Colonial Williamsburg...a good trade location?

[frisbear Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close frisbear]

I attended a new resort presentation in Williamsburg VA, Colonial Crossings, while staying there. They are billing themselves as the next "Great Bear Lodge", an 5-star resort with an amazing indoor/outdoor pool for year-round use. The resort is still being built with only a couple of lodging buildings completed. The resort is about 3 hours from our home in the DC area.

We plan on buying a 2/3 bedroom timeshare for my family during the July/August.

We are the type of family that would like to go to our home resort every 3-4 years and trade the rest to see other parts of the world.

Is Williamsburg (with floating red weeks) a good trade value or would a place like Orlando (Orange Lake Resort-with specific weeks) or the Florida coast be better?


Thanks

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

Williamsburg is a great place for a vacation. That said, they is general agreement that the area is over built. July and August may be the highest demand time in Williamsburg and may trade OK but there are a lot of better trading areas than Williamsburg. During most of the year, there is too little demand for too many TS.

Orlando is an alway high demand area. But with even more supply than demand most of the year. Buy either area, if that is where you want to vacation. Although most readers on this board say you can trade into Orlando or Williamsburg with little trouble. BUT for trade value, a summer week at the beach will trade better.

Good Luck

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

...Is Williamsburg (with floating red weeks) a good trade value or would a place like Orlando (Orange Lake Resort-with specific weeks) or the Florida coast be better?...

Both Williamsburg and Orlando are way overbuilt -- too much supply for most of the year. If you want something to trade with, I'd pick somewhere with much less supply. Parts of the Florida coast have good supply/demand curves, especially SW Florida in spring.

Where do you want to trade to, and how much does quality of the resort matter to you?

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Colonial Williamsburg will be celebrating Jamestown 400th birthday in the year 2007. Will this increase the demand for Williamsburg resort for 2007?

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Colonial Williamsburg will be celebrating Jamestown 400th birthday in the year 2007. Will this increase the demand for Williamsburg resort for 2007?

No, not really. And what's one year in a lifetime of timesharing?

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Colonial Crossings is a Land'Or that has been sputtering and trying to get off the ground for a while. I think Land'Or of Bahamas fame is the second 'owner'. It's quite a ways from the action although not too bad a commute. It used to be the boonies when I lived on 176 acres right next door back in 1958. They'll never be a Great Bear Lodge, who are they trying to kid?

Already overbuilt... Bluegreen is now entering the market having bought the old Patrick Henry Inn and adjacent properties for a new project with 476 (x52 = 24,752) more units that are only a block or so from Colonial Williamsburg, very well located!

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

I attended a new resort presentation in Williamsburg VA, Colonial Crossings, while staying there. They are billing themselves as the next "Great Bear Lodge", an 5-star resort with an amazing indoor/outdoor pool for year-round use. The resort is still being built with only a couple of lodging buildings completed. The resort is about 3 hours from our home in the DC area.

We plan on buying a 2/3 bedroom timeshare for my family during the July/August.

We are the type of family that would like to go to our home resort every 3-4 years and trade the rest to see other parts of the world.

Is Williamsburg (with floating red weeks) a good trade value or would a place like Orlando (Orange Lake Resort-with specific weeks) or the Florida coast be better?


Thanks

Whatever you do, please do not buy from the developer. There are plenty of resale choices that will get you into Williamsburg whenever you like while giving you the best choices in the rest of the world whenever you want to travel.

If you balance the costs savings of visiting your home resort over 3-4 years vs. trading into the resort you want to visit in Williamsburg, it's only saving you one trade fee. Currently at $149 for RCI, it would cost you $50 per year or less to buy a trader that is known to be good and gets you whatever you want whenever you want it...as long as you can plan a year or more in advance.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

you are getting excellent advice.

If W'burg is your goal for every third or fourth year don't buy there. With PLANNING you can get summer W'burg easily. Notice that I said planning.

A search of W'burg with a strong trader this morning pulled only 2 resorts with 2 bedroom prime summer weeks available for 2007.

At any rate the Florida coastal would be a better trader if you get the right season and area. Say Jan thru March SW Florida on the beach.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

I agree, I would purchase a re-sell t/s in this Williamsburg area and do not let someone sell you a January or February week with the ideal you can trade or exchange it for a week in July for Hilton Head Island or Orlando.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

For RCI, you can look at tug's post done by ex-RCI. For II, you probably can look at the demand index, click on Travel Planning Tool. Notice the comparison between that region and other region. It does not tell you the story about the supply side. But the supply may change year by year, it will eventually reflect on demand side. After you look at both site you probably get a feeling how that will be traded.

However, if you purchased a mini-system, sometime when you deposit to the exchange company, you can deposit a generic week which will be good to trade back to their internal system and sometimes are very good in trading power.

Jya-Ning