Marriott Vacation Club "Destinations" - What I Like and What I've Done

We began with the Marriott Vacation Club by purchasing our first timeshare weeks in 2006. Since then we have acquired additional weeks, both thru Marriott and thru private parties, enrolled our weeks, and finally acquired Destination points last year.

I have read in forums of complaints, frustrations, and misunderstandings about the Vacation Club experience. This forum caption is started today to elicit experiences that show what we like and how we achieved value from our investment in future vacations - weeks or Destination points. I am hopeful that this will enhance our ownership experience and expose us to greater vacation experiences.

We own weeks at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas in So. California, Grande Chateau in Las Vegas, and Custom House in Boston. My favorite of these is the Custom House, acquired in 2007. We go there every year and have never tired of the experiences we've had discovering history. Last year we brought along a 9 year old grandson and next year we will be joined by a son, his wife and 4 sons - ages 9 to 17. This is a fun and life changing experience. Don't miss this great property. We'll be there for the 4th of July this year.

I hope that you will join in sharing what you've done and how you have achieved value.

Dennis

Thanks to you, Dennis, for starting this positive forum! My husband and I have three weeks we own--two Platinum weeks at Breckenridge, CO and a Platinum season lock-off unit at Canyon Villas in Scottsdale, AZ. So far we have been to Fords Colony, VA (Williamsburg--and with your love of history, Dennis, this should be a MUST DO for you!), Marbella, Mallorca, Palm Desert, Oahu, Kauai (twice!), Aruba, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale. Trading for Marriott Reward Points we have gone to Vienna, Prague, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice, and in 3 weeks we will be going to Berlin for 6 days (and a BIGGIE on my bucket list--seeing the Berlin Philharmonic in their hall!) and 5 days in Munich (we love the option to be able to use the "open jaw" with the airlines using our air miles from our Marriott Reward Points!). What we always have appreciate with Marriott is that you know you will be walking into a quality environment with excellent accommodations--no nasty surprises! We have always been treated well my the Marriott Reps and the people at the Resorts and Hotels. We have high hopes that the Destinations Program will work well for us in the future, and have just made our first deposit with the Program receiving our 6,500 points for our three resorts. We hope to plan a family vacation to Hawaii next year with our son and wife, our daughter and husband and our (soon to be!) 4 grandchildren (one is on the way in September!). Any advice--as I know we will need several rooms! Will 6,500 points net us two units in the less popular season in Hawaii (I know there is no real "low" season!)? To date, we couldn't ask more from our experience with Marriott!

Noticed last evening, 4th of July, Sunday to Friday 5 day stay at Newport Coast Villas is available - Sunday, July 1st to Friday, July 6th is available using 2,875 Dest points. This is the heart of the July 4th holiday period which could be teamed up with a discounted Marriott hotel stay for the weekends near Disneyland, Lego Land, or SeaWorld. Please note that entire week, adding the weekend days, would require 5,675 pts.

Weekdays for 4th of July week are 575 points each, including 4th of July which is on Wednesday.

See you there.

Afterthought - You may want to check out Marriott resorts that are close by for the 4th of July. The 4th is on a Wednesday this year.

This was a great idea--and wish we could take advantage of it (Newport sounds like a great place to go!). We have two units waiting for us at the end of June in Orlando at the Marriott Grand Vista. We're taking our kids and grandkids for a week-long stay. This is MCVI at its best when you can enjoy a family vacation together. These are the memories that last a lifetime! We want to do the same next summer--only in Hawaii. With our premier membership (6,500 points) we should be able to try and book something 13 months out--right? Thanks again Dennis!

Kathy

Kathrynm,

A few tips and tricks you may want to look into: as a premiere owner you qualify for a 20% "discount" on any point reservation made within 7 days prior to check in. That means that if the normal cost is 2000 points, you would only have to pay 1600.

To take advantage of this coupled with the perk of being able to book 13 months out at any resort and no cxl fees. You should try the following:

Book what you want 13 months out. Then 7 days before arrival call your VOA (or check online) to see if you there is your same vacation available. If so, book it and cxl the other reservation, and save 20%. There is a downfall to this however, I believe those refunded points must be used within 60 days (most owners simply tack on an extra day with those points or use it as an excuse to go somewhere within the next two months, even if it's only for a few days).

Another trick that anyone can do is to look into Sunday Check-ins and Friday Check-outs. It's a 6 day stay but will make any reservation almost 50% less the required point cost.

