newbie with some questions

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

My wife and i recently purchased 2500pts from DRI, our first timeshare purchase. I have been reading this forum like crazy and i still am very confused on all this.

We were vacationing at the Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe, and decided to attend a timeshare presentation at LTVR. We ended up buying and from reading around, i think we got hosed a little bit. We paid $9980 for the 2500 annual points, and the initiation fee for THE Club was waived. The sales office also covered $1000 of our bill at the Embassy Suites. We were also given 2 Fly-Free-On-Me vouchers and a 3 day, 2 night stay at the resort of our choice (pick from like 6 destinations).

From what i think i understand; We have 2500 points for use in the California Collection and we are "non-deeded" members in THE Club.

Now what is the California Collection? Does this mean we can only stay at the resorts in CA?

We saved our points so we would have enough to stay in Hawaii this coming January. I keep getting an error when i try to use the diamond website to search for availability at the Fairway Villa in Honolulu. Is the website having problems?

Any help is much appreciated!

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

It means you have HCA-Home Club Advantage for any resorts in the CA Trust, whatever they are now, you can reserve those Trust properties 13months out. Anything else in THE Club is 10months out. 2500 is a pittance and saving to get 5000 for next year doesn not do much either. Most HI properties are not generally available as they are not really DRI Rresorts, they are Vacation Internationale resorts with VERY VERY limited availability to THE Club. Kaanapali and Poipu are the only true CRI resorts in HI.

My wife and i recently purchased 2500pts from DRI, our first timeshare purchase. I have been reading this forum like crazy and i still am very confused on all this.

We were vacationing at the Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe, and decided to attend a timeshare presentation at LTVR. We ended up buying and from reading around, i think we got hosed a little bit. We paid $9980 for the 2500 annual points, and the initiation fee for THE Club was waived. The sales office also covered $1000 of our bill at the Embassy Suites. We were also given 2 Fly-Free-On-Me vouchers and a 3 day, 2 night stay at the resort of our choice (pick from like 6 destinations).

From what i think i understand; We have 2500 points for use in the California Collection and we are "non-deeded" members in THE Club.

Now what is the California Collection? Does this mean we can only stay at the resorts in CA?

We saved our points so we would have enough to stay in Hawaii this coming January. I keep getting an error when i try to use the diamond website to search for availability at the Fairway Villa in Honolulu. Is the website having problems?

Any help is much appreciated!

[sb1070 Member Find all posts View Profile Close sb1070]

Jasper

I think it will be tough to get into Hawaii for 5000 points. You might have better luck with a studio in St Maarten or maybe Mexico.

It won't be easy finding availability for 2500 but you might get lucky especially if you find last minute inventory. If you can swing the MF's I would suggest you pick up more points either on Ebay or Holiday Group but don't buy from DRI


Scott

[dale7 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dale7]

You should have 7500 points to use for next year so you should call club the only thing that would stop you is that you are not on the system yet.

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

Yeah, working with 2500 points is kinda a drag, but we just bought a house only a few months before. More points will come with time.

Now if I understand it, when I buy points off ebay, I still have to pay the $2995 fee for those points to be converted from "Trust Membership" to "THE Club Membership". Correct? So what is the difference between points with THE Club and points in the "Trust"?

And if my current points are in the CA Trust, do i have the option of keeping the new points separate so i could gain HCA in a different Trust?

[sb1070 Member Find all posts View Profile Close sb1070]

You always have to pay the $2995 or buy a a min number of points 2000 usually to get resale points into club.

Trust points can only be used at the 19 trust resorts, where full club is the 98 resorts. I personally have found that most of the availability is at the trust resorts.

As I stated in my previous post if you can swing more points then you should do it, but if not then I would try to last minute reservations to try to maximize your chances of finding destinations that fit your needs for under 2500 points.

Last year I stayed in a 1 bedroom St Maarten for 4 nights 1900 points... We stay at Powhatan almost monthly I look for B units there which are basically a 2 bedroom but they're considered a lower value 1 bedroom so you can stretch points that way, but Powhatan is the only resort I know of that has units like that.
Orlando 2 bedroom 4 nights is typically 5500 points for Cypress GV 6000 to 7000 Cypress I and 8000 for Grand Beach

It could still be tough with 2 years worth of points but with some luck and perseverance you should be able to find somethings that work for you.


Scott

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

Trust points can only be used at the 19 trust resorts, where full club is the 98 resorts. I personally have found that most of the availability is at the trust resorts.Scott

You need to be specific as to what Trust you are talking about. You are referring to DRUSC - Diamond Resorts US Collection AKA Florida Trust AKA CSV-1, As indicated above, there is also a California Trust and a Hawaii Trust and if you buy into those resale, there are not 19 resorts in those trusts.

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

Yeah, working with 2500 points is kinda a drag, but we just bought a house only a few months before. More points will come with time.

Now if I understand it, when I buy points off ebay, I still have to pay the $2995 fee for those points to be converted from "Trust Membership" to "THE Club Membership". Correct? So what is the difference between points with THE Club and points in the "Trust"?

And if my current points are in the CA Trust, do i have the option of keeping the new points separate so i could gain HCA in a different Trust?

Whatever you do, you will have the appropriate number of points with a HCA-Home Club Advantage. If you have 2500 in CA Trust and 5000 added from DRUSC then you still have 2500 points to use with HCA in CA Trust and then 5000 for DRUSC. The gray area may be using more than 2500 points 13months in advance if you have saved or borrowed, I think the 2500 points is the max for any year to book at 13months, anyone have any experience with this?

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

Thanks for all the advice everyone!