RCI trading weeks for Disney property question

We are new to this so I have been trying to read up on how to go about trading our RCI week to a property for our family vacation this summer. We don't really have any preference on where we stay but would prefer it to be on site to take advantage of magical express and also the transportation to the theme parks. That way we won't have the added expense of renting a vehicle. Do all resorts in Orlando have the transportation from the airports to the hotel and also to the parks?
I looked at the trading power of our resort that we have banked and it says 12 for the week this year and 13 for the one for next year. I read that all property in Disney needs at least a trading power of 25. Would I be able to bank both weeks for the one week in FL?
Any advice is welcome! Thank you!

Good luck .. my parents have RCI an have highest trading power available an they have to request Disney up to 1 year out.

They have been with RCI since there inception an since them an Disney joined together we have been able to stay on site 2 out 15 trips the last 4 yrs. I hope you get it we just put in a search for Disney property for anytime next yr.

You need to combine your points on RCI to get a total of 25, but at a cost.... cannot remember how much. Unfortunately, RCI created a new money making scheme by finally translating banked weeks in points. Your banked weeks always had trading power, but RCI finally made it transparent. Now when you bank your week, it's converted to points, but point for that year. If you don't have enough points in that year to do an exchange, RCI will allow you to combine points from other weeks together for a fee.

In your case, pay RCI to combine the points and then do your exchange.

I've never done a Disney resort exchange, I've never seen them available. I will have to check that out! :cool:

I ended up calling and was told to combine the week for this year and next it will cost $109. and it still isn't guaranteed that we will be able to book something for this summer.
I'm thinking we will have to find another resort in the area to stay. The problem with that is that we have to make sure it has shuttle service. I would say we can just push back the vacation until next year, but we already told the kids we will be going this summer and I would hate to let them down, plus it would mean one more park ticket we will have to buy because right now, my 2 youngest kids would get into the park free.
If I did pay to combine, does anyone know my chances of something popping up? Right now, I just want to be able to get on property. I don't really care what resort. Of course I would prefer contemporary, and animal kingdom ones are at the end of the list purely because of distance from MK, but I'll take any of them!
This is the first time using RCI to go to Disney. I personally have never used RCI before, but we split the weeks with my IL's and they have used it before. I wish I could've known my trading power before paying to sign up with RCI. If I had known it was only 12 and 13, I probably would have just looked to stay with the company that we have the timeshare through and see what they have down in Orlando since it looks like we are going to have to do that anyway.
Does anyone know if there would be any extra trading fee on top of the $109 I would have to pay to combine the weeks?
Thanks in advance for all the help.

I used my father's RCI membership to stay at SSR and OKW many years ago. I look all the time at the website, but, the same as you the trading power is really low.

I sometimes see availability at Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort, which is on property, but not owned by Disney, and I think it may have shuttle service to the park.

Good Luck.

Wyndham Bonnet Creek is not located on property but is right next to it. They do have a shuttle service to the parks but you need to pay for it. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the rate is.

BTW NicoleS1980 :welcome: to Intercot!

Thank you! I will look into the Wyndham resort. I really appreciate all the help.
I did bank the week for next year. Hopefully by having 25 points together I will be able to get something. My husband said maybe we should push our trip back a few months in order to up our chances of staying on property. So now we are looking into dates up to this time next year. I would prefer not to take the kids out of school, so I am still hoping we can find something this summer. Right now, our weeks are pending because the guy on the phone said it takes a few days for the weeks to be approved by our home resort before they officially become banked.
I have tried to do an ongoing search on RCI.com but for some reason the tab doesn't always show up on the page where it's supposed to be. And then, after I enter my info and click submit, it will take me right back to the map on the main search page. Has anyone else had this happen? Am I doing something wrong? I looked up "help" and it said it's supposed to ask for CC info so I can make a deposit to hold my spot but I never even get that far. I suppose it's something else I might have to call and ask about.

My sister uses RCI to exchange her timeshare points into DVC. She usually calls and asks to have an ongoing search for a range of dates and, usually, any Disney property with availability during the dates.

She has exchanged into DVC every trip for the last 4 trips but it's not been easy peasy. One trip we waited so long to hear we forgot completely that she had a search going. We'd even put down a deposit at POR. Another trip we searched just weeks before the trip (spur of the moment trip, kinda) and there was a villa available. Not our first or second choice but at Disney so it was all good.

I think there is a $95 (unless it went up) fee for something and perhaps another fee as well. $138 sticks in my mind as the actual out of pocket cost when exchanging in.

A couple of years ago RCI upgraded their software and now the searches have glitches. Sometimes units seem available when they aren't really (ghosts). So we call.

Good luck! And persevere. :thumbsup:

Jan