Sometimes sacrificing a day or two is worth it when it leaves enough points left to take 2 or 3 more trips doing the same 50% off trick.

When going to Hawaii, I am breaking up my flight so that I can stay in Vegas Thursday-Friday night, Checking out Saturday, then flying on to Kauai Checking in on Saturday with a Friday Check out.

So 3 days/2 nights in Vegas (about all the time needed for that place) and 7 days/6 nights in Kauai, but since Vegas is cheaper in points for Friday than Hawaii is, it made sense to split the weekend days that are more expensive between the two destinations.

Dear g333s--

I was afraid you had disappeared! Glad to see you are back and trying to re-establish some sanity to that Ripoff blog! The name calling was really getting to me, and I just tried to keeping telling everyone that Timeshares are different experiences for everyone and you just have to find the one that fits how you like to spend your vacations. Dennis and I were getting nowhere--though I did notice that you recently send a long reply which I haven't been able to read as yet. My husband and I are in Munich now and had spent 6 wonderful days in Berlin before coming to Munich--all using our MRPs. I will read your post in full when I get home. I just wanted to thank you for these great ideas--which I will print out and save when we return on Friday. Anyway, I'm glad you are back and especially glad you found this more helpful and pleasant blog! It really is great having your expertise and your resource knowledge! More later--and thanks once again!

Kathy

Well, we're back from Park City and had another great time at a Marriott property.

I lessened participation in the other forum as it was going nowhere, was discouraging, and I don't really like the dark side. It seems two or three malcontents are shuffling the same discontent back and forth. I even wrote a response once about an "echo in the room" referring to the same complaint being recycled three or four times. I think I removed the comment a day or two later as it was a bit mean. I need a delete button; perhaps, as much as some may need to delete the copy button (to avoid recycling the same old stuff). :-)

g333s - I read your entire writing and appreciated what you have been able to do. It requires effort, but others can and have duplicated your success. Thanks for your thoughtful writing.

Dest Pts - I like the flexibility, do not find them expensive (if used properly), and especially like using 1 to 5 days. Destinations was a significant and essential enhancement to our owned week portfolio. Contrary to some, I believe existing owners were the major winners with the coming of Destinations. I believe those who don't enroll their owned weeks will be sorry.

We have chosen to be happy with what we bought and "make it work." We're happy with our "Vacation 401k"

Dennis

Dennis-- I double everything you said! I kept adding my two cents by saying that no one timeshare is right for everyone...so just find the one that fits and buy into it...but no one wanted to listen to that! And everytime the class action suit kept coming up, I kept asking why there wasn't one in the works if it was as serious a fraud and they were contending it was! My guess is that MCVI has covered all of their bases so there really was no grounds for one. And why did that one guy keep harping on and on about his content with Maui??? If you intend to keep going back year after year then why would you even consider the Destinations Program in the first place--and why complain that it's a rip off? Just seemed to me like a classic case of Much Ado About Nothing! If you're happy, you're happy--and more power to you! --Kathy

Dennis, you wrote, "I believe existing owners were the major winners with the coming of Destinations. I believe those who don't enroll their owned weeks will be sorry."

I have a few comments and questions. It seemed most people who wrote on the other blog all had platinum weeks in prime locations that they paid a lot for in comparison to what my husband and I own. We are just average income people. We have 2 Gold weeks at Cyprus Harbour in FL that cost a grand total of $25,000. We went there twice when our kids were still living at home to go to Disney World, Sea World, etc. Now they are grown and we will never want to return to Orlando, except maybe many years down the line if our sons have kids, but they are not even married yet. We have traded over the years to go on some great vacations using one week for the trade and the other week for Marriott Rewards Points. We have used the MRPs for airfare and to add days to our vacation by staying in Marriott hotels.

We enrolled our weeks in the Destinations program simply because we thought that it would eventually pay for itself by the savings in fees. Our 2 weeks combined get us a total of 5,000 exchange points. To go anywhere that we feel would be a great vacation, I think we would have to use both our weeks' points to have one trip.

We can't afford to take more than one trip requiring airfare each year. We don't live close enough to any resort to consider a short trip that we could drive to and I'm not interested in that anyway. So I always felt that we would probably never use the exchange points - that instead we would just keep trying to trade one of our weeks for a week via II. So other than how the cost of enrolling ($695) will eventually pay for itself via saved fees, in my situation do you think there are any other benefits to our having enrolled in Destinations? I would love to know any other positives about the decision we made to enroll! Feel free to imagine some scenarios of what we might want to do - to give me some ideas.

