This is Part II of our insider look at Disney timeshare in Hawaii. See yesterday’s The Timeshare Authority blog for “Sneak Peak at Disney Timeshare in Hawaii (Part I)”

COURTESY WALT DISNEY PARKS & RESORTS

Once again, our thanks to Mary Kraemer, blog writer at Mouse Planet, for her updates on the new Disney timeshare resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii, known as the Aulani.

Disney Finesse for this Hawaii Timeshare

As if just being on a beautiful Hawaii island isn’t enough, Disney has a lot of fun features underway at the Aulani Hawaii Disney timeshare.

Besides its location on a beautiful strip of beach, the twenty-plus acres of the Disney Aulani timeshare will offer a water play area of typical Disney-esque magnitude. There will be a slide, an adventure river and the Waikolohe Pool and Stream, which is positioned between two of the Disney Vacation Club buildings.

For the less adventurous, there’s the Wailana, which is a relaxing tranquility pool. And for children, there will be the Menehune Bridge and Trail water play area. Menehune means “little folk” in Hawaiian and references a legendary race of tiny people who were said to once inhabit the islands accomplishing remarkable feats and magical efforts.

But you can’t spend your entire Hawaii timeshare vacation in the water, no matter how entertaining the setting. The Aulani Resort will offer an 18,000 square-foot spa, an 8,000 square-foot convention center and a wedding lawn.

According to the linguists at Disney Vacation Club, the word, aulani means “the place that speaks for the great ones” or “the place that speaks with deep messages.” The message here seems to be clear: expect a lot from the Aulani Hawaii timeshare; Disney plans to deliver their best.

Updates from The Timeshare Authority Blog on Disney Hawaii Timeshare:

• Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Moving Forward with New Hawaii Timeshare
• Disney Timeshare in Hawaii, But Where’s Space Mountain?

Thanks to Mary Kraemer, blog writer at Mouse Planet, for this eyewitness update. Mary and her husband recently toured the model units for the new Disney timeshare resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii: the Aulani. As this will be Disney’s first Hawaii timeshare, excitement is already high and based on Mary’s description, there’s every reason it should be.

Describing the new Hawaii timeshare as “huge” Mary explains that it seems to dwarf the neighboring properties, with 359 hotel rooms, (16 of which are suites) and 460 Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas (with 21 oceanfront Grand Villas). Tomorrow’s The Timeshare Authority blog will look at the on-property features, but today, let’s look at what you will find inside your timeshare unit as a member of the Disney Vacation Club.

Features of Disney’s New Aulani Hawaii Timeshare

The units themselves are similar in footprint to other Disney timeshare properties. Studio timeshares include a sink, small refrigerator, microwave and coffeemaker in the kitchenette and a queen bed and sleeper sofa in the sitting and sleeping areas. A flat panel television and DVD player is built into the dresser area and a table with chairs provides seating for two. These studio timeshare units are designed to accommodate up to four people comfortably.

One-bedroom timeshare units at the Aulani Disney timeshare will sleep up to five people or when used in combination with a studio unit, up to 9 people. One-bedroom units offer a living room with sleeper sofa that the author points out, (same sleeper in in all units) is uniquely comfortable because it lacks the mid-back metal bar usually found in pull-out couches.

The one-bedroom timeshare units also feature a Murphy-style bed, a full kitchen, dining area with banquette seating, and a stacked washer and dryer. The bedroom has a king bed, private bath with whirlpool tub, and a rainfall showerhead in the separate shower.

All of the new Aulani Hawaii timeshare units include a private balcony and an island-themed décor, complete with lots of “hidden Mickeys” (you know, those Mickey Mouse outlines that Disney carefully hides in unexpected places.)

Hawaii Welcomes Disney Timeshare

This new timeshare resort reflects both confidence in the Hawaii tourism market and Disney’s interest in building resorts and timeshares in venues that don’t include one of their theme parks. And although the Aulani won’t offer a full theme park, you can be certain that Disney has plenty of activities and entertainment planned for the resort. Check Saturday’s The Timeshare Authority blog, where we’ll look at what you can expect at this beautiful new resort.

More News from The Timeshare Authority Blog on Disney Hawaii Timeshare:

• Disney Hawaii Timeshare and What It Really Means
• Will You Be Spending Holidays at a Disney Hawaii Timeshare?
• Hawaii Timeshare Expansion Means Good News for the Local Economy
• Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Makes for Optimism in Ko Olina

NASA held its first Information Technology Summit last week, bringing together thought leaders from government and industry with the purpose of showcasing the best in private and public IT innovations. Of course, such a summit calls for representation from the Walt Disney Company.

