It looks like the Disney Vacation Club has signed a multi-year contract with Group RCI, a timeshare exchange company. 

Effective, January 1, 2009, RCI will be the exclusive exchange provider for Disney Vacation Club timeshare members. Under the terms of the new agreement, timeshare owners at Disney Vacation Club will be able to use their Disney Vacation Club timeshare points to book timeshare at RCI resorts all over the world.

The Disney Vacation Club was originnaly affiliated with RCI but switched to Interval International in the late1990′s.  I wonder if some of the other major brand named hotel timeshares like Marriott, Hyatt and Westin may follow?

Exchanging Disney timeshares through RCI will enable Disney owners to book timeshare at non-Disney resorts. At the same time, it gives some members of RCI timeshare exchange the ability to exchange their timeshares for stays at the Disney Vacation Club.

I’ll be curious to see which RCI members will be able to do this.  Will it be RCI weeks members or points members?  Or will the Disney Timeshares be listed in the RCI’s exclusive Registry Collection? Regardless, only timeshare owners that know how to maximize their exchange power will ever get in.

A spokesperson for Disney timeshare says the decision to switch Disney’s exchange affiliation from Interval International to RCI exchange will provide Disney timeshare members with “‘a significantly broader range of resort experiences,’ including access to destinations across six continents and 25 countries.”

Disney believes they will be able to attract more people to buy timeshare at the Disney resorts, by being able to offer access to a wider array of timeshare exchange.