If anyone else has anything positive to point out, please chime in. We made the decision to join just based on the savings of fees and don't really see how else it might benefit us.

Also, I don't understand enough about renting points. Is that only for Trust owners? We don't have sufficient funds available to buy into the Trust, so we'd like to know if renting points applies to boosting exchange points should we ever want to try to use them rather than trading a week in II. Thanks, Elise

First, I'm no expert in this and just keep trying. I have had good experience by just asking the vacation reps to help me. They are much more creative than I and have all the resources at hand. They also take delight in offering great ideas. I suggest that you also ask a rep to walk you thru the online dest points reservation section where you can select a property and days wanted and see the cost in points. Please note the difference in points required for non-weekend days. Also, check the "flexible" box.

With respect to the use of points. I think there are some good values in points. An example, I'm in California and have found that I can get 5 nights, Sunday afternoon thru Friday morning at Newport Coast during the "best" summer weeks for 2,375 dest pts. This coupled with a Marriott hotel stay using rewards points for the weekend days near a resort (LegoLand, Disneyland, etc.) works nicely. I also note that for an immediate vacation you can pick up a few days at a discount in points - seems like about 20%.

I'm sure there are others on this forum that can offer better suggestions. It might be helpful for us to know which "state" you live in, then they can offer suggestions for resorts near you.

Renting points - I haven't done this either way, buying or selling.

One other point - The most success seems to come to us by planning way out with either scheduling our weeks, trading thru Interval, etc. It has also helped to allow some flexibility in our resorts and date ranges.

I hope this helps - and others can add too....

Dennis

PS - You mentioned you could get 5,000 points for your weeks. A rough example: You could get nearly two weeks at Newport Coast for this by getting two 5 day reservations (2,375 X 2 = 4,750)and using rewards points for two weekend days in the middle during the best summer period. I suspect the same would apply to a resort closer to you or maybe to two resorts that are not too far apart. Incidentally, my example used two bedroom units - you probably only need 1 bedroom at a lower cost in points.

Elise-- I'm going to chime in here, because your message could have been written by me! We don't have a lot of money but did buy back when a Platinum week was within our means, so our three weeks total 6,500 Destination Points. We also bought in because we felt we were being nickle and dimed by the fees, and the 6,500 points put us at a very good level for a trade. We, too, are lucky to take one trip a year, so we felt we could get a least one good week--with the advantage of being able to book out 13 months in advance. We just traded for our 6,500 points a month or so ago, so I'm not sure how it will go as yet. We hoped to go to Hawaii next year and be able to get a unit/s that would accommodate our kids and grandkids. I'll be calling our rep next month and will keep you posted how it all goes. Bottom line is that we have been very satisfied with our experiences and can only hope it will continue. Through this blog I have learned so much from these folks and the sharing of ideas has been most helpful. I got a little bummed with the negativity of the other blog because it was NOT in any way helpful! I think the sharing we do on this one will be great for all of us and we can profit from each others' experiences. I'll let you know how it all goes! Kathy

Thanks to those who answered. It's good to try to keep learning from each other. We live in northern Alabama. We have driven to Myrtle Beach one year and had a great time. We hope to drive to Hilton Head someday. We just got a trade to go to Napa, CA through II January 6-13, 2013. If anyone has any recommendations of things to do in that area, we would appreciate it. I have never been to northern California. We plan to drive into San Francisco a couple of days and there is so much to do there, it will be hard to choose. But I would also like to know ideas of what to do in the Napa area. Thanks again, Elise

Please consider adding Monterrey and Big Sur and Alcatraz (in SF). Also Hearst Castle - make a reservation for this one (don't be like me).

Dennis

The tone of other blog was indeed too harsh.

BUT I am a legacy MVC owner with a Gold week at Timberlodge. I any tell you how angry I was when I learned that if I converted to the destination program that I couldn't even stay at my home resort for a week. That is just wrong. What it comes down to is that the owners of Platinum weeks had virtually the same trading power as I did thru Interval and that didn't sit right. I get it but it's also why I bought only a Gold week. We have been cery fortunate to use II to trade for some great vacations... But I simply have no motivation to convert. I decided to play this out as long as I can. I did notice that Ko Olina held there inventory for a very long time until they opened it up to II. I think this is just the beginning of such behavior. I am also insults with the scare tactics of charging some insane amount of money to convert after this week. If I have to, we'll sell and buy points resale.

