OL's Global Access

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We own at Orange Lake and so far are holding firm on our fixed week ownership.

Are there any owners that have switched to the Global Access plan and if so do you have enough experience with it yet to determine how you like or dislike it?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

What are you, just an old fuddy-duddy Weeks person?

C'mon, get with it. If they say it is a better program, then it is, right? Cut loose of some money. You know you have more than you'll ever need yourself!

Besides, it will make you popular with the In Crowd.

[gjw007 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gjw007]

We own at Orange Lake and so far are holding firm on our fixed week ownership.

Are there any owners that have switched to the Global Access plan and if so do you have enough experience with it yet to determine how you like or dislike it?

I switched but I was perfectly happy with the weeks program and I think it works best for most people. I had a hard time justifying the amount that I paid and it has gone up since then. I had determined that it would pay for itself in roughly 7 years. I had already owned at OLCC since 2000, so I figured I would be owning for a least that long.

Given that I own three 2-bedroom weeks, Global Access would allow me to have 5 2-bedroom weeks during the times that I normally travel (it goes down to 4 if I use a holiday week) so I basically get 5 weeks for the maintenance price of 3. So for me, it works out. All of my weeks are prime or holiday weeks but as with all weeks-based systems that are converted to points, it is not worth converting if the unit is in a low demand period as you are actually limiting yourself (currently they can be traded for all 52 weeks but your points for a low demand week will not be enough points to reserve a high demand week).

Basically I like it but I don't think it is for everybody. As the program was just starting, there has been a few issues. For example, I had a long wait before I could get a reservation for Memorial Day week. The biggest reason to switch is to offset the ever increasing fees charged by RCI and to deal directly with the resort when making reservations and requests. A request, such as room location, has a better chance of being fulfilled if done by the resort than by RCI. With my River Island unit, RCI has not been able to put into RI in the past (of course this has changed since OLCC is now divided into 4 distinct RCI resorts).

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Well, duh, since RCI does not assign OL units.

A request, such as room location, has a better chance of being fulfilled if done by the resort than by RCI.

[gjw007 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gjw007]

Well, duh, since RCI does not assign OL units.

True Jim but how many comments have you heard where people contact RCI to make requests and are disappointed about not getting their room requests? Dealing directly with OLCC when making the reservations is a lot easier than making the reservations through RCI and then attempting to get OLCC's member services to honor the request. As an example, I've followed the directions when depositing my River Island unit with RCI and then contacting owner's services requesting a River Island unit only to be put in the East Village (prior to the division into 4 distinct resorts) upon arrival. At least with Global Access I can make my request with less channels and with a better chance, I feel, of them being fulfilled.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Let me ask it this way.

If the sole reason for joining Global Access is to trade into OL through OL, rather than through RCI, for a little-bit-smaller fee, how much does it cost for that privilege (and still with no guarantee that it will improve the unit assignment, since owners have always been favored when going through RCI anyway)?
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Have there been any posts, anywhere, from owners saying it so much better to do internal trades through GA?
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How many internal trades would it take to pay back the fee to convert to GA? Or, for that matter, to manipulate GA points to get an extra week, albeit an undesireable one (while the prime ones are still more difficult to come by).
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For what it's worth, I have gotten tough weeks through RCI, including a 3-bedroom for Christmas week, for the reasonable fee of $149, or whatever it was when we confirmed. Even if I was an owner, I don't see how GA could improve on that.

The more I think about it, the only way GA could be attractive would be for OL to take away from those not in GA, like me, whether owners or non-owners. After all, fear of loss is always stonger than desire for gain.

In our case we have no fear of loss since OL has no corner on the Orlando market, if we ever want to go there again. Even during the highest demand weeks, there is always stuff at OL.

[gjw007 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gjw007]

Let me ask it this way.

If the sole reason for joining Global Access is to trade into OL through OL, rather than through RCI, for a little-bit-smaller fee, how much does it cost for that privilege (and still with no guarantee that it will improve the unit assignment, since owners have always been favored when going through RCI anyway)?
- - - - - -
Have there been any posts, anywhere, from owners saying it so much better to do internal trades through GA?
- - - - - -
How many internal trades would it take to pay back the fee to convert to GA? Or, for that matter, to manipulate GA points to get an extra week, albeit an undesireable one (while the prime ones are still more difficult to come by).
- - - - - -
For what it's worth, I have gotten tough weeks through RCI, including a 3-bedroom for Christmas week, for the reasonable fee of $149, or whatever it was when we confirmed. Even if I was an owner, I don't see how GA could improve on that.

