Posts Tagged ‘Disney’

Disney names its Hawaii resort ‘Aulani’

Sunday, January 24th, 2010
The new Disney hotel and timeshare resort is progressing nicely. They’ve given its first family destination resort in Hawaii a Hawaiian name — Aulani.

Disney Senior Vice President Joe Rohde said Tuesday that “aulani” means “the place that speaks for the great ones” or “the place that speaks with deep messages.”

Located on 21 acres of oceanfront property in the Ko Olina Resort & Marina development, Aulani is to include 360 hotel rooms and 481 timeshare vacation villas. The first phase is to open in fall 2011.

Recreational highlights include pools, hot tubs, a snorkeling lagoon, play programs for children and a river suitable for tube floating.

The resort will also have an 18,000-square-foot spa, two restaurants, a 14,545-square-foot conference center and 48,685 square feet of outdoor venues.

With 481 timeshare villas expect to see some weeks showing up in RCI available for exchange.  Unfortunately, it will take 3-5 years before any appreciable amount weeks are deposited.  And you’ll have to really supercharge your exchange power and request very early to have a chance of getting in.Disney Timeshare Resort Hawaii

In addition, the fourth installment of the popular Disney movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean” series is scheduled for filming in Hawaii during the summer of 2010. Johnny Depp will return to his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in “On Stranger Tides.” The film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is estimated to mean roughly $85 million to the economy of Hawaii.

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Jeff Pierce The Timeshare Expert, has taught thousands of timeshare owners the secrets to getting the best exchanges with both RCI and Interval International for over 21 years.

His two books, The Timeshare Exchange Bible – RCI Weeks Edition, and The Timeshare Exchange Bible – Interval International, are the only books of their kind in the timeshare industry and designed to help you  master at the very complicated art of getting good exchanges.

I would love to have you share your opinions and personal insights on this blog.

For 10 FREE videos, a $97 value, on getting a better exchange in RCI and II, go to TheTimeshareExpert.com.

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Posted in Alerts-Exchanging Timeshares, New Timeshare Exchange Resorts, Travel Destinations | No Comments »

Do Big Timeshare Companies Get Preference With RCI and II?

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

I was asked a question the other day about whether timeshare owners in companies like  Disney, Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, Diamond, WorldMark and Hilton get preferential treatment when exchanging through RCI or Interval International.  I feel that big companies may get some extra privileges for their owners from both RCI or II but no one knows for sure. 

What I can tell you is that when an owner wants to do a timeshare exchange out of one of these high end timeshare companies, that a specific week from a specific resort still has to be deposited with RCI or Interval International.  And that’s what determines your trading power.  Therefore,  the better the resort and week you give up, the better your exchange.

But what about big companies like Diamond and WorldMark? Although Diamond claims more than 100 resorts and WorldMark more than 50 in their chain, many of them are third rate.  So if Diamond deposits a September week from the Coconut Palm Beach Resort for one of their members, they won’t have a lot of trading power.  That is, of course, unless II gives Diamond special treatment.

I’ve found that Interval International is now focusing more than ever on quality-of the week and resort deposited.  So my suggestion is to find out if you can pick which week and which resort you want deposited in RCI or Interval International.  For instance, if you’re a Diamond member, see if you can pick a February week from their Maui Resort or something similar.

They will probably tell you that “with Diamond it doesn’t make a difference which week is deposited.”  Don’t believe it.  Be persistent.  Most likely they won’t let you pick the exact week and resort so make them put in a good one.  Again, don’t let them tell you it doesn’t matter.  The reservation clerk believes that because they have been trained that way.

If you really want to nail it, then, oh dread, go through your closing documents to see what your rights are when exchanging.  They should be in there.  I’d also ask for the policy to be emailed to you. 

You may think this a lot of work but when it comes to exchanging you want  the most power you can get.  Never let some low level Owner Services reservation person convince you that all weeks are the same when it comes to exchanging.

You should also call RCI or Interval International  to ask if all weeks from your resort club exchange equally.  They will typically tap dance around such questions but do this everytime you’re on the phone with II.  I’ve gotten some really good information from II representatives that happened to be in a good mood that day.

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Jeff Pierce, The Timeshare Expert, has taught thousands of timeshare owners the secrets to getting the best exchanges with both RCI and Interval International for over 21 years.

His two books, The Timeshare Exchange Bible – RCI Weeks Edition, and The Timeshare Exchange Bible – Interval International, are the only books of their kind in the timeshare industry and designed to help you  master at the very complicated art of getting good exchanges. 

I would love to have you share your opinions and personal insights on this blog. 

For 10 FREE videos on getting a better exchange in RCI and II, go to TheTimeshareExpert.com.  

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Disney to Add 4 New Resorts

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Disney’s plans to open 4 new resorts this year constitute the most ambitious expansion yet for Disney Vacation Club, its 17-year-old time-share arm.

There will be three new Central Florida properties along with 50 new units that will open later this year at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.

Sales prices are starting at about $18,000, plus a monthly maintenance fee. It is the first time Disney has been selling interests in four time shares at once.

