Global Access thru Orange Lake Resorts

suzannes39 wrote:

My husband and I just returned from a "week 12" vacation at Orange Lake. (We are owners of a 2bed/2bath). We were constantly pestered to attend an "owners" update meeting at the "beautiful" Founders Club. Apparently this was supposed to whet our appetite. ... We were very thankful we backed out of a purchase for a unit in the new River Island village. The crowd in that area was unbelievable, by 10 am there was not a chair to be had. I can't imagine paying the price of the RI units and not being able to even find a chair, especially for families with young children. This may be somewhat alleviated upon completion of the pool at the West Village as many were owners (as we are, from the west village). All in all we have to say we have found a distinct shift in attitude in the last couple of years.. OL is not the same as it once was. Long time owners consistently expressed this opinion to us over the week we were on site.

We were also told that we were going to an "seminar" on how Global Access works, which turned out to be a sales presentation.

As for the crowds at RI, yes it gets very crowded, and by the time the West Village pool reopens, the RI addition will be finished. Also, RI can be VERY loud at night. But we don't regret buying in RI as the pool is incredible and we love the fact that it is so close to the room. We're early risers, so we can "towel" a few chairs early when we will be spending the day there.

My cousin, a 20 year Orange Lake owner (with 4 weeks) prefers the "Golf Villas" as he and his wife like the quietness and privacy they afford. To each his own.

jayjay From what I understand Global Access is merely an (expensive) option for owners to join at Orange Lake, it is not mandatory. You can still bank your OLCC week with RCI and trade it as you have been doing for 20 years or you can use your week as you did this year.

I haven't heard that OLCC is going all points. As far as I know Global Access and RCI are not related ... the GAl points system would be in direct competition with RCI's points system.

I would just continue as you have been doing for your 20 years of ownership.

**the problem with this is that you have to claim your deeded week 12 months in advance or it will not be there for you when you arrive AND if 70% of owners are switching to points then the inventory of weeks will be less if you are choosing to come back to OLCC yearly Renee

suzannes39 wrote:

My husband and I just returned from a "week 12" vacation at Orange Lake. (We are owners of a 2bed/2bath). We were constantly pestered to attend an "owners" update meeting at the "beautiful" Founders Club. Apparently this was supposed to whet our appetite. My husband felt we should find out what provisions have been made for future development etc. etc. I wish to stress that the "meeting" was billed as an informative session for owners. We were appalled to find ourselves in yet another fairly high pressure timeshare presentation. On top of the scam like tactics to get us there (other couples at the meeting felt as we did and were expecting an Orange Lake rep to address us as a group.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO such luck.) It is unconscionable that years of ownership counted for nothing and we were treated as though we were coming off the street for a presentation. All for a whopping $60.00 cash! Most presentations pay at least a $100.00. Oh, yes we did have to tour the new units and the penthouse!! What really infuriates us is the new "levels" of membership. Which is a bit of a pyramid scheme in some ways.... as a regular old weeks member (as we have been for years) it turns out we aren't as valued an owner as we once were. You see the deal is: the more weeks you own, converted to global access points, the more privileges and perks you are entitled to. For example golf benefits, village upgrades, restaurant upgrades etc. So now we have different levels of ownership. Great! I'm embarrassed to say we actually bought into the Global Access Points system before they discontinued allowing owners to upgrade by buying another week. It seemed as though it was a good option as it was billed as an incentive price point that would be going up and was being offered at an introductory price to "get members on board". The real dilemma for us was the whole points system offering greater flexibility because so many point resorts wouldn't trade with weeks owners. We were convinced by repeated guarantees that converting our week to points would absolutely guarantee us a greater pool of properties and the fee to switch to a different week at OL would be done internally for only $40.00 as opposed to the over 4 X fee RCI charged. We are still scratching our heads over whether that move was worthwhile. The fee we paid to convert was approx. $2000. I would like to add that when we asked the sales woman at our meeting and the "closer" what about the members who were grandfathered into Global they absolutely denied that happened and said any owner who says otherwise is a liar. So there you go.. We were very thankful we backed out of a purchase for a unit in the new River Island village. The crowd in that area was unbelievable, by 10 am there was not a chair to be had. I can't imagine paying the price of the RI units and not being able to even find a chair, especially for families with young children. This may be somewhat alleviated upon completion of the pool at the West Village as many were owners (as we are, from the west village). All in all we have to say we have found a distinct shift in attitude in the last couple of years.. OL is not the same as it once was. Long time owners consistently expressed this opinion to us over the week we were on site.

