timeshare recommendation. Our family is travelling as a large group vacation for 6 separate families, each from 3 to 5 people. Some of us are in RCI and some are not. We are trying to find a resort that the RCI members can trade into and the non-RCI members can book individually.

 

[Tiger Fan]

I would call RCI directly and tell them your plans. Let them check to see what kind of inventory they have and see about those that can exchange go ahead and go that route, and the others could get "bonus vacations" and use guest certificates ($45 extra I think). This has worked for our family in the past and there are usually good deals on the bonus time. Hope this helps.
Lisa
Tiger Fan

 

[mrsstats]

Orange Lake

 

[SammieG]

Embassy Vacation Resort at Grand beach would be great for you (depending on how many facilities you need)
Its a beautiful resort, gold crown RCI and you can book directly for abou $120 - $150 a night. The apartments are 2500 Sq ft and have 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.. a lounge and kitchen (full) with washer dryer.

We have stayed several times here, and its one of our favorites for value.. plus its great if you have more than one adult group.. (we have been with another family.. our kids share the bedroom with the two single beds) as both adult groups can have a master suite, with own bathroom and shower room.. (although one bathroom does have the spa bath.. the other has a large bath, but no bubbles!)

 

[jeff968]

The marriotts are great, I also liked the Hiltons. The Sheraton Vistana villages was very nice, the Sheraton Vistana resort was good, I give Orange Lake only a fair rating.

 

[spiceycat]

hilton grand vacation club at Seaworld or I b.

get your members with a RCI timeshare to try for a 3 bedroom....

Sheraton Vistana Resort is not in RCI as much as it was (they can now trade through II and the resort is defining using II for its excess inventory)

Silver Lake gets nice reviews (not great ones) - doesn't have a lot to do at this resort - but it is very closer to WDW (on the AK side).

Cypress Point Resort is also close (on the other side near DD).

the marriott is RCI are Royal Palms (this place needs a rehab badly by the reviews) and Sabal Palms - in better shape than Royal.

the new fairfield Orlando at Bonnet Creek is very close to WDW - as close as you can get without being on WDW property - despite what the sale people will tell you it is not on WDW property - just near it.

what type of timeshares do you have - if nice - you might be able to do a direct trade with a DVC owners (disney vacation club). DVC only traded through II. However DVC is not cheap - and even renting from an owner a 2-bedroom (per night) will be around $220 (Sun-thurs) and up - from CRO this same 2-bedroom will be $490.

forget - Marriott's Cypress Harbour is also listed in RCI - this one is definitely worth staying at....

 

[Figment1964]

Embassy Vacation Resort at Grand beach would be great for you (depending on how many facilities you need)
Its a beautiful resort, gold crown RCI and you can book directly for abou $120 - $150 a night. The apartments are 2500 Sq ft and have 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.. a lounge and kitchen (full) with washer dryer.

We have stayed several times here, and its one of our favorites for value.. plus its great if you have more than one adult group.. (we have been with another family.. our kids share the bedroom with the two single beds) as both adult groups can have a master suite, with own bathroom and shower room.. (although one bathroom does have the spa bath.. the other has a large bath, but no bubbles!)

I definitely agree with this! We love Embassy Vacation Resort at Grand Beach. They are huge and lots of space to stretch out. We were there during Hurricane Frances in September and they were great at making sure we had a place to stay the night when the airport was closed.

 

[lawgs]

Sammie

for some reason the Embassy Vacation Resort at Grand Beach no longer has the Gold Crown status on RCI website.....

it is now listed as a RID

 

[spiceycat]

the ownership has problems - it is not owned by embassy and has gone through several owners -management.

there use to be several posts on tug about the problems - but I haven't notice any lately?

 

[SammieG]

Has it lost its gold crown status?

Ok... well we have stayed there 3 x and had absolutely no problems whatsoever..
But I havent stayed there for six months or so...

 

[lawgs]

if you can access RCI website, it shows the status as being RID

when we originally booked it through RCI we were told it was a Gold Crown Resort, before we got there it had been changed to RID on the websiter

we had some issues with the way the resort handled some situations while we were staying there in january