posted 02-19-2005 19:53               

IMHO it might make more sense to purchase, for the same amount of money, a good USA trader and then trade in when you want to go. The benefit is that its deeded and if its a good trader will outtrade most Mexican ts. I know of folks who have used SA weeks to trade into Club Regina by putting in an ongoing search well in advance.

I am always suspicous of the Mexican mf's. With labor and materials so much cheaper in Mexico, how come their mf's are the same as in the USA. I would have imaged them to be much less.

Good Luck,

posted 02-19-2005 21:38               

The first decision you need to make is whether you want to be part of just Club Regina, or if you want to be part of Raintree Vacation Club. CR only gets you into the three CR resorts. RVC membership can get you into any of the RVC resorts. If the other RVC resorts are in areas you are interested in, that may be a good option (it was for us).

If you do buy CR, there will be an earlier expiration date on the right to use. You will only be able to use at the three CR resorts. You will not have an option to upgrade off season or downgrade in peak season. Be aware of what season you are buying and what size you are buying. Be sure to check all information with CR before you buy. Many owners really don't have any idea what they own; never trust what an existing owner might tell you about the ownership.

Not all CR memberships expire in 2027. Some of them expire in 2036. The CR program went through several owners and phases as it was being developed, and ownership rights vary depending on what the rules were at the time the original purchase was made.

As I mentioned, if you own RVC you can reserve in any RVC resort, subject to availability. RVC works on a quasi-point system. There are different levels of ownership, named after different precious metals or jewels. The higher your ownership, the more desirable reservation you can can make. In RVC you can also split your usage following certain forumulas. We can split our platinum, for example, into a gold and a silver. So we can get two weeks of usage from our ownership.

Some of the RVC properties, such as the Whiski Jack properties in Whistler, are deeded properties. And most of the Whiski Jack properties have not been converted to RVC.

Club Regina/Raintree is one of the most complicated multi-resort programs around. As I stated earlier, many owners often do not really know what they own and what their rights are. The Club Regina and Raintree names tend to get used interchangeably and in correspondence. So many people who own unconverted CR memberships think they are actually part of Raintree and will market their units that way. Similarly, many people who bought at Club Regina after it became part of RVC (and hence bought RVC memberships, not CR memberships) list their ownerships as being CR ownerships.

I'm sure this is more than you wanted to know, but care is important when buying into CR. If you're not careful you could wind up buying something very different from what you think you bought. On the other hand, if you know what you are doing, you can rummage around and find good deals from people who don't know what they own, are frustrated, and just want to get out.

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Added note: If you do decide to buy RVC, I don't think it's worth owning anything less than platinum level. You can split the platinum into a gold and a silver and still get a nice unit in peak season with the gold. You can then rent the silver; if you make a good reservation with the silver, you can recover most of you annual fee by renting the silver. The difference in cost between gold and platinum is small enough to make it worthwhile to split and rent.

The platinum is also useful if you might need a two-bedroom unit in peak season.
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Steve Nelson

posted 02-19-2005 22:24               

From what I have read over the past few years, having the Mexico units and trying to get the same value as my whiskijack unit does not work,

posted 02-20-2005 13:55               

quote:

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Originally posted by geoand:
We are RVC members. When we paid our fee to join, our whiskijack unit was a saphire unit. Our unit was upgraded by RVC to emerald. We did not pay anything to get this upgrade. It just happened. When I look at the chart, I see that I can get 2 weeks full 2 bedroom units of PV, Cabo, Cancun, etc in January or February. I still have trade value left over for smaller units in the RVC system.

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A couple of years ago RVC decided that they weren't getting enough WJ owners to convert to RVC, so they boosted the value of all WJ units by one level.

Personally, if I were looking for a membership level higher than platinum, I would carefully consider buying a Whiski Jack week with that level. Having a deeded week appeals to me, and I suspect the overall cost would be less as well. Or, stated differently, I wouldn't be willing to pay as much for a Mexico-based sapphire or emerald week as I would for WJ week at that level.

posted 04-19-2005 15:06               

Amit
Amitroy1@gmail.com

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Amit

posted 04-19-2005 17:14               

Hopefully someone with the answers about Club Regina will post soon. Generally, if you intend to go to a particular resort most of the time, it's best to own there. If you think you might want to exchange most of the time, Mexico is probably not the best place to buy.

On your question about RCI points--South Africa resorts are not in the RCI points system, but if you own an RCI-points resort you can deposit other weeks (such as South Africa) into your points account under the Points-for-Deposit program. I own a blue week in a Texas points resort and have deposited all my South Africa weeks into that points account. So far, it has worked well, but there's no guarantee as to how long that program will be in effect.

posted 04-19-2005 19:42               

I see that you live in California. You might check for resales in San Diego or San Francisco, Tahoe, etc. that might be good traders and have a resort that you can drive to. then you can trade, rent or use a resort closer to you. On RCI extra vacations, I just rented a week of "Extra Vacations" at Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta in October for $230/wk. for a 1-bdrm.
We will use our silver week at PV Club Regina and then go to NV for 2nd week.

While the maintenance fees appear high, we get 3 weeks for our $805/yr. maintenance fee. Raintree has it tipped in favor of lower fees per week as you buy a higher level membership.

You should also know that the Club Regina resorts may be taken over by Starwood in the near future. It would be agood thing because they have more resorts but none in Mexico. We will have to wait and see what develops.

Hope this info helps you. We love our Club Regina resorts and find our vacations wonderful.

posted 04-19-2005 22:17               

quote:

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Originally posted by aroy11462:
… We bought a platinum level membership, but decided to cancel when we got home. We knew nothing about the process when we bought. I decided I wanted to do some research and see what is available in the resale market. Any way in the post above it mentions that Club Regina does not trade well. Our primary interest was in visiting the Club Regina and Raintree resorts. …

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Club Regina/Raintree Vacation Club is probably the most complicated timeshare ownership program in existence. You were wise to rescind so that you can be sure that you get what will best fit your circumstances.

The program started as Club Regina with the three Club Regina resorts in Mexico. There are many of these Club Regina memberships around. They generally are good for a certain size unit during certain specific reservation periods. The specific details of these memberships (expiration year, cost of guest certificates,etc) varies depending on when the membership was originally sold.

These memberships are nice for using in CR, but are bad traders in RCI. You don't get to pick the week to deposit with RCI, and CR saves the best weeks for owner usage and gives RCI crappy weeks. So CR weeks don't trade well in RCI.

Then there are the Whiski Jack units in Canada. Most of these were sold before Whiski Jace became part of Raintree. These units sell as Whiski Jack units with no Raintree privileges, unless the owners have converted to Raintree. Whiski Jack units are pretty good traders, particularly the fixed week units because those are prime time units.

I have no information on how Raintree memberships trade within RCI. Someone else will have to chime in on that question.

The last type of membership to be aware of "Raintree Vacation Club, powered by RCI Points". With this type of membership, your RVC membership trades through RCI points. You know how many points you can get if you go into RCI, and that tells you exactly what your trade value is.