*** We must have been there at the same time and agree 100% with everything said here..... REnee

ley2 wrote:

I'd like to share my experience also about the Global Access.

I have been an owner as Orange Lake Florida since 2000. I own a 1 bedroom in splash lagoon village. (Forgot it its west or north village.)

Anyhow I had not visited in 4 years. I'm actually here as I type. Basically at checkin I was identified as an owner. They offered me $50 gift certificates for use in OL and amusement park tickets at wholesale to listen to a 1 hour presentation. I agreed.

At the presentation they told me the story about OL not joining the points system when RCI had offered it to them years ago. OL was waiting to see how the points system would turn out. And now they are going to create their own OL points system to link into RCI instead. Hence the Global blahblahblah. Then they said 65% of the resorts in RCI are in points already and my week at OL would have limited trade in value because of this.

In the end you would only have to speak to an OL representative and they would handle all the exchange details whether within an OL affiliated resort or with RCI.

Then they took me on a tour of the new built buildings. Near River Island. (The 7+ story buildings.)

THEN they told me that my one bedroom had only ~77,000 points and they recommended that I should use the equity I had in my current 1 bedroom and purchase a 2 bedroom instead to get more points to use for the system. I think they quoted me about $16,000 or so for the upgrade which included the use of the equity of my 1 bedroom.

Basically sounds like OL is trying to make money off existing weeks owners by scaring them into thinking that they have to convert to points and that whatever unit they have they must upgrade to a larger unit. Funny thing is I never got the chance to ask them how much it would cost just to join the Global without upgrading my unit. Basically after I said no to the $16,000 upgrade, the OL rep said thank you and walked away and sent another guy in to give me the gift information.

Will they let you convert any weeks that you have bought on the resale market to GA?

roger365 wrote:

Will they let you convert any weeks that you have bought on the resale market to GA?

For a fee you can do anything Renee

roger365 wrote:

Will they let you convert any weeks that you have bought on the resale market to GA?

I asked about this after my stay at OL, especially since the after-market deals are so good. I was told that if I bought a week on the after-market that was already "Global Access", the points would transfer.

_BUT_ if I was buying a unit that didn't already have GA points attached to it, I would have to _BUY ANOTHER UNIT THRU THEM_ that was Global Access and they would then convert the after-market units to points. So I would then own three units, not two. The rep on the phone then offered me a week at Panama City that was good EVERY OTHER YEAR for about $11,000 (worth 153,000 points). When I turned her down, she called back a couple of days later, and the price dropped to $9,000. I haven't called her back yet.

I _was_ told on the phone that there is NO WAY to just buy points for a unit I buy on the after-market.

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a resale week at OL, then if you are a GA member, convert those to GA points on a year to year basis for the $75 fee. I was told by a person from GA that if I owned at a weeks resort, that I could convert that week to GA points as long as I did so 10 months in advance and paid the $75. I'm going to guess probably not, but I am going to call and ask.

roger365 wrote:

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a resale week at OL, then if you are a GA member, convert those to GA points on a year to year basis for the $75 fee. I was told by a person from GA that if I owned at a weeks resort, that I could convert that week to GA points as long as I did so 10 months in advance and paid the $75. I'm going to guess probably not, but I am going to call and ask.

I own a week at OL. Can you convert the week to GA points on an annual basis rather than permanently? (I am not a GA memeber.)

reneew13

jayjay wrote:

From what I understand Global Access is merely an (expensive) option for owners to join at Orange Lake, it is not mandatory. You can still bank your OLCC week with RCI and trade it as you have been doing for 20 years or you can use your week as you did this year.

I haven't heard that OLCC is going all points. As far as I know Global Access and RCI are not related ... the GAl points system would be in direct competition with RCI's points system.

I would just continue as you have been doing for your 20 years of ownership.

**the problem with this is that you have to claim your deeded week 12 months in advance or it will not be there for you when you arrive AND if 70% of owners are switching to points then the inventory of weeks will be less if you are choosing to come back to OLCC yearly Renee

Are you sure? I own 3 deeded weeks that are unit specific and are mine. They should always be there for me to use unless I deposit them with RCI for a week exchange or deposit the week into "weeks" and then convert the week to RCI points,, which I have done. But in any case, I don't think that there could be a case where I could not get my unit and my week because I did not claim it months in advance. Someone help us clear it up, I am curious.

billc196 wrote:

roger365 wrote:

Will they let you convert any weeks that you have bought on the resale market to GA?