According to the Orlando Sentinel,

“Although the resorts are opening within 100 days of one another, each is unique:

•At Kidani Village, which will eventually have 340 units, walls are decorated with African proverbs and artifacts such as a Bamileke king’s belt and Cameroon royal drinking horns. Most rooms overlook a re-created savanna complete with giraffes, zebras, ostriches and other wildlife.

•The 60 Treehouse Villas stand on pedestals and stilts in a forested wetland. The octagonal suites replace earlier lodging originally built in 1975, and designers say the new units use 70 percent less impervious concrete.

•Bay Lake Tower rises 15 stories just outside the gates of the Magic Kingdom and is linked to Disney’s Contemporary Resort by a pedestrian bridge. The sales pitch centers around the views; the largest suites have windows two stories tall.

Disney is also building more time shares beyond Central Florida. In addition to the Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, which are scheduled to open late this year, Disney this year began construction of an 830-room resort in Hawaii, in which more than half of the rooms will be time shares. That resort will open in 2011.

And earlier this month, Disney announced the purchase of 15 acres just outside Washington with plans to build a family resort. Although Disney has not released details, it is likely that project will also include Vacation Club villas.”

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Jeff Pierce, The Timeshare Expert, has taught thousands of timeshare owners the secrets to getting the best exchanges with both RCI and Interval International for over 21 years.

His two books, The Timeshare Exchange Bible – RCI Weeks Edition, and The Timeshare Exchange Bible – Interval International, are the only books of their kind in the timeshare industry and designed to help you  master at the very complicated art of getting good exchanges.

I would love to have you share your opinions and personal insights on this blog.

For 3 FREE tips on getting a better exchange in RCI and II, go to TheTimeshareExpert.com.

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Posted in New Timeshare Exchange Resorts | No Comments »

Disney Vacation Club Hawaii

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Groundbreaking for Disney Vacation Club’s first resort in Hawaii is scheduled for November 13, 2008 and estimated to open in 2011. Located in west Oahu’s Ko Olina Resort and Marina the resort will include 350 hotel rooms and 480 vacation villas.

There are plans for an 18,000 square-foot spa, 8,000 square feet of convention and banquet space, two restaurants, a kids club and a wedding lawn. Water features include an inland saltwater lagoon, quiet pool and a water park with slides, rapids and waterfalls. The resort will sit on one of the beautiful crescent lagoons along the Ko Olina shoreline.

I’m assuming that it will be listed in Interval International like the other Disney properties. While 480 timeshare rooms is large by any standard, only the most knowledgeable timeshare owners can expect to get an exchange there.

With 480 timeshare condos there are a maximum potential of 24,480 weeks to be deposited in Interval International. Currently Disney has 350,000 vacation club members and one can only guess how many of them will be vying for one of the Hawaii weeks.

It’s likely that at most, only 10% of the total number of weeks available, or 2,448, will ever make into Interval International in the first 4-5 years that the Disney Vacation Club Hawaii is open. After that you can expect more inventory to show up in II.

To get in you’ll need to own a very powerful exchanging timeshare, book 1-2 years in advance and apply all of the secrets found in The Timeshare Exchange Bible – Interval International Edition. So take a look at it now. Click Here now to read about it.

To read Disney’s press release Click Here.

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How To Sell Your Timeshare: Avoid Making These 3 Mistakes

Monday, January 7th, 2008

You have already spent thousands of dollars purchasing your timeshare.  More if you bought Disney, Marriott or Westin. Don’t throw even more of your hard earned money by making 3 of the biggest mistakes when you go to sell it. Since you found your way to this report, you’re probably selling your timeshare
because you’re now unhappy with it.  Unfortunately, you’re probably going to be disappointed in your return of investment as well. 

The timeshare re-sale, or secondary market, is young and not only flooded with people desperate to sell, but also with extremely unethical re-sale companies that prey upon them.

 Selling a timeshare can be extremely difficult, and in some cases, impossible.  The FTC has cited a survey that found only 3.3 percent of owners reported successfully reselling their timeshares for a price they were happy with during the last 20 years. Many timeshare resale firms claim consumers can save 50 percent to 90 percent off retail prices. Therefore, buying a secondhand timeshare from an individual
owner can be a bargain but selling a timeshare is a losing proposition. 

“Consumer Reports” July 2003

What Makes Selling A Timeshare So Difficult?

The two things that make the re-selling of a timeshare so difficult are that the supply of available resale weeks greatly outweighs demand, and the fact that nearly 50% of the price of a timeshare purchased from the developer went into the marketing costs.  Simply put, if you paid $15,000 for a timeshare, $7,500 of the purchase price was for marketing.  Because the market is flooded with re-sales, you’d be lucky to get $3,000 on the secondary market.  After commissions and closing costs $2,000 is a more realistic number.  You can expect a little more if you own a brand named timeshare like Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton or Westin/Starwood and less if you own a really bad one.

The next 3 posts will shed light on 3 common mistakes that many people make when selling their timeshare that can cost them thousands of dollars.  If you contemplating selling your timeshare don’t miss the rest of this series.  The timeshare resale industry is rife with unethical resale companies that will tell you anything to get into your pockets so you need to be informed.  Learn how to distinguish between a legitimate and unethical timeshare resale company.

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