At the summit, Jack Blitch, vice president of attractions and development for Walt Disney Imagineering shares some special insights into the fun we can all expect from Disney parks in the future and our upcoming Disney timeshare vacations.

The video clip below is from CSPAN, and gives you a rarely seen look at 3-D models of “Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid” and the entire Beauty and the Beast section. While it is 1 hour and 50+ minutes in length, there are many interesting points about the Disney process and development as well as some updates on Disney Vacation Club properties you will want to catch if you are a Disney timeshare owner, or even just a Disney aficionado.

Watch this video and:

• Learn how during the renovation of the Disney Tree Houses, the new units were actually dropped into place from above, to ensure that the tree canopy was undisturbed.
• Find out about the expansion of the world’s only water rollercoaster on the Disney Cruise lines.
• See how Disney has undertaken its largest single expansion project ever by doubling the size of Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

Earlier this week The Timeshare Authority blog updated readers on the Festiva Resorts photo and story contest (Festiva Timeshare Owners Can Win a One-Week Festiva Vacation) in which Festiva timeshare owners can win a week of Festiva timeshare as well as vacation cash prize money.

Now Barceló Hotels & Resorts, in conjunction with Kodak’s Event Imaging Solutions Group and its operational partner Smile Market, is offering a different photo opportunity, providing guests a unique way to preserve their vacation memories from their stay at the all-inclusive Barceló Maya Beach Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Photographers, trained by Kodak, are strategically positioned throughout the resort ready to capture all the smiling moments of your Mexico timeshare vacation. Then, by using an expressly created website, resort guests can select which photos to download and purchase, and can also buy photo-imprinted t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, calendars, and other personalized gift items.

Ana Chávez, marketing and advertising manager for Barceló Hotels & Resorts in Mexico explains, “Particularly as an all-inclusive hotelier, we want our guests to feel as if they do not have a care in the world. We want our guests to truly enjoy their vacations to the maximum potential and be completely stress-free throughout their stay. This image capturing solution allows Barceló guests to just have fun and leave the memory-saving up to us.”

To learn more, visit: http://www.mybarceloexperience.com.
And enjoy this video, which takes you through some of the sights and pleasures of a Mexico timeshare vacation.

In June, The Timeshare Authority updated you on the new pet resort opening at Orlando’s Walt Disney World. (See: Disney Offers Pet Resort with Special Pricing for Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Owners). Pet-friendly timeshares and pet boarding accommodations are important to travelers. According to the 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association there are 77.5 million dog owners in the US alone, accounting for 39 percent of all American households.

For most pet owners, Fido or Fluffy is a beloved family member who creates a conundrum when it comes time for travel or a timeshare vacation. Do you plan your vacations only at pet-friendly timeshares? Do you board your pet, hire a pet sitter or maybe even stay home because you can’t come up with an acceptable solution?

Orlando’s Disney World Resort is making it easier than ever to enjoy a guilt-free vacation, fully confident that your pet is nearby and is receiving the very best of care. And for Disney timeshare owners, members of the Disney Vacation Club, the solution is especially sweet as they receive special discounts.

Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Members Receive Discounts

Disney’s new Best Friends Pet Resort will be able to accommodate up to 270 dogs, 30 cats, and other animals including hamsters, guinea pigs, birds, and potbellied pigs. Not accepted for boarding will be snakes, lizards and turtles. Here are few of the tail-wagging details to update you on just how very ‘luxurious’ these accommodations for your pet really are.

Add-on pet services, in addition to outdoor playtime are available, including doggy playgroups, Frisbee or ball play, walking trails, a water park area, and snuggling for your dog while someone reads stories aloud—like a bedtime story being read to the family dog. Dogs also have the option, for a fee, to view movies or to vacation in one of the 226-square foot luxury suites that feature a private play yard and a personal pet concierge. Upgrades for felines include two and four-story kitty condos.

While basic pricing starts at $37 nightly, Disney timeshare owners receive discounts as part of their membership benefits in the Disney Vacation Club.

In case you haven’t already gotten the word, once again Festiva Resorts is running its annual Festiva Photo & Story contest.