I asked about this after my stay at OL, especially since the after-market deals are so good. I was told that if I bought a week on the after-market that was already "Global Access", the points would transfer.

_BUT_ if I was buying a unit that didn't already have GA points attached to it, I would have to _BUY ANOTHER UNIT THRU THEM_ that was Global Access and they would then convert the after-market units to points. So I would then own three units, not two. The rep on the phone then offered me a week at Panama City that was good EVERY OTHER YEAR for about $11,000 (worth 153,000 points). When I turned her down, she called back a couple of days later, and the price dropped to $9,000. I haven't called her back yet.

I _was_ told on the phone that there is NO WAY to just buy points for a unit I buy on the after-market.

You can take a weeks timeshare from another resort and convert it to global access points to increase the number that you have in any given year. I have done that once and am in the process of doing it again. I take my Mayan Palace week, call and get a week assigned and deposited to RCI. Then call GA and tell them and they switch it to points giving me enough to trade into OLCC in the spring time which requires more pts than my wk 6 gives me. You can also buy points outright Renee

reneew13 wrote:

You can take a weeks timeshare from another resort and convert it to global access points to increase the number that you have in any given year. I have done that once and am in the process of doing it again. I take my Mayan Palace week, call and get a week assigned and deposited to RCI. Then call GA and tell them and they switch it to points giving me enough to trade into OLCC in the spring time which requires more pts than my wk 6 gives me. You can also buy points outright Renee

Good point...but not having paid the several thousand dollars to join GA, I can still use my one week to trade for another...I don't need to have my other timeshares deposited to get enough value. It shouldn't depend on what OL thinks what everyone's week is worth if the owner's want to trade. Unlike GA members, with week's the owners have the option to trade straight across. I can see no reason to pay several thousand dollars to give up my option to trade weeks...and always end up with extra unused points....that is unless I pay even more money to RCI (or OL) to keep the unused point until the next year. Joining GA gives you one advantage...to spend more money buying more points to get a week OL thinks is more valuable... ( I bought a 'red' week from OL and was told the wekes were all the same value..'red'. Only when they discovered they could make some more money from existing owners did OL come out with GA) (PS..my other time share only charges $20.00 for internal trades...OL wants over $100.00 for the same doing the same thing...hmmmm)

garyb123 wrote:

reneew13 wrote:

You can take a weeks timeshare from another resort and convert it to global access points to increase the number that you have in any given year. I have done that once and am in the process of doing it again. I take my Mayan Palace week, call and get a week assigned and deposited to RCI. Then call GA and tell them and they switch it to points giving me enough to trade into OLCC in the spring time which requires more pts than my wk 6 gives me. You can also buy points outright Renee

Good point...but not having paid the several thousand dollars to join GA, I can still use my one week to trade for another...I don't need to have my other timeshares deposited to get enough value. It shouldn't depend on what OL thinks what everyone's week is worth if the owner's want to trade. Unlike GA members, with week's the owners have the option to trade straight across. I can see no reason to pay several thousand dollars to give up my option to trade weeks...and always end up with extra unused points....that is unless I pay even more money to RCI (or OL) to keep the unused point until the next year. Joining GA gives you one advantage...to spend more money buying more points to get a week OL thinks is more valuable... ( I bought a 'red' week from OL and was told the wekes were all the same value..'red'. Only when they discovered they could make some more money from existing owners did OL come out with GA) (PS..my other time share only charges $20.00 for internal trades...OL wants over $100.00 for the same doing the same thing...hmmmm)

No arguement on any point here.......however if you remain a weeks member your trade value appears lessened to me if 70% of owners go to weeks then you have that many fewer units to trade into. I happen to own week 6 and wanted to go in spring, a high season trade wise. Points appeared to me to be the only way to accomplish this in any reqular fashion. If you intend to return every year to olcc on your week then no, no reason to go to points.

reneew13 wrote:

garyb123 wrote:

reneew13 wrote:

You can take a weeks timeshare from another resort and convert it to global access points to increase the number that you have in any given year. I have done that once and am in the process of doing it again. I take my Mayan Palace week, call and get a week assigned and deposited to RCI. Then call GA and tell them and they switch it to points giving me enough to trade into OLCC in the spring time which requires more pts than my wk 6 gives me. You can also buy points outright Renee