Bottom line. MVC had been a great buy and program but I am VERY convcerned that It won't endure under the new ownership model and no longer being affiliated with Marriott International.

Mike,

You own your week and should be able to use it as you have in the past. You wouldn't deposit your owned week for Dest Pts and then go back to your home resort. Each owner will make the decision to enroll based upon their intended use and a value judgment with respect to the new Dest program. Enrollees in the Dest program are not compelled to deposit their weeks for points, or to use any other aspect of Destinations.

I respect your judgment; however, we enrolled our weeks right after the announcement of the new program in 2010 and have reduced our Interval fees sufficient to cover the annual fee each year. I also like the flexibility of using a few days here and there rather than a full week. Good luck with your decision.

Dennis

Let's see if I have it straight. It's a one time decision to enroll in Destinations - for our two weeks I paid $695. Then the annual $165 dues. The plus for everyone who does so is that all the fees are covered, except if you want to trade via II for a non-Marriott week, then you pay the fee. After that, it's an annual decision that must be made by Sept 30 of the prior calendar year whether to convert one or more weeks to points for that coming year, correct? If you own more than one week, you could choose to convert one of them, but not the other for a particular year, correct?

The decision to request Marriott Rewards Points only must be made by Dec 31, correct?

If one wants to go to one's home resort, definitely do not convert to points. Since we like to take a minimum of a full week every time, I probably will just keep trading with II. But maybe some year I will try points with a 5 day stay Sun-Fri, a Marriott hotel for the weekend with my MRPs, and then another 5 day stay at another resort elsewhere. The hotel could be en route to the second resort, if it's a pretty long drive. Planning ahead is the key, which isn't the easiest thing for me with what I have going on at work and home. But it just has to be made a priority to think it though early. I summarized this off the top of my head without looking at literature, so I hope I have it right!

To summarize Vacation Club Critical Dates:

January 1st thru December 31st - Use year for Vacation Club Points. June 30th - Deadline for banking Vacation Club Points for use in the next year. September 30th - Legacy Weeks, Elect Vacation Club Points for next year. December 31st - Elect Rewards Points for legacy weeks or points.

If anyone sees any error or omissions in this, please advise and I'll fix it.

Elise and others on the East Coast:

If you haven't been to Marriott's Custom House in Boston, have a look at it on the internet. This historic building has only 84 rooms and is right near the Freedom Trail and the harbor. I suspect that you would need to make a reservation/trade well in advance. We go every year, about 5 times so far, and it's my favorite of the Marriott properties.

You are right near the Freedom Trail and a subway stop - very inexpensive to get around in Boston and even out to Quincy (John Adam's home). We took our 9 year old grandson last year, had a wonderful time, and he got a great history lesson.

We've been to Marriott properties in Kauai, Newport Coast (CA), Boston, Palm Desert (CA), Park City (UT), Las Vegas (NV), and Myrtle Beach (SC).

Writing this, reminds me that we need to plan some new adventures - there are lots of properties we haven't visited. Please tell us what we need to experience. Incidentally, Orlando (FL) is coming up this month.

Dennis

I own a Grand Vista 3 bedroom lock-off Platinum in Orlando and have never seen it only to purchase it. I have traded every year that I have used it. The unit trades very well and I feel that I get more out of it trading than using it there. However this year I am planning on going there after a 7 year ownership. I couldn't have asked for a better trader. Two weeks in Hawaii @ the Ko' Olina & Wiaohai in 2006, the next year was Hilton Head with the lock-off, and then followed with 3 weeks the next year in Aruba. Later this year I plan on using all my banked weeks & do Hawaii again. I already have 3 confirmations and am waiting on 2 more........ Aloha

Dest Pts - Using a few days at a prime location. This is why I enrolled my weeks, in addition to the Interval savings.

Park City, Marriott Mountainside - I used Dest Pts (from enrolled weeks) today to reserve two weekday nights, Dec. 26 & 27th for our daughter, her husband, three little ones (under eight) and another family member who can help with the children. They love to ski but a week is too long (and expensive) and they have other plans for Christmas with family in the area. They are excited because they can have three full days of skiing at a prime location at the base of the ski runs. They are excited - an early Merry Christmas!

Dennis