If you are a Festiva Resorts timeshare owner, you are invited to share your best Festiva vacation stories or photos. Write the story of your most memorable (funny, amazing or unexpected) vacation experience at any Festiva timeshare resort; your story may include a photo, but photos included with stories are optional. You may also enter by submitting a photograph to the photo-only portion of the contest, where no written story is required.

Your Best Festiva Timeshare Vacation Could Help You Win Your Next Festiva Timeshare Vacation

The contest judges say they are not necessarily looking for the story with the most accurate grammar or the photo that is the most artistically skilled. Instead, they want you to capture memories, fun, experiences, and the joy of vacations and celebrations.

Festiva timeshare owners may submit one entry per month for the story contest and one entry per month for the photo contest. Prize winners are to be announced on February 1, 2011. In order to claim your prize you must be a Festiva timeshare owner in good standing.

Here’s what you could win:

• 1st prize: One-week stay at a Festiva property + $1,000 to spend on your vacation (air travel, spending money, etc.)
• 2nd prize: One-week stay at a Festiva property + $500 to spend on your vacation (air travel, spending money, etc.)
• 3rd prize: One-week stay at a Festiva property.

You have until the end of the year—December 15, 2010—to get your submission in to contest@festiva.travel. Learn more at: http://blog.festiva.travel/contest/

Sometimes a photo is worth a thousand words … but sometimes it is worth a week’s vacation at a Festiva Resort timeshare.

“It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch, is basically the idea,” says Elizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia in an article titled, “But Will It Make You Happy?” that ran this week in the New York Times. Professor Dunn is referring to research by psychologists Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich on the subject of money and happiness.

The article, written by Stephanie Rosebloom, explains, “… that spending money for an experience — concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco — produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.”

Remarkably, there is much talk about money’s potential (or lack of) to buy you happiness, but until recently, surprisingly little research. Professor Thomas DeLeire, University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently studied seven categories of consumer consumption. He found that only a few translate to happiness, and these are expenditures for vacations, entertainment, sports, and sporting equipment such as fishing poles or golf clubs. Professor DeLeire equated the happiness of money spent on vacations and entertainment with the happiness boost most people feel when they walk down the aisle, pointing out that a $20,000 increase in spending on leisure is roughly equivalent in happiness factor to the happiness increase experienced when getting married.

And when you consider that $20,000 (or even a lot less) can buy a wonderful timeshare resale and an entire lifetime of vacation accommodations, one has to think that buying timeshare might turn out to be a very “happy” use of your hard earned money.

Follow this link to read the full New York Times article on money, happiness, and vacations.

As August rolls in, many people see this month as their last opportunity to take a “summer vacation.” August also means that it’s time for The Timeshare Authority to post the last updates on the 2010 HOT 100 List of timeshare resales and timeshare rentals. Remember, these timeshares received the greatest number of offers to buy or rent at Sell My Timeshare NOW. They are the “HOTTEST” timeshares on the consumer list to purchase or rent on the secondary market.

Orange Lake’s West Village Timeshare, a Popular Orlando Timeshare

Ranking as number 5 on the HOTTEST 10 list is Orange Lake’s West Village, an Orlando, Florida timeshare resort. Providing you easy access to all the amenities at Orange Lake, West Village timeshare units are the most centrally located at the resort. You’ll be nearby the Disney Planning Center, the RCI timeshare exchange desk, the Connections Business Center & Internet Cafe, (all located in the West Village Clubhouse) as well as close to the Gary McCord Golf Academy, the movie theater, game arcade, and the resort’s pools and hub of water sports.

Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas Timeshare, in Demand in Maui

The Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas is one of two Hawaii timeshares to make the top five on the Sell My Timeshare NOW HOTTEST 10 list. Located on a pristine stretch of north Ka’anapali Beach in Lahaina, Maui, this beautiful Hawaii timeshare resort has an all-villa design, with each unit including luxurious jetted spa tubs and fully equipped kitchens complete with marble countertops. From the beautiful beach to the lagoon pools, the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas promise you an elegant island holiday at the property ranked number 4 on the list of the HOTTEST 10 timeshares.

Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club Timeshare in Oahu, Hawaii

Coming in as number 3 on the list is Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club, located in Oahu, Hawaii. Outstanding Marriot timeshares have dominated the HOTTEST 10 List again this year, and the Ko Olina Beach Club is no exception, from the lush tropical foliage, to the coral reefs, to the 18-hole championship golf course. Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club is only thirty minutes from the shopping and entertainment of Honolulu, but tucked in a tropical hideaway, it is worlds apart from the demands of daily life.

