I’d love to hear all about experiences with II to know if it’s worth signing up too! We haven’t even used RCI either. I guess that means we’re easily using all our credits!

Guest passes. I understand the need for them since we don’t want all inventory rented out by mega owners. But in the meantime, us “little” owners are penalized by only being able to let our family members use our timeshare twice per year (at our specific level of ownership) without having to pay extra. There could be a simple fix for this by allowing owners to register their immediate family members in advance as those who can check in without the owners present. This would also fix the problem of my adult kids needing to wait for us to arrive before they can check in when staying with us. Seems like an easy, reasonable fix.

Secondary market owners: we all pay maintenance fees based on our credits, whether purchased from the developers or on the secondary market. With the need for maintenance fees, it makes more sense to quit penalizing people who have secondary market credits; let them have the same perks since they’re willing to purchase credits from someone who no longer wants theirs (perhaps defaulting on their maintenance fees) and the results would be 1) more maintenance fees being paid timely 2) happier owners 3) credits could retain a higher value… maybe more benefits to this change?

We're heading to the Big Island again in January, this time with our daughter and her kids! Last January we were there with another daughter's little family and experienced night snorkeling with the manta rays and seeing the volcano erupting! We were in Kihei the week before that with our son's family for New Year's Day; lots of beach time, a bit of Road to Hana, swimming under waterfalls and experiencing Haleakala Sunrise! We are really enjoying sharing these places with our grandkids now! But... we're also going to have a little "us" time and head over to Kihei again after Kona this coming January.

@Debbie Gisler congrats on your retirement - you'll love it! Hope the volcano will give you a show, and check out the night snorkeling with the manta rays (watch a youtube video to see if it's something you want to do...) Have a wonderful retirement trip - Hawaii's where we went right as we retired also!

We like to have breakfast each morning in the condo, typically eggs, bacon, toast, fruit. We also eat quite a few dinners in the condo (love to grill) except for those special occasion nights or when we’ve traveled further away and will return to the condo too late. I’ve started packing a few items from home even when we fly, to cut down on the higher prices when we’re in Hawaii, ie: rice, mashed potatoes, gravy packets, mixes, etc. Last time I even packed a pound of frozen butter and it was still frozen when we unpacked! We bring a small collapsible cooler since we carry a lot of lunch items, drinks and snacks in the car throughout the day. Call me cheap, I must’ve learned from my depression-era parents, haha!

We travel most often “off season” for better availability and fewer crowds. Most major holidays we stay home, or close to it, not wanting to fly in the crowded, more expensive times. But it caught us off guard this spring when we thought we were traveling a couple weeks before spring break, only to realize the southeast has theirs earlier than the northwest! It all worked out, but I was confused when the airlines all stressed patience while flying at peak time! The main time I don’t like to travel off season is when going to Hawaii; gotta escape NW winters to soak up some sun, usually between January and March.

@Brenda Taylor we’re in Idaho too! SE