timeshare news

Don’t let fear of swine flu (H1N1) get in the way of enjoying Mouse fever.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of people who really enjoy a Disney vacation. The Orlando Disney theme parks alone attract between 25 and 45 million visitors annually, depending upon whose unofficial stats you follow. Any way you look at it, Disney theme parks mean huge numbers of people, many of whom are not vacationing with their kids!

Psychologist Donna Dawson calls it, (appropriately) the “Peter Pan” syndrome. “Unencumbered by kids,” Dawson explains, “couples can selfishly go on the rides that THEY want to, as many times as they want, without anyone dragging them away; they can keep acting like excited children without anyone telling them off!”

According to a media release from Attraction Tickets Direct, specifically studying the holiday patterns of British vacationers, one out of every three adults going on a Disney theme park holiday was not bringing any children along on the trip.

The year-in, year-out and apparently ageless popularity of the Disney parks is one of the reasons Disney Vacation Club (Disney timeshares) are such a success. People who suffer from ‘Mouse fever’ can happily go back to the Disney parks again and again, finding new things to enjoy and re-experiencing old favorites.

What Does Mouse Fever Mean for Disney Timeshare Owners?

The ongoing popularity of Disney theme parks impacts Disney timeshare owners in multiple ways, all of them good.

1. The popularity of Disney theme parks with adults has not gone unnoticed by Disney’s visionaries. They are continually developing new attractions and features to target adults and the young-at-heart of all ages.
2. Sufferers of mouse fever appreciate staying in Disney resorts. They value the convenience of Disney timeshares and the fact that both the Disney themes and Disney customer service keeps the Disney magic going long after they have stepped off the monorail.
3. Disney timeshare sells and Disney timeshare occupancy is strong. It has dips and declines, just like everyone else, but even with a bad economy and public concerns over H1N1 flu, Disney timeshares are still a popular vacation destination.

No one can guarantee you if you buy Disney timeshare you will be able to resell it in the future. No one can ever tell you if, when, or for how much you will be able to resell timeshare, even Disney timeshare. But the popularity of Disney timeshare is proven and surprisingly, that’s not just in a family market… there are a huge number of adults who perennially experience strong bouts of Mouse fever.

Opportunities in Disney timeshare resales:

• Disney’s Old Key West Resort Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Boardwalk Villas Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Vero Beach Resort Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas Timeshare Resales

RCI Timeshare Exchange has announced the launch of the “RCI Going Green Award” for its affiliate resorts in the Pacific.

Focusing on timeshare resort operations, the RCI Green awards will include recognition at the Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels for the top three ‘green’ timeshare resorts.

Working in conjunction with Griffith University, RCI Timeshare Exchange’s Going Green Award will include a two-phase assessment. First, timeshare resorts will be asked to assess the green or environmentally conscious practices they have in place, supporting these efforts with documentation when possible. The second phase will be an on-site inspection. Timeshare resorts that scored well in the phase one self-assessment will be visited by an expert in sustainable tourism and evaluated on their ‘green’ efforts.

Griffith University’s Dr. David Weaver, a professor of Tourism Research, will be participating with RCI Timeshare Exchange in both phases of the evaluation and award assessment.

Dr. Weaver was quoted by Hotel Interactive as saying, “I am absolutely delighted to be working on this initiative with RCI. I expect an award program such as this will really raise awareness of and participation in environmentally-friendly best practices within the sector.”

RCI Timeshare Exchange, Recognizing the Efforts of Timeshare Resorts

RCI Timeshare Exchange plans to announce the winners of the first-ever Gold, Silver and Bronze RCI Going Green Awards at the Australian Timeshare and Holiday Ownership Council annual conference in Christchurch in September 2010.

RCI Timeshare Exchange is working to promote and encourage the sharing of environmental sustainability best practices and green ideas with its associates and affiliates through a Green Council, under the support of its parent company (Wyndham Worldwide and Wyndham Timeshare) which has launched the WyndhamGreen sustainability initiative.

This week the American Resort Development Association Conference (ARDA) is convening their 2009 Fall Conference in Washington D.C. As many timeshare owners know, ARDA, is the trade association that represents the timeshare, vacation ownership, and resort development industries. ARDA functions to protect the welfare of both the industry and the consumer, helping to effect the growth, legislation, and beneficial change that makes the timeshare industry stronger and better for all who are a part of it on any level and in any capacity.

A significant aspect of this week’s conference will be the release of two, carefully researched advisories designed to aid consumers and timeshare owners looking to buy, rent, or sell timeshare on the secondary market. This directives look at both the role of the timeshare industry “good guys,” like Sell My Timeshare NOW, and the problem of those companies that prey on timeshare owners who seek to sell timeshare they no longer use or perhaps can no longer afford.

Sell My Timeshare NOW has been actively involved in the development of these advisories since the project first began. As ARDA President and CEO, Howard Nusbaum explains, “This is not an indictment of our reputable resale company members, but rather a problem faced by everyone who loves this industry (and doesn’t love the industry) being painted with the same ‘timeshare scam’ brush.

We deliver so much timeshare news and current events here on The Timeshare Authority, it becomes easy to forget that many of the people who are interested in buying timeshare or a timeshare rental are new to the world of timesharing. They may not “speak the language” that the rest of us have all grown accustomed to understanding.

So let’s use today’s blog and talk about some of the industry jargon that is understandably confusing to people who haven’t encountered it before:

• Fixed Week: These are seven-day increments of timeshare that you own at a home resort. Your fixed week of timeshare ownership is usually identified by a number, such as, “Week 10”. When you own a fixed week of timeshare, you are guaranteed that vacation week every year. But you are not required to stick with it; you can still typically use it as a timeshare exchange.
• Floating Week: A floating week gives you the right to one week of timeshare that usually falls within a season of a specified value. RCI (Resort Condominiums International) for example, uses color coded seasons of red, white, and blue with red representing the highest demand season. Use of a floating week is always based on availability and you must go through the steps required by your resort or exchange company to use it as a timeshare exchange. Points based timeshare is always floating timeshare ownership.
• Space banking: When you save or ‘bank’ your timeshare into a collective of other available timeshare weeks or units, you are space banking it for future use.
• Lock-out: A lock out or lock off timeshare unit is one that can be subdivided and each section rented separately.
• Gold Crown Resort: A Gold Crown timeshare resort is a connotation applied by RCI to identify timeshare properties of the highest standards.

Buying, renting, or selling timeshare is not a complicated process (at least it shouldn’t be) and enjoying timeshare is certainly not hard to do. But the industry has developed some specific terminology and you will be better prepared to make decisions and make plans if you understand the language.

To learn more about the no doubletalk approach to timeshares, check out the Sell My Timeshare NOW Timeshare Glossary.