And although these three hot timeshare properties all offer you endless reasons to finally get around to that vacation you have been promising yourself, don’t decide just yet, because tomorrow’s The Timeshare Authority blog will look at the timeshare resorts that made the list as number 1 and 2!

When the Travel Promotion Act was signed by President Obama in March of this year, the media focused a great deal of attention on what it could mean for hotels, airlines, theme parks, all of the travel-related industries, and even timeshare resorts. Often overlooked in the discussion were campgrounds and RV parks, which include timeshare campgrounds, and what an important boost this would could be for these facilities.

Following the passage of the bill, the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds projected that US campgrounds and RV parks should see and additional 50,000 campers this summer. If this proves accurate—and stats are already showing record numbers visiting the nation’s National Parks—then the increase will translate to more than $14 million in revenue for lodging, plus another $30 million that will filter down to related businesses.

Did You Know there are RV and Campground Timeshares?

Many vacationers, even timeshare owners and frequent campers, are surprised to learn that RV Park timeshares exist and that they can also be purchased on the secondary market as campground timeshare resales. If this is a new or interesting idea to you, you may want to peruse ads for campground resales, where you will find a diversity of accommodations from tent and trailer sites, to rustic cabins, and stationary mobile homes, located in serene and peaceful destinations nationwide.

This past week, Vice President Biden visited Yellowstone National Park, while President Obama and his family vacationed at Maine’s beautiful Acadia National Park. While Biden’s trip was business in nature, the First Family, was, like millions of other vacationers, simply enjoying family time outdoors, in the beauty of nature.

If you have never watched Ken Burn’s six-part documentary on America’s National Parks, try to carve out a little time to do so. You can watch this as a replay on PBS next time it airs, or purchase the DVD. You will find it spectacular and amazing. Burns, who describes the US National Park System as “an utterly American invention,” explains that, “nobody else had ever set aside land in the past. Only kings did that. Only rich people got that. In America, in a democratic experiment everybody could own this land.”

When you look at it that way, I guess you consider all of America’s National Park a kind of ‘timeshare’ that you support through your tax dollars.

Related posts on The Timeshare Authority Blog:

• Travel Promotion Act Signed. What Does it Mean to Tourism, Timeshares, and the US Economy?
• The Power of Your Dollar When Your Timeshare Vacation Takes You to a National Forest

Do you feel as if this summer is passing you by? That you’ve failed to make vacation plans thus far, and now have little hope of working one in before the kids go back to school and you’ve put away your flip-flops for the season?

Not to worry! You can still work an affordable last-minute vacation into your plans and the opportunities in timeshare rentals have a lot to do with making this possible. Here’s how it works: Every year some timeshare owners find they cannot use their timeshare holiday. Sometimes the reason is illness, sometimes it is a scheduling snafu with their work responsibilities—maybe they are even in the midst of a job relocation, divorce, or other life issue. They wind up not using their timeshare and not banking it to use in the future …But they are glad to rent it!

5 Reasons Timeshare Rentals are Your Vacation Solution

Timeshare rentals are one of the ways you can genuinely benefit from timeshare as a vacation product. Here are 5 reasons why a timeshare rental may be your answer to a 2010 summer vacation:

1. Timeshare rentals can be booked in advance, but are also available on short notice for last-minute vacation scheduling.
2. Timeshare rentals may be available in increments of less than a week, for those times when your schedule only permits a shorter stay.
3. Booking a timeshare rental is as easy (and sometimes easier) than booking a hotel room. The “Book it NOW” feature at Sell My Timeshare NOW, is one option for timeshare rental that lets you book online, with immediate confirmation by email, providing you with your unique booking number.
4. Timeshare rentals are available worldwide. You can travel the globe, but you can also plan a relaxing drive-to vacation, which eliminates the expense and hassle of booking last minute air travel.
5. Timeshare rentals can be negotiable. Oftentimes you may find that the closer it gets to a timeshare’s usage date (in other words, the more last minute it is) the more flexible the timeshare owner may be on pricing.

Let’s face it; “staycations” are nobody’s idea of a real holiday. Before you give up all plans of vacationing this summer, look into the reasonable and easy-to-book opportunities in timeshare rental.