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Last week I said four words to my wife that I never imagined I would say - 'We joined RCI again'. When we lived in AZ and finally bought a timeshare where we wanted to be when we wanted to be there, RCI became obsolete for us. Owning at Carlsbad Inn gave us access to GPX internal trades and bonus weeks for almost all of the SoCal resorts we were interested in and we could drive to most of them. They also had agreements with Diamond and Bluegreen for limited inventory outside of Grand Pacific resorts in places like Hawaii, Florida, Myrtle Beach and even spring weeks in Cape Cod.
Now we live in Georgia. The expense of trips to SoCal means that we will likely only go once a year and maybe less. I've been searching HomeAway/VRBO for reasonable prices for drivable locations like Hilton Head, Panama City, Daytona, etc and it seems the times of good deals there are gone forever. Since Carlsbad Inn is an RCI resort, the answer for cheap(er) rentals seems to be Extra vacations or exchanges. I found a promotional code for 2 years for $100 so I said the unthinkable four words and ponied up the cash. I am seeing what I expected. I expect to save $200 to $500 a week on comparable rentals when I have to plan in advance. For last minute inventory, the savings will be small but the choices will be different than what I see elsewhere so that is enough to make it worth the small membership cost. We can get 40 tpus for our deposit next year which will be almost enough to get two exchanges in smaller peak season units or larger shoulder season units making the mf+exchange fee math sort of work if we want to go that route.
Hard to believe but here I am, an RCIer again.
Now we live in Georgia. The expense of trips to SoCal means that we will likely only go once a year and maybe less. I've been searching HomeAway/VRBO for reasonable prices for drivable locations like Hilton Head, Panama City, Daytona, etc and it seems the times of good deals there are gone forever. Since Carlsbad Inn is an RCI resort, the answer for cheap(er) rentals seems to be Extra vacations or exchanges. I found a promotional code for 2 years for $100 so I said the unthinkable four words and ponied up the cash. I am seeing what I expected. I expect to save $200 to $500 a week on comparable rentals when I have to plan in advance. For last minute inventory, the savings will be small but the choices will be different than what I see elsewhere so that is enough to make it worth the small membership cost. We can get 40 tpus for our deposit next year which will be almost enough to get two exchanges in smaller peak season units or larger shoulder season units making the mf+exchange fee math sort of work if we want to go that route.
Hard to believe but here I am, an RCIer again.
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