Good point...but not having paid the several thousand dollars to join GA, I can still use my one week to trade for another...I don't need to have my other timeshares deposited to get enough value. It shouldn't depend on what OL thinks what everyone's week is worth if the owner's want to trade. Unlike GA members, with week's the owners have the option to trade straight across. I can see no reason to pay several thousand dollars to give up my option to trade weeks...and always end up with extra unused points....that is unless I pay even more money to RCI (or OL) to keep the unused point until the next year. Joining GA gives you one advantage...to spend more money buying more points to get a week OL thinks is more valuable... ( I bought a 'red' week from OL and was told the wekes were all the same value..'red'. Only when they discovered they could make some more money from existing owners did OL come out with GA) (PS..my other time share only charges $20.00 for internal trades...OL wants over $100.00 for the same doing the same thing...hmmmm)

No arguement on any point here.......however if you remain a weeks member your trade value appears lessened to me if 70% of owners go to weeks then you have that many fewer units to trade into. I happen to own week 6 and wanted to go in spring, a high season trade wise. Points appeared to me to be the only way to accomplish this in any reqular fashion. If you intend to return every year to olcc on your week then no, no reason to go to points.

I have been an owner at OLCC since 1989. OLCC called me about his Global point system and since I owned both my 3 bedroom units in order to joint the point system, I would have to purchase a another unit for $33,000 yes $33,000 dollars. Because an upgrade would not work for me. I own weeks 26 and 52, the prime weeks at OLCC. There was no beneit to upgrading or purchasing, since I own at Fairfield also and they give me 254,000 points for each unit, that is 10,000 more than OLCC and their points work with RCI, because they own it. I am very disappointed in OLCC that they will automatically register members that have owned for more than 15 years in Global Access.

mikeg262 wrote:

I have been an owner at OLCC since 1989. OLCC called me about his Global point system and since I owned both my 3 bedroom units in order to joint the point system, I would have to purchase a another unit for $33,000 yes $33,000 dollars. Because an upgrade would not work for me. I own weeks 26 and 52, the prime weeks at OLCC. There was no beneit to upgrading or purchasing, since I own at Fairfield also and they give me 254,000 points for each unit, that is 10,000 more than OLCC and their points work with RCI, because they own it. I am very disappointed in OLCC that they will automatically register members that have owned for more than 15 years in Global Access.

I also have converted to the points system. I bought into the weeks program back in 2000 and have gone virtually every year since. 2 years ago we were brought in with the founders club meeting. They even called us and told us that we had to go since we were on the property and we were owners, so we did. We heard they were going to do construction and thought that's what the meeting was all about. When we got there, we were given all kinds of reasons on why GA is better than RCI but they work together. Well, for those of you who have been looking into it, here's some things they DON'T tell you. 1. Your points are equivalent to being 3rd in line for other resorts. Its owners, then RCI people then us. 2. After 2 years, your points expire. You must travel in those 2 years. I have my 2007 points and I need to use them by the end of 2008. I tried booking into many RCI resorts but all of them were booked. Here's the irony of it. I didn't give a specific city, I asked for anywhere from LA to San Diego, anywhere from DC to SC and even weekends in the Poconos. Nothing is available. I already know, I'm going to loose 88000 points. I can't give them to anyone because everyone has already booked their vacations and I know that if I can't get anything in my search, chances are, no one will so why waste time. 3. RCI will allow you to make your points rollover an additional year for a $26 fee. 4. Point Partners- You can sell off your points for a discount. Consider this, I waited over 30 mins. for someone to come on the phone so I can use my points to get discounted hotels (instead of the trade!) and a rental care. I actually would lose almost all of my points to save $200. It's not worth it. I have a better chance of selling my points to someone with young children who aren't in school who will have a better chance of getting a place. 5. When you are in RCI, you have the ability to purchase last call vacations which are approx. $250 for a week. With GA-you're not. 6. When I spoke with an RCI rep, she told me that there is a clause in the contract (which I need to dig up mine) that states that if you are not happy with the points program, on the 3rd year, you can go back to week. FYI- and I don't know if its true-the salesperson, assuming still employed with RCI, will lose the commission for the sale, even though it happened years ago so they probably won't tell you if it's true. Check your contracts for those who did buy.