The more I think about it, the only way GA could be attractive would be for OL to take away from those not in GA, like me, whether owners or non-owners. After all, fear of loss is always stonger than desire for gain.

In our case we have no fear of loss since OL has no corner on the Orlando market, if we ever want to go there again. Even during the highest demand weeks, there is always stuff at OL.

Jim,

Interesting questions and in general, people need to ask questions and be realistic to determine if it gives them what they desire and is the cost reasonable. In most cases, I would say that it is not.

When Global Access (GA) first came out last year, the break even period for a like season to like season (all points used up) exchange was roughly 10 years ($1295 GA membership fee / $124 savings (RCI's $164 - GA's $40). The current fee that I have heard but not validated is $2500 so using the same formula, it is almost 20 years. Within a 10 year period I think people can justify the membership but I don't know about 20. I certainly wouldn't! Consider using the SummerBay comments that were made on what it cost to convert a SummerBay resale into points ($8000) and the current prince difference in RCI Weeks ($164) and RCI Points ($124) or $40 difference. If the owner exchanged for a like demand week every year (again using all the points), it would take $8000/$40 or 200 years to break even. The GA charge for resale units are just as bad. It offers little for the owner in my opinion.

I question the favoritism done by RCI for OLCC owners as I have exchanged OLCC River Island units with a request to be put in the River Island section only to be put into the East Village. OLCC's services may favor owners but I think far less than most people here think as the answers and responses, if there is a response, can be leave you wondering. As an example, when I made reservations for last May, I had sent a note checking on my requests and the response I got back left me wondering if they even considered it. I showed the response to one of the OLCC managers who agreed that the response should have indicated that my request were acknowledged and the resort would attempt to meet the requests or the resort would not be able to meet the request. Either way, I shouldn't have been left dangling not knowing about my request. In this case, the request was only to have a pool-side view when staying at River Island. Minor, true, but I've had similar experiences. In some cases, customer services at OLCC can be questionable.

The power and enticement of points systems is the ability to use less points for different seasons and for smaller units. But this is only an advantage if your unit gives you the maximum points as it will give you extra points that you can use on other vacations. Whether or not these extra vacations are as you say, undesirable, is a matter of personal taste. For example, week 48 through week 50 are low demand weeks and don't require as many points to book as weeks 51 or 52 which are holiday weeks. Yet I prefer weeks 48 to 50 over weeks 51 or 52 as I can get the complete holiday spirit at the theme parks without the crush of people yet for other people, it would be an undesirable week and the low point value for those weeks would be used as an indicator that they aren't as desirable. The value of these extra weeks are also determined by the user as only they can place the worth to them.

Conversely, points systems are not good for those who own low demand week as they are now limiting themselves to the weeks that they can exchange. This is because their week will not have enough points to allow them to exchange for a higher demand week, something that their current week system will allow them to do. Those in the mid level demand weeks face a more difficult choice as a low demand week, in my opinion, should never be put into the points system whereas as a mid-demand week has the advantages of more exchanges into other mid-demand week and also low-demand weeks but it also faces some of the limitations of exchanging into high demand weeks.

Location is also an important factor. Why? If you own at River Island, there is only one building that is available. There are announced plans to build 2 more but all new owners will be placed into GA. As such, it will be easier to get a River Island unit under GA when the 2 new buildings are built than through a RCI exchange. The other areas of OLCC will probably remain mostly the traditional weeks units.

The program also has some additional advantages for owners who own multiple weeks. One of them is the ability to upgrade without using additional points. As such, I was able to reserve a 2-bedroom unit at RI and upgrade it to a 3-bedroom unit using the points required for a 2-bedroom for $40 including the points insurance policy. If you are in a Points system this is good but it is also something that RCI Weeks already does and a reason that many resorts have gone to a points system in an attempt to create a like-for-like exchange. I do agree that you can get into OLCC at the more demanding weeks if you are patient and willing to wait. It is easier to upgrade your unit through RCI generally than it is through GA as GA limits those who can do the upgrades whereas as RCI just doesn't care - if its available, it's yours. One of the advantages of the different levels is the guarantee of view (my note mentioned earlier was to get a pool-side view) if it was available (i.e. owners not using their rooms) although the new points charts now separate the pool view from the woodland view so even this can be chosen when making reservations by being willing to use extra points. I will be staying on the sixth floor in one of the West Village Tennis Villas during my upcoming September 28 to October 4 trip. This type of information I have not been able to get when making exchanges through RCI.

At the end of the day, the question is whether these little things add up in value to justify the initial cost. As I stated, people need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages. As the program gets more costly, for me the initial cost outweighs its advantages but this is different for everybody. Some of the advantage may weigh heavier for others.

[gjw007 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gjw007]

OLCC Global Access information

OLCC has put on its website information about Global Access. Here is a URL to the PDF files: GlobalAccess

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Too much for me to read Gary.

As my evil stepsister says when I'm trying to say something about my dad's estate, "Could you say it shorter?"

A curious question: Do you believe that some OL owners cannot see RI through with their OL deposits?

If that is the case, that would be strange since it does not take much of an outside resort to see it. Even my Slimey Slough studio does. For that matter, it has never taken much of an outside resort, even the poorest SAs, to get OL, probably because of an oversupply of deposits from OL owners.

[gjw007 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gjw007]

A curious question: Do you believe that some OL owners cannot see RI through with their OL deposits?

No, nor have I said that they couldn't see River Island through their deposits. I believe through RCI River Island units are shown to everybody, including OLCC owners but I do believe that with the completion of the 2 new buildings that over 70% (if not more) of River Island units will be in Global Access and as such will not be seen in the RCI system unless the owner exchanges outside the Global Access system. As such, I expect there will be more River Island units shown in Global Access than through RCI within the next couple years but perhaps not currently. As such, I think that Global Access owners will have an easier exchange into River Island than non-Global Access owners or exchangers especially when considering the small number of River Island units compared to total number of units at the resort (even at completion of all the building plans, there will be roughly 10% of the units at River Island).

There is still construction going on in the East Village as well so I would expect that eventually when completed there will be a higher percentage of Global Access units in that section as well - maybe as high as 50%. The North Village and West Village I don't expect most owners will pay to upgrade into Global Access so there will be fewer units shown to Global Access accounts but more available to RCI accounts. Given the cost of upgrading non-developer purchased units, I also don't expect many of them to join Global Access. It's not, in my opinion, a good economical choice to make.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Wow! With your projections, the mucky mucks at OL will be rich beyond their wildest dreams.

I guess then Mr. Seagull and his Westgate Family of Resorts, will have to follow suit, but one-up OL.

How soon we forget.

Universal Access.

Oops, someone in Orlando already has that name.

Actually, he would be a step ahead, already having a Family of Resorts. And, oh yeah, already doing internal trading.

[gjw007 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gjw007]

Jim,

It's not hard projection. They have announced plans to build 2 new units at River Island and as developer-based sales, Global Access is included. As far as the East Village, there was an article that OL had plans to build up to roughly 4500 units and they are currently between 2500 and 3000 units. And yes, if they can sell that many at the prices that they charge it will generate a small fortune for the developers.

Here is the URL where I came up with the 4500 units: Orange Lake Resort & Country Club

[Icc5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Icc5]

I'm with you

We own at Orange Lake and so far are holding firm on our fixed week ownership.

Are there any owners that have switched to the Global Access plan and if so do you have enough experience with it yet to determine how you like or dislike it?

We bought into OL back in 92 and I'm stick'in to my story.
Bart

[lawgs Member Find all posts View Profile Close lawgs]

Jim have you ever seen this forum

off topic but ....related...

JIM

was just browsing about OLCC ....and found this website forum


What a DUMP - Orange Lake Country Club Discussion Forum - RedWeek.com

have you ever seen this forum

maybe we should direct LOL to the site...smilawgs

so far we have been happy with Global Access ( they even changed the point value of one of our weeks from 159000 to 175000, but of course they did not alert us in any way )

as a matter of fact although the program has a lot of positives, we have found the "follow up" lacking ....we never did receive information on what our member number was even though they want that information when you phone

our first "exposure" to the call center had to be escalated to the supervisory level due to the poor service given, hopefully, they have implemented changes which will prevent a similar thing "happening" to another Go Global member...

til then

lawgs

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

Does anyone know with the newer developer sales has OLCC put in a ROFR clause?