Is FLORIDA really all red time?

The two major exchange companies have designated most all of Florida as red time? Seems to me there's a cooler season in the winter, maybe a bit hot in the summer... and then there's the chance of hurricanes in the late Summer, and early Fall... So what do people REALLY think about this?

Is it appropriate to make it all red time?

randy, there are different shades of red in the red category for Florida (re: hot red and light red).

Summer is red hot season in Florida since American kids are out of school and everyone is vacationing. Winter is red hot season since the snowbirds like to head south in winter as are major holidays red hot.

The light reds are considered in between weeks with less traffic, although still shades of red such as September, October and November, until Thanksgiving week, and the first part of December until Christmas week and New Years week. After New Years week the snowbirds start heading south.

We were in Kissimmee the week before Thanskgiving (we left the Sunday before Thanksgiving), which that week would be considered light red, but you couldn't tell it by how many people were in the area as the traffic was very heavy all week and the restaurants full during breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'd hate to be there during a red hot designation.

We previously owned an October week in Kissimmee, since it was cooler, less humidity and less crowded, which would be considered light red, but at Disney World there were thousands of international tourists that spoke various foreign languages.

You also have to remember that Florida is an international destination, much like Las Vegas, not just an American destination.

Edited to say that I forgot about red hot spring break when kids and colleges are out of school from March through Easter. With all the above red hot designations that leaves very little light red.

Hope this helps explain the year round red phenomena for Florida.

jayjay wrote:

randy, there are different shades of red in the red category for Florida (re: hot red and light red).

Summer is red hot season in Florida since American kids are out of school and everyone is vacationing. Winter is red hot season since the snowbirds like to head south in winter as are major holidays red hot.

The light reds are considered in between weeks with less traffic, although still shades of red such as September, October and November, until Thanksgiving week, and the first part of December until Christmas week and New Years week. After New Years week the snowbirds start heading south.

We were in Kissimmee the week before Thanskgiving (we left the Sunday before Thanksgiving), which that week would be considered light red, but you couldn't tell it by how many people were in the area as the traffic was very heavy all week and the restaurants full during breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'd hate to be there during a red hot designation.

We previously owned an October week in Kissimmee, since it was cooler, less humidity and less crowded, which would be considered light red, but at Disney World there were thousands of international tourists that spoke various foreign languages.

You also have to remember that Florida is an international destination, much like Las Vegas, not just an American destination.

Edited to say that I forgot about red hot spring break when kids and colleges are out of school from March through Easter. With all the above red hot designations that leaves very little light red.

Hope this helps explain the year round red phenomena for Florida.

Uh..maybe not. If you really want to be puzzled, look at page 107 of RCI's 2006/2007 directory which covers resorts in the Florida panhandle. The resorts (both Gold Crown, both Fairfield, both in Destin) have different season assignments. Early January is Blue in both; mid-January to mid February is White in both--but Beach Street Cottages are Red for the rest of the year while Bay Club II is Blue mid-November to mid-December. (As are most panhandle resorts.)

I see another Gold Crown resort about 40 min NW of Orlando which is White in May and September. (p.76) There are a lot of places in upper Florida which are not RCI Red year round. (Having been there in January, I agree with this!)

As JayJay pointed out, an area may be Red for various reasons, but as far as the color shown in the RCI Directory is concerned, Red is Red.

If we are talking about the color seasons assigned by resort groups for their own internal exchanges, we may indeed encounter terms such as High Red, Leaf Season,etc. Bluegreen seems to invent more seasons all the time! BG calls Orlando Red in some months and High Red in others while RCI shows just plain Red. Fairfield fine tunes the Destin resorts mentioned earlier into Quiet, Value, High, and Prime seasons. Each resort chain seems to speak its own language.

Mary D

I would take the color designations with a grain of salt.. I used to work for RCI and know personally that Florida does not have the same demand all year long.. Summer, holidays, and breaks from school are when its REALLY red.. Other than that, you have a pretty good chance of getting something. Unless u are looking for the panhandle, which is usually hard all year. Southeast florida is usually the easiest to get.

We own at a Marriott Resort in Hilton Head - a 2 bedroom, 2 bath in a lovely resort. We own in what Marriott calls the Gold season there - Fall and Spring. We have traded and gone both to Marriott resorts in south Florida (in Ft. Lauderdale and in Ft. Myers ) in the late winter (late March I think), and to Orlando (also a Marriott resort) in early December (the week after Thanksgiving). We trade through Interval International and have had no problem getting into these resorts. I don't know that our weeks would be considered Red, but we've gotten in. There are so many resorts in Orlando (or at least that area) I can't imagine that one would be totally unable to get something there, although maybe not exactly the resort you want, or the exact date you want. We've found that flexibility helps.

We just recieved an Interval Inter. magazine.

It had a new resort listed in Bonita Springs (Between Ft Meyers and Naples-west coast side). The resort had mostly RED weeks. But they also has several weeks listed as Yellow.

In the II book (I have never studied the RCI book that much)....it appears nearly all listings in central & S Florida, partic. the coasts, are red...some light...some dark. I have seen more non - red time furthur north in Florida.

Availability on either coast in S Florida is very hard until main hurricane season (and the kids are in school)....Sept, October, Nov and the first few weeks in December.

BTW...if there is no wind...this is the top time for coastal S Florida, and all the way up the east coast to SC, maybe even to NC.....excellent weather (pending storms), gulf & ocean temps just perfect.

This is a sop to timeshare developers by RCI and II. At one time it may have been accurate, but not today.

Real trading power is based on supply and demand, and in some areas of Florida, particularly overbuilt Orlando, a blue week from almost anywhere can trade in much of the year with ease.

There are other places where the ''red all year'' designation is a joke, like the overbuilt Canary Islands, also easy to trade into with blue weeks much of the year.

The European version of the RCI directory has a month-by-month supply demand table that rates the supply/demand factors for resort areas on the following scale: 1=very highly demanded, limited availibiliey, 2= highly demanded, less availibility, 3= good availibility, 4= very good availibility. Seven months of the year in Florida rate a 3 or 4 which means if RCI were honest and updated its color codes, they should be blue or white.

There are places that rate a ''1'' all 12 months of the year. Ireland is one such place, but if you look at the color codes, it is curiously NOT red all year.

The problem seems to be that the color codes have not been thoroughly updated in a long time and do not reflect current reality of supply and demand.

It would be nice if RCI gave its US members the availibility tables in the US version of the RCI directory.

But don't expect RCI to either give us those tables or update the color codes. Too many developers would scream.

ovr wrote:

This is a sop to timeshare developers by RCI and II. At one time it may have been accurate, but not today.

Real trading power is based on supply and demand, and in some areas of Florida, particularly overbuilt Orlando, a blue week from almost anywhere can trade in much of the year with ease.

There are other places where the ''red all year'' designation is a joke, like the overbuilt Canary Islands, also easy to trade into with blue weeks much of the year.

The European version of the RCI directory has a month-by-month supply demand table that rates the supply/demand factors for resort areas on the following scale: 1=very highly demanded, limited availibiliey, 2= highly demanded, less availibility, 3= good availibility, 4= very good availibility. Seven months of the year in Florida rate a 3 or 4 which means if RCI were honest and updated its color codes, they should be blue or white.

There are places that rate a ''1'' all 12 months of the year. Ireland is one such place, but if you look at the color codes, it is curiously NOT red all year.

The problem seems to be that the color codes have not been thoroughly updated in a long time and do not reflect current reality of supply and demand.

It would be nice if RCI gave its US members the availibility tables in the US version of the RCI directory.

But don't expect RCI to either give us those tables or update the color codes. Too many developers would scream.

So MOST of Florida is Red MOST of the time--but that does not mean that a Blue or White week from a Gold Crown (or even Silver Crown) resort can't pull a Florida (or other) Red week if supply exceeds demand. If supply is short, Red trumps White/Blue deposits from equal resorts. It's the same way with unit sizes. Many many RCI deposits are Studio, but some resorts have nothing but 2BR units to deposit. Consequently, your 1 or 2BR may only get a Studio because nothing else is available where and when you want to go. But if you are lucky, your Studio may pull a 2BR. Again, supply and demand. MD