My suggestion to everyone reading this, think hard and get all of the facts in writing before you agree to this program Good Luck to All

lee144

reneew13 wrote:

jayjay wrote:

From what I understand Global Access is merely an (expensive) option for owners to join at Orange Lake, it is not mandatory. You can still bank your OLCC week with RCI and trade it as you have been doing for 20 years or you can use your week as you did this year.

I haven't heard that OLCC is going all points. As far as I know Global Access and RCI are not related ... the GAl points system would be in direct competition with RCI's points system.

I would just continue as you have been doing for your 20 years of ownership.

**the problem with this is that you have to claim your deeded week 12 months in advance or it will not be there for you when you arrive AND if 70% of owners are switching to points then the inventory of weeks will be less if you are choosing to come back to OLCC yearly Renee

Are you sure? I own 3 deeded weeks that are unit specific and are mine. They should always be there for me to use unless I deposit them with RCI for a week exchange or deposit the week into "weeks" and then convert the week to RCI points,, which I have done. But in any case, I don't think that there could be a case where I could not get my unit and my week because I did not claim it months in advance. Someone help us clear it up, I am curious.

Hi, I wish that I had read all of these comments before we went to OL/Florida in March. We did buy into GAP for $3600. We had wanted to be in the points system, we thought it was basically the same as RCI points. I'm sorry to hear that GAP are third on the list when it comes to exchanging through RCI and that some people are losing their points because there is simply no place available! This is sad!

We called GA and it is true...if you want to go to your resort, your unit and your week and you belong to GA, if have to let them know 12 months in advance. They told us that we can come to our resort during our week but we have to let them know and that we probably wouldn't get our unit. Give them a call to find out for yourselves.

I'm really hoping that once GA really gets going that a lot of the problems will be worked out! What's done is done and can't be undone so I guess we just have to hope for the best, eh? (that Canadian in me :)

Hazel

suzannes39 wrote:

My husband and I just returned from a "week 12" vacation at Orange Lake. (We are owners of a 2bed/2bath). We were constantly pestered to attend an "owners" update meeting at the "beautiful" Founders Club. Apparently this was supposed to whet our appetite. My husband felt we should find out what provisions have been made for future development etc. etc. I wish to stress that the "meeting" was billed as an informative session for owners. We were appalled to find ourselves in yet another fairly high pressure timeshare presentation. On top of the scam like tactics to get us there (other couples at the meeting felt as we did and were expecting an Orange Lake rep to address us as a group.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO such luck.) It is unconscionable that years of ownership counted for nothing and we were treated as though we were coming off the street for a presentation. All for a whopping $60.00 cash! Most presentations pay at least a $100.00. Oh, yes we did have to tour the new units and the penthouse!! What really infuriates us is the new "levels" of membership. Which is a bit of a pyramid scheme in some ways.... as a regular old weeks member (as we have been for years) it turns out we aren't as valued an owner as we once were. You see the deal is: the more weeks you own, converted to global access points, the more privileges and perks you are entitled to. For example golf benefits, village upgrades, restaurant upgrades etc. So now we have different levels of ownership. Great! I'm embarrassed to say we actually bought into the Global Access Points system before they discontinued allowing owners to upgrade by buying another week. It seemed as though it was a good option as it was billed as an incentive price point that would be going up and was being offered at an introductory price to "get members on board". The real dilemma for us was the whole points system offering greater flexibility because so many point resorts wouldn't trade with weeks owners. We were convinced by repeated guarantees that converting our week to points would absolutely guarantee us a greater pool of properties and the fee to switch to a different week at OL would be done internally for only $40.00 as opposed to the over 4 X fee RCI charged. We are still scratching our heads over whether that move was worthwhile. The fee we paid to convert was approx. $2000. I would like to add that when we asked the sales woman at our meeting and the "closer" what about the members who were grandfathered into Global they absolutely denied that happened and said any owner who says otherwise is a liar. So there you go.. We were very thankful we backed out of a purchase for a unit in the new River Island village. The crowd in that area was unbelievable, by 10 am there was not a chair to be had. I can't imagine paying the price of the RI units and not being able to even find a chair, especially for families with young children. This may be somewhat alleviated upon completion of the pool at the West Village as many were owners (as we are, from the west village). All in all we have to say we have found a distinct shift in attitude in the last couple of years.. OL is not the same as it once was. Long time owners consistently expressed this opinion to us